The Woods are Dark and Deep (Factory Theatre, March 2019)

Cast and Crew

Francesco De Francesco (John)

A man of many talents, Francesco De Francesco is an actor, writer, director and producer. The film he wrote, directed, and acted in, Enchanted Mafia, has even earned him the title of Award Winner for Best Comedy in the 2018 Summer Edition of the Alternative Film Festival. Frank has been in theatre productions such as Glengarry Glen Ross, Orson Welles’ War of the Words, and Deathtrap. As well, Frank can be seen on screen in Four Sides, Ascension and the upcoming web series Enchanted Mafia: Dark City.

Mila Jokić (Olessya)

Mila Jokić is a grade eight student at Swansea Junior and Senior Public School and is very excited to play Olessya in The Woods are Dark and Deep. She has appeared in a few plays such as The Lion King (school play), Romeo and Juliet (Pulse Theatre), and The Crisis (Young People’s Theatre). Besides acting, Mila enjoys skiing and snowboarding, spending time with her friends and watching anime and movies. Mila is also proud to be a Student Council President, volunteer and a member of numerous sports teams and clubs at her school.

Biljana Karadžić (Anya)

Biljana has a bachelor of dramatic arts in acting as well as a master’s degree in theatre production. She has been working as a teacher in acting and stage speech for over ten years; past experiences include work in National Theatre in Serbia and with the public broadcaster of Serbia. Since moving to Canada in 2016, she has been working with Pulse Theatre as a teacher, actress and producer and with Teaching Awareness Through Puppetry as a puppeteer. She is also a member of the Guild of Drama Artists of Serbia.

Simeon Kljakić (Oleh)

A kid from Toronto that loves to perform and make people laugh. Simeon has been attending Pulse Theatre Drama School since 2013 with notable appearances in Waiting for Santa Claus (Santa Claus), Romeo and Juliet with a Happy Ending (Mr. Capulet), Narnia (Edmund) and Peter Pan (Peter Pan); also the musical, Aristocats (Napoleon) produced by the Howard Junior Public School. Simeon is a soloist dancer at “The Academy of Serbian Folk Dancing’s” third ensemble. He speaks three languages, sings and plays guitar; he’s passionate about soccer, athletics and all sports in general, and is very excited to be a part of his first professional theatre production.

Sophie McIntosh (Claire)

Sophie is a recent graduate from the University of Ottawa with a Specialization in Theatre. Soon after her graduation, Sophie packed up her things and headed for Toronto to pursue her career in acting. Since the move, she has had the honour of playing the role of Claire in The Woods are Dark and Deep and is proud to claim this production as her stage debut in Toronto! In her spare time, Sophie works as a full time barista (one of many struggling actor clichés) and hopes to improve her latte art. Past productions involve Faris Who Talks to Rats (Ottawa Fringe Festival), Ismene (University of Ottawa), and more. Enjoy the show!

Mladen Obradović (Writer, Producer, Nebojša)
Theatre credits: Andrei (Chekhov’s Three Sisters), Zangara (Sondheim’s Assassins), Dr. Frankenstein (Frankenstein), Basil (Fever/Dream), Poche/Chandebise (A Flea in Her Ear, Fringe Toronto), Yura (Foreign Tongue/Next Stage), Ensemble (Counting Sheep, a double Dora Award winner/Summerworks). Artistic Director of Pulse Theatre. MFA in Acting, York University. After several plays for young audiences with Pulse Theatre, “The Woods are Dark and Deep” is his first full-length drama. A big thank you to everyone who helped bring this project to life!

Dewey Stewart (Janko)

Dewey is a recent graduate of the Acting Conservatory program at York University. While studying he performed as the father in Deportation Cast directed Keira Loughran and as Jove/Christopher Marlowe in Dido Queen of Carthage directed by Peter Hinton. Since graduation, Dewey has continued his studies at The Second City in the Improv For Actors program, been hired as a year round mascot performer, and signed with Sheila Lopes at Choice Talent Agency. Dewey can be seen in an episode of Discovery ID’s See No Evil later this month. “I am beyond excited to be a part of this beautiful and harsh story and thank Sandra and Mladen for this great opportunity.” You can follow Dewey @deweystew on Instagram for more of his acting adventures.

Ratko Todorović (Oleksa)

Ratko has been attracted to art for a time. He found art an interesting way to express his personality and release positive vibrations of creativity through various forms. Even though the passion for theater and acting was strong, he decided to pursue a career in computer science, leaving acting aside, as a favourite hobby. In the last several years he participated mostly in the projects developed by different Serbian theatre groups in Ottawa and Toronto. Some of the plays he acted in were: “Jitters” by David French, “The Physicists” by Friedrich Durrenmatt, “Marriage” by Nikolai Gogol, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Jake Zabusky (Dragutin)

Jake is a graduate from Concordia University’s theatre program where he first broke into the Montreal theatre scene as part of an ad hoc theatre collective called the MAP project. With MAP he collaborated in over twelve new works all premiered at the Mainline Theatre. Since moving back to Toronto he has worked predominately in film and can be seen most recently in Reign and American Lawmen. Jake is ecstatic to get to work with Mladen again and to perform on the Factory Theatre main stage!