ELISE DEWSBERRY

SAG / CANADIAN EQUITY / ACTRA
MEMBER OF ACADEMY REPERTORY COMPANY

ELISE DEWSBERRY

DRAMATURG/DIRECTOR/WRITER

DRAMATURGY/STORY EDITING:

•  Artistic Director, New Musicals Inc. (formerly Academy for New Musical Theatre) 2009 to present
  ongoing dramaturgy for member projects as part of the ANMT curriculum, as well as for producer-driven projects for producers across the country
• Associate Artistic Director, Academy for New Musical Theatre (ANMT) 2004 to 2009
  ongoing dramaturgy for member projects as part of the ANMT curriculum, as well as for producer-driven projects for producers across the country
• Dramaturg for the NMI/ANMT Seach for New Voices in American Musical Theatre – (annual)
• Co-Owner and Outlining & Book Lab Evaluator for WritingMusicalTheatre.com, an online curriculum in the craft of writing for musical theatre
• Founding Member of the Academy Repertory Company (ARC) at ANMT
• Dramaturg for world premiere of THE MAX FACTOR FACTOR by Adrian Bewley, Joseph Blodgett, and Chana Wise – summer 2015 – NoHo Arts Center
• Dramaturg for world premiere of A RING IN BROOKLYN by Eric Dodson and Alan Fleishman – summer 2013 – NoHo Arts Center
• Dramaturg for early development of HOME STREET HOME by Fat Mike, Soma Snakeoil, and Jeff Marx – 2011-2015
• Dramaturg for early development of LOVE BYTES by Roger Love and Ann McNamee – 2009-2014
• Dramaturg for world premiere of BACK TO THE DREAM at the Red Mountain Theatre Company in Birmingham, Alabama – Spring 2006
• Dramaturg for world premiere of the new musical IMELDA at East West Players – May 2005
• Free-lance Story Editor – 1990-1999
  on-going analysis and story editing for feature film scripts for various Canadian filmmakers including Myra Fried (HURT PENGUINS)
• Co-Director (with Virginia Reh) of the SCRIPT LAB – a writers’ and actors’ collective for developing new Canadian scripts – 1990 – 1999
  included teaching the Writers Intensive Workshop, facilitating play readings, and providing script analyses
• Dramaturgical Associate – Canadian Stage Company – New Play Development
  November 1992 – April 1994 (full time position) with Peter Hinton and Iris Turcott
• Resident Dramaturg – Smile Theatre Company for 1992-93 season
• Dramaturg for new musical FIREWEEDS.  Book, Music and Lyrics by Cathy Elliott
  staged reading as a benefit for Script Lab
• Assistant Co-ordinator of the Muskoka Festival Musical Theatre Writers’ Colony under Patrick Young (Summer 1991)

DIRECTING:

• Director of ANMT’s annual 15 MINUTE MUSICALS – 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2019
  – new 15 minute musicals, at the Colony Theatre/Lonny Chapman/Broadwater Second Stage
• Director of CURSES! and THANKSGIVING IN ITHACA at the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival
• Director of INVISIBLE – LONNY CHAPMAN/3-D THEATRICALS – STAGES FESTIVAL 2015 and Concert Reading – COLONY THEATRE 3-D THEATRICALS – JUNE 2016
  staged reading of a new musical by David Hollingsworth and David Orris
• Director of MAD BOMBER and BLOODLINE – STAGES FESTIVAL 2013
  staged readings of new musicals
• Director of CITY OF LIGHT – COLONY THEATRE 2013
  staged reading of a new musical by Gabrielle Wagner, Jan Roper, and Julie Weiner
• Director of MARIE MARIE – NOHO ARTS CENTYER 2012
  staged reading of a new musical by Chana Wise and Carl Johnson
• Director of THE RING – STAGES FESTIVAL 2011
  staged reading of a new musical by Eric Dodson and Alan Ross Fleishman
• Director of THE WATER – COLONY THEATRE 2009
  staged reading of a new musical by Georgia Stitt, Jeff Hylton, and Tim Werenko
• Director of THE GROUCH’S DAUGHTER – THOUSAND OAKS FESTIVAL 2007
  staged reading of a new musical by Mark Hollmann and Jack Helbig
• Director of LOOT at The Longbeach Playhouse – 2004
• Director/Dramaturg/Producer of the one-woman musical NINE MONTHS 1992-2008
  Book and Lyrics by Carl Ritchie and Music by Stephen Woodjetts
• Director/Dramaturg/Producer of the one-woman musical NINE MONTHS II 1996-1998
  Book and Lyrics by Carl Ritchie and Music by Stephen Woodjetts
• Director of NUNSENSE II and NUNSENSE III at Rainbow Theatre, Parry Sound – 1995, 1998
• Director of the World Premiere of STAINS by Danny Zanbilowicz – December 1994
  a BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES Seed Show – Toronto
• Director of EAST OF ELVIS by Rona Waddington – Red Barn Theatre – August, 1993
• Director of THE MIKADO – Georgetown Globe Productions – May, 1993
• Director of CHAPTER TWO by Neil Simon – Scarborough Players – January, 1993
• Director of NORA’S HOUSE by Cathy Elliott – World Premiere – Smile Theatre Co. – March, 1993
• Director of FIREWEEDS by Cathy Elliott – World Premiere at the Red Barn Theatre – July, 1992
• Assistant Director of THAT DIVINE CLARA by Robert More
  World Premiere – Smile Theatre Company (Tom Kneebone, A.D.)
• Director of THE PRINCESS AND THE HANDMAIDEN by Leslie Arden for Prologue to the Performing Arts
• Apprentice Artistic Director of the Muskoka Festival (under Michael Ayoub) (1991)
• Assistant Director of SEDUCED BY MOONLIGHT at the Muskoka Festival
• Director of I DO, I DO! for the Muskoka Festival Young Company 1991

WRITING:

• ANY BODY HOME? (with Carl Ritchie)
  a full-length farce – published by Dramatic Publishing, Inc.
  multiple productions worldwide
• CONNECTED (with Carl Ritchie)
  a one-act play on the hazards of inter-office voice mail commissioned by
  Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary for their Stage One Festival – 1998
• THE MUFFIN CLUB (with Carl Ritchie)
  a one-act play about the infamous woman-only pyramid scheme
  commissioned by Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary for their Stage One Festival
• MORTGAGE! (with David Warrack and Michael Lamport)
  a musical mid-life crisis based loosely on La Boheme
  a workshop was presented in May of 1999 in Toronto
• A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE (with David Fleishman)
  a feature film script on the true-life story of a Canadian hero
• SONATA D’AMORE (with arrangements by Charles Cozens)
  an eclectic concert piece for two actor/singers and chamber ensemble
  a fifteen-minute version was presented at Ontario Contact 1997

MISCELLANEOUS:

• • Ovation Voter – 8 seasons (and current season)
• • Founder of the SoCal New Musicals Network – 2010 to 2012
• • Member of the New Works Committee for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre – 2009
• • Member of the Selection Committee for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s annual Festival of New Musicals – 2005, 2006, 2008-2010
• • Member of Trial Audition Panel – Theatre Ontario Trial Auditions – November, 1992
• • Workshops in Directing – Drayton Festival Theatre, August 1992
• • Play Polishing – CALIFORNIA SUITE – Guelph Little Theatre – September, 1992
• • Member of Muskoka Festival’s Musical Theatre Writers’ Colony, 1988-1991
• • Member of Script Development Workshop, New York City, 1984-1989
• • Member of the Board of Directors of Theatre Ontario 1994-1998