The Monkiest King
Composed by Alice Ping Yee Ho with a libretto by Marjorie Chan
May 30 – June 1, 2025 | Harbourfront Centre Theatre | 231 Queens Quay W, Toronto, ON M5J 2G8
Over the centuries, the tale of the Monkey King, Sun WuKong, has become one of the most popular comic stories. It is about a mischievous yet determined mythological being who rises from humble origin to become a great protector of humanity. He learns about chivalry, gallantry, and compassion through a series of adventures including: an escapade in the animal kingdom, trouble with the Jade Emperor, enlightenment by the goddess Kwanyin (Goddess of Mercy), and concludes in a brave act to rescue a village from floods.
Join the mythical Monkey King as he matures through his adventures as a young super-powered monkey. This clever retelling of the Song Dynasty character is by the award-winning team of Alice Ping Yee Ho and Marjorie Chan, and brought to life by the talented children and youth of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, accompanied by a professional chamber orchestra of Western and Chinese instruments.
Suitable for all ages.
Performance and Ticket Information
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes without intermission.
School Previews
Friday, May 30, 2025 – 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Public Performances
Friday, May 30, 2024 – 7:30 p.m. Opening Night
Saturday, May 31, 2025 – 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 1, 2025 – 3 p.m.
Tickets
Public Performances: Adult – $42 | Senior – $32 | Youth (18 and under)/Arts Worker/School & Youth Community Groups – $27
School & Youth Community Groups which serve young people (music schools, children’s choirs, etc.) are eligible to purchase group tickets (minimum of 10) to public performances with each youth ticket costing $27. The CCOC is pleased to provide one complimentary adult ticket for a teacher/chaperone for every 10 youth School & Community Group tickets purchased. Additional chaperone tickets can be purchased for $27 per teacher/chaperone. All youth tickets must be used by young people 18 and younger.
Tickets to our public performances will be released for sale on February 12, 2025.
School Previews (School groups only): $15
The CCOC is pleased to provide one complimentary adult ticket for a teacher/chaperone for every 5 students booked at our school preview performances. Additional chaperone tickets can be purchased for $15 per teacher/chaperone.
For more information regarding student group tickets and to reserve your tickets for the school previews, please contact the Harbourfront Centre Theatre’s Box Office at 416-973-4000 and choose option #1 | tickets@harbourfrontcentre.com. Please note that the Harbourfront Centre Box Office is open Wednesday to Sunday, from 12:00 p.m. until 6 p.m.
Tickets to our school previews will be released for sale on January 29, 2025.
DEAN BURRY
Composer & Librettist
Composer and librettist Dean Burry is a storyteller, through both text and music. This passion can be attributed to being a proud Newfoundlander, where music and community are at the centre of its culture. In addition to his extensive work in the opera and concert music fields, Dean has become one of the world’s leading composers of children’s opera, his works receiving performances across Canada, the United States, Europe, China and Brazil. At over 600 performances, his opera The Brothers Grimm is one of the most produced operas of the twenty-first century and his operatic adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit recently received its European premiere to sold out houses in Ljubljana, Slovenia. His other major works include: Shanawdithit (Tapestry Opera), Il Giudizio di Pigmalione (COSA Canada), The Scorpions’ Sting (Canadian Opera Company), The Vinland Traveler and Le nez de la sorcière (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Pandora’s Locker (The Glenn Gould School), The Mummers’ Masque (Toronto Masque Theatre), the CBC serial radio opera Baby Kintyre (released on the Centredisc and Naxos labels in September, 2014), and Beacon of Light (Rising Tide Theatre). Burry is currently an Assistant Professor at the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen’s University and Artistic Director of the school’s Music Theatre Creation Program.
