Category: Character Development

Magic Lies: An Evening with W.O. Mitchell – Interview Nathan Schmidt

Posted on by James Hutchison
Nathan Schmidt as W.O. Mitchell in the Rosebud Theatre production of Magic Lies: An Evening with W.O. Mitchell.

Magic Lies: An Evening with W.O. Mitchell is a joyful, fun, and feel-good night at the theatre all brought to life on the Rosebud Theatre’s Opera House stage in a brilliant performance by Nathan Schmidt.  

Based on the works of W.O. Mitchell and penned by his son and daughter-in-law, Orm and Barbara Mitchell, the play weaves together an entertaining and insightful script that travels between Mitchell’s fiction and the story of his life.

Mitchell was a writer, performer, and teacher who is best known for his 1947 novel Who Has Seen the Wind. The novel beautifully captures small-town life and the world as seen through the eyes of a young Brian O’Connal growing up on the Saskatchewan prairie. Mitchell is also known for his Jake and the Kid stories which were popular radio plays during the 1950s. No stranger to the stage himself W.O. Mitchell was a storyteller who performed his one-man shows across Canada and penned several plays for the stage including The Kite, The Devil’s Instrument, and The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon. 

I contacted Orm Mitchell to talk with him about his father’s work and the journey Magic Lies: An Evening with W.O. Mitchell took to reach the stage. You can read that interview by following the link above. I also spoke with Nathan Schmidt to talk with him about the production and the challenges of performing a one-man show.

JAMES HUTCHISON

What was your reaction when you first read the script and knew you were going to be playing W.O. Mitchell?

NATHAN SCHMIDT

I’ve done a couple of W.O. Mitchell shows. I’ve been in Jake and the Kid, and I’ve done The Kite twice, so lots about the script felt familiar, and I had experienced W.O.’s writing. So, I knew that he was funny, but the scarier thing was I thought, “Oh, man, I’ve got to play this real person who people know.” Whereas Daddy Sherry or Jake – those are characters. Those live in the imagination. It’s a different thing when somebody lives in the real world. And Morris Ertman our Artistic Director would say “When we open Magic Lies: An Evening with W.O. Mitchell all the family is going to come and watch the show.” And I was like, “Oh, my gosh. I’m going to have to play the father or the grandparent of these people in the audience.” So that was the most intimidating thing.

  • Morris Ertman and Orm Mitchell Opening Weekend Talk Back of Magic Lies: An Evening with W.O. Mitchell
  • Barbara and Orm Mitchell
  • Orm and Barbara Mitchell at Chapters Book Signing
  • 75th Anniversary Edition of Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell. Illustrated by William Kurelek. Available from Freehand Books.
  • W.O. Mitchell

JAMES

Even a one-man show needs a director. For this show, it was Karen Johnson-Diamond. How did the two of you work on the play? What was that process like?

NATHAN

As an actor, Karen has done a number of W.O. Mitchell plays. I think she had been in Who Has Seen the Wind and Jake the Kid and she had a love of W.O. Mitchell as well. So, she came in with a lot of love for the stories and a lot of knowledge about W.O. Mitchell. But she’s also just a wonderfully comedic actor and performer, and so her sense of comedy and her sense of how this thing would play was really just spot on. And all of the direction that she offered to me was really helpful to clarify the joke and to clarify how the show moves forward.

What she really loved about the structure of the play is how it follows him through his life from like six to seven when he loses his father – to ten to eleven – to high school – all the way through to Daddy Sherry and misses a bit of the middle, because as W.O. Mitchell says in the story – he’s kind of focused on the first part of life and the end part of life. Those are the concentrated bits that it seemed his imagination was drawn to.

So, we would do a lot of work with linking. Linking how this story moved to this story and then to this story. And W.O Mitchell had a way of making it feel like it was all sort of off the cuff, but in the end, it was all very planned, and he was coming back to stuff he’d set up earlier and he had really worked out how the punchlines worked and how the ideas and stories came around. So, we did a lot of work like that to try and get into the head of the writer and the storyteller. It was a great process. She was wonderful.

