Jeff Haslam is an actor based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Mr. Haslam is best known as a longtime member of Edmonton's Teatro la Quindicina troupe, performing the works of playwright Stewart Lemoine, including Damp Fury, Pith!, Fever-Land, Evelyn Strange, Cocktails at Pam's, Connie in Egypt, The Margin of the Sky, At the Zenith of the Empire, Shockers Delight!, Eros and the Itchy Ant, The Exquisite Hour, A Rocky Night for His Nibs and Happy Toes. He has been part of the management structure of Teatro's home, the Varscona Theatre, since its creation in 1994 and produces, hosts or performs in many theatre related events there including, for the last eighteen years, the live improvised soap operaDie-Nasty and its annual fundraising event The Die-Nasty Soap-A-Thon. He hosted the Varscona Theatre's monthly variety showThe Johnny and Poki Variety Hour from 1995 to 1999 as Poki Schvedtar, a character of his own creation. Since 2001, he has co-hosted the Varscona's latest variety show Oh Susanna! with Mark Meer. He has worked at most of Edmonton's theatres, including the Citadel Theatre, Theatre Network, Shadow Theatre, Edmonton Opera as well as with playwrights Marty Chan, Conni Massing, Lyle Victor Albert, Raymond Storey, Doug Curtis, Jocelyn Ahlf, Cathleen Rootsaert and Belinda Cornish. He received his fourth Sterling Award for acting in his own play Citizen Plate, produced by Teatro la Quindicina. He has performed in theatres across Canada including One Yellow Rabbit, Vancouver Playhouse, Victoria's Belfry Theatre, Winnipeg's Prairie Theatre Exchange and Factory Theatre among others. He played in Stewart Lemoine's Pith! in Toronto, Winnipeg, Ottawa and off-Broadway at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row. He currently resides in Edmonton.
Controversy
In mid August of 2010, Jeff Haslam personally lashed out at a review on the local Edmonton blog 'Only here for the Food'. This action incited a backlash on both Twitter and Edmontonian blogs. Haslam himself was later interviewed about the controversy by local news station CHQT iNews880. On August 18th 2010, Jeff Haslam's controversy also became a trending topic on Twitter. This controversy was also reported in The Globe and Mail on August 20, 2010, and the following day in the Edmonton Journal. Part of the backlash arose from the fact that Jeff Haslam encouraged a blogger to stop subscribing to his theatre company, while at the same time drawing attention to the fact that 60% of Teatro la Quindicia's funding relied upon grants and donations. These remarks achieved international notoriety and were held out as how not to run a theatre company by many in the theatre community.
