ENCORE!

Class of ’93 alumni read The Wedding Party

BUY TICKETS

Thirty years after graduating, members of the NTS Acting class of 1993 are reuniting for one more performance! Join us on for a reading of Kristen Thomson’s acclaimed comedy The Wedding Party, followed by a cocktail party with the cast. 

This alumni-led initiative is a fundraiser for the School’s Indigenous Advisory Circle.   

Date and time 

Sunday, April 16, 2023

1:30 p.m. Reading of The Wedding Party

4:15 p.m. Cocktail with the cast

Tickets 

The play only: $50
($50 tax receipt)

The play and the cocktail: $150
($120 tax receipt)

GET TICKETS

Sponsor a student 

Purchase a ticket for an NTS student (selected at random) so they can attend the cocktail and meet their career idols: $150

SPONSOR A STUDENT

The Cast

Sandra Oh

Sandra Oh is thrilled to be on the Monument stage with the NTS class of '93.

Oh is best known for her portrayals of Cristina Yang in Grey's Anatomy, Eve Polastri in Killing Eve, Professor Ji-Yoon Kim in Netflix's The Chair and Rita Wu in HBO's Arli$$. Film credits include: the voice of Ming in Pixar's Turning Red, Sideways, Under the Tuscan Sun, Last Night and Double Happiness.

Theatre credits include: Office Hour at South Coast Rep, Death and the Maiden at the Victory Gardens, House of Bernarda Alba at the Mark Taper, Stop Kiss at the Public theatre.

Upcoming projects: an untitled sister comedy with Awkwafina for Hulu this summer and HBO's The Sympathizer helmed by director Park Chan Wook. Also the next season of Amazon's animated series Invincibles, and Paramount's The Tiger's Apprentice.

Sandra is the recipient of many awards including: an Officer of the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Performing Arts award and the Gascon - Thomas award. 2 Golden Globes, 4 SAG awards, 2 Critic's Choice, 2 Genie awards and 13 Emmy nominations.

“As every year passes another penny drops from what I learnt at NTS. I’m forever grateful for my lifelong relationships. This class knows me from the core.”

Patrick Gallagher

Since graduating from NTS in 1993, Patrick has been fortunate to work over 100 times in film and television and theater. Some notable roles would be Attila the Hun in the Night at the Museum movies, Glee, DaVinci’s Inquest, Sideways, Master and Commander, Big Sky, Joe Pickett, Endgame, Fortunate Son, Men of Certain Age, and various and sundry TV shows and films. He couldn’t be more thrilled to be here with these amazing people, and help give back to this place where it all started and played such an important role in his life. Thanks for showing up and supporting this fundraiser. 

Ruth Madoc-Jones 

Ruth has worked professionally as a playwright, performer, dramaturge, and director in Toronto and Canada for over 25 years. She began her artistic path by writing and performing for social justice agitprop theatre at rallies and protests in Toronto, and has fostered this political spirit in her work ever since. Ruth trained at Simon Fraser University and the National Theatre School, followed by the Canadian Film Centre, in Toronto. In addition to working in the theatre, Ruth has taught performance, direction, and writing at Humber College, The National Theatre School of Canada, Bishop’s University, and the Toronto Metropolitan University. She has nurtured young writers and performers including her work with playwriting units at Nightwood Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts and the Summerworks Theatre Festival. Ruth was the Associate Artistic Director at Nightwood Theatre and the Summerworks Festival, where she was board chair. She was honoured to sit on the Dora dance and general theatre juries, the theatre committee at the Toronto Arts Council for three years and be invited to be an assessor and juror at the Canada Council for the Arts. She is the recipient of the K.M. Hunter Award, the John Hirsch Director’s Award, and the Corus screenwriting prize. Ruth is presently completing her graduate studies in Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto.

Neil Girvan

Neil is extremely pleased to be back in Montreal for this reunion, to where it all began for our class 30 years ago. He graduated from the NTS Acting Program in 1993 and has been working as an actor primarily in film and TV for the past 30 years. Selected principle and recurring roles in: The Boys, American Gods, The Expanse, Designated Survivor, Anon, Return to Christmas Creek, 11.22.63, Beauty and the Beast, Covert Affairs, Grey Gardens, The Sentinel, The Virgin Suicides.

