Melissa-Jane Shaw: Founder & Interim Artistic Producer
MJ is a theatre director, choreographer, actor and entrepreneur. She has been nominated for two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Best Ensemble Performance, one BroadwayWorld Toronto nomination for Best Female Lead and two BroadwayWorld Toronto nominations for Best Original Choreography.
MJ has choreographed and/or directed 25 musicals, including Crazy For You & City of Angels (Theatre By The Bay), 35MM (Great Hall w/Theatre 20), Rocky Horror (Sudbury Theatre Centre), Blood Brothers, Little Shop, Full Monty, A Chorus Line, Cabaret (Rose Theatre Brampton). She has choreographed the musical movie Country Crush and various episodes of Baroness Von Sketch and Stanley Dynamic, and most recently The Lake (Amazon). MJ has co-created two original shows with the UofT/Sheridan College TDS program (Hazel McCallion Musical & How To Make Love in A Canoe) and is now part-time faculty at the program. In addition to acting in numerous stage shows across Canada and the US, favourite film/TV credits include playing Melanie for 4 seasons on the medical drama, Hard Rock Medical, improvising for two seasons on the Howie Mandel show This Is Howie Do It (Global/NBC) and hosting 2 seasons of What’s Cooking (W Network). More film credits can be seen on IMDB.
MJ is the founder of Seventh Stage Theatre, co-founder of LaRouge Entertainment, creator of FITPOP dance fitness program, and founder of SOUL FUEL Fitness, a boutique studio in Bloor West Toronto. MJ is a mother to Sam and wife to Dan.
Board of Directors:
Leah Eichler
Tess McLean
Nicole North
Karim Kanji
Artistic Associates:
Kelly Straughan: Executive Director of Workman Arts
Rosa Laborde: Writer, Actor and Theatre Director
Past producing interns from our emerging leaders program:
Briana Brown
Sophia Fabilli
Hallie Seline
Jennifer DeLucia
Brittany Kay
Meaghan Hoople
Nicole Lynx
Amanda Ballard
Company contributors and past board members:
Karim Kanji, Meg Sethi, Alyssa Huggins, Dawn Whiteman, Rachel Blair, Rosemary Dunsmore, Debra Goldblatt, Amanda Quinn, Stephania Varalli, Kelsey Matheson, Katherine East and Karen Gilodo.
