Last Updated 20 April 2005.
After 18 years of military service encompassing all three branches of the Canadian Armed Forces including: command of three Canadian Oberon Class submarines; major project management; and two stints as Officer-in-Charge of the Submarine School; Drew became a civilian and hung out a shingle as a Naval Systems Consultant specializing in Submarine Tactics.
While working as a civilian tactician at the Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare Centre , Drew started training as an actor at the Neptune Theatre School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Armed with a bag load of improv and advanced acting classes under his belt he started acting in local community theatres and semi-professionally in theatre festivals.
In the Spring of 1995 Drew played the part of Superintendant Bellati in the Theatre Arts Guild critically acclaimed production of Dario Fo's political farce,"Accidental Death of an Anarchist". This successful community theatre production was remounted with the original cast and director Chris Majka as an Empty Mirrors production at the 1995 Halifax Fringe Festival. Staged at the Paramount Theatre, this production, one of 42, ranked third in box office receipts. The cast recently held a reunion at the Economy Shoe Shop on Argyle Street (also known as the shoe box or culture dome) to celebrate Dario Fo's 1997 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Drew also had a bit part in the 1995 Dartmouth Players production of "Black Comedy" playing the role of Bamburger. He used the opportunity to study the art of directing.
Firmly bitten by the theatre bug he was now keen to direct. Drew had the good fortune to team up with Chris Kitowski who was in the process of writing a one man show called "Rounds". "Rounds" opened at the 1996 Atlantic Fringe Festival and received good reviews. When asked by Canadian poet and playwright Donna Evann to direct her first play, "The Passion of Anna Akhmatova", in the 1997 Atlantic Fringe Festival, Drew enthusiastically accepted. By mid-run, the collaborative effort of both novice and professional led to packed houses at the Cafe Mokka.
Drew recently appeared in a Lotto 649 "Big Win" commerical and has also performed on the set of LEXX: The Dark Zone II. In the autumn of 1997 Drew performed 4 times as a background performer (including continuity acting) with CBC's television dramatic series "Black Harbour". More recently he had a bit part opposite Rebecca Jenkins during shooting for the upcoming fall (1998) season.
Drew is currently writing several plays including a re-working of his recent 50 min one man show titled "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" . "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" premiered at the 1998 Atlantic Fringe Theatre Festival (2-7 September). In the previous July he had the opportunity to read and improv some story ideas for "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" at the Economy Shoe Shop as part of the Shoe String Series.
A new work in progress titled "Flight To Victory" is being developed as a screenplay.
In Oct/Nov 1998, Drew acted in two scenes with Nastassja Kinski in "The Magic of Marciano." In this Cape Atlantic Productions film Drew was directed by Tony Barbieri, he played Bob the Manager, Nastassja's boss. This debut in motion pictures had the added bonus of working with Robert Forster and the young Cody Morgan. The Magic of Marciano was awarded the "New American Cinema Award" at the 2000 Seatle International Film Festival.
In eary January 1999 Drew cracked his first acting job of the new year as an Infomercial Audience Member in a sketch comedy piece with Cathy Jones (of "This Hour Has 22 Minutes") in "The Cathy Jones Special" due to be aired by CBC in the autumn of 99.
Also in January of 99, Drew was cast as a Principal Performer in CBC's Radio Drama "Clean Sweep" as Lester Perkins.
Drew joined the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists - ACTRA - in January of 1999.
To keep the wolf from the door, Drew completed background performing in Jig Saw Production's "Bowlorama" and a Movie of the Week called "Catch a Falling Star" starring Sela Ward.
In the Nova Scotia provincial election campaign of 1999, Drew provided voice over narration for both Radio and Television spots.
Between acting gigs Drew keeps busy with screen and stage play writing projects.
When the Russian Nuclear Attack submarine, Kursk sunk in August of 2000, Drew responded to media inquiries from US and Canadian Radio, Television, and Print Outlets. Drew continues to advocate "outside the box" marine safety concepts.
Drew's last work on a film set was with Karen Arthur's Pride and Prejudice in December 2000.
Keen to work in film, television, radio, and on stage, Drew may be contacted directly by mail at 1234 Barrington Street, Apt 102, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3J 1Y4 - or by cell at (902) 802-4452.
Also hot from the pen is a One Act Play called "My Brother's Troubles". As well he is exercising his knowledge of cinema language with a film project. This first film effort will be a 10-12 minute visceral drama shot on video.
On the entrepreneurial front, Drew is working hard to launch a high tech company. His key interests include, but are not limited to, the development of an electro-optical device for Search and Rescue and new applications for acoustic devices. Drawing on considerable experience gained during his tenure as a submarine commander, Drew is focusing his technical, scientific, and project management abilities to bring together individuals, public and private sector organizations, and financing for this venture.
Other high tech pursuits include the development of an e-mail specialty service and various collaborative internet initiatives with Nova Scotian information technology experts.
Last Updated - 07 October 2004.
If you wish, check out my resumes - Submarine Commander's and Project Management Resume or Actor's Resume.
Some Canadian Submarine pics - HMCS OKANAGAN was my first Command. :-)
I am looking for links detailing information about the following:
HMCS Ojibwa; HMCS Onondaga; Harbour Training Submarine Olympus; HMS Otus; HMS Ocelot; HMS Orpheus; HMS Dolphin; HMS Neptune; Clyde Nuclear Submarine Base; HMCS Iroquois; Royal Military College of Canada; Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare Center; Officer's Mess CFB Halifax; RA Park; Accidental Death of an Anarchist ( by Dario Fo ); and Black Comedy (play).
You may reach me at my email address at the bottom of this page or by entering my guest book. :)
Now moved to bizdev (http://chebucto.ns.ca/~aq733/bizdev.html) . Bizdev is a link on my navigation bar at the top and bottom of each page.
