SAM CHAULK is a St. John’s based theatre artist, bouffon, clown teacher and youth educator. Over the past 16 years, she has performed theatre, clown and improv comedy professionally in Newfoundland, Montreal, Toronto and Chicago. She has played at Big City Improv Festival (2017, 2018), Bad Dog Theatre’s Blockbuster Week (2018) and at iO Chicago’s Chicago Musical Improv Festival (2018). With her company Theatre Enthused, she produced, wrote and starred in her first play Dear Uncle Wish at The Toronto Fringe Festival (2017). After its sold out world premiere at One Night Only Festival in Toronto, her bouffon show, INFLUENCED, toured to Montreal and Winnipeg Fringe and was nominated for the exceptional clown show award in both cities. INFLUENCED went on to play to three sold out audiences at Sweet Action Theatre in October 2023. In 2025, Sam performed as Gladys The Singing Ghost at the Newfoundland and Labrador Sketch Comedy Festival at the LSPU hall, and will be performing again as Gladys as part of the St. John’s Shorts Festival in September, 2025.
Sam is also a passionate educator who spreads her enthusiasm for theatre through instruction. She has worked at Young People’s Theatre, The Travelling Stage Company and devises unique workshops for theatre professionals, comedians and communities. Some of these include Let’s Get Weird, a five day clown intensive for improvisers (2022), No Judgment! A creation workshop for CB Nuit festival (2020), and Comedy in Mummering for the St. John’s Mummers Festival (2020).
Sam has been running theatre courses for children and youth in St. John’s since April, 2025 with Dreams and Bones Theatre, and offers intensive Clown training to adults at her new clown school, Clown College.
She holds a BFA in Acting from Memorial University (Corner Brook), and an MFA in Performance Creation from York University (Toronto). She has taken improv classes and intensives at Bad Dog Theatre (Toronto) and IO Theater (Chicago). In 2019 she received funding from Canada Council for the Arts to take a two week improv intensive at The Annoyance Theater (Chicago). And in 2022, she received funding from CCA to attend a six-week clown course at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Etampes, France.
Sam Chaulk
photo by Christian Lloyd
Curriculum Vitae
Formal Training
• MFA in Performance Creation for Theatre, York University, 2021
• BFA in Acting for Theatre, Memorial University of Newfoundland, President’s List, 2011
Creation and Production History
• INFLUENCED (creator). Workshop Presentation. August 2021.York University
• Dear Uncle Wish (playwright). Produced July 6th - 15th, 2017. The Theatre Centre, Toronto Fringe Festival. Theatre Enthused. Directed by Adam Bailey. Workshopped August 15th - 17th, 2018. Rising Tide Theatre. Facilitated by Donna Butt.
• Iza The Brave (co-writer). Produced July 2nd - 9th, 2016. George Ignatieff Theatre, Toronto Fringe Festival. Iza’s Productions. Directed by Mihaly Szabados
Grants, Funding and Awards
• Awarded a grant by the Ontario Arts Council via Suitcase in Point Theatre to fund activities related to INFLUENCED, February 2020
• Awarded a professional development grant from Canada Council for the Arts to attend a 5 Day improv intensive at The Annoyance Theatre, Chicago, February 2020.
• Awarded a bursary from Young People’s Theatre to participate in YPT Artist Educator’s Training, February 2019
• Bad Dog Theatre’s La Grande Jatte received My Entertainment World
MyTheatre award for best improv or sketch, 2017
• The Al Pittman Harlow Travel Award, Memorial University, 2011
Job Experience in Theatre (selected)
• Skipping Stones Theatre Toronto. Dramaturg, Rage Room. Work-in-progress, 2021 - Present
• Young People’s Theatre, Toronto. Teacher, Online Summer Drama Camp. July 2021
• Mummer’s Festival, St. John’s, Newfoundland. Workshop facilitator, Comedy in Mummering, December 2020
• CB Nuit Online Festival, Newfoundland. Theatre creation workshop facilitator, No Judgement! September 2020
• Young People’s Theatre, Toronto. Teacher, Drama School. September 2019 - Present
• Young People’s Theatre, Toronto. Teaching Assistant, Summer Drama Camp, July 2019
• Rising Tide Theatre, Newfoundland. Playwright, workshop of Dear Uncle Wish, August 2018
• Rising Tide Theatre, Newfoundland. Actor/Composer/Musician, 2018
• La Grande Jatte, Bad Dog Theatre, Toronto. Producer, 2016
• Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare Collective, Toronto. Actor/Composer/Musical Director, 2015
• Merry Age, Virtuo Danse, Montreal. Singer, 2013
• Rising Tide Theatre, Newfoundland. Actor, 2011
• Grand Bank Regional Theatre Festival, Actor/Musician, 2009
Training and Intensives (selected)
• 5 Day Comedy Writing Intensive, Movement Theatre Studio NYC, Virginia Scott, 2021
• 5 Day Physical Comedy Intensive, Movement Theatre Studio NYC, Virginia Scott, 2020
• 5 Day Bouffon Intensive, Movement Theatre Studio, New York, Eric Davis, 2020
• 5 Day Improv Intensive, The Annoyance, Chicago, 2019
• 5 Day Improv Intensive, iO Chicago, Craig Uhlir, 2018
• Musical Improv Studio Series, 2016 – 2017
• Improv Combustion Festival Workshop with Keisha Zollar 2016
• Improv Ensemble Studio Series, 2015 – 2016
• Improv Foundations 2, 3 and Studio, Bad Dog Theatre, 2014 -2015
Improv Shows and Festivals (selected)
• Canada’s Next Top Blank
Weekly run at Social Capital Theatre, Toronto. May 2019 - October 2019
Chicago Musical Improv Festival at iO Chicago, 2018
Three month weekly run, Bad Dog Theatre’s Spring Binge Series, 2017
Bad Dog Theatre’s Blockbuster Week, 2017
Big City Improv Festival, 2017
• Dreamboats
Big City Improv Festival, 2016
Three month weekly run, Bad Dog Theatre’s Spring Binge Series, 2017
Dramaturgy
• Rage Room, Collective Creation, Skipping Stones Theatre. 2020 - Present
• Ponytail, Creator Alison Blair. 2020.
Composition/Musical Direction
• Daddy What’s a Train, Rising Tide Theatre, 2018
• Dear Uncle Wish, Theatre Enthused, 2017
• Iza The Brave, Iza’s Productions, 2016
• Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare, Othello (scenes), 2015
• Memorial University Theatre Program’s Man of Mode, 2010
• Memorial University Theatre Program’s Twelfth Night, 2009
Producing
•INFLUENCED. Theatre Enthused, Workshop Presentation, Theatre on Film, York University, 2021
•La Grande Jatte, Bad Dog Theatre, 2016
•The Butler Did It Cabaret, The Butler Did It, 2016
•Dear Uncle Wish, Theatre Enthused, The Toronto Fringe, 2017
•Canada’s Next Top Blank (Improv), 2017 - 2019
Sam’s work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
