Car Stories - People

Has been in Car Stories '01: Played Guy #1, Guy #2 AND Charlie (depending on the show) in "The Box" by some Newfie named Ross. Played GORT in "Mask Car" (often referred to as car 4). Improved on the spot by the performers. Also played various spectactors and urban guides.

In Car Stories '02: I did something, but cannot for the life of me remember what the hell it was.

In Car Stories '04: Played "Vinnie" (sometimes known as Jimmy the Knife) in "The Caper". Story written by K. Weasel Allatt, "script" improv(e)d on the spot by the performers. I did this show for a 6 or 7 day run with Etienne Vailancourt (for infringement) and then one day with George Mougias (for Journee de la Culture)

In Car Stories '05: I did NOT play in the infringement, however I DID play in the Buffalo fundraiser as "Vinnie" once again in "The Caper". This time playing with Ryan Hipgrave.

Nika joined Car Stories in 2004 when Matt Jones asked her to write one of the stories. Instead, her and Matt put their heads together and came up with Sucking Mint's, which played in Toronto and Montreal the same year and then again in Montreal in 2005.

She is an avid traveller and writer who has yet to be published. Before embarking on her travels, she was involved with Conspiracy of Hope, a group of spoken-word artists that perfromed weekly in seedy bars in Toronto.

Matt Jones is a Montréal-based writer and activist. He joined the Car Stories crew in 2003, after meeting Donovan King at Reggies Bar at Concordia, where the two tried to think up ways to use King's street theatre antics as a pressure tactic during the union drive Matt was organizing at Indigo bookstore.

They went on to collaborate in the 2003 fundraiser Red Flag Over Westmount, a fundraiser for David Fennario's election campaign for the Union des forces progressistes (UFP) that featured readings of Fennario's Skeleton Staff and Jones' Whatever, Whenever.

Matt acted in Car Stories '03 as the awkwardly-toupéd neurotic serial killer Leotard in his piece The Ear. The September return of Car Stories saw Matt shock the pedestrians of Boulevard St-Laurent as he emerged screaming from the trunk of a car, climb on top of it before trying to eat The Trunk's co-writer and actor Sebastian Hutchings.

In the 2004 show, Matt played Melvin Klein, a down-on-his-luck Scottish real estate agent, unsuccessfully trying to peddle Montreal's alleyways as the next wave in condo living.

The 2004 tour saw Matt playing John Mint in Sucking Mint's, opposite co-writer Nika Jaksic. This mind-blowing piece toured to Toronto before coming in September 2004 to Montréal and coming again in June 2005.

Matt is the founder of The Blacklist Committee for Unsafe Theatre and is currently working on a full-length play called W-Mart in Baghdad.

Theatrician Donovan King was born in Montreal, Québec in 1972. Employing traditional, applied, and experimental approaches to theatre, King juggles acting, teaching, directing, dramaturgy, and theory.

King authored the theatrical guidebook Doing Theatre in Montreal for the Quebec Drama Federation. While interning with director Guy Sprung of the Theatre 1774 - Infinitheatre , King directed tele-dating play Call Me by Lana Staurchuck, which won the 1999 MECCA award for Best Production. He has also taught drama and directed at various schools and institutions such as the University of Calgary, New Actors Workshop, and Saidye Bronfman Centre

As the co-founder and Artistic Facilitator of the Optative Theatrical Laboratories (OTL), King has also been involved in critical theatre and radical performance since 2000. He has since collaborated with Augusto Boal, Steve Mann, Kathryn Blume, Judy Rebick, Andrew Boyd, and other critical artists and theorists.

Actor, writer, director is a recent
film school graduate who got his first non-scholastic
project documenting "Car Stories". He also played in
Car Stories 04 and 05 in Obstruction of Justice, a
play he wrote about his experience with border
security. A shit disturber since his early youth,
this Montreal native continues to reek havoc but now
with a political cause.

Toni is 25 years old Concordia grad with a B.A. in Philosophy, currently in Social Work at McGill, working as a research assistant for McGill as well.

Jason joined Car Stories in 2003 and hasn't tried to escape yet. He wrote and played Doctor Adonis in This is Therapy? the same year.

In 04, he reprised his Adonis role, played Urban Guide Charles McCoy, Doctor Foster's right-hand man and also played the Chaos Organizer of the project.

In 05, he has played Charles McCoy, Dr. Adonis and the driver in Obstruction of Justice. He has also played Artistic Facilitator of the project for the Ottawa and Buffalo road trip perfromaces.

Jason is 28, a published journalist (with a BA from Concordia), an organizer and founder of Montreal's infrigement Festival and currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Quebec Drama Federation.

Misty-Lee Selinger, a graduate of the Canadian College of Performing Arts in BC, has been involved with "Car Stories" since the summer of 2004. She has enjoyed such roles as Susie in “Is this therapy?”, the Driver in “Obstruction of Justice”, and various urban guide characters, the most memorable being Fanasia, the burnt-out lounge singer. Misty has performed with "Car Stories" in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. She will be producing "Car Stories" in Regina, SK in the summer of 2006.

Misty has been performing all over Canada for the past 4 years. During her residency at the Chemainus Theatre Festival on Vancouver Island, she enjoyed runs of Shaw’s "You Never Can Tell", "The Heiress", and "Hello Dolly!". While living in Saskatchewan (aka The Land of Milk and Honey), she was involved with the YTV series Incredible Story Studio. Since relocating to Montreal, Misty has most recently performed in “Snowsuits, Birthdays, and Giants” with Geordie Theatre Productions. Misty also directed “The Vagina Monologues” for McGill University, toured “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in repertoire, and has dappled in the burlesque and cabaret scene.

After many years successfully influencing and sometimes changing the local bar and music scenes, Gary got hoodwinked into acting via a clever ruse involving the creation of the infrigement festival. Very clever indeed.

This Halloween will be the first installment of what hopes to be a glorious involvement in the interactive theatre space of Montreal. Ms. Witteman comes from an intensive two year stint in the actor training program at the University of Toronto, where she was involved in interactive street theatre geared towards social change. Upon fleeing the oppressive "ivy league" structure of the big time university, she has landed in Montreal to do the artist thing (collecting welfare, not going to school and taking long, introspective walks). She is currently working on a short novel, a book of poetry and building a body of work including paintings, mosaic, drawing studies and various occult objects.