Meet The Cast – East
Our team of diverse and talented artists and actors spans every part of Canada. Check out their biographies below.
Nathalie Baroud
Montréal, QC
(French & English)
After studying Theatre and Communications at Ottawa University, Nathalie traveled to Europe to further her studies with Philippe Gaulier, Serge Poncelet, and the Roy Hart Institute. As an actor and puppeteer, she has since worked on various projects related to the performing arts and the media in Montreal and Ottawa, in both French and English. She was granted the Zonta Club of Ottawa Theatre Arts Award in 2003 and 2004 and was also featured in Les Faux Airs, a short musical film by Philippe Montpetit that won the People's Choice Award at Le Festival des courts-métrages de Sherbrooke in 2004. As a creator, Nathalie is interested in mixing styles and disciplines to develop original visual theatre. Apnée, her first piece, is a haunting and surreal multimedia solo about internalized fears and self-affirmation.
Louise Gauthier
Corner Brook, NL
(English & French)
I thank my lucky stars that I was born into a French family. Working as an actor in both official languages has sparked in me a keen interest in our country's history and I have been enjoying exploring story through acting now for 15 years. I had the chance to play and sing in a historical musical depiction of Acadian history called Pelagie, in both languages. Most recently I performed in Mom's the Word, in Thunder Bay (if you have small humans at home, you need to see this show). I am about to shift again to Grand Bend this summer with my young daughter in tow and then St. Jacob's this fall. Writing is also a new found love. My work with (playsthatwork) has been a great addition to my repertoire. The work we do is rewarding and the reception from the learners is very gratifying. Happy trails.
Joanne Miller
Halifax, NS
(English)
Joanne has been delighted to work with playsthatwork since 2005. As an actor, director and writer, Joanne has extensive experience in Canada's leading theatres including The Stratford Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Grand Theatre, The Globe Theatre, The Banff Centre, Neptune Theatre, Persephone Theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, Mulgrave Road Theatre as well as many others. She has produced and written radio drama and satirical commentary for CBC radio as well as numerous plays for the stage. Joanne is the voice of Olliver in the Gemini award winning animated series Olliver's Adventures on Teletoon. She is also the Program Coordinator for the Perform! In the Schools Program which brings professional performers to classrooms throughout Nova Scotia.
Mario Duguay
Gatineau, QC (Ottawa)
(French & English)
Mario remembers how, in his mid-teens, he imitated the radio announcers' delivery of a commercial spot. He later went on to study Broadcasting, both radio and television, and eventually worked professionally in these two media as he still does today. Now, Mario is a part-time radio announcer for the top French radio station in the greater Ottawa area. His favourite type of work is sitting in a recording studio, lending his reading voice to documentaries, corporate videos and such. As a simulator – an actor in simulation – he has been a park manager, an informer for the RCMP, a whining employee, and a very upset prisoner, among many others. Mario has a small collection of boomerangs that he keeps trying to throw away, but they always return…
Isabelle Payant
Montréal, QC
(French, English & Spanish)
Raised in a French home in Ottawa and then working in South America as a volunteer with street children, languages have always come quite easy to Isabelle. After her acting training at the Ste-Thérèse Theatre School in Quebec, she played with many companies such as the Theatre de L'Oeil (La félicité/Dear Fizzy), Théâtre Parminou (Snake Prince), Théâtre Denise-Pelletier (L'honnête fille – best supporting female role, 2000) and travelled much throughout Canada and the US … from Liverpool to Broadway! Her work includes voices for dubbing (The Descent, After the Sunset, Once upon a time in Mexico), TV, radio and not the least, puppetry. A puppeteer for the past seven years, she now has her own company, Le théâtre des petites âmes. Writing, designing her characters, building the sets, composing the music and performing the shows make her one young creator and business woman.
Brie Barker
Ottawa, ON
(English)
Brie has parlayed his eclectic background in business and theatre into his diverse work in corporate communications and leadership training. Brie's worked as a technology buyer for one of Canada's largest universities and a Sales & Marketing Director and Sales Representative in residential real estate. He is the Artistic Director of Sanitas Playback Theatre www.sanitasplayback.com and continues to work as an actor, too. As a writer, he has written for the Royal Ontario Museum and is currently working on a new, full-length play. Brie develops and delivers highly experiential communications and leadership training programs for companies throughout North America. In short, Brie is equally at home on the stage as he is in the boardroom.