Meet the Creative Team
June Cupido
Director, Story Weaver
Truth and Illusion follows a series of monologue workshops June has developed and presented in Oakville, Ontario. In creating these monologues, June discovered the development process could lead to script writing.
For June, Truth and Illusion is a soul-searching exercise as it takes an intense creative process for someone to come up with a heartfelt monologue. June asked the performers to dig deep. June calls the complete process of crafting the narrative response: Deep, Dark, and Delicious. As each performer processes their world inside, they can discover enlightenment. This method is inspired by the three main stages of the "Hero’s Journey", a narrative pattern identified by Joseph Campbell, world-celebrated mythologist. The teachings of Joseph Campbell serve as the inspiration for the production. He asserts that storytelling and myths relate to our search for truth, meaning, and significance. According to Campbell, we all need to tell our personal story and, most importantly, to understand our story. He encourages us to view parts of our lives as heroic journeys – to find out what excites us and make that the basis of our quest. We invite you to accompany the performers on their journey.
After spending 36 inspiring years in post-secondary education developing leadership programs to help students find a sense of purpose and social direction, June's focus now is to continue to create provocative theatre experiences that guide the integration, acceptance, and compassion for others through increased understanding of what another has experienced or is experiencing.
Michael Mulrooney
Musical Director/Composer
Michael Mulrooney studied piano, conducting, and voice at University of Toronto and has pursued an eclectic musical career centred on theatre. He has served as musical director, conductor, pianist, arranger, and/or composer on over 200 theatrical productions of every conceivable shape and size. During the mega-musical boom of the 90s, he participated in the development of Livent’s award-winning productions of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Show Boat, and Ragtime. Conducting credits include Starlight Express (Bochum, Germany), Les Misérables (Toronto and Canadian Bilingual Tour), Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sunset Boulevard, (Toronto), and Show Boat (Toronto and New York). Recent musical direction credits include Musical of Musicals (the Musical) for Mirvish Productions, Billy Bishop Goes to War at several Ontario regional theatres, and, for the Smile Theatre Company, Extraordinary and A Christmas Carol, the latter of which recently completed a virtual tour of Ontario on Zoom. Outside the theatre, he works as music director for Grace United Church in Burlington and as an adjunct professor at Sheridan College.
Heidi Lange
Composer
Heidi is a singer, teacher, writer and actor, balancing a varied teaching schedule of vocal, piano and musical theatre instruction. She sings jazz and pop regularly in and around Toronto, as well as performing theatrically. In 2020 and 2021, she ventured into the world of audiobooks and has had the pleasure of narrating 4 titles for At Bay Press. In 2018, she founded Unsung Collective Arts, an arts production company with inclusiveness and representation as the central mission. Heidi's first album, Later, was released in 2008, comprised mainly of her original songs. Her second album, Let Your Honesty Shine, a tribute to Paul Simon was released in 2020.
Jess Gordon
Jess Gordon (she/her) is so grateful for the opportunity to be working with the cast and creative team of Truth & Illusion. She is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Technical Production for the Performing Arts Industry program. Select credits include: Made In Italy (Theatre Aquarius), Destination: Wedding! (Theatre Sheridan), Winterfest (Canada’s Wonderland), Pippin (Theatre Sheridan), X-Mas: A Merry Mutant Musical (StreamStage Productions), Living The Dream (Canadian Musical Theatre Project), In Real Life (Theatre Sheridan), and Cabaret (Theatre Sheridan). She would like to thank her family and friends for their continuous support.
Carol Tuck-Riggs
Assistant Producer
Carol Tuck-Riggs, CPA, MBA, PhD. has 3 decades of experience in domestic and international finance, computer information, operational leadership, and change management across technical, service, creative, and production industries such as Pitney Bowes, IBM and other semi-conductor, retail, pharmaceutical, and technical products. Carol is a designated professional accountant, a senior operations manager, executive and board director, and holds three graduate degrees in accounting, finance, and marketing disciplines. She is currently the Ontario Provincial Treasurer for the Master Gardeners and the Executive Director at TFMS Strategic Management Services. Carol has a life-long interest in music theatre and is an amateur musician with a professional musical and artist family.
Pearl Inch
Audio/Lighting
Pearl is a recent graduate from Sheridan College’s Technical Production for the Performing Arts Industry program, where she majored in Audio engineering with a minor in Lighting technologies. In the past, she has mixed Newies: The Musical at Sheridan College and Badlands Passion Play at Badlands Amphitheatre in Drumheller, Alberta. She is thrilled to be able to work on the Truth and Illusion Musical Workshop and to be supporting the fundraising efforts for CAHM: The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.