WINNIPEG IDOLS: They've got more talent in their baby fingers than most reality show contestants, but you will likely never see them on TV

By: Gwenda Nemerovsky @ Winnipeg Free Press

Season after season for the last decade, so-called talent shows like American Idol, X Factor and Canada's Got Talent have scoured the country for the latest and greatest star. Contestants on the shows belt out tired cover tunes, often mimicking their favourite singers, in hopes of being the next big discovery, win lucrative recording contracts and go on to instant fame and fortune.

The TV shows are a huge success. And yet, we need only look in our own back yards to see and hear some truly gifted and dedicated musicians.

Go to a concert at the Centennial Concert Hall, a local church, or attend a show at one of the many music clubs in the city, and you will hear professional musicians who have been honing their craft since they were kids. They have more talent and ability in their baby fingers than almost anyone appearing on these glitzy talent shows.

Drummer Joanna Miller

Drummer Joanna Miller is a good example. She comes from a musical family. Her father, John, played trombone in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and her mother Celoris, is an active pianist and teacher who sings in the Manitoba Opera Chorus.

"I was really young when I started singing," said the 34-year-old Miller in a telephone interview. "Our whole family would sing together and compete in the music festival. I started drumming when I was about 13, in junior high."

Miller continued with drums at Glenlawn Collegiate. "They needed a drummer in the jazz band. They had an awesome band and choir program there. I spent half my days doing music." She sang in the jazz choir and took years of drum lessons with Dave Schneider.

Miller has never looked back. "After high school I started playing in jazz trios," she said. "I was in the percussion program at the University of Manitoba briefly, before they started the jazz program. I played in the jazz orchestra there, until I started getting work playing."

She's played in the pit orchestra for Rainbow Stage, in Winnipeg Jewish Theatre musicals, at various city functions and with several local bands. For over a decade she has performed, recorded and toured with guitarist Scott Nolan, travelling in the U.S. and Canada for the past five years.

"We'll be playing Texas in March," she said. "It's not about how big we can get, but if we have a few hundred people a night in a nice theatre, it's fun." She looks forward to going back to the Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas where they were well received. "I think they like our Canadiana slant."

The work isn't always predictable, with three gigs a week considered good. Miller supplements her income by bartending at Times Change(d), but says she supports herself well enough. "I don't imagine owning a house anytime soon," she admitted.

Her professional goals don't include fame, but focus on continuously improving her skills. "I'd like to record my own album someday," she said.

Singer Jereme Wall

Singer Jereme Wall grew up in Melita, travelling over an hour to Virden weekly to sing in the Virden and District Youth Choir from the time he was 11. Now in his sixth season as a bass with the Winnipeg Singers and a member of Canzona, he can't imagine a life without music. "I will have to always leave time for music - for my own well-being," he said in a phone interview.

Now 29, Wall studied piano and started voice lessons in Grade 11, performing in the Deloraine Border Festival and singing in the Provincial Honour Choir, Manitoba Youth Choir, and prestigious National Youth Choir. He earned his Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance, studying with Sylvia Richardson at Brandon University.

Wall is currently in the pre-med program at the University of Manitoba and works as a server at Terrace 55 and The Current restaurants. Even with this busy schedule, he relishes his time singing.

"I love the camaraderie," he said, "and the variety of music I get to sing and be exposed to. I love to perform -- the emotional effect you get from it and expressing this emotion to others."

The Winnipeg Singers typically do four concerts per year, each requiring seven rehearsals, earning Wall a $390 honourarium per show.

The schedule can get hectic. "A very busy week involving both choirs would be approximately 17 hours of rehearsal time with the choirs, not to mention the additional time I would be spending looking at the music on my own. This can lead to a total of over 20 hours in one week."

Violinist Phoebe Tsang

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra second violinist Phoebe Tsang took a more circuitous route to her career. Her parents started her on violin at age six. "It was my father's favourite instrument," she said in an interview at the WSO office.

Moving from her native Hong Kong to England at age seven, she studied with a series of teachers but was not all that keen. At 18, she gave up playing and studied architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, going on to work in the field. Tsang interned and worked as journalist for Building Design newspaper but eventually decided to return to music.

Moving to Toronto, she began working on her performance diploma at the Royal Conservatory with renowned violinist and teacher Lorand Fenyves. "He was my main teacher for 13 years," she said. "I was lucky to have such a great teacher and mentor. He took an interest in his students on a personal level." Tsang watched Fenyves teach others and subsequently worked as his teaching assistant, coaching students while he was away.

