Large title text in the centre says "Art of War". Behind, Nick stands in an army uniform, hold an easel under one arm and a paintbrush and cap in the other. Photography by Ted Belton.

Studio Theatre

August 1 – September 27 |

Opens August 20

Modern

THE ART OF WAR

By Yvette Nolan

Directed by Keith Barker

Audience Advisory »

“THIS WAR WILL BECOME A PART OF THE NATIONAL PSYCHE—AND WE'LL NEED A WAY TO TALK ABOUT IT.”

Nick is a young Canadian artist sent to the front lines of the Second World War to capture in paint the experiences of the young nation’s soldiers. Though he wears the uniform of the Canadian army, Nick is set apart from the other men by his unique role as chronicler and eyewitness to the carnage. What Nick observes—what he documents through paint—will transform not only himself, but Canada’s idea of itself in the emerging postwar world.

MEIGHEN FORUM EVENTS

CAST & CREATIVE

CAST

(he/him) Birmingham Conservatory, 2012/2013

2025: Nick in The Art of War, Moody Spurgeon in Anne of Green Gables and understudy in Sense and Sensibility. 12th season. Josue is a Métis actor, teaching artist and mask maker from the traditional territory of the Dane-zaa, Treaty 8, Fort St. John, BC. Stratford: Lazarus in The Diviners, Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing, Cymbeline, King Lear, Hamlet, Death and the King's Horseman, Merry Wives of Windsor, Front Page, Comedy of Errors, Napoli Milionaria!, Tempest, Timon of Athens, Madwoman of Chaillot, The Changeling, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Aeneid, Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Beaux' Stratagem, Mary Stuart, Measure for Measure, Othello. Vancouver: Four seasons at Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival; The Exquisite Hour (Relephant); Wizard of Oz, Seussical (Carousel); The Emperor's New Threads (Axis). Training: Birmingham Conservatory, Director Martha Henry; Studio 58; Canadian National Voice Intensive. Instagram: @laboucanej.

Birmingham Conservatory, 2017/2018

2025: Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables, Newman in The Art of War and understudy in Sense and Sensibility. Seventh season. Stratford: Cymbeline, Hedda Gabler, Richard II, Love's Labour's Lost, Grand Magic, All's Well That Ends Well, Richard III, Henry VIII, The Crucible, The Neverending Story, An Ideal Husband, Julius Caesar, To Kill a Mockingbird. Elsewhere (selected): Serving Elizabeth (Thousand Islands Playhouse); The Other Place (Talk is Free Theatre); The Neverending Story (NAC); Othello (Driftwood Theatre); Love's Labour's Lost, The Winter's Tale (Dauntless City Theatre); Titus Andronicus (Seven Siblings Theatre); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Humber River Shakespeare). Film/TV: The Kings of Napa (OWN); The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu); Mayday (Discovery); See No Evil (Discovery ID). Training: Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre; Brock University (Performance Concentration). Et cetera: Love, peace, and SOULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL TRAIN.

(she/her)

2025: Magda in The Art of War, Gossip in Sense and Sensibility and understudy in Anne of Green Gables. Third season. Elsewhere: Every Brilliant Thing (Burnt Thicket/Live Five, Fire Exit, Globe Theatre, Winterruption); Our Town (Theatre Rusticle/Buddies in Bad Times); Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Comedy of Errors, Macbeth (Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan); Birds and the Bees (Globe Theatre/Persephone Theatre); Drowning Girls, Secret Mask, Pride and Prejudice (Globe Theatre); Farndale Ave...Christmas Carol (Persephone Theatre). Other: House Co (Second City). TV/Film: Workin' Moms (CBC), Benched (Short). Training: Globe Theatre Actor Conservatory, University of Saskatchewan (BFA). Awards: SATAward for Outstanding Performance (Narrator in Every Brilliant Thing, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, and Callie in Stop Kiss). Online: www.jennaleehyde.com. Et cetera: Born-and-raised on Treaty 6 territory in Saskatchewan, Jenna-Lee now lives in Tkaronto. She's very grateful to be here.

