Tim Oberholzer

The Vanity Project takes a big step forward with all 4 principal roles having finally been cast. Introducing:

Tess McManus as Echo

Tess Mc Manus has spent the past two summers travelling and working on the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit as a performer, playwright, publicist, and stage manager. She has worked with a variety of established and independent theatre companies, performing on professional stages, such as the Gladstone and the National Arts Centre. She will be touring her critically acclaimed solo show Donkey Derby across Ireland this summer.

Nicholas Amott as Narcissus

A graduate of the University of Ottawa, specializing in theatre, Nicholas was born and raised in this merry old Land of O-Town.

Appearing hot on the heels of his turn as Katherine in Bear & Co’s The Taming Of The Shrew, he has also appeared this past summer as Charles in Bear’s parks tour of As You Like It, and as Grimaldi in ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore at the Ottawa Fringe Festival.

Other previous acting credits include Joey Piro in The Curse of the Pekinese Peregrine and Finn Studson in Murder in the 1st DeGlee (Eddie May Murder Mysteries), and Macbeth (Sock ’n’ Buskin’).

Nick is Artistic Director of FireFlood Theatre, and shall also be performing in its newest production at the upcoming Ottawa Fringe Festival – The Fight, a combat-heavy, post-apoc collaboration, alongside co-creator Brennan Richardson.

Holly Griffith as Nemesis

Holly is absolutely over the moon to be performing as Nemesis in The Vanity Project! Recent credits include; The Farm Show, directed by Andy Massingham (OTS), the role of Rosalind Franklin in False Assumptions, directed by Teri Loretto-Valentik (OTS), and the Priestess/Chorus in The Eumenides, directed by Jodi Essery (OTS). Holly would like to thank Tim from the bottom of her heart, and all the beautiful creative people in her life. In her spare time Holly is an avid writer and a Bugs Bunny enthusiast!

Tim Oberholzer as Katoptros

Tim Oberholzer is an Ottawa-based actor, production manager, theatre technician, and a founding member of the Ottawa-based theatre collective Bear & Co.

Selected credits include: The Taming Of The Shrew, As You Like It and ’Tis Pity She’s A Whore (Bear & Co.); Batboy: The Musical (Blacksheep Theatre); The Communication Cord, I Do Not Like Thee Dr. Fell, and A Flea In Her Ear (Seventhirty Productions); Miracle on 34th Street–The Radio Show, Cyrano De Bergerac, and The Shadow: A Christmas Mysteries Radio Show (Plosive Productions); The Radio Show: It’s A Wonderful Life (Gladstone Productions); Othello (Salamander Shakespeare Co.); The Curse Of The Pekinese Peregrine, Showbiz is Murder, and Murder in the First DeGlee (Eddie May Mysteries); Tongue and Groove and The Mechanicsville Monologues 2 (Chamber Theatre Hintonburg), and Olympus: The Musical (Counterpoint Players / Tarof Productions).

Tim will also appear in Bear & Co.’s Windfall Jelly at the Ottawa Fringe, in Bear & Co.’s summer parks tour of The Comedy of Errors in July/August and in Screaming Artists’ The Chronicler in August.

More news to come as final casting of the Fates comes together.

The Vanity Project at the Ottawa Fringe Festival
A Cautionary Tale For An Isolating Age from Tim Oberholzer
Arts Court Theatre
June 22 @ 12:30 (2 for 1)
June 23 @ 7:00
June 24 @ 6:30
June 26 @ 9:30
June 27 @ 11:00
June 28 @ 6:30

Advance tickets available online starting June 1st at ottawafringe.com

With two ongoing projects recently put to bed, a successful run of Absurd Person Singular at the Gladstone theatre with SevenThirty Productions, and a fantastic 13 month run of The Curse Of The Pekinese Peregrine with the lovely folks at Eddie May Mysteries, it seems I get a short respite before diving back in with the next project, Bear & Co.’s Taming Of The Shrew, running April 19th – May 5th at the Gladstone. Featuring an all-male cast consisting of Scott Florence, Nicholas Amott, Brie Barker, Chris Bedford, Guy Buller, Jim Murchison, Scott Humphrey and myself, it should make for some madcap fun in rehearsals and onstage. Tickets are already starting to sell, and I recommend getting your tickets sooner than later to avoid disappointment. Grab them while you can at http://www.thegladstone.ca.

In other news, after a last minute decision to throw our hat in the ring for the Ottawa Theatre Challenge, David Whiteley and I, representing the Gladstone Theatre managed to walk away with the coveted rubber chicken award this year for our production of Kutuu’s Last Bread Clip last night at the NAC 4th stage. A super cool surprise for us, and a great night out with 15 local companies taking part to celebrate world theatre day. It was a great night with lots of great performances, and I’m happy to report that theatre is alive and well here in Ottawa, with a ton of great companies doing some pretty fantastic work. Can’t wait to do it again next year.

Well, the 2012/13 theatre season at the Gladstone continues to chug along, and I’ve settled back into manning the box office after a couple of shows away ontstage. The theatre doors have just closed and opening night of Billy Bishop Goes To War is underway, and no doubt the dynamic duo of Chris Ralph and James Caswell are likely charming the pants off of tonight’s patrons.  I’m looking forward to seeing the show sometime in the next couple weeks, as well as getting out to see some interesting Undercurrents shows and Third Wall’s God of Carnage.

