THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA?

Playwright: The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?

Edward Franklin Albee was born Edward Harvey on March 12, 1928, in Washington, D.C. His mother, Louise Harvey, having been abandoned by the child's father, put him up for adoption two weeks later. Young Edward acquired his new name from his wealthy adoptive parents, Reed A. Albee, heir to a vaudeville theatre-chain fortune, and his socialite wife, Frances. Growing up with them in Larchmont, New York, young Edward had a troubled relationship with his domineering new mother; later in life, he described his Pulitzer Prize-winning Three Tall Women, a play largely inspired by her, as an act of personal exorcism.

After briefly attending Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, Albee moved in his early twenties to Greenwich Village in New York City, where he spent the next ten years subsisting on interest from a trust fund and occasional work as a Western Union telegram boy, while honing his craft as a writer. In September 1959, a German-language version of his one-act play The Zoo Story was produced in Berlin; the play's US première the following January, at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village, established its author as an important new American dramatist.

Albee's first full-length play (and greatest commercial success), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, premiered in 1962. It won the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play (along with acting and directing awards), and a celebrated film version was released in 1966.

Three Tall Women, which premièred in Vienna in 1991 before opening off-Broadway in 1994, was the third of Albee's plays to earn him a Pulitzer Prize: he had previously won Pulitzers for A Delicate Balance (1966) and Seascape (1975). His other plays include The Sandbox (1960); The American Dream (1961); Tiny Alice (1964); Lolita (1981), adapted from Vladimir Nabokov's novel; The Play About the Baby (1998), which earned a Pulitzer nomination; the Pulitzer-nominated and Tony Award-winning The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (2002); and Me, Myself, and I (2008). In 2005, he published a collection of his essays entitled Stretching My Mind.

A 1996 Kennedy Center Honoree and recipient of the National Medal of the Arts, Albee also received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005. He died at his home in Montauk, New York, on September 16, 2016.

(he/him)

2024: Director of The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? 11th season. Dean Gabourie has been creating provocative theatre in Canada and abroad for over thirty years.  Gabourie is an artist, scholar, educator, and founding artistic director of the award-winning ACME Theatre Co. Stratford: Assistant/Associate Artistic Director 2008-2012. Director of Bereav'd of Light, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Best Brothers, The Thrill. Dean has acted as an assistant director to Richard Monette, Des McAnuff and Antoni Cimolino. Awards: Tyrone Guthrie award; Jean Gascon Directors award; and Artistic Director Richard Monette personally nominated Gabourie's body of work for the John Hirsch Directors award. Training: Gabourie holds a master's degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Guelph and is an alumnus of the Theatre School, Toronto Metropolitan University. Et cetera: For Marcelle. www.acmetheatreco.com.

2024: Set and costume designer of The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? Sixth season. Stratford: The Bakkhai, The Winter's Tale, The Glass Menagerie, Ned and Jack, Footfalls, Not I, Medea, Stargazing, Come and Go, From an Abandoned Work. Elsewhere: Set and costume design: The Lehman Trilogy (Belfry Theatre); Betty's Song (Charlottetown Festival); Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Class (Belfry Theatre); Between Breaths (Artistic Fraud); Sea Sick (Theatre Centre); float (co-creator with Jillian Keiley) (Choral Canada/ St. John's NFLD). Set Design: Come From Away (Gander, NL); Grand Ghosts (Grand Theatre); I'm Every Woman (Charlottetown Festival); Colony of Unrequited Dreams (Artistic Fraud). Costume Design: The Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin (Signal Theatre/Soundstreams); If Truth Be Told (Blyth Festival); All's Well That Ends Well (Canadian Stage Dream in High Park). Other: Associate Professor, Department of Theatre, York University.

(she/they)

2024: Lighting designer of Hedda Gabler and The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? 11th season. Stratford: Little Women, Cabaret Series 2021, Othello, The Comedy of Errors. Elsewhere: Love You Wrong Time (Bad Muse Collective); After the Fire (Punctuate, The Theatre Centre); Kinky Boots, The Prom, Ghost, Honk! (Drayton Entertainment); Salt-Water Moon (Mirvish, Factory, Why Not); Wildfire (RARE, Soulpepper); The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely, The Breath in Between (Crow's); Superior Donuts (Coal Mine); Laurier (Charlottetown Festival, TNB); Beaver (Storefront); Noises Off (Soulpepper); A Line in the Sand, The Crackwalker (Factory Theatre); Hana Hashimoto (Carousel Players). Kaileigh is the founding General Manager of the annual winter light festival, Lights On Stratford. They are an instructor at the National Theatre School of Canada, and the School of Performance in the Faculty of Communication and Design at Toronto Metropolitan University and a member of ADC IATSE Local 659.

