Justice For Maurice Henry Carter

Written by Donald Molnar & Alicia Payne

Directed by Donald Molnar

Produced by Donald Molnar & Alicia Payne

Starring: Walter Borden & R.H. Thompson

Featuring: Johevah Cobby, Ryan Downey, Ali Garrison, Andy Marshall & Alicia Payne.

Soulpepper Theatre’s

Micheal Young Theatre

July 3 @ 6:00 pm.

July 5 @ 12:pm.

July 6 @ 7:15 pm.

July 8 @ 1:15 pm.

July 9 @ 9:45 pm.

July 11 @ 7:30 pm.

July 13 @ 9:45 pm.

Purchase Tickets:

www.fringetoronto.com



Walter Borden

For the past half century, Walter Borden has been an acclaimed actor, playwright, poet and teacher. His distinguished career has been acclaimed internationally and across Canada including the Stratford Festival, Neptune Theatre, and Mirvish among many others. For his long and distinguished career in the arts, Walter Borden has received many awards and honours —including the Queen Elizabeth II Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilee Medals, the Portia White Prize, the Order of Canada (2006), the Order of Nova Scotia (2014), Doctor of Civil Law (Honorary) and Doctor of Letters (Honorary).


R.H. Thomson

Robert has appeared in film and theatre across Canada, as Matthew Cuthbert in Anne With An E, and recently as Vladimir in Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett. An advocate for the arts, R.H. has also worked on many history/arts projects including The World Remembers-Le Monde Se Souvient.  His book By The Ghost Light: Wars, Memory and Families, on the best seller list for Canadian non-fiction, is a personal, emotional and intensely engaging exploration of how the stories we tell affect the wars we fight. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. 


 

Heather Bellingham

Heather has worked in stage management on 90+ shows throughout Canada and internationally, ranging from small-scale Fringe productions, to pieces in festivals such as World Pride and Panamania, to large scale shows at the Stratford Festival and for Mirvish. Additionally, she won a Harold Award in 2021; and she has even stage managed a private performance for royalty. See credits at heatherbellingham.wordpress.com Follow @blue84HB


Johevah Cobby

Johevah is ecstatic to be making her Fringe debut with Arbez Drama Projects’ production of Justice for Maurice Henry Carter. After the whirlwind that was her first year at Sheridan College in the Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance program, she is honoured to be apart of this show. Johevah wants to take a moment to shout out her amazing parents who’s love and sacrifice allow her to pursue her dreams. Performance credits include: Laverne (Memphis, Orpheus), Bisset (Jekyll and Hyde, ASNY), Mimi Marquez (Rent, Suzart), Charlene (Dreamgirls, Orpheus). Instagram: johevah_


Ryan Downey

A proud Newfoundlander, tenor Ryan Downey is quickly gaining nationwide recognition for his  “nimbleness of voice” (Bachtrack) and “attractive lyric tenor colour” (Edmonton Journal).  You’ll have seen Ryan on the opera stage recently with the Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Toronto Operetta Theatre and Opera in Concert. Recent solo credits include the title role in Candide, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Rodolfo in La boheme, Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Goro (Pinkerton cover) in Madama Butterfly, the Gingerbread Witch in Hansel and Gretel and Basilio/Curzio Le nozze di Figaro. Ryan made his solo debut at the Canadian Opera Company this season as the Peasant Leader in Eugene Onegin and A Townsman in Wozzeck, as well as having covered numerous roles in his time with the company. 


Alexandra (Ali) Garrison

Ali Garrison (she, her) (ACTRA, Gemini Recipient, IMDb) is a performer, educator and writer based in Toronto, Canada. A founding member of The Waverlies and The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, she has forty-five years experience of culture-making locally and abroad. She collaborates with a great diversity of artists, improvisers, composers and creatives, fostering new works for a more harmonious, just and inclusive world for all. Ali encourages and coaches the freeing, training and amplification of unheard voices. She has taught voice and music since 1997 privately, in her home studio, regionally and internationally. For more info, visit her website at www.aligarrison.com. 


Jamie Hillman

Jamie Hillman is a Canadian and American musician, active as a conductor, singer, pianist, music educator, and composer-arranger He holds the endowed Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting at the University of Toronto where he is Director of Choral Studies, an Associate Professor, and Senior Fellow at Massey College. Dr. Hillman has adjudicated, guest conducted, performed, and presented throughout Canada and the United States, and in Brazil, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Portugal, and Taiwan. After completing a Bachelor of Music in Music Education at Western University, Hillman earned graduate degrees in Horal Conducting at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Boston University.


Andy Marshall

Andy is an actor, producer, writer and cultural worker.  It’s actually been decades since he played Othello (Annex Theatre) and Benvolio (Romeo & Juliet, Shakespeare in Action) in Toronto, so he’s thrilled to be back on stage. Selected film and television work includes a lead role in the film Verona, principal roles in Murdoch Mysteries and Most Dangerous Game, and in the upcoming feature films Jude and the Jinn and A Tribe Called Love.  Andy also produced A Tribe Called Love, and was the Co-Creator and Creative Producer of the television series Soul.  He is the former Program Manager at the Black Screen Office.


Donald Molnar

Donald Molnar is a Toronto playwright. His first play, Sara’s Cave, a Holocaust drama, won several playwrighting competitions, and had a workshop production mounted at the Heritage Theatre in the Brampton 2nd Annual NewWorks Playwrights Festival in 2005. Don’s play Justice for Maurice Henry Carter, co-written with Alicia Payne, has had staged readings in several theatre festivals, universities across the United States, and a staged reading in a Michigan prison under the auspices of the Shakespeare Behind Bars program. Don works fighting forest fires in northern Quebec, which inspired his Québecois working class comedy, À la Pêche avec Denis.


Alicia Payne

Alicia’s memberships include ACTRA, CAEA, Dramatists Guild of America, and Playwrights Guild of Canada (former president). Credits include theatre, film, television and radio, The Gros Morne Playwrights Residency, Tapestry Opera Composer Librettist Laboratory, BIPOC TV & Film Writing for Kids TV Bootcamp and Incubator, readings at the International Black Theatre Festival, Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, Valdez Theatre Conference, Hovedbiblioteket i Birkerød (library in Denmark) and Group art exhibitions; Toronto for Everyone, The Honest 6ix Artist Residency; Canadian Forces Artist Program Exhibition (Group 6) and The Bentway, Tiny Games. Alicia narrated the audiobook Flower Diary by Molly Peacock and is a cofounder of Arbez Drama Projects.


SPECIAL THANKS

 

Our heartfelt thanks to: 

Pete & Judy VanderArk

John Sader & Christine Fournier

 

Individuals and organizations in Canada: 

Toronto Fringe Staff and Volunteers

Canadian Actor’s Equity Association

Win Wahrer & Innocence Canada

Timothy Eaton Memorial Church

 

Individuals and organizations in the United States:

Doug Tjapkes and the Tjapkes family, Humanity for Prisoners

Scott Elliot, Leteesha (Not her real name. You know who you are)

Keith Findley, John Pray and the Wisconsin Innocence Project

Pat Schellenbarger, Rob Warden,

Garland Lee Thompson Sr., Reader’s Theatre of New Work at the

International Black Theatre Festival,

Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, Valdez Theatre Conference,

Curt Tofteland & Shakespeare Behind Bars at the Earnest C. Brooks Corrections Facility,

Dee Horne, and the Silverleaf Gospel Singers.

 

Our Cast and Crew

For their generosity of time, spirit, and talent.

Performances Dedicated to the Memories of

Maurice Carter, Marcia Tjapkes, Gwen Baird, Jerry Horne & Luciano Iogna