ISLE OF DEMONS Comes to Guild Festival Theatre

This riveting story by Governor General Award-winning playwright Robert Chafe tells the incredible, yet true, tale of Marguerite de la Roque who was abandoned on a remote island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1542. Part tragedy, part thriller, this gripping play makes its Toronto premiere at Guild Festival Theatre this summer.

Playwright Robert Chafe

Directed by Tyler J. Seguin

Cast: Kiera Publicover, Josh Johnston & Helen Juvonen

Production Design by Kalina Popova

Sound Design Ashley Naomi Skye

Preview: Aug 8th; Opening: Aug 9th

"Part psychological drama, part supernatural thriller, Isle of Demons brings something new to the Greek Theatre. I've always been a fan of Chafe's work and I'm excited to share this play with our Scarborough audience." -Tyler J. Seguin, Co-Artistic Director of Guild Festival Theatre

Young and impetuous, Marguerite must accompany her guardian, the Sieur de Roberval, on his new appointment as the first Lieutenant General of New France. But when Roberval discovers Marguerite's passionate affair with a young officer, fury takes over. He abandons them both, along with Marguerite's hapless nurse, on a remote island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ominously known as the Isle of Demons. Stranded in a land of relentless hardships, unseen dangers, and seemingly supernatural threats, the trio must fight for their survival.

GFT is pleased to welcome cast members Kiera Publicover, an emerging artist of mixed Indigenous/settler ancestry (Arrowwood Theatre Company) and Josh Johnston (Stratford Festival), as well as Production Designer Kalina Popova (Favour the Brave, Frog In Hand), and Sound Designer Ashley Naomi Skye (Paprika Festival, Black Theatre Workshop). The team also includes GFT's own Co-Artistic Directors - Helen Juvonen in the cast making her Greek Theatre debut, and Tyler J. Seguin as director.

Kiera Publicover (Marguerite)

Kiera Publicover (she/they) is a Canadian multidisciplinary theatre artist, film actor and playwright. She is the co-Artistic Director of Arrowwood Theatre Company and a graduate of the University of Windsor's Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting program. A Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient, Kiera works primarily in new play development and is currently developing new work alongside Arrowwood Theatre Company. Previously: Annie in The Birds (Bygone Theatre); Agnes in Weston: Then and Now (Shakespeare in Action); Kiera in Canada's Next Chopped Model Minority (Paprika Festival); herself in Contactless (Soulpepper's QueerFutures 2099) and more. For most recent updates on her work, you can find her on all social media at @KieraPublicover

Josh Johnston (Eugene)

Josh Johnston (he/him) is an actor, playwright and producer based in Toronto. His diverse interests and passion for energizing live performances have lead him to a variety of venues, in multiple roles in Canada and abroad. On stage, he has acted at the Stratford Festival, Buddies in Bad Times, Theatre Kingston, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Port Stanley Theatre Festival and The Grove Festival, to name a few. Theatre creation and producing credits include multiple productions at Centaur Theatre's Wildside Festival and professional development at Tarragon Theatre and Playwright's Workshop Montreal. He is an Assistant Producer at Starvox Entertainment, where programs and productions under his leadership have played in venues across North America. Josh is thrilled to be at Guild Festival Theatre this summer. 

Helen Juvonen (Damienne)

Helen is the Co-Artistic Director of Guild Festival Theatre, the Artistic Director of Thought For Food Productions as well as an actor, director, producer and writer. For GFT she has directed productions of The Drowning Girls, The Red Priest, and Salt-Water Moon and she is thrilled to finally be performing at The Greek Theatre! Acting credits include: Much Ado About Nothing (Spadina Museum); Beauty and the Beast (Sudbury Theatre Centre) and The Importance of Being Earnest (Casa Loma). Helen was also the last Mollie in the long-running Toronto production of The Mousetrap. Helen's web series You're Never Alone is currently available on the Stratfest@Home website where she can also be heard in the audio drama Deceitful Above All Things. Helen is a Jeopardy! Champion.

Tyler J. Seguin (Director)

Tyler J. Seguin is an award-winning director and creator working in theatre & film and one of the Co-Artistic Directors of Guild Festival Theatre. For GFT, Tyler has worked on Chekhov's Shorts, Clouds Over T.O., Anne, Beyond the Stage, Alice in Wonderland and INspiration:OUTside. Tyler has also worked with companies such as the Stratford Festival, the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Sudbury Theatre Centre, and Theatre New Brunswick. Tyler's award-winning short film Advances has been screened at festivals around the world and his production of Alice in Wonderland was nominated for seven Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Outstanding Direction.

Kalina Popova (Production Designer)

Kalina Popova is a Toronto-based costume and set designer and costume technician, born in Bulgaria. In 2020, she graduated from York University with a BFA in Theatre Production and Design and has been working in the arts since. Kalina's previous credits as a set and costume designer include Heartless (Favour the Brave Collective, Dora Major Moore Costume Design Nomination), Chekhov's Shorts (GFT), War of the Worlds Reimagined (Frog in Hand, asst. costume design), and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (Theatre@York, costume design). Kalina has also had the pleasure to volunteer abroad (Guatemala, Czech Republic) in the pursuit of new perspectives on the expressions of art. 

Ashley Naomi Skye (Sound Designer)  

Ashley Naomi Skye (she/her) a/k/a/ Cloud is a trans femme theatre artist, performer, creator, and musician/sound designer. Sound design/musical training includes Paprika Festival's Design Lab (2021-2022), Black Theatre Workshop's AMP (2022-2023), Venus Festival's mentorship program (2023), and Confluence Concerts' Side by Side (2024); composition/design credits include: Boom! (Paprika Festival, 2022), Hermaphroditus (Dead Name Theatre/Rose Gold Productions, 2023), Gringas (First Born Theatre, 2024), and additional composition for Every Day She Rose (Black Theatre Workshop, 2024). She has created, performed in, and sound designed original works for Toronto Fringe (2022), Tarragon Greenhouse (2024), and Rhubarb Festival (2024), utilizing music and rhythm to evoke feelings of synesthesia.

Kiera Doerksen Smith (Stage Manager)  

Kiera Doerksen Smith is a Scarborough-based stage manager, production manager, and theatre administrator. She is a graduate of the Performance: Production program at Toronto Metropolitan University and a Venue Stage Manager at The Second City Toronto. Kiera works in a variety of live performance disciplines including theatre, dance, improv, clown, stand-up, live journalism, and musicals. Her favourite things include silly drinks, small mammals, soup, and listening to the same 3 songs on repeat. Recent Stage Management Credits: Merrily We Roll Along (Shifting Ground Collective), Choreographic Works (TMU), Ordinary Days (Shifting Ground Collective).

Robert Chafe (Playwright)

Robert Chafe is a writer, educator, actor and arts administrator based in St. John's, Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). He has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and in the United States, and include Oil and Water, Tempting Providence, Afterimage, Under Wraps, Between Breaths, Everybody Just C@lm the F#ck Down, I Forgive You (with Scott Jones, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted from the novel by Wayne Johnston.) He has been shortlisted three times for the Governor General's Literary Award for Drama and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been guest instructor at Memorial University, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and The National Theatre School of Canada. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Memorial University. He is the playwright and Artistic Director of Artistic Frau

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