Board of Directors

Co-President, John DuSomme

John started his theatrical career in public school and never looked back, being on stage in a number of school and community productions.

John was part of the Queensville Players 30 years ago. He was involved in several shows shouldering many responsibilities both on and off stage. In his role as producer, director and musical director over the years, he has brought to the QP stage such productions as Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida, the Broadway sensation Man of La Mancha and most recently Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Theater and technical production is a passion for John. His goal, along with the rest of the team, is to bring Queensville Players together as the premier theatre company in the region.

He has worked closely with the previous board and is excited to take the helm with co-president Tanya Gripich to guide QP into an exciting new chapter.

Co-President, Tanya Gripich
After living in various areas across the GTA and beyond while growing up. Tanya eventually moved to the Georgina area to establish roots and raise a family in 2003.

After a 23 year career as a Police Officer in the City of Toronto, Tanya turned in her badge and is now an active, full-time local Real Estate Agent. Tanya was previously on the Board as Costume Manager for the Queensville Players, and has been a part of a number of other boards and committees including, Peaceful Hearts, Jericho Youth Services, Parent Council for Keswick Public School and Newmarket High School, Town of Georgina Safe Streets Committee, Executive member of Udora-Leaskdale Lions Club and Past Chair for the Sutton and District Lions Club. Tanya is also currently a member of the Chamber of Commerce in the Town of Georgina.

A former competitive track and field sprint athlete throughout high school as well with Ontario Master’s in previous years, Tanya is a bargain hunter by nature, a DIY’er at heart as well as a movie enthusiast. She currently resides in Jackson’s Point with her husband and two children.

Tanya became involved with Queensville Players several years ago when both of her children became involved in theatre productions (Wizard of Oz, Honk Jr, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Elf Jr, High School Musical, and Beauty and the Beast.

Starting off as a parent behind the scenes, and helping to coordinate front of house before moving onto the Board of Directors as Costume Manager, outfitting for the productions of “That Summer” and “High School Musical” before taking on the role of Stage Manager for “Beauty and the Beast”
Tanya looks forward to representing Queensville Players in the light it deserves to maintain the reputation of being the best Community Theatre

Family that people wish to belong and move forward with for years to come.

Co-Vice President, Lauren Blanchard

Lauren was born and raised in Keswick, having lived there for 29 years. The Queensville Players has always been her home-base Community Theatre group, being seen on and off stage in many of their productions over the years as well as being a board member several years ago. She has had a deep love for theatre since childhood, pursuing a post secondary education in Musical Theatre Performance (Sheridan College, St. Clair College, St. Lawrence College). Lauren has spent extensive time honing her craft and has studied nearly all aspects of theatre, having a very in depth understanding of what it takes to put on a show. By day, Lauren has worked in Customer Service, Retail Management, and currently in the Utility Services in IT, which has allowed her to develop an assortment of skills to bring to her role with QP.

Lauren has been very fortunate to have had so many wonderful experiences in the theatre world, many credited to The Queensville Players, and she is beyond grateful for the opportunity to give back to such an amazing group and play an integral role in the future of the QP. Lauren hopes to see you at the theatre soon!

Co-Vice President, Chris White

Christopher White is very excited to be joining the board of Queensville Players after having performed in their spring production of Beauty and the Beast as Gaston.
Singing and performing has always been a passion of Christopher’s, having gotten his first lead role in a musical in Grade 8. He has been performing in community theatre for 35 years now, with groups across the GTA. He actually got his start in his career of hairdressing through theatre, working backstage styling hair for a number of productions before he was a professional.

Christopher opened his own salon in 2019, just before the pandemic, and thought he wouldn’t be able to spare the time for theatre anymore. However, being a part of Queensville Players showed him that theatre is an essential part of his life! He is looking forward to helping to shape the next chapter of Queensville Players’ story.
Some of his favourite past roles include, Jerry in the Full Monty with Whitby Courthouse Theatre, Lancelot in Spamalot with Scarborough Musical Theatre, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh in Anything Goes with Etobicoke Musical Productions, and Dr. Sanson Carrasco (The knight of the mirrors) in Man of La Mancha with Etobicoke Musical Productions.

When not performing Christopher loves to travel the world with his partner Marcelo and visit New York to see more theatre.

Treasurer & Property Manager, Colin Melnichuk

Secretary, Nicole Hill  has lived in Georgina since 2002 and has been involved with The Queensville Players since her ensemble role with QP in The Sound of Music.

Nicole is a Programmer in her day job and has combined her skills and her passion for community by donating time to maintaining websites for the community, including this QP website, Georgina Cares, and Georgina Historical Society.

Nicole has several hobbies and passions including reading, working out, travel, gardening, knitting, and oil painting.

