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ABOUT FREAKY FRIDAY

This classic story of a mother and daughter who magically swap bodies for 24 chaotic hours has been given a contemporary spin.

Driven by the magical powers of a treasured hourglass, Katherine Blake and her rebellious 16-year-old daughter swap bodies. When it accidentally breaks, they must find a matching hourglass so that they can swap back and restore the natural order.

MEET THE TEAM

Jen Cohen
Director / Choreographer

Jen Cohen (Shuber) is an award winning director and choreographer,
dramaturg and writer. After an early start full time at The National
Ballet of Canada, she went on to graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the
Arts, London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (summer program) and the Lyric and Book Labs at NMI in L.A. She is an alumnus of The Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals, the ASCAP Stephen Schwartz Workshop and Interlochen Centre for the Arts in Michigan where she is also currently on the Board of Directors of Canadian Friends of Interlochen.

Jen has worked for most of the major theatres in Toronto including
Soulpepper, Young People’s Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Harold
Green Jewish Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Angelwalk Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times and many more. Jen has also served as dramaturg and/or director on new musicals for Sheridan College’s Capstone Project, Louise Pitre’s one woman show “On The Rocks” and projects by Jim Betts, Colleen Dauncey and Akiva Romer-Segal, Britta and Anika Johnson and Leslie Arden to name a few. She also served as program director of Theatre 20’s “Composium”, a composer and lyricist writing unit in Toronto.

Jen has been nominated for the Siminovitch Prize in Directing and for the
Ockrent Theatre Directing Fellowship SSDC, NY. She has won a Dora for Best Production of a Musical for A Year with Frog and Toad at the Young
People’s Theatre and is a Dora nominee for Best Musical Production of
Pasek and Paul’s James and The Giant Peach.

A few fun facts are that Jen has  been seen on MTV, YTV, CBC and Slice and has been in major motion pictures including working with Denzel
Washington, Ray Liotta and Kevin Conolly. She also works in talent
acquisition for the Toronto Blue Jays and has casted their live
entertainment for more than 16 seasons.

Jeannie Wyse
Music Director

Jeannie appeared as the Vocal Coach for CBC’s Over The Rainbow and is in demand as a Vocal
Teacher, Coach and Musical Director. Shows include: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Holiday
Inn, The Drowsy Chaperone, Anything Goes, Chicago, Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins (Drayton
Entertainment), Jersey Boys (Dancap), The Sound of Music (Mirvish), Seussical (YPT), Nine,
Kiss Me Kate (Theatre Sheridan), Canadian Women in Song (Angelwalk), The Full Monty (Rose
Theatre), Hair (The Grand), Fame, Wonderful Town, Into The Woods, The Rocky Horror Show
(Randolph College), Side by Side by Sondheim (Sonus Stage Producations) and You’re A Good
Man, Charlie Brown (Georgian Theatre Festival). Jeannie has toured North America with
Riverdance - The Show and toured and recorded extensively with the Elmer Iseler Singers. She
has appeared as a soloist with the AIMS Festival Orchestra, Summer Opera Lab, Vocalpoint
Chamber Choir and the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir with whom she was a Vocal Coach
for seven years. Jeannie is Vocal Division Head at the Randolph College for the Performing Arts,
has served as conductor of the Intermediate Chorus for the Canadian Children’s Opera Company
and is Associate Music Director at Metropolitan Community Church Toronto. She has also been
a keyboardist for Beauty and the Beast, Billy Elliot, Mamma Mia!, Pelagie and Lord of the
Rings. Jeannie studied Voice and Piano at the Western Conservatory of Music and Opera at the
American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. She has a private studio teaching
Musical Theatre, Pop and Classical voice and is also active as a Clinician and Adjudicator.