Janet Van De Graaf
   HOME
*





Janet Van De Graaf
Janet van de Graaf (born April 5, 1965) is a Canadian improv artist and television actress. She has worked with Toronto's The Second City and has played various roles in the TV series ''History Bites'' on Canada's History Channel. She was married to actor Bob Martin from 1998 to 2018. Their namesakes are used as characters in the musical ''The Drowsy Chaperone'', which was originally created for their stag party. Awards She has won three Canadian Comedy Awards The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) is an annual ceremony that awards the Beaver for achievements in Canadian comedy in live performance, radio, film, television, and Internet media. The awards were founded and produced by Tim Progosh in 2000. T ..., for Best Female Improviser (2002 & 2004) and Best Female TV Performance (for ''History Bites'' in 2002).2004 best female improviser:'Corner Gas' wins big at comedy awards; Proposals for new Montreal film fest rejected, CBCnews.ca, November 2004. Notes External links * ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Improvisational Theatre
Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, action, story, and characters are created collaboratively by the players as the improvisation unfolds in present time, without use of an already prepared, written script. Improvisational theatre exists in performance as a range of styles of improvisational comedy as well as some non-comedic theatrical performances. It is sometimes used in film and television, both to develop characters and scripts and occasionally as part of the final product. Improvisational techniques are often used extensively in drama programs to train actors for stage, film, and television and can be an important part of the rehearsal process. However, the skills and processes of improvisation are also used outside the context of performing arts. This practice, known ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Second City
The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959, and has since become one of the most influential and prolific comedy theatres in the English-speaking world. In February 2021, ZMC, a private equity investment firm based in Manhattan, purchased the Second City. The Second City has produced television programs in both Canada and the United States, including '' SCTV'', ''Second City Presents'', and '' Next Comedy Legend''. Since its debut, The Second City has consistently been a starting point for many comedians, award-winning actors, directors, and others in show business, including Del Close, Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, John Candy, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Colin M ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


History Bites
''History Bites'' is a television series on the History (Canada), History Television network that ran from 1998 to 2004. Created by Rick Green (comedian), Rick Green, ''History Bites'' explored what would be on television if the medium had been around for the last 5,000 years of human history. Typically, a significant historical event was chosen and mock news, sports and entertainment programming was created around it. Each episode included several segments of Green offering historical background of the episode's chosen era and otherwise showed frequent shifts from one comedy sketch to another (as well as returning to certain sketches repeatedly) representing a channel-surfing viewer who never watched any one sketch for more than a few minutes at a time. Furthermore, the theme of the series is about debunking misplaced nostalgia about historical periods by illustrating their often absurd injustices and brutal realities to modern sensibilities. Synopsis Contemporary movies, telev ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


