September 11, 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Local Comedy Troupe Off to Ottawa to Find Out National Comedy Award Results
WINNIPEG, CANADA – Winnipeg sketch comedy troupe Hot Thespian Action is off to Ottawa this weekend where they have been nationally recognized with their third Canadian Comedy Award nomination in the category of “Best Sketch Comedy Troupe.” The names will be read in an awards gala held on the evening of Sunday, September 14th, hosted by Canadian comedian, and Ottawa native, Tom Green.
“It’s really cool for us to be noticed out here in the Canadian prairies, away from the Canadian Comedy epicentre that is Toronto,” says Shannon Guile, a member of the Winnipeg fivesome. “Winnipeg has a ton of improv and stand up, but not much sketch. Where as Toronto, where the awards are run out of, it’s the home of the Second City and Kids in the Hall, and has a ton of sketch. It’s really cool that anyone is even paying attention to us all the way out here. It’s always nice to be recognized by your peers.”
The Canadian Comedy Awards are held every year to recognize comedians in all fields, ranging from stand-up comics, to television writers, to comedic film actors, to sketch troupes. Winnipeg-lensed sitcom “Less Than Kind” is also in the running in the category of “Best TV Show” for its farewell season.
Once back from Ottawa, the group is setting their sights on the US. The group has been invited down to Seattle Sketch Fest for a headlining performance on September 26th.
“We’ve been dying to dip down into the States for a while,” says Garth Merkeley, another member of the troupe. “We’ve spread our name pretty well in Canada now, but it’s time to start making in-roads south of the border too, where there are just so many more humans to entertain!”
Hot Thespian Action has been performing continuously since 2006 when they formed out of a special studies class at the University of Winnipeg. Since then they have gone on to make a name for themselves in Winnipeg and beyond, performing yearly as must-see staples of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, as well as in shows throughout the year. Their entire run at the Winnipeg Fringe has been continuously sold out for the last four years. Last year they co-hosted a televised Winnipeg Comedy Festival Gala on CBC with Alan Thicke, performing as his singing and dancing sidekicks. Recently, they have expanded their horizons, touring around Canada. Last winter they headlined at the Vancouver Sketch Comedy Festival, and the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival. They have sold out their shows in every province from Ontario westward.
In 2012 they, along with Winnipeg/Toronto production company Original Pictures met with Canadian Broadcasters to pitch a TV sitcom concept. Talks are still ongoing. Original Pictures is run by Nick Hirst and Kim Todd, who recently won an Emmy for her work on Calgary-made mini series “Fargo.”
http://www.canadiancomedy.ca/ -30-
For hi-res photos visit http://www.hotthespianaction.com/presskit.html
Contact: Shannon Guile (204) 997 - 4183 Email: [email protected] Garth Merkeley (204) 612 - 9633 Email: [email protected] MEDIA RELEASE
Brief Company Bio: With accomplishments ranging from being nominated for three Canadian Comedy Awards, to appearing yearly at the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival, to 5 star reviews and completely sold out runs at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival, to pitching a sitcom concept to Canadian broadcasters, Hot Thespian Action continues to entertain audiences with their unique brand of often physical, sometimes musical, always stripped down sketch comedy.
Here’s what people are saying about Hot Thespian Action:
“As rising comedy stars go, there were none brighter at this year’s [Winnipeg Comedy] fest than local sketch troupe Hot Thespian Action. [...] If what they accomplished at this year’s fest doesn’t make them huge Canadian stars, there’s something not at all funny going on in this country’s comedy biz.” - Brad Oswald, Winnipeg Free Press
“This is about as good as comedy gets, at the Fringe or anywhere else: writing that’s accessible without sacrificing any of its edge, performers whose variety of skills is just as impressive as the depth of their talents, and a pace that never lags. HTA bring laugh after laugh until the show ends, leaving you wanting more.” - CBC
“Their uproarious physical comedy, flawless timing and cleverly written subject matter are utterly bang-on, and the laughs come just as easily as does the craving to see their shows again and again.” - Uptown Magazine
“The performances across the board are virtually pitch-perfect, and the troupe’s sense of sketch comedy structure and pacing is extremely strong. It’s almost depressing how good they are so young.” – Dean Jenkinson, Writer: This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC.
“[HTA] unfailingly produces wildly entertaining sketch comedy that gives the genre a good name. It’s not just the uniformly adroit performances — beautifully timed, with a physicality that can be graceful or goofy as required — but the bizarre, brilliant territory this troupe’s fevered collective brain explores.... Somebody give these folks a TV show. - Jill Wilson, Winnipeg Free Press.
“...Every thoughtfully penned sketch keeps the laughs flowing so consistently throughout the hour that it’s a shame it has to end.” - Lindsay Ward, Winnipeg Sun. BIOS
Hot Thespian Action
Hot Thespian Action began in 2006 when the three female members of the group (Shannon Guile, Jacqueline Loewen and Jane Testar) took a special studies class in Advanced Mime and Improv at the University of Winnipeg under the tutelage of Rick Skene. By the end, the ladies had an in-depth knowledge of physicality and comedy, as well as a catalog of hilarious sketches.