Outside of the box (office), I’m back at The Curse Of The Pekinese Peregrine starting again tomorrow night after a few months away (gulp), preparations are well underway for 3 upcoming Bear & Co. shows (Taming of The Shrew, Our Mystery Fringe Project (details soon), and this summer’s tour of The Comedy Of Errors).  Oh yeah, and I have to get around to  finishing my original Fringe show at some point (double gulp), and start production on a second mystery project (details soon) to potentially tour parks in late August.

And if I didn’t have enough to keep me lying awake at night,  I’m back again starting Monday as John P. Kelly’s right hand, production managing  Seventhirty Productions’ upcoming production of Absurd Person Singular, up next at the Gladstone.  Should be a funny one, written by Alan Ayckbourn with Stewart Matthews, Michelle Leblanc,  David Whiteley, Lori Jean Hodge, Tom Charlebois and Melanie Karin on stage, and a fantastic team of designers and crew lined up.  I hope you’ll come check it out.

The new year approaches and rehearsals for Blacksheep Theatre’s Batboy: The Musical are now underway. I’m super excited to be a part of this show, my first with Blacksheep Theatre, a groovy local company headed by theatre impressario Dave Dawson, with a history of producing Musicals, Shakespeare and Fringe Festival shows – all of which I’m partial to myself . This will be the 2nd remount for Batboy, which has been produced by Blacksheep both locally, and as a touring show for Fringe. When I heard that I’d missed the prior incarnation I was just a little bit heartbroken as I’d always wanted to see/be involved in a production of Batboy, and as luck would have it, it seems I finally get the chance.

Also, this particular production marks the return to O-town of Kris Joseph, appearing as Dr. Parker. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Kris’ work, he was/(is) a fantastically talented Ottawa actor who recently moved on to greener pastures out West, and of whose work I was I big fan. So it’s also pretty cool to get a chance, which I thought I’d no longer have, to work with him. The rest of the cast is fantastic as well, of course, and I can’t wait to finally see Zach Counsil’s Batboy in action.

The show opens on January 16 and it’s going to be a hot one, get your tickets now. And in the meantime, be sure to check out the great shows coming up as part of Blacksheep’s Black Box Festival. Vernus Says Surprise by Ken Godmere, running Dec 27-30, Paul Hutcheson’s New Years Eve on Dec 31 and Jayson McDonald’s Underbelly playing Jan 2-5. Tickets available at thegladstone.ca.

With December creeping up, and the temperature dropping, everywhere you look people’s thoughts are turning to the holiday season. And I too, as I hustle to track down a copy of the holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street, in anticipation of another year of participating in what’s become a Christmas tradition at the Gladstone Theatre.

This will be the 3rd year I’ve been fortunate enough to perform in the Gladstone’s Radio Show, which this year is produced by Plosive Productions and directed by Nicole Milne. The cast will be a combination of some old and some new faces to the Gladstone and I can’t wait to get started working with them all. While the format remains largely similar, with a few interesting changes, this year CGLD Radio will present the holiday classic, Miracle on 34th Street in a fun evening of warm, fuzzy holiday nostalgia. Complimented as always, by the smooth sounds of the Gladstone Sisters.

Also, speaking of Christmas traditions, be sure to check out Eddie May Mysteries newest holiday show, A Slay Ride Together, directed by Zach Counsil, running tonight (Break legs folks!) until New Years Eve at Scarlett’s Dinner Theatre, located above Fat Tuesday’s in The Byward Market. Check their website, http://www.eddiemay.com, for the schedule. I was lucky enough to catch an invited dress rehearsal last night and I hope you get a chance this season to check it out too. A fantastic cast and crew, and a brand spankin’ new script by the Crime Minister himself, Noel Counsil, will make for a fun night out on the town.

Well only 2 more shows remain for me as shady character Artie Klepper in the latest installment from Eddie May Mysteries, The Curse Of The Pekinese Peregrine directed by Zach Counsil and which has been running pretty much all year at Scarlett’s Dinner Theatre (otherwise known as The Velvet Room) in Ottawa’s Byward Market district. The show then goes on hiatus for the Christmas season come the middle of November, when a new holiday themed show will be introduced and run until New Years Eve.

Looking back over the past year, as I wrap up my contribution to the show in 2012 with back to back performances tomorrow and Saturday, I couldn’t be happier to have been involved with what’s turned out to be one of the company’s longest running and best received productions, thanks to some inspired design by costume designer Jody Hauke and set designer David Magladry, some great direction by Zach Counsil and some sharp script updates by Noel Counsil. Given a long run and a rotating cast, it’s been a great opportunity to work with a number of fantastic local performers in a nearly infinite number of permutations, and I’ll miss being a part of it. But given it’s popularity, word on the street has it that it may turn up again on the schedule again before long.

If you get a chance to check it out, I highly recommend you make it down to Scarlett’s over the holidays and take in some great dinner theatre, as Eddie May Mysteries opens its’ new Holiday show in mid-November. Details will soon be available at eddiemay.com.