Everybody Loves Robbie

Ellen Chorley

Playwright

Ellen is an Edmonton-based playwright, producer, performer and arts educator. She is the current Festival Director of Nextfest, Edmonton’s annual festival showcasing and support emerging artists. From 2009-2023 Ellen served as the Artistic Associate/ Box Office Manager of Northern Light Theatre. NLT also commissioned and produced the world premiere of Ellen’s play “Everybody Loves Robbie” which was awarded the Gwen Pharis Award for Best New Play by the Alberta Writers Guild in 2020. Ellen is also the Academy Director of the Theatre Network Summer Academy, the Student’s Club Facilitator for the Citadel Theatre, a Sessional Instructor for MacEwan University and a playwrighting and acting teacher with Foote Theatre School at the Citadel. Ellen is a two-time Sterling Award winner for her play “Murielle” co-produced with Blarney Productions and was awarded Edify Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2013. Ellen is thrilled to back on stage after a few years behind the scenes and is eternally grateful for her long relationship of mentorship and learning with the NLT Team.

Trevor Schmidt

Director, Set & Costume Designer

Trevor is the Artistic Director of Northern Light Theatre as well as a performer, designer of set and costume, a published playwright and a multiple award winner. He has been awarded twice for playwrighting (THE WATERMELON GIRLS, and CHANGE ROOM),for directing the Canadian premieres of Carol Anne Duffy’s THE WORLD’S WIFE and Sean Graney’s THE 4TH GRADERS PRESENT AN UNNAMED LOVE-SUICIDE and the outstanding production award for the Canadian premiere of Elise Forier Edie’s THE PINK UNICORN. For Guys In Disguise, where he is an Artistic Associate, he has also performed the one-man show COFFEE DAD, CHICKEN MOM, AND THE FABULOUS BUDDHA BOI, penned by Nick Green in New York as part of the FRIGID FESTIVAL for which he also received the award for Outstanding Performance, and the Outstanding New Fringe Play (co-written and created with Darrin Hagen) for FLORA & FAWNA’S FIELD TRIP (both at the Sterling Awards), and Outstanding Touring Production at the Critic’s Awards in Calgary. Also for Guys In Disguise, he received an Orlando Fringe award for his performance for Bette Davis in the much-lauded BITCHSLAP.

Jayce McKenzie

Chloe & Others

Jayce is thrilled to return to Northern Light Theatre after making her Sterling-nominated debut in EVERYBODY LOVES ROBBIE in 2019. A graduate of the 2010 Theatre Arts program at Grant MacEwan, Jayce has worked to continuously expand her skill set, adding writer, producer, improviser, and hypnotist to her bag of tricks. In addition to NLT, Jayce has had the pleasure of working with some of Edmonton’s finest theatre companies, including Teatro La Quindicina, The Maggie Tree, and Whizgiggling Productions. Her outstanding work has earned her three Sterling nominations and a Sterling award for her performance in Whizgiggling’s Fringe production of SALT WATER MOON. Her next opportunity is another new work written by Trevor Schmidt, called ROBOT GIRLS premiering in March 2024 at Shadow Theatre.

Jayce’s passion for theatre opened doors for her to work in film, TV, and commercial acting and she has also established herself as a professional voiceover artist. She recently recorded the voice of a lead character for the new children’s cartoon and video game, TIME HOPPERS: SILK ROAD and has been doing commercial voiceover work for Shaw Communications since 2019.

Jayce is the owner and operator of Alpha Awakening and when she’s not playing pretend, she helps people heal and level up with meditation, hypnosis, and spiritual coaching. She loves all things magical and unexplainable so naturally, she is dying to jump into the weird world of Candy and The Beast!

Richard Lee Hsi

Robbie & Others

Richard is an Edmonton-based actor, dancer, and educator. In addition to a B.F.A. in Acting from the University of Alberta, he has independently trained in contemporary dance across North America and Europe. His last performance for Northern Light Theatre was in Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen. Some other favorite performance credits include: Small Mouth Sounds (Wild Side Productions); Minerva (Ghostwriter Theatre/Roxy Performance Series); Know The Rules, Win the Game (Cloudsway Dance Theatre/CanAsian Dance); Consent, Paper Song, Are We There Yet?, Under Cover(Concrete Theatre); Shocker’s Delight(Teatro La Quindicina); Peter and the Starcatcher, Alice Through the Looking Glass (Citadel Theatre); The Moon at Midnight (Amber Borotsik/Prairie Dance Circuit). He has taught movement for the acting programs at the University of Alberta’s B.F.A. Program, MacEwan University Theatre Arts, Opera Nuova, Theatre Alberta’s Artstrek, and the Citadel-Robbins Academy Young Company.

