Creative Carousel Rotation
7 Workshops – You get them ALL!
ONE: Rocking the One-Line Audition:
How to make your mark with your audition when you only have 1 line
Catherine Lough Haggquist – Library Room #1 Upstairs
“It’s just one line, how hard can it be?”
Nowhere does Stanislavski’s quote “There are no small parts, only small actors” hit more accurately than the Film & TV audition.
They seem simple but they are not. The writers give the scene with multiple lines all sorts of great information on which to build a performance. The One-Liner? Not so much. And yet, the audition process expects actors to fill in all those blanks themselves to create real, authentic, living characters with thoughts, feelings, and opinions…all expressed in a line or two. Come discover ways to bring these characters to life and make them unforgettable!
An actor with over 160 Film and TV credits on IMDb, Catherine (Cat) Lough Haggquist has recently guest starred on Tracker (CBS) and Fire Country (CBS) and can also currently be seen in the role of Petra Bellweather on theseries Motherland: Fort Salem which now streams on Disney+. In addition to her acting and coaching, which she has done for over 25 years, Cat was an associate producer of Reel Women Seen, a short film that has won numerous awards including the 2018 Jury Choice Award at the Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase. In 2008 Cat received the Special Jury Award from Women in Film and Television Vancouver. She was named the Union of BC Performers’ 2013 International Women’s Day Honoree and was awarded Life Membership by UBCP in 2017.
As the Creative Director of TheDramaClass.com and owner and curator of industry resource BizBooks.net, Cat works to support actors in their growth, both artistically and professionally.
TWO: Physical Improvisation
Miriam Cummings – RCA Paint & Drawing Room
THREE: Modern Shakespeare on Film
VFS’s Sergio Asuna – Library Room #2 Upstairs
Take a look at the iconic Shakespearean characters in modern adaptations on camera. We will be working with 2 plays- Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing. Be prepared to explore small excerpts from comedic scenes in both the original text and the modern adaptation on camera.
Sergio Asiuna is an Actor and Writer, originally from Mexico, with a career spanning 15 years. In Canada, he has landed recurring roles on ‘The Magicians’, ‘Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency’, ‘Are You Afraid of the Dark?’ and, most recently, Netflix’s ‘Slumberland’. Sergio is also the winner of the 2023 Brazil Independent Film Festival’s Best Actor award.
FOUR: Improv for Storytellers
Stephen Keppler -Innovation Place, Pixie & Dot Rehearsal Space
Join Stephen Keppler for this 70 minute workshop that brings students together to use spontaneity, playfulness, and goofiness, to collaborate and experience shared storytelling. Listening is the basic foundation for any actor and improvisation is all about listening to your partner while not worrying about what comes next! Just SAY YES! Using fast-paced exercises and ensemble-based games, participants will build confidence, sharpen listening skills, and strengthen their ability to make bold, imaginative choices! Open to performers of all experience levels, this session offers a fun, supportive environment to practice saying “yes,” trusting instinct, and discovering the joy of creative risk-taking
Stephen Keppler has been a professional performer since 2003 and has toured across Canada performing in Musical theatre, standup comedy, Improvisation, and film. With over 25 years of experience in Improv, Stephen continues to share his knowledge with as many as possible. One of the more notable moments in his career, was co-founding the improv group, “Sin Peaks” (Vancouvers only live improvised soap opera) back in 2012, who still perform to this day. Stephen is also a radio host based in Kelowna B.C. And if it were not for his skills in improvisation, he would probably be doing something else…
FIVE: The Bard’s Words -Library Room #3 Upstairs
Bard Unbound: ensemble-based exploration of Shakespeare
Shakespeare isn’t just for study — it’s for play! Shakespeare is often burdened with outdated traditions and unhelpful assumptions. What if we could take a fresh approach to Shakespeare’s words, free from conventions? In this active, participatory workshop, Bard Education will invite you to explore Shakespeare’s language in dynamic, personally meaningful ways.
