It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
Cast & Creative Team
CAITLYN MACINNIS as Sally Applewhite
From the small town of Fort Erie to the big city of Toronto, Caitlyn is overjoyed to spend their holiday season making their YPT debut! Caitlyn is a proud non-binary, biracial and queer individual. They are a recent graduate of Sheridan College’s Bachelor in Music Theatre Performance program. As a trained triple threat performer, they are excited to continue blazing their path as an emerging artist in the professional industry. Their multidisciplinary training includes dance, choreography, acting, voice and vocal music. Caitlyn would like to give a special thanks to their mom Terri, their partner James, and their friends and family for the unwavering support. Caitlyn’s selected theatre credits include: Gypsy: A Musical Fable, The Amen Corner (Shaw Festival, 2023); White Christmas, Damn Yankees, Chitra (Shaw Festival, 2022); Concord Floral, Tiny Tenements of Terror (Theatre Sheridan, 2022); Who Are You?, We Knew Each Other Once Before (Theatre Sheridan, 2021); Dario Et La Diablesse: A Caribbean Musical (No Strings Theatre, 2021); Oh Canada Eh! (Oh Canada Eh! Productions, 2018). Film & TV credits include: Something Bubbled, Something Blue (Talk Is Free, 2020); Warner Road (Instillment Productions, 2018).
AMY MATYSIO as Lana Sherwood
Amy is thrilled to be back at YPT, having last appeared as the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz (Dora Award recipient). Favourite credits include Bad Blood (Curtain Razors); The Importance of Being Earnest, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Stuff Happens (National Arts Centre Ensemble); Cinderella, The Syringa Tree, Midsummer {a play with songs}, Oh George!, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, Dogbarked (Globe Theatre); Bedroom Farce (Soulpepper); Venus in Fur (Golden Apple Theatre); Pith! (The Theatre Department); Rabbit Hole (Persephone); Mo and Jess Kill Susie (Northern Light); Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare on the SK); and The Road to Paradise (Assistant Director, Human Cargo/Crow’s Theatre). Amy has proudly worked as a theatre artist, an actor/creator in Film/TV, and as a voice performer for over two decades. This production has warmly brought her back to her vocal roots, having performed for years in radio performance/drama in the famed CBC SK studio under writer/director Kelley Jo Burke. Amy is a three-time Canadian Screen Award nominee, a recent TO WebFest winner and a multiple Canadian Comedy Award nominee. In 2020, she was honoured by the University of Regina with the Distinguished Alumni Award (Faculty of Media, Art and Performance). She dedicates this play to her 5-year-old son, Jagger, who inspires her to play every day.
SHAQUILLE POTTINGER as Jake Laurents
Shaquille is a graduate of the University of Toronto, Sheridan College, and the Soulpepper Academy. He hails from the various plots of suburbia North America has to offer, but distinctly caught the acting bug in Barrie, Ontario. Shaquille is excited to return to YPT, after appearing in the multiple Dora Award-winning production The Darkest Dark. When he isn’t acting, Shaquille also enjoys writing for stage and screen. And when he isn’t writing, he’s probably catching Pokémon. Selected credits include: Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God, Negro, Drowning, King Lear (Soulpepper); Ragtime: A Concert Performance (Theatre Calgary/Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra); The Lost Heroes of Oro (Theatre by the Bay); and There is No Word for Wilderness (Animacy Theatre Collective).
ANAND RAJARAM as Freddie Filmore
Anand is an improviser, actor, playwright, director, musician, teacher and puppeteer. Recently, he was in A Poem For Rabia (Tarragon); Mahabharata (Shaw Festival); Uncle Vanya (Crow’s Theatre); Buffoon by Anosh Irani and Mustard by Kat Sandler (Tarragon Theatre – receiving Dora Awards for both productions); adapted/performed in Rohinton Mistry’s The Scream (SummerWorks – Best Production); and has performed at Second City, Stratford, VideoCabaret and others. He is an accomplished film and TV performer, as well as a voiceover artist for video games and cartoons. He recently directed As You Like It for Canadian Stage’s Dream in High Park, Low Pay Don’t Pay at George Brown Theatre School, and three audiobooks with Penguin Audio (Swimming in the Monsoons and Mansions on the Moon by Shyam Selvadurai, and Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality by Lindsay Wong), and narrated novels, including Kill The Mall by Pasha Malla and Tell It to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami. He is Artistic Director of @N@f@N@ and creates digital content with Cardboard Dreams. Social media: HRH Anand Rajaram.
CLIFF SAUNDERS as Harry “Jazzbo” Heywood
Cliff has been part of 16 YPT productions, including: A Servant of Two Masters, Pinocchio, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Danny King of the Basement and Jacob Two Two’s First Spy Case. Other theatre credits includes: Dock Spider (Magnus); The Cold War Part 1 (VideoCab); The Cherry Orchard, A Short History of Night (Crow’s); Hamlet, The Real World?, Possible Maps (Tarragon); The Heir Apparent (Chicago Shakespeare); Les Miserables, The 39 Steps (Broadway); Kiss Me Kate, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Bartholomew Fair (Stratford); Picture This, The Royal Comedians, A Flea in Her Ear (Soulpepper); The Lord of the Rings, Beauty and the Beast, The Drowsy Chaperone, Biloxi Blues, The Foreigner (Mirvish); Spamalot (Citadel); Habeas Corpus, Pelagie (Canadian Stage); Wind in the WIllows, The Crackwalker (Grand). Cliff’s Film/TV credits include: a recurring role in the critically acclaimed series From (MGM Studios); Hudson and Rex, Transplant, Nurses, Shazam!, Open Range, Chicago, Spider, Outlander, Roxy Hunter, In the Dark, The Umbrella Academy, Private Eyes, Titans, Murdoch Mysteries, Northern Rescue, The Detail, Frankie Drake, American Gods, Louis Cyr, Monk, Lost Girl, Saving Hope, The Music Man, Midwives, Harlan County Wars, Flowers for Algernon, The Ron James Show, Joan of Arc. Animation credits include: Elinor Wonders Why, Camp Lakebottom, Little Charmers, Meteor and the Monster Trucks, Doozers, Atomic Betty, Moville Mysteries, Hippo Tub Company and Quads!. Daughters include: Alberta, Bridget. Son-in-laws include: Joshua. Wives include: Lizzie.