Allison Grant
Director & Choreographer
Canadian theatre and opera director, teacher, choreographer and actor, Allison Grant performed at the Stratford Festival, at the Old Vic in London, and in tours and productions across Canada, the United States and England. As a director and choreographer she has worked in theatres and at opera companies from Alaska to Hawaii to Florida and across Canada, Halifax to Vancouver. Allison recently choreographed the wall climbing and flying sequences in Gould’s Wall for Tapestry Opera. Directing work includes the National Arts Centre semi-staged production of Le nozze di Figaro with the NAC Orchestra and Conductor Alexander Shelley for their 50th Anniversary Season, director and choreographer for Anchorage Opera’s HMS Pinafore, and Pirates of Penzance as well as Carmen and Alcina at Western University. In past seasons she has directed The Auction (world premiere: Westben Festival), Die Zauberflöte (Sarasota Opera), Cosi fan tutte, Roméo et Juliette (Vancouver Opera), L’Italiana in algeri (L’Opéra de Montréal), Falstaff, Don Giovanni and Carmen (Hamilton Opera), and A Meeting of Minds (Canadian Stage, Toronto). As a choreographer her work has been seen in Pirates of Penzance (Vancouver Opera) The Merry Widow for opera companies in Hawaii, Edmonton and Hamilton, Die Fledermaus, Ballo in maschera and Eugene Onegin (Vancouver Opera, Kentucky Opera) As well as numerous productions for the Canadian Opera Company. Allison directed plays and musicals including Master Class, Private Lives and the Canadian premiere of Itamar Moses’ brilliantly funny play, Bach at Leipzig. Delighted to be back at the CCOC with it’s incredible conductor, Teri Dunn, Allison is looking forward to sharing Dean Burry’s THE HOBBIT with new young singers and audiences of all ages.
TERI DUNN
Music Director
A celebrated singer, conductor, and educator, Teri has been the Music Director of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company since 2015. She also holds the position of Dean of Choral Studies at the St. Michael’s Choir School, where she conducts three of their internationally acclaimed choirs. Her choirs have appeared at Carnegie Hall, at the Vatican, at the Toronto International Choral Festival, and been awarded first prize in the National Competition of Canadian Amateur Choirs. Besides choral programmes, she has prepared the Children’s Chorus and soloists for numerous Canadian Opera Company productions including La Bohème, Carmen, The Magic Flute, and Hansel and Gretel. She has led several operas with the CCOC including the world premiere of Alice Ho’s The Monkiest King (recorded for CMC) and a European tour of Hans Krasa’s Brundibar. Teri is a recipient of the Leslie Bell Prize in Choral Conducting.
Julia Tribe
Designer (Original Production)
Julia Tribe is a seasoned theatre designer with over 40 years of experience designing for Theatre, Opera and Dance, her innovative designs having received recognition in major companies across Canada and Internationally. Her work with the CCOC includes: The Snow Queen, A Midwinter Night’s Dream, and The Hobbit. Now living in Thunder Bay Julia has broadening her collaborative role, becoming a certified expressive arts therapist and community arts facilitator, who uses multimodal exchange as a tool of wellness and vision. She believes passionately that the arts can facilitate personal & social change, and art making, a shape-able medium to explore difficult conversations in unexpected ways. Working with people of all ages and capacities, honouring diverse voice and unique stories, while nurturing the inter-connectivity we share through collaborative exchange.
Jung-Hye Kim
Designer (Remount)
Jung-Hye is a Toronto based set and costume designer. Her other design credits include Guilt a love story (Tarragon Theatre), Lady M (1S1 Theatre), The Chinese Lady (Studio 180, Dora award for outstanding costume design), The Nightingale of A Thousand Songs (CCOC), Hamlet-911 (Stratford Festival), An Imm-Permanent Resident (Why Not Theatre), Hilot Means Healer (Cahoots Theatre), Dry Powder (Evermore Theatre), Now You See Her (Quote Unquote Collective, Dora nomination for outstanding costume design), Shirley Valentine (Thousand Islands Playhouse), Prairie Nurse (Factory Theatre), Flying Heart (set-Theatre Direct), Kiss (Theatre Smash), Snow Queen (Theatre New Brunswick), Tideline (Hart House Theatre and Canadian Rep Theatre), Das Ding (costume-Theatre Smash), Armstrong’s War (costume-Canadian Rep Theatre), Durango (Fu-gen theatre and Theatre Smash), Small Axe (Project Humanity and The Theatre Centre), Minotaur (set-YPT), Pacamambo (costume-Canadian Rep Theatre), Passion Play (set-Outside the March, Convergence Theatre and Sheep No Wool Production), Boblo (Kitchenband Production and The Theatre Centre, Dora nomination for outstanding set design).
André du Toit
Lighting Designer
André du Toit is a lighting designer for live performance based in Toronto, although his designs have been seen across Canada and beyond. He has received five Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design. His recent designs include Three Sisters (Soulpepper), The Queen in Me (Canadian Opera Company/Nightwood Theatre/Theatre Gargantua); Universal Child Care, Now You See Her, Mouthpiece (Quote Unqote); Here Lies Henry (Factory Theatre); speaking of sneaking (Buddies in Bad Times); Très Loin (Bouchardanse); Lady M (1S1 Theatre); Maanomaa, My Brother, Love and Information (Canadian Stage); Prince Hamlet, What You Won’t Do For Love, (Why Not Theatre); R+J (Stratford Festival of Canada); Italian Mime Suicide, Paolozzapedia (Bad New Days).
