ABOUT THE COMPANY

Artistic Director: Jacob Zimmer
Artistic Producer: Erika Hennebury

sabotage , noun, French, from sabot – ... 3b : deliberate subversion
sabot - French, noun - a small wooden shoe.

Founded in 2001 by Jacob Zimmer in Halifax, Small Wooden Shoe is a theatre company now based in Toronto. Over our history we have made political agit-prop (Delayed Knee Jerk Reactions, 2001), hard-boiled detective radio (The Mysterious Death of WB, 2002), Chekhov adaptations (The Orchard, 2002), multi-media solo shows (No Secrets, 2003) and durational task based performances (Mostly Just Doing the Saturday Crossword, 2004) believing that developing a sound artistic practice shouldn’t limit us to one performance style or genre.

Since moving to Toronto in 2004, our work is characterized by a rigorous looseness and a dedication to the cutting edge of contemporary performance. We engage with the historical, social and political world around us in a critical manner while maintaining pleasure and entertainment as vital components.

The Company for Dedicated to Revolutions
Frank Cox-Connell {bio}
Chad Dembski {bio}
Brendan Gall {bio}
Brendan Healy {bio}
Ame Henderson {bio}
Erika Hennebury {bio}
Erin Shields {bio}
Trevor Schwellnus {bio}
Evan Webber {bio}
Jacob Wren {bio}
Jacob Zimmer {bio}

The Company for I Keep Droping Sh*t
Frank Cox-Connell {bio}
Chad Dembski {bio}
Brendan Gall {bio}
Brendan Healy {bio}
Ame Henderson {bio}
Erika Hennebury {bio}
Trevor Schwellnus {bio}
Evan Webber {bio}
Jacob Zimmer {bio}

The Company for Reasonable People, Reasonably Disagreeing
Dustin Harvey {bio}
Ame Henderson {bio}
Evalyn Parry {bio}
Trevor Schwellnus {bio}
Evan Webber {bio}
Jacob Zimmer {bio}
Misha Glouberman {bio}
Tim Maly {bio}
Daniel Arcé {bio}

The Company for Connect the Dots
Frank Cox-Connell {bio}
Chad Dembski {bio}
Brendan Healy {bio}
Ame Henderson {bio}
Trevor Schwellnus {bio}
Erin Shields {bio}
Jacob Zimmer {bio}

The Company for Do You Have Any Idea How Fast You Were Going?
Chad Dembski {bio}
Brendan Healy {bio}
Ame Henderson {bio}
Trevor Schwellnus {bio}
Kilby Smith-McGregor {bio}
Jacob Wren {bio}
Jacob Zimmer {bio}

The Company for Perhaps in a Hundred Years
Jacob Zimmer {bio}
Ame Henderson {bio}
Chad Dembski {bio}
Kilby Smith-McGregor {bio}

Past (and future?) Collaborators (bio's as they come in)
Dustin Harvey
Sue Snyder
Louisa Adamson
Nate Crawford {bio}
Jesse Lund
Elizabeth Elliot
Jocelyn White {bio}
Andrèa Lalonde
Simon Henderson
Sally Morgan
Beth VanGorder
Susan Leblanc-Crawford {bio}
Sean Passmore
Kersti Tacreiter
Gaven Sheehan
Mark Loeser {bio}
Justin Evans {bio}

