Founder
Lola
Rasminsky started Beyond the Box™ in 1998 as a natural extension
of the Avenue
Road Arts School,
which she founded in 1993. Trained in both Philosophy and Music Education,
she is interested in the theory that connects learning in the arts with learning
in business. A frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail, she writes mainly
about the creative process in organizational settings. She is an accomplished
speaker and, in 2004, she was a
presenter at ideaCITY, Toronto's 3-day creative
symposium. In November 2006, Lola received
the BELL Trailblazer Award at the RBC
Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Awards. In 2007, she was honoured with the Toronto
Mayor's Arts Award. And in 2008, she became a Member of the Order
of Canada.
President
Bob Presner comes
from the creative world of film and television. As former president of Film
Finances Canada and vice-president of Motion Picture Guarantors, he was involved
in more than 500 projects: feature films, MOWs, TV series, and documentaries
including films directed by Tony Scott, David Cronenberg, Deepa Mehta, Robert
Lepage and Atom Egoyan. Bob is a founding member of the Quebec Chapter of
the Directors Guild of Canada. In a previous lifetime, Bob was a folksinger
entertaining in Montreal's finest coffee houses.
Artistic Faculty
Martha Johnson received an H.B.F.A. from the University of Guelph and has worked as a practising painter/sculptor for more than 20 years. Her work is seen in private collections around the world and in public collections in Ontario. Martha has appeared frequently on City TV's Cityline Homeday.
Linda Kash, actor, director and stand-up improv artist, is best known as television's Philadelphia Cream Cheese angel. Linda has appeared on Seinfeld, Cybill, Everybody Loves Raymond, Third Rock from the Sun, and Ellen, and her feature film work includes Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and Ron Howard's Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe.
Linda Prussick has taught drawing, painting, mixed media, lettering arts and paper-based arts at the Avenue Road Arts School and other art schools since 1993. For four years, she was editor of the quarterly journal produced by the Calligraphic Arts Guild of Toronto. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art.
Lisa Seward is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, in New York, and of Toronto's York University. The founder and director of the Yonge Street Players, a children's theatre school that won the only Award for Comedy ever given by YTV, Lisa has performed with Second City Toronto and the National Theatre Company in New York.
Naomi Snieckus is a gifted actor, stand-up comedian, and improv artist. As a graduate of Second City in Toronto, she has taught in many venues and performs regularly at such prestigious events as Moses Znaimer's ideaCITY. Naomi recently starred in the long-running hit show: The Second City Reloaded.
Casey Sokol is Associate Professor of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, at York University. He has toured in Europe, Japan, the USA and Canada as a piano improviser. His dozens of recordings frequently air on CBC Radio, in Canada, and on radio stations as far away as Japan.
Pierre Trudel has appeared as a series regular on Supertown Challenge for the Comedy Network, and in Faites le Deux, a SRC series showcasing the best in French-Canadian comedy. He admits to being part of the comedy trio Men in Tights, and is seen regularly at Mysteriously Yours, the Toronto murder mystery dinner theatre.
David Warrack is the award-winning founder and conductor of the Canada Pops Orchestra, as well as a performer, writer and producer. He has written 52 shows that have been produced professionally including Rob Roy, which premiered recently at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He has been musical director for more than 200 productions, including Shenandoah on Broadway.
Jocelyne Zucco is seen on stage: The Cemetery Club, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, De Beaux Gestes and Beautiful Deeds; on television: Urban Angel, The Associates, Due South, Doc and Falcone; in feature films: Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, Guilt By Association, Sister Mary Explains It All and Pendant ce Temps; and in the documentary: Zucco: a Semi-True Story.
Corporate Associate
Our highly qualified associates, with decades of experience in organizational design and restructuring, offer complementary services to enhance your Beyond the Box experience.
Michael Bungay Stanier, a corporate consultant and certified coach and the founder of Box of Crayons, holds a law degree from the Australian National University and was a Rhodes Scholar in English literature. He has run hundreds of brainstorming sessions in the U.K, France, the U.S. and Canada, working with such diverse organizations as McKinsey & Co, AstraZeneca and Microsoft. In 2006, he was named Canadian Coach of the Year.