Meet Our 2024/25 Season Directors

Hannah Dolson
Directing “Little Shop of Horrors”

Hannah Dolson is a local musician from Norfolk County, who has also been dedicating her spare time to the theatre since she was 17! She’s kept a presence on the local music scene, taking part in many local festivals and events with both her solo gigging, and has recently been performing as part of her band, “The Echelon”.

When it comes to the theatre side of her, she’s been in several SLT productions. Her first production being Seussical (2015), and her most recent role having been Betty Haynes in White Christmas (2023), with many other fun roles in between.

Throughout this long engagement with Simcoe Little Theatre, she has also been keeping a keen eye on the opportunity to direct a show on her own, and she now finally has the chance! Make sure to catch her directorial debut with “Little Shop of Horrors” this fall!

Courtney Deelen
Directing “Art”

After spending two amazing seasons in Dawson City, Yukon performing at Diamond Tooth Gerties Casino as a world renown Gertie Girl I moved to Toronto, and decided to completely change my career path from theatre to film and television. Training with The Actor’s Foundry and RAW Studios, I found that jumping in and embracing a variety of techniques helped to broaden my skillset. Honing my technique as an artist allowed my love of storytelling to flourish in ways that I couldn’t have ever imagined.

My experience in front of the camera began to open doors to crafting my own stories behind the camera through writing, directing, and editing. Full disclosure, I was sick of waiting for the “right part” to come along, so I decided to create parts for myself. I became a member of ACTRA in 2010, and got involved in ACTRA’s YEAA committee, where I took control of the producing duties of a variety of projects for other members.

My partner (in work and life) Michael T. Burgess and I developed our production company Deelen with Trouble, Inc. in 2015. Since DwT’s inception, we have successfully completed multiple short films, two PSAs, concept trailers, a short form documentary and 2 concept commercials. CLICK HERE to check out some of our work.

In 2018 was hired by the Canadian Film Centre to produce their Actors Conservatory Series showcase, and have been a faculty member of St. Clair College (teaching their film and TV course) for the past three years. Most recently, I was a finalist of the 2018 Cayle Chernin Awards, the 2019 TAWC Short Film Creation Lab, and received an OAC Grant for my upcoming film Just A Friend.

My debut short, Hunter’s Chance is an award winning film gaining over 11 festival laurels (and counting) and my upcoming short films, 365 months and The Last of Ian Campbell will debut on the 2020 film festival circuit.

Val Smith
Directing “Jessica’s Fine Adventure”

Val has been a fan of SLT for decades, first being introduced to it when her then 10 year old daughter Erin was in Annie, directed by Sylvia McManis and several other musicals in subsequent years. While teaching Drama, including the Theatre Co-op in the LFT space, and English at Port Dover Composite she was assistant director to director Robert More for Lighthouse Festival Theatre community shows Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar. After retiring, she returned to SLT to keep her hand in the performing arts world. In 2017 she co-directed Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet and in 2019 Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Both of these plays are a bit “outside the box” and it was exciting and gratifying to work on all aspects of their production with so many creative and dedicated folk. Fast forward through a pandemic and just when she thought that those days were behind her, enter Jessica’s Fine Adventure, written by Robert More. It seems a fitting way to step back into the world of theatre, somewhat of a full circle.