Biographies

Jacob Zimmer
is a dramaturge, director, writer and performer whose work has shown in Vancouver, Toronto, Halifax, Calgary, St John’s, Saint John and Montreal. Born in Cape Breton and growing up in Halifax, Jacob now lives in Toronto. Jacob is the artistic director of Small Wooden Shoe, which is a company in residence at Theatre Passe Muraille and was named one of the top ten Toronto theatre artists in 2007 by NOW Magazine. In 2009, Small Wooden Shoe’s Dedicated to the Revolutions will premiere at Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto. Jacob also works extensively in dance as the Resident Dramaturge and Animateur at Dancemakers in Toronto and in an on-going dramaturgical collaboration with choreographer Ame Henderson/ Public Recordings as well as being a co-director of HUB 14. Jacob’s writing has been published in Canadian Theatre Review (Issues 119, 126) and C Magazine. He has worked as a dramaturge for choreographers Valerie Calam and Sally Morgan and theatre makers Dustin Harvey and the One Reed Theatre Ensemble. Jacob was a member of the inaugural year of the Canadian Stage Company’s BASH: Artist Development Program and is currently a member of Theatre Passe Muraille’s Sounding Board. He has lead composition and performance workshops in Halifax, Toronto and St John’s. Jacob studied at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and in 2004 he was a technical intern with The Wooster Group and studied Viewpoints, Suzuki and Composition with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company in New York.

Erika Hennebury
is Associate Producer for Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Rhubarb Festival Director and Artistic Coordinator for Audience Relocation 2007. A graduate of Dalhousie University’s Theatre Department and a former member of the Irondale Emsemble Project (Halifax) Erika has studied ensemble creation, improvisation, dance, dramaturgy, directing, voice, physical theatre, clown and corporeal mime at L’Ecole Omnibus in Montreal in 1996-97 and was Co-Artistic Director of Les Vaches from 1994 - 2004. Along with acting, creating original new work, directing and artistic programming Erika has worked as a freelance publicist for Obsidian, b current, SummerWorks, Independent Aunties, The Scandelles and many more indie companies over the past 10 years in Toronto. Directing credits include: Straight, Until, by Lee Ann Poole (Paprika ’05), The Dead Sea, by David Tomlinson and Sonja Mills (Buddies’ Rhubarb ’05), Infoline, Bonjour…, by Julian Doucet (Rhubarb ’03). Recent performance credits include: Flag and Pile and other Tales, by Sonja Mills (SummerWorks ‘05), Hospital Green, by Hope Thompson (Rhubarb 05), The Danish Play, by Sonja Mills (Nightwood, Toronto/NAC, Ottawa/Magnetic North, Edmonton/Aveny-T, Copenhagen), The Happy Woman, by Rose Cullis (SummerWorks ’04), The Twins, a store-front performance installation, (Queen West Art Crawl ’04), The Secret Life of Haddon MacKenzie, by Sky Gilbert (Cabaret Company), Green and Radio Play (Retro Rhubarb! ‘04), Mouse by Sonja Mills (Buddies’ Hysteria Festival ‘03), STEM (BIBT ’03 – Les Vaches/House of Slacks), Flag and Pile, by Sonja Mills (Rhubarb! ‘03/BIBT), Bébé (Theatre Asylum/Groundswell – Nightwood/Rhubarb! ’03 - BIBT), A Sun Without Heat (Canadia dell'Arte Theatre), Inertia: phases 1 & 2 (Oopmh ’00 & ‘02), The Duchess of Malfi (Ghost House co-op ‘99), Jekyll, ‘the ecstatics’ and Better Safe Than Sorry (Les Vaches), Buying The Pharm (Squadrun Theatre) and Extract (Milkman Theatre Group). Erika was co-recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for 2000 and received a Theatre Ontario Professional Development Training Programme Grant in 2001.

Frank Cox O’Connell
is an actor, musician and theatre maker living in Toronto. He studied percussion with Lorne Nehring and theatre at the National Theatre School of Canada. He was recently given the Jessica Fraser Award for his role in Theatre Direct’s The Demonstration. Frank is a founding member of the One Reed Theatre Ensemble (Best Young Theatre Ensemble, NOW Magazine) with whom he created Nor the Cavaliers who Come with Us (Spotlight Award, Summerworks festival).