Now in her early 30s, she loves her position with the WSO. "Before moving here, I heard about the WSO. It's one of the top orchestras and I was excited to play full time in a major orchestra. The programming is wonderful and innovative. I admire Gwen's (Hoebig) playing and appreciate working closely with her. It's also great to have a steady paycheque."

Pay rates for orchestra players vary. The WSO is currently advertising for a second violinist and offering a salary of $35,636.

Tsang maintains a daily practice regimen that keeps her "playing at a professional level." There are regular rehearsals and a full season of concerts, so plenty of new repertoire to learn.

"When you get to sit in a beautiful concert hall with great acoustics with a bunch of friends, it's a privilege -- and I want to share it with the audience."

You can see that these Winnipeg musicians worked hard for decades to get where they are today. They may never become household names or get wealthy. Instead they reap a sense of fulfillment by performing the music they love -- for the sake of the music alone -- and to share with listeners the joy and enrichment that beautiful, well-executed music can bring.

Reposted from the Winnipeg Free Press on January 29, 2012

Rainbow Stage Theatre has been nominated in the Great Places in Canada contest! Click HERE to vote for us. Thanks Everyone!

For those of you who are wondering what's happening behind the scenes...

THEATRICAL LOGIC:

In is down, down is front;

Out is up, up is back;

Off is out, on is in;

and of course -

Right is left, and Left is right.

A drop shouldn't and

A block and fall does neither.

A prop doesn't and

A cove has no water.

Tripping is okay;

A running crew rarely gets anywhere;

A purchase line will buy you nothing;

A trap will not catch anything and

A gridiron has nothing to do with Football.

Strike is work (in fact, a lot of work) and

A green room, thank God, usually isn't.

Now that you're fully versed in

Theatrical Terms - “Break a Leg...”

But not really!

WHAT?!?!

UPDATE: Annual School Awards & Scholarships

SCHOOL AWARDS:
Our School Awards committee has been very busy attending school productions.  Have you invited them to your school?

SCHOLARSHIPS:
Student Scholarships have been steadily coming in, and there is still time for you to get your application in if you have not already done so.

Information about our School Awards and Scholarships can be found on our website at:
www.rainbowstage.ca/community

Good Luck!

John Hirsch: four acts, four tribes in the book A Fiery Soul

John Hirsch and the rest of the 1957 Rainbow Stage production staff.

By, Martin Knelman - Entertainment Columnist

Before she became the biographer of John Hirsch, Fraidie Martz wrote a book called Open Your Hearts. It’s the story of Jewish war orphans from Europe who were admitted to Canada in 1947. There were 500 of them, and Hirsch was the one who became famous — breaking through in, of all places, Winnipeg, and later becoming known around the world as Canada’s greatest theatre director.

He was born Janos Hirsch on May 1, 1930, into a comfortable Jewish family in the Hungarian lakeside town of Siofok. The connection between theatre and real life was clear in one of the things he had been told as a child: every Hungarian is born with Act One in his head, and spends the rest of his life working on Acts Two and Three.

Now a wonderful and long overdue biography by Martz and co-author Andrew Wilson, A Fiery Soul: the Life and Theatrical Times of John Hirsch (Véhicule Press) recounts the second, third and hugely productive fourth acts of Hirsch’s amazing life drama. A life in which, Hirsch used to say, he was “a member of four mafias — Hungarian, Jewish, Winnipeg and homosexual.”

The book brings out the qualities — painful loss, humour, boisterous arguing and big emotions — that defined both Hirsch’s work on stage and his personality offstage.

For Hirsch, Act Two had many good things to savour. In Hungary, he was fond of saying later, theatre was not a frill; it was essential. Hungary had the highest concentration of theatres and cabarets in Europe. But his happy childhood was based on the delusion that things would get better and the threat to the Jews would go away. It ended in tragedy as John’s brother and both his parents perished in the Holocaust.

During the darkest days toward the end of the war, while living with his gentle paternal grandfather, who had been the pillar of his childhood, he asked the old man how he could believe in God given what was happening. His grandfather’s death came as another huge blow. When John tried returning to the family home in Siofok, he found the house ransacked, and realized there was nothing left for him in Hungary.

