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.

Renee Salewski

Junior and Senior Intensive Director

Renée is a vibrant performing arts professional with twenty-five years of diverse performing, teaching, writing, and directing experience from the stage to film and television. Creative opportunities as a performer, teacher, and director have taken Renée all over the UK, London’s West End and off West- End, Europe, Canada, Korea, Central Asia, and many other inspiring places. As a dual citizen of UK and Canada, Renée spent most of her early years as a professional performer in the UK (D’Oyly Carte, English Touring Opera, Arcola Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Canterbury Cathedral) while also maintaining a position on the voice faculty at Canterbury Christ Church University; where she taught and coached on both the classical and musical theatre/CCM music degree programs. Projects during the pandemic saw Renee remotely direct and coach singers situated across the globe in several remotely filmed operas (COSA Canada) and continue to teach her international roster of students online. In 2022, she became an RBC Artist Mentor with the Association for Opera in Canada, continued her work as a teaching artist with the Canadian Opera Company, was named Second VP of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Ontario Executive, was brought in as a Choral Clinician to the Durham Girls Choir, invited to guest coach/deliver masterclasses at the National Opera Studio (London, England), Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, University of Toronto, and Hart House Theatre, and she became a core faculty member on the Canadian Opera Company Summer Intensive (dramatic coaching). Upcoming engagements include: Adjudicating at festivals across Ontario, several projects as a Teaching Artist with the Canadian Opera Company (librettist/dramaturg/director/coaching and teaching dramatic integration), directing the junior and senior programmes for The Singer’s Theatre Intensive, and the launch of *The Drop-In* and The Audition Clinic, two exciting new training programs for singing actors.

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