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Ron Pederson

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Ron Pederson
Born
Ronald Pederson

(1978-01-08)January 8, 1978(age 46)
Edmonton,Alberta,Canada
Occupation(s)Actor, comedian, director
Years active1989–present
Known forImprovisational theatre,theatre,MADtv
AwardsCanadian Comedy Award,Sterling Award,SummerWorks Performance Award,Dora Mavor Moore Award

Ronald Pederson(born January 8, 1978)[1]is a Canadian,Métisactor,comedian and theatre director who has worked extensively throughout Canada and in the United States. He has performed at most of Canada's major theatres includingThe Stratford Festival,The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre,The Citadel Theatre,Alberta Theatre Projects,The Arts Club,The Vancouver Playhouse,The Young Centre,The Canadian Stage Company,The Tarragon Theatre,Theatre Passe Muraille,Soulpepperand The SummerWorks Festival. Pederson is an alumnus of Toronto’sThe Second Cityand has also worked extensively in television and may be best known for his Canadian Comedy Award-nominated work (Canadian Comedy Award Best Television Performance) and his three seasons on Fox Television'sMADtv.

Career

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Born inEdmonton,Alberta,Pederson began working professionally at a very young age. He appeared at theCitadel Theatre,The Phoenix Theatre, playwrightStewart Lemoine's Teatro La Quindicina and the Edmonton International Fringe Festival. In 1995, at the invitation of Dana Andersen, Pederson joined the cast of the live improvised soap operaDie-Nasty.Over the next eight years he performed weekly on the soap, worked with notable guest starsMark McKinney,Mike MyersandJoe Flaherty,and completed theDie-Nasty Annual 53-Hour Soap-A-Thon.In 2002, Pederson won aSterling Awardfor his portrayal of Ray Dooley inMartin McDonagh's playThe Beauty Queen of Leenane.He is an eight-time Sterling Award nominee.

Pederson gained attention fromHollywoodin March 2002, while performing atThe Second CitywithMartin Short,Catherine O'HaraandFred Willardin Joe Flaherty's improvised showThe Soap Also Rises.He turned down an invitation to joinToronto's Second City main stage cast to work on Fox Television's sketch comedy seriesMADtvthat September. He performed with them for three seasons and his work on the show's tenth season was recognized with a nomination for Best Television Performance at theCanadian Comedy Awards.Following his departure fromMADtv,Pederson wrote and performed sketches onCBS'sThe Late Late Show with Craig Fergusonfor one season before returning to theatre in Canada.

He moved to Toronto in 2007 and played Seymour inLittle Shop of Horrorsat The Canadian Stage Company. Pederson has since worked at Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Summerworks Festival and The Toronto Fringe Festival. He played Quasimodo in Catalyst Theatre'sHunchbackin Edmonton andVancouver,and James in the world-premiere of the award-winning playExtinction Songin Edmonton (Sterling Award), Toronto (Summerworks Spotlight Award) andHalifax(Merritt Award nomination). In Vancouver, his performance of Carmen Ghia inThe Producersearned him a Jessie Richardson Award nomination. He joined the acting company of theStratford Festivalin 2013, playing Lancelot Gobbo inThe Merchant of Venice.

In October 2008, Pederson became a founding member and co-artistic director – with Matt Baram andNaomi Snieckus– of the three-time Canadian Comedy Award-winning improv theatre company The National Theatre of the World. They began producing two weekly shows in Toronto:Impromptu Splendor,an improvised one-act play; andThe Carnegie Hall Show,an improvised variety show. They later producedThe Soaps,an improvised soap opera serial, andFiasco Playhouseexperimental improv theatre. In 2009, The National Theatre of the World won the RBC Arts Professional Award. Pederson, Baram and Snieckus performed their shows at the Summerworks Theatre Festival, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts' Global Cabaret Festival, and Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto; at theBarrow Street Theatreoff-Broadway; and in Chicago, Los Angeles, Charleston, Edmonton, Halifax and Europe.[2]In October 2011, Pederson won a Canadian Comedy Award for Best Male Improviser for his work with the National Theatre of the World.[3]

Pederson left the National Theatre of the World in 2012 and co-founded a new company called the Theatre Department with Daniela Vlaskalic. The Theatre Department's goal is "to produce simple, elegant productions of the world's best language-based plays [...] with an emphasis on accentuating the power of theatre's singular, live dynamic."[4]Their first production was Stewart Lemoine'sThe Exquisite Hour(2012) at the Factory Theatre starring Ted Dykstra, with Pederson in his directorial debut.The Globe and Mailsaid, "Ron Pederson, gives the play an impeccable staging."[5]The company's second production was Lemoine'sPith!(2014) at Theatre Passe Muraille, for which he was nominated for aDora Awardin 2014. A Stagedoor review said, "Pederson, himself, is a marvel. He speaks Lemoine’s period-infused lines with exactly the right intonation and emphasis. The bizarre characters he plays during the Ecuadorean journey show off his amazing ability to transform himself completely."[6]

In 2015, Pederson joined theSoulpepper[7]acting company and produced and directedWonderstruck Live! An Improvised Playat both the Storefront Theatre andThe Bad Dog Theatre Company.[8]

In 2016, Pederson appeared for an extended run with renowned improvisation company English Lovers in Vienna, starred in the acclaimed improvised musicalOne Night Onlyat the Factory Theatre in Toronto, and produced and starred in a remount ofExtinction Songat theHighland Arts TheatreinSydney, Nova Scotia.

