Amanda Brunk
Producer/Resident Music Director
Amanda Brunk (BacMusPerf, MA) is a PAVA-Recognized Vocologist and Designated Linklater Teacher specializing in contemporary voice technique and voice habilitation. Amanda teaches voice for singers at Wilfrid Laurier University and periodically coaches actors at Sheridan College/University of Toronto. She also maintains a successful private studio in Waterloo, Ontario. Her voice students have gone on to perform throughout Canada, on North American tours and in Broadway shows. As conductor of the Grand Philharmonic Youth Choir for eight years, Amanda led the choir to win competitions nationally and internationally, and to perform with grammy-winning recording artists and rock groups.
A passionate advocate for the education and inspiration of young artists, she was the Founder and Music Director of the Music Theatre Academy at Laurier, an intensive three-week performance program for pre-professional emerging artists. Amanda is also the Founder and Artistic Director of The Singer's Theatre, a summer music theatre training program that attracts singers from across North America since 2002, and has served as vocal director for various cruise lines. She is the proud recipient of two Professional Development Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Amanda adjudicates regularly for classical, choral, pop and music theatre categories. from coast to coast. She is vice-president of the Ontario chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and is a published author for the NATS Journal of Singing and VASTA Voice and Speech Review.
Paul Hopkins
Director, Studio Acting
Paul has been working in the Canadian film, television, and theatre profession for over 30 years. His career has given him a broad range of experiences that include performing in theatres across Canada – the Stratford Festival, Theatre Calgary, Centaur Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Festival, numerous roles on screen and 8-years as the Artistic and Executive Director of Montreal’s Shakespeare-in-the-Park, Repercussion Theatre. As a teacher Paul has taught at Concordia University, McGill, Waterloo and more recently at Wilfred Laurier. Paul’s directing credits include 4 Shakespeare productions and 4 operas. Civilized, Paul’s most recent directorial outing, is currently receiving rave reviews across Canada. At the peak of the COVID19 outbreak, Paul staged, filmed, and edited Francis Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmelites for Opera Laurier during COVID19. The production was streamed on YouTube. Paul’s production of Teaching Hamlet, written by Keir Cutler and directed by Paul Hopkins, was runner-up for the Best of the Montreal Fringe in 2011 and was featured at the Centaur Theatre’s Wildside Festival. When not Directing or producing, Paul is an accomplished actor, best known for playing Dale on Disney’s Zombies 1&2&3 and Michael ‘Mouse’ Tolliver in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City Series. In 2013, Paul was one of 3 finalists for the Christopher Plummer Fellowship Award of Excellence.
Corey Agnew
Acting
Selected Credits
LES MISÉRABLES: (Sir Cameron Mackintosh) – Currently the Associate Director of the Broadway U.S. National Tour, Directed the Mexico City production, Resident Director for Mirvish in Toronto and in Australia.
MATILDA: (Royal Shakespeare Company) - Resident Director of the Broadway U.S. National Tour and for Mirvish in Toronto. Deputy-Associate Director in South Korea.
MARY POPPINS: (Disney) – Children’s Director of the Broadway production, the 1st Broadway U.S. National Tour, the Australian production, Associate Director of the 2nd Broadway U.S. National Tour, Resident Director of the Australian Tour.
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA: Director – Sheridan College
THE SUNSHINE BOYS: Assistant Director (Ted Dykstra) - Soulpepper
Gord Davis
Resident Director Emeritus
Gordon Davis graduated with a degree in Mathematics and English from the University of Western Ontario and later earned his Theatre Arts Specialist at the University of Toronto. He has been a major figure in Drama Education for almost 40 years. For 34 years, he was the theatre Arts teacher at Elmira District Secondary School. Mr. Davis started the drama program at EDSS in 1971 with 2 classes. Under his direction, the program grew to be one of the most high profile and high quality programs in Ontario. The plays that Mr. Davis entered in the Sears Ontario Drama Festival garnered hundreds of awards and frequent trips to the Ontario Showcase, and have provided models of excellence for students and teachers across the province. In addition to the honours that his productions have earned, Mr. Davis was named recipient of the Stewart Award for Teacher Excellence in 1990, and was the winner of the 1998 Waterloo Arts Council Award in the performance category for Directing. In 2008 he received the Michael Spence Award from Theatre Ontario for his contribution to young people’s theatre, through the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. Gordon retired from teaching in 2001 to concentrate on a freelance directing career. He is thrilled to be the resident director of The Singers Theatre, to further nurture young singers, providing them with an intense exposure to live theatre with innovative productions of challenging musical works.