Artistic Director, Alyse Squirrell

Alyse is thrilled to be a part of The Queensville Players family! Living in Barrie but originally from Keswick, Alyse has been an avid part of the GTA’s performing arts community for over 20 years, both as artist, educator and leader.  As an educator she has had the pleasure of working with amazing companies such as Ovation Performing Arts for many years, Judy and David’s various shows, The Queensville Players, Dance Express Art Academy and a few other schools across the GTA and Simcoe County as a Dance and Musical Theatre Teacher. Alyse specializes in creating strong characterization in her students, helping them to tell the story of their piece, instilling them with proper technique/training, helping them to understand the “big picture” is and what a performance should look and (most importantly) feel like at the end. She has a deep understanding of what it takes to bring a show to a stage, from backstage to onstage, artistic team to seamstress, she has done it all. Alyse has very strong beliefs when it comes to the importance of team work, organization and commitment in everything she does. Alyse‘s most recent on-stage credits include: Babette and the Dance Captain in Beauty and the Beast (Queensville Players), Columbia in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Mariposa Arts Theatre), Jetsam in The Little Mermaid (SCS Musicals), Thelonius in Shrek the Musical (Marquee Theatre), Margot and Assistant Choreographer in Legally Blonde the Musical (ASTC) and Sharpay Evans in High School Musical (Queensville Players 2010). There isn’t a day that goes by where she doesn’t have some sort of Musical playing in her brain! When she’s not performing or teaching, Alyse can be found at her full-time job, a Sales Manager at St Onge Recreation, where she manages and sells FUN or spending a quiet night at home with a good book and pet snuggles! Alyse is so excited to bring her skills and love of the arts to The Queensville Players as Artistic Director.

Public Relations & Property Manager, Grace Eakin

 

Costume Manager, Jackie Hart
Jacqueline Hart lives in Keswick. She has 2 daughters and is semi-retired.

Jacqueline has been on stage since she was 4 years old, either dancing or singing! She sang with Sweet Adelines acapella York Harmony Chorus for 20 years.

Jacqueline has been involved off stage with Queensville Players for 15 years, but this will be her first time on stage. She hopes you will enjoy the show – and the costumes where you will find much of her blood, sweat, and tears entwined!

Co-Youth Rep, Damien Allford

 

Co-Youth Rep, Beth Jones

Beth has been a part of the Queensville Players since 2014 and is incredibly excited for this opportunity to be a Youth Representative. Beth started her QP journey being onstage in shows like Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz, Into the Woods, and Beauty and the Beast. She also had the chance to be a stage manager for QPs Lost in Yonkers, Elf Jr, Anne of Green Gables, and most recently High School Musical. Beth has worn other hats over the years in many different productions, but her favourite hat to wear is theatre photographer. Her passion is capturing the magic that happens on stage in pictures. Beth is excited for this coming year and is ready for all the challenges and opportunities it has!  

Director at Large, Stacey Brown

 

Director at Large, Michelle Charrette
Michelle is a retired high school French teacher who always ran choirs and shows as an extra-curricular activity. She has been singing and dancing forever, but didn’t fall in love with community theatre until her 40’s, when she played some of her favourite lead roles as Sweet Charity, Aldonza and Baker’s Wife. She has also produced, directed, choreographed, stage managed, music directed and done set design & builds in various productions for OnStage Uxbridge, Borelians, Uxbridge Youth Theatre, and now Queensville Players. Aside from theatre, her passions include languages, travel and gardening.

Director at Large, Doug Hammond

Doug Hammond performed in his first show with Queensville Players over 20 years ago in Brigadoon. He studied music at York University, earning a Master’s in Musicology majoring in Choral Conducting, and has been involved with a number of choirs as Artistic Director; Assistant Conductor; Head of Music Advisory; and President of the Board for Singing Out, Toronto’s Largest 2SLGBTQIA chorus. He is currently the Artistic Director of TEMPO, Toronto’s Queer Tenor and Bass Chorus, as well as Artistic Director for the Seneca Singers. By day, Doug is the Director of Customer Support at Seneca Polytechnic where he actively promotes the value of music and education.
Doug has enjoyed the community theatre stage with various theatre companies in such roles as Cogsworth (Beauty and the Beast); Angel (Rent); Sky (Mamma Mia); Prince Herbert/Narrator/Not-Dead-Fred (Spamalot); Jack (Into the Woods); David (If/Then); and Scarecrow (Wizard of Oz). He is excited to continue supporting Queensville Players in this new role as board member.

Director at Large, Cindy Leitch

Cindy began her formative years in East Gwillimbury, with her first theatre experience being at Sharon Public School, where she played a sailor in H. M. S. Pinafore.  Life events moved her to eastern Ontario where she lived on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, a stone’s throw from the Thousand Islands.  In her career as an educator, she had the opportunity to direct and produce a wide variety of plays and musicals.

More recently she has moved westward across the province working in environmental restoration.  Cindy has had the pleasure to be a member of various community theatre groups and found that collaborative, community art brings much satisfaction.  She has developed programming for a summer theatre camp and is not afraid to tackle procedural guides and policy documents.  One of her mantras is “We have to build capacity.”  To that end Cindy would like to encourage workshops and information sharing through the newsletter.  She is currently working with her Board colleagues to update the by-laws and develop a production procedural manual for Queensville Players.

Director at Large, Ryan MacDougall

 

Director at Large, Tammy Scavuzzo

 

Director at Large, Neil Shanks-Marshall
Neil is excited to be a part of The Queensville Players as a Member at Large. He has been a part of QP since Oliver in 2008 when he was 9. He has been a part of the cast in many other shows put on by QP; Seussical the Musical, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Carol. Neil has also worked behind the scenes as a backstage hand, assisting with lights and sound, and as the stage manager for Honk! Jr. Neil wants to be a larger part of this wonderful community and hopes to be back on the stage and behind the scenes bringing shows to life.

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