Something inspiring that has stayed with me from my time at NTS 30 years ago: “Don’t just wait for the phone to ring to get work. Create your own work.”

Kari Matchett

Once upon a time there was a young girl who was born in a little house on the Saskatchewan Prairie. Although her adventures have taken her far and wide, her heart is still in that place. Going to The National Theatre School was a game changer. It was the most difficult time in her life. BUT, it helped forge the tools Kari needed to take on bigger challenges that lay ahead. Including working in a shit ton of Film and TV. She’s worked on so many amazing projects and with so many inspiring and incredible people she loves and adores she can’t decide which ones to hi-light here, but some of her favourites include working with Shaun Cassidy, Tommy Schlamme and Aaron Sorkin. She currently plays The President of The United States in Netflix series The night agent and just finished working with Juno Temple and Jon Hamm on season 5 of Fargo. She has worked extensively in Canada and the United States and has received numerous awards and nominations for her work. She is so pleased and happy to be finally treadling the boards of The Monument National with her dear classmates from almost a hundred years ago. 

Matthew Godfrey

Matthew began his career at the age of 10 on stage at the Dallas Theater Center in a production of Brecht’s Galileo and made his international debut on the Canadian cult classic TV show You Can’t Do That On Television which cemented his interest in pursuing a life in the arts as an actor.

In addition to providing a sound foundation as a performer and artist, NTS introduced him to the world of Mask and Red Nose Clown where he has become a specialist as a performer, teacher and consultant with an emphasis on the nexus between Shakespeare and Clown, playing Romeo in a Red Nose Clown version of R&J; Mariana in a Bouffon version of Measure for Measure; Mr. Block in a Grotesque/Mask production of Kafka’s The Trial and most recently under his own “Nom de Clune” Norbut Yetso in The Universe 101 (which he also wrote and produced). Since 1997 Matthew has traveled the world with the International Schools Theatre Association, teaching Clown, Mask, Devising, Improv, Physical Theatre and Shakespeare in over 20 countries, and providing Clown Consultancies for productions of The Seussification of Romeo & Juliet and The Rules of Comedy (Singapore) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Beijing).

Based in Los Angeles, he has further expanded his career into producing, directing and editing for theater and film as well as producing numerous commercials for NBC. He currently works as a Compliance Consultant for hit gameshows like The Wall, Deal or No Deal, Holey Moley, You Bet Your Life, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!.

In his 3rd year at NTS a teacher told him “You are going to do a lot of things in this business before you find your way as an actor.” While at the time it was shocking to hear those words, the foundations in storytelling that the school emphasized and that line prepared him for the ups and downs of Show Business while underlining that being an artist is never about being just one thing.

Elizabeth Robertson

After graduating from NTS, Elizabeth worked as an actor for a number of years appearing at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal, the NAC and GCTC in Ottawa, and the Théâtre de la Bordée in Québec City. She also helped develop dozens of new plays at Playwrights Workshop Montreal and discovered a love of voice work. One morning, she woke up and realized she needed to do something else (ok, it probably took many, many mornings). Fate intervened when she found out CBC Radio was looking for a bilingual researcher for a two-month gig. Two months turned into 15 years. During that time, she became a journalist and worked on every CBC Radio show broadcast out of Montreal, writing, producing, hosting, and creating award-winning radio documentaries. 

By 2014, she was craving another challenge, so she decided to go back to school and study law. It was both exhilarating and one of the hardest things she’s ever done (kind of like NTS). Three and half years later, exhausted but really really proud, she graduated from McGill University with two law degrees.  

 Now, she works as a public engagement specialist with Hill+Knowlton Strategies. She helps governments, crown corporations, and businesses consult stakeholders on a wide variety of subjects, including arts policy, climate change, urban planning, and immigration. 

NTS taught Elizabeth how to breathe, move, speak, and be fully present in the moment. It’s like a finishing school for human beings. So many nuggets of wisdom from her time there haunt inspire her to this day. But the most influential advice came from Perry Schneiderman. Tacked up on the wall of his office on the 2nd floor was a Nike ad he’d torn out of a magazine with the immortal words, “Just do it”.   

