Ensemble Bios

Guy Bannerman

“When the curtain goes up on Florence Gibson’s Missing at the Factory Theatre Thursday night, it will also be coming down on Guy Bannerman’s first 50 years in theatre. . .Once Missing is out of the way, Bannerman launches himself into his second 50 years on stage by returning to the Shaw Festival for his 22nd season, then heads back to the Toronto stage to reprise his role in Stuff Happens as part of the recently announced Mirvish season.”

~ John Coulbourn, Sun Media (March 8, 2009)

An Ensemble member at the Shaw Festival since 1986, Guy Bannerman will be appearing this season in Ragtime and His Girl Friday. He has appeared in more than 50 productions at The Shaw, including On the Rocks, The Admirable Crichton, John Bull’s Other Island, Harvey, The Devil’s Disciple, Star Chamber, The Stepmother, The President, Summer and Smoke, The Kiltartan Comedies, The Invisible Man, The Crucible, You Never Can Tell, Bus Stop, Man and Superman, The Importance of Being Earnest, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Doctor’s Dilemma, Getting Married, Brothers in Arms, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days, The Secret Life, Rashomon, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, The Petrified Forest, Cavalcade, Busman’s Honeymoon, The Front Page, Saint Joan (1993), The Silver King, Drums in the Night, This Happy Breed, Peter Pan (1987-88), and Geneva. Guy’s musical debut in The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Shadow Play (2001) was followed by appearances in On the Twentieth Century and Happy End. He also performs frequently in the Reading Series, including 2002’s archy and mehitabel (the Narrator), recorded for CBC Radio; Lilies by Michel Marc Bouchard (2007) and Jason Sherman’s The League of Nathans (2008).

Guy’s first appearance on the professional stage was at the Crest Theatre in Toronto in 1958 when he played thirteen-year-old Howard in Inherit the Wind. Recently, Guy appeared as Hans Blix in the Mirvish presentation of Studio 180’s production of David Hare’s Stuff Happens. He also appeared in Factory Theatre’s production of Missing and at Rochester’s Geva Theatre Center in numerous roles including Dr Gibbs in Our Town, Noel in the North American premiere of That Was Then by Irish writer Gerard Stembridge, Jack in The Weir, in Hibernatus Interruptus, a festival of new plays (2003) and as Christmas Present or Mr Fezziwig in five productions of A Christmas Carol.

Guy has performed at most major theatres in Canada, as well as in the United States and England. Favourite productions include the Neil Munro directed Saint Joan (Theatre Calgary); Jacob Two-Two’s First Spy Case (Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People); Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman and The House of Blue Leaves (Hamilton’s Theatre Aquarius); The Stillborn Lover (Theatre Passe Muraille); and Three in the Back Two in the Head (Tarragon Theatre and the National Arts Centre).

Television series credits include Leo and Me with Michael J. Fox, Love and Hate: The Colin Thatcher Story, and Lt Murphy in the teenage detective series Daring and Grace on CBC/YTV. Guy is also heard as Mr Bear in the animated series Rupert the Bear. Other television credits include Direction Canada (in German) for German television and Mountain Men for BBC-TV, which was also released as a feature film.

He is involved in one project at The Shaw of special interest: Guy and Ensemble member Sharry Flett team up to teach Manners of the Mandate, a program devised by Sharry and others to introduce Ensemble members to the customs and costumes of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. This very popular program has also been presented at several universities, especially as preparation for student productions from The Shaw’s mandate period (1856-1950, the lifetime of Bernard Shaw). A shortened version is available to public groups visiting the Shaw Festival. Last season, Guy and Sharry added a “Downstairs” program, dealing with servant life.

Guy’s creative talents also extend into the fields of writing and directing. He has been active in new play development, as a guest director and artist-in-residence, and has written articles on contemporary theatre. After early university studies in modern languages, he received an MA (Drama) from Essex University (UK) in 1988.

He permanently resides with his wife and two children in Niagara-on-the-Lake.