Pederson was nominated for a 2016 Dora Award for Best Actor in a Musical forOne Night Only; the Greatest Musical Never Written.[9]The nomination was unprecedented as Pederson was the first nominee in the category to have entirely improvised his performance.[10][11][12]

In 2018 Pederson returned to the Stratford Festival as an assistant director.[13]and won the Sterling Award for Best Actor for No Exit.[14]He also co-created The Wonder Pageant withKayla Lorettefor Coal Mine Theatre which earned a 2019 Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination and win for Best Ensemble[15][16]

In 2019 Pederson appeared inFour Chords and GunbyJohn Ross Bowiein Toronto andChicago,Illinois.[17][18]

I’m 2021 Pederson created and directed A Miracle on Queen Street for The Capitol Theatre in Port Hope[19]

In 2021 Pederson was commissioned by Winnipeg’s Shakespeare in the Ruins to write what would become his first play The Player King, which he subsequently directed for the company in 2022.[20] The Winnipeg free press said “Directed by Pederson, the tone is fanciful and often humorous. But it’s not entirely a comedy. At its heart, it is a serious exploration of the meaning of theatre, and a timely treatise”

In 2023 Ron joined the MainStage cast of Toronto’s Second City.[21]

Pederson's film and television credits include providing the voice of the Golly Gee Kid in theYTVcartoonSidekick,and guest starring onShe's the Mayor,InSecurity,Degrassi: The Next Generation,Murdoch Mysteries,andNew Eden.He played Frank in the family filmVampire Dog.[22]More recently he has had a recurring role onThe Next Stepand a guest role onPrivate Eyes.

References

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  1. ^"Everything I Know About… Improv | Avenue".www.avenueedmonton.com.Archived fromthe originalon 2010-11-20.
  2. ^"National Theatre of the World".Baram and Snieckus.Retrieved20 November2020.
  3. ^"Our 2011 Canadian Comedy Award recipients".canadiancomedy.ca.Archived fromthe originalon 2013-05-03.
  4. ^"thetheatredepartment.com".Archived fromthe originalon 2018-08-26.Retrieved2022-07-16.
  5. ^Morrow, Martin (20 April 2012)."The Exquisite Hour: Romance in the age of encyclopedias - The Globe and Mail".The Globe and Mail.
  6. ^"Stage Door - 404 Not Found".
  7. ^"Soulpepper - Ron Pederson".soulpepper.ca.Archived fromthe originalon 2015-06-11.
  8. ^Fisher, Steve (31 August 2015)."Learning to Love" the Actor's Nightmare "in Wonderstruck Live and Mixed Company".Torontoist.Retrieved20 November2020.
  9. ^"Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominations 2016".intermissionmagazine.ca.30 May 2016.Retrieved20 November2020.
  10. ^Nestruck, J. Kelly (30 May 2016)."The Doras 2016: The best in Toronto theatre have a distinctly Canadian flavour".The Globe and Mail.Retrieved20 November2020.
  11. ^Sumi, Glenn (3 February 2016)."Review: One night only: the greatest musical never written".nowtoronto.com.Retrieved20 November2020.
  12. ^"Nominees".tapa.ca.Retrieved20 November2020.
  13. ^"The Comedy of Errors: Cast & Creative".Stratford Festival.Retrieved20 November2020.
  14. ^Dunch, Jonah (26 June 2018)."31st Annual Sterling Awards honour Edmonton's professional theatre in all forms".thegatewayonline.ca.Retrieved20 November2020.
  15. ^"40th Annual Dora Awards Nominations Announced: Soulpepper Takes Home 25 Nominations, DEAR EVAN HANSEN Taps 9 Noms".www.broadwayworld.com.Archived fromthe originalon 2019-05-28.
  16. ^https://tapa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/DORA-AWARDS-2019-WINNERS-PR-FINAL.pdf/[dead link]
  17. ^"'Four Chords and a Gun' tells a tuneless story of The Ramones ".Chicago Tribune.21 May 2019.Retrieved11 November2020.
  18. ^"Biographical 'Four Chords and a Gun' missing key ingredient: The Ramones' music".20 May 2019.
  19. ^"Port Hope: The Capitol Theatre announces its in-person holiday programming".
  20. ^"Jun 2022: New play explores meaning of theatre".11 June 2022.
  21. ^"Funnyman Ron Pederson returns to Second City and the improv is chaos!".Toronto Star.13 May 2024.
  22. ^"Ron Pederson".imdb.com.
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