Four years ago, when Kiana Woo first stepped onto the Greek Theatre stage in Scarborough with Guild Festival Theatre (GFT) as the protagonist of Alice in Wonderland, she had no idea the role would mark a turning point in her career.
It was the summer of 2021, and GFT’s open-air staging of David Savoy’s Alice adaptation was one of the few live productions running that pandemic season. “It was the first theatre thing I’d done since the world shut down,” Woo recalled. “I couldn’t believe [that theatre] wasn’t dead.”
This performance earned her the 2022 Dora Award for outstanding performance in the theatre for young audiences division. But, when Alice was remounted during the 2023 season, Woo wasn’t able to return — she was already booked for a summer at the Shaw Festival.
This summer, she’s back at the Guild, as one of two metamorphic clowns in Patrick Barlow’s The 39 Steps, a rapidfire Hitchcock spoof directed by GFT co-artistic director Tyler J. Seguin (who also helmed Alice). The four-person cast plays dozens of roles, and much of the comedy lives in the transformations. “It’s not like I’m playing one character with 14 hats,” she said. “It’s more like I’m playing 14 different people. Each one has to be distinct.”
That process of distinction, she said, is deeply physical. “Clowning doesn’t work if it’s just voice or costume. It has to live in your body,” Woo explained. “I’m leading with my chest one second, then my knees the next.” The result is tightly choreographed chaos — and for Woo, a return to a kind of full-body performance style she hasn’t flexed in years.
Woo, who shares the stage with clowning partner Isaiah Kolundzic, says Seguin has encouraged them to stretch the ridiculous to its limits. “We’re allowed to go too far before reeling it back. We’re trying everything. It’s stupid, but in the best way.”
Still, precision is key when it comes to physical comedy. A recurring bit on a train — classic hat-swivel slapstick — took careful refining. “It needs to look effortless to be funny,” she says. “And part of that is allowing yourself to be malleable and elastic with your choices, and change things on the fly with your castmates.”
Despite the demands of the role, she described rehearsals as joyful, and very much collaborative. “Tyler gives us actors a lot of agency, but he also knows when to tell you to sit down and drink some water,” she said. “That kind of care isn’t always a given.”
Care seems to be a guiding value at the Guild these days. Since Alice, the company has expanded its programming and deepened its commitment to accessibility. The Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts recognized that work with the 2025 Ray Ferris Innovation and Sustainability Grant, presented at this year’s Dora Awards. “They’re using part of that grant to pilot a bus service that will bring people straight to the park,” Woo said. “Which is amazing, because let’s be honest, Scarborough is hard to get to.”
Woo knows the commute well, as she lives in Toronto proper. “It takes me about an hour-and-a -half to get to rehearsal. Once you get to Guildwood GO, it’s still a 15 to 20-minute walk. In this heat? That’s not easy.”
She pauses. “But it’s always worth it once you arrive. I love it there.”
As someone from Scarborough, I get it. Scarborough’s bluffs, lakeside parks, and diverse communities anchor some of Toronto’s most dynamic food and arts scenes. But despite its cultural vibrancy, the region continues to face gaps in city infrastructure, with ongoing cuts to transit, education, and healthcare disproportionately impacting its communities.
GFT’s new free shuttle, part of its Theatre in Transit initiative, aims to bridge some of that distance. The pilot program offers two round-trip rides each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from July 18 to August 24, departing from either Kennedy Station or Guildwood GO. Ticket holders for any same-day GFT performance can reserve a spot in advance, and the shuttle returns to both pickup points after the show.
While shuttle programs are staples at the Stratford and Shaw festivals, GFT’s marks a rare instance of free, dedicated transportation for outdoor theatre within Toronto.
For Woo, coming back to the Guild after four years — after working at Shaw, Soulpepper, and Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, and in French at Théâtre Français de Toronto — feels like a homecoming. “It’s familiar, but everything is new,” she says. “New actors, new text, new muscles I haven’t used in years. I haven’t done a farce this physical since Edmonton,” referring to the Citadel’s world premiere production of The Fiancée in late 2021, when she understudied both female leads.
Performing outdoors adds another layer. “You project differently. You block differently. You’re up against the elements,” she said. “And the Greek Theatre is its own beast. But the team has it down to a science now.”
These days, Woo is also making original work — including a solo clown show about dating a skeleton, an immersive mahjong play inspired by her family, and Gay Cowboys, a burlesque-theatre hybrid co-devised with her partner. “I just want to do things I’ve never done before,” she says. “That’s when I learn the most.”
Still, she’s quick to honour where it all began.
When I ask what she’d tell her slightly younger self — the one playing Alice — she grins. “Wear more sunscreen. Take more breaks. Trust yourself.”
Laughing, she adds: “That was a special pocket of time. Tyler really believed in me. They even made a tiny puppet of me. It’s still in my bedroom.”
During load-in for The 39 Steps, reminders of that first production resurfaced — quite literally.
“A few set pieces from Alice showed up again,” Woo says. “They had the ALICE letters painted on them. Tyler and I had this déjà vu moment and just laughed.”
It may not be a tea party in Wonderland, but Woo promises a different kind of delight — one that involves her sprinting through a spy thriller with clown shoes on.
“It’s a proper night at the theatre. It’s fast. It’s ridiculous. It’s full of heart. And if you laugh at how stupid it gets, that means we’ve done our job.”
The 39 Steps runs at the Greek Theatre from July 17 to August 3. Tickets are available here.
Guild Festival Theatre is an Intermission partner. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
WRITTEN BY
Krystal Abrigo
Krystal is Intermission’s Publishing and Editorial Assistant. A Scarborough-based writer of Philippine and Egyptian descent, she graduated cum laude with an Honours BA in Professional Writing from York University, specializing in Book Publishing and Corporate/Organizational Communication. She enjoys reading bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and James Baldwin. At any given moment, you can probably find her at a concert or on a long walk somewhere in Toronto.
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