Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

Luke Brown

Co-Director

Buddy marks Luke’s Mayfield debut. Recently Luke directed the world premiere of Just Us (Theatre Aquarius) and the national tour of Dianne and Me (Vancouver, Hamilton, Toronto, Prescott and Stratford). Other credits include Orpheus, Black and Blue (Uses for Gooses), Neighbours (Toronto Fringe), and Bittergirl and Kristen Peace: Everything (Theatre Aquarius). As an associate director he has overseen the remounts of High School Musical (Drayton) and Tuesdays with Morrie (Stagewest Mississauga).  Presently serving as the Artistic Associate of Theatre Aquarius, Luke has also been associated with Neptune Theatre, the Charlottetown Festival, and Talk is Free Theatre.

John Banister

Musical Director / Tommy / Buddy Understudy

John is an honours graduate of The Royal Academy Of Music, London (timpani, percussion and piano). He has played with orchestras such as The Royal Philharmonic, Welsh National Opera, and Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet. He won the Hugh Fitch Percussion Prize in 1989. As an actor he appeared in: The Buddy Holly Story at The Victoria Palace Theatre, London, British National Tour, Canada, and Scandinavia (U/S Buddy Holly); Great Balls Of Fire at The Cambridge Theatre, West End, London (U/S Judd Phillips); Jailhouse Rock at The Piccadilly Theatre, West End, London (U/S Vince – Elvis Presley). As a musical director and supervisor, his experience includes: Walking On Sunshine, National British Tour (Assistant MD); Leader Of The Pack, British National Tour (principal keys and conductor); The Buddy Holly Story, The Duchess Theatre, London (Musical Director and Supervisor); piano Conductor for The Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s production of Little Shop of Horrors; and Music Director for The Waterloo East Theatre’s (London) first production Striking 12, British premiere. John was nominated for the Sterling Award for Most Outstanding Musical Director for the Mayfield’s production of The Buddy Holly Story. In 2013/14, John will be Music Director for the British anniversary tour of The Buddy Holly Story and Music Supervisor for Buddy Worldwide LTD and the Theatre Of The Stars North American regional tour.

Christine Bandelow

Choreographer

Christine last appeared on stage at the Mayfield in the Sterling Award-winning production of Chicago. Favourite credits include: Cabaret, West Side Story, and Oliver (Citadel Theatre); Jesus Christ Superstar and Victor/Victoria! (Stage West Calgary); The Merry Widow (Opera Ontario); Damn Yankees (Drayton Festival); Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Neptune Theatre); The British Invasion (Mayfield Theatre); and Rent (Mirvish Productions – Original Canadian Cast and U.S. National Tour). Choreography credits include: Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, The British Invasion, Carousel, Little Shop Of Horrors, Rockin’ Vegas, Peace, Love, Rock ‘n Roll, and The Super Groovy 70s (Mayfield Theatre); Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Neptune Theatre); and Rent (Mexico City, Barcelona and Montreal).

Elisa Atristain

Maria Elena / Ensemble

Elisa is over-the-moon excited to return to Mayfield Theatre and be a part of this amazing show. Elisa has portrayed Maria Elena in previous productions at Calgary Stage West, Edmonton Mayfield Theatre, and Hamilton Theatre Aquarius. Her most recent theatrical performance was at Drayton Theatre in Ontario, where she played Andy in Italian Funerals & Other Festive Occasions. Elisa is a graduate of the Sheridan College Music Theatre program and the Humber College Film and Television program. T.V credits include Toronto’s popular MuchMusic “Disband” and a performance with pop/hip-hop group Cookie Couture. Elisa would like to thank her mom, dad, and brother for always supporting and believing in her dreams. Love you! Now let’s RAVE ON!

Michael Clarke

Apollo Performer / Ensemble

Michael is thrilled to be at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre for the first time for The Buddy Holly Story, a show he loves to perform in. He has performed in over ten productions of the show across Canada: “each time, it is a different journey, working with different actors ad creative teams to tell the Buddy Holly story.” Other theatre credits include: Miss Saigon; The Who’s Tommy; The Lion King; Seussical the Musical; A Christmas Carol; and Legends. Michael thanks his agents Sandy and Yanick for all their support and work, and his friends, family, and Josee for all their love and support.

Michael Culp

Ritchie Valens / Ensemble

Michael is thrilled to be making his Mayfield debut! Past credits include: Juan in Altar Boyz (Arts Club Vancouver); Coricopat in Cats (Theatre Calgary); Issachar/Apache Dancer in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Western Canada Theatre); Nibbles/Bernardo Understudy in West Side Story (Vancouver Opera); and Luis/Chino Understudy in West Side Story (Neptune Theatre). Michael also spent many years as a featured singer on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, where he met his wonderful wife.

