Plosive Productions is a theatre company run by co-Artistic Directors David Whiteley and Teri Loretto. We produce shows at The Gladstone Theatre in the heart of Ottawa’s Little Italy.
Plosive Productions aims to provide our community with fulfilling, relevant and novel experiences, for both audiences and artists alike:
- Fulfilling: We strive for each production to present a strong staging of a strong text. We choose great works from the international repertoire (including Canada), where each work’s demands match the talents of local artists and the appetites of local audiences.
- Relevant: Whether world premières or classics, Canadian plays or texts from abroad that speak to local concerns, we look for works that matter. We find relevance in many places: sometimes in an idea, other times in a feeling; in timely subjects, or timeless tales.
- Novel: We take pride in bringing new experiences to Ottawa. This can mean world premières, new translations, or works new to Canada or to Ottawa. We also find novelty in an established work with a novel form, or in staging a classic in a new way.
Plosive believes in diversity, inclusivity, and equity. We are committed to reflect the diversity of our community in the artists we engage, and are determined to fight against under-representation and discrimination in all its forms through our work. To this end we strongly encourage artists of all gender identities, races, cultures, ethnicities, sexual orientations, abilities, and all the many strands of our social fabric to apply to work with us, with a particular emphasis on members of equity-deserving communities and those who have faced discrimination and barriers to inclusion.
We are proud to be based in Ottawa, and are committed to creating opportunities for local Ottawa theatre artists, both veteran professionals and emerging artists.
The Company:
David Ross Whiteley, Artistic Director
As an actor/director/musician, David has worked with most of Ottawa & the surrounding region’s professional theatres, including the NAC English Theatre, four summers with the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, a Company of Fools, SevenThirty Productions and Bear & Co. Favourite acting credits with Plosive include bringing theatre back to the stage at the height of the pandemic with Midsummer [a play with songs] as well as playing Tom in The Norman Conquests, Thomas in Venus in Fur, Ben in Detroit and Elyot in Private Lives and Dr. Givings in In the Next Room or the vibrator play (Prix Rideau Awards Outstanding Production). Highlights with other companies include Moody in Anne & Gilbert: The Musical (NAC English Theatre), Duke of Windsor in Finishing the Suit (Bear & Co., CCC Best Actor—Professional nomination), Salieri in Mozart & Salieri (Seven Tyrants Theatre, Jessie Awards Outstanding Production—Musical nomination), and Vivaldi in The Red Priest (Guild Festival Theatre) .
For Plosive Productions, David has directed Suspense, Basket of Deplorables, Romeo & Juliet Redux, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, Cyrano de Bergerac, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Other directing credits include The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine (Vacant House Theatre), Anthony and Cleopatra (a Company of Fools), The Brothers Menæchmus (Third Wall Theatre), Hidden in This Picture (Vision Theatre), A Leave of Absinthe (The Absinthe Collective) and Thirsty for your skin, my parched parted lips… (Mutatis Mutandis).
David also works as a translator, adapter and playwright, with credits including rhymed verse renditions of Molière’s The Misanthrope (Third Wall Theatre), Tartuffe (Third Wall Theatre, Rideau Award nomination) and The School for Wives (SevenThirty Productions/Plosive Production co-production) and Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac (Plosive Productions). Other writing credits include A Flea in Her Ear (SevenThirty Productions), Winnie-the-Pooh (Plosive Productions) and with Mutatis Mutandis theatre company: What Goes Around…/…Comes Around (mutatis mutandis, Rideau and Golden Cherry Award nominations; Best in Venue, Ottawa Fringe Festival), Ubu Rex and Ubu Mactwobu, Mozart Requiem and Hot Spur! The One-Man One-Act Wild West Musical Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part One.
David has studied at Ryerson Theatre School, the University of Guelph and holds a Masters degree from l’Université du Québec à Montréal.
Teri Loretto
Teri began writing, acting and singing at an early age and soon moved to Ottawa to study theatre at Canterbury High School. She went on to complete her undergrad in Theatre and a Master’s Degree in Dramaturgy and Theory of Performance at the University of Ottawa. Teri has been nominated for the Prix Rideau and Capital Critics Circle for Best Director, Best Performance (Female)and her shows have been considered for Best Production and Designs by both the PRA and CCC. Memorable roles include the title character in Shirley Valentine (Gladstone Productions), Miss Witherspoon (Vision Theatre), Sphinx and Mum in Greek (Third Wall Theatre/Repercussion Theatre), 5 characters in A Company of Fools’ production of As You Like It, Jesse in ‘night Mother (Still Standing Theatre Co.) and Lucy/Red Operator for the North American eastern seaboard tour with the Caravan Stage Barge. She is part of the Absinthe Collective that wrote and produced A Leave of Absinthe for the Fringe circuit. Her adaptations and original Radio Show scripts have become a perennial favourite at the Gladstone in Ottawa.
Directing credits include Sorrow, which won best dramatic production at the Ottawa Fringe, Laramie, The Epilogue-10 Years Later for TotoToo Theatre, BLINK (Plosive), for which she was nominated for Best Director and Voices From the Front, an original script based on Canadians letters to and from the two world war fronts, co-written with playwright John Cook. She also writes scripts in both official languages for The Element Montessori school, producing, designing and directing those shows annually.
She has toured with and written music for several professional music groups in several genres.
Teri teaches in the Performing Arts, Journalism, Television Broadcasting and Professional Writing programs at Algonquin College. She is the stand in weather reporter for CBC Ottawa News and fills in as host for CBC Radio One’s In Town and Out. She leads groups of seniors in play and script study in Ottawa and teaches lectures for the Learning in Retirement program in Almonte, ON.
She is also the current VP of ACTRA Ottawa and a member in good standing of Equity, ACTRA, Canadian Media Guild, and The Playwright’s Guild of Canada.