Summer 2026 Music Theatre Intensive Program for Teens

Denise Williams is an established professional singer, voice teacher, concert producer and music facilitator.  She is a passionate advocate for the performing arts, leveraging her extensive professional experience to promote artistic expression, education, and foster inclusivity. Her international performance career has put her on the concert, opera, and theatre stages.  Her most well-loved self-produced music project is her cross-cultural, Walk Together Children concert program, uniting African Jewish and Muslim cultural music intersections as a commentary on commonalities of forcibly migrant cultures, musical assimilations, and attempts at bridging social gaps.  As Founding Artistic Director of No Strings Theatre (2005), Denise advocates for  accessible and inclusive artisitic programming. She is currently on the music theatre voice faculty of Sheridan College and operates her Voices of Colour Music (VCM) music studio. She is a certified advanced voice teacher affiliate for the Royal Conservatory of Music and has been an RCM examiner and national vocal adjudicator since 2000. Denise continues to advocate, through international performance and community leadership, for addressing cross-cultural sharing of music traditions and equity, diversity, and inclusion, on performance stages. She is honoured to have earned the ORMTA Contribution to Teaching award for 2024 and be on the 2024 list of 100 Black Accomplished Canadian Women Honourees.

David Stone is a dynamic, versatile musician and award-winning educator, known for his ability to inspire and shape the musicians of tomorrow. With a background in classical and jazz music, David is as comfortable in concert halls as he is in jazz clubs, theatres, and recording studios. An accomplished double bassist, jazz performer, and musical theatre director, David has studied under Canada’s top jazz musicians, including Oliver Jones and Pat LaBarbera, bringing a broad musical depth to all his work. David’s compositions have been featured by leading ensembles like the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Gryphon Trio, with performances across North America and Europe and broadcasts on CBC Radio. With a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto, he has studied composition under esteemed mentors such as Christos Hatzis and John Hawkins, and his works have been commissioned by organizations from the Capitol Theatre to Penthelia Singers. ​ As the Director of Toronto Music Alliance, David continues to lead music education with his founding philosophy, "Making Music Make Sense." He brings over 20 years of teaching experience, dedicated to making music accessible and engaging for all ages. David lives in Toronto with his wife, two sons, and their family of pet bunnies.

Talia Frances (she/her) is an academic award-winning emerging director, and performing artist from Nanaimo, BC. Talia is a recent honours grad of Sheridan College’s ‘Musical Theatre Performance’ degree, and a not-so-recent grad with distinction of the ‘Theatre Arts’ diploma at MacEwan University. She was in the ‘Artistic Teams’ stream at Sheridan, focusing on directing for stage. In 2025, Talia was a recipient of the ‘The Michael Young Achievement in Elective Stream: Artistic Team Inclusive Leadership Award’ for her work on a fully-staged 10-minute excerpt of Spring Awakening. Talia is grateful to have had the opportunity to work on her directing skills, while simultaneously rehearsing for Sheridan’s 2024/25 season. She was able to observe the directors in each rehearsal process, and apply what she appreciated about their approaches immediately to her work as a creative. This foundation has made her a director who cares deeply about fostering a positive work environment for artists on either side of the table, and she is eager to keep evolving her craft. She made her directing debuts on Toronto stages in 2025, as follows: an excerpt of Potato Potato by Emma Golden which was performed at Factory Theatre for the Theatre Sheridan’s Writers’ Showcase; Act one of Potato Potato, a 90-minute fully staged production as part of the Alliance for Canadian Musicals for Toronto Fringe at Theatre Passe Murailles. Talia is grateful to have had such a wonderful opportunity to embark on following graduation. This summer is Talia’s first chance to work with No Strings Theatre, and she could not be more delighted! She cannot wait to get started on The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee!

Julia Raza (She/They) is a Kitchener born and Toronto based multidisciplinary artist, performer and musician, with a proficiency in writing, singing, dancing and acting. Julia is a recent graduate from Sheridan College’s Music Theatre Performance Program with Honours. In her final year, she had the opportunity to perform at “Unveiled: The Next Gen Sound” where she choreographed, music directed and was the lead performer for her set. In Sheridan’s 2025/2026 season, Julia was both an assistant choreographer (Something Rotten) and assistant director (In Real Life) while simultaneously rehearsing, understudying, and performing in both shows. Julia started her journey as a classical musician, completing multiple RCM exams up to Level 9 for voice, piano and theory. As their vocal journey has progressed, she has since grown to add more contemporary styles such as pop, indie, rock and jazz. Julia’s vocal exploration doesn’t end with music, you may recognize Julia’s voice from the Amazon Prime Television Show, Super Wings, where she plays the character of Astra! Julia has been encompassed by the world of dance for the past 2 decades where she has worked as a performer, competitive dancer, and teacher. Previously, she spent over a decade at Dimensions In Dance and she recently finished her 4th year as a dance tutor at Sheridan college. In their practice, Julia deeply cares about finding the emotional depth and truth within every work that she does, valuing the connections between artist and audience at all times. Julia prioritizes fostering a safe and inclusive space within dance to help artists of all ages, abilities, with varying degrees of experience to find comfort, confidence, and passion within movement as a whole. This summer Julia is excited to work with No Strings Theatre for the first time and continue evolving her craft as a dance teacher and choreographer.

Justyn Nishimura is a queer stage manager based in Tkaronto who is super excited to be making his No Strings debut as the stage manager for both 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Le Nozze di Figaro. Select credits include How to Feel (Sawdust Co.), Seussical (TYT Theatre), Natasha, Pierre... Great Comet of 1812 (Sheridan College). Upcoming: Pippin (Bowtie Productions). When not in the theatre, Justyn can be found curled up with a good book, his partner, Cas, and their cat, Mr. Noodles.

Paul has been a professional stage and screen actor for over 30 years, and an artist educator for over 20. Some acting career highlights include: the title role in Macbeth, Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, and Trigorin in The Seagull, all for Perchance Theatre, 4 seasons with Carousel Players, and more recently Ensemble and Understudying Dad in Neptune Theatre’s production of Billy Elliot. Screen highlights include: Series Regular role of Vanstone on all 3 seasons of the Jason Momoa led Netflix show, Frontier, Recurring role as Anthony Tamblyn on the SYFY show, SurrealEstate – and guest roles on Hudson & Rex and Republic of Doyle. Paul has taught students from kindergarten up through 4th year university. He started teaching camps and workshops with Carousel Players back in the early 2000’s and was instrumental in their creation of a weekend theatre school and school workshop outreach program. Around this time, he also received training and led many school workshops for the Learning Through the Arts program. In Newfoundland, Paul received many grants to work in schools under ArtsNL’s ArtsSmarts program, running extended sessions on Shakespeare in middle schools, and in high schools facilitating student devised pieces of theatre using the RSVP process, which he received training in - and first worked on with Gyllian Raby at Brock University in St. Catharine's (taking over as teacher for one semester of the 4F56 class following an injury Ms. Raby sustained). Paul also has many years' experience teaching drama camps, weekly lessons, and one on one audition and acting coaching with his own company. Paul is excited to work with No Strings Theatre for the first time this summer, and would like to thank Liam for the connection, and Denise for the opportunity!