staff
matt gould - artistic director matt gould - actor
Artistic Director, Mr. (Matt) Gould, first joined Tree House Youth Theatre in the spring of 2005 when he was hired to direct Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." Since becoming full time AD in January of 2007, he has guided the group of young actors through two Triple Threat programs, 2007's "Fiddler on the Roof, Jr." and "Ho, Ho...Oh! - a nervous radio broadcast" which he wrote as well as directed. In the spring of 2008, Tree House performed at the Kiwanis Performing Arts Festival, taking home an award for best musical production number.
On top of his responsibilities with Tree House, Gould was Artistic Director of artsparks on the boards, a Red Deer-based theatre company that brought together persons with developmental disabilities, young actors and members of the community at large to create large-scale theatrical extravaganzas.
Gould was a young performer himself (more years ago than he would like to admit) in Edmonton, acting and singing throughout his school years as well as appearing in Walterdale Theatre's production of "Lisa and David,"before going on to college at Ryerson University in Toronto where he studied Radio and Television Arts and Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario where he studied Classical Animation.
Mr. Gould was and is an accomplished musician, playing the flute in Edmonton's Cosmopolitan Band and the Edmonton Youth Orchestra when we was younger and singing with Edmonton's professional chamber choir, Pro Coro and various early music ensembles in Vancouver and Seattle as his work as a professional singer advanced.
His current tastes as a performer run more to jazz and he has performed in and around Red Deer and Edmonton with the likes of local performers Audrey Graham and Rob Farion as well as with Edmonton legend, Charlie Austin.
Before paddling downstream to Red Deer in 2003, Gould sailed the world a board Celebrity Cruise Lines where he acted as Youth Program Supervisor, in charge of creating large-scale events for sometimes over 500 children at a time! While with Celebrity, he created a number of plays for their Summer Theatre Stock program, which proved to be an excellent training ground for his current position as AD of Tree House.
On top of his work in the theatre, Mr. Gould is also an award-winning visual artist whose work is found in a numerous corporate and private collections across Canada and Europe and in the United States. Gould has also had the privilege of illustrating Joy Kogawa’s book "Naomi's Road", Kipling's "Rikki Tikki Tavi'as well as Cora Weber-Pillwax's "Billy's World" which appears in both English and Cree.
He is currently working on two solo visual art exhibitions for 2010.
Mr. Gould is enjoying his time surrounded by the young energetic performers of Red Deer and looks forward to many more great times on and off the stage as Tree House continues to grow.
janet cole - program administrator
Janet started with Tree House Youth Theatre last summer and has been busy learning the behind-the-scenes of running a theatre company. She is the person who runs the office, answering the phone, checking emails and keeping track of Mr. Gould! Janet also works at the Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery with the MAGsparks program, runs her own visual art studio and has many connections in the Red Deer’s artistic community.
Janet is the ‘go to’ person for information about our programs: what we offer, where and how to register and, be part of the audience. If she doesn’t have the answer, she will find it for you in a flash. Call or email her for all your Tree House details!