Anna Spencer
Stage Manager
ANNA SPENCER (They/She) Role: Stage Manager Previous Works: La Boheme (Canadian Opera Company); Flight (Glenn Gould School); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Neptune/Mirvish); Emma Bovary (National Ballet of Canada) Detroit: Music of a Motor City, A Christmas Carol (Soulpepper); Women of the Fur Trade, The Crucible (Stratford Festival); Vierge (Factory Theatre); Entrances & Exits (The Howland Company); Gould’s Wall, Hook Up, Oksana G. (Tapestry Opera); Juno’s Reward, Cabaret, Prom Queen (The Grand Theatre); The 39 Steps (Capitol Theatre); The Hound of the Baskervilles, Kingfisher Days, Stage Kiss (Festival Antigonish) Other: Anna is a graduate and instructor at TMU’s Theatre Production Program in Toronto.
Mabel Wonnacott
Assistant Director
Mabel Wonnacott is a Toronto-based opera director, performer, and arts educator. She recently completed a diploma in Operatic Stage Directing with the University of Toronto. This winter, Mabel made her main stage directing debut with the world premiere of Lysistrata Reimagined, an opera by the New Composers Collective. With one foot in the world of puppetry, Mabel’s approach to opera often incorporates interdisciplinary practices. Mabel is the Creative Director of Can of Soup Collective where she produced and directed operas such as Bon Appétit! and Aunt Helen. Other directing credits with U of T Opera include Mostly Mozart (2024), Setting the Stage (2023) and scenes from the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre Concert Series (2022/2023). Mabel was the assistant director for U of T Opera’s 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons where she worked with Maria Lamont (Cendrillon), Jennifer Tarver(Un Capello di Paglia di Firenze), Kelly Robinson (A Tale of Two Cities) and Michael Albano (A Comedic Trilogy). She was also the assistant director for Western’s 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons where she worked with Anna Theodosakis, Allison Grant and Michael Cavanagh. In 2023, Mabel was the opera directing participant for the Banff Centre’s Opera in the 21st Century program where she was the associate director for Don Giovanni (original direction by Joel Ivany). She was also the assistant director for Ivany’s production of Don Giovanni with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Mabel is interested in many aspects of theatrical production and completed a technical residency with Koerner Hall in 2023. Mabel considers herself a teaching artist and is an avid believer in opera as a vehicle for human connection and social change. She is the Ontario Provincial coordinator for Opera InReach and often works with young people as an arts educator. She is currently working with the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus as Assistant Director for their production of The Hobbit and will be the stage director for RCM’s High School Summer Vocal Intensive. Mabel will direct The Glenn Gould School’s fall 2024 opera production.
Doug MacNaughton
Gandalf & Voice of Smaug the Dragon
Doug MacNaughton started performing professionally with Edmonton Opera in 1982. Since then, his career has taken him throughout Canada, Europe and the United States. In 2023, he has performed the roles of Antonio in Marriage of Figaro with the Canadian Opera Company, the title role in Don Pasquale for ItalFestMontréal, and Fran in 2022, he has sung the role of Bartolo in Le Barbier de Séville for ItalFestMontréal 2022, played the role of Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night for the Saint Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, sang Leporello in Don Giovanni for l’Opéra de Québec, and played guitar and euphonium while singing the roles of The Governor and The Innkeeper in an actor/musician production of Man of La Mancha for Magnus Theatre/Garner Theatre Productions. The previous year, he was Maestro Spinelloccio in Gianni Schicchi for the Canadian Opera Company, and Bartolo in Le Barbier de Séville for l’Opéra de Québec. He is also known for the Live from The Back Seat concert series, where he sang, played, and read poetry from his car. Also, he’s recently released Old Enough to Know Better, a recording of eight of his original songs in 2023.
