Elvis Will Enter the Lab O Building Saturday, May 13th, 2023, at 6:30 pm
Elvis the escape artist nearly drowns. Dr. Hope Sze struggles to save his life. And … it’s a comedy?
Back row (L-R): Brandon Nguyen, Jon Dickey, Micah Jondel DeShazer (director), Richard Lee
Yes! My novel, Terminally Ill, has been transformed into a play. Come sample the opening as part of the TACTICS Development series on Saturday, May 13th at 6:30 pm (our play starts at 7).
Look at our wonderful cast!
Stefanie Hitgano (Dr. Hope Sze): Communications Assistant at the Queensway Carleton Hospital by day, playing detective doctor Hope Sze by night. Bachelor of Arts in theatre from the University of Ottawa and in her final year of Professional Writing at Algonquin College.
Richard Lee (Dr. John Tucker): winner of 3 Dora awards, two for performance, one for sound engineering, and co-founder of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre
Eponine Lee (Dr. Tori Kameron /Kameron): fresh from the Stratford Festival, where she played Juliet in R+J. She was a finalist for the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Breakout Artist Award in 2022. And she’s only in grade 10. Imagine what she’ll do in the next ten years!
Richard jokes, “You should call the play Terminal-LEE Ill.”
You may also have heard of Richard’s wife and Eponine’s mom, Nina Lee Aquino, the award-winning Filipino-Canadian director and dramaturg, the founding artistic director at fu-GEN, who is now the Artistic Director at the NAC.
Melissa Landry (Elvis): aerial acrobatics, stilt walking, fire manipulation, poi and fan dancing skills. For her role as Elvis, she’ll break out the aerials
Jon Dickey (Archer): a University of Ottawa’s Theatre Arts graduate known for his leading role in “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” and for making Shakespeare accessible in A Company of Fools
Brandon Nguyen (Ryan Wu): Brandon graduated from Carleton in 2016 with Bachelor of Music in Performance on classical flute before he obtained a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa. He also performs in musicals, including Avenue Q, Spring Awakening, and American Idiot
Micah Jondel DeShazer (Director): a performer, director, collaborator and the Co Artistic Producer at TACTICS, the Theatre Artists’ Co-operative: the Independent Collective Series. Recently he was the musical director of Memphis at Orpheus Musical Theatre
Melissa Yi/Yuan-Innes (playwright/producer/Lucia/Mrs. Bérubé): emergency physician turned playwright. Her play I Am The Most Unfeeling Doctor in the World (And Other True Tales from the Emergency Room) was selected for the Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work at Calgary’s Lunchbox Theatre.
This ain’t your traditional play. Micah Jondel DeShazer directs Saturday’s workshop presentation of the first half Terminally Ill, where Hope solves the near-murder of Elvis the Escape King, played by aerialist Melissa Landry.
That’s right, you can ooh and aah over the sight of Elvis “underwater” on aerial silks. You can bend your brain trying to solve the murder. You can even get up from your seat and follow characters around to try and score additional clues.
Check out the opening excerpt of Terminally Ill as part of TACTICS’ workshop series on May 13 at 1830 in Lab O!
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. What better way to celebrate than to preview Terminally Ill?
Stefanie and I are also bringing our moms for Mother’s Day. Come play with your mom!
Massive thanks to our sponsors!