Canadian Marine Safety - Marine Safety Links Published by Transport Canada.
PINE - Program for Internet News and Email (www.washington.edu/pine) "... a Program for Internet News & Email - is a tool for reading, sending, and managing electronic messages. Pine was designed by the Office of Computing & Communications at the University of Washington specifically with novice computer users in mind, but it can be tailored to accommodate the needs of "power users" as well. Versions are available for various flavors of Unix as well as for personal computers running a Microsoft operating system." - from www.washington.edu/pine 20 March 1999.
My Yacht Club - The Dobson Yacht Club. Check out the club history.
execpc.com - HTML Resources.
members.spree.com - Free Business/Personal Web Site. I think this is an MLM site.
EZArt Graphics - (http://www.hitchhikers.net/ezart/freesite.htm) - EZArt Graphics. To use any of their designs for FREE, they ask that you give them a LINK on your page. (http://www.ezart.com)
www.hypermart.net/about.html - "HyperMart.net is the leading provider of free business hosting. In less than a year, more than 70,000 businesses have made HyperMart.net their home New URL for HyperMart." - from hypermart site 24 Feb 99.
National Post . - National Post
The Globe and Mail . - The Globe and Mail
The Chronicle Herald . - The Chronicle Herald
The Daily News . - The Daily News
Special TV Resources . (Formerly the Internet TV Resource Guide)
TV Pointers . Excellent Site!
Ultimate TV .Site with good links. Site includes:
TV BIZ and much more.
Broadcast Employment Services .
TV JOBS Broadcast Employment Services . - "An Internet based employment service dedicated to helping you find employment in the highly competitive broadcast marketplace." from their site 24 Feb 1999.
Metroshop - Books, Music, Videos - UK Site
Metroshop - Bookpages UK - Bookpages UK
AMAZON - www.amazon.com - Touted as the world's largest Online Book Store.
TerraServer . - World Imagery Database.
DogPile - A multi-engine search tool.
Motley Fool - a community of individual investors.
National Geographic - www.nationalgeographic.com .
Discovery Magazine - The Discovery Channel Online.
Discovery Canada (TV) - "Science Technology Nature Adventure @discovery.ca" - www.exn.ca/ website 4 July 1998.
Popular Science - "From the editors of Popular Science Maazine...THE WHAT'S NEW WEBSITE" - www.popsci.com website 4 July 1998. Links to Popular Science's Top 50 Websites - Sep 98.
Scientific American - www.sciam.com.
Search Engine - Northern Light Technology LLC - http://www.nlsearch.com/.
A variety of useful tools:
This section will feature fitness sites on the net.
The following is an extract from the Shape Up America website.
"Shape Up America! is a high profile national initiative to promote healthy weight and increased physical activity in America. Involving a broad-based coalition of industry, medical/health, nutrition, physical fitness, and related organizations and experts, Shape Up America! has three primary objectives:
* Shape Up America *
Insight IT Solutions For Web related Consultation, Design, and Management check out my friend Marc.
SAG - The Screen Actors Guild .
AFTRA - The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists - AFTRA is a national labor union affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
International Federation of Actors - I haven't found their website yet. :)
ACTRA - Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists .
ACTRA Calgary - Great Links
Theatre :
Music .
Classics .
Classics - Internet Resources .
Philosophy - Internet Resources .
Drew's Internet Resources For Psychology - Links to Psychology Websites.
Sociology & Social Anthropology - Internet Resources .
English .
English - Internet Resources .
History .
History - Internet Resources .
Black Canadian Studies - Internet Resources .
Comparative Religion - Internet Resources .
W. K. Kellog Health Sciences Library - Internet Directory .
Social Work - Internet Resources .
Drew's TheatreLinks Page - 300 plus theatre links.
The New School - The Actor's Studio
Actor's Studio - Schedule on Bravo
Writer's Guild of America Writer's Guild of America - www.wga.org
Edinburgh Festival Fringe - cited by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest arts festival in the world.
Go Deep for hot links to learn more about the Silent Service.
CGI Scripts in REXX and Perl - Guide to Writing CGI Scripts in REXX and Perl
Drew's DHTML Links Page . - Includes Links to W3C, ECMA, Microsoft, and Netscape Sites.
Yahoo Search: Validation Checkers .
WebLint .
Tcl - Tcl/Tk home page at Sun Microsystems (http://sunscript.sun.com).
Perl - The Perl Language Page (http://language.perl.com).
Python - Python Language Home Page (http://www.python.org).
Perl and Tcl - Eric Foster-Johnson's Web page with Perl and Tcl information (http://www.pconline.com/~erc/).
Lincoln Stein - Lincoln Stein's Web page (http://www.genome.wi.mit.edu/~lstein/).
World Wide Mart - Free Scripts
More on Graphics
3M offers free samples of Software Notes .
Electronic Ink - "E Ink Corporation is a growth stage company founded in 1997 to commercialize the invention of electronic ink. This revolutionary material is the basis for a new type of media that combines the superior look of ink on paper with the dynamic capability of an electronic display."
Information about Display Page applications is available at www.e-commerce.com.
American Airlines Travelocity WebSite demonstrates Display Page processing.
NCSA Divisions
The Computer Paper - "Canada's largest computer magazine, with over 1,000,000 readers." - from www.tcp.ca website.
jokespost.com. - uncensored jokes
"They are able who think they are able." - Virgil
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." - Chinese (unknown)
Last updated - 07 October 2004.
If you wish - check out my Naval Consultant Resume or my Actor's Resume. My Profile (without all the links) is also available.
Drew MacDonald aq733@chebucto.ns.ca