Katie Johnstone: Raised by curiosity, big feelings, and even bigger laughter, Katie (she/her) happily discovered theatre at a young age. Many afternoons were spent with her sisters, enacting and re-telling their favourite stories in the woods behind their childhood home. Those cherished moments led her to pursue arts education. Highlights along this journey include joining a touring arts circus as a modern minstrel (Madrid, 2011), leading theatre classes at Young People’s Theatre (Toronto, 2016-17), creating and performing original work with her friends (Kingston 2014-18), and completing a BA in Education & MA in Arts Management at Queen’s University (Kingston, 2011-2018). She is in awe of her team at Bard, and grateful to play and learn on these ancestral lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
SIX: Costume Design
Linda Beaven – Kelowna Art Gallery Foyer
Linda taught theatre for 37 years at Summerland Secondary School and many of her students have gone on to careers in theatre, TV, and film. She has adjudicated for Theatre BC Speech Arts and for several Music Festival. She was the music theatre/speech arts chair for the Penticton Kiwanis Music festival and she was the theatre consultant for the Ozone Okanagan. She has a Master of Arts degree with a major in costuming. In thirty-seven years of teaching, she directed over a hundred plays and served on the Provincial Youthwrite play committee.
Linda proudly co-founded the Goodwill Shakespeare Festival!
She has many awards for teaching and promoting the Arts:
The Distinguished Service Award, Association of BC Drama Educators
Prime Ministers Award for Teaching Excellence
Arts Appreciation Award: Summerland Arts Council
Paul Harris Fellow: Rotary International
2015 Life time distinguished service award A.B.C.D.E.
She is now retired and finds her joy as an audience member at live theatre and making costumes..
SEVEN: Theatre Jazz Workshop
Allie Sieben- RCA Sun FM Dance Room
Bring out your Inner Dancer with this Theatre Jazz workshop! Participants will be led through a thorough warm up, and then will learn a high energy combo to a Musical Theatre Song. Throughout the workshop, participants will explore fundamental dance skills, storytelling through movement, dance call audition tips, and more in a fun supportive environment.
Allie Sieben is an emerging artist from Kelowna, British Columbia. In a combined program with St. Lawrence College and Queen’s University, Allie recently completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Musical Theatre. For over 12 years, has trained in various dance styles including ballet (RAD// RAD Exploring Repertoire), jazz, theatre jazz, contemporary, and hip hop, and continues to pursue relevant dance and voice training. Allie has had the opportunity to work both in professional and community settings as a performer and choreographer and has been recognized for her ability to make dancers of all levels feel confident on stage. In addition to performance, Allie is passionate about fostering a love and appreciation for arts in young people, bringing 10 years of experience working with kids to the table! Currently, Allie has her dream job as the Artistic Associate at Pixie and Dot Productions and Sassafras and Co. where she graciously is exploring all facets of working in the performing arts industry including teaching both adult and youth musical theatre classes.
The Intensives Strand:
Choose one area of interest and enjoy 3 days of intensive study-work-creation. At the end, the intensives share their work at our gala event!
OPTION ONE: CHORAL INTENSIVE
Brian Tate – KCT Foyer
Vocal Ensemble Intensive
Anyone who loves to sing is welcome to join the Vocal Ensemble Intensive! We’ll explore a variety of choral styles including world music, pop, jazz, and gospel. Music reading skills useful but not essential. Opportunities for soloists. Join us for a joyful and fun experience!
The Amazing Brian Tate is back for another year of making music magic!! 
An award-winning composer, as well as an accomplished and versatile musician, choir director, and educator, Brian attributes the success of his multifaceted career to a love of working with people and a passion for the arts.
Brian received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia, and went on to further music studies in London, England; Toronto; Ghana; Cuba; Oakland and New Orleans. His love for music of many kinds has led to a diverse career that includes orchestral and choral conducting and performing, musical theatre, and composing music for film, television, stage, and the concert hall. Brian has twice received Vancouver’s Jessie Richardson Award for original theatre music, and his choral music is performed worldwide.
As a vocalist, Brian performs with his jazz quartet at festivals, clubs, and in concert. He also performs with Dawn Pemberton and Karla Mundy in the vocal a cappella trio, TriVo.
In 2010, Brian founded Vancouver’s vibrant, 100-voice City Soul Choir. After 10 joy-filled years with the CSC, in 2019 he handed the music director reins over to his collaborator in TriVo, the wonderful Karla Mundy.
Brian is known internationally for his lively choir workshops, conducting skills, gift for bringing out the best in choirs, and his exhilarating and inspiring choral compositions / arrangements.
As an organizational speaker, educator, and facilitator, Brian takes the elements of creativity, intuition, and improvisation from the performing arts and transforms these elements into powerful, interactive group experiences that develop leadership, innovation, and team-building. His programs include groundbreaking work such as using musical improvisation to enhance leadership and teams, and using the voice as a tool for personal development. Brian brings spontaneity, humour, and originality into all of his presentations. Participants experience growth not only in their work, but in all areas of their lives.