  • The Kite – Rosebud Theatre – 2019
  • The Sunset Limited – Rosebud Theatre – 2016
  • Freud’s Last Session – Rosebud Theatre – 2014
  • Doubt, A Parable – Rosebud Theatre – 2014
  • Fiddler on the Roof – Rosebud Theatre – 2008
  • Man of La Mancha – Rosebud Theatre – 2009
  • The Spitfire Grill – Rosebud Theatre – 2017
  • A Christmas Carol – Rosebud Theatre – 2020 & 2021
  • The Diary of Adam & Eve – Rosebud Theatre – 2011
  • Oliver! – Rosebud Theatre – 2010
  • Damien – Rosebud Theatre – 2018
  • The Drawer Boy – Rosebud Theatre – 2006
  • May & Joe – Rosebud Theatre – 2011
  • The Secret Garden – Rosebud Theatre – 2010
  • Jake and the Kid: Prairie Seasons – Rosebud Theatre – 2011
  • Underneath the Lintel – Rosebud Theatre Production – 2013
  • The Kite – Rosebud Theatre – 2005
  • The Lion, The Witch And the Wardrobe – Rosebud Theatre – 2014
  • An Inspector Calls – Rosebud Theatre – 2016
  • Stones In His Pockets – Rosebud Theatre – 2022
  • The Trip to Bountiful – Rosebud Theatre – 2023
  • Cotton Patch Gospell – Rosebud Theatre – 2013
  • It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play – Rosebud Theatre – 2013
  • Nathan Schmidt as W.O. Mitchell in the Rosebud Theatre production of Magic Lies: An Evening with W.O. Mitchell.

JAMES

This is your 50th performance on the Rosebud stage and so I’m wondering when you look back on all the parts you’ve played do some of those characters have a lasting influence on you in any way?

NATHAN

Yeah, there’s a couple that really stick – that I learned a lot about myself from and sometimes that’s uncomfortable. I was in Doubt by John Patrick Shanley and that was a really uncomfortable play for me to be in. It taught me a lot about who I am when I’m helpless and so those things kind of stick. The character teaches you something about who you really are because your instincts as a person are either in conflict with the character or line up with the character in ways that are surprising. That was a big one. I did a Cormac McCarthy play called The Sunset Limited and that was also another hard one.

As W.O. Mitchell says, those characters marked me. And I think the thing I love most is the relationship that characters create with the audience. One of my favourite things I ever got to do was The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey. I was playing one of the farmers. In The Drawer Boy, this young kid comes to hang out at the farm and find out about these two old guys. It was an older character, and I was younger, and I was really worried because it didn’t feel real. I didn’t feel in it, and I was really up in my head about it and nervous, you know,  that I was a fraud or I was going to fail, and then one of the things that actually cinched me into it was – I don’t remember how it came about – but maybe it was offered by Morris and he said, “Here’s a toothpick. Just chew on the toothpick for the whole show.”

And so, I would have these toothpicks in the show, and I just chewed on this toothpick the whole time, and it helped me feel like that cranky grumpy guy in that story. Well, you know, a bit later – after the run, I got a little blue index card in the mail and on it was glued a toothpick, and on the backside, this person had written, “We attended the show and your Morgan was like seeing my grandfather alive again, and he passed away in 80 whatever.” She was so clear that she had an experience of seeing her grandpa that day, and I was able to offer her unbeknownst to me an experience like that. And so, you know that play holds a special place for me too because of that story. It’s quite a lovely play.

W.O. Mitchell reading at Trent University

JAMES

W.O. Mitchell perfected the technique of appearing not to be performing. To be spontaneous and to appear as if he was telling the story for the first time. So, he’d draw his audience in through deliberate mistakes or confusion, he’d say, “Oh, did I tell you? Or I forgot to mention.” And in your performance, you totally capture that sense of spontaneous and unrehearsed storytelling. So much so that my son heard a couple of ladies leaving the theatre and they enjoyed the show, but they remarked that they were surprised that you seemed to lose your place and had to go back. Which means to them it was completely natural. So, to me you’re one of those actors who really achieves a feeling of reality in your performance no matter what part you’re playing. That’s a long speil just to ask, how do you do that?

NATHAN

Morris said this the other day and I think it’s true. I think when we get curious about people then we kind of fall in love with them. And I think it’s true of the characters we play, and I think in the rehearsal there is something about just falling in love with the reality of whoever they are and whatever drives them. You’ve heard it said that one of the actor’s adages is don’t judge the character even if you’re a villain. Villains are motivated by what they believe to be true or good or at least by what is in their best interests.

And I think the actor’s job overall – and W.O. Mitchell did this in spades too – is to collect people. To watch people and to observe what they do and why they do it without judgment and to allow them to steep into you and to become part of you and the energy of being them and how they participate in the world. It’s partly that and it’s partly just having fun. It’s just fun to try and make it as real as possible.

