There are moments when elementary and high school teachers of Canadian actors want to revel in the joy of former students who are professionally employed in the theatre and thriving.
Interviewing Marissa Orjalo is one of those times for me.
A 2024 graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory at the Stratford Festival, Marissa has appeared in its productions of London Assurance, Ransacking Troy, Les Belles-Soeurs, Twelfth Night and King Lear. This 2026 season, she will appear as Ariel in The Tempest, Cecily Cardew in The Importance of Being Earnest and understudy in Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
Her educational background includes Theatre and Drama Studies at Sheridan College and the University of Toronto (MA). Marissa is the managing producer at fu-GEN Theatre in Toronto and sends her gratitude always to fu-GEN Theatre and Carlos Bulosan Theatre.
Marissa was on break from rehearsal and was able to chat via Zoom.
She is a graduate of Monsignor Paul Dwyer Catholic High School in Oshawa, part of the Durham Catholic District School Board. Marissa was also a member of the Oshawa Little Theatre (OLT) Youth Group for five years. While she wasn’t aware of how much funding there was, she fondly recalls that both Dwyer and OLT had incredibly rich arts communities, dedicated and joyful for everyone connected.
I asked if she could describe a moment when she knew she wanted to pursue a career as a performing artist. Marissa paused and considered carefully before replying that many of the artists she knows knew, when they were kids, that they wanted to enter the performing arts.
For her, that was no single moment or a time when or where she knew:
“I just wanted to pursue theatre and serve it in whatever way it called to me.”
She added further:
“To me, a young person discovering who I am through that medium, it was more of a curiosity than a certainty that this is what I want to do. It was something I knew I would have a lifelong love for. However, I was called to serve it, I would serve it that way, whether as a writer, an audience member (which I am now), an actor (which I am now), a producer (which I am now), or any avenue.”
The Durham Catholic District School Board and its teachers would beam with pride at Marissa’s comment about serving others in a transformative way through the theatre. To serve others is one of the goals of the Catholic secondary school graduate.
Marissa says her parents are the biggest supporters of her choice to pursue an acting and performing arts career. In speaking with her parents, the end goal was never to be an actor. The goal was to learn, to grow and to find out where her strengths and curiosities lay. Her university program offered her a unique look at what theatre was, both academically and as an artist. It was the perfect environment for the scholastic artist that Marissa was becoming.
She credits her parents for their support throughout her journey, and they encouraged her all the while. Sure, they were also a tad apprehensive because the life of an actor does not always guarantee a steady paycheck, even though it is lucrative in other ways.
She recognizes that parents can be supportive and apprehensive (given the insecurity of not having a steady paycheck), and she says that’s totally normal. Her parents wanted
Marissa also considers the Oshawa Little Theatre Youth Group a foundational part of her artistic development. It taught her collaboration, communication, and how to show up with passion and, most importantly, discipline. At a young age, OLT gave her a strong sense of artistic responsibility and what it means to be part of a team and put something together:
“OLT continues to live in the bone marrow of how I work today.” The Youth Group not only shaped her skills but also showed that she values other artists’ work at the Festival, where art is everywhere.
She credits three individuals from her time at OLT: Geoff and Shari Coulter, the latter for her artistic and brilliant choreographic abilities. Marissa also credits Carey Nicholson (current artistic director at Port Perry’s Theatre on the Ridge), an incredible artist, director, and teacher, as the backbone for many of the youth at OLT at that time. Orjalo will always be grateful to Carey for her help in getting into theatre school and for coaching her on her Les Belles Soeurs and Ophelia (Hamlet) monologues.
.Marissa also credits Nicholson with an introduction to the Stratford Festival. Carey knew about the Shakespeare camps and recommended them to Marissa’s mother. Technically, Marissa says this with a smile: “Carey is the first to introduce me to the Stratford Festival.”
As an undergraduate, Marissa found a university program that matched the scope of theatre and her love and approach to studying it – it offered conservatory acting classes alongside the academic side of essays and lectures. She was an academically inclined student. She says it was the perfect whirlwind to create her as an artist.
Marissa also credits two of her high school teachers, the late Joyce Schneider and her husband, Michael, who influenced her greatly in her calling to be an artist. Mrs. Schneider’s mantra to her students every day was to “Find the Joy” in whatever you do. That mantra resonated with Orjalo, and she dedicated her Master’s thesis on the joy and collaboration in the making of Filipino-Canadian theatre to Joyce.
I can recall seeing a very young Marissa on the Dwyer stage for the first time, playing the young Cosette, in the school musical, Les Misérables. Notice her photo next to her headshot.
What made Orjalo come forward when the call went out to look for young people outside the school?
Marissa credits her late Grade 3 teacher, Bernadette MacDonald, as the reason. The reason why Orjalo recalls her teacher’s encouragement:
“I would sing ‘O, Canada’ so loud and so happily that this kid needs to do something somewhere.”
Orjalo remembers Michael Schneider telling her to come in with the bucket that was half her size. Joyce was at the piano playing ‘Castle on a Cloud’. What Marissa recalls later with a smile and laugh: “They both said I was so darned cute and how could they pass me over?”
Marissa recognizes and appreciates how passionate her teachers were in elementary and secondary school. She says:
“I firmly believe I would not be where I am today without the teachers who encouraged me along the way and shared tips and tricks. They created an environment where I felt meaningful, rigorous, and joyful. That sense of community kept drawing me back to theatre.’
As we began to wind down our Zoom call since she was on break from rehearsal, I let Marissa know how excited and pleased I was to go to the Stratford Festival to see her in these two iconic roles she will play this year.
She’s grateful every single day she’s performing at the Festival.
Even though she’s a grown adult, she still feels like a little kid at times, especially when she tries on the various costumes:
“I cannot tell you how five-year-old Marissa would be tickled pink by everything she gets to try on. My nickname backstage with some of the dressers is Pinky-poo because I’ve been wearing pink quite a bit, most notably in last year’s London Assurance. I’m wearing pink again this year. Last year, my dresser got me pink slippers, and I will wear them on opening night.”
If you want to peruse Marissa’s social media, visit marissaorjalo.com or @MarissaOrjalo.