With the addition of fellow UofW students Garth Merkeley and Ryan Miller, the group rounded itself out and began to work on its 2006 Fringe show Hands On. The show featured a stripped down minimalist esthetic, inspired by the group’s mime roots, along with a penchant for the physical and witty.
The critically celebrated sold out show gave way to 2008’s massive hit Hands Off which garnered Hot Thespian Action five stars from the Winnipeg Free Press and an interest from many parties, including the CBC, who subsequently asked HTA to appear in the 2009 CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival. HTA has performed yearly at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival since, garnering 5 star reviews, packed houses and “Best of Fest” designations every time.
HTA’s relationship with CBC radio has grown over the years, resulting in HTA writing and performing in an hour long radio play Pitching the Turkey, which aired nationally on Thanksgiving, as well as writing and performing several sketches that aired on the national radio show Laugh Out Loud.
The CBC Winnipeg Comedy Fest has invited HTA back to their festival every year since 2009, upping the stakes each time, culminating last year in a set in one of the nationally televised gala performances alongside a Canadian icon Alan Thicke as “Thicke’s Kids,” which aired last spring. BIOS The Troupe:
Shannon Guile
Actor, writer, comedian, stunt performer and mime artist, Shannon Guile is a woman of action… or maybe just has ADD. Shannon fell in love with comedy while studying Theatre and Film at the University of Winnipeg. She was inspired and sought to produce a mime comedy troupe, which later morphed into the two-time Canadian Comedy Award Nominated troupe, Hot Thespian Action. Not confining her talents only to HTA, Shannon has also performed on independent and professional stages around Manitoba, including Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s Death of A Salesman, Manitoba Theatre Centre’s The History of Manitoba and this coming fall, she will appear in the premiere of local playwright Carolyn Gray’s The Miser of Middlegate with Theatre Projects Manitoba. Always physical, Shannon spends a chunk of her time toppling over things, tum- bling down other people’s stairs, and getting punched in the face, as you may have seen in Space Network’s Todd and the Book Of Pure Evil and Fox’s Home Alone 5. When not performing on stage or screen, Shannon has devoted herself to producing a mime program for members for the Deaf community and is helping them develop a troupe that will one day take over the World… or at least perform for it.
Jacqueline Loewen
Jacqueline could not be happier to be spending her days writing and performing physical sketch comedy, with Hot Thespian Action. But on those days when she is not, she’s also very happy to spend time working in other aspects of the performing arts. Like Fight Directing. She has choreographed violence for multiple shows at Manitoba Theatre Centre (including Romeo and Juliet and Gone With The Wind), Prairie Theatre Exchange, Shakespeare in the Ruins, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, and Manitoba Opera. Fight directing is also giving way to Theatrical Directing, at U of M’s Contemporary Opera Lab, Little Opera Company’s The Velveteen Rabbit, 2011 Fringe’s The Fisherman and His Soul, most recently assistant directing Canadian Stage’s Macbeth for Dream in High Park in Toronto, and this fall, assisting at Vancouver Opera. Some day, she hopes to learn to direct her own life. BIOS
Garth Merkeley
With a baby face like that, it may be hard to believe that Garth has been acting for over 20 years, but it’s true. Apart from his involvement with Hot Thespian Action, Garth’s work has included such diverse endeavours as TV acting (Taken in Broad Daylight, The Christmas Hope Lifetime Network, Don Cherry 2, CBC), film acting Strings( , Full Of It New Line), stunt work (The Haunting in Connecticut, Lionsgate, Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, Space Network) and professional theatre. If you’re looking for a REAL laugh, track down a movie called The Plague and watch James Vanderbeek shoot Garth in the face. Garth is also a founding member of Foolish Wit Productions which for the last four years has been creating bilingual children’s plays and DVDs to teach children about our French heritage in Canada.
Ryan Miller
Ryan is very excited to be spending this summer acting like a buffoon on a stage in front of Fringe audiences. Having performed with Hot Thespian Action for the last 6 years, it is clear Ryan has the ability to make people laugh, but Ryan’s solo career has taken a more dramatic turn. Ryan’s credits this year include Gone with the Wind (RMTC), Julius Caesar (SIR), and the critically acclaimed production of Angels in America: Perestroika (WJT). Coming up, watch for Ryan and his fellow Hot Thespian Shannon, in Carolyn Gray’s comedy The Miser of Middlegate for Theatre Projects Manitoba.
Jane Testar
Jane is a multidisciplinary comedian, regularly performing both improv (with Outside Joke) and sketch comedy with Hot Thespian Action. Jane is also a member of the theatre ensemble Foolish Wit, who perform Commedia Dell’arte and have created and toured two original, bilingual children’s shows for Canadian Parents for French. She has appeared in productions with Prairie Theatre Exchange (Little Munsch on the Prairie) and Théâtre du Grand Cercle (De Bouche à Oreille) and Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday In the Park With George as part of the MTC Master Playwright Festival. Jane can also be heard every week on CBC Radio One with her etiquette advice column, Miss Conduct, in radio sketches for CBC’s Comedy Factory, and as the host for the CBC Comedy Factory Podcast. Hi-res versions available on request.