He left the country and made his way to a UN refugee camp. For a while he planned to join those displaced Jewish survivors waiting to take a boat from Marseilles to Palestine. But, changing his mind, he went to Paris, where he managed to get on the list of 500 Jewish orphans the Canadian government agreed to accept. He picked Winnipeg, because it was always safer to avoid extremes and stay in the middle.

The Shack family in Winnipeg’s north end agreed to take one girl for a limited time, but instead wound up with two boys, including Hirsch, who became a permanent part of the family.

Thus began Act Three.

Wonderful things happened in Winnipeg. He not only learned to speak English and became a top student at the University of Manitoba, he was embraced by the city and supported by philanthropists including Kathleen Richardson.

In the 1950s, Hirsch shook up Winnipeg’s idea of culture. Live professional theatre was a rare commodity in this isolated, wintry place until he exploded on the scene, presenting puppet theatre, then outdoor musicals like Chu Chin Chow at Rainbow Stage.

History was made in 1957 when Hirsch and Tom Hendry started Theatre 77 (because the old Dominion Theatre was 77 steps from the corner of Portage and Main), and again in 1958 when the new company merged with the old Winnipeg Little Theatre to form the Manitoba Theatre Centre — a professional company that became the model for a regional theatre renaissance all across North America.

Then came an unprophesied Act Four, which began when he moved away from his new hometown. Winnipeg was too small to contain this restless, moody and charismatic genius — and to satisfy his ambition. So in the mid-1960s he left, once more becoming a wandering Jew.

He was wooed to direct plays in Stratford, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Israel. By the mid-1970s he was running the drama department for CBC Television, and in the early 1980s he took over as artistic director of the Stratford Festival at a time when it was on the brink of self-destruction.

He had been there earlier, in the mid- to late-1960s, and it was not an entirely happy experience. When he arrived he felt he was reaching the pinnacle of Canadian theatre. Stratford has a great open stage, big technical and financial resources, an international reputation — and mystique. But coming from Winnipeg, Hirsch sensed he had crossed an invisible border. He missed the ethnic diversity, eccentric characters and welcoming embrace of Winnipeg.

“I felt like a stranger,” Hirsch confessed in a memoir.

It was the Star’s celebrated critic Nathan Cohen who explained to Hirsch the trouble with Stratford: “It’s just so goyish!”

During his second stint at Stratford, as artistic director from 1981 through 1985, there were still barriers he couldn’t overcome.

Hirsch accepted the job in Stratford’s darkest hour, when the festival was in danger of collapse. But instead of being regarded as a saviour he was hectored throughout his tenure as an unwanted intruder. To some his greatest sin was that he did things differently.

His predecessor, Robin Phillips, created exciting theatre while staying within the British tradition. Hirsch tried to take Stratford in another direction. His sensibility was more European, more Jewish, more intellectual. To him theatre was a passionate instrument for political debate and social change. Though his appointment was triggered by a wave of Canadian nationalism, Hirsch was at heart an internationalist. And the “good taste” that Stratford often represented was something he needed to challenge.

By then it was clear Hirsch had been doubly exiled — first from Hungary, and then from Winnipeg, where he had picked himself up, brushed himself off and started all over again.

For those who were lucky enough to have experienced the Hirsch effect both on stage and off, he remains a presence even more than 22 years after he died of AIDS in the summer of 1989.

Wherever he landed, and especially in the tranquil setting of the house he shared with Bryan Trottier, his longtime companion, on a beautiful Moore Park ravine, Hirsch always seemed to be trying to recapture the warmth and security of the life he found in Winnipeg. And wherever he went, every Sunday he would phone his stepmother, Pauline Shack, and his stepsister, Sybil Shack.

The last time I saw Hirsch, about a month before he died, he was at home in between hospital bouts. He talked about his bar mitzvah in 1943. It would have been a grander event but the Nazi noose was already tightening, and travel restrictions on Jews prevented many family members from attending, so it was a small, rushed affair in the family’s backyard. He also talked about his beloved grandfather.

As always, Hirsch was in frequent touch with his adopted family. Sybil and Pauline Shack asked what they could send. There were just two things John wanted: their love and their soup.

In the end, Hirsch’s greatest achievement was not so much running big organizations but in the magic he created on the stage. Many people will never forget his 1976 Stratford production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters with Maggie Smith, Martha Henry and Marti Maraden.

