GRANT PATERSON AND JIM DOBBIN teach speech arts and drama at Mount Royal College Conservatory in Calgary. In 1999, they founded the Conservatory’s Young Shakespeare Company, which features high school actors performing works of Shakespeare. The company tours their productions to local high schools. They are also the founders of WorthyWords Theatre, whose goal is to bring literature to theatrical life by fusing poetry, music, and drama. GRANT PATERSON: Grant has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Calgary. He trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He has been working at Mount Royal College since the 1980s. Grant is a well-known adjudicator across Canada, and is a senior examiner in speech arts and drama for the Royal Conservatory of Music. Selected acting credits include Much Ado About Nothing, The Play’s the Thing, Arcadia (Theatre Junction), Blithe Spirit (Vertigo), and shows for Citadel Theatre, Workshop West, and many fringe shows. The inspiration for Rhyme Rustler was Grant’s enjoyment of ragtime music combined with his love of the poetry of Robert Service. JIM DOBBIN: After graduating with an MFA in directing from the University of Calgary, Jim began teaching speech arts and drama at Mount Royal College Conservatory. Jim is also an assistant professor in theatre arts with the University of Lethbridge, Calgary Campus. His recent directing credits include The ABC of the ER (CD and tour), Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, and As You Like It (YSC). You may have seen him on stage in A Month in the Country, Playboy of the Western World, and Arcadia at Theatre Junction. Jim’s lifelong love of the poetry of Robert Service began in his native Newfoundland, where he fondly remembers hearing his father and grandfather reciting the great ballads. JIM WILLS: Designing Rhyme Rustler gives Jim the opportunity to return to the Calgary theatre scene after a lengthy absence. In addition it offers an exciting opportunity to work on a new piece in a relatively new theatre venue. Jim carries with him a long portfolio of some one hundred design credits in scenery, costume and lighting — a portfolio which takes him back to his early years in Saskatoon with both Persephone Theatre and Twenty-Fifth Street Theatre. Lethbridge has become his permanent home for the past eleven years, where he holds a position as Associate Professor in The Department of Theatre and Dramatic Arts at The University of Lethbridge. Some of Jim’s more recent design credits include Unity, Nothing Sacred, The Laramie Project, Home and Away and Macbeth. Jim would like to dedicate his work on Rhyme Rustler to his dad, Jack Wills. Jim and Grant would like to thank Dr. Peter Jancewicz for composing The O Canada Rag for the show. Our thanks also to Jennifer Orr, Stephanie Woods, Carol Curties, Dale Olson, Dave Mossop, Russell McKinnon, John Ramsay, Sandra Yates, Trish Blaker, Silvana Saccomani, Sally Dobbin, Marla Libke, Darcy Rollack, Matthew La Brie, Elizabeth Mason and David Soltess.