Kevin Dabbs

Jerry / Ensemble

Kevin would like to thank Kenny Aronoff, Mickey Curry, Larry Mullen Jr., Stewart Copeland, Alex Van Halen, Steve Hoy, Nick Mason, Chad Smith, Ringo Starr, Jerry Allison, Gene Krupa, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Matt Cameron, and Dave Grohl for teaching him how to play the drums. Kevin is excited to help tell this amazing story with such a great cast! Enjoy the show!

Tiffany Deriveau

Apollo Performer / Ensemble

Tiffany is so very grateful to have been invited to return to the Mayfield.  She would like to thank Van and the creative team for the opportunity to be a part of this fantastic production.  Tiffany previously performed at the Mayfield in The Super Groovy 70s: Parts 1 & 2.  Since then she has kept busy with her recording career, singing aboard Holland America Cruiselines, recording background vocals for Canadian icon Rita McNeil, and preparing to release an album of her own next year. She would also like to thank her fiancée Adil and her family for their love and support. Tiffany is online!!! Follow her on Twitter, like her Facebook page, subscribe to her Youtube channel, see pictures on Flickr, add them to your Pinterest… phew! Are you confused yet? Just go to www.tiffanyderiveau.com for all links, pics, videos and good old-fashioned email. Enjoy the show!

Cathy Derkach

Vi Petty / Ensemble

Cathy has been working as an actor, musician, and instructor for over 25 years in and out of her hometown of Edmonton, and she is so happy to be part of this Buddy Holly experience once again after being in the show here in 2010. Some other Mayfield shows include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Discovering Elvis, and Godspell. She played in the band for Gypsy and Little Shop of Horrors. Cathy is an associate member of Teatro La Quindicina at the Varscona Theatre, and has been in many plays written by Stewart Lemoine: The Hoof and Mouth Advantage, Eros and the Itchy Ant, The Ambassador’s Wives, and A Rocky Night For His Nibs, to name a few.

Some other selected credits include: Into The Woods, Little Shop of Horrors, and A Christmas Carol (Citadel); The Memory of Water (Sterling Award nomination); David Belke’s The Science of Disconnection, for which she won a Sterling Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the physicist Lise Meitner (Shadow Theatre); La Bete (Canadian Stage/Theatre Calgary); Sweeney Todd and Oil City Symphony (the late Phoenix Theatre); as well as many shows with The Leave It To Jane Company, of which she is a founding member. Musical Direction credits include: Anything Goes and Promises Promises (Grant MacEwan University); Nami Namerson: The Viking Who Liked To Name Things (Sterling Award) and  The Infinite Shiver (Teatro La Quindicina); and Rent (Teens At The Turn, Citadel). Cathy is also a proud, happy mom of two gorgeous gals! Upcoming: 9 to 5: The Musical, right here at the Mayfield.

Paul Morgan Donald

Hipockets Duncan / Ensemble

Paul is delighted to return to the Mayfield and the role of Hipockets! Other recent roles include Hank Jeeter in David Belke’s The Minor Keys, Sam Byck in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Assassins (Studio Theatre), and Mr. Moir in Covenant Theatre’s production of Kingfisher Days (for which he received a Supporting Actor Sterling Award nomination.) As a composer and musician Paul has created scores and sound designs for such theatres as the Citadel and the Free Will Shakespeare Festival, and he is the Musical Director for Die-Nasty, Edmonton’s legendary live improvised soap opera.

Sheldon Elter

Big Bopper / Ensemble

Sheldon is thrilled to be back at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre as The Big Bopper. Sheldon’s mom is even more thrilled, and is not sure he can ever top this. His one-man show, Metis Mutt, has won him 2 Sterling Awards, and has toured across Canada and internationally. Other credits include: Beowulf (Workshop West Theatre); Vimy, A Prairie Boy’s Winter, and Julius Caesar (Citadel Theatre); Buddy Holly, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and The Full Monty (Mayfield Dinner Theatre); Hroses: An Affront to Reason (The Maggie Tree); L’Homme de la Mancha (L’Unithéâtre); The Canada Show (Monster Theatre/MTYP); Undiscovered Country (Undiscovr’d Country Collective); Wrecked and Dungeon Master’s Handbook (Azimuth Theatre); Two Gentlemen of Verona: The Musical, The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Twelfth Night and Merchant of Venice (Free Will Players); and Frostbite Christmas (Stuck in a Snowbank Theatre, Yellowknife). Sheldon is a member of the ukulele cover band sensation The Be Arthurs. He starred in the APTN series Hank Williams’ First Nation, and he can be seen in APTN’s sketch comedy series CAUTION: May Contain Nuts. Check out www.delmerandmarta.com.

