Stephen Waldschmidt is an actor,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, theatre director,

scenic design Scenic design (also known as scenography, stage design, or set design) is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but in recent years, are mostly trained ...

er and

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

originally from Cleveland, Ohio, United States.

Theatre career

Stephen Waldschmidt is an actor,

, theatre director,

er,

, and

stay-at-home dad A stay-at-home dad (alternatively, full-time father, stay-at-home father, house dad, househusband, or house-spouse) is a father who is the main caregiver of the children and is generally the homemaker of the household. The female equivalent is ...

originally from Cleveland, Ohio, United States. He is known for portraying Jesus in the Canadian Badlands Passion Play in Drumheller, a part that he has played five times. He also performed as Greville in the premiere of ''A Bright Particular Star''. As a scenic designer, he designed the set for a 2007 performance of ''

The Quarrel ''The Quarrel'' is a 1991 Canadian film directed by Eli Cohen (director), Eli Cohen and starring Saul Rubinek and R. H. Thomson. The film was written by David Brandes and Joseph Telushkin. Plot Two estranged friends – one a rabbi and the oth ...

'' and a revolving set for a 2009 performance of '' Lettice and Lovage''. As a playwright, he wrote '' Hockey Dad: A Play in 3 Periods'' with James Popoff. He is one of Burnt Thicket Theatre's artistic associates.

''She Has a Name''

In 2010, Waldschmidt attended a presentation by

Andrew Kooman Andrew Kooman is an author and playwright from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Personal life Andrew Kooman is from Red Deer, Alberta, and graduated from the Bachelor of Arts collaborative degree program between Red Deer College and the University of C ...

in Strathmore about

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

. The location of Kooman's presentation was Waldschmidt's home church. Kooman mentioned '' She Has a Name'', a play that he had written about human trafficking, and Waldschmidt soon asked Kooman for permission to read the script. Waldschmidt felt drawn to address the issue of human trafficking even before discovering ''She Has a Name'' and had gotten involved with some

fair trade Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...

initiatives. Waldschmidt attested to his feet sweating after having first read the script and said that it was one of only two scripts that he had ever read that he could not put down before finishing. Nonetheless, he initially backed off from the play because of the immensity and ugliness of the issue. Eventually, however, he and Kooman worked together on the script, expanding it to a full-length play with an extra hour's worth of material by the end of 2010, resulting in a play that can be performed in ninety minutes but may last up to two hours. Kooman and Waldschmidt were moved to continue working on the play because of worldwide human trafficking statistics; namely, that 800000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, that there are 10 million children forced to work in the sex industry, that 1 million of these are child prostitutes, and that sex traffickers have an average annual income of $280000 per victim. Waldschmidt directed the

premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

of ''She Has a Name'', a performance for which he also served as scenic designer. He was also the director for the 2012 tour of ''She Has a Name''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waldschmidt, Stephen Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American male actors 21st-century Canadian male actors 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Male actors from Alberta Male actors from Cleveland American expatriate male actors in Canada American expatriate writers in Canada American graphic designers American scenic designers American male stage actors American theatre directors Canadian comedy writers Canadian graphic designers Canadian scenic designers Canadian male stage actors Canadian theatre directors Comedy fiction writers Writers from Alberta Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian theatre designers