Since our inception, Shakespeare in the Ruff has organized a small group of emerging professional artists called the Guerrilla Ruff Squad. The Squad comes together for a Shakespeare monologue workshop in early June, tightening up their back-pocket pieces. They then take workshops in composition, to mash up their pieces into short site-specific performance pieces featuring music, text, physical theatre, and innovative theatre techniques.  

The Squad entertains East End farmers’ market patrons with performances of their new Shakespearean scenes in a form of rehearsed improvisation. Their primary target is, of course, the Saturday morning Withrow Park Farmers Market, but they can also be seen this summer at Evergreen Brickworks, East Lynn Park Farmers’ Market and Cabbagetown Farmers’ Markets. The program culminates in an opening act performance before our summer flag-ship production in Withrow Park. The Squad is organized and recruited by Ruff Co-Founder Andrew Joseph Richardson and is led each year by a returning members, designated as the Captains (since co-leadership is the Ruff way). 

Past Captains

Cora Matheson
Parmida Vand
Chanakya Mukherjee
Lesley Robertson
G. Kyle Shields
Brandon Knox
Andrea Massoud
François Macdonald
Wilex Ly

Past Workshop Leaders

Raoul Bhaneja
Dylan Trowbridge
Elizabeth Saunders
Melee Hutton
Lee Wilson
Ian Watson
Chick Reid
Tim Welham

Past Guerrilla Ruffians

George Alevizos
Somerville Black
Audrey Clairman
Gillian Clare
John Echano
Nicholas Eddie
Mark Kreder
Nelvin Law
Faly Mevamanana
Nicole Smieja
Kiana Woo
Tristan Claxton
Eugenia De Jong
Jonathan Gordon
Jesselle Laurén
Cora Matheson
Victoria Mero
Hannah Wayne Phillips
Nicole Smieja
Jesse Beam
Marisa Boudreault
Suzanne Miller

Dylan Brenton
Christina Fox
Laura Harding
Wilex Ly
Vivian Or
Clare Blackwood
Aldrin Bundoc
David Chinchilla
Claren Grosz
Cynthia Hicks
François Macdonald
Hugh Ritchie
Matt Shaw
Lauren Walsh-Greene
Eva Barrie
Andrei Borissenko
Paul Falkowski
Grace Gordon
Spencer Bennett
Justine Christensen
Bart Demczuk
Michelle Langille
Tal Shulman

Chiamaka Ugwu
Victoria Urquhart
Anton Wasowicz
Owen Fawcett
Grace Fitzpatrick
Charlie Gould
Tina Jung
Brandon Knox
Andrea Massoud
Cassondra Padfield
Mishka Thebaud
Michael Ayers
Hilary Carroll
Scott Garland
Sina Gilani
Emily Nixon
Tennille Read
Lesley Robertson
G. Kyle Shields
Chanakya Mukherjee
Parmida Vand
Joseph Zita