The Studio 180 Theatre Team
CORE ARTISTIC TEAM
Joel Greenberg (Artistic Director), C. Derrick Chua, Jessica Greenberg, Mark McGrinder, Kimwun Perehinec
INTERIM GENERAL MANAGER Kristina McNamee (Kesta Graham is on maternity leave)
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Karim Morgan
Joel Greenberg
Artistic Director
A co-founder of Studio 180, Joel is a Chalmers and Dora award–winning playwright and director who has directed and/or choreographed more than 100 professional productions across Canada in the past 40 years. For Studio 180 he has directed and co-produced The Laramie Project, The Passion of the Chris, The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, Stuff Happens, Blackbird, The Overwhelming, Parade and Our Class. Joel taught at Humber College Theatre School from 1984 to 1989 and has taught at the University of Waterloo since 1991, also serving as the chair of each theatre department (at Humber for five years, and UW for nine).
Kristina McNamee
Interim General Manager
Kristina is a producer, theatre administrator and designer. She joined the Studio 180 team in August 2010 as our Audience Development Coordinator, and in December 2011 stepped into the position of Interim General Manager. Prior to her involvement with Studio 180, in 2010 Kristina produced Bliss, directed by Steven McCarthy, at the SummerWorks Theatre Festival and was the projections/lighting designer for Norman Yeung’s Theory, also at the SummerWorks Theatre Festival. In 2009, she produced Reflections on Giving Birth to a Squid, which toured the Fringe in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton, as well as co-produced Apricots at the SummerWorks Theatre Festival. Lighting design credits include Passages (Caithream Celtic Dance Fusion), Marla’s Party (Rabiayshna Productions/SummerWorks 2008), Finer Noble Gases (the Bleecker Theatre Co/SummerWorks 2007) and Collected Stories (Mea-Copula Productions). She has also had the pleasure of working with such companies as Aluna Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Seventh Stage Productions, The Company Theatre and Crow’s Theatre. She graduated from Ryerson Theatre School, specializing in lighting design and arts administration.
C. Derrick Chua
Core Artistic Team Member
A co-founder of Studio 180, Derrick is an entertainment lawyer and award-winning theatre and film producer. He is currently President of the Toronto Fringe Festival and past-President of the Toronto Theatre Alliance, and sits on the boards of Cahoots Theatre Projects, fu-Gen Asian Canadian Theatre and Shakespearience. As an entertainment lawyer, his clients have included a number of theatre companies, independent film and television production companies, bands, publishers, multimedia/ high tech companies and artists/performers of every kind. He holds an Honours BA from the University of Waterloo and an LL.B. from the University of Western Ontario, and is called to the Bar in Ontario and New York.
Jessica Greenberg
Core Artistic Team Member – Education and Outreach/Artist Educator
Jessica is a Toronto-based actor, independent theatre producer and artist educator who has worked on and off stage with Studio 180 since 2004. As an actor, she has appeared in our productions of Our Class, Parade, Blackbird, Offensive Shadows and The Passion of the Chris. As a member of the Core Artistic Team, she coordinates the company’s education and community outreach activities, creates production study guides and contributes to fundraising and board development initiatives. As part of Studio 180’s Audience Development Strategic Initiative (funded by the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation), Jessica also coordinates and helps design and pilot our Education Initiative – an innovative in-class workshop program. Her experience in education and childhood development ranges from work at the Upper West Side Jewish Community Centre Nursery School in Manhattan to running gymnastics, drama and music programs for children of all ages in Toronto and New York City. In 2004, she served as Education Coordinator for ARCfest: Toronto’s Human Rights Arts Festival. As an actor, Jessica has performed throughout Canada and the United States, most recently in Hana’s Suitcase and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown for the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, and The Middle Place for Project Humanity/Theatre Passe Muraille/Canadian Stage. She holds an Honours BA in political science and women’s studies from McGill University and completed her classical acting training at Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York.
