Meet our Directors....

URINETOWN, THE MUSICAL
DIRECTED BY DOUGIE WALKER

SALT-WATER MOON
DIRECTED BY KATE CAMPBELL

Kate Campbell is an award-winning filmmaker, international actor and vocalist. Appearing in theOscar-nominated film Gone Girl, and earning a Maverick Movie Award Nomination for her role in Badsville, directed by April Mullen, Kate recently portrayed prosecutor Jamie Glenway in the fourth season of the CBS series In the Dark, starred as Trudy Cromwell in the Bell Fibe TV series, BIKE, and played Edith Wharton in the 16th season of The Murdoch Mysteries.

As a vocalist and frontwoman for LA-based bands The Martini Kings and Pop Nouveau Jazz, Kate has performed for high-profile clients, including The Academy Awards, The Emmy Awards, HBO, Warner Bros, The Getty Center, Universal, and Disney. She has headlined at the Purple Room in Palm Springs, and has sung with Robby Krieger of The Doors and Jeff Goldblum and his Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.

In the past 5 years, Kate has directed seven short-form projects and garnered international acclaim. Her narrative short film Boundless, about the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) of WWII, won 13 international awards and screened globally. Boundless had 11 cast members, 60 extras, 40 crew, and flying warplanes. The project is now advancing into international co-production development as a TV mini-series.

Kate is the showrunner and executive producer of a new series called Trailblazing Talks with Dini Petty, a new talk show aiming to inspire, educate, and empower viewers by showcasing the journeys of trailblazing older women and female-bodied wisdom keepers of diverse backgrounds. The show is set for release in 2025.

Kate is also attached to direct two feature films: the women-driven psychological thriller Satisfaction, created by Dana Fradkin, and the dramatic feature Green Mountain State, written by Tanner Moody, which was a finalist in the 2022 Sundance Writer's Lab.

In her early years Kate was an active participant in theatre productions during her years at Haliburton Highlands Secondary School. She also joined the Highlands Summer Festival  company for its inaugural year, taking on the challenging role of Mary in the company's very first production of David French's Salt-Water Moon. In the same 2000 season, she appeared in the musical revue Coping. Four years later she returned from her musical theatre training at Sheridan College to take the lead in The Sound of Music as the nun Maria.
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Kate is a student pilot and proud member of the Ninety-Nines Women’s Flying Organization.
For more, visit katecampbellfilmmaker.com.

DRINKING HABITS
DIRECTED BY MYRNA MCBRIEN

​Myrna has twenty-four years experience in amateur and professional theatre. She has most recently played Gingy in her own theatre company’s production of Love, Loss and What I Wore by Delia and Nora Ephron in Toronto. Firefly Collective has also recently produced Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell in Toronto which Myrna directed. Previously, she produced and starred in Kingfisher Days by Susan Coyne in Hamilton. 

For The Highlands Summer Festival, Myrna took part in the Dickens Holiday recording, A Christmas Carol.  She directed talented casts and crews in The Dining Room, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Shirley Valentine. Myrna was a proud member of the cast of Annie, The Goodbye Girl, The Last Resort, Looking, Fallen Angels, and The Ladies Foursome which she also directed. 

Myrna is honoured to be back with the fine people and devoted supporters of HSF on its silver jubilee. A heartfelt congratulations goes out to the founding members, and all those throughout the years who made HSF what it is today. 
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Thank you to the HSF for this wonderful opportunity to direct again for this admirable and community-minded theatre. Please enjoy another fabulous season! Cheers!