The Book of My Shames – Digital Program

Creative Team:
Co-creator, composer, performer: Isaiah Bell
Co-creator, director: Sean Guist
Lighting designer: Nicole Malcolm
Pianist: Robert Holliston

Intrepid Theatre team:
Producer: Sammie Gough
Co-Artistic & Marketing Director: Sean Guist
Associate Producer: Holly Lam
Venue Technician: Alex Sangster
Production Manager: Owen Schellenberger
Managing Director: Justine Shore
Venue Technician: Emily Trepanier

Board of directors: Shay Boechler, Tom Daly, Maggie Chapin-Caravaca, Paulette Goodman, Alan Humphries, Amanda Lisman, Nicole Malcolm, Alison Ross

Intrepid Theatre receives ongoing support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada, the BC Arts Council, the Province of BC, the CRD Arts Development Service.

Metro Studio upgrades were supported by the Victoria Foundation’s Community Recovery Program.

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This show is 14+ and contains coarse language, adult themes, sexual content (and mention of abuse).

The Book of My Shames was developed with the support of Pacific Opera Victoria and Intrepid Theatre, and given its premiere in Toronto in June 2019 as a co-presentation between Tapestry Opera and Pride Toronto, with Darren Creech on the piano. It has also been performed as part of the Indie Opera Week festival in Vancouver, featuring pianist Alex Chen. The show was set to have its local premiere at UNO Fest 2020, and pivoted to an online adaptation as part of UNO Online. The Book of My Shames is now touring in 2020 and 2021 across Western Canada.

Artist bios:

Canadian-American tenor Isaiah Bell’s work as a performer is characterized by his “beautiful tenor, command of style, and natural stage presence” and a “strong, glorious voice with its heroic, oratorio-style ring”. He is also a composer, a writer, and a poet. Recently he has combined these disciplines in his critically acclaimed solo show, The Book of My Shames; in the performance on film of his original translation/adaptation of Poulenc’s solo opera La voix humaine; and in hybrid concept recitals for Early Music Vancouver and Ottawa Chamberfest.

Previously, Isaiah created the role of Antinous, lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian (Thomas Hampson), in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian at the Canadian Opera Company. He also returned to Mark Morris’ double-bill production of Curlew River / Dido & Aeneas at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, giving “a performance of exquisite poignancy” (The New York Times) as the Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River, opposite Stephanie Blythe as Dido.

Last season Isaiah debuted at Vancouver Opera (Almaviva, The Barber of Seville) and returned to the Toronto Symphony (Messiah, under Alexander Shelley). Some of his pandemic postponements included a return to Carnegie Hall for the premiere of A Nation of Others by Paul Moravec (Oratorio Society of New York), and to Opera Atelier for Handel’s The Resurrection. He was also scheduled to direct Dido and Aeneas (in a double bill with James Rolfe’s Aeneas and Dido) at Opera NUOVA. His upcoming season includes the world premiere of La beauté du monde at Opéra de Montréal and further performances of The Book of My Shames across the country.

Further recent engagements include George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with the Toronto Symphony conducted by the composer; Britten’s War Requiem with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Alexander Shelley; Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at l’Opéra-Théâtre de Metz in France; and Handel’s Atalanta, Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, and Messiah with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

As a composer, Isaiah has written four operas, the score for two music-theatre pieces, and numerous song cycles and arrangements. He is researching oral musical storytelling traditions and collaborative/improvisatory creation with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

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Sean Guist (he/him) is Co-Artistic & Marketing Director of Intrepid Theatre, on the traditional lands of the Lekwungen People. Administrator by day and queer artist, producer and director by night, Sean is founding Curator of Intrepid Theatre’s queer theatre festival, OUTstages, and programs queer performance cabarets that connect with the local queer arts community. He has also led the programming in 2021, creating new ways for local artists to connect from stage to screen, and presenting new digital works. 

He holds his MFA (2012) in Directing and BFA in Performance from the University of Lethbridge and has facilitated classes and workshops in movement, physical theatre and scene study and has acted, directed, designed, produced and performed in shows and cabarets on the Fringe circuit, independently and as a freelance artist. Sean is also passionate about bringing queer art to non-traditional venues and producing pop-up queer and drag events in non-queer spaces, including the popular Drag, Queers & Beers at Phillips Brewing. 