Mark McGrinder
Core Artistic Team Member – New Play Development/Artist Educator
A co-founder of Studio 180, Mark is a Toronto-based actor, writer, independent theatre producer and artist educator. As a member of Studio 180’s Core Artistic Team, Mark coordinates the company’s new play development initiatives and helps design and pilot our in-school Education Initiative. For Studio 180, he has appeared as an actor in almost all of our productions and assistant directed Blackbird thanks to a Metcalf Foundation Internship Grant. He performed with The Second City and was a member of the acting company at the Shaw Festival for five seasons. His past experience as a producer and theatre creator involves several independent ventures, including a national tour of the Fringe hit Alexander Bell I Want to Have Your Love Child and the Australian premieres of The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine and George F. Walker’s Tough. His directing credits include the issue-based comedy Power Play and a workshop production of the musical Parade at the Shaw Festival. He has been head- or co-writer on several collective creations (Single and Sexy, That Artz Show and The Berlin Show) and his play MacHamlet was presented as part of the Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival. Mark holds an Honours BA in Theatre Arts from the University of Waterloo.
Kimwun Perehinec
Core Artistic Team Member – Communications/Artist Educator
A co-founder of Studio 180, Kimwun is a Toronto-based actor, independent theatre producer and artist educator. As a member of Studio 180’s Core Artistic Team, she coordinates the company’s communications, contributes to fundraising and board development initiatives, and helps design and pilot our in-school Education Initiative. Her other in-school experience includes teaching audition and on camera classes in secondary schools and for the Randolph Academy of Performing Arts, and touring Theatre for Young Audiences across Ontario and the US. Kimwun has performed in several Studio 180 productions (Our Class, Offensive Shadows, The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, The Laramie Project and The Passion of the Chris) and with such companies as Seventh Stage, Roseneath Theatre, the Stratford Festival, Theatre Direct, Eldritch Theatre, Absit Omen and Collective Architecture. She also frequently participates in new play development workshops. Kimwun is co-editor of WORKS., the SummerWorks Theatre Festival’s journal, and created and twice produced the SummerWorks series of walking tours (SummerWalks). She has also freelanced as a proofreader for graphic design firms, done communication coaching with E-Roleplay.com, won awards for technical writing and been a copy editor for Prentice-Hall Canada. She holds a Joint Honours Co-op BA in English and Theatre Arts from the University of Waterloo and is a graduate of the actor-training program at George Brown College.
Karim Morgan
Audience Development Coordinator – Metcalf-funded Audience Development Initiative
Karim is a Toronto-based actor whose work has progressed over the last seven years from solely stage performances to new story creation and script development with many of the city’s established theatre companies. His work as a logistics coordinator and administrator started in advertising then transitioned to child welfare and protection and most recently the healthcare field. His exposure to a variety of organizations and foundations has helped him develop a diverse approach and understanding of different clients and audience needs. He is most certainly a people person. His skills as a planner and event coordinator stem from his early exposure to and passion for parties and fundraisers. He is excited to join Studio 180 and looks forward to developing a stellar rapport with it’s expanding audience base. As Studio 180’s Audience Development Coordinator, Karim participates in all direct contact to the company’s current audience, and oversees events planning and implementation of donor- and audience-building programs.
Kesta Graham
(on maternity leave)
Kesta joined the Studio 180 team as Education Coordinator for Offensive Shadows, and now combines her experience as an actor, script coordinator and project coordinator in her position as General Manager. She has been Treasurer of the Board of Directors for Theatre Columbus since 2005 and is the administrator for the Renaissance Collective (The Language of the Heart, by Andrew Moodie). As an actor she has worked with such distinguished theatres as Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Carousel Players, Theatre Direct and Theatre Columbus. Kesta can also be seen in numerous Canadian short films and most recently in episodes of Murdoch Mysteries and B.J. Fletcher: Private Eye, and lends her voice to a variety of television and radio commercials. She is a graduate of the Acting Program at Ryerson Polytechnic University.
