ABBY
HAGYARD
Abby Hagyard in 2000
After
the loss of Ruth Buzzi at the close of Whatever
Turns You On in 1979, YCDTOTV was looking
for a suitable replacement. In 1982, they found Abby Hagyard.
Before
joining YCDTOTV in 1982, Abby hosted a weekly CBC-TV series,
taught acting at Algonquin College in Ottawa and wrote plays.
While working as Mrs. Prevert (and a dozen other characters)
on YCDTOTV, her voice was heard on the morning drive radio
station (CFGO in Ottawa) on more than a thousand government
documentaries. She also worked as characters in such animated
cartoon shows as The Care Bears,
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin,
Dennis the Menace, The
Ugly Duckling, Charlotte's Web
and For Better or For Worse. In
total, Abby received four ACTRA awards for Voice and On-Camera
work between 1980 and 1990.
Since
1991, Abby has written and produced six award-winning plays.
The latest was a comedy called I Still Miss
My Man, But My Aim Is Getting Better! She
is in great demand for dinner speaker and MC gigs and is
regularly booked for cabaret performances of four shows:
Gloves Off!, Dorothy
Parker: One Perfect Rose, I Still
Miss... (all of which she wrote) and Shirley
Valentine.
In
1998, Abby created a live youth talent-show series that
toured agricultural fairs across Ontario. Its nine finalists
have been invited to appear at the CCE in Ottawa. Abby has
touring dates in place for 1999 and 2000 for Shirley
Valentine. Currently, she is working on three
new plays.