Lana Michelle Hughes

Sound Design

Lana is a queer actor, director, playwright, sound designer and producer based out of Edmonton. Selected acting credits include:  Winnie Gertske, Champion Off-Ice (SKAMpede), Loud & Queer Cabaret (Guys in Disguise), The Anxiety Project and The National Elevator Project (Theatre YES), Dead Centre of Town (Catch the Keys Productions), Birdie On The Wrong Bus and The Fairy Catcher’s Companion (Promise Productions), Love(her)/Fight(her) (Urban Curvz), The Laramie Project (Citadel Theatre), Going Down… and Target Audience (Running In Heels Productions), and No Wonder(land) (Nextfest). Selected directing credits include: 50 First Dates (Spins Like a Top Productions), Jack & The Beanstalk (Alberta Musical Theatre Company), The Remarkably True, Real Life Adventures of Callie Montgomery (Promise Productions/Skirts of Fire Festival),  Encounters (Citadel Theatre), Soiled Doves, Bust ‘Em Up Burlesque, The Hollywoodland Burlesques, A Bronte Burlesque, and Tudor Queens: A Burlesque (Send In The Girls Burlesque), and Two Seconds To Paradise (One Story Window Theatre). She also spends her days as the Associate Managing Director for Catalyst Theatre.

Beth Dart

Lighting Design & Assistant Director

Beth is an Edmonton based director, producer, lighting designer and theatre collaborator. Previous Northern Light Theatre credits include lighting design for THE CARDIAC SHADOW, DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME and SLUT. She is the co-artistic producer of award-winning indie theatre company Catch the Keys Productions, best known for DEAD CENTRE OF TOWN, an annual site-specific theatre experience inspired by the true crime and ghost stories of Edmonton’s past, and the recipient of an Award of Excellence in Interpretation from Interpretation Canada. She is the co-artistic producer of Common Ground Arts Society and Found Festival, Edmonton’s only multidisciplinary found space and site-specific arts festival.  Select lighting design credits include CONVERGENCE (Good Women Dance Collective, 2013-2018), DEAD CENTRE OF TOWN (Catch the Keys Productions, 2007-2014), OVER HER DEAD BODY (Small Matters Productions), and SNOUT (Catch the Keys Productions).  She has directed over 20 new works, including OCD, FUNCTIONAL, and GEMINI by Louise Casemore (Defiance Theatre), 900 SECONDS by Christine Lesiak (Small Matters Productions), JEZEBEL AT THE STILL POINT by Ainsley Hillyard (Bumblebear Productions), FOSSEGRIM & NØKK by Leif Ingebrigtsen and Megan Dart (Alberta Opera), and SNOUT (Catch the Keys/Azimuth) and URSA MAJOR (Catch the Keys/Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre) by Megan Dart. Next up, Beth will be co-creating an immersive musical, VAULT, with local playwright Megan Dart and local singer-songwriter Lindsey Walker.

Liz Allison-Jorde

Stage Manager

Chris Hicks

Production Manager

Christopher Hicks – But mostly known as Hicks since there is a saturation of Chris’s in the world – is a seasoned theatre and festival production creator. He has worked with magnitudes of major festivals in Edmonton and beyond, from dinosaur building and electronic music, to downhill canoe racing on snow. Graduating from the MacEwan Theatre Production program 10+ years ago, Hicks is still making art happen and enjoys it!

Like many still giving it out here, Chris has been successfully navigating the feast or famine, zero to sixty entertainment climate that has been the last 3 years. Avoiding burnout and learning all the intricacies of live streaming theatre, along with the reality of more multimedia shows in general, he has been quite proud of some of the recent achievements!

Hicks is stoked to be joining Northern Light Theatre for a return to full season action. This will be his 4th season in a row with NLT. He is once again pleased to be transforming the space into a powerful show you will be enjoying this time around.

However… Who wants to run away to the mountains with me?!

Ruth DyckFehderau

Salon Facilitator

Ruth DyckFehderau (pronounced Dyke-FAY-der-ow) writes fiction and nonfiction, and teaches Creative Writing and English Lit at University of Alberta. Her shorter pieces have appeared in literary journals and anthologies; her book The Sweet Bloods of Eeyou Istchee: Stories of Diabetes and the James Bay Cree (2017 CBHSSJB, distrib WLUP), written with James Bay Cree storytellers, is being translated into five languages; and I (Athena), a novel, is forthcoming in 2023 (NeWest). Currently, Ruth is working on another commission for the James Bay Cree: Finding Our Way Home: Residential School Recovery Stories of the James Bay Cree (Vol One forthcoming 2022, CBHSSJB, distrib WLUP). She has published and spoken in venues around the world and has won many literary awards.