OPTION TWO: AFFAIR of HONOUR BATTLE INTENSIVE
Jackie and Nathania – KCT Black Box
Class description: Battle Intensive
We are back and throwing down for 3 days! In this action-packed class, you’ll learn how to throw punches, take hits, and pull off awesome fight scenes—safely. This high-energy class teaches the basics of stage combat, from slaps to kicks, creating hard hitting fights and having fun. The class will use their newfound skills to put together an all out brawl using a scene selected from Shakespeare’s works to be presented to the entire festival on the final day. Join us in the brawl!
Nathania is a Filipino-Canadian actor, choreographer, director, writer and producer with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Education(Concordia University of Alberta). She is grateful for the incredible opportunities to train with such Schools and Companies like the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art(London), SITI Company(New York), Zen Zen Zo (Melbourne), Diavolo Dance (Los Angeles), Rapier Wit (Toronto), DynamO Théâtre (Montreal) and Second City (Chicago). Nathania has a profound love for physical theatre and is a certified instructor with Fight Directors Canada. Nathania is the Artistic Director of Affair of Honor, an award winning stage combat company she co-founded with Jackie T. Hanlin producing productions like Jovanni Sy’s The Five Vengeances and Qui Nguyen’s Soul Samurai. Nathania and Jackie have also written new works titled Playthings and Multi-Vs, and their adaptation of The Musketeers into the Affair of Honor canon, an ever expanding repertoire of fight plays. Up next, they are creating their 10 year anniversary show titled V City. www.affairofhonor.ca
Jackie T. Hanlin is an actor, fight choreographer and producer hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She received her BA in Drama from Bishops University in 2015, and moved to Vancouver where she began her stage combat studies and work with her fight/producing partner Nathania Bernabe, co-founding Affair of Honor. Jackie is a certified instructor with The Academy of Fight Directors Canada. Since 2015 she has had the pleasure of being an actor, choreographer, writer and producer within Affair of Honor, producing Qui Nguyen’s Soul Samurai (Vancouver Fringe festival 2017/18) in which the fight and movement design received a Jessie Nomination in 2018, Karen Basset’s Heroine (Edmonton Fringe Festival 2018), House of Arms: an improvised fight episodic (2018), Playthings (Edmonton Fringe Festival 2019/Presentation House Theatre 2021), Fairlith Harvey’s Kill The Ripper (Presentation House Theatre/Rio Theatre 2022) Jovanni Sy’s The Five Vengeances (Shadbolt Centre for the Arts 2022) and Multi-Vs (Edmonton/Halifax Fringe 2023/2025).
OPTION THREE: IMPROVISED SHAKESPEARIAN MUSICAL INTENSIVE
Peter and Zach – RCA New Vintage HotHouse Rehearsal Room
“To B♯ or to B♭, that is the question”. Push your skills to the limit with some of Vancouver’s top improvisers. Learn how to improvise Shakespeare and musicals and then put both skills together to create something incredible! Join Zach Wolfman and Peter Abando in the creation of an Improvised Shakespearean Musical.”
PETER ABANDO composes, directs, teaches, improvises, and performs all over Metro Vancouver. Find him at the BMO for the Arts Club Broadway Open Mic Nights! Favourite productions include Something Rotten, Matilda, and Legally Blonde (TUTS), a special charity concert of Dear Evan Hansen (Laughing Matters Theatre), 9 to 5 (Capilano University), and the Fringe hit, Amélie (West Moon Theatre). Most recently, MD for Mary Poppins (RCMT), and James and the Giant Peach with CTORA! Peter has attended Chicago’s Second City Training Center and frequently attends the Broadway Teachers Workshops in New York City. Peter was just in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity at the end of 2025, developing an original Filipino-Canadian musical with Kimmortal and Davey Samuel Calderon.
ZACH WOLFMAN is an actor, improviser, and educator on the traditional unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories (Vancouver, BC, Canada). Zach has a BFA in Acting and has completed Canada’s National Voice Intensive. Zach is co-founder of the Spontaneous Shakespeare Company and a director, performer, and musician with Sin Peaks the Improvised Soap Opera. Zach teaches improvisation with Instant Theatre and Actorium.
OPTION FOUR: MOVEMENT AND DANCE INTENSIVE
RCA Salloum Room
Join Award winning Director and Choreographer Dawn Ewen and her teaching partner Morgan Hergott for a deep dive into movement, space, rhythm and storytelling… with a Shakespearian Twist!
