Lion's Den Productions

Lion's Den Productions is the production arm of The Actor Atelier, creating film, theatre, and audio drama that challenges, moves, and connects. Founded by Paul Hopkins — actor, director, writer, and educator — Lion's Den Productions is committed to bold storytelling, collaborative process, and work that matters.

SETLIFE: Happy Hour

Short Film | Director & Producer: Paul Hopkins A Lion's Den Productions / Actor Atelier Production

What happens when a group of strangers gather for a casual drink after work — and discover they're all carrying far more than they first appear?

Set over the course of a single evening at a local pub, SETLIFE: Happy Hour is an ensemble comedy-drama about connection, loneliness, ambition, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. As conversations unfold and relationships intersect, a seemingly ordinary happy hour becomes a catalyst for unexpected revelations, uncomfortable truths, and moments of genuine human connection.

Some are searching for love. Some are searching for purpose. Some are simply trying to make it through another day. Over drinks, laughter, misunderstandings, and confessions, the characters discover that beneath the masks we wear in public lies a shared desire to be seen, heard, and understood.

Created through the SETLIFE Film Training Program, the film brings together emerging actors, filmmakers, and artists in a collaborative process that blurs the line between training and professional production. The result is a heartfelt short film that captures the spirit of creativity, community, and the courage it takes to show up authentically in a world that often asks us to do the opposite.

Written by Paul Hopkins & Laurie Myers Inspired by a story shared by Kim Shepard Director of Photography & Editor Aviel Kurulkar First Assistant Director Patsy McCracken

Cast: Alexandra Porter, Andrea June Sung, Dawn Mosam Gosalia, Dominic Buzzell, Stan Davis, Matthew Wiebe, Myelz Strange, Erik Van Dyke, Ahmed Azhar, Pascal Brochu

Music: Modulation featuring Ben Hopkins & Ted Warren | Original Music from The Spanish Waiter by Michael Hopkins | "Mad World" performed a cappella by Myelz Strange

Filmed on location at the Huether Hotel. Equipment provided by KISS International Media and Tony Smith.

The Concealed Fancies

Film | Director & Producer: Paul Hopkins A Lion's Den Productions / Musicians in Ordinary Production

Written in the 1640s by sisters Elizabeth Brackley and Jane Cavendish while their father and brother fought in the English Civil War, The Concealed Fancies is a path-breaking work of early modern theatre — a play in which two women confined at home imagine their own terms for courtship and marriage. This film brings that story into startling dialogue with the present.

Set during the first COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, the film follows drama students whose stage production is suddenly cancelled — and who take matters into their own hands, performing the play they've been rehearsing entirely online. The parallel is striking: two moments of crisis, two groups of women finding creative freedom within confinement.

The Concealed Fancies recalls a difficult time when so many artists turned to social media to find an audience for their work, and draws a powerful connection between pandemic lockdown and the sisters' wartime confinement — a challenging period that proved to be one of immense creative possibility.

Director & Producer Paul Hopkins Music Adaptation John Edwards, Musicians in Ordinary (original lyrics set to seventeenth-century music) Co-Producers John Edwards & Deanne Williams, York University

Cast: Rachel Tomasic, Chelsea Mathieu, Nell Senkevich, Johnny Thirakul, Tito Vallarino, Blair Williams, Tracy Ryan, Amanda Brunk, with John Edwards on ukulele and Matt Antal on viola

Supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and York University.

Watch on YouTube

John Milton's Comus

Radio Play with Music | Producer: Paul Hopkins A Lion's Den Productions / Musicians in Ordinary Production

A full-cast audio production of John Milton's 1634 masque Comus, featuring the original songs by Henry Lawes and period dance music by his brother William Lawes, performed by Christopher Verrette and the MIO String Band. Directed by Heather Davies, this richly realized radio play with music brings one of the great works of English Renaissance theatre to life with an acclaimed cast of Canadian stage and screen artists.

Paul Hopkins appears in the title role of Comus.

Director Heather Davies Music Henry Lawes & William Lawes, performed by Christopher Verrette and the Musicians in Ordinary String Band

Cast: Roger Honeywell, Paul Hopkins, Bethany Jillard, Tracy Ryan, Beryl Bain, Tahirih Vejdani

Supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Spem in Alium Fund of the Toronto Foundation, and York University.

Listen here