Administrative
Staff
Lawrence Axmith -
Artistic Director
Maurice Galpern - Founder
Melissa Major - Producer
Kevin Forestell & Jada Rifkin
- Administrative Assistants
Board
of Directors
Brenda Dushko - CHAIR
Wojtek
Baraniak
David Galpern
Lawrence
Axmith
Artistic
Director
Lawrence has dedicated
his career to the positive development of young people
through the power of the performing arts. Before joining
TYT, he served as the Managing Director of the Randolph
Academy for the Performing Arts and as Artistic Director
of the Randolph Young Company where hedirected/produced
the company’s productions of The Wiz, Godspell,
Disney’s High School Musical, Joseph...Dreamcoat,
Footloose, Free To Be...You and Me, West Side Story, Schoolhouse
Rock Live Jr., Really Rosie, and Bye Bye Birdie. In a
previous life, Lawrence trained with the late/great Judy
Silver (among other venerables) at the Leah Posluns Theatre
School; graduated with a BFA in Film/TV/Radio from NYU’s
Tisch School of the Arts; wrangled talent on the Spring
Break beaches of Cancun for MTV and at Radio City Music
Hall for the Tony Awards; casted voice talent for Simon
& Schuster’s Audio Division; and proudly served
as Managing Artistic Director at Manhattan’s New
York Youth Theater, directing/producing over 40 musicals
and plays including Once On This Island, The Diary of
Anne Frank, Big River, Brighton Beach Memoirs, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, and
his original musicals The Sick Boy and The Lights. He
is currently completing a Bachelor of Education at York
University in his “spare” time.
Emily Andrews
Choreographer for Charlotte's
Web
Emily Andrews is a
trained actor, singer dancer. She studied in London England
at LAMDA on their three-year acting course.
Some of selected theatre credits include; Toronto
Noir (Summerworks Festival), Les Coquettes
Cabaret (Charity Dawn- Dancer/Solo Choreographer),
Romeo and Juliet (Nurse) Canopy Theatre, Hamlette
(Rosengrantz) Studio BLR, Floozy the Musical
(Co-Director/Choreographer), Inspiration Stump
(Choreographer), Macbeth (Witch/Ensemble) CTP,
Creon (Tiresias/Ensemble) Stone Circle Project/Theatreworks,
A Quiet Place (Choreographer), First Heist
Club (Adelaide)Toronto Fringe Festival, Romeo
and Juliet Studio at Blr (Nurse), Antigone
a reading with DVXT/Stone Circle Project (Messenger/Guard),
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Choreographer)
Toronto Youth Theatre, Twelfth Night Alchemy
Theatre Toronto (Orsino), The Rat King Rock Opera
NOWIndie Fest (Choreographer), Pinned-Up The Exploits
of Bettie Hamilton Fringe (Roz/Doctor/Bunny), Edinburgh
Fringe First Winner The Jammer (Co-Choreographer/Lindy),
The Threepenny Opera MacOwen Theatre UK (Movement
Director/Mrs.Peachum), West Side Story Markham
Theatre(Co-Choreographer/Anybodys), Netherlands Tour
of Daemons based on Frankenstein (Dance Captain/Justine)
The Fix MacOwen Theatre UK(Dance Captain/Leslie
Pynchon).
Some of her Film and Television credits are; The National
Tree (Stephanie), Colin (Cannes Film Festival
Selection), The Devil’s Tail (Zoe), Cycle
of Fear (Erica), Hairspray (Dancer/Auditioner)
Pride and Prejudice Focus Films (Dancer), Wind
At My Back CBC (Laura Bridgeman), Wexford TVO(Jade),
Hopeless Romantic The Short Musical (Lead), Beyond
the Call HBO(Young Pam), Zombie Lords SkyTV
UK (Principal).