Morgan Hergott has been teaching theatre in Kelowna since 2019 and is so excited to start teaching for Stage 26. She is currently in her fourth year at UBCO studying Anthropology, with the goal of completing the education program in the future to become an elementary school teacher. She has been performing in musical theatre since she was 8 years old and has loved every minute of it. Teaching and musical theatre are two of Morgan’s biggest passions, so she feels so lucky to have the opportunity to combine the two. She loves working with young performers and watching them grow, learn new things, and build their confidence. It has been such a privilege passing on her love of theatre to the next generation, and she feels lucky to be part of a student’s creative journey. She finds continued enjoyment in facilitating young performers’ exploration of the arts and making a safe, inclusive, and fun environment in her classes for all students.
Dawn Ewen is a British Columbia–based theatre artist with decades of experience working as a director, choreographer, instructor, arts administrator and performer across Canada and internationally. She is honoured to serve as the Artistic Director of Pixie & Dot Productions, Sassafras & Co. and Stage 26 & Co., where she looks forward to sharing her knowledge, curiosity, and love of storytelling with young performers as they begin a journey like no other.
Dawn’s career has allowed her to collaborate with a wide range of artists and companies, creating work that is rooted in heart, playfulness, and respect for the craft. Her directing and choreography credits span musicals, plays, and large-scale productions, including Spring Awakening, The Wizard of Oz, Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music, The Wiz, Anything Goes, 42nd Street and countless more. Along the way, these productions have been recognized with multiple awards and nominations, though Dawn remains most proud of the collaborative processes behind them.
As a performer, Dawn brings over 15 years of professional experience as a multidisciplinary musical theatre artist, working extensively as a singer, dancer, and actor primarily in Vancouver. She trained with CSB and is a graduate of the Canadian College of Performing Arts (CCPA). Dawn performed internationally with Enpoint in Japan and as First Soloist with Ballet West in Scotland—experiences that continue to shape her understanding of ensemble work, musical storytelling, and physical expression on stage.
In addition to her performance and creative work, Dawn has been fortunate to receive multiple Ethel Tibbits Award-Women of Distinction nominations and to contribute meaningfully to community-focused theatre. She believes deeply in inclusive spaces, joyful rehearsal rooms, and the power of theatre to build confidence, empathy, and connection.
Dawn is excited to focus on mentorship—supporting young artists as they discover their voices, develop strong foundations, and learn to trust both the discipline and the joy of the work. She approaches this role with gratitude, humility, and a genuine eagerness to learn alongside the next generation.
Dawn is endlessly thankful for the artists, collaborators, friends, and family who continue to inspire her, and for the opportunity to keep growing through the stories we tell together.
OPTION FIVE: TECHNICAL THEATRE INTENSIVE
Rusty Gahr, Gerardo Tejeida and John Addams- KCT Technicians – KCT main stage.
Go behind the curtain and into the engine room of live performance. In this hands-on intensive, industry professionals from the Kelowna Community Theatre guide participants through the essential elements of technical theatre — including lighting, sound, stage management, and backstage collaboration. Designed for emerging artists eager to expand their practical skills, this workshop emphasizes real-world problem solving, teamwork, and the fast-paced demands of festival production. Whether you’re new to tech or looking to sharpen your craft, this immersive experience offers invaluable insight into the artistry and precision that bring Shakespeare to life.
Rusty Gahr is the Technical Director at the Kelowna Community Theatre. A returning instructor at the Good Will Shakespeare Festival, he has taught the Technical Theatre Intensive for two previous years and brings hands-on, professional backstage practice to mentoring emerging theatre technicians.
Gerardo Tejeida was born and raised in Mexico, where he learned lighting and video. A former nightclub lighting director and production company owner, he is now Head of Lighting at Kelowna Community Theatre. This marks his first year teaching at the Goodwill Shakespeare Festival.Gerardo specializes in grandMA3 programming and operation, live concert lighting design and technical show management in theatre environments. Gerardo combines creative stage design with technical precision, integrating control systems, networking, and automation to optimize live production workflows.
John Adams is a highly respected audio technician with over 30 years of experience. He has been part of the Kelowna Community Theatre team for 16 years and is recognized as one of the region’s top audio professionals. He also taught audio engineering at the Columbia Academy of Recording Arts. This will be his first time sharing his extensive knowledge of audio at the Goodwill Shakespeare Festival.
