Joel Grothe - Adjudicator for the 2012 Drama Festival

"It's a privilege to be invited back to Hart House Theatre to adjudicate the Drama Festival. Hart House Theatre is a holy place for me, where I spent more time when I was at U of T than I did in the classroom, and where I began the career I have today. I look forward to coming back to the space where I was so inspired, to see the work of so many students inspired in the same way I was. It was at the Drama Festival in 2001 that I met Jeremy Hutton for the first time, now Hart House's Artistic Director, and one of my best friends and colleagues these past 11 years. It was at the same festival I had my first meaningful conversations with David Gardner, another true friend, mentor and spiritual father. The Drama festival is a wonderful event, and I am thrilled to be a part of it."

Joel Grothe teaches acting & directing and is the Head of the Performance Curriculum at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.  He has a B.A. in English from U of T and he acted in many plays at Hart House Theatre as a student. Joel co-founded the Canopy Theatre Company with Doug Floyd in 2001. He has a MFA in Acting from the University of Virginia, and has trained recently at the American Shakespeare Center & with Acting for the Camera master Tom Logan. Recent stage credits include the title role in The Devil’s Disciple (Theatre in the Round- Minneapolis) The Skin of Our Teeth, and the multi-Ivey Award winning Street Scene (Both produced by Girl Friday in Minneapolis). Joel is represented by Moore Creative Talents’ voiceover division in Minneapolis and can be heard voicing a number of commercials, most recently for Irish Setter Work Boots™. One of the founding producers of Kingfisher Films (LLC)™, Joel has produced and directed the short films Can’t Sleep and The End of Something, and produced and co-directed Gasoline and Matches with Konstantin Brahznik. He is the author of the play Gracious Living, and an adaptation of Granville Barkers’ Waste. He is currently working on a film version of J.B. Priestley’s I Have Been Here Before to be produced by Kingfisher in 2013. Joel is represented on-camera by Pastorini-Bosby in Houston.

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