Bios
Director/Collaborator – Maya Rabinovitch
Maya Rabinovitch is a Toronto based director, dramaturg and collaborator. Since her time at York University studying dramaturgy and collective creation, she has focused on developing and directing new plays. Recent directing credits include Double Double, I Will Not Hatch! (Toronto Fringe), Don’t Look (Next Stage Theatre Festival), How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Abortion (Toronto Fringe) and nisha ahuja’s A World of Bananas (Hysteria Festival). Maya has collaborated on a number of projects including The Famous Remains of Piggy Palace (18 Hands Theatre Collective) and Rule of Thumb (Toronto Fringe). Her company, The Steady State Theatre Project, focuses on creative methods for new play development and she sits on Factory Theatre’s Board of Directors as the Youth Representative. Maya has been named Outstanding Director in NOW Magazine’s Fringe Wrap-Up for the past two summers. She is currently involved in the development of a number of new projects, including her own play, I Was a Sexual Deviant Until the Day I Decided to Cut it Off, which is about shame, denial and bed bugs.
Actor/Playwright – Jenna Turk
Jenna Turk is an actor, writer, and aspiring director, originally from Ottawa now based in Toronto. A graduate of the University of Windsor’s B.F.A. in Acting program, she has both a passion for new Canadian work (she was an actor for theatrekairos’ Writer’s Circle in 2009 where she contributed to the development of over 6 new plays and in 2010 she sat on their Reading Committee to help determine their next group of writers) as well as a love of the classics (most recently doing Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet in repertory with the Classical Theatre Project). Ottawa acting credits include working with Odyssey Theatre, A Company of Fools, and Salamander Theatre. Jenna’s writing credits include: Flying (Windsor’s Capitol Theatre) a one woman show based on the Barrymores, theatre’s famous royal family; and Daily Bread a dark comedy inspired by the ancient story of the nun, Hildegard, whose seizures led to her life of devotion for which she recently received a Playwrights Level one grant from the Toronto Arts Council. Last seen in Maya Rabinovitch’s Double, Double at the 2010 Toronto Fringe; Jenna is currently collaborating on a collective creation based on a fictional 1985 Little Miss Pageant; and was recently in Ottawa assistant directing Strawberries in January under Lise Ann Johnson at the Great Canadian Theatre Company.
Laura Storey -Set/Costume/Props Designer
Courtney Pyke -Lighting Designer & Performance Stage Manager
Hailing from Northern Ontario, Courtney is a Graduate, from the University of Guelph’s Theatre Studies Program specializing in technical theatre. As a lighting technician she has worked on many productions including Opera, Theatre, Dance, live music, and fashion all across Canada. She has had the opportunity to work at the Banff Centre on over 50 productions including Dora Award Winner 2010 “Tono; Harder, Faster, Stronger” as Head Electrician and the operas “Phaedra” and “Dido and Aeneas” as On Deck Electrician.
As a designer she has worked in many venues and with a range of styles. Her productions have ranged from road house and arena concert design, collective creation, full scale musicals, ballets and opera, and fringe festivals.
Her stage and production management experience is just as varied including site specific and collective works and student fringe festivals, ballet and opera. She is currently Company Stage Manager for Motus O Dance Theatre based out of Stouffville, ON with whom she has toured across Canada and developed productions.
Notable productions include; The Small Ones for SummerWorks 2010 Toronto, Trudeau Stories for Center in the Square, The Shape of a Girl for First Light Theatre, Perpsectives 2 for Motus O, and many others.
The Deep End
The Deep End is a newly formed company headed by actor/writer, Jenna Turk, dedicated to the creation of new multi-disciplinary theatrical works. Abra-Cadaver! –The Deep End’s inaugural project is premiering at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival under the direction of Fringe veteran, Maya Rabinovitch (named OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR -2009 & 2010 Fringe Wrap-Up, NOW Magazine).
Abra-Cadaver! is a dark comedy about death inspired by the life of Dorothy Parker! Legendary New York City literary wit, Dorothy Parker, spent her entire life trying to kill herself. She failed every time. Join 100 year-old Dorothy in this dark comedy as she takes you on the ride of her life… and death.
In March as part of the Paprika Festival’s Olde Spice Program under the mentorship of physical theatre phenom, Adam Lazarus, a staged reading of Abra-Cadaver! opened and closed the 2011 Paprika Festival at the Tarragon.
Up next is a workshop presentation of their next play, Daily Bread, which is supported by a Toronto Arts Council Playwrights Grant. A dark comedy inspired by the ancient story of the nun, Hildegard set in a modern context. A young girl develops epilepsy. The beauty of her visions leads her to God, while her family is led astray.
What both productions share is a sharp tongue, the exploration of a potentially dark subject matter, and a keen design aesthetic. Dive in and lose yourself a little with The Deep End.
