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 addition, she was an Emergency Supply teacher with the Board of Education for several years and has taught improv privately at various high schools in the GTA and in the U.S.
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, hosted, and performed in the “Teen Improv Tournament (teenimprovtournament.com)” 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.
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 sell out and 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.
She is a 2012 nominee for the “Mr. & Mrs. Comedy Auction” taking place at the GM Centre May 2012 and will also be filming her TV show on Rogers called “Stephanie’s Comedy Chat” this May!
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!
(www.jasonchowphotography.com)
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”.