Deb Allen

Actor

Project Description

DEB ALLEN
Deborah Allen has fifty years of acting experience. Her training began in Halifax as Neptune Theatre’s first apprentice in 1965. She trained privately in Toronto with the Actors’ Studio; with private voice and singing teachers and the New Dance Group of Canada. Over the years she has attended many professional development workshops in the theatre arts. Her stage experience is extensive – she has appeared in a range of roles from the classics like Shakespeare and Shaw to contemporary farce and musical theatre. Throw in some cabaret and lots of Em Ceeing. Deb’s experience also includes over forty years of work in radio at CBC as a news reader and host. She also starred in the popular Clean Sweep Series, heard on the CBC national network; The Backbencher series and countless radio dramas over the years. She has also appeared in tv shows like Black Harbour where she played the sometimes cantankerous Marge. Deb also has a long list of film credits including Bag of Bones, opposite Pierce Brosnan for which she won the Actra Maritme’s award for outstanding female performance. Her work as a simulator dates to the 1980s when she began doing some programs for diagnostic nurses working in the far north. Other experiences have included role-play around crisis situations related to off shore oil rig rescue; suicide assessment interviews; challenging situations for workman’s compensation board training staff. The bulk of her simulation work is for the Dalhousie Medical school where she takes part in a regular role-play and feedback program for first and second year students. Very often doing similar work for the school of nursing; physio and occupational therapy; pharmacy and human communications. Often the skills required are those of improvisation where you are required to turn a situation around on a dime with very little background material; delivering bad news work with paramedics; remedial work with doctors through the College of Physicians; dealing with the angry patient and also working with doctors from other countries as they adjust to our culture and medical practice working on language and comprehension issues as well as the clinical. Deb enjoys the challenge that this work provides and the opportunity to meet and learn from such a diverse group of people.
YEARS IN THE BIZ
45

SONG THAT DESCRIBES HER LIFE
Accentuate The Positive

SKILL THAT REQUIRED PRACTICE
Tai Chi

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