Chad Dembski
was nominated for a 2004 Dora Award for his performance in Bluemouth Inc.’s something about a river, a five and half hour site specific performance piece set in various locations in Toronto.  The collectively created piece won the Best Production Dora (Independent division) award that same year. He has also performed in Small Wooden Shoe’s Do You Have Any Idea How Fast you were Going? (Rhubarb! 2006) and Perhaps in a Hundred Years (in Toronto, Halifax, St. John and Montreal 2005).  In 2005 Chad performed in his first dance based piece Manual for Incidence with Public Recordings at XPACE gallery (Toronto) and the Darling Foundry (Montreal/Studio 303). Most recently, Chad co-directed and performed in The Fort York Project (September 2006) at Historic Fort York in Toronto, a workshop that will become a full production in the fall of 2007.  Chad has also worked as a stage manager, lighting designer, sound designer, sound operator, radio host, and producer.

Brendan Gall.
A graduate of George Brown Theatre School, Brendan has performed with The SHAM Collective at Equity Showcase Theatre (Sam Shepard’s Action), Belltower/Absit Omen Theatre (Mexico City), Resurgence Theatre (A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged, Much Ado About Nothing), Pilot Project Theatre (David Mamet's Romance), Tarragon Theatre (Past Perfect), BirdLand Theatre (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot – winner of 5 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Outstanding Production), Repercussion Theatre (Twelfth Night), Inkling Theatre (The Marriage of Bette & Boo), and Bluewater Summer Playhouse (The Drawer Boy), as well as with the Toronto Fringe, Rhubarb!, Lab Cab and SummerWorks Festivals. He is also an associate artist at UnSpun Theatre, where he has collaborated on his play Panhandled, and the collective creations Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and DON'T WAKE ME. Brendan's first play, A Quiet Place, was shortlisted for the 2003 Herman Voaden National Playwriting Award and produced in 2005 with his own theatre company, Single Threat. Brendan contributed a short piece to Convergence Theatre's Toronto Fringe hit, AutoShow(and will contribute another one to their upcoming Gladstone Variations), and his newest play, Alias Godot, was developed through Tarragon Theatre's 2006 Playwrights Unit and received an Italian-language production by Teatro Della Limonaia in Florence, Italy in the fall of 2006 with a remount planned for September of 2007. The English-language version will premiere in Tarragon Theatre’s 2007/2008 season, where Brendan can also be seen next, performing in Hannah Moscovitch’s East Of Berlin.

Brendan Healy
is originally from Montreal where he studied Theatre Performance at Concordia University. Following graduation, he pursued acting professionally and appeared, most notably, in Greg MacArthur’s Girls!Girls!Girls! directed by Peter Hinton and presented at the 2001 Festival de théâtre des Amériques. It was at this festival that Brendan met Richard Maxwell, artistic director of the multiple OBIE Award winning company New York City Players. This meeting led Brendan to New York City where he interned under Mr. Maxwell. In 2003, Brendan entered the National Theatre School’s directing program. At NTS, Brendan was mentored by Chris Abraham, Sarah Stanley, Keith Turnbull and Daniel Brooks, among others. In 2004, Brendan studied under Anne Bogart and the SITI Company during their summer intensive. Recent projects have included: Swipe: an Operetta (Hysteria 2005), Down the Main Drag (SummerWorks 2005 and HATCH/Harbourfront 2006), and Emergency Exits and Garden (both Summerworks 2006). Along with Independent Auntie Theatre, he has been a member of the Theatre Centre’s Artist-in-Residence Program where they has been developing a new piece entitled Breakfast (slated for production in 2008). Other upcoming projects include: I Am My Own Wife (Saydie Bronfman Centre, Montreal); Dying To Be Sick, and a new translation of Moliere’s The Imaginary Invalid (Pleiades Theatre and the National Arts Centre). He will be the incoming Associate Artist at Crow’s Theatre and is currently a member of CanStage’s BASH: Artist Development Program. Brendan was the recipient of the 2006 Ken McDougall Award for Emerging Director.(return to top)

Ame Henderson
is a dance artist living in Toronto where she is the Artistic Director of Public Recordings. Her works Blue* *Disco (2002), memories and statements (2004), Manual for Incidence (2005), /Dance/Songs/ (2006) and The Instruction Project (2006/2007), have been presented in Croatia, The Netherlands and Canada. In September 2007 Ame presented Open Field Study (all together now) at Nuit Blanche. In April 2008 she completed a collaboration with Michael Trent and Dancemakers entitled Double Bill #1.Upcoming projects include residencies with KG Guttman and Matija Ferlin. Public Recordings is a company in residence at The Theatre Centre in Toronto. As a performer, Ame collaborates regularly with Jacob Zimmer and his company Small Wooden Shoe. As a performer Ame works regularly with Small Wooden Shoe. She was an invited participant in Clash (2006-2007), a choreographic research project initiated by Lynda Gaudreau.

