Farewell to Alyson
It is with deepest gratitude we are announcing that Alyson Dicey is stepping down from her role at Thou Art Here Theatre.
Alyson has been part of Thou Art Here since 2012. In that time she has been involved in every part of the organization from when we were a tiny collective to receiving our first grant to touring a play to Calgary to becoming a non-profit & charity to creating the Write Here program as well as acting in many of our productions, and doing every job of arts admin and theatre producing imaginable.
Read all about her amazing history of work with Thou Art Here.
Alyson in Shake the Bar’s first performance at the Old Powerplant aka Dewey’s on the U of A campus.
Alyson performing in Kill Shakespeare at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival in 2017.
Alyson performing as Peter Quince in But Hark, A Voice! at the Freewill Shakespeare Festival in 2018.
Alyson performing as Don John in Much Ado About Nothing at the Lougheed House in 2016 in Calgary
She acted in Shake the Bar (Shakespeare’s greatest drinking scenes) playing Maria from Twelfth Night, Kate from The Taming of the Shrew, The Porter from Macbeth, Cassio from Othello.
She acted in Shaky Love playing… we are not sure as our notes from that time are really vague.
She acted in The Shakedown, (Shakespeare’s greatest fight scenes) doing some epic sword fights with the team
She created and acted in Shake the Fringe, our street performer troupe in 2014 doing some sword fighting, Shakespeare scene acting, acrobatics and clowning.
She acted in Spookspeare, Shakespeare's scariest scenes: plucking out Gloucester's eyes in a scene from King Lear in a garage lit by a single lightbulb.
She played the villain of all villains Don John in our production of Much Ado About Nothing. Dicey played the role for 3 years (2014-2016) at Rutherford House in Edmonton and Lougheed House in Calgary.
She played Poins in our rock n roll punk version of Henry IV Part I & 2 entitled The Falstaff Project at the now demolished Artery bar just off Jasper Ave.
Alyson played Puck in the first year of our original adaptation of Midsummer’s But Hark, A Voice! at the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. When the play returned the second year she played the part of Peter Quince and directed the production too!
Alyson was an actor in Kill Shakespeare - our audience interactive comic book brought to the stage and performed in all versions at the Garneau Theatre, at ComicCon and at the Fringe Festival in 2017.
Alyson supported the development and dramaturgy of Joan and Talbot by Morgan Yamada, an all women fighting Shakespeare show .
From 2015 - 2022 she was part of the annual puppet shows at the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Performing multiple puppets in 2016 & 2017 and directing/writing/leading the shows from 2018-2022.
Throughout all this time Alyson was part of thousands of meetings, bottle drives, marketing campaigns, creating facebook events (remember when those were important?!).
She has written dozens and dozens of grants for Thou Art Here. She has edited even more.
She was integral to us becoming a non-profit in 2020 and becoming a charity in 2021.
She has been a HUGE supporter and producer, administrator part of the recent success of Cycle by Andrew Ritchie and Civil Blood: A Treaty Story by Josh Languedoc & Neil Bye-Kuefler.
It was HER idea to create the Write Here Immersive Theatre Creation program. She facilitated the first cohort leading to the creation of 3 new Canadian plays.
Alyson has held many titles: Artistic Associate, Artistic Council, Artistic Producer, Co-Artistic Director, Actor, Playwright, Creator, Director, Dramaturge, Collaborator, and most importantly Friend.
Thou Art Here was created out of friendship. Thou Art Here survives and exists because of friendship. It is hard to imagine a Thou Art Here with Alyson but we are so excited for her future impact in Edmonton. She continues to do amazing work in her role at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre as Development Officer and KidsFringe Director. She is also getting married this summer and we couldn't be happier for her!
We are lucky to call her a friend.
Alyson and Andrew in the Thou Art Here jean jackets!