But the production that summed up his whole life was his adaptation of the landmark Yiddish play The Dybbuk, a parable about a bride possessed by the soul of a dead boy who feels she was rightfully his.

Yiddish was not spoken in the Jewish Hungarian world of Hirsch’s childhood, but the material, rich in mysticism, folklore and a sense of cosmic justice, brought something out of him that was simply thrilling. Hirsch staged it at the St. Lawrence Centre in 1974 (after doing it in Winnipeg and before taking it to Los Angeles).

The Dybbuk was his ultimate tribute to the vanished world that propelled him, and it was a beautiful embrace. It was in the flash of this theatrical masterpiece that Hirsch found the links between religion and theatre, between the old world and the new, and between the acts of his own tumultuous life.

Reposted from the Toronto Star on January 21, 2012

Rainbow Stage Theatre has been nominated in the Great Places in Canada contest! Click HERE to vote. Thanks everyone!

Selkirk star too young to see her own movie

Abbey Thickson, 13, is one of the stars of the movie The Divide, which was shot in Winnipeg. Photo taken Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (CHRIS PROCAYLO/Winnipeg Sun)

Written by, Doug Lunney - Winnipeg Sun 
Abbey Thickson, 13, was looking for a movie role to expand her acting resume, and she certainly found it.

The amiable girl from Selkirk has gone from playing Gretl in the delightful musical The Sound of Music at Rainbow Stage to starring in the Winnipeg-produced movie The Divide, which has the Manitoba rating 18A (brutal violence, sexual violence, coarse language, adverse psychological impact).

While The Divide won’t be the “feel-good movie of the year,” escaping a nuclear attack was a blast for the Grade 8 student from Lockport Junior High.

“It was a great experience,” said Thickson, who joined the cast and producers on Thursday at the Hotel Fort Garry to celebrate the premiere. “Getting to know everybody, since I was the only kid, was very easy and they were all really nice to me.

“When we were practicing, (co-star) Milo (Ventimiglia) looked at me every time somebody swore and made the gesture to put money in the swear jar.”

The Divide is directed by Xavier Gens and stars Michael Biehn (The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss), Ventimiglia (Heroes), Michael Eklund (The Day) and Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction). Thickson plays Arquette’s daughter in the post-apocalyptic thriller where nine strangers — all tenants of a New York apartment — escape a nuclear attack by hiding out in the building’s basement.

Trapped for days underground, with only unspeakable horrors awaiting them on the other side of the door, the group descends into madness, each turning on one another.

Filming was done over a couple of months in 2010, mostly at the Manitoba Production Centre on Pacific Avenue, and the Millennium Centre.

“Whenever they thought something was too scary or graphic they’d show my mom the script, and if she thought it was too graphic we would (leave the set),” said Thickson.

A scene where Thickson was “abducted” was a little tough on her mom, Diane, but not so for her brother, Morgan, 15.

“In the scene I’m crying and screaming, yelling ‘Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!’” she described. “My mom started crying, but my brother was laughing. I got a lot of people on set crying, like the hairdresser and makeup artist.

“The people on set were trying not to hurt me but trying to make it look as real as possible.”

Thickson especially enjoyed working with Arquette.

“She is so sweet and so loving,” Thickson said. “She truly treated me like one of her kids on set.

“She would give me lots of hugs and when we had to do scenes when a lot of dust was falling, she’d make sure I had my mask on and was really taking care of me when everybody else was busy.”

Thickson’s father Stuart was going through cancer treatments during filming. His recovery continues, Thickson said, adding the work provided her with a release.

“It was a good way for me to get all of my stress out,” she said. “If my dad was going through a hard day, it made it easier for me to be the little kid I needed to be on the set.”

That little kid still isn’t old enough to see The Divide at the theatre.

“Maybe once it’s released I’ll get it and we can watch it (as a family) and get through some of the scary parts,” she said. “I’m not very good with scary movies. This is the type of movie my brother would like to watch.”

Producer Darryn Welch had high praise for Thickson as well as Winnipeg.

“I’m actually looking at bringing two other films to Winnipeg myself at the moment,” he said. “I’d happily go back there again.

“I just hope it’s in the summer.”

