Brock Geiger – Sound Designer

Brock Geiger is a musician, multi-instrumentalist and overall sound tinkerer from Calgary, AB. Having first cut his teeth in the local music community with a self-recorded and independently released solo album in 2009, Geiger has continued to push his musical endeavours in all directions; as a songwriter, recording and touring musician, and sound design engineer. As an active member of Calgary based bands the Dudes, RALEIGH and the Dojo Workhorse, Brock has toured extensively in Canada as well as the USA, UK, Germany and the Netherlands. He was awarded a Calgary Folk Festival “Best Performance” Award in 2010 and has shared the stage with bands including DEVO, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Weezer to name a few.

Mark Hopkins – Playwright

Mark Hopkins is a Calgary-based theatre artist and community-builder. He is the Co-Artistic Director of Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre, Calgary’s leading purveyor of fearless site-specific theatre. He’s also thrilled to be associated with artsScene Calgary, ArtsVote Calgary, Calgary Arts Development, the Calgary Foundation, the Mayor’s Arts Champions Committee and VoteKit Calgary, and is the host and founder of We Should Know Each Other.
Some recent honours and awards include:

• The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
• Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2012
• The Calgary’s Herald’s 20 Compelling Calgarians for 2011
• 3rd Hardest-Working Calgarian in FFWD’s 2011 Best of Calgary survey

Mark experienced his professional playwriting debut with Lunchbox Theatre’s 2012 production of Super 8, a play that he co-wrote with Charles Netto, that won the Discovery Prize in the 2011 Alberta Playwriting Competition and that will be adapted into a short film in 2014.
Follow Mark on Twitter at @markchopkins.

Wil Knoll – Performer

Some thoughts since we last produced this show…
1) I still don’t drink coffee…
2) I still don’t enjoy listening to myself. It’s not because my voice
sounds different on the recording compared to how I hear it inside my
own head. Those two things coalesced years ago together. It’s that
when I hear myself on the recording it sounds exactly like how it
sounds in my head.
3) I have started to drink tea at home. Someone said though that tea
is often such a disappointment: Looks good, smells good, warm, little
bit of steam coming off of it… But tastes like dishwater. But yeah,
drinking some tea.
4) Thanks to Swallow-a-Bicycle for letting me create something awesome
with them again. And thank you for letting us do it for you.
Wil Knoll is a massive geek and sometimes artist based in Calgary. You
can play along at home by following @wintr on Twitter.

Ian McFarlane – Performer

Ian McFarlane is a multifaceted artist with a repertoire in performance creation, acting, set design and visual art. His work has an inevitable tendency to blend these disciplines. He is a graduate of the University of Lethbridge, holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Multidisciplinary with Great Distinction.
Over the last three years, Ian’s practice has involved creating new performance pieces, designing sets and acting in various theatre productions in Calgary, Alberta. He has a healthy habit of encountering unique spaces in which to explore character, movement, imagery and text, having created art in mechanical rooms, abandoned houses, under bridges and amongst unsuspecting patrons in coffee shops. Recent performance creation credits include The Hudson Bay Epic (Frivolous Fools Performance), BisonMan: Experiment in Displacement and Image (Independent), Death of the Freak Show (Swallow-a-Bicycle) and Freak Show Redux: Into the Abyss (Swallow-a-Bicycle). As a set designer, Ian has worked with New West Theatre for the last five years, designing such productions as Razzle Dazzle, Tidings, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, Light it Up and Twist and Shout. His practice is a unique blend of performance and design, accessing the manipulation of space and the potential of the performing body.

Charles Netto – Director

Charles is the Co-Artistic Director of Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre.
Charles works primarily as a writer, director and producer. He has directed, and had a hand in writing and creating numerous Swallow-a-Bicycle productions: i­ROBOT Theatre, Eavesdrop: The Coffee Shop Show, Freak Show: Tall Tales and Terrible Truths, Death of the Freak Show, Wanderlust, Shhhh!, as well as shorts A World Gone Mad, Free Coffee and Sprawl.
Charles co-wrote the play Super 8 with Mark Hopkins. Super 8 won the Alberta Playwriting Contest and premiered at Lunchbox Theatre in 2012. Charles and Mark wrote the screenplay for the short film version of Super 8 that premieres in Calgary in March 2014.
Twitter: @nettocharles

Geneviève Paré – Performer

Geneviève Paré is part rolling stone part bonsai with a fierce inclination towards creative expression. In 2013 she was awarded the Betty Mitchell Award for Most Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Drama and the Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Play. She finished the year by receiving Theatre Calgary’s Stephen Hair Emerging Actor Award. You may have seen her recently in Polygraph (Sage Theatre), Be A Man (Productive Obsession), The Hudson Bay Epic (Frivolous Fools Performance), or at your local Co-op, comparing the price of chickpeas. Geneviève is very happy that Eavesdrop is getting redeveloped and that she gets to be a part of the adventure!

Ryan Von Hagen & Brock Geiger – Sound Designers

Bio coming soon.

Shari Wattling – Dramaturg

Shari is Artistic Associate and head of New Play Development at Theatre Calgary. Recent credits at TC include production and/or development dramaturgy for Pride & Prejudice, LOST – A Memoir, Much Ado About Nothing, Tosca Café, Jake and the Kid, Beyond Eden, A Christmas Carol and Assistant Director for ENRON. She is also curator and director of FUSE: The Enbridge New Play Development Program at Theatre Calgary. Shari has been Resident Dramaturg at Alberta Playwrights’ Network and a freelance dramaturg/director for a variety of projects and companies including Quest Theatre, Vertigo Theatre and Lunchbox Theatre. Professional acting credits include productions with Forte Musical Theatre Guild, Vertigo Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, Lunchbox Theatre, Stage West, Quest Theatre, Shadow Productions and Dirty Laundry, Calgary’s live, improvised soap-opera. She is a member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.
Shari is excited to enter the world of Swallow-a-Bicycle on this project, having previously worked as dramaturg on the development of Super 8 with Mark and Charles at Lunchbox Theatre. She prefers a medium-roast with cream and sugar — decaf if it’s after 3pm.