Lily
Ling
Musical
Director - A Chorus Line, Hairspray
Known
as a versatile performer, accompanist, and collaborator,
Lily has established herself as one of the premiere young
musical directors in Canada. Most recently, Lily had the
privilege of serving as intern musical director at the
Shaw Festival and became the first female to conduct a
mainstage production in the Festival's 49 year history.
She held the position of resident musical director at
Hart House Theatre for the past six seasons and is on
faculty for both the college and kids program at the Randolph
Academy for the Performing Arts. An advocate of contemporary
musical theatre, she has musically directed the Canadian
Premieres of Jerry Spinger - The Opera, High Fidelity,
Reefer Madness, and served as assistant and interim conductor
for The Light in the Piazza. Other select credits include
Nine, Cabaret, Chicago, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar,
and the Canadian stage premiere of Disney's High School
Musical. Lily holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance
from the University of Toronto.
Tara Litvack
Instructor for The Soloist
Tara Litvack began
her piano studies at the McGill Conservatory and is currently
in her final year at the University of Toronto's Faculty
of Music. She was on the musical theatre staff, as musical
theatre accompanist, at the National Music Camp of Canada
in 2007, and since then has been music directing with
various theatre groups in the Toronto theatre community.
Her most recent credits include Gypsy (Victoria
College Drama Society), Urinetown (UC Follies),
West Side Story (Vocal Director, St. Michael's
College Drama), and High Fidelity - Canadian
Premiere - (Musical Assistant, Hart House Theatre). In
addition to TYT's Rent, she is currently music
directing Hair (Victoria College Drama Society)
set to open in March 2010. Tara is absolutely thrilled
to be joining Toronto Youth Theatre.
Melissa Major
Producer
Director
- Charlotte's Web
Melissa
has been working in theatre for the past 12 years on over
sixty-five stage productions as a playwright, director,
performer, producer, designer and stage manager. Her plays
have been produced in Toronto, New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai
India, Pune, India, Williston North Dakota, Royal Oak
Michigan, Kitchener/ Waterloo and the metropolis of Kincardine.
She is the Ontario Representative for the Playwrights
Guild of Canada.
Neil Silcox
Instructor for The
Soloist
Neil Silcox has been
working in youth theatre for almost 12 years. He has an
Honours B.A. in Drama from the University of Toronto as
well as a Diploma in Acting from Sheridan College. He
also has a Bachelor of Education (specializing in Drama)
from the University of Western Ontario. Neil first discovered
theatre at London's Original Kids Theatre -North America's
largest youth theatre company- when he appeared in a 1997
production of Jerome McDonough's Juvie. This started a
long relationship with Original Kids where he would serve
as actor, stage manager, technical designer, assistant
director and director, as well as a brief stint as assistant
artistic director. Neil also served for three years as
director of the Original Kids Summer Theatre Camp. He
has worked on more than a hundred productions with many
hundreds of young actors. Neil currently works as an actor
and director as well as an acting coach for highschool
and university level actors.
Jordann
Zaza
Musical
Director - Charlotte's Web
After
graduating from the University of Toronto’s Music
Faculty, Jordann became the Music Director for the Randolph
Young Company (RYC) for several shows, most recently,
Schoolhouse Rock Live Jr, Footloose, Disney’s High
School Musical (Canadian Premiere) and The Wiz. Other
favourite credits include West Side Story (Fallen Rock
Productions), La Cage Aux Folles (Scarborough Music Theatre),
and Jesus Christ Superstar (Stage Blue Productions). She
has also served as musical director and played in shows
with The Toronto Fringe and Summerworks Festivals. Jordann
has taught piano, vocal, choral music and music theory
in the private school system. She is currently an avid
vocal coach, accompanist and pianist. Jordann also music
directed the pantomimes Robin Hood with the Stirling Festival
Theatre in the winter of 2008, and Rumplestiltskin in
the winter of 2009. Jordann recently founded her own choir,
INChoirwithIN, a pop-based community choir. www.jordannzaza.com
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