The 2011 Improvaganza International Ensemble is:

Lee Boyes (Regina, Saskatchewan)

Acting/ writing/ directing/ improvising.  Hailing from Rad-gina SK, Leeboyes has been doing all of these things for over fifteen years.  Recently he’s appeared in plays like The Unseen & The Pillowman.  He also wrote and directed a man show, Deadlee. And continues to improvise another one man show; Leegion.   He’s enraptured with being a member of this years festival ensemble and wants to thank Rapid Fire & everyone involved with ‘ganza for their hard work and support.

Lee White (Winnipeg, Canada)

Lee White is an Actor/improviser from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He started acting at ten years old.  In 1997 started CRUMBS, and since then has traveled the world performing, learning and teaching Improvisation. Crumbs has been voted Winnipeg’s favorite Theatre group since 2000 and was listed in The Winnipeg Free Press’s list of top reasons to live in Winnipeg. Having performed in countless plays and independent films, as well as stand up comedy. He has been to more Improvavganzas than any other performer outside of Edmonton and is exited to be back in front of the best Audience in Canada.

Lee White started playing DnD with the kids down the street when he was 9 years old, and when he was ten he took his first acting class at Manitoba Theatre for Young People. He was a dungeon Master at the age of 13 and prefers to play dwarves or magic users over Humans, elves or rangers. He has spent the last 12 years as a member of Winnipeg’s World famous Improv duo CRUMBS. Favorite foes? Gelatinous Cubes, and Beholders. He teaches and performs Improv all over Canada and the world. He still owns his first D20 (faux wood brown).

Veslemøy Mørkrid (Oslo, Norway)

Veslemøy Mørkrid was born and raised by wolves in the dark woods of eastern Norway, and later acclimated to a life in the big city jungle of Oslo, where she started her career as a movie theatre cashier. In addition to her classical acting training Veslemøy`s done some deeper dives into improv – with Keith Johnstone (amongst many others), and method acting – with Robert Castle and Alejandra Orozco at International Theatre New York. Veslemøy started improvising in theatre school seven years ago and joined her first group The Buffalo Heroes in 2006, then she joined Teater Liksom (Sort of Theatre) in 2007 and the following year she formed the all girl – group Brystpanelet (an impossible word to translate; it involves such great things as breasts, wood paneling and discussion forums) which she won The Norwegian Championship in Theatresports with in 2008. Today she´s playing with Teater Liksom and another group roughly translated as The Quicksilver Boys and Veslemøy. This fall she`ll be doing Keith Johnstones LifeGame at Det Andre Teatret (The Other Theatre) in Oslo.

Marte Mørland (Oslo, Norway)

Born and raised by icebears in the bright ice cliffs of southern Norway, and later took a swim to a life in Oslo where the little girl became a WOMAN. The interest for impro came early, and in 2003 she became a member if the impro group Samvirkelaget. Then she managed to get into the prestige actingschool -Oslo national academy of arts, and took a bachelor degree in acting. She started working in “The norwegain theatre”, but did as much improshows as possible inbetween. Today she´s working as a freelance actor, and being a part of the improcompany Teater Liksom, and are soon to open a brand new theatre in Oslo. Det Andre Teatret/The Other Teatre is opening in the middle of august 2011, and is the main focus these days as she is also going to run the theatrecafée.

Nadine Antler (Wurzburg, Germany)

Nadine Antler has been involved with improvisation since 1998. She co-founded, and is the Artistic Director of the improvisation ensemble „Die Kaktussen“ in Wuerzburg, Germany. She has been involved in the development of many longforms and show-formats. In January 2011 she developed and directed a new format for the town theatre in Wuerzburg. Nadine has taught many workshops for actors, improvisers, social workers, teachers, students and business people. She has been a guest lecturer on improvisation and theatre pedagogics at the University of Wuerzburg since 2009. One emphasis in her teaching is her work with children and teenagers, which she was awarded the “Sparda Future Prize for development of youth” in 2008. In 2002 Nadine began the Wuerzburgean Impro-Theatre-Festival, which is the biggest improvisation festival of its kind in Europe. She continues to organize it every October. For her work with the festival she was awarded with the the “Prize for young culture of the City of Wuerzburg” in 2008. Nadine has performed at festivals in South and North America and regularily performs at various improvisation festivals around Europe. She took part in the German Theatresports Cup in 2009 and represented Germany at the international improvisation festival in Chile in 2010. Nadine is one of the two European representatives on Theatresports with the International Theatresports Institute.

Rene Dellefont (Atlanta, USA)

René has been improvising for over a decade, 9 years of which have been as a member of the ensemble at Dad’s Garage. While at Dad’s, René curated and directed The Saturday Morning Pajama Jam, an improvised throwback to the Saturday morning shows of the 80s that featured the world’s only improvised cartoon. During the summer of 2006, he performed at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and took the Saturday Morning Pajama Jam to the Edmonton International Fringe Festival where it was hailed by critics as a live version of MTV’s Wonder Showzen. Over the last decade René has performed at tournaments and festivals in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Providence, Charleston, and Atlanta. In 2008 he joined forces with !nstant Theatre’s Alistair Cook and they toured Canada together.

He is the founder of The Doug Dank Project, which won Creative Loafing’s Critics’ Pick for Best Improv Show in 2008, has directed the last 3 seasons of the improvised soap opera Scandal! at Dad’s Garage, and is currently running the Atlanta chapter of Toronto’s Catch 23. When he is not busy improvising, René DJs under the moniker DJ and the Bear. He used to have a dog named Mitchell.

Kory Mathewson (Edmonton, Canada)

Kory Mathewson is an improvisor. He has been with Rapid Fire Theatre since 2005, when he fell head over heels with the company on Valentines Day. Kory is a preformer in the weekly Theatresports and CHiMPROV shows, and preforms with The Imagineers and Veritas Tassle and the Lie Detectors, which debuted at the 2009 Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

Kory is also a performer with Die Nasty, the Long Form Improvised Soap opera, where he has worked along side Nathan Fillion, Dana Anderson, Joe Flahrety and Julian Arnold. He has also preformed in several 53-hour improvisational marathons in Edmonton, and London, England.

Jamie Cavanagh (Edmonton, Canada)

Jamie “Knifefight” Cavanagh is a local actor and comedian and has been improvising with Rapid Fire Theatre for five years. In preparation for the festival, for the past two weeks he has made the decision to live on the Edmonton streets and only to accept money for his improv talents. With regard to his progress, our contacts inform us that he has been quoted in saying, “this was a big waste of time, no one wants to pay a hobo to do improv,” and “I’m hungry and tired and really I just want to go home, now leave me alone please.” Albeit malnourished and cranky, he is super stoked to be a part of this year’s company ensemble. If you’re around this fringe you  can check him out in the title roll of George F. Walker’s “Zastrozzi” [Surreal SoReal Theatre], or come see his directing debut with “Notes From a Zombie Apocalypse”. Enjoy the show and recycle your shit.