Erin Craig Musician If there were just one thing you could say about Erin Craig, it would be that she loves music in all its weird and wonderful forms. Erin has been a musician since she was three years old, starting out with her singing voice, and gradually adding the piano and the trumpet – along with many other instruments – to her arsenal. Erin completed her ARCT certificate in Classical Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 2005, the MacEwan College Jazz Piano Performance diploma in 2006, and has just returned from Boston where she was studying and working at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, completing her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance in 2008. Erin is thrilled to be back in Edmonton and to have the opportunity to share her love of music with the Alberta Opera Company for this year’s production of Hansel and Gretel.

Deanna Finnman Costume Designer Deanna is excited to be working with Alberta Opera team for the first time. Recent costume design credits include The Pearl Fishers, Lakme, Emperor of Atlantis (Sterling Award Winner) and South Pacific (Sterling Award Winner) All for the Edmonton Opera. She has also designed locally for several theatres including Grant MacEwan College (A Winters Tale), Northern Light Theatre (The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband) and St. Albert Children's Theatre (Cinderella, Wizard of Oz). Deanna also curated The Opera Coat Project, a wearable art exhibit featuring work by herself and 21 contributing artists presented by the Alberta Craft Council.

Dawn Friesen Stage Manager, The Varscona Theatre Dawn Friesen has recently completed her BFA Stage Management degree at the University of Alberta. In the spring of 2009 she wrote, performed and produced her own one woman show Mumsicle (Mediocre@Best). Stage Management credits include: Super Power (ATCO Energy Theatre), The Science of Disconnection (Shadow Theatre) Assassins, Major Barbara, Largo Desolato (Studio Theatre), Happy Kitchen (Serial Collective), Stone Cold Dead Serious (Media Room-UofA), PopTart (Pony Productions), SubUrbia (Teens @ The Turn), Mules (Bent out of Shape), The Blonde (Standard Parrallel), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Glenmary Theatre) The Laramie Project (Augustana). Assisting Stage Management credits include: Titus Andronicus, The Comedy of Errors (FreeWill Players) Misery (Theatre Network) What the Butler Saw (Studio Theatre), The Shunning (Media Room-UofA). Dawn served as Apprentice Stage Manager on Edmonton Opera's The Pearl Fishers and FreeWill Players productions of As You Like It and Richard III.

Jason Hardwick Hansel / Various Ensemble Jason is absolutely thrilled to back again with Alberta Opera! Jason completed the MacEwan Theatre Arts Program in 2006 and since then has been performing wherever and whenever he can. Jason last appeared with Alberta Opera as the Frog Prince in the BC tour of The Frog Prince. Jason has also appeared in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Mayfield), Sweet Charity (Stage West Calgary), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Mayfield), and Footloose (Mayfield). He has also danced with Princess Cruises on the Sapphire Princess touring Alaska and Mexico. Jason is thrilled to be touring this remarkable show with such a magnificent cast!

Daniela Masellis Lighting Designer Daniela Masellis is an Edmonton based set, costume and lighting designer and a graduate of the UofA with a B.F.A. in Theatre Design. After graduating she continued her studies with an internship in Italy at the ‘Teatro alla Scala’ Milan Opera. Her Edmonton design credits include- Cuckoos( ‘07 Sterling, Best Fringe Production), Coffee Dad, Chicken Mom and the Fabulous Buddha Boi (‘08 Sterling, Best Fringe Production), design associate to B. Gerecke for the Catalyst Theatre’s production Nevermore, set design for Defiance Theatre’s Half a League, production design for The Maggie Tree’s A Life in the Day (’08 Sterling, Best Independent Production), set and lighting for Teatro LaQuindicina’s Everyone goes to Mitzi’s and costume design for Workshop West’s Seed Savers and this season’s upcoming credits will also include work for Shadow Theatre.

Crystal Oleksyn Stage Manager Crystal is very excited to be working with Alberta Opera for a third season. Last year she was the Stage/Road manager for Little Red Riding Hood as well as Cinderella the season before. Most recently Crystal was stage manager for Wedding Ruiner (Last Night Productions) for the 2009 Edmonton Fringe Festival. Prior to working with Alberta Opera, Crystal completed a diploma in Theatre Production from MacEwan Collage, where she was the stage manager for the student production of Urinetown. She also worked as an apprentice assistant stage manager with Edmonton Opera for the production of The Barber of Saville. Prior to entering the world of theatre, Crystal completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alberta majoring in English and a minor in film studies.

Bryan Pollock Set Designer Bryan started life as an artist and he continues in this pursuit in spite of his financial advisors. He studied art and life drawing in Winnipeg, California and (when his student visa ran out) Vancouver. He does love working in theatre cause he gets to design really big things with other peoples money. Bryan’s hobbies include staying out of trouble while at sea and sneaking pictures of his friends while their not looking. He is excited to be working with the Alberta Opera Musical Theatre for Young People.

Adam Tsuyoshi Turnbull Production Manager adam is a freelance theatre technician + designer, a multimedia + graphic designer, and is currently studying the cello. he likes bicycles, experimenting with user-interface design, and eating sushi. he grew up on a farm.

Matt Van Boeyen The Witch / Various Ensemble Matt is looking forward to performing with Alberta Opera for a second season, having played a saucy Latino frog in the recent British Columbia tour of The Frog Prince. Over the summer Matt got his grammar on and beefed up on his social studies while performing in Schoolhouse Rock LIVE! ( small nest Productions ) at the Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton fringe festivals. In 2008 Matt graduated from the MacEwan Theatre Arts program, where he performed such roles as Professor Bhaer in Little Women, Pooh-Bah in The Hot Mikado, and Peter Trofimov in Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Some of Matt's favorite things include sushi, ghost stories and the Vancouver Canucks (sorry Alberta!). Matt's favorite part of working with Alberta Opera is answering questions from the audience after the show, including the ridiculous ones.

Robyn Wallis Gretel / Various Ensemble Robyn is delighted to be working with Alberta Opera! She has just recently graduated from the Grant MacEwan Theatre Arts program where she had the privilege of performing the roles of Alice Beane in Titanic—The Musical, Kitty Verdun in Where’s Charley?, Miss Dorothy Brown in Thoroughly Modern Millie and Irene in the original play The Addlepated Nixie by Stewart Lemoine. You can also catch her singing and dancing this fall in Teatro La Quindicina’s final show of the season Everybody Goes to Mitzi’s at the Varscona Theatre. Originally from Vancouver BC, Robyn began performing at an early age when she would put on low budget renditions of Broadway musicals in her parents’ basement. She is over the moon to be working with such a fun and creative group of people.