Reposted from the Winnipeg Sun on January 19, 2012

From the left - Abbey Thickson, Eron Sheean, Darryn Welch and Jennifer Biehn; seated are - Michael Eklund (left) and Michael Biehn. They are the stars of the movie The Divide. The movie was shot in Winnipeg and had a premiere at the Silver City Polo Park theatre on Jan. 19, 2012. (Chris Procaylo, Winnipeg Sun)

Rainbow Stage Theatre has been nominated in the Great Places in Canada contest! Click HERE to vote. Thanks everyone!

John Hirsch Biography Launch – Winnipeg

Véhicule Press is pleased to launch A Fiery Soul: The Life and Theatrical Times of John Hirsch by Fraidie Martz and Andrew Wilson at MTC’s Tom Hendry Warehouse Theatre, 140 Rupert Avenue, Sunday, January 29, 5:30-7:30 p.m. 

Seana McKenna, star of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, will join the authors at the Winnipeg launch and recount her first audition with Hirsch, the legendary director and MTC founder.

“What is clear from the book is that, from the perspective of the Canadian theatre as a whole, his greatest achievements were in Winnipeg.”

– Robert Cushman, National Post

“In life and on stage, John Hirsch knew how to corrupt his audience with pleasure.”

–John Lahr, The New Yorker

Fraidie Martz became interested in Hirsch when she wrote Open Your Hearts, the story of the Jewish war orphans who came to Canada after World War II.

Andrew Wilson is a writer, translator and editor who worked with Fraidie Martz on Open Your Hearts.   

Who played Annie at Rainbow Stage in 1987?

This afternoon as I sat in my office and began to unwind from a couple busy days of scheduling auditions with my co-workers, I couldn't help but wonder what a role in Annie must mean to the hundreds of kids who have submitted their applications to us.  Surely the staring role in the production would be a dream job for a child looking to break out into the industry...

It suddenly occurred to me that Rainbow Stage had produced Annie a number of years ago in the summer of 1987...  So, who was the girl playing Annie in '87, and where is she today?  This question led me to do some investigating in the "Rainbow Stage Archives".  It wasn't to long till I found the answer to my question.  JAYNE PATERSON, played Annie in '87, she was a young and emerging actress who was making her professional acting debut with Rainbow Stage.  She was a resident of North Kildonan who was preparing to attend her first year at Chief Peguis Junior High School.  Further research showed she also starred as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz at Rainbow in '91.

So where is she now?  A quick internet search revealed the final answer to my question.  I posted the article that I found below:

Jayne Paterson - A Canadian Steps Into Ms. Zeta-Jones's Shoes

Originally posted in the Globe and Mail. Written by - J. Kelly Nestruck

(June 11, 2010) Catherine Zeta-Jones is the big draw for director Trevor Nunn’s production of A Little Night Music, currently on Broadway. That’s not just because she’s a movie star – Zeta-Jones has earned excellent reviews as aging actress Desirée in the Stephen Sondheim musical and is up for a Tony Award tomorrow night for her performance.

So how difficult must it be to step up in front of a disappointed audience as Desirée when Zeta-Jones is unexpectedly absent? That’s exactly what her Canadian understudy Jayne Paterson had to do when the star was sidelined with a virus last month, just as many out-of-town Tony voters arrived in New York to judge the production, which is up for four Tony awards in total.

At one of those performances, Paterson – whose other Broadway credits include Fantine in Les Misérables and Mrs. Wilkinson in Billy Elliot – made at least this theatre critic quickly forget about Zeta-Jones’s absence. Her touching rendition of Send in the Clowns, the most famous song in the show, choked me up.

After returning from New York, I asked Paterson a few questions about her tough gig over e-mail.

Can you give me a little background on how you went from growing up in Winnipeg to working on Broadway?

I had great teachers who gave me a lot of opportunities to sing at school in my early years. I was then cast on CTV’s Let’s Go at the age of nine. I started working professionally at a very early age at Rainbow Stage, a great training ground, as they brought in fantastic performers from all over the country to play various roles in their season…  I fast tracked through high school to head to the Charlottetown Festival to do Anne of Green Gables. That led me to Montreal, then to Vancouver, where I continued to do musicals as well as film, TV and voice-over work. I was cast in Jane Eyre in Toronto with Mirvish Productions. That show eventually brought me to Broadway in 2000. Five Broadway shows later… here I am!

How often have you had to step up to play Desirée during the run of A Little Night Music?

I’ve done about three weeks of performances as Desirée.

Many audience members are going to the show specifically to see Catherine Zeta-Jones. Is it hard to win them over?

