Faculty
Heather Ruthig
Heather is a graduate from the University of Guelph ('94) with a major in Fine Arts. She has had a varied career in Arts and Design and since then, has worked in the fast paced and magical world of theatre. As a propbuilder she has created things such as masks, sculptures and furnishings.
Heather enjoys creating art in many media including fabric, metal, plasticine and paints. Her inspiration for her personal art, paintings and sculputres, are from the natural world and art history.
Heather lives in the small town of St. Mary's with her husband and two daughters.
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Eric Ball
Eric is a Prop Builder at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival specializing in armour and special effects.
He has been working with Off The Wall for five years. Eric has taught classes in Animatronics, Creature Costumes, Special Effects and has been part of "Setting the Scene" workshop.
He builds props for several other theatres as well as displays for the Perimeter Institute and Bullfrog Power.
In the off season, Eric volunteers his time to work with a CUSO-VSO sponsored project, creating a theatre in Suchitoto, El Salvador.
Instructor Ken Dubblestyne
Ken is a master prop builder who has been at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for thirty two seasons. He has worked with world-class designers such as:
Desmond Heeley
Tanya Moiseiwitsch
Debra Hanson and
Santo Loquasto
Ken has been a prop maker / builder on over 500 productions. Ken is an experienced teacher eager to share his knowledge. He has trained apprentices in the prop shop and has instructed many Theatrical Production Arts workshops.
Instructor John Leberg
John has spent more than 2 decades as a designer and prop builder for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival as well as other major theatres.
This multi-talented artist has designed or built props and sets on hundreds of shows. He is an experienced instructor who inspires students to invest in their own creativity.
Instructor John Pennoyer
John was born in Montreal and graduated from McMaster University in 1971. Since 1972, John has built props at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for productions designed by;
Annena Stubbs
Leslie Hurry
He has drawn his way from Vancouver to Quebec City in such venues as the Vancouver Playhouse, the National Ballet, the Canadian Opera Company, the Banff Centre, LeTheatre du Trident and the 2010 Olympic Games. John has also designed extensively at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
He gratefully acknowledges the Stratford Shakespeare Festival as his primary training ground.
Instructor Glenn Elliott
Glenn is an accomplished artist whose career in art and theatre began in the mid-sixties. He has had his work in over one dozen group exhibitions including galleries in Toronto, London and New York with eight solo exhibits beginning in 1985. His work is in several galleries and private collections in Canada and the US.
Prolific in his work, he has also been a prop builder for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for 35 years.
Instructor Susan Benson’
Susan's paintings, drawings and designs are in many collections including the National Portrait Gallery Ottawa, Bronfman Collection, Gallery Stratford, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and the National Arts Centre, Ottawa.
Susan has designed for theatre, opera and ballet in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Europe. She has won many awards for her designs including 8 Dora Mavor Moore Awards and an Ace award for The Mikado on the Arts and Entertainment Channel.
Susan is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in the category of Theatre Design. She received an ATD from the West of England College of Art, Bristol and a Gold Medal Acting (Hons) from LAMDA.
Instructor Frank Holte
Frank was born in Stratford upon Avon England, and served his apprenticeship at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Co. where he was employed for 10 years.
Frank immigrated to Canada in 1970 and made Stratford, Ontario his home. He has been head of Properties at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for 39 seasons.
As a freelance artist and prop maker, Frank works in stainless steel. His largest commissioned sculpture is the Phoenix created for the Royal Ontario Museum which measures over 37 ft. in length.
Frank’s work can be seen locally in Stratford, next to the Festival Theatre in the ceremonial promenade where the sculpture of William Shakespeare stands with pen in hand and at Stratford General Hospital where a stainless steel horse stands stoically in front of the building.
Instructor Carolyn Horley
Carolyn is a native of Stratford who has been employed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival since graduating art school. She has been an artist/prop maker for nearly 40 years.
Her specialty is prop food that has graced multiple stages and has enticed the palettes of all that looked upon it. Just a small sample of her creations include, exotic salads, cornish hens, fruits, vegetables and even pigeon brains.
Instructor Stewart Robertson
Guest Instructor & Lecturer Desmond Heeley
Desmond Heeley began his career at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Co. and then at the Shakespeare Memorial (now Royal Shakespeare) Theatre, where he became a designer in 1955. His first shows were Toad of Toad Hall, notable for its Masks and head dresses and depiction of animal hands and feet, and as Peter Brook’s assistant at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, where he designed Titus Andronicus with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Mr. Heeley’s Hamlet in 1957 marked the opening of the permanent Festival Theatre at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada.
Recent credits include Amadeus, Measure for Measure, School for Wives, Phaedra and the Merchant of Venice. He designed the premiere production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at Britain’s National Theatre and on Broadway (where it received two Tony Awards in 1968), and the pavilion at Caernarvon Castle, Wales, for the investiture of Prince Charles. Recently, he designed Joe Dowling’s inaugural production of The Cherry Orchard at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. International credits include the Metropolitan Opera, The royal Opera (Covent Garden), American Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Houston Ballet, the English National Ballet, Broadway and Deutsche Opera Ballet.
Mr. Heeley received the Theatre Development Fund’s Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994, the Allan Jones Memorial Award in 1995 and, in March 1997, he was awarded the prestigious United States Institute for Theatre Technology Award to recognize his lifetime contribution to the performing arts.
Guest Instructor Ruth Abernethy
Ruth was born in 1960 in Lindsay, Ontario Canada. Following education and employment in nearly every province, Ruth now lives in her self-designed home near Wellesley, ON with husband, Mark and two sons.
Ruth's solo art career was launched following twenty years of professional prop management and building for theatre and film. Thorough grounding in all aspects of creation, fabrication and presentation was an invaluable apprenticeship. Deft competency with a variety of mediums allows Ruth immense sculptural freedom. Given the impermanent nature of performance properties, stainless steel and bronze were the initial materials of choice. Well versed in figurative sculpture and detailed character observation, Ruth has enjoyed numerous portrait commissions, large and small, public and private. The success of these portraits is rooted in capturing individual animation, body language and facial expression -- in short, creating a 'moment', as well as a likeness. Ruth was the first Canadian exhibitor selected for inclusion by Sculpture-by-the-Sea 2005, in Sydney Australia, where she received a bursary from the Canadian Consulate. The new Canadian Portrait Gallery, opening in Ottawa in 2007, acquired her bronze portrait bust of Al Waxman. Other pieces are in private collections in England, France, Italy and Australia.
Beyond portraiture, Ruth's interests lie in public installation and creating art for personal landscapes on a large scale. In the public venue, Ruth explores the element of encounter, attempting to create works with broad appeal without sacrificing content. Her current studio work examines the 'emotional architecture' of human interaction, connection and intention.