(he/him)

2024: Sound designer of The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? and assistant sound designer of Something Rotten!, La Cage aux Folles. Third season. Stratford: Richard II (associate sound designer); DWP 2022 (sound designer); Frankenstein Revived, Rent, King Lear, Les Belles-Soeurs, Chicago, Hamlet and Death and the King's Horseman (assistant sound designer). Elsewhere: Sound designer for Jack! A Beanstalk Panto (Capitol Theatre); A Huron County Christmas Carol, John Ware Reimagined (Blyth Festival); associate sound designer for Orphée+ (Edmonton Opera); composer for BODY, Alone Together, Four, What Happened To Lee (Human Body Expression); Lasterday (Kaeja d'Dance); A Sonata Of Shadows (CCDT); orchestra for 42nd Street, Singin' In The Rain, Piaf/Dietrich, Ain't Too Proud (Mirvish); percussionist with TorQ Percussion Quartet and Ladom Ensemble. Recording: Debut album, Guess I'm a People Too (2019) available on all platforms. Et cetera: Grateful to be working alongside such incredible artists to bring this season to life!

2024: Fight and intimacy director of the 2024 season. Seventh season. Stratford: Fight director of The Rez Sisters and intimacy director of Serving Elizabeth (2021); Fight director for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Selected Fight/Intimacy Director Credits: 3 Sisters (Soulpepper); Bad Roads (Crow's); WildWoman (Soulpepper); Hamlet (The Rose); Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (TIP); Fall on Your Knees (Canadian Stage/Neptune/NAC); Maggie (Theatre Aquarius); Counter Offence (Segal Centre); Fairview (Canadian Stage); Prodigal (Crow's); Trojan Girls & The Outhouse of Atreus (Factory); Our Place (Cahoots/TPM); Kronborg (Confederation Centre). Other: Stage combat instructor, fight director, and sexual choreographer at the National Theatre School. Selected Stunt Performer/Stunt Actor Credits: Law and Order: Toronto, SEE, Star Trek: Discovery, Pretty Hard Cases, Titans, The Boys, Rabbit Hole, What We Do in the Shadows, various Ubisoft motion capture productions. Online: anitanittoly.com.

2024: Production stage manager of the Studio Theatre and stage manager of The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? 28th season. Stratford: Casey and Diana, All's Well That Ends Well, Little Shop of Horrors, The Rocky Horror Show, The Tempest starring Christopher Plummer, The Duchess of Malfi, The Swanne Trilogy.  Elsewhere: Casey and Diana (Soulpepper), Angels in America (That Theatre Co./Buddies), Fall On Your Knees (Canadian Stage, Neptune, NAC, Grand); Heisenberg, Liv Stein (Canadian Stage); Constellations (Centaur/Canadian Stage); Body Politic (Buddies); The Death of the King (Modern Times); The Winter's Tale (Groundling); Bombay Black (Factory); Manon, Sandra and the Virgin Mary (Pleiades); Saint Carmen of the Main (NAC/Canadian Stage); Romeo and Juliet (NAC); Mother Courage and Her Children (NAC/MTC); Real Live Girl (MTC); Fully Committed, Silence, Einstein's Gift (Grand); Wit (Centaur); Hamlet (Neptune).

(he/him)

2024: Assistant stage manager of The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? Fifth season. Stratford: Casey and Diana, Death and the King's Horseman, All's Well That Ends Well, Little Shop of Horrors. Elsewhere: Prodigal, The Home Project, Casimir and Caroline, The Wolves, Lemons..., 52 Pick Up, The Glass Menagerie (The Howland Company); Detroit: Music of the Motor City, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Picture This, Parfumerie, Riverboat (Soulpepper); Jerusalem, Mr. Burns (Outside the March); Disgraced (Mirvish/Citadel/Hope & Hell); La Bête, The Other Place, The Judas Kiss, Into the Woods, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Talk Is Free); Angels in America (That Theatre Company/Buddies). Sam has also worked for University of Toronto, TIFF, Hot Docs and serves as a stage management mentor at Toronto Metropolitan University. Et cetera: Sam would like to thank Nic, his family and friends for their love and support.  

(she/her)

2024: Apprentice stage manager for The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? Second season. Stratford: 2023 Studio Theatre production assistant. Elsewhere: As apprentice stage manager, Angels in America (That Theatre Company/Buddies in Bad Times); Post Democracy (Tarragon Theatre). As director, Genieology (Alumnae Theatre New Ideas Festival); Death by Horoscope (SATCo). As stage manager, Othello (Phoenix Theatre). As assistant stage manager, TEASE (Big City Kitties/Crow's Theatre); Happy Days, Master Builder, Barefoot in the Park and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre); The Drowsy Chaperone (Phoenix Theatre). Training: University of Victoria's Phoenix Theatre (2020 grad). Et cetera: Thank you to all my loved ones across the country for your encouragement and support!

(she/they)

2024: Production assistant of the Studio Theatre. Stratford debut. Elsewhere: Billy Bishop Goes to War, Samqwan, Mimikej, As You Like It, The Beloved, Sweet Enough, Punch Up!, Into the Woods, The Best Brothers (Highland Arts Theatre); Elf, Matilda (Savoy Theatre); The Bells of Baddeck (Parks Canada). Training: Cape Breton University. Et cetera: I am beyond excited to be joining the Stratford team! Thank you to my family for your unconditional love and support, and to the Cape Breton arts community for helping me get to where I am today.