Production week is one of my favorite parts of creating a new show. While there always seems to be one more thing to do on the list and inevitably I get pretty under-slept the week can be compared to that beautiful moment before sunset in which your whole life is drenched in gold for one hour.
The construction and bones are complete, layering of additional elements has begun. Lighting and set designs come together to create the worlds that up till now existed only in my imagination. Two years of conceptualizing moments and accumulating them in series all being realized at last!
The production team: Longer Than a Shadow
Roelof Peter Snippe
Lighting Designer
Roelof Peter Snippe began his professional lighting design career with Toronto Workshop Productions under the direction of George Luscombe. In 1973, he began a long working relationship with Toronto Dance Theatre, creating designs for over 150 works in the repertoire. Over his long, distinguished career as a lighting designer, stage manager and technical director, Mr. Snippe has worked with major dance, theatre and opera companies across Canada and abroad. They include the National Ballet of Canada, The Danny Grossman Dance Company, Dancemakers, and numerous other Canadian companies and independent artists, including Denise Fujiwara. In 2010, Mr. Snippe was awarded the Dance Ontario Lifetime Achievement Award.
Cheryl Lalonde
Costume Designer
Born and raised in Toronto, Cheryl Lalonde began her career in the arts with Act IV Theatre at Adelaide Court. After two years backstage at Toronto Workshop Productions, her design debut was for the premiere production of Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters under mentor and director Larry Lewis. Splitting her time between design and stage management has allowed her to travel the world as well as collaborate with many companies, including: Desrosiers Dance Theatre, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Fujiwara Dance Inventions, Eclectic Theatre, Alberta Ballet, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Theatre Smith Gilmour, and Kaeja d'Dance. Ms. Lalonde has been nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards for design and was honored in 1997 for her design of Eclectic Theatre's Chutzpah a-go-go. She has served on the faculty of Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre for seven summers, and recently participated in a panel of Canadian Stage Managers to establish a DACUM occupational analysis for Stage Management.
Andrea Roberts
Rehearsal Director/Artistic Advisor
Andrea Roberts is an active member of the dance community in both an artistic and an administrative capacity. She graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 1997, where she currently works as both Professional Programs Co-ordinator and rehearsal director. Over the past decade, she has become increasingly interested in discovering her artistic voice through improvisation and theatre training. She has recently completed a Masters degree in dance at York University, with research focusing on the dance-theatre work of Murray Darroch.
Andrea Roberts is an active member of the dance community in both an artistic and an administrative capacity. She graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 1997, where she currently works as both Professional Programs Co-ordinator and rehearsal director. Over the past decade, she has become increasingly interested in discovering her artistic voice through improvisation and theatre training. She has recently completed a Masters degree in dance at York University, with research focusing on the dance-theatre work of Murray Darroch.