Recent credits include: directing The Empress (new play reading for Lethbridge Pride/Theatre Outre), Sunday in Sodom (play reading at The Belfry’s SPARK Festival), Tom at the Farm (Puente Theatre’s WorldPlay), Side by Side by Sondheim (Saltwater Inc), Down Dangerous Passes Road (independent), Menotti’s The Telephone (University of Lethbridge), and Michel Marc Bouchard’s The Madonna Painter (MFA project); producing (and performing in) Pretty, Witty and GAY! (2007-2009).

Sean is also on the Board of Directors for indie dance company Broken Rhythms and Pacific Opera Victoria and can be seen on drag stages as the bearded queen, Woofie. Sean’s most recent project, The Book of My Shames, a solo opera/queer storytelling hybrid which is directing and co-creating with Tenor Isaiah Bell, has upcoming tours to Opera Kelowna and the Regina Symphony Orchestra.

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Nicole Malcolm (she/her) is an interdisciplinary Métis artist whose work now takes place primarily on the Coast Salish Territories in and around the lands of the Lekwungen speaking people, in Victoria, BC.

A prairie-born horizon-enthusiast, she received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Stage Management & Technical Theatre (Lighting Design) from the University of Regina in 2007. From 2003-09, Nicole worked in stage management, festival coordination, lighting design, and technical direction with companies including Youth Ballet Company of Saskatchewan, New Dance Horizons, Nightwind Theatre’s Aboriginal Youth Playwrights Festival, Saskatchewan Playwrights Festival, Theatre Calgary, Citadel Theatre, and Banff Centre. In 2005 she co-founded Hectik Theatre, a Saskatchewan indie theatre company with a mandate to present edgy, thought-provoking and entertaining theatrical experiences that challenge both the audience and the artists involved. 

Since moving to the coast, she been active in BC’s cultural scene as part of the leadership for Pacific Opera Victoria, Paper Street Theatre Co, Canadian College of Performing Arts, TedX Victoria, and the Victoria Spoken Word Festival – working in stage coordination, lighting design, festival management, fundraising, and marketing. Nicole is a passionate advocate for the role of arts & culture in our communities.  An improviser and storyteller for 22 years, locally she has performs regularly with Paper Street Theatre Co, UnMute: A Storytelling Show, the D&D Improv Show and Victoria’s Improv Cabaret, and was a trainer, judge and adjudicator with the Canadian Improv Games. She has trained with Rare Earth Actors Studio, New Dance Horizons, Rosebud Burlesque, Dave Morris, and The Old Trout Puppet Workshop. 

A participant in OPERA AMERICA’s 2017 Leadership Intensive in NYC, Nicole has a passion for creating spaces and opportunities for artists and audiences to find joy and healing in the shared moments of learning, understanding, and exploration that happen through storytelling. 

When she’s not lighting designing or creating new absurd works of storytelling, Nicole is the Director of Marketing & Communications at Pacific Opera Victoria, and a performer / instructor at Paper Street Theatre specializing in the empowering non-performers with tools from the stage.

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Robert Holliston is the Curator of Public Engagment at Pacific Opera Victoria, and has given pre-performance lectures for POV since 1993. He was Pacific Opera’s répétiteur, chorus master, and Principal Coach for many years and is host of the company’s free community series INSIDE OPERA with Robert Holliston, INSIDE OPERA at the Union Club, and the community education series Opera Motifs.

Robert is Head of Keyboard at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and was Founding Director of VCM Opera Studio. He has conducted master classes and workshops with the Vancouver International Song Institute (UBC), the University of Victoria School of Music, Capilano College, Vancouver Opera Guild, Early Music Society of the Islands, Victoria Symphony, and Belfry Theatre.  At UVic he has taught continuing education courses in music history and hosted travel courses to Santa Fe Opera and New York City.

Robert has collaborated with many of Canada’s leading singers, including Benjamin Butterfield, Judith Forst, Ingrid Attrot, Nancy Argenta, Nathalie Paulin, Susan Platts, Richard Margison, Barbara Livingston, and Peter Barcza; string players Marc Destrubé, and Paul Marleyn; and (with Viveza) dancers Karen Kain and Evelyn Hart. He has also performed in collaboration with many artists throughout North America, England and New Zealand, and has been heard frequently on CBC Radio. Robert has recorded CDs with the popular salon ensemble Viveza, trombonist Ian McDougall, clarinetist Patricia Kostek, tenor Ken Lavigne, Tom Holliston, Show Business Giants, and members of the Hornby Island Ensemble.

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