CREATIVE TEAM
HERBIE BARNES, Director
Herbie is the Artistic Director of YPT. He is an accomplished playwright, performer, director and arts educator whose 30-year-career spans stages across North America. Anishinaabe theatre artist from Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Herbie was among the generation of young Indigenous artists in the 1990s breaking down barriers to forge professional careers in Canadian theatre. Barnes was raised in Toronto. His theatre career began in 1989 with Debajehmujig Theatre Group, touring Ontario with the first run of Drew Hayden Taylor’s Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock. Since then he has collaborated with some of North America’s largest theatre companies and was nominated for a John Hirsch Director’s Award. His Dora Award-nominated play, Bentboy, had its world premiere at YPT in 2022 and received the Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People Award in 2020.
SHANNON LEA DOYLE, Set & Costume Designer
Shannon is an award-winning set and costume designer based in Toronto. She is a founder of Triga Creative: a design collective creating extraordinary live experiences while raising the profile of ecoscenography. Her design career moves between collaborations with independent artists on new work and reimagining classic texts and musicals on some of the most reputable stages in Canada. She holds a BFA in Sculpture and Installation from OCAD University and studied scenography at the Soulpepper Academy under the mentorship of Lorenzo Savoini.
SHAWN HENRY, Lighting Designer
Shawn is a Toronto-based Production Manager and Lighting Designer. Her theatre credits include: Bentboy, Russell’s World (YPT); La Forestera, Three Ordinary Men, Comedy is Art, Hybrid by Design, 21 Black Futures, Maman La Mer, Riot, rock.paper.sistahz., Cycle of a Sari, 30 People Watching, Hiding Words (for you), Saltfish Girl, Wise Woman, Hook Up, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Lady of Spills, I Marcus Garvey and Love & Marriage. She is also the resident Lighting Designer for the Ismailova Theatre of Dance.
JOHN GZOWSKI, Sound Designer & Foley Consultant
Composer, sound designer, musician and instrument maker, John has worked on over 250 theatre, dance and film productions for which he has done composition, sound design, live foley, live music and musical direction. He has played banjo for opera in Banff, studied Carnatic classical music in India, and played oud and guitar in jazz and folk festivals across Canada and Europe. His theatre work has won him six Dora Awards, from 18 nominations for companies such as YPT, Ex Machina, Stratford, Shaw Festival, Luminato, National Arts Centre, the Mirvishes, MTC, the Arts Club, CanStage, Soulpepper, Dancemakers, Red Sky, Tarragon and Factory Theatre. John has played on numerous CD’s, with releases with Patricia O’Callghan, Tasa and Autorickshaw, as well as a Juno nomination with Maza Meze. He has run Canada’s first microtonal group, touring Canada playing the works of Harry Partch, composed and performed with several new music groups and worked as co-artistic director of the Music Gallery.
JACOB LIN, Sound Design Assistant
Jacob 林鴻恩 is a queer Taiwanese-Canadian sound/lighting designer, writer and producer based in Tkaronto. Jacob has worked with theatre companies such as Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, Crow’s Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Aluna Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto Fringe, Paprika Festival and Shakespeare in Action. Selected credits include: Withrow Park, The Hooves Belonged to the Deer (Tarragon Theatre); Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Prodigal (The Howland Company/Crow’s Theatre); Otihew (Shakespeare in Action); Ok, You Can Stop Now, X and Da Spirit (Theatre Passe Muraille); Bengal TIger at the Baghdad Zoo (Crow’s Theatre); and Cast Iron (Factory Theatre). Jacob is also an alumnus of the Foremen and Foundry at Factory Theatre. You can catch Jacob’s work next year in The Wrong Bashir (Crow’s Theatre) and The House That Will Not Stand (Shaw Festival). You can also visit him online @jacoblin.jpg on instagram and jacoblin.ca.
BRADLEY DUNN, Stage Manager
Bradley’s select theatre credits include: rihannaboi95 (YPT); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Dear Evan Hansen (Mirvish); Yaga (The Belfry); Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Crow’s); Missing (Pacific Opera Victoria); Chicago (Globe Theatre); The Baroness and the Pig, Henry V (Shaw Festival); King Charles III, My Night with Reg (Studio 180/Mirvish); The Wizard of Oz (The Grand Theatre); The Heidi Chronicles, The Odd Couple (Soulpepper); You Will Remember Me (Studio 180/Tarragon); It’s A Wonderful Life (Theatre Aquarius). Bradley is a graduate of McMaster University and Sheridan College. Thanks to all my friends and family for their love and support, especially Peter and The Poodle.
KATIE FITZ-GERALD, Assistant Stage Manager
Katie is thrilled to be back at YPT! Some credits include: The Adventures of Pinocchio (YPT); Appropriate, Yerma (Coal Mine); The Sound of Music (1000 Islands Playhouse); Bad Parent (Soulpepper); & Juliet (Mirvish Productions); The Great Divide (Harold Green Jewish Theatre); Sherlock Holmes (Shaw Festival); Hair (Hart House). Upcoming: National Ballet of Canada. All the love to her friends and family for their support. Enjoy the show!