Author: Matt Walsh

Meet the characters: Ali Ababwa & Ali Hakim

Ali & Ali are the creative geniuses behind such Agrabanian hit shows as May the Blood of the Infidel Run Thick Through Streets of Our Enemies, which ran for seven seasons in Agrabanian prime time and earned Three Golden Goats! Some may suspect them of promoting terrorism, some may suspect them of plagiarism – their hit was based on the U.S. TV show 24, where Jack Bauer has 24 hours to torture 17 guys to save the free world.  They stayed very close to the 24 template.  Suspiciously close.

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Meet the characters: Sukhvinder (Suki) Dhaliwal

Suki is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, acting on behalf of Immigration Canada who is investigating Ali & Ali under PEIU (The Provision for the Expulsion of Immigrant Undesirables Act).  As a modern law enforcement officer, she understands the importance of bureaucracy.

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Meet the playwright: Gary Kirkham (photo credit: Tom Vogel)

“Falling: A Wake” — Meet the author

Let’s meet Gary Kirkham, playwright for “Falling: A Wake”!

Gary’s plays have been produced by over 50 theatres across Canada and internationally, including translations into French, Italian, and Arabic. He’s an artistic associate with MT Space and has helped run their Newcomer Theatre program, which uses theatre as a vehicle for newcomer youth to tell their stories. Gary is also an actor, filmmaker, and video designer.

For more information about Gary and his plays, see his website: https://gazzkirkham.wixsite.com/playwright

And for more information about KWLT’s production of Falling: A Wake, see https://kwlt.org/class/auditions-for-falling-a-wake

Telephone Madness organizers: Sophie Twardus, Mel Mah, and Michael L. Davenport

Telephone Madness: Meet the Organizers

Whose are the twisted minds behind our Telephone Madness event? Let’s meet our organizers.

Sophie Twardus

Sophie is a KW native that learned French and Polish before ever learning English. This gave her an early start in opportunities for miscommunications. All her favourite board games are communications board games as they tend to be easy to teach but difficult to master. She helped create Telephone Madness as a desire to create space for people in the KWLT community to create and connect during the pandemic.  

Melinda Mah

Mel’s past involvement with KWLT includes: producing shows (Venus in Fur, What Happened in Vegas); assistant stage managing (Bat Boy: the Musical); and Front of House/Trivia Corner (Battle of the Bards). Her catchphrase is “I listened to a podcast episode about that!”. She is extremely good at Boggle — if you challenge her, you will lose. Mel finally gets her turn in the spotlight… of her monitor, running the livestream behind the scenes.

Michael L. Davenport

Davenport is one of the organizers for Telephone madness. As a lover of creative reinterpretation (KWLT’s March Madness wooooo!), he’s stoked you’re all here for this event. Davenport is also very excited to emcee a KWLT thing, because he thinks emceeing is one of the best jobs in the world. (People Are Different. 🤷‍♂️ )

Photos of the production team members

Production team profiles

The production of a radio play has unique challenges compared to KWLT’s usual fare of stage plays. Let’s meet the intrepid production team who rose to those challenges.

Joe Gull (Director) began in musical theater in high school in 1993 with “Oklahoma”, and first ventured into community theater in Orillia with Mariposa Theatre’s productions of “South Pacific” and “Little Shop of Horrors”. After appearing in “Low Life’s” for Hamilton’s Staircase Theater Emerging artist series and then again in the Hamilton Fringe festival, the necessities of career forced him into a 10 year hiatus from theater. He returned in 2018 for TCP’s “Oliver” as Bill Sikes, then again in TCP’s 2019 production of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” as one of Quasimodo’s gargoyles, then again in 2019 with TCP in “Calendar Girls”. Since the beginning of 2020, Joe has lent his voice to eight audio dramas productions with KWLT (“The Tragedy of Mariam”, “All Around the Square”) and ICHTHYS Theater (“The Velveteen Rabbit”, the Sherlock Holmes series), served as Assistant Director and Director for all five episodes of the “All Around The Square” series, appeared in the Ensemble for Playful Fox’s “Beauty and the Beast” and is set to return with Playful Fox again in the Canadian Premiere of “Murder On The Orient Express”.  

Monica Maika (Stage Manager) has been involved with KWLT for the past three years, ever since moving back to Ontario. She has been onstage for KWLT but transitioned to behind-the-scenes work during the pandemic. She is happy to be involved in theatre in any form, even when it means keeping Joe on track and on time. She will be seen treading the boards again in Playful Fox’s upcoming production of “Miracle on 34th Street”. Thanks to Shawn for putting up with late night absences and the sounds of shouting coming from the zoom rehearsals.

Rob Curwain (Technical Director) is excited to be a part of “The Devil’s Disciple”. This is his first proper time with KWLT, after partially assisting in “All Around the Square”. You may have heard him as the Announcer in ICHTHYS Theatre’s Sherlock Holmes audio dramas, and he was recently on stage in Playful Fox’s production of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”. Sit back and enjoy the madness that is “The Devil’s Disciple”! 

Cast profiles: the British Army

At the start of “The Devil’s Disciple” we see the British army as monolithic, a looming offstage threat; by the third act we’re privy to their internal disputes. Here are the actors playing the redcoats:

Fred Brandenburg (General Burgoyne) is thrilled to be back with KWLT as General Burgoyne. Previous KWLT roles include Dragon in “Paper Bag Princess: the Musical”, and Saucy Jack in “Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens”. Big (virtual) hugs to director Joe (a.k.a. The Gargoyle), the entire team at KWLT and Her Worship for supporting Fred in his theatre addiction.

TJ Pelkman (Major Swindon) makes his theatrical debut in “The Devil’s Disciple” and he is thrilled to be a part of the production.  When TJ isn’t fixing computers or painting tabletop miniatures he is playing drums or practicing Brazilian Jiujitsu.  Being involved in this theatre production has given TJ more of an appreciation for movies and what it takes to be an actor.

Joseph A. Sebok (The Sergeant) grew up thinking his voice one day could be heard all over the world. As part of the cast of “The Devil’s Disciple”, he is extremely excited to have the opportunity to do so. He has also done Radio Dramas/Voice-Over work for OMT’s 2019 “Beauty and the Beast”, and with Playful Fox Productions from 2018–2021 as multiple characters from “A Christmas Carol”, “Dracula”, “Frankenstein”, and recently “The Importance of Being Earnest”. He is honoured to be a part of the Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre family, and hopes you enjoy the show.