Of course people are surprised, but I’m so happy to say that it doesn’t take any time to get them back into the show. In my opinion, Night Music is one of the most sophisticated, gorgeous, structurally sound book musicals there is.

Do you try in any way to play the role as Zeta-Jones does it, or do you offer up a completely different interpretation?

There are certain requirements in the staging that need to be maintained due to lighting etc., but within that there is a lot of room to make things your own. A great director never wants a mimic. I’ve been lucky to have that freedom.

What’s it like playing opposite Angela Lansbury as Desirée’s mother, Madame Armfeldt?

Just dreamy. Her relationship with the audience is one I’ve never had the honour of experiencing. She can read them like they were her most favourite novel, and shift and shape, snuggle and squeeze them as she sees necessary. And she is always right! Her show evolves every night! It’s a rare and amazing gift. I feel so lucky to share a stage with her.

Do you have any plans to rejoin Billy Elliot any time? Would you come up to the Toronto production to play Mrs. Wilkinson next year?

Billy Elliot was one of the greatest, collaborative experiences of my career. Stephen Daldry is a genius! It’s a great family over there. They have asked me back a few times but it hasn’t worked out due to conflicts. I’m sure I’ll be back at some point. 
This interview has been condensed and edited.

"Hairspray was one of the top three shows I've seen anywhere in the world."

Here is a testimonial that we received from a patron who attended a Rainbow Stage production this summer:

Dear Rainbow Stage,

I’d like to share my thoughts on Hairspray with you, and hope you can take the time to read this email.

I’ve lived in London, New York and (briefly) Toronto, and therefore seen a lot of high quality theatre in the last 20 years.  It’s often with a little trepidation that I go to regional theatre, and sometimes with lower expectations than are fair.

However, Hairspray was one of the top three shows I’ve seen anywhere in the world.  The cast was fantastic, the production was great, and it was a perfect experience all around.  It’s great to see you bringing world-class theatre to Winnipeg. 

Thank you.

P. Giles

Do you have a Rainbow Stage experience that you'd like to share with us?  Send us an email: turish@rainbowstage.ca

From Rainbow Stage to Hollywood - Nia Vardalos

Nia Vardalos began her professional career with Rainbow Stage, the theatre would later award her with a scholarship to study drama at Ryerson University in Toronto.  It was two short years later that the emerging performer would join Toronto’s Second City theatre troupe, moving to Chicago’s Second City stage shortly thereafter.  In 1994, she was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for her performance in “Whitewater for Chocolate,” opposite Jenna Jolovitz, Jimmy Doyle and Scott Adsit. Later that year, she made her television debut with a guest appearance in “Missing Persons,” alongside her husband, who played Pete.

After moving to Los Angeles with her husband, Vardalos began appearing in numerous small-screen shows such as The Drew Carey Show, and it wasn’t long after that she would begin to pen together a stage play entitled My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  The show was staged in many theaters in Los Angeles and became a hit.  It attracted the attention of actress Rita Wilson, who would recommend the play to her husband Tom Hanks, after attending the following night’s performance of the charming one-woman play, the couple agreed that a film version would captivate audiences. 

The critical reception to the film was positive and the movie emerged as a sleeper hit. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” grossed over $241 million in the domestic market, making it the fifth highest grossing movie of 2002 and the most successful romantic comedy film in history. It eventually collected over $368 million worldwide, well surpassing its budget of $5 million. Vardalos was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Writing, Original Screenplay and a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. The film also brought her a Discover Screenwriting Award at the 2003 American Screenwriters Association, a WAFCA Award for Best Screenplay, a Canadian Comedy Award for Film - Pretty Funny Female Performance (also a nomination for Film - Pretty Funny Writing), an MTV Movie nomination for Breakthrough Female Performance, an Online Film Critics Society nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance, a Phoenix Film Critics Society for Best Newcomer (also a nomination for Best Screenplay - Original), and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture, to name a few. Following the huge success of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” Vardalos created the continuation television series “My Big Fat Greek Life” with the actress starring as Nia Miller, opposite Steven Eckholdt as Thomas Miller.  Vardalos also served as an executive producer with the Hanks couple.   

Recently, Vardalos appeared as Eileen in the pilot episode of the comedy series “The Good Guys,” which starred Tom Hanks' son Colin Hanks. She played a supporting role in the movie “Larry Crowne” (2011), starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.  She also co-wrote the script with Tom Hanks.