(she/her) Red River Métis

2025: Diana Barry in Anne of Green Gables, Heather, Eva in The Art of War and understudy in Sense and Sensibility. Second season. Stratford: Helen, Ghost Mother in Cymbeline and Young Pique, Scots Morag in The Diviners. Elsewhere: Louise in Gypsy, Bella in Gaslight, On The Razzle, Everybody, Flush, Brigadoon (Shaw Festival); Marianne in Sense and Sensibility, Sarah Ballenden (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); Timon of Athens (Shakespeare In The Ruins); Charlie Brown, James and the Giant Peach (MTYP); Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth (Magnus Theatre); Les Flats (Le Cercle Molière); Les Misérables (Rainbow Stage). Opera: Mother in Amahl and The Night Visitors (Edmonton Opera); Rose/Marguerite in Li Keur (Manitoba Opera); Peer Gynt (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra); MESSIAH/COMPLEX (Against The Grain/The Banff Centre). Training: Bachelor of Music (Voice Performance), University of Manitoba. Awards: Juno Award Nominee. Online: www.julielumsden.com. Et cetera: "Onward and upward!" For Uncle Darin, always.

2025: Dennis, Matthaeus in The Art of War and understudy in Anne of Green Gables. 10th season. Stratford: Cool in London Assurance, Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night, Cornwall in King Lear, Balthasar in Much Ado…, Parolles in All's Well…, Reverend Hale in The Crucible, Professor Bhaer in Little Women, Lucullus in Timon…, Wessex in Shakespeare in Love, Karl Gustav in Christina, The Girl King, White Knight in Alice Through the Looking-Glass. Elsewhere: La Bête (Talk is Free); Lion in Winter (Grand); East of Berlin, The December Man (ATP); Am I Not King? (Zone 41); Enron (Theatre Calgary); Beyond the Farm Show (Blyth); The Story (Common Boots); Macbeth (Caravan Farm); A Doll's House (Globe). Film/TV: Murdoch Mysteries, Wilfrid, Charity, Blue Smoke, The Secret of the Nutcracker, See This Movie. Training: NTS. Instagram: @wilkierylan. Awards: John Hirsch Award; Betty Award for Vincent in Brixton. Et cetera: In memory of Agnes Wilkie, the only nurse from all three Canadian divisions - navy, army, air force - to be killed by enemy action in WWII.

CREATIVE

Playwright: The Art of War

Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) is a playwright, director and dramaturg who works across Turtle Island. Her works include the plays The Diviners (with Vern Thiessen), The Unplugging, the dance-opera Bearing, the libretto Shanawdithit, the short play-for-film Katharsis, the VR piece Reconciling. She recently directed Frances Koncan's Women of the Fur Trade at the Stratford Festival and at the Globe Theatre in Regina, Julie Tamiko Manning's Mizushōbai at Tableau d'Hôte, Leah-Simone Bowen's The Flood at Imago, both in Montreal, and Donna-Michelle St. Bernard's The First Stone at New Harlem and GCTC in Toronto and Ottawa. From 2003 to 2011, she served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada's oldest professional Indigenous theatre, where she helped create Death of a Chief, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Her book, Medicine Shows, about Indigenous performance in Canada, was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2015.

(he/him) Métis Nation of Ontario

2025: Director of Foerster Bernstein New Play Development at the Stratford Festival. Director of The Art of War. Third season. Stratford: Dramaturge for A Wrinkle in Time, Louis Riel in Women of the Fur Trade. Elsewhere: Myself in Raised by Women (Prairie Theatre Exchange); Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps (Bruce County Playhouse); Bernard Smoke in Fury, Roger Hughes in Seeds (Blyth); John Joseph in A Soldier's Tale (Signal Theatre); Ensemble in The Speedy (Unspun Theatre); Cornwall in King Lear (NAC); Dr. Daniel in Tombs of a Vanishing Indian (Native Earth); Brutus in Death of a Chief (Native Earth/NAC). Training: George Brown Theatre School. Awards: 2023 Johanna Metcalf Prize; Dora Award, Carol Bolt Award - This Is How We Got Here; SAT Award - The Hours That Remain (New Harlem Productions); Finalist for the Governor General's Award for English Drama. Et cetera: Big love to my wife, Catherine Butler, my family, friends and colleagues.

2025: Set designer of The Art of War and Dangerous Liaisons. 15th season. Teresa Przybylski is an architect and a theatre designer. She is known for her designs in theatre, opera, dance, and film. Her credits include designs for National Arts Centre, Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Pacific Opera, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Calgary Opera, Young People's Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Canadian Stage, and others. Her work in theatre was awarded with five Dora Mavor Moore Awards and seventeen nominations. She is a recipient of two Gemini Awards for Film and Television Production Design. She is a member of The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

(she/her)

2025: Costume designer of The Art of War and assistant costume designer of The Winter's Tale. Seventh season. Stratford: Production design: Never Doubt I Love (Stratfest@Home); Assistant designer: Three Tall Women, Bakkhai; Assistant costume designer: London Assurance, Death and the King's Horseman, The Merry Wives of Windsor, An Ideal Husband. Elsewhere:9-5, Ghost, Lumberjacks in Love (CTF); Orlando (Fanshawe College); Nine (SLC); This is How We Got Here (GLA); the soft spaces, Door Number 9 (Impulse Theatre). Training: 3D Animation and Character Design (Fanshawe College), Master of Scenography (Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL), BFA Theatre Design (University of Victoria). Online: patriciareilly.com. Et cetera: For my parents, and in memory of my grandparents (artist, soldier, refugees, storytellers).

