Meghan Chalmers and Franny McCabe-Bennett met in the Theatre Performance program at Humber College. They collaborated in the spring of 2012 to create and perform their first duet work, “Merge”. In the winter of 2012, Franny and Meghan became Two Juliets. To date, Two Juliets has written and performed XOXO (25 min) at the 2013 Hamilton Fringe Festival, The Box Toronto, the 2014 Lab Cab Festival and hosted an official launch party in September 2013. XOXO: The Relationship Show (60 min) premiered at SpringWorks in Stratford, May 2014 winning the People's Choice Award and played to sold out audiences at the 2014 Hamilton Fringe Festival. The 60 minute show has also played at the One More Night Festival and in residency with Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club in Hamilton and toured the Toronto Fringe and Winnipeg Fringe Festivals in July 2015. In March 2015, Two Juliets broke into the sketch comedy scene at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival and has added individual sketches to their growing roster. The original parody song "Help Me Maybe" was featured in Episode 33 of If I Were You - a podcast hosted by College Humor celebrities Jake and Amir - an episode that has over 85,000 plays. There are lots of new shows and performances in the works, join our mailing list to be the first to hear about it!
Meghan Chalmers was raised in Oakville, Ontario and began Irish dance at the age of six. She continued for twelve years, winning multiple awards and ultimately reaching championship level, competing across Canada and the United States. In her last year of high school she joined the Toronto Youth Music Theatre Company, where she sang with Jason Robert Brown at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Meghan is a graduate of the Theatre Performance program at Humber College. At Humber, Meghan played a variety of roles including Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Old Shepherd in The Winter’s Tale, Nastassya Filippovna/Nina Alexandrovna in The Idiot, and explored a play analysis of Uncle Vanya with Tatiana Jennings. In Fall 2012, she played Louise Mitchell and Madeleine Vauclain in Blood and Roses, and wrote the song “Everything's Pink” which appeared in the show. Meghan is certified in basic stage combat and was the recipient of a Humber Theatre Performance Award. In May 2013 and again in 2015, she was the Assistant Box Office and Front of House Manager for the SOULO Theatre Festival. Meghan recently graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, specializing in Acting at York University.
Franny McCabe-Bennett, originally from Oakville, is an actor, comedian, playwright and director working in Toronto. Outside of her work with Two Juliets, she premiered and started touring her award-winning comedy history solo show SMASHES, originated the role of Ellen in Five Alarm (Port Stanley Festival Theatre), played Moon in The Real Inspector Hound (Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts), appeared as Lady Would-be in Shakespeare BASH'd's sold out reading of Volpone, played Pheobe in The Beaver Den, participated in the inaugural Theatre Relay project and appeared as The Nun in Hush, part of the 2013 Gay Play Day Festival at Alumnae Theatre, in Kitchen Party Nervous Breakdown (The Cabaret Company) and as Bad Idea Bear/Mrs Thistletwat in Hammer Entertainment's production of Avenue Q. As a member of the Monday Funday Creation Group, she has workshopped the roles of Phebe in As You Like It, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Baptista in The Taming of the Shrew. Favourite credits include: We Walk Among You workshop (Artichoke Heart Collective), Gulliver’s Travels (Humber Theatre, dir. Tatiana Jennings), Catherine in Proof*+ (BurlOak Theatre Group), Jeanie in Hair* (West End Studio Theatre), and Julie in Perfect Wedding** (West End Studio Theatre). Franny directed the sold-out run of Zombie Prom at the University of Guelph and was the Assistant Director for Sky Gilbert's The Shakespeare Experiment: As You Like It and Reconciliation (The Cabaret Company/Buddies In Bad Times Theatre). Franny is a multidisciplinary artist and has trained in physical theatre, clown, improv (Second City Toronto), classical text and more. She has been studying singing with acclaimed Broadway and cabaret veteran Judith Lander for over 10 years. Franny also works as a vocal coach and vocal director for musical theatre. Training: University of Guelph graduate, Humber College drop out. *Oakville Drama Series, Best Female Performance: Nominee. +Theatre Ontario, Association of Community Theatres (Central Ontario): Honourable Mention, Acting. **Oakville Drama Series, Best Female Performance: Recipient. More about Franny at www.frannymcb.com
PAST PERFORMANCES
WINNIPEG - Winnipeg Fringe Festival, XOXO: The Relationship Show - July 15 - 26 2015 - Red River College (Roblin Centre), 160 Princess St.
TORONTO - Live from the Annex, XOXO: The Relationship Show excerpts - July 7 2015 - CSI Garage, 720 Bathurst St
TORONTO - Toronto Fringe Festival, XOXO: The Relationship Show - July 1-12 2015 - Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, 16 Ryerson Ave.
HAMILTON - Adam Bryan's "Down With Love" Cabaret, co-hosts and XOXO: The Relationship Show excerpts - June 18 2015 - The Staircase Cafe & Theatre
HAMILTON - XOXO: The Relationship Show at Yuk Yuk's featuring O Dat Dum ("Sketchiest Sketch Troupe" at Toronto SketchFest, official selection at Montreal SketchFest) - May 7 2015 - Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club, 120 King St W
TORONTO - Improv Intrigue, XOXO: The Relationship Show excerpts - March 25 2015 - Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor Street W
TORONTO - SketchFest Cabaret Series,"St. Patrick's Day Sketches" - March 15 2015 - Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor Street W
TORONTO - SketchFest Cabaret Series, "Friday The 13th: Spooky Sketches" - March 13 2015 - Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor Street W
TORONTO - SketchFest Cabaret Series, "Science Sketches" - March 12 2015 - Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor Street W
HAMILTON - A Very Leila Christmas, special musical guests - December 19 2014 - The Staircase, 27 Dundurn St N
HAMILTON - XOXO: The Relationship Show at Yuk Yuk's featuring Rebecca Perry (Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl, Suzy Snowflake Entertains The Troops) - December 4 2014 - Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club, 120 King St W
HAMILTON - XOXO: The Relationship Show at Yuk Yuk's featuring Leila (Love With Leila) - Oct 2 2014 - Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club, 120 King St W
TORONTO - The One More Night Festival, XOXO: The Relationship Show - September 14 2014 - The Box Toronto, 89 Niagara St
TORONTO - Lab Cab Festival: Parkdale, XOXO - July 26 & 27 2014 - Amico's Pizza (upstairs), 1648 Queen St W
HAMILTON - Hamilton Fringe Festival, XOXO: The Relationship Show - July 17-27 2014 - Mills Hardware, 95 King St E
STRATFORD _- SpringWorks Festival, XOXO: The Relationship Show - May 13, 16, 17 2014 - Factory163 & Revel Caffe *WINNER: PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD*
TORONTO - rAiz'n sPeak: Volume 2, XOXO: The Relationship Show excerpt - January 25 2014 - Redline Coffee & Espresso Bar
TORONTO - Two Juliets Launch Party featuring XOXO - September 7 2013 - The Box Toronto
HAMILTON - Hamilton Fringe Festival, XOXO - July 26, 27, 28 2013 - James North Studio