St. Sammy and Brian: St Sammy calling down the wrath of the Lord to smite Bent Candy's new red barn. Illustration by William Kurelek from 75th Anniversary Edition of Who Has Seen the Wind
Saint Sammy and Brian: Saint Sammy calling down the wrath of the Lord to smite Bent Candy’s new red barn. Illustration by William Kurelek from the 75th Anniversary Edition of Who Has Seen the Wind. Available from Freehand Books.

JAMES

You know, it’s interesting that you mentioned fun, and I think W.O. Mitchell is able to capture the feeling of childhood and play and imagination and curiosity. What are your thoughts about the child within you in terms of that living in you as an actor?

NATHAN

I have three kids now and when I watch the four-year-old and two-year-old play for them every game is real. They just believe it. My little guy just thinks he’s the Flash. He thinks he’s the fastest thing going and so he’ll be like, “Watch this Dad.” And he will just run through and he’s like, “You didn’t even see me, did you.” And I remember as a kid wearing my North Star Velcro runners and those are the fastest shoes, and I can run so fast in my North Star shoes because they’ve got shooting stars on them and that makes my feet fast. And I believed it to be true.

Our adult logic brains know it’s not true, but it could be in your imagination. And the audience does the same thing. They all know they’re not seeing W.O. Mitchell. Karen said, “Nobody’s coming to see the actual W.O. Mitchell. They’re coming to have an experience of W.O. Mitchell and if we deliver it in a way that doesn’t give them any reason to doubt too much – then the audience will let their imagination see me as him.” And so, you know, I think our imagination is a remarkable and amazing gift, and I think as creatives we may access it a little bit more at times, but it’s there for everyone. They just have to access it.

JAMES

This is storytelling at its simplest and best. One actor. Minimal set. What is it like for you as a performer doing a one-man show? How do you create that connection with your audience?

NATHAN

I’ve done a number of one-person shows now and it gets to be a lonely room as opposed to having one or two other people or a group of actors to hang out with. It can be lonely in that way, but the audience really becomes the best friend of the show. And especially in something like this where it’s such a direct address. The whole point of the show is the relationship of the storyteller to the audience. At the end of the play, W.O. says that this is the thing – the energy of a live audience responding to a story – that’s where it’s at.

And for me, that is where it’s at. I love that relationship. I’m always curious about it and excited about it. Sometimes puzzled by it, you know, sometimes it lands really well, and people just explode with laughter and sometimes they don’t, and you can’t put together all of why that is, but people get to be who they are and so it’s a really lovely sort of bond that I’ve come to love about performing. And that’s the amazing thing about storytelling in theatre. And at the end of the play he says,

“You know…the energy of death lies behind everything I’ve written—it’s death and solitude that justify story telling. Telling stories draws us human aliens together in the mortal family, uniting us against the heart of darkness, defending us against the terror of being human. Writing’s a lonely act—like playing a dart game with the lights out. You have no idea whether your darts are coming anywhere near the bull’s-eye. But this (open handed gesture to audience)…this dilutes the darkness, gives me what all stage performers love—that immediate thrust of a live audience responding to story magic. (Looking out to audience, grins). We were flying tonight!”

Interview with Actor Christopher Hunt: Waiting for Godot

Posted on by James Hutchison

“It’s a play that changed the theatre landscape in the world, and makes you entertained in the moment, and lets you reflect on your own situation and the world that you’re in. And that’s the other kind of marker for this play is that existential, you know, absurdist world view of ‘There’s no God, there’s no religion, there’s nothing to believe in so why are we here? What’s the point of life? What’s the point of continuing on?’ This play swims in those waters too. All those kind of questions that sometimes wake us up in the middle of the night, or strike us at our most insecure moment.”

Christopher Hunt

On World Theatre Day I journeyed to The GRAND to meet up with Christopher Hunt, one of the founders of Black Radish Theatre, to talk with him about his acting career, Black Radish Theatre, and the ageless appeal of Waiting for Godot.
Andy Curtis as Vladimir, Duval Lang as Pozzo, Christopher Hunt as Estragon, and Tyrell Crews as Lucky, in the Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

Although we’re a long way in both time and distance from January 5, 1953 when Waiting for Godot premiered in Paris – and opened up new possibilities of expression for the stage – the play still resonates with a modern audience. ‘Before Beckett there was a naturalistic tradition. After him, scores of playwrights were encouraged to experiment with the underlying meaning of their work as well as with an absurdist style. As the Beckett scholar Ruby Cohn wrote: “After Godot, plots could be minimal; exposition, expendable; characters, contradictory; settings, unlocalized, and dialogue, unpredictable. Blatant farce could jostle tragedy.”

