 Peter Jorgensen is an actor/ director/ choreographer/ writer and musical theatre aficionado based in Vancouver.
Recent directing/ choreography credits include Die Fledermaus and Offenbach's Orpheus: Gone to Hell! for the North Shore Light Opera Society, Nunsense Jamboree and Bye, Bye Birdie (Ovation Award: Outstanding Direction of a Musical and CTC Award: Best Choreographer) for Footlight Theatre, The Baker’s Wife for Applause! Musicals in Concert (attended by the composer Stephen Schwartz), You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown for Blockhead Productions (Ovation Nominations for Direction and Production), as well as musical staging for Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill for the Tin Can Collective.
As an actor Peter has appeared locally in the Arts Club Theatre Company productions of Dirty Blonde, Dial M…for Murder, Dames at Sea, Forever Plaid, and She Loves Me (Jessie Nomination: Outstanding Performance). At the Gateway Theatre he has appeared in Lend Me a Tenor, Dads: the Musical, and Forever Plaid (Jessie Award: Outstanding Ensemble Performance). He has also appeared at Bard on the Beach in Cymbeline, at the Vancouver Playhouse in No Great Mischief, and with Carousel Theatre he starred as George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life (Jessie Nomination: Outstanding Performance). With Royal City Musical Theatre he starred as Harold Hill in The Music Man and as Julian Marsh in 42nd Streeti and with Theatre Under the Stars as Josh Baskin in big: the musical. An alumnus of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, Peter spent two years after graduating performing in various off-Broadway productions such as That’s Life, Magic to Do: the Songs of Stephen Schwartz, the world premiere of Number the Stars, and the title role in Young Moses.
As a writer he collaborated on the book and lyrics for the new musical Abracadabra, wrote and produced his own one-man cabaret To Broadway and Back (Jessie Nomination: Outstanding Original Script), wrote a new adaptation (book and lyrics) of Orphee Aux Enfers entitled Offenbach's Orpheus: Gone to Hell!, and has composed several original songs for various theatrical productions.
Off-stage Peter is a private voice instructor, the founder and program director of the Arts Club Musical Theatre Intensive, and is a proud member of Theatre Cares Vancouver. www.peterjorgensen.com |
 Katey Wright has been a co-founder of two successful theatre companies, Solo Collective and Bard on the Beach, both in Vancouver. For other theatre companies, Katey has worked as a publicist and administrator, and she has directed, written, and participated in collective creations.
A professional performer for over 20 years, Katey's career has taken her across the country and back. Standout performances include the roles of Viola in Twelfth Night (Bard on the Beach), Claire in Proof (Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg / Citadel Theatre, Edmonton), Constance in She Stoops to Conquer (Grand Theatre, London / Playhouse Theatre Co.), and Lea in Strawberries in January (Touchstone Theatre). From the musical theatre canon, Katey has starred in a range of shows, appearing as Lucy Brown in The Three Penny Opera (Belfry Theatre, Victoria / Arts Club Theatre), Janet in The Rocky Horror Show (Kaleidoscope Theatre, Victoria), Mary Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (Chemainus Theatre, Chemainus), Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors (Arts Club Theatre), Amalia in She Loves Me! (Arts Club Theatre - Stanley stage), and most recently in the title role in Little Mercy's First Murder (Touchstone Theatre). Katey has extensive film and TV credits, including recent appearances in The 4400, The Collector, The Dead Zone, Da Vinci's City Hall, and Psych!. A busy voice-over performer, Katey has hundreds of radio commercials to her credit, has voiced animation and video games, and reads fiction on the CBC in series like Between the Covers and The Breakfast Serial.
Katey is very much involved in volunteer work in Vancouver's theatre community. She spent 12 years as an elected regional rep and national councillor for Canadian Actors' Equity Association, is currently President of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards Society (having served an additional 6 years on the Jessies' board as chair of the Jessies Review Committee), and has been a member of Theatre Cares Vancouver since 2001. www.kateywright.com |
Chris Allan was born and educated in Vancouver and his ambition from the age of six was to work in the theatre. At the time he was growing up there were no drama schools or established university departments so in 1960 he dropped out of UBC, left Vancouver and went to London, England to work in the theatre and learn about the profession first hand.
His first jobs were backstage in various West End theatres, starting as a Dresser at the Victoria Palace and then moving to the Savoy Theatre where he became the lighting board operator for several large scale productions including two musicals directed by Noel Coward, two D’Oyly Carte Opera seasons and a number of comedies, thrillers, musical and dance revues.
Chris had originally wanted to be a writer/composer and had written two musicals (one produced by amateurs in Vancouver). In order to make a living he decided to try to get work as an actor/singer and auditioned for a tour of a revival of the American musical The Belle of New York. He was hired and toured throughout Britain in 1965. He then joined The Black and White Minstrel Show (at that time the longest running musical in British theatrical history) and this was followed by work as an actor in two plays produced in Caux, Switzerland as part of the Montreaux Festival of the Arts (1966). One of these plays was filmed in the Swiss Alps.
While he was filming he was asked to write some music for a play entitled Sum which was later produced in London at the Westminster Theatre. He followed this with appearances in the chorus of several musical shows at the London Palladium, plus musical revues in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, etc.
Chris continued to write and completed a musical drama set in the 1930s in BC, about the struggle of a Doukhobor girl to leave the limiting world of her family and its rigid belief system and enter the outside world as a school teacher. One of his colleagues at the Palladium sent a copy of the tape of the music to a contact at Warner Brothers pictures. Chris was unaware of this and when he received a phone call from the Warners music department he thought it was a joke. However, they were extremely interested in producing the show on stage in London as a “tryout” for a possible film. There were several meetings and discussions – the Israeli actor Topol who was at that time starring in the West end production of Fiddler On The Roof (and who repeated the role in the film version) – was being considered for the role of the father.
Unfortunately, before the project got going, there was an enormous shake up in personnel at Warner Brothers and the people he had been dealing with lost their jobs. The musical was never produced.
Chris continued to make his living performing, and other singing work included two series of Stars on Sunday for Yorkshire Television, two Royal Command Performances at the London Palladium, the American Bi-Centennial Celebrations at Drury Lane, two shows in Canada at the (then) O’Keefe Centre in Toronto and the just-completed National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and roles in Cabaret (Liverpool Playhouse) and Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Salisbury Playhouse, Glasgow Opera).
In the 1970s Chris gradually eased out of performing and into stage management, and by 1980 he had become a full time stage manager. London shows Chris worked on include Amadeus and The Crucible (Royal National Theatre) and the West End productions of Chicago, A Little Night Music, Irene, Beyond the Rainbow, Male of the Species and Cats.
Directors Chris has worked with include Laurence Olivier, Trevor Nunn, Peter Hall, Noel Coward and Harold Prince.
Chris returned to Vancouver in 1986 and has continued stage management work – for the Vancouver Opera, the Playhouse Theatre Company, Carousel Theatre and the Arts Club. The only acting work he has done here was on CBC radio when he played Andy Warhol in an hour-long drama about the artist directed by John Juliani.
Chris continues to write and is currently completing a play about an extended family surviving the Twentieth Century (from New Year’s Eves 1899 to 1999) in a clapboard house in Vancouver’s East End. |