Waneta Storms

Waneta trained as an actor at Simon Fraser University and the National Theatre School of Canada. Her theatre career spanned over twenty years, performing at The Tarragon, The Factory, Canadian Stage, and Theatre Passe Muraille and YPT in Toronto, the NAC in Ottawa, the MTC in Winnipeg, Neptune Theatre in Halifax, The Centaur in Montreal and the Traverse in Edinburgh. She won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her performance in DVxT’s theatre production of Lynn Seifert’s Coyote Ugly. Waneta also worked in television and was nominated for a Gemini Award (now called Canadian Screen Award) four times: once for her Guest Starring role on Blue Murder, and three times for Lead Actress on CTV’s The Eleventh Hour.

Waneta then switched her focus to screenwriting. After completing her residency at the Canadian Film Centre’s TV Writing Program, Waneta quickly moved on as a writer and consulting producer for four seasons of the CTV one-hour dramatic series Saving Hope. Next, Waneta helped develop the one-hour series The Coroner with creator Morwyn Brebner (another NTS alumn!), ultimately writing and consulting-producing the series for CTV/Back Alley. She co-produced and wrote for the limited-series dramas Bellevue for CBC/Back Alley, and Pure, for CBC/WGN/Two East Productions. After relocating to Vancouver, British Columbia, Waneta wrote and co-produced on Syfy/Netflix’s Van Helsing’s final season. Her most recent endeavor is writing a MOW for Lifetime Channel.

Kristen Thomson

Kristen Thomson is an award winning actor and writer for theatre, film, and television. She has received four Dora Awards, two ACTRA Awards, two Canadian Comedy Awards, a Genie, a Gemini, and a Canadian Screen Award. Kristen wrote The Wedding Party as the inaugural play opening Crow’s Theatre’s new space in 2017. Since that time, The Wedding Party has enjoyed a remount back at Crow’s and at the National Arts Centre. It has been produced at several major regional theatres across the country. Thomson is the playwright and performer of I, Claudia, first produced at Tarragon Theatre and later at Crow’s Theatre. It has toured internationally and was adapted for television. Thomson’s 2012 play, Someone Else received the Dora Award for Outstanding New Play that year; and in 2009 The Patient Hour premiered at Tarragon Theatre and a French translation was presented in Montreal by Theâtre de la Manufacture in Montreal in a translation by Olivier Choinière. Kristen has an extensive acting resume spanning her 30 years of professional work. Her credits include Every Brilliant Thing, Hysteria and Oleanna (Canadian Stage), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Crow’s Theatre), The Watershed (Crow’s Theatre and Porte Parole); Peggy Pickett Sees the Face of God (Canadian Stage and Volcano Theatre); Pipeline, Uncle Vanya, The Chairs, The Guardsman, and Mirandolina (Soulpepper). Thomson had a recurring role for four seasons of Cardinal on CTV, and has appeared in the films Away from Her, Flower and Garnet, and The Republic of Love.

The Wedding Party 

The nine returning alumni will present a dramatic reading of The Wedding Party, written by Kristen Thomson and directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones. The guests hit the dance floor, drink too much and try to get along in this riotous comedy about two families, a wedding, mistaken identities, and love, love, love!  

This performance will mark the actors’ first time ever performing in the iconic Ludger-Duvernay Theatre—a rite of passage for all NTS grads—because the Monument-National was under major renovation in 1993. 

Book now  

About the Indigenous Advisory Circle

All proceeds from this event will go to the Indigenous Advisory Circle at NTS. The Indigenous Advisory Circle was formed in the spring of 2021. It is composed of a diverse group of established Indigenous artists and NTS alumni. Their goal is to influence and strengthen the School’s pedagogy by contributing an Indigenous worldview, and to create opportunities for the French and English sections to come together through Indigenous artistic practice. The Circle's members are involved in helping to create inclusive policies, recommendations for governance, developing community for students with Indigenous ancestry and bringing awareness and education to the administration and faculty at NTS. 

In selecting this cause, the Acting class of 1993 wish to make a gesture towards reconciliation and acknowledge that thirty years ago, Indigenous actors did not have access to the same opportunities from which they benefited at NTS.    

Donate to the Indigenous Advisory Circle 

LOCATION

Monument-National 
1182 Blvd. St-Laurent 
Montreal, QC

QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions about the event, please contact info@ent-nts.ca 

TICKETS

Reserve your spot at this unique event in support of a good cause.Tickets available here.

Partners

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter and learn more about our professional programs, receive invitations to our student shows, discover the School, our residencies...

Want to apply to the School?
Just click here!