U: PEOPLE

The Creative Team Behind U:

U: The Comedy of Global Warming boasts an impressive creative team comprised of some of Edmonton’s foremost theatre and media artists. Scroll down this page to find out more about each. They’re listed in alphabetical order by last name.

The Actors: Clinton Carew, Tim Hamaguchi, Garett Spelliscy, Cole Humeny, Melissa Thingelstad.
The Designers: Matt Skopyk, Guido Tondino, Tata Tuviera, Victoria Zimksi.
The Crew: Matt Latimer.
The Video Team: Mel Geary, Mike McLaughlin, aAron munson, John Osborne, POCO.
The Producers: Ian Leung, Melissa Thingelstad.
The Dramaturg: Kim McCaw.
The Writer-Director: Ian Leung.

The Bios and The Photos

Clinton Carew (Performer – AL)

Clinton Carew is an award winning artist who works in and across the fields of theatre, music and media arts. Combining his background as an actor, a writer’s ear, and a technician’s sense of innovation, Clinton’s work is marked by daring and wit with a sensitivity to emotional truth. This means he is as comfortable in front of the curtain as he is behind the scenes– sometimes at the same time.  More recent projects include director and editor of a video for The James Murdoch Band (nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award), principal actor in the feature film The Pharmacist, and his directing projects at the University of Alberta: Stone Cold Dead Serious by Adam Rapp, Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, Romeo Romiette by Trina Davies, and his thesis production, Sondheim’s Assassins.

Anna Davidson (Stage Manager)

This fall you can catch Anna backstage at The Drowsy Chaperone at the Citadel Theatre.  Later, she’ll be stage managing The Seed Savers for Workshop West.  Elsewhere she’s stage managed The Rubaboo Performance Gala for Workshop West, Palace of the End for Theatre Network, the wild, independent spectacular Wilkommen in Spreepark for Mischief and Mayhem, Le Cadeau d’Einstein, Fort Mac, and La Caravane for L’Uni Theatre, and The Coming of Kings for Theatre Prospero. Her apprenticeship credits include The Wizard of Oz, Julius Caesar, and The December Man at the Citadel and Carmen at the Edmonton Opera. Anna is a graduate of the Macewan Theatre Production Program and loves to play frisbee in the summer!

Mel Geary (Video Consultant)

Mel Geary is a member of the Edmonton Arts Council, the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta, I.A.T.S.E. Local 210 and an ancient graduate of the Grant MacEwan Theatre Production Program. The early analogue days included stints at Theatre Network, The Citadel Theatre, Chinook Theatre and The Fringe Festival. Since 1987 Mel has embraced the ever changing digital technologies in lighting, video and interactive media with the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta. Promoting visualization technologies to Student and Faculty Designers is the focus of his work, showcased at this year’s Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology Conference. Mel enjoys the eclectic nature of freelance work including lighting design for TV The Carol Project, teaching Computer Graphics for Theatre Design or creating whimsical video epics like Mel’s Bald Head.

Tim Hamaguchi (Performer – TIVO)

Tim is a graduate of the U of A BFA class of 2000 and is proud to be making his professional theatrical debut in U: The Comedy of Global Warming. Happy to be back in his hometown after 7 years in Toronto, Tim currently finds himself alternating between pursuing his passion for writing, commuting to Vancouver to voice cartoons and chasing short people around his house. Right now he has a film script, Journeyman, in development with Corus Entertainment, is the co-lead in the upcoming animation series Zeke’s Pad for YTV, and the lead in the newly developed series Subterrainea for Nerd Corps Entertainment. Tim sends much love to his beautiful wife Yen and his two little lovelies, Skylar and Morgan and thanks them for their undying support whenever Daddy goes off to the world of make believe.

Cole Humeny (Video Player)

Cole is an Edmonton-based actor whose most recent theatre credits include Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen with Northern Light Theatre, Spiral Dive (episode two) with THEATrePUBLIC and Unity (1918) with Ala Players.  He was the co-creator and co-performer of ManDance which premiered at the Expanse Movement Arts Festival in 2009 then picked up by Nextfest that same year.  This coming winter ManDance will be re-worked and further developed, and will explore a female’s influence on masculinity, male roles in our society, and the new-age phenomenon of prolonged adolescence.  Cole is also a passionate horticulturist, a spare-time carpenter, and a lonely percussionist.  He is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting and Grant MacEwan’s Theatre Arts programs.

Ian Leung (Writer, Director & Producer)

Ian Leung is an Edmonton-based theatre artist.  He has a B.F.A. in acting and an M.F.A in directing, both from the University of Alberta.  Lately he appeared in Rhinoceros and Stone Cold Dead Serious, both directed by Clinton Carew, and in After the Fall, directed by Stefan Dzeparoski.  His most recent full length directing project was his thesis production of Jean Genet’s The Maids at the Studio Theatre in Edmonton in September 2007.  U: The Comedy of Global Warming is his first full-length play and the inaugural production of his new company theatre no. 6.

