RENT
School Edition

music supervision and additional arrangements       
Tim Weil

dramaturg
Lynn Thomson

Ryland Alexander, Instructor/Director

Ryland Alexander is an Edmonton-based actor, director, writer, fight choreographer, and educator. Ryland is a graduate of Rose Bruford College’s Masters in Directing program (2008) and the University of Alberta’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama (Acting) program (2004). Ryland is currently the Artistic Director of New Work and Development for The System Theatre.

Previous directing credits include: Monster (Greenwich Playhouse); The B File (The Rose Theatre); The Devil's Tale (Stourport Festival); and Lost in tha Battle (Teens @ The Turn 2006). Selected acting credits include: Julius Caesar and A Christmas Carol (Citadel Theatre); Are We There Yet? (Concrete Theatre); 50 Plays About Love (Bedlam Theatre Concern); Creation of the World and Other Business, Progress and Procrastination, and Never Swim Alone (The System Theatre); and  Julius Caesar (Betty Mitchell Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor), Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV Part I, and Love's Labours Lost (Shakespeare in the Park, Calgary). Television: Jaws 1916 (Discovery Channel); Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story and The Englishman's Boy (CBC).

Ryland is thrilled to be working on RENT School Edition with the Teen Musical Company at the Foote Theatre School this year.

Amber Bissonnette, Instructor/Choreographer

Amber Bissonnette is an Edmonton-based performer, choreographer, and dance teacher. She is happy to be back at the Foote Theatre School as the movement/dance instructor for the Teen Musical Company.

Her choreography has been seen in such productions as The Pajama Game and A Christmas Carol, The Musical (Harry Ainlay High School), Chicago and Seussical the Musical (Eastglen High School), and Cinderella (Alberta Opera Musical Theatre for Young People). Favorite performance credits include The Winter's Tale Project (Off Off Broadway) (Orange Bus Productions); The Leisure Society (Theatre Network); Follies in Concert (Plain Janes); A Chorus Line (Stage West Calgary); Cheerleader!, Pulling Down, and Breaking Face (Human Loser); Marie Christine, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, and A Little Night Music (Grant MacEwan); and West Side Story (Stage Polaris). Amber has also worked with local dance companies Free Fall Dance, Vinok World Dance, and with members of (the former) New Dance Collective.

Look for her later this season in a new piece of choreography by Linda Turnbull at Edmonton's own Expanse Dance Festival and on the Mayfield Stage in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Amber has recently dabbled in the world of film and television, having appeared in several City TV commercials, an episode of NBC's Fear Itself, and the yet to be released environmental docudrama short film Stonewater for Avatar Productions.

Cathy Derkach, Instructor/Musical Director

Cathy Derkach has been working in and out of Edmonton as an actor and musician for over 20 years. A native Edmontonian, Cathy graduated from the Theatre Arts program at Grant MacEwan College in 1986 and became a founding member of the Leave It To Jane Theatre Company for which she was involved in numerous productions, including Frankenstein; The Innocents; and Red Lips: The Musical. Cathy had the privilege of directing and musically directing the students at Grant MacEwan for Titanic; Anything Goes; and Promises, Promises.

She is extensively involved with Teatro La Quindicina and she most recently appeared in Stewart Lemoine’s A Rocky Night For His Nibs at the Varscona Theatre. Other Teatro credits include Eros And The Itchy Ant; Margin Of The Sky; and Neck-Breaking Car Hop/ Swiss Pajamas. Some selected local credits include the Citadel Theatre (Into The Woods; Little Shop Of Horrors; A Christmas Carol – musical director); Theatre Network (Girl In The Goldfish Bowl; Perfect Pie); Workshop West (The Loud And The Queer Cabaret; Secret Spaces: The Bus Tour); Mayfield Dinner Theatre (Godspell; Gypsy; Little Shop Of Horrors – piano, keyboards, and accordion); and Concrete Theatre (Nami Namerson: The Viking Who Liked To Name Things, for which she won a Sterling Award for Best Musical Direction).

Cathy has performed in numerous fringe festivals across Canada and in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is also a member of Die-Nasty: The Live Improvised Soap Opera at the Varscona Theatre.

Gina Puntil, Rehearsal Stage Manager

Gina has been blessed to have been working in the Alberta theatre community for the past 15 years as a technician, college theatre instructor, production manager, and stage manager. This is her first spin with Teens @ The Turn and her heart is overwhelmed by the good nature of all the young artists.

Select projects: Artist Liaison for the Edmonton International Street Performers’ Festival, stage management for national touring productions such as The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets (November Theatre), The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito (Concrete Theatre), and other odd/funky musicals and movement pieces like Urinetown (Ground Zero Theatre), Why Freud Fainted (Alberta Theatre Projects), and Sylvia Plath Must Not Die (One Yellow Rabbit). Working with emerging artists and students has been some of the most rewarding projects in her career. Besides this festival there were other projects like NEXTFEST (Theatre Network) and Are We There Yet? (Concrete Theatre). She continues to work with the Alberta Workers’ Health Centre on their two touring productions of Work Plays and THAT’S DANGER!

Narda McCarroll, Lighting Designer

This season at the Citadel Narda was the production designer for Extinction Song, costume designer for Julius Caesar and lighting designer for The Forbidden Phoenix. Other Citadel credits include production design for Shining City, Vimy (co-designed with Bretta Gerecke), Fully Committed, The Syringa Tree, and Blue/Orange; lighting design for Birdbrain, Penelope vs. the Aliens, The Goat, and the 2007 and 2008 Teens @ The Turn Festivals; and costume design for The Pillowman and Einstein’s Gift.

Narda was the resident designer for Workshop West Theatre in Edmonton for six seasons. Favourite designs for WWT include Mary’s Wedding, My One and Only, and Apple. Other recent credits include set/lights for Columbo Takes the Rap (Vertigo Theatre), lights for The Drowning Girls and sets/lights for Rabbit Hole (Alberta Theatre Projects), and costumes for the past ten seasons for the Freewill Shakespeare Festival.

Narda recently received two Sterling awards for set and lights for Vimy and a Betty Mitchell award for lights for The Drowning Girls.

RENT was originally produced in New York by New York Theatre Workshop and on Broadway by Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum, Allan S. Gordon and New York Theatre Workshop.

School Edition specially adapted and licensed by Music Theatre International.

RENT School Edition is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.

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