Erin Shields
is a theatre artist working in collective creation, multi-disciplinary collaboration, poetic monologue and traditional theatre. She has an Honors BA in Acting from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in London, England.  Recent creations include. The Unfortunate Misadventures of Masha Galinski (Fringe Holdover at The Diesel Playhouse), The Paradise Project (a multi-disciplinary retelling of Paradise Lost), Burke and Edward (SAF, Tarragon), Goblin Market (Equity Showcase), Garden (Rhubarb! Festival/Buddies) and Be Wearing Wolf (Suitcase in Point/HATCH).  Erin will be a member of the Tarragon Playwright’s Unit in 2007.

Evan Webber
writes and performs plays. He was a founding member of One Reed Theatre (Best Young Theatre Ensemble – Now Magazine 2006; Spotlight Award, Summer Works Theater Festival). Their first work, Nor The Cavaliers Who Come With Us, has been performed in Montreal, Ottawa, New York and Toronto. Selected performances and creations include The Sweater Shop (Summer Works 2004) and the role of Puck in the opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Royal Conservatory of Music in 2006. With One Reed, Evan is currently a resident artist at the Theatre Centre. In association with Crow’s Theatre he is also creating an adaptation of Antigone called A Clean House For the Dead Season. Evan is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

Trevor Schwellnus
is a designer for several indie companies (Public Recordings, K’Now Theatre, mammalian diving reflex, Aluna, The Independent Auntie, Theatre 2.0, Alianak Theatre, Native Earth, Players by Nature). He recently won a Dora Award for Outstanding Set Design for For Sale (written / directed by his partner, Beatriz Pizano). His play meeting playce was produced at the 2003 Summerworks Festival, and he is currently writing (and co-writing) on several projects. His rigging has been seen on square riggers in the Great Lakes and on the East Coast, as well as Peter Weir’s last film, Master and Commander. With Small Wooden Shoe he is designing the Dedicated to the Revolutions series and performed in Do You Have Any Idea How Fast You Were Going? Blog

Jacob Wren
is a writer, film maker, interdisciplinary artist and theatre director. He co-founded Candid Stammer in Toronto in 1990 and in 2002 became co-artistic director of PME. His work attempts to find a way of speaking to the audience casually - through both words and movement - that is ironic and sincere in acknowledging the fact that communication is often uncomfortable. Theatre productions include: How An Intellectual Can Aspire To Savagery!; But Love Is Too Simple To Save Us; I Cut, You Bleed; En francais comme en anglais, it's easy to criticize; Recent Experiences (co-written and co-directed with Nadia Ross) and Unrehearsed Beauty / Le Génie des Autres. Interdisciplinary performances include: Every Song I Have Ever Written (Reich & Berühmt, Berlin), Five Important Books (Mercer Union, Dare Dare & Kyber Centre for the Arts) and Spontaneous Collaborations. Published books include: My Tongue, My Teeth, Your Voice; 62 Rock Videos For Songs That Will Never Exist (both Exile Editions) and Unrehearsed Beauty (Coach House Books). His work has been performed in Norway, the Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal, France, England, Wales, Croatia, Sweden, Austria, Australia, Belgium and Japan as well as in New York, Toronto, Calgary, Halifax, Quebec City and Montreal. (return to top)