Lindsay McDonald
Assistant Stage Manager
Lindsay McDonald is a Toronto-based emerging theatre practitioner and a 2020 graduate of The University of Waterloo’s Arts and Business program majoring in Theatre and Performance. She specializes in Stage Management and Technical Production. Recent credits include: Apprentice Stage Manager on La Boheme (Canadian Opera Company, 2023), Stage Manager on Corporate Finch (Port Albert Productions, Toronto Fringe 2023), Apprentice Stage Manager on The Nightingale of 1000 Songs (Canadian Children’s Opera Company, 2023), Assistant Stage Manager on Kings Playlist (Culchaworks Arts Collective, 2023), Production Assistant on The Magic Flute, The Flying Dutchman and The Marriage of Figaro (Canadian Opera Company, 2022- 2023), Stage Manager on Shaded (Cosmic Fishing Theatre, 2022), Assistant Stage Manager on Chloe=Catalyst (Culchaworks Arts Collective, 2021), Production Assistant on Angel (Opera Atelier, 2021).
Laura Phillips
Production Manager
Laura Philipps is a producer and production manager of theatre, dance, and multimedia works, based in Toronto Treaty 13 territory. She works primarily with artists to develop ideas through the workshop and presentation phases, particularly through a design-led methodology. Passionate about technology and performance, Laura is producer of 3 projects that reimagine audience interaction through technology: “Henry G20” (AR Mobile App, 2021) and “Rella’s Cambrian Dream” (Hybrid WebApp/In Person, 2022) and “What Brings You In” (Sound-Based Hybrid WebApp/In Person, 2024). With Associate Professor Christine Brubaker at University of Calgary, Laura is on the forefront of human-computer interaction and live performance hybrid working models blending technology product development and theatrical collective creation. She works ongoing with Pratibha Arts, a South-Asian influenced performing arts charity; Lester Trips, a questionably comedic theatre and film company developing new works inspired by physical theatre and social commentary on the digital age; and The Fire and Rescue Team, a Blind-led theatre collective who produced a new play and digital art space “Perceptual Archaeology (or How To Travel Blind)” (2023). Laura is a member of Means of Production, a collective of production managers and technical directors improving the working conditions of production leaders through shared resources, peer support, and professional development. Laura has been a guest speaker at Centennial College, Humber College, PACTCon, CITT Rendez-vous, Mid-America Theatre Conference, and was a Hart House Theatre Festival Adjudicator. She has worked in various production leadership positions at Theatre Passe Muraille, The Bentway Conservancy, Luminato Festival Toronto, Tarragon Theatre, Crow’s Theatre, Toronto Fringe Festival, Coal Mine Theatre, among others. www.lauraphilipps.com
David Hoekstra
Head of Props
David is an acquisitive props master and builder for hire, whose work has been seen in most every theatre throughout Toronto over the last 35 years. David has also been the props master for George Brown College Theatre School since 1997. Known for his extensive collection of antique electric toasters, vintage stage lights and has a fondness for ray guns, which surprisingly took a long time for him to realize. David looks forward to retiring, possibly to an organic farm, hopefully before the zombie apocalypse arrives. If you are interested in David’s extensive list of credits, somewhat out of date, and too boring to write about here, visit: https://ttdb.ca/people/david-hoekstra/
Sarah Soares
Apprentice Stage Manager
Sarah Soares is the Apprentice Stage Manager for The Hobbit. This is Sarah’s first show with the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, and she would like to thank the entire CCOC company for having her on board! Previously, Sarah has been a stage manager with the City of Burlington and Southern Toronto Lyric Opera. She is also the Production Manager of Breadbox Theatre, premiering their debut show The Bread Cycle this summer at the Hamilton Fringe Festival. Check them out @breadboxtheatreco !
Perseus Rebelo
Head of Wardrobe & Costume Coordinator
Perseus Rebelo (he/him) is a costumer, writer, and enthusiast of all things creative, born and based in Toronto. A York U alum, he has done costume work for over ten years, for many theatre productions, short films, and cosplay. He is super excited to be with the CCOC once again for this production of The Hobbit!
Aislinn Ritchie
Projected Titles Operator
CCOC Debut: 2012 Laura’s Cow
Highlights:
- Nightingale of a Thousand Songs, Snow Queen, Monkiest King, Brundibar – CCOC, Projected Titles Producer
- Tears of the Knife, Back and Forth, Fledermaus, Magic Flute – GGS, Surtitles Operation
- Who Killed Adriana – UofT Opera, Surtitles Operation
- Traviata, Marriage of Figaro – Toronto City Opera, Projected Titles Operation
- Kopernikus – Against the Grain, Projected Titles Operation
- Hadrian, Otelo, Rusalka, Hansel & Gretel, Carmen, Magic Flute, Fidelio, Figaro, Tosca, Cunning Little Vixen, Medea – COC, Surtitles Assistant
Upcoming:
- Aportia Chryptych – COC, Surtitles Assistant