Five P.E.I. actors in Watermark Theatre’s summer season
Watermark Theatre announced five Island actors are casted in its 2020 summer season.
Joining the previously announced actor Gracie Finley on stage this summer will be fellow Islanders Rebecca Parent, Justin Shaw, Kassinda Bulger and Devin MacKinnon.
Artistic director Robert Tsonos holds general auditions on the Island every December.
“Every year I try to cast as many local actors as possible but this year I was thrilled to find so many Islanders that fit the parts I was looking for.”
Joining the slate of P.E.I. actors will be Wally MacKinnon from New Brunswick, as well as Jonathan Ho and Jonathan Widdifield, both based in Toronto. All the actors will be performing in The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie and The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote all summer long, as well as participating in The Play Reading Series and teaching acting workshops in the Teenage Acting Conservatory.
Parent, who is from Stratford and Charlottetown, returns for her seventh season at the Watermark. Previous credits at the theatre include the characters Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility and Laura Cheveley in An Ideal Husband. She was also the co-creator of What to Wear to the Birth of a Nation, a play commissioned for the 2014 Charlottetown Celebrations. Islanders know Parent from playing Anne Shirley in Anne & Gilbert - The Musical at The Guild in Charlottetown.
Shaw, who is from Cardigan, is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting Program and a past performer in the University of Prince Edward Island’s Vagabond Productions. Island audiences may remember him from SaltWater Moon (The Guild Summer Festival 2019), Lorne Elliott’s Culture Shock (Harmony House Theatre), The Wrestling Play (Island Fringe 2017-Patron’s Pick Award) and in Popalopalots Live Improv Comedy. As a comedian, Shaw has performed across Canada, has opened for Mike MacDonald and won the 2016 Comedyworks Triple Crown Award.
MacKinnon is an awardwinning actor, director and teacher. In his 30 plus year career, he has performed in theatre productions across Canada including the very first season of the Watermark in 2008, Village Wooing and The Importance of Being Ernest. Other credits include It’s a Wonderful Life, The Hobbit (Theatre New Brunswick), Ben Hur, Goodnight Bird (Festival Antigonish), the Merritt Award winning play Kamp, Flying on Her Own (EFT/Neptune, N.S.), Jacob’s Wake, Miles From Home,
The Diligent River Daughter, (Ships Company Theatre, N.S.), The Foursome, Who’s Under Where (CPT Alberta), Gaslight Follies (Palace Grand Theatre, Dawson City) and Birds and the Bees, (Miracle Theatre, B.C.).
Ho made his professional theatre debut as Mike Chang in The New Canadian Curling Club (Alberta Theatre Projects) last year, reprising the role in Theatre Orangeville’s production earlier this year. In the realm of film and television, he is most known for his role as Brother Zachariah on Shadowhunters (Freeform). He has also appeared on Suits (USA), The Romanoffs (Amazon) and Murdoch Mysteries (CBC).
This summer will be Widdifield’s fourth season at the Watermark. He appeared in An Ideal Husband, Romeo and Juliet, The Rainmaker, The Lion in Winter and The Shore Field. Recent credits include Cloud (Scapegoat Theatre Collective), Damian/ TheDevil in Chasse-Galerie (Red One Theatre Collective & The Storefront Theatre - Dora Award for Best Ensemble).