Misha Glouberman is best known as the host of the Trampoline Hall Lectures, invented by Sheila Heti. Misha Glouberman recently played Stairway to Heaven as part of an Eight Hour Drone put together by the Blocks Recording Club. Once in a while he makes sounds with the Woodchoppers Association. He has taught a large number of highly unuseful classes to many people. These include a course in experimental music for non-performers called "Terrible Noises for Beautiful People", and a course in charades called "How To Get Really Good At Playing Charades." He hosts Burlesque shows with The Scandelles whenever they let him. He enjoyed a recent event at Harvard. He denies being the author of the "Ask the Manners Duck" column in Spacing magazine. He is a collaborator on Diplomatic Immunities, a conversational theatre piece that is part of Darren O'Donnell's Social Acupuncture project. Misha is very interested in how groups of people do things together. He has facilitated a number of Open Space Conferences, helped out at Penguin Day, and is hosting and helped design a conference about copyright called CopyCamp. He lives in Toronto with Margaux Williamson.

Dustin Harvey
is a respected emerging artist who has forged a unique reputation for creating engaging theatre that exemplifies depth and imagination both in Nova Scotia and abroad.  His collaborations 13 Ways of Looking At A Madman (2006), Cowboy Show (2005), Winding Up Godot (2003), No Secrets (2003), and Hold on Tightly (2002), have shown in Berlin, Maine, Ireland, and throughout Canada.  In 2003, Dustin founded Secret Theatre in order to create work that places an equal emphasis on the actor, technology, architecture, music, and text.  The group is committed to making theatre that describes contemporary life, and contributes to the development of new audiences for live performance.  In the winter of 2006, Dustin started a bi-annual zine project called Fire in the Hole, which introduces the public to the community, people, and ideas connected to theatre in Nova Scotia.  An article of his titled Theatre for Small Audiences was published in Canadian Theatre Review in the Spring 2006 (Issue 126). Currently Dustin is developing a version of Romeo and Juliet called Red Room, as well as workshopping his new script Particle in Halifax where he lives.  He received his BA in Theatre Studies from Acadia University, and Post-Graduate Certificate in Acting from The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London, England.  Reasonable People is his fifth collaboration with Small Wooden Shoe.

Evalyn Parry
creates and performs theatre, music and spoken word.  Her new album of music and spoken word, Small Theatres (produced with John Switzer) will be released on Borealis Records this February.  With Independent Auntie Theatre she has created three highly acclaimed shows: Clean Irene & Dirty Maxine (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), Frances, Mathilda and Tea (Theatre Passe Muraille), and The Mysterious Shorts (Theatre Passe Muraille).  Upcoming with the Aunties, two new shows currently in developement:   Robbers Daughters (Cooking Fire Festival, June '07) and Breakfast (Theatre Centre 2007/08 season).  Evalyn is also the director of Youth Initiatives at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.  She lives in Toronto, but spends a lot of time touring with both her music and theatre projects.  Her website can tell you more: www.evalynparry.com

Daniel Arcé
has a BFA in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Diploma in Software Development. He runs the Cultural Studies New Media Lab at York University. His video works have been shown at the /Images Festival/ in Toronto and /Video Archeology/ in Sofia, Bulgaria. He has presented at the /Impakt Festival/ in Utrecht, the /Next Five Minutes/ in Amsterdam, and at the /Looking Glass Gallery/ in Brussels. He has done live VJ sets with Montreal filmmaker Ian Cameron for DJ Swamp and Afrika Bambaataa.
His work is included in /Making Art with Databases/ published by V2 press in Rotterdam, and /Connected!/LiveArt published by the Waag Society of Old and New Media, Amsterdam.
He has done Live Stage Video for Ame Henderson's choreographies performed in The Netherlands, Croatia, Montreal and Toronto.

Tim Maly
has debated competitively and has coached high school debating in both Halifax and Toronto including being the inaugural holder of the Chair in Canadian Debating at Upper Canada College. He now designs cell phones games professionally and debates for fun.

