Lionel Walsh, Prof.
School of Dramatic Art
Inspired Acting Lab, Director
walsha@uwindsor.ca
July 2024, Walsh directed Mary's Wedding presented by the Inspired Acting Lab and Heritage Colchester. Mary’s Wedding was written by Canadian playwright, screenwriter and actor Stephen Massicotte and directed by acting professor Lionel Walsh, at Christ Church Anglican Church, 190 Bagot Street, in Colchester.
One of Massicotte’s first full-length works, Mary’s Wedding, was the winner of the 2000 Alberta Playwriting Competition and received its world premiere at Alberta Theatre Projects in 2002. It won the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play in 2002, and the 2003 Alberta Book Award for Drama. The play quickly went on to become a Canadian theatre favourite which has currently had more than 120 productions at home, as well as the USA, France, Scotland, New Zealand, and Germany.
July 2023, Walsh directed Almost, Maine by John Cariani. It was presented as a co-production with Heritage Colchester for two weeks in July; as a co-production with Northern Bruce Theatre (Walsh is artistic director) in Lion’s Head for one week and at the Uxbridge Music Hall for one week. He hired three graduating BFA students and two upcoming fourth year students, one in BFA who worked as an actor, and one in Concurrent BA Drama/B.Ed as Stage Manager.
During the year, Walsh directs the Inspired Acting Lab, which is supported by Ignite. In the Lab they create and refine new acting Exercises in Fantastic Realism and test them using monologues and scenes. They then test them in the plays Walsh directs each year. To date we have done:
Whale Riding Weather by Bryden MacDonald (tour to Brighton Festival Fringe and Plymouth Arts Festival; Walsh had the lead role); Down Dangerous Passes Road by Michel Marc Bouchard (Brighton Festival Fringe and School of Dramatic Art); Brave Hearts by Harry Rintoul (Ryan Rep Theatre, Brooklyn, NY and The Box Theatre, Toronto); Choking the Butterfly by James Johnson (Walkerville Theatre and Storefront Theatre, Toronto), Salt-Water Moon by David French (tour to Lion’s Head and the LaSalle Theatre, Kirkland Lake, ON) and Falling: A Wake by Gary Kirkham (toured to Colchester, Lion’s Head and the LaSalle Theatre). The Inspired Acting Lab began in 2013 with an Undergraduate Research Experience Grant.