I Think I’m Fallin’: The Songs of Joni Mitchell – Program

Director’s Notes

Joni Mitchell is an artist of astounding accomplishments—singer, songwriter, visual artist—but for me, she is first and foremost a poet. Her lyrics explore and explain our humanity and our mortality; our fragility and our ability to inflict pain; our longings and our losses.

I cannot listen to “The Circle Game” without being aware of my childhood, my dreams, my selfishness and carelessness, and my ultimate death. Few poets’ words can get inside our hearts the way that Joni lyrics can. She knows us. She speaks to us. Which is why, I think, so many of us feel that we know her in return.

I am even more aware working on I Think I’m Fallin’: The Songs of Joni Mitchell this second time, that it is an honour and a privilege to live with her words in such an intimate and revealing way.

Michael

Jonathan Gould

For the Belfry Theatre: Chelsea Hotel, I Think I’m Fallin’ (2016). Selected Theatre credits include School of Rock on Broadway (Winter Garden Theatre/NYC), Indecent (Mirvish/Studio180), and several seasons with the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, Citadel Theatre, Grand Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Banff Centre, 78th Street Theatre Lab in NYC. A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and The Birmingham Conservatory at the Stratford Festival. Film/Television: Suits, Scaredy Squirrel, Star Falls, BeyWheelz, WF, Buck Calder Experience, Baby Brain, Kim’s Convenience, Zone, Essex County.

Linda Kidder

Linda is a multi-talented performer with five decades in the entertainment industry. Some career highlights: kd lang’s Ingenue tour, Letterman, The Grammys, Radio City, Albert Hall, CMA Duo of the year, with Gary Fjellgaard. Recording credits: Bon Jovi, Gary Fjellgaard, Rita MacNeil, Harry Manx. Theatre credits: Bittergirl (2017 – Arts Club Theatre), I Think I’m Fallin’: The Songs of Joni Mitchell (2016 – Belfry Theatre), Cruisin’ with the Boomers, (2012–2013 – Jupiter Productions), Sweet and Hot, Baby Boomer Blues, Old New Borrowed and Blue, Rogues and Romantics (1998–2011 – Jupiter Productions). Linda is thrilled to be back for the second run of this wonderful show!

Anton Lipovetsky

Anton Lipovetsky is a Vancouver-based actor and songwriter. This is his fifth appearance at the Belfry, including I Think I’m Fallin’ (2016) and most recently as Kemp in Vigil. Anton has performed on stages throughout Canada, including the NAC, Stratford, and five seasons at Bard on the Beach. For his songwriting, he has been shortlisted for the Playwright’s Guild of Canada’s Musical Award three times, and in 2022, his score for the musical Blackout was showcased at the New York NAMT Festival. Anton is a Studio 58 and Stratford Festival Birmingham Conservatory graduate. Follow him on TikTok @antronsongs

Hannah Mazurek

Hannah Mazurek is a soprano and multi-instrumentalist based in Whitehorse, Yukon. Hannah is enchanted by music of all kinds and has participated in diverse projects across the country. They recently appeared onstage in Victoria as the shrieking, lumbering hag Black Annis in WYRD: A Musical Unfairytale (2023). Other favourite stage appearances include The Loon in the new operetta The Loon Returns (Daniel Janke, 2023) and as a soloist in the oratorio Miziwe… (Everywhere…) (Barbara Assiginaak, 2019). Hannah has a zest for new works and is delighted to be appearing as part of the cast of I Think I’m Fallin’.

Chelsea Rose

Chelsea Rose is an award-winning recording artist, actor, and songwriter. She attended both UVic and the Canadian College of Performing Arts. Chelsea is the vocalist and songwriter of Vancouver band Ophelia Falling. Credits include: As You Like It and Julius Caesar (Bard on the Beach), Sound of Music, Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol and REDPATCH (Arts Club/The Citadel), The Café (Aphotic / ITSAZOO), Th’owxiya (Axis), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (Gateway), Les Filles Du Roi (Cultch/Urban Ink/Fugue), Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth (Firehall Arts Centre), Broken Sex Doll (Virtual Stage), RENT (Fighting Chance), The Wizard of Oz and Grease (Victoria Operatic Society).

Michael Shamata – Co-creator & Director

Michael has been a grateful guest on lək̓ʷəŋən territory for almost 16 years.

Celebrating almost 50 years in professional theatre, Michael is the Artistic Director of the Belfry, where he has commissioned and directed Home is a Beautiful Word and Forget About Tomorrow. He collaborated with and directed the adaptation of Griffin & Sabine with Nick Bantock and BEING HERE: The Refugee Project with Joel Bernbaum.
Other directing credits at the Belfry include Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, the Canadian premieres of The Year of Magical Thinking and A Doll’s House, Part 2, the English-language premiere of And Slowly Beauty, and his own adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

An award-winning director, he has created productions at most of the major theatres across the country, including the Stratford Festival, Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, the National Arts Centre, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Calgary, and the dearly missed Vancouver Playhouse.