Jeff Giles

Buddy Holly

After playing to hugely enthusiastic crowds in eastern Canada and his home province of Ontario, Jeff is delighted to bring his interpretation of Rock & Roll pioneer Buddy Holly to Edmonton and the Mayfield. As a child, it was ’50s and ’60s R&B and Rock & Roll that first showed Jeff the power of music, and his interest in playing the guitar developed in tandem with his desire to explore theatre as a teenager. To be able to combine all three into a show that generates such joy in audiences is what keep Jeff putting on those big, black glasses. While here in Edmonton, Jeff is also writing a solo cabaret for Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, to be produced this coming spring. In addition to his work in theatre and music, last summer Jeff began his journey into teaching yoga, a practice that, for him at least, provides an ever-evolving source of support and freedom, both off stage and on. Thanks for coming, folks; enjoy the show.

Ryan Parker

Joe / Ensemble

Ryan is an actor, writer, director, musician, and photographer with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Alberta and a Theatre Arts Diploma from MacEwan University. He is a co-creator of the ukulele cover band The Be Arthurs and a Gemini-nominated writer, principal actor, co-creator, and director for the sketch comedy television series Caution: May Contain Nuts, airing on APTN and BiteTV. Selected theatre credits: The Wedding Singer, The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Buddy Holly Story (Mayfield Dinner Theatre); Nevermore (Catalyst Theatre); If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (MTYP); Mesa (Globe Theatre); East of My Usual Brain (Teatro La Quindicina); Hamlet/Taming of the Shrew (Free Will Players); and What the Butler Saw (Studio Theatre). Selected film credits: Truckstop Bloodsuckers (Mosaic Entertainment). Ryan is elated to be back with familiar faces and blistered fingers, re-learning the stand-up bass for this reprisal of Buddy!

Melanie Piatocha

Mary Lou / Ensemble

Credits for the Mayfield include: The Wedding Singer, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, The Super Groovy 70s, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, Footloose, The Golden Age of Rock, Pop & Doo Wop, and The Golden Age Rocks On. Elsewhere: Cindy Lou in The Marvelous Wonderettes (Stage West); Emmy in Jailbait and Victoria in Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen (Northern Light Theatre); Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Tempest (Freewill Shakespeare Festival); The Innocence and The Porterettes in: Find Me A Primitive Man (Leave It To Jane); and Les Feux Follets (The Charlottetown Festival). Melanie is a proud graduate of the Victoria School of the Arts and Grant MacEwan Theatre Arts Program. Enjoy the show!

Bob Rasko

Ensemble / Jerry Understudy

A very proud Edmontonian actor/musician, Bob is a graduate of MacEwan’s Theatre Arts and Music programs. He is a founding member of Ribbit RePublic with whom he performed in fringe festivals all across Canada, contributing to Be a Man, Water, and Grimmer than Grimm. This is his second appearance in a production of Buddy at The Mayfield. Other credits include Oklahoma, Singin’ in The Rain, and playing Ringo Starr in The Four Lads. Bob has brought together his love of theatre and percussion in a cacophonic method of storytelling that he has been sharing with young audiences at the Edmonton Street Performers Festival, Edmonton Fringe Festival, and various schools around the city. With Concrete Theatre, he has composed and designed live soundscape for A Promise to the Sun and Carnival Magic, and he continues to tour schools in Alberta as part of Concrete’s artist in residency program, where he assists children from K-6 in composing and performing a national anthem for their very own made-up worlds. Along with cast members Sheldon Elter and Ryan Parker, Bob has played in numerous cities across North America as a member of Edmonton’s official ukulele band, The Be Arthurs.

Derek Stremel

Bass / Banjo / Ensemble

After the last show Derek played with Buddy, he went out partying and missed the plane to the next city… true story! And so it is that Derek is once again with us in all his g-g-glory, once again sharing The Buddy Holly Story. This time his buddy is a li’l different but there are still the same great (ugh!) songs to enjoy. Derek’s one and only favourite is “True Love Ways,” a slightly psychotic ditty about a couple in love who think they are the only ones on the planet who know and are entitled to true love…sheesh! Anyhoo…yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah. Hope you dig it!