Ian is also the guy who writes the blog and the content for Albertaville.ca.

Kim McCaw (Dramaturg)

A professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta, Kim McCaw has over thirty years of experience in the field of Canadian new play development and Production. He has previously been Artistic Director of Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange and Program Director of the Banff Playwrights’ Colony, both leaders in developing new work for the theatre.  Currently he is also the Director of the Canadian Centre for Theatre Creation.

Mike McLaughlin (Cameraman)

Mike McLaughlin majored in Film Production at the Vancouver Film School. After completing his diploma he moved to Edmonton to begin his filmmaking career. Sleepless was nominated for the 2007 Alberta Centennial Award for Best Alberta Short.

aAron munson (Video Editor)

Edmonton filmmaker aAron munson has created twenty short experimental films over the last five years. Using Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm, his work explores the fine qualities of working with film while incorporating the use of other visual mediums. Employing a variety of different filmmaking techniques such as pixillation, timelapse, and stop-motion, aAron explores his own interpretation of the world around and within himself, and reveals the many layers of a universe yet unseen. With an emphasis placed on texture and tone, he relies on imagery and sound to communicate the meaning behind his films. His works have been screened at many film festivals and multi-disciplinary events. munson also collaborates with numerous audio artists both locally and internationally.

John Osborne (Animation)

John Osborne has been involved in both art and science throughout his life. After graduating in engineering from the University of Toronto in the late 60’s, he began experimenting with abstract images on film. He later worked for two years in a computer animation studio in London, England as the principle operator of a novel hybrid analogue computer making some of the first computer animated television commercials in the early 1970’s. On returning to Canada, he began a 30-year career with a large multinational company working on Ontario, Alberta and Michigan in areas of information technology and environmental research.

In early 2000, he returned to the computer as a creative tool and began writing Java programs and experimenting with evolutionary algorithms to generate patterns and abstract images. To compliment this activity and rekindle his interest in animation, he began working with After Effects to make more narrative based animated films accompanied by his own audio compositions or those of other musicians.

John is a member of the Edmonton Film and Video Arts Society (FAVA) and is currently on the Programming Committee. His films have been shown in festivals in North America and Europe.

POCO (Motion Graphics Design)

POCO is an Edmonton based artist and commercial graphic, and motion graphic designer. With an MA in Media Production from Griffith Film School in Brisbane, a Certificate of European Media Studies from the Universite de Bourgogne in Dijon, and an Undergrad in Film Studies and Art and Design from the University of Alberta, POCO has mad chops in Media and Digital Arts.

Matthew Skopyk (Sound Designer & Composer)

Matthew Skopyk is an Edmonton based Sound Designer and Composer. Recent Design/Composition credits include: Richard III (Free Will Players), Spreepark the Musical (Mischief and Mayhem) and Something Red (Vault). A past graduate of the U of A Technical Threatre Production program (B.F.A Graduate 2006 With Distinction), Matthew excels at software/hardware manipulation, allowing for new realms of possibility in the theatre through manipulation of data. New works include: wireless performer-worn sensors; allowing for performer control over technical aspects of a production, a glove-based three-dimensional-panner for Sound Designers and a MIDI Cello. Matthew has worked as a FOH mixer for companies such as Free Will Players and the Catalyst Theatre. Matthew currently resides as the Head of Audio for the Drama Department at the University of Alberta.

Garett Spelliscy (Performer – ACTOR)

Garett Spelliscy is a dynamic emerging theatre artist based in Edmonton. A graduate of the University of Albertaʼs prestigious BFA Acting program, Garett is an actor and director with a passion for new play development. He has been seen recently in Assassins (Studio Theatre) and Smokescreen (Concrete Theatre) as well as performing with the Edmonton-based avant garde newbies, the Serial Collective, in The Lavender Lady, a production that he also directed. Other Edmonton credits include Twelfth Night, While Weʼre Young, and What the Butler Saw. In addition to appearing in Ian Leungʼs U: The Comedy of Global Warming, he will be directing the world premiere production of Jason Chinnʼs Ladies Who Lynch this spring at Azimuth Theatreʼs Livingroom Playhouse.

Melissa Thingelstad (Video Player & Associate Producer)

Originally from Saskatchewan, Melissa received her B.F.A. in acting from the University of Alberta and is an Edmonton-based theatre artist and an artistic associate of indie5.  Most recently, she was a part of The Expanse Movement Festival as collaborator and performer of a new theatre movement piece, Lenguaje Corporal, directed by Ian Leung.  In 2008 she received a Sterling Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Fringe production for her performance in Kawaisoo: The Pity of Things.  Melissa produced, wrote and performed Caught! for the indie5 2007/08 season.  In 2007, she performed in the European premiere of Quality in London, England.  In July of that year, she appeared in the site-specific Edmonton premiere of the same play at Gravity Pope, although here it was called  Shoe!.  This coming January, she will be co-producing and performing in the titular role of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, directed and co-produced by Kathleen Weiss.