History Television
The History Channel (also known as History) is a Canadian English language specialty channel that primarily broadcast programming related to history and historical fiction. It is owned by Corus Entertainment, with the History branding used under a licensing agreement with A+E Networks. The channel operates two time-shifted feeds: East (Eastern Time) and West (Pacific Time). The West Coast feed was launched on September 1, 2006. History Licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on September 4, 1996 as ''The History and Entertainment Network'', the channel was originally owned by Alliance Atlantis Communications, and launched as History Television on October 17, 1997. On January 18, 2008, a joint venture between Canwest and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners known as CW Media bought Alliance Atlantis and gained AAC's interest in History Television. On October 8, 2009, Canwest launched a high definition simulcast of History Television. Histor ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Bob Martin (comedian)
Robert Martin (born December 8, 1962) is a television and musical theatre actor and writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Career Theatre Martin began his career as an actor and director at The Second City in Toronto in 1996. He served as Second City Toronto's artistic director from 2003–2004. In 2005, he made his Broadway debut starring as “Man in Chair” in the musical ''The Drowsy Chaperone'', which he co-wrote with Don McKellar (book), and Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison (music and lyrics). He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical with Don McKellar. He reprised his role in London's West End production of ''The Drowsy Chaperone'', for which he received an Olivier nomination. Martin then kicked off the show's North American tour on its first stop in Toronto. Martin wrote the book for the musical ''Minsky's'', which premiered at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles in 2009. He returned to Broadway as ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Drowsy Chaperone
''The Drowsy Chaperone'' is a Canadian musical theatre, musical with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, and a book by Bob Martin (comedian), Bob Martin and Don McKellar. The story concerns a middle-aged, asocial musical theater fan who, feeling "blue", decides to play for the audience an LP of his favorite musical, the fictional 1928 show ''The Drowsy Chaperone''. As the record plays, the show - a parody of 1920s American musical comedy - comes to life onstage, as the man wryly comments on the music, story and actors. ''The Drowsy Chaperone'' debuted in 1998 at The Rivoli in Toronto, and, after a 2005 run in Los Angeles, opened on Broadway theatre, Broadway on May 1, 2006. The show was nominated for multiple Broadway and West End theatre, West End theatre awards, winning five Tony Awards and seven Drama Desk Awards. The show has had major productions in Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, London, Melbourne and Japan, as well as two North American tours as well as Bate ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Canadian Comedy Awards
The Canadian Comedy Awards (CCA) is an annual ceremony that awards the Beaver for achievements in Canadian comedy in live performance, radio, film, television, and Internet media. The awards were founded and produced by Tim Progosh in 2000. The CCA have been held in different cities, most often in Toronto and London, Ontario. Between 2003 and 2015, the awards were held as part of the Canadian Comedy Awards Festival, with showcase performances by nominees and other comedic talent. The Comedy Network broadcast the first two award ceremonies and several specials of festival performances. These broadcasts have earned two Gemini Award nominations. The awards are artist-driven with a mandate "To recognize, celebrate and promote Canadian achievements in comedy at home and abroad." They are run through a non-profit organization and volunteer committees, drawing membership from the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Canadian Actors' Equity Association ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

1965 Births
Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson, sworn in for a full term as President of the United States. ** Indonesian President Sukarno announces the withdrawal of the Indonesian government from the United Nations. * January 30 – The Death and state funeral of Winston Churchill, state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill takes place in London with the largest assembly of dignitaries in the world until the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II. * February 4 – Trofim Lysenko is removed from his post as director of the Institute of Genetics at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences in the Soviet Union. Lysenkoism, Lysenkoist theories are now treated as pseudoscience. * February 12 ** The African and Malagasy Republic, Malagasy Common Organization ('; OCA ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Living People
Related categories * :Year of birth missing (living people) / :Year of birth unknown * :Date of birth missing (living people) / :Date of birth unknown * :Place of birth missing (living people) / :Place of birth unknown * :Year of death missing / :Year of death unknown * :Date of death missing / :Date of death unknown * :Place of death missing / :Place of death unknown * :Missing middle or first names See also * :Dead people * :Template:L, which generates this category or death years, and birth year and sort keys. : {{DEFAULTSORT:Living people 21st-century people People by status ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Canadian Women Comedians
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''Canadian''. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of groups of many different ethnic, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French, British, and more recent immigrant customs, languages, and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic, and ec ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Canadian Television Actresses
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''Canadian''. Canada is a multilingual and multicultural society home to people of groups of many different ethnic, religious, and national origins, with the majority of the population made up of Old World immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of French and then the much larger British colonization, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and settlement of non-indigenous peoples took place over the course of nearly two centuries and continue today. Elements of Indigenous, French, British, and more recent immigrant customs, languages, and religions have combined to form the culture of Canada, and thus a Canadian identity. Canada has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic, and ec ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Improvisational Theatre In Canada
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines; see Applied improvisation. Improvisation also exists outside the arts. Improvisation in engineering is to solve a problem with the tools and materials immediately at hand. Improvised weapons are often used by guerrillas, insurgents and criminals. Engineering Improvisation in engineering is to solve a problem with the tools and materials immediately at hand. Examples of such improvisation was the re-engineering of carbon dioxide scrubbers with the materials on hand during the Apollo 13 space mission, or the use of a knife in place of a screwdriver to turn a screw. Engineering improvisations may ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]