Stephanie Herrera has been working professionally in the arts for over ten years. Mediums have included film, TV and theatre. While in the musical theatre world she received rave reviews in such shows as “Chorus Line” and “Fame” (which also toured Italy and won her the THEA for Best Leading Actress in a Musical that year). In the improv world she performed in various shows including “Curtains Up”, “Neil Muscott’s Comedy Debates”, and as a cast member of Second City’s “Tony & Tina’s Wedding”. She graduated from Second City’s Conservatory program after having won their cross-cultural improv scholarship and also went on to become a main-stage cast member of Theatre Sports Toronto.
She founded two successful improv/sketch troupes in Toronto, “On the Count of Three”, which specialized in musical comedy sketches, and the “Canadian Comedy Award” nominated troupe “The Lamb Chops” (who performed full length improvised musicals!). The Lamb Chops taught and performed at the Labrador Creative Arts festival and at the Orlando Comedy Festival as well as were heard on CBC radio and were featured in Eye and Now magazines as one of the hotest groups in improv.
Stephanie has been teaching since 2002 and has extensive experience in producing, writing, and directing shows, with both children and adults.
In Mississauga Stephanie worked at a private arts schools where she designed and taught courses in improv, musical theatre, film, writing, and audition preparation, as well as wrote and co-directed the end of term shows.
Stephanie also taught improv and musical theatre at “Stage Door Schools” (which boasted a teaching roster of professional actors such as Patrick McKenna) and ran her own Musical Theatre program in Toronto in 2004 with Cara Adams.
In 2004 and 2005 Stephanie was the Director of Improv and Interaction at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire (www.parenfaire.com).
Since 2003, Stephanie has produced the “Teen Improv Tournament” which gives teenagers the opportunity to perform improv in a professional theatrical setting which also was the catalyst for her nomination for a Latin American Achievement Award and it took an entire Latin American Film Festival to beat her.
In Fall 2006 Stephanie designed the improv classes at Durham and Fleming Colleges as well as founded “Durham Improv” as Durham Ontario’s first and only improv school.
In 2011 she began writing and producing Durham Improv’s Interactive Dinner Theatre shows, which continue to receive rave reviews. In the same year she was nominated for an Art of Transition award in the category of “Best entertainment” and it took a whole theatre company to beat her.
Also in 2012 she became a nominee for the “Mr. & Mrs. Comedy Auction” and took home the “Business of the year” award home from the Durham Home and Small Business Association, the “Business for the Arts” award from the Scugog Arts Council, and the “Best Entertainment” award at the Durham Region Art of Transition awards ceremony.
She co-hosted “Hurry Up Love” with New York Bestselling author Nicholas Boothman, which can be seen on Rogers TV (Oshawa) along with her own show “Stephanie’s Comedy Chat”.
Stephanie’s experience and talents, combined with her desire to share her knowledge, makes her an enthusiastic teacher. She approaches her teaching with dedication and with a strong intent to make each participant comfortable.
Whether her students have been children or adults they have always found her classes, not only challenging, but more importantly, a ton of fun!
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Adam Lloyd Wilkinson is a graduate of Humber College: School of Comedy. Where he was nominated for the Mike Myers Award for excellent achievement in comedic studies. He went on to perform all over Toronto in a number of sketch troupes including Turn Down the Grill with Second City cast member Marty Adams, and Yuk Yuk’s Comedian Andre Arruda. He won the “Toronto 24 hour film challenge” with the comedic troupe Geronimo Deadly and Adam was honoured with best comedic performance for a worldwide “100 hour film race”.
Don Masters has been in the business for just over 20 years. Having started by winning a Modeling Contest, continued with several runway fashion shows, then was a Toronto Sunshine Boy, did print work for Royal Bank,Home Depot, the Royal Ontario Museum, and Tim Horton’s. He has appeared in commercials for Pizza Pops, Co-Operators Insurance and Sam’s Town Resort & Casinos. He has hosted “Wheel Knowledge” on CHEX TV for two seasons. He worked with the Discovery Channel production about Vampires, portrayed Richard Jewel on the TV Series Forensic Factor, and had a role on Take this House and Sell It. He has had roles in Man of the Year, Jumper, By Night and was the principle actor in Abattoir.In between the auditions and teaching, Don is busy writing multiple screenplays ranging from animated kids features to all out beat-em up action films.
Daryl Marks has been involved in all aspects of the performing arts from directing and writing,
to performing both on stage as well as in TV and Film, and has performed in theatres
across the province.
He has studied under Canada’s premiere acting coaches Sears and Switzer as well as at the world famous Second City in Toronto. He has been an instructor at Durham College, Charactors School for the Arts, as well as at high schools thru-out the GTA.
Amy Helsby is thrilled to be a part of the March Break program with the Durham Improv team. As a graduate of the Musical Theatre program from the University of Windsor, Amy has been teaching drama, dance, and vocal music in both the Ottawa and Durham region for over 12 years. She serves as the Promotions and Marketing Director for the Oshawa Little Theatre Board of Directors, and has choreographed both Fiddler on the Roof and Annie (OLT) and an additional production of Annie with Scarborough Music Theatre (which she won a Thea award for). Previous credits include ‘Beth’ in Merrily We Roll Along,’ Cassie’ in A Chorus Line and ‘the Courtesan’ in The Boys from Syracuse. Amy is an instructor with the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama where she has directed and choreographed over 15 musical productions.