Tobin Stokes – Co-creator

Since the late 80s Tobin has been lurking around the Belfry as a performer, arranger, musical director, composer and/or sound designer for various productions. He’s even had a couple short plays premiere at the annual Spark Festival. Musical projects here have featured the music of Leonard Cohen, Patsy Cline, Harry Chapin, his opera The Vinedressers, and of course, Joni Mitchell. Besides creating for theatre, Tobin composes for orchestra and choir, and scores documentary films, the latest about great white sharks is premiering soon on CBC’s The Nature of Things.

Cory Sincennes – Set & Costume Designer

Cory is an award-winning designer, currently residing in Charlottetown, PEI. His designs have received both national and international recognition having worked throughout Canada, Europe, and Russia. He holds an MFA in Theatre Design from the University of Alberta. Recent Work: Gypsy, Prince Caspian, Damn Yankees (Shaw Festival); Anne of Green Gables, Evangeline, Jesus Christ Superstar, Mamma Mia (Charlottetown Festival); Shakespeare in Love, A Christmas Carol, Matilda, Romeo and Juliet (Citadel Theatre), Gin Game, Cottagers and Indians (Watermark Theatre); The Secret Garden, The Louder We Get, Billy Elliot, Bad Jews, Liberation Days (Theatre Calgary); Next to Normal, Mary Poppins, Crazy For You, (Theatre Calgary / Citadel Theatre). www.corysincennes.com

Alan Brodie – Lighting Designer

Alan is delighted to have his work appear again on the Belfry stage, where his other credits include Salt Baby, A Christmas Carol, Equivocation, Stones in His Pockets, The Syringa Tree, Mary’s Wedding, When We Were Singing, The Drawer Boy, Two, Skylight, Come Rain or Come Shine, Anatol and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. In 2021 Alan shifted gears and took a position at Arts Umbrella as Director of Theatre Operations. He lives in Vancouver with his wife Michele and their dog “Bosco”. www.alanbrodie.ca

Keith Houghton – Assistant Lighting Designer

Having been the running technician for the original production of I Think I’m Fallin’ in 2016 and having worked as lighting technician with Alan Brodie for many productions in my over 20 seasons at the Belfry, I am excited to be able to work as Alan’s assistant to bring the remount back to the stage. Previous lighting design credits include Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad, Good Timber (The Other Guys). Agnes B (Co-Design, Suddenly Dance Theatre). My Rabbi (Sum Theatre). SECRET/E (Theatre In The Way).

Jeremy MacLeod – Sound Designer

Jeremy began his professional career at the Belfry in the early aughts as FOH manager and then Audio Technician. After some years satisfying his wanderlust and workaholism on tour and elsewhere, he has been thrilled to come full circle these past two seasons serving the Belfry as Technical Director. Supporting I Think I’m Fallin’ continues this theme by giving him a rare opportunity to get his hands dirty again with his first love, live sound. Nicknamed Bear, Jeremy spends his lifestyle time exploring regional parks with his wife, Rena, and their husky, Finn.

Treena Stubel – Choreographer

Treena Stubel has been working in theatre for over thirty years as a choreographer, dancer, actor, movement director, and most recently as a director and intimacy director. She has appeared in numerous stage productions and has created physical theatre works for festivals in Canada and abroad. She has choreographed for: Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, Bard on the Beach, The Belfry Theatre, The Caravan Farm Theatre, Atomic Vaudeville, Theatre SKAM and her own company Bounce Performance Works. She was the original choreographer and movement director of the Dora Award–winning musical Ride the Cyclone, which has gone on to US productions, including Off Broadway. She is also a sought-after teacher of movement and holds an MFA in Lecoq Physical Theatre from LISPA in London, UK.

Dianne Woodrow – Stage Manager

Dianne was the Production Stage Manager on the original Canadian productions of Les Miserables, Rent, The Lion King, Mamma Mia! The Boys in the Photograph, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Love, Loss, and What I Wore. Other PSM credits include The Shaw Festival and Charlottetown Festival. Stage management credits include shows at Soulpepper Theatre, The National Arts Centre, The Canadian Opera Company, The Stratford Festival, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, and Vancouver Playhouse. Dianne worked as an Associate Director of Production for Mirvish Productions. She was a Company Manager on tours for both Shaw and Stratford Festivals. Dianne coordinates Field Placement at Sheridan College. She is a retired standup comedian.

Jamie Anderson – Apprentice Stage Manager

Jamie lives in so-called Victoria, British Columbia on the unceded lands of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. A UVIC theatre graduate, some of Jamie’s recent credits include Closet Freaks (Stage Left Productions), the soft spaces (Impulse Theatre), Don Giovanni, Carmen (Pacific Opera Victoria), The Waste Land, Problem Child (Phoenix Theatre). Though primarily a stage manager, Jamie has explored many avenues of theatre and enjoys working across multiple artistic disciplines. With a passion for strange and experimental art, Jamie writes poetry, builds props, works front of house, and writes the occasional short story. This is their first Belfry production, and they hope you enjoy the show!