Mike Zimmerman

Norm Petty / Ensemble

Mike is absolutely thrilled to revisit Buddy with such a fun and talented bunch at the Mayfield. His love for performance has grown through varied experiences in stage, television and radio, a cappella ensemble, and touring theatre. Selected credits include: The Super Groovy 70s: Part 2: Keep On Truckin’, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, The Super Groovy 70s, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Peace, Love & Rock ‘n Roll: Part 2: The Beat Goes On, The Full Monty, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Golden Age Rocks On, The Golden Age of Rock, Pop & Doo Wop, The Wizard of Oz (as Tinman), Only In Canada, Eh?, and Rockin’ Vegas (Mayfield Dinner Theatre); Jailbait (Northern Light Theatre); and Bells Are Ringing (Plain Jane Theatre Co). This past year, Mike was honoured to have been nominated for a Sterling for his portrayal of Jeffrey Moss in Bells Are Ringing. Enjoy and celebrate with us the infectious music of Buddy Holly!

Carmon Arlett

Set & Lighting Designer

This is the third time I have worked on a version of The Buddy Holly Story, and I love his music more than ever. It is a lot of fun designing the lighting and set; it allows you to get more of what you want in an overall look. Some of my favourite shows that I have worked on are Nashville Outlaws, Little Shop of Horrors, and Reunion. Hope you have a great time, a great Christmas, and an awesome New Year.

Pat Burden

Costume Designer

The Buddy Holly Story has always been one of my favourites. This production is full of great actors and musicians and I think the music is better than ever. I had a lot of fun getting everyone to look like they belonged in the late 1950s. I could not have achieved this without the help of my assistant designer, Liz Allison-Jorde. Her ideas and research were a real inspiration. I hope you enjoy the show and have a wonderful holiday season.

Nancy is excited to be working on Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. Some theatre credits include: The Last Tree of Rapa Nui (MTYP); Love Song and The Liars (Shadow Theatre); The Three Musketeers, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, Equus, The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate, A Year with Frog and Toad, and The Syringa Tree (Citadel Theatre); The Early Bloomer (Concrete Theatre); Rock ’n ‘Roll and Fire (Canadian Stage Company/Citadel Theatre co-production); Humble Boy (Theatre Calgary/Citadel Theatre); and The Winter’s Tale Project (OrangeBus Production). Nancy has worked at the Mayfield Theatre for over 45 productions including the Sylvia, Chicago, Tuesdays with Morrie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline, and Evita. Enjoy the show!

Yvette Martens

Assistant Stage Manager

This is my 39^th production as assistant stage manager; overall, this is my 52^nd production at the Mayfield. Some of my favourite productions are: Four Lads Who Shook the World: Parts 1 & 2; Sylvia; Chicago; Boeing, Boeing; The Wedding Singer; Sexy Laundry; The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; The 39 Steps; Super Groovy 70s: Parts 1 & 2; Dark Star: The Life & Times of Roy Orbison; Tuesdays with Morrie; Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story; Dial ‘M’ for Murder; Nashville Icons; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; The Full Monty; Nashville Outlaws; Shear Madness; Rockin’ Vegas; Gypsy; The British are Coming Again!; and Evita. Other credits include Stage Managing Return of the Tenors at the 2006 Fringe Festival. It is a great pleasure to work with such a talented cast and production team! I hope you enjoy the performance. Have a wonderful holiday season!

Adam Beckett

Lighting Operator

Adam has been at the Mayfield for seven seasons, working mostly as a production assistant. Some of his favourite shows have included Peace, Love and Rock and Roll, Little Shop of Horrors, and The 39 Steps. He has worked with various other companies throughout the city, including Theatre Network, Teatro la Qundicina, and the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival. He is also very involved with the two Edmonton-based Fringe theatre troupes, Vi Va VOOM!!! Productions (of which he was part founder and resident stage manager/designer) and Patient Mango Theatre, where he has designed shows such as Hair, Reefer Madness, and Sterling-nominated Bare. When Adam isn’t pushing, pulling, and lighting the Edmonton theatre world, he is working with Axe Productions, lighting various stages. And you may have even seen some of his secret-passion work in the Kingsway or Cross Iron Mills Malls Christmas decorations. Lots of love to my family! Enjoy!

Harley Symington

Live Sound Mix

Having just performed the role of George Harrison in Four Lads Who Shook The World: The Beatles Story: Part 2 (and also Part 1 last year), Harley moves from the stage to the sound booth for this production of Buddy. He got a foot in the door of the Mayfield audio department during last season’s award-winning Chicago, and is looking forward to ‘mixing’ up some good old rock ‘n’ roll this time around. A few other Mayfield highlights as guitarist/performer include Dark Star: The Life and Times of Roy Orbison, Super Groovy 70s: Parts 1 & 2, and Jesus Christ Superstar back in the 90s. He has toured extensively with artists of many different genres, including stops at events such as Lilith Fair and major jazz festivals. Outside of the theatre, he plays and sings with his own group in support of his debut jazz/blues CD, entitled Don’t Talk. He also holds a diploma with honors from the Computer Systems Technology program at NAIT.