Kilby Smith-McGregor
was recently script dramaturge and lyricist for Theatre Asylum’s collectively written BeBe at the Theatre Centre. She has also provided dramaturgical support for many of director Diana Leblanc’s projects including the upcoming production of Martin Sherman’s Rose at the Saidye Bronfman Centre. Kilby is the artistic director of Imaginary Alphabet, and workshopped her newest play Charlotte: (unfinished) at SummerWorks ‘04. As a playwright, she has developed work in association with Nightwood Theatre, Stranger Theatre and the Tarragon Theatre, where she was the inaugural Urjo Kareda Emerging Artist-in-Residence. Also for Tarragon: script associate on Russell Hill, script assistant on Little Mercy’s First Murder, and assistant director for Hello...Hello. Kilby has worked with Soulpepper Theatre Company (Betrayal, The Maids) as an assistant director and dramaturge. She has been an instructor with Soulpepper Youth Outreach, a Tarragon youth mentor, and currently co-facilitates the Paprika Festival Playwrights Unit.(return to top)

Nate Crawford
is an actor, writer, and director based in Halifax Nova Scotia. He's worked with a fair bunch of Maritime Canadian theatre companies and one or two in Alberta. Never was a Boy Scout, never a Cub. With Small Wooden Shoe, Nate appeared in the radio drama The Mysterious Death of WB. Jacob put together a "cool" (the Halifax Chronicle Herald) lighting design for a production of Beowulf that Nate directed. Heroes: Tintin, Rupert Bear. (return to top)

Jocelyn White
latest show is Sticks and Stones, her fourth production in the Halifax Fringe Festival. She previously appeared in Forecast, Spendthrift and, in her first Small Wooden Shoe piece, Chalk Circle Trial. She followed up CCT with Delayed Knee Jerk Reaction II: Taking Measures and The Orchard. Jocelyn has twice appeared in the official V-Day Vagina Monologues and is becoming involved in community theatre, appearing in the Theatre Arts Guild's Wuthering Heights and I Hate Hamlet. Jocelyn is currently working with Shadowlands Theatre, creating a roster of radio plays for CKDU. (return to top)

Susan Leblanc-Crawford
is an actor, teacher and theatre producer from Halifax. Since 1999 she was been a member of the acclaimed company Zuppa Circus Theatre where she has co-created eight performances.
Along with acting with other Maritime theatre companies (Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, Mermaid Theatre, Live Bait Theatre and the Atlantic Theatre Festival), Susan has taught theatre at Dalhousie University and is currently teaching at Armbrae Academy. She is also the co-coordinator of the Nova Scotia High School Drama Festival. (return to top)

Mark Loeser
has had ongoing dialogue and collaboration with Small Wooden Shoe's artistic director since 1995, on a night when Jacob ended up sleeping under a poster (Mark's fault). Since then, he has contributed film projection and writing to ...Open Wound and Other than War as a member of Sabotage Group.
His film and video practice extends from 1989 to present. Current projects include a feature length, abstract video shot on a digital photo camera; a 16mm film regarding genetically modified food; new hand processed motion film; and several DVD presentations. Photography and incognito music making remain secondary pursuits. Mark is based in Montreal. (return to top)

Justin Evans
makes music and writes. He somehow managed to play at the FIMAV with Sam Shalabi this spring, and also threw garbage at other bands. The wire called it "petulant and purile"... must have been someone's idea of fun. Recently I played disco, poorly, to a bunch of people in quebec city, and knocked myself out on stage, as part of the "glitter soul orchestra" www.neverprint.com/natacha. Stuff I've been working on has gotten some radio play (thanks bravenewwaves and rien a voir). And I am in a new band that is a bunch of french curses strung together that (roughly translated) mean in English: "Hostofthechristskulltabernaclechalice" or something like that. I also helm a big improvising band called Rivers and Mountains that has gotten entirely unwieldy, who performed with an ex-Arkestra member and a rotating bunch of freaks from montreal. Email me for a copy of our DVD, it's insane.
I have done some soundtrack work for the recent Lossy DVD of experimental films by Mark Loeser and Graham Watson, made some sound design and written for the (now defunct?) theatre co-operative Sabotage Group and pretend to be a "web" designer, which is pretty funny. (return to top)