(he/they)

2025: Lighting designer of The Art of War. Second season. Stratford: Assistant Lighting Designer (2019): Private Lives, Little Shop of Horrors, Mother's Daughter. Elsewhere: Select Lighting Design Credits: Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats/Soulpepper), Caseyand Diana (Theatre Aquarius/Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Behind The Moon (Belfry Theatre), After The Rain (Musical Stage Co./Tarragon Theatre), Dixon Road (Musical Stage Co./Obsidian Theatre), Roberto Zucco (Buddies in Bad Times), Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Howland/Crow's Theatre), William Shakespeare's As You Like It: A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal (Crow's Theatre), Hamlet (Canadian Stage), Fairview (Canadian Stage), Alligator Pie (Soulpepper), Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (Theatre Calgary), Agit-Pop (Pearle Harbour). Select Set Design Credits: Bobbie (Theatre by the Bay). Online: logancracknell.com.

(he/him)

2025: Sound designer of The Art of War and assistant sound designer of Annie, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Fourth season. Stratford: The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?, DWP 2022/2024 (sound designer); Get That Hope, Richard II (associate sound designer); Something Rotten!, La Cage aux Folles, Frankenstein Revived, Rent, King Lear, Les Belles-Soeurs, Chicago, Hamlet, Death and the King's Horseman (assistant sound designer). Elsewhere: Sound designer for Resort to Murder, A Huron County Christmas Carol, John Ware Reimagined (Blyth); Jack! A Beanstalk Panto (Capitol Theatre); associate sound designer for Orphée + (Edmonton Opera); composer for BODY, Alone Together, Four, What Happened To Lee (Human Body Expression); Lasterday (Kaeja d'Dance); A Sonata Of Shadows (CCDT); orchestra for Shrek The Musical, 42nd Street, Singin' in the Rain, Piaf/Dietrich, Ain't Too Proud (Mirvish); percussionist with TorQ Percussion Quartet and Ladom Ensemble. Recording: Debut album, Guess I'm a People Too (2019), available on all platforms. Et cetera: Make art, not war.

2025: Stage manager of The Art of War. Seventh season. Stratford: The Diviners (2024), Love's Labour's Lost (2023), Hamlet-911 (2022), A Festival Queerstory (2021), The Front Page (2019), The Komagata Maru Incident (2017). Elsewhere: Citadel Theatre, Arts Club Theatre Company, The Grand Theatre, Pacific Opera Victoria, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Hamilton, Opera Ontario, Edmonton Opera, Opera Atelier, Orchestra London, Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera, Drayton Entertainment, Theatre Plus, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, various theatres in London's West End. Et cetera: Kelly is thrilled to be back! Much love to her boys, Jesse and Maclean.

2025: Assistant stage manager of The Art of War. Seventh season. Stratford: Stage manager: Les Belles-Soeurs; assistant stage manager: The Diviners, Hamlet-911; apprentice stage manager: Hosanna and The Tempest. Elsewhere: Suzanne has enjoyed 16 seasons with the Grand Theatre, six seasons with Drayton Entertainment, six seasons with the Port Stanley Festival Theatre, and has also worked for the NAC, the Blyth Festival, Mirvish Productions, Studio 180 Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times and Tarragon Theatre. Training: B.A. from Brock University. Et cetera: Suzanne lives in London with her children Michael and Charlie.

(she/her)

2025: Apprentice stage manager of The Art of War. Second season. Stratford: Production assistant of the Avon Theatre. Elsewhere: Apprentice stage manager for I'm In Love With Your Sister and Bed and Breakfast (Theatre Orangeville). Stage manager for Into the Woods Jr. (Yellow Door Theatre Project) and The Tempest (Tottering Biped Theatre). Brock/DART intern (Shaw Festival). Assistant stage manager for A Midsummer Night's Dream (Tottering Biped Theatre). Training: Brock University. Et cetera: Endless love and thanks to my friends and family for your unwavering support.