Artistic Director: Joan Chandler

Associate Producer / Artist: David Sereda

Associate Manager: Jillian Cockburn

Our head office is located in rural Ontario, near Wiarton.

We Make House Calls! -- Have Skills - Will Travel!

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JOAN CHANDLER - Artistic Director

Joan is the founding Artistic Director of Sheatre. She is a leader in nurturing and developing cultural programming in community. Joan has been involved with the production of over 100 original collectively created plays and hundreds of workshops for communities and companies in Canada, England and the United States. 

She focuses on the creation of plays that celebrate community and the creative spirit, including TOM (a musical about artist Tom Thomson that she wrote with david sereda), Pterodactyl Delight (a one act play with dance and puppetry for young audiences created in Ojibwe and English with Native and non-native young people in Grey & Bruce Counties that toured Ontario in 1999), The Ballad of Kennedy's (a two hour original music theatre piece with dance and puppetry developed from the oral histories of Owen Sound residents), and Brush (multiple music theatre pieces inspired by Tom Thomson co-directed with david sereda). For Lakeshore Arts in Toronto, she led a story gathering project Food For Thought, that included leading writing workshops and gathering oral accounts; the 70 stories (including one of her own) were published, performed and rendered into visual art for exhibition. Noted as a director in Theatre of the Oppressed, Joan is featured in the book Playing Boal: Theatre and Therapy. She is the force behind and writer of Sheatre's award-winning theatre forum project Far From the Heart.

As a producer Joan has coordinated the Womenfolk Festival (Sauble Beach), Bread and Butter / Du Pain Sur La Planche! International Popular Theatre Festival (Guelph), and Billy Bishop Heritage Days Aviation and Military Heritage Festival (Owen Sound). She co-founded ASTRO (Association of Summer Theatres Round Ontario), Cobblestone Theatre for street people in Toronto, several arts councils, and Mixed Company Theatre's Community Arts and forum theatre program. She is a seven time recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Artists in Education award. A frequent volunteer, she was on the Board of Directors of the Women's Centre (Grey Bruce) Inc. for six years, serving as chair for four years.  She is currently on the planning committee of the Creative Aging Coalition (Grey Bruce).  Joan represented the Province of Ontario as a cultural ambassador to the UK in the community arts field, and served as a local representative on the Office of the Premier's Conference on Volunteerism.

Academic Credits include:
University of Waterloo - B.A., M.A. 
ScreenwritingU - ProSeries Alumni
Robert McKee's Story seminar - graduate

Awards:
Phil Hartman Arts and Humanitarian Award
City of Owen Sound Cultural Award for Theatre 2010, presented to Sheatre

Soul Cages (screenplay)
Best Original Screenplay, The International Film Festival Ireland
Finalist, Original Screenplay, Fantastic Planet Film Festival, Sydney, Australia
Honourable Mention: Script, The Los Angeles Reel Film Festival

About Far From the Heart: 
“The scenario, the dialogue, the action, could all have ‘viewer discretion advised’ warnings, but that’s the point. It makes you squirm in your seat. It makes you think.” The Meaford Express

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DAVID SEREDA

david sereda works in music and theatre. He is a singer, songwriter, actor, playwright, pianist, composer, educator and producer who has worked across Canada. Born and raised in Edmonton, he graduated from the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver (1977) under teacher Powys Thomas. He began his career as a singer-songwright in the late 70s, touring throughout the West. In 1983 he moved to Toronto, diving into the music scene but also working more extensively in theatre as actor, music director and composer at theatres like Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, The Theatre Centre and the Tarragon Theatre where he co-wrote two musicals, Love Jive! and Siren Song with playwright and novelist Don Hannah. His albums to date are Chivalry Lives (1981) released the albums The Price of Love (1985) and The Blue Guide in (1994). His song "Powerful Love" from that album brought him to Halifax to perform with the Nova Scotia Mass Choir and Jackie Richardson (Hallelujah, Vision and CBC TV) to Montreal and a performance with the Montreal Jubilation Choir at Place des Arts, and to Vancouver for the closing ceremonies of the 11th International Conference on AIDS, and an audience of 12,000.

In 2001 he moved to Owen Sound, Ontario and soon started working with director Joan Chandler of Sheatre. They developed arts workshops (the Brush workshops) based on artist Tom Thomson's life and work, which evolved into a new musical full-length musical, TOM with music and lyrics by sereda and book by Chandler (TOM premiered in 2007). sereda also performs the a song-cycle based on Thomson entitled Songs in the Key of Tom. As Associate Artist with Sheatre, he continues to collaborate with Chandler on new projects and workshops. sereda also co-produces the Stray Dog Salons in Toronto, evenings of music, poetry and theatre where notable Canadian artists and young voices gather to mix it up (including Anne Michaels, Connie Kaldor, Sarah Polley, Paul Quarrington and Maryem Tollar).

In 2009, he moved to Regina, Saskatchewan where he is co-ordinator for Sheatre's work there, including the first Saskatchewan tour of Far From the Heart, scheduled for spring, 2011. He continues to collaborate with innovators in dance, theatre and performance, including Robin Poitras (New Dance Horizons, Rouge Gorge) and Michele Sereda (Curtain Razors) and is working on a new musical with Joan Chandler inspired by the Underground Railway. He has also begun to stretch in new directions as a writer of music and text on a new multi-disciplinary work on the exuberant American writer and bon vivant, Eugene Walter. david's long-awaited new CD, Boyfriend, is being readied for release.    

"david sereda's range as a singer-songwriter is breathtaking. It's not his voice so much as it is the
dimension of the emotional scale which drives it."
(The Chronicle-Herald, Halifax, NS)  

http://www.myspace.com/davidseredamusic
http://cdbaby.com/cd/davidsereda

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JILLIAN COCKBURN

As a Freelance Arts Administrator, Jillian Cockburn provides administrative support and consulting services to arts groups and independent artists.  She has a solid background in various areas of arts administration and cultural management including: fundraising, marketing, outreach, communications and general administration.  
Her client list includes: Arbez Drama Projects, Ballet Creole, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Mixed Company Theatre  and Sheatre.  Her previous work tenures include Interim General Manager at Odyssey Theatre and Development Manager at Ballet Creole.  She has also completed internships as the Communications Assistant at the Toronto Arts Council and as the Marketing & Outreach Assistant at Ballet Creole.

Jillian holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science and Dance from York University and a Post-Graduate Certificate (Honours) in Arts Administration/Cultural Management from Humber College.
An avid volunteer and arts advocate, Jillian currently serves as the Interim Corporate Secretary for the Board of Directors of the Guelph Arts Council.  In this role, she supports and contributes to the development of the local arts community, the enrichment of cultural life in Guelph and the widespread appreciation and promotion in the arts.