Co-Founder & Studio Director
Joe-Norman Shaw is Studio Director and Co-Founder of Company of Rogues Actors Studio and Artistic Director of Rogues Theatre. A veteran actor, director and mentor to countless emerging artists, he has worked extensively on both stage and film sets across Canada and internationally. After growing up in the American Midwest, Joe relocated to Canada in 1972, and began his acting career in 1981 working in the vibrant Toronto theatre scene including productions for Toronto Free Theatre (As Is & Romeo and Juliet), Buddies in Bad Times (The Dressing Gown), Crow’s Theatre (Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love- touring to the NAC, Montreal, Mexico City) and the one-man play I Slept With Tony Trouble: The Confessions of Hollywood Hustler in Toronto, Vancouver, London and the Edinburgh & Stratford Fringe Festivals. Joe has been a member of the Stratford and Shaw Festival Companies
In 1991, a move to Vancouver, and later Calgary, brought numerous film and television roles, as well as opportunities as a director and teacher- mentoring young actors. Joe has found a busy creative life in Western Canada, working on projects like the CBC mini-series, Everest, shot in Alberta and traveling to the Austrian Alps to shoot Crazy Canucks for CTV. He has also Guest Starred on Alberta-based TV series, Heartland, Tom Stone, Caitlan’s Way and North of Sixty, as well as numerous U.S. and British productions like Damnation, Dead Again in Tombstone, Fargo, Burn Up, Lost Holiday and High Noon. Calgary theatre credits are listed below.
Additional Credits:
On stage; Since 1981, Joe has worked as an actor in theatres across Canada and internationally. Credits include: Twelve Angry Men (Vertigo Theatre), Joe Pitt in Angels in America (Phoenix Theatre, Edmonton), Tommy Paul in One Tiger To A Hill (Stratford Festival), Lennox In Macbeth (Vancouver Playhouse), Jude in Whale Riding Weather (Touchstone Theatre, Vancouver), Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Western Canada Theatre) and worked with the late Robin Phillips at the Citadel Theatre (Edmonton). Selected Calgary credits include Glengarry Glen Ross (Theatre Junction), The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (ATP), A Line in the Sand (Downstage). Ed & Ed: The Fisherman’s Trap (Lunchbox Theatre); For Rogues Theatre: The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, The Old Neighborhood, Dinner With Friends and Heaven (Co-pro/ Downstage).
Film/TV: His additional film/TV credits include almost 60 principal and supporting roles in: Blackstone, Forsaken, Supernatural, Dream Me A Murder, Burn, The Investigation, Johnson County War, Wasted, Children of Fortune, North of Sixty: Trial by Fire, Bad Faith, Noah, Oklahoma City, Lonesome Dove, MacGyver, The Commish, Clare (AMPIA Award Winner), Lies My Mother Told Me and Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss. You can view Joe’s complete filmography HERE.
Instructor: Joe is the current Director of Drama at St.Mary’s University. He was a resident acting instructor at the Gastown Actors Studio (Vancouver,1991-93), co-founding Company of Rogues in 1993. Joe has also worked as an acting instructor for The Alberta Centre of Acting Studies (1994-1996), Mount Royal University and The University of Calgary.
Director: As Artistic Director of Rogues Theatre, Joe has directed The West End, A Beautiful New City, First and Last, Den of Thieves, Some Girls, Storm Warning, Italian American Reconciliation, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, Red Light Winter, Cow Town, Pushup, Criminal Genius, Savage In Limbo, Selling Mr. Rushdie, The Melville Boys, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, St. Scarlet and Tape. He has also directed almost 60 fringe and student productions including: Museum, Green Space, The Dining Room, Scenes From American Life, Rimers of Eldritch, Barbarians, Metastasis, LaRonde, Lysistrata (all for Rogues), Bobby Fell in Love (Art Ranch), D.I.N.K.S (Lunchbox Theatre, Stage One) and The Zoo Story (Vancouver Fringe). University Credits: First and Last, The Timers of Eldritch, Our Town, Museum and The Dining Room (St. Mary’s University), The Diviners (Mount Royal University) and Rocket to the Moon (University of Calgary)
Training: MFA, Directing: University of Calgary; Honours BA, Acting/Directing: University of Guelph. Post-Graduate Acting (Toronto): George Luscombe, Michelle George, Marti Maraden, Bernadette Jones, Tom Bentley Fisher. Film Acting: David Rotenberg, Christiane Hirt.
Professional Affiliations: ACTRA/CAEA
Classes: Essentials of Film | On Film | Advanced Film | Performance Ensemble
In the Press:
“The appearance of Shaw brings added dimension and dramatic weight, as he plays a career soldier by turns hard-assed, avuncular, frustrated and haunted by his own shameful past.” – Martin Morrow- FFWD, A LINE 
IN THE SAND (Downstage)
“Always a dynamic, receptive presence, in Shaw’s performance…” – Bob Clark- Herald, THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD (Rogues Theatre)
“While 12 Angry Men is a little claustrophobic and retro, the cast — particularly Duncan Ollerenshaw, Joe-Norman Shaw, Paul Cowling and Robert Graham Klein — locate the humour and the passion in the piece effectively. We feel their claustrophobia, and they manage without much visib
le effort, to very convincingly inhabit a bunch of Eisenhower-era New York guys.” – Stephen Hunt- Calgary Herald, 12 ANGRY MEN (Vertigo Theatre)
“Directed by Rogues artistic director Joe-Norman Shaw with a real ear for the staccato and sometimes ornate quality of Rapp’s clever dialogue– the Calgary premiere of Red Light sounds no false notes in drawing us into the cramped but eloquent world of two people who end up having loved and lost…” – Bob Clark- Herald, RED LIGHT WINTER (Rogues Theatre)
“Joe-Norman Shaw is a meticulous director who doesn’t allow his actors to waste a gesture. Everything they do is calculated to reveal character and it was brilliant move for him to have the women change the set after each hotel encounter.” – Louis B. Hobson – Calgary Sun, SOME GIRL(S) (Rogues Theatre)
View a listing of Joe-Norman Shaw’s numerous Film & Television credits on his personal IMDB page HERE