A Company of Fools is Ottawa’s longest-running professional Shakespeare company: our mandate is to produce innovative, entertaining and accessible shows based on the works of William Shakespeare.

What’s NEXT!

  • The Merry Wives of Windsor (July 3 - August 17)

    Love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, men and women, English, French and Welsh all collide in this classic clash of cultures, combat of convention and battle of the sexes.

  • Hal & Falstaff (September 2-22, 2013)

    Theirs is a friendship doomed to fall. For when the Prince rises to be King, he must embrace rule and order. What room then for an old and unrepentant lay-about, the very embodiment of disorder itself?

Finding the Fools

Hotline 613-863-PLAY (7529)
E-mail info@fools.ca

Core Fools

  • John Doucet

    John Doucet The Merry Wives of Windsor - Master Ford, Fenton, Simple, Pistol Hal & Falstaff - TBA John is a local multi-disciplinary theatre artist, who juggles acting and set design. Recent performances: Merlin in Ladies of the Lake (Skelet...

  • Scott Florence

    Scott Florence is the artistic director of a Company of Fools, or as he is more commonly known, the Big Fool. He has worked as an actor, clown, director, creator and teacher all across North America with companies including Caravan Tall Ship Theatre, Eddie May Mysteries, Metaphysical Theatre, National Arts Centre and Odyssey Theatre. He teaches workshops all across North America, and favourite places include the Vancouver International Improv Festival and at the University of Regina. He is an associate professor at Algonquin College and a resident trainer with the Canadian Improv Games and the Algonquin College Theatre Arts Advisory Board.

  • AL Connors

    AL has been working in the professional world of theatre since the turn of the century. A graduate of the University of Ottawa’s theatre program, he has been a full-time member of the Fools since 2000 and the Ottawa Regional Director of the Canadian Improv Games since 1999. He is also an instructor of improvisation at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama and professional DJ. FUN FACT: AL’s first gig with the Fools was as a sound designer; he has revisited this role recently by doing the sound design for Lady M and Shakespeare’s Danish Play!

Backstage Fools

  • Louise Hayden

    Lou graduated from University of Humberside, UK, in 1995 with a Fine Art degree in fabric sculpture for dance and performance before going on to teach. She was a Core Member of the Fools until 2009 and has produced costumes (and one set) for the Fools between 2004 - 2010. Lou won the Rideau Award for Outstanding Costume Deisgn for 'A Midwinter's Dream Tale' in 2009 and was nominated for 'Richard 111' and 'Moribund' (Theatrophy Theatre) in 2008. She also works in education workshops for the Fools and developed their elementary schools’ plan.

  • Bridget Grounds

    Hailing from the balmy shores of Australia, Bridget has been living in Ottawa since 2000 with her partner Charlie. In 2006 Bridget was lured by her love of creative, playful, physical theatre into joining the board of A Company of Fools. . .

Former Fools

  • Emmanuelle Zeesman

    Actor, Musical Director & Choreographer Graduate from the University of Windsor in the Musical Theatre Performance Program, Emmanuelle has become a regular in The Fools’ Summer show as well as performing in other foolish productions. Her theatrical favorites include: Lucetta/Sylvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Titania/Hermia in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Julie Andrews in Forbidden Broadway, Shepherdess in Ahmal and the Night Visitors with the Windsor and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, lead vocalist for the New Rochelle Festival in France and as a dancer for the Rolling Stones.

  • Margo MacDonald

    Margo co-founded the Fools in 1990 and has been working with them–performing, creating, and directing–ever since. Fans of the Fools will remember her in such roles as Beatrice/Don John/Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing; ‘Restes in Shakespeare’s Danish Play; Lady Anne/Prince Edward in Richard III: In Bouffon; Kate in Taming of the Shrew; Launce/Sir Turio in The Two Gentlemen of Verona; and Doll in Shakespeare’s Interactive Circus. She also directed The Two Noble Kinsmen and Twelfth Night for the Torchlight Shakespeare series. Outside of her work with the Fools, Margo has appeared on stage with other Ottawa theatre companies, including Odyssey Theatre, Third Wall Theatre, and The Great Canadian Theatre Company.

  • Elizabeth Logue

    Born at an early age and raised in Ottawa, Elizabeth studied English Lit at Carleton University and then travelled this great country acting and training in Whitehorse, Dawson City, Vancouver and Montreal where she went to McGill to study Theatre / Drama in Education. She has trained in clown, mask, physical theatre as well as doing voice and text work. In 1998 she joined the Fools as Assistant Director for their production of Everything Shakespeare Ever Wrote. The rest is Fools’ history … four summers in the park, Fringe shows and a tour to the Halifax Fringe. Her favourite projects to date have been the Fools’ clown piece: The Danish Play and the yet to be fully produced Macbeth: The Musical!

 

Guest Fools Summer 2012

  • Simon Bradshaw
  • Kelly Rigole
  • Katie Ryerson
  • Virginia West
  • Geoff Mc Bride-Director

 

Guest Fools Summer 2011

Guest Fools Summer 2010