Beloved Edmonton actor Julien Arnold dies on stage at Citadel Theatre

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Beloved Edmonton theatre artist Julien Arnold died on stage Sunday night at Citadel Theatre, sending reverberations throughout the local theatre community and beyond.

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The prolific, 59-year-old actor and founding member of Free Will Players was playing generous and loving Fezziwig — a character with qualities Arnold shared — in the long-ago Christmas Eve party scene witnessed by Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past.

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Old Scrooge’s words about his kindly old master Fezziwig seem appropriate here of the local actor, instructor and mentor: “Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ’em up: what then? The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”

A statement from Punctuate Theatre, where Arnold’s wife Sheiny Satanove serves as managing director, said he left us “as he lived — immersed in his passion for theatre.”

“Julien was a cherished member of the Edmonton theatre community whose warmth, talent, and generosity touched so many lives,” the statement said.

The theatre has set up a fundraiser to support his wife, and details about a memorial service will be announced soon, the statement said.

“Julien’s presence will forever be missed, but his legacy will live on in the hearts of all who had the privilege of knowing him,” it concluded.

The cause of death has not been released.

Besides playing Bob Cratchit then Scrooge in previous Citadel Christmas Carols, Arnold was also Marley in the new, Lianna Makuch-directed production, running until Dec. 24.

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In a statement, the Citadel called Arnold’s death a “profound loss.”

“A cherished member of the Edmonton theatre community, Julien was a gifted performer whose charisma and talent graced our stage in countless productions, including A Christmas Carol,” the Citadel’s statement said.

“In his honour, this season’s run of A Christmas Carol is dedicated to his memory.”

Among his many talents, he also sang and played the banjo and mandolin — which he played with Satanove during the pandemic.

Arnold lived in Tanzania with his extended family until he was five in 1969, later getting a BFA in 1989 and an MFA in directing, both from the University of Alberta.

Other Citadel productions Arnold was in over his three-decade career include The Importance of Being Earnest, Clue, The Garneau Block, Ring of Fire, Once, Spamalot, Beauty and the Beast, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Wizard of Oz, Travels with My Aunt, The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Richard III.

With Free Will, he regularly appeared in summer productions of Shakespeare standards including, lately, The Merchant of Venice and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

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Arnold was an integral player in many of Stewart Lemoine’s comedies, lending his effervescent talent to Cocktails at Pam’s, The Glittering Heart, Shockers Delight!, Happy Toes, The Ambassador’s Wives, The Scent of Compulsion and The Finest of Strangers.

Other notable roles include The Little Mermaid, The Finest of Strangers, Million Dollar Quartet, The Suburban Motel, A Skull in Connemara, The Wrong People Have Money, King Lear, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Two and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Fringe goers also saw him shine in A Picasso, which earned him a Sterling Award for Outstanding Fringe Performance by an Actor, and he took on the director role in his own The Atlas Theatre Collective for The Lonesome West at Roxy Theatre, Going to St. Ives at Varscona and Sirens at the 2018 Fringe.

He most recently played multiple roles in Theatro Live’s horror The Woman in Black.

Edmonton’s theatre community took to social media to mourn the actor.

Christy Greenwood, owner of costume store the Theatre Garage, said on Facebook she met Arnold at the Citadel 20 years ago.

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“He was an actor, I was a dresser on A Christmas Carol,” she said.

“He was warm, welcoming and hilarious, even if he drove us crazy with his dirty sock drawers and empty cans of beans in his dressing room lol. As a 20-something-old-kid and certainly green, Julien was always cheerful and kind. I loved working with him.”

Others remembered him for his great sense of humour. As one example of the actor’s humour, whenever anything would go slightly wrong in a tech rehearsal, or if there was a small audience at a performance, Arnold would say, “Cancel show! Wobbly pops!”

In a post on social media site Bluesky, playwright and author Marty Chan wrote of how he’ll be sorely missed.

“He loved what he did and he did what he loved,” Chan wrote.

“His joy was infectious, which is why we’ll miss him so dearly.”

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