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Toby Tarnow began studying acting at The Lorne Green Academy of Radio Arts in Canada at the age of 8 and, at the age of 10, she became a professional actress in live radio drama and CBC Radio Schools Broadcasts.
She studied theater technique with two premier acting teachers in Toronto, Josephine Barrington and Basya Hunter. Miss Barrington taught classical technique and elocution. Basya was trained in NYC by actress Maria Ouspenskaya who brought what became known as "The Method" to America.
Tarnow began her career as a professional actress in Canada, starting on radio in 1947 and subsequently becoming nationally known, starring in film, theater, and television. In 1952, she played a leading role in the first television drama broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. Toby was the first Anne in the musical version of Anne of Green Gables, broadcast live by the CBC on March 4, 1956.
In 1954 at the age of 17 she was awarded the Maurice Rosenfeld Memorial Award for The Most Outstanding Newcomer to Canadian Radio. Kate Reid was the recipient the previous year.
Some highlights of Toby's television career are: as Princess Summerfall Winterspring on the Canadian version of the Howdy Doody Show on CBC television, a regular panelist on the Canadian To Tell the Truth, a regular on the children's show, Mr Dressup, a continuing character on the NBC soap opera Moment of Truth, and a continuing role in the ABC miniseries Amerika. She also had her own children's television show, Nursery School Time with Miss Toby and Hoppy.
Some of Toby's many theater credits include: Ophelia in King Lear, The Girl in the Seven Year Itch, Mrs. Lynde in A Dolls House, Madge in Picnic, Edna Edison in The Prisoner of Second Avenue, and Hester Smit in Hello and Goodby. In 1960, she was the co-founder (with internationally acclaimed director, Harvey Hart) and chief fund-raiser for the Civic Square Theater in Toronto. In 1964, Ms. Tarnow co-chaired the fund-raising campaign for the Toronto Arts Foundation and successfully raised $1M from the community to build the St. Lawrence Center Theater Complex in Toronto.
In the 1970s, she began selling her writing to television as well as writing and producing radio drama. She incorporated Toby Tarnow Productions in 1969. In 1981, she co-founded Tarnow/Linton Productions in New York, with the charter of acquiring and developing new product for theater and film. In August 1989, she moved to New Hampshire.
In 2006, Toby began teaching creative drama workshops at the Boys and Girls Club of the Souhegan Valley, in Milford, New Hampshire, the only Boys & Girls Club in the country to have been built around a professional theater. The goal of the six-week workshops were to encourage the creative process, as applied to theater, and build confidence, cooperation, and collaboration. The students write, cast, direct and perform their own plays on the stage in the theater for their parents.
In February 2006, Toby created a One-Act Playwriting Contest for students with the goal of finding three winning plays that are produced and performed at the Amato Center at the Boys and Girls Club of the Souhegan Valley. The winning student writers attend casting and rehearsals in order to experience the process of creating a theater production from the page to the stage under her guidance. 2012 marked the 7th Annual Playwriting Workshop and Festival!
She has lead a two-week Theater Camp at the Club each summer since 2006 with students, ages 8 to 12, who write and performed their own plays. In fall 2006, she directed a youth production of "Anne of Green Gables
* the Musical."Followed by students productions of Carousel, Once Upon
A Mattrees, The Boy Friend, My Fair Lady, The Man Who Came to Dinner. And in May 2012 there was an anniversary production of Anne of Green Gables with Don Harron the book writer in attendance!
Toby is Founder and Artistic Director of the Riverbend School of Theater Arts, a program of the Boys & Girls Club. With classes for children and youth in Costume Design and Construction, Scene Study, Vocal , Dance, Comedia Del Arte, and Production Apprenticeships in all areas of backstage!
In 2012, she was awarded the Children's and Youth Theatre Award by the New Hampshire Theatre Awards.
