Living the Dream

What do you do when you’re feeling alone? Every Monday, Clare throws a party.

A contemporary look at relationships and loneliness in the Instagram era, Living the Dream is the story of a group of friends told entirely though commercial breaks during a viewing party of a reality TV dating show.

Music & Lyrics: Anika Johnson

Anika Johnson is a Dora winning composer and performer. Selected writing credits include – with her sister Britta: Brantwood (Sheridan), Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang (YPT), Trap Door (with bookwriter Morris Panych; Sheridan) and Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life (Outside the March/The Musical Stage Company); with Barbara Johnston: Blood Ties (Next Stage/featured on Orphan Black), One Small Step (Toronto Youth Theatre/Edge of the Sky Theatre), Fangirl (with bookwriter Nick Green; The Musical Stage Company), and Summerland (with Suzy Wilde; Toronto Fringe). Last year, she dramaturged the critically-acclaimed American premier of Life After at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego and upcoming projects include commissions from the Stratford Festival and Crow’s Theatre. When the world isn’t in lockdown, Anika performs internationally with Corpus DanceProjects and Wannabe: A Spice Girls Tribute.

Music & Lyrics: Barbara Johnston

Barbara Johnston is Toronto based performer and a Dora-nominated writer and director. Writing credits include – with Anika Johnson: Blood Ties (Next Stage Festival/SummerWorks/Edinburgh Fringe/featured on BBC America’s Orphan Black), and Elly’s Emotions (2015 Dora nominee, Outstanding TYA Production); Summerland (with Suzy Wilde; Toronto Fringe 2015, Edge of the Sky Theatre) The Fence (with Suzy Wilde; Toronto Fringe 2016, Edge of the Sky Theatre); Maddie’s Karaoke Birthday Party (Toronto Fringe 2017, Charcoal Sketch) and with Anika Johnson has written three musical commissions for The Randolph Academy, and about to begin a fourth . Barbara is a founding member and has been seen on stages across North America and as far as the Middle East as Ginger Spice in Wannabe: The Spice Girls Tribute Band. She stars as ‘Gwen Stefani’ in Spiderwebs: The No Doubt Tribute Band and works as a singer with Sean Jones, gigging with multiple bands in Toronto. She has
directed/choreographed for Outside the March and soon with The Musical Stage Company and musical directed for Expect Theatre’s Beats and
intentions project. Barbara works regularly with the award winning Wexford Gleeks (Wexford School for the Arts) and runs a private music studio.

Book: Nick Green

Nick Green is a Dora Mavor Moore and Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award winning playwright, and the creator of the Social Distancing Festival (socialdistancingfestival.com). Credits include Happy Birthday Baby J (Shadow Theatre); Every Day She Rose (Nightwood Theatre, co-written with Andrea Scott); Fangirl (book; Musical Stage Company, Launch Pad); In Real Life (book; Canadian Music Theatre Projects); Dinner with the Duchess (Next Stage Festival, BroadwayWorld Toronto Award); Body Politic (Buddies in Bad Times/lemonTree Creations; Dora Award); Poof! The Musical (book and lyrics; Capitol Theatre, Sterling Award nomination); The Fabulous Buddha Boi (Guys UnDisguised, Sterling Award); Triple Platinum and 2 Queens and a Joker (co-writer; Guys in Disguise). Nick has been a part of the Stratford Festival’s Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program; Factory Theatre’s Natural Resources unit; Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip; and Sheridan College’s Canadian Music Theatre Project.

Director: Mitchell Cushman

Mitchell Cushman is a director, playwright, and founding Artistic Director of Outside the March, one of Canada’s leading immersive theatre companies. His work has been seen on stages as large as the Royal Alexander Theatre, in spaces as intimate as kindergarten classrooms and living rooms, and in locales as far flung as London, New York, Whitehorse, Edinburgh, Munich, Finland and Japan. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he has been working to explore new possibilities for live performance, co-creating projects like internationally-acclaimed telephonic adventure The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries (OtM), and the “Grand Act of Theatre” Something Bubbled, Something Blue (NAC/TIFT/OtM). In 2015 he and Julie Tepperman co-created the award-winning Brantwood as part of Sheridan College’s CMTP – Canada’s largest exploration of immersive musical theatre. In 2018, he co-created and director the intercontinental three-day immersive experience, The Curious Voyage.
Recent Directing Credits include: The Tape Escape, The Flick, Dr. Silver, Jerusalem, Lessons in Temperament; The ExBoyfriend Yard Sale; TomorrowLoveTM (Outside the March); Treasure Island, Breath of Kings, Possible Worlds (Stratford); Hand to God; The Aliens (Coal Mine); Merrily We Roll Along (YES Theatre); Hand to God (RMTC). Mitchell has been the recipient of the Siminovitch protégé award, a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction, three Dora Awards for Outstanding Production, and his productions have received 14 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards. He holds an MFA degree in Directing from the University of Alberta.

Music Director: Suzy Wilde

Suzy Wilde is a Canadian songwriter, composer and arranger based in Toronto. She has written scores for the musicals (with Barbara Johnston) Be Kind, Rewind (Randolph Academy, Edge of the Sky Theatre), (with librettist Matt Bernard) Crack of Doom! (Bravo Academy, Yellow Door Theatre), ( with librettist Julie Tepperman)The Power of One ( Regent Park School of Music Choirs) and (with Anika Johnson and Barbara Johnston) Summerland (Edge of the Sky Theatre, Toronto Fringe). Wilde has composed and arranged for Sheridan College, Spectrum Composers Collective, Musicata Hamilton’s Voices, The Regent Park School of Music Choir, Musical Stage’s Make Me a Song and Noteworthy, The Guelph Youth Choir and The Wexford Gleeks. This year her new musical The Carrette Sisters (book by Rose Napoli) will premier as part of The Musical Stage’s Launchpad series.

Wilde is a proud graduate of Wexford Musical Theatre and Humber College Music and is currently working towards a masters in composition at York University. She has played and recorded with many bands, and often tours the globe portraying “Posh Spice” in the popular band she co-founded, Wannabe: A Spice Girls Tribute.

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Cast & Creative Team

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