The Life and Times of Dave Semple: Renaissance Man.

by J Bruce Parker

(Photo by Liam Semple)

If you know Wortley Village resident Dave Semple, his quality of generosity first comes to mind. The retired drama teacher with over thirty-five years of experience as an actor and director has offered free workshops for aspiring thespians. As a guitar luthier, he has built and given away several guitars to those he felt needed them, as well as taking the time to teach the instrument to seniors.

Dave is a prominent and familiar presence in local theatre, and both his love of the stage and music have become the focus of his post-retirement life.

Dave was born in Quebec to a young and struggling mother and was put up for adoption when he was five months old. His adoptive parents moved about, and Dave found himself in the city of Rouyn Noranda, a mining town, dedicated to the recreations of hockey, snowmobiling, and ice fishing.

(Photo by Ross Davidson.)

Dave felt that he really didn’t fit in. “I had a little music room with a piano and a couple of guitars, and that’s where I escaped,” he says. He noodled about on the piano and eventually took lessons, but again, could not fit in with the role of a piano student.

“My teacher realized that I was struggling to learn to read music, so she started to train my ear. I couldn’t sight-read but she recognized that I had a really good ear, and maybe she could train that instead. It influenced me in how I became a teacher, as her philosophy to meet the student where they are became my philosophy as a teacher.”

Dave eventually crossed the border into Ontario, where he enrolled at the University of Windsor in a Bachelor of Fine Arts program. He considered the idea of theatre as a career but did not pursue it. “I never wanted to be an actor full-time as the idea of always looking for work scared the crap out of me,” he says.

He had a friend working at the University of Western Ontario who was able to cast him in Romeo and Juliet as the character Tybalt. “They needed someone to do the sword-fighting scenes, and I had learned combat choreography at university. I had also done some fencing,” Dave recalls.

(Photo by J Bruce Parker.)

With this success, he realized he liked the idea of teaching, and it appealed to him as a choice for a working career. Dave taught Drama at Strathroy Collegiate for four years before transferring to Oakridge Secondary School. It was here he met James Patterson, head of the Drama Department, who would be part of his career in theatre for the next thirty years.

After leaving Oakridge, Dave taught Drama and English at Saunders Secondary School for nine years, leading up to his retirement in 2022.

Dave’s wellspring of creativity has produced two novels, four books of poetry, one poetic novella, and two books of ‘Words of Wisdom.’ As a singer/songwriter, he has released five CDs, but his musical artistry was stifled for a time when “The pandemic kicked that out of me,” he says.

Three years out of the pandemic, Dave is rethinking and creating again.

(Photo by J Bruce Parker.)

His work as a guitar luthier began when he could not find an electric guitar with specific woods and electronic features that he wanted. It was his father who taught him carpentry and electronics, which aided in his task. He found the parts online and built his own. This hobby grew over the last seven years when local guitarists would seek him out for repairs or to customize their own instruments. Eventually, orders came in for specific body designs, woods, and electronics, and ‘Phoenix Guitar Works’ was born. Dave tells me, “The name came from a few crashes and burns in my life.”

After his retirement, Dave found a new energy and discovered that “time is now finite.” This energy inspired him to audition for leading roles in two productions at the Palace Theatre: The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon and The Donnellys, which was directed by his long-time friend James Patterson. He was eventually doing back-to-back rehearsals. Dave moved from the sinister but charismatic character of the devil in ‘Black Bonspiel,’ to the patriarch of the infamous family from Lucan.

“I like dramas more than comedies,” he tells me. “I like stories that are dark and have a good depth of substance to them.”

(Photo by Ross Davidson.)

Peter Colley’s play about the brutal massacre of a family in Lucan in 1880 was previously performed in London at the Grand Theatre in 1974. It portrays Johanna and James Donnelly as victims of this horrendous crime. Other accounts of this event have been less sympathetic to the couple. “We wanted to bring out that they were a loving couple and that they were trying to make the best world, despite all the strikes against them. We wanted to make them likeable and relatable,” says Dave.

Last year, Dave was cast in local playwright Jason Rip’s Man Up, a piece of theatre produced and directed by John Pacheco, which was performed at the Manor Park Memorial Hall for five sold-out performances. Divided into eighteen scenes, the production explored the definition of masculinity and the associated high rate of male suicide.

In a television interview about Man Up, Dave expressed, “Since COVID, I think theatre has gotten really safe with light and fluffy productions to bring audiences back in. You go to the theatre to escape or connect. With this play, every night when I go home, it stirs up feelings and thoughts, and I want to have discussions with people. And this is what is important about this play in particular.” He adds, “In thirty years of teaching, I lost eight students to suicide.”

Dave has directed nineteen plays, and he enjoys moving back and forth from directing to acting. “It depends on my frame of mind if I want to direct or act. But acting is more work as you have to memorize.” Laughing, he adds, “I have a hard time liking young actors. I like the ones who are my age and older.”

It is tough for him to single out a favorite actor, but Gene Hackman comes to mind when he is persuaded for an answer.

It is no surprise that this talented craftsman recently created and performed Stories and Songs, a fundraising event for the Palace Theatre on November 6. Dave is a voice of his community, and his voice regaled friends and fans with his music and personal reflections.

His performance at the Palace’s Procunier Hall was perfect for an intimate evening. A comfortable parlour chair, an antique table displaying the visual memories of his songs, underscored with soft lighting. He picked from four guitars, regarding all as his ‘friends,’ and explaining the history of each.

His three-hour marathon performance with a brief intermission was culled from his vast creative work and warm and generous heart. He emptied his pockets of childhood memories in song and spoken word, often in a cathartic voice, directing us to his beginnings as a five-month-old child being given up for adoption. Love, acceptance, and family become important themes in his music.

His presentation was interactive as he requested ‘Dad Jokes’ regarding his remembrance and relationship with his own adoptive father, as well as inquiring about a recent moment of ‘joy’ from his audience. And joy is something we need more of these days.

(Photo by J Bruce Parker)

Gathering a few young people to sit at his feet, in a most grandfatherly and comedic manner, Dave told an anecdote of something antiquated and nearly extinct: the vinyl record.

His final song was not his, but of his friend, musician Jake Leveque, a musical force of this city who passed away in 2024.

Following Dave Semple down his road of memory is often a very familiar journey, as his memories can be relatable. He examines his humanity, which allows us to reflect on our own. You listen closely, and his voice in song becomes your voice.

Originally, Stories & Songs was to be a one-off event, but it was met with such a measure of success, several performances are now booked at the Palace Theatre in the Spring of 2026.

Dave Semple is now directing Closer, a play by British playwright Patrick Marber, in a production which will run from February 5 to 15 at Procunier Hall at the Palace Theatre.