At it’s simplest, the play is about two longtime friends waiting on the side of a road near a tree to meet with Godot, but on a deeper level, Godot explores the existential nature of existence and the underlying perseverance of humanity. It’s also a play rich in comedy, and a thought-provoking piece of theatre. So, it seemed rather appropriate that on World Theatre Day I journeyed to The GRAND to meet up with Christopher Hunt, one of the founders of Black Radish Theatre, to talk with him about his acting career, Black Radish Theatre, and the ageless appeal of Waiting for Godot.

Christopher Hunt in Waiting for Godot
Christopher Hunt is Estragon in the Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.

JAMES HUTCHISON

In a previous interview you talked about having inspirational teachers at the start of your career when you were getting interested in drama and acting. Who were some of those teachers and how were they inspiring for you?

CHRISTOPHER HUNT

The first play I ever did was Tom Sawyer in grade four, and Mrs. Allen was my teacher. I remember she had auditions and I thought Sam Crystal was going to be Tom Sawyer because he was so outgoing, and I was really surprised when I got the part of Tom. And we did the play – you know – whitewashing the fence and Aunt Polly and all that stuff, and I just have such vivid memories of the fun that that performance gave me.

And then a few years later in Junior High I had a teacher named Mrs. Palmer who taught drama as an option, and again she played these theatre games that I’d never experienced before, and it allowed this shy little farm boy to open up and try different things and be funny.

And then in High School, I had a teacher named Marlene Hansen – she directed us in one-act plays for festivals, and one year when I was in grade eleven a grade twelve student won a scholarship to the Drumheller Drama School, and this guy didn’t want to go by himself, so Mrs. Hansen scraped together some money so I could tag along too, because I was a young keener. And once I found the Drumheller Drama School, that was like finding my tribe. These were theatre nerds like me – I didn’t know there were so many! And that lead me to take the Drumheller Drama School the next year and the year after that, when I was out of high school.

Jan Alexandra Smith and Christopher Hunt in the Theatre Calgary production of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. Photo by Trudie Lee.

JAMES

After that, you ended up going to the U of C, and I was interested to learn that you originally went into Education, and I was wondering why you chose Education and what made you switch to Drama?

CHRISTOPHER

I think it was because of those influential teachers that inspired me, and I thought that teaching would be great because I had so much fun with them when I was a student. I remember going to matinees as a student to Theatre Calgary in the old QR Centre and seeing The Importance of Being Earnest with Stephen Hair and Maureen Thomas, and I just thought that was amazing, but I never thought I could do that. I just loved the theatre and the fact that I was doing plays in high school was enough for me so I thought teaching drama would be a great thing to do. But when I got into university and I took some Drama courses and some Education courses – the Education courses were a bad fit, but the Drama courses were a good fit. So I talked it over with my parents who were helping me pay for university, and I said, “I think I’m going to switch.” My dad was a farmer all his life, and he was worried about me going into an industry that was even less reliable than farming. He wanted something a little more stable for the only one of his kids who went on to a university education. My brothers went to Olds College for agricultural studies, and my sister took some college courses. But then my parents did some plays in the amateur High River theatre group – Windmill Theatre Players – and once they saw what it was like, they could understand why I was so enamoured with it, and it became a little easier to get their support.

Christopher Hunt and Cast in the Caravan Farm Theatre production of Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Photo by Tim Matheson

JAMES

As an actor you’ve said you’re open to using all sorts of different tools and techniques for creating a performance and I’m just curious how being able to draw on different techniques such as improvisation or method acting has been helpful in terms of hitting the stage, rehearsing plays, and developing characters.

CHRISTOPHER

I think as actors and as theatre people we get a chance to go into a whole bunch of different worlds and different stories and different kinds of telling stories and different buildings in which to tell those stories and different audiences to tell those stories to. And I’ve seen and worked with people who have a specific way of approaching the work. They always prepare this way. They always warm up this way. They always present themselves a certain way, and to me I admire that, but I think it can be limiting when you have all these variables in terms of types of stories, types of venues, types of characters, and because there’s so much variety, I think it’s better to embrace the variety than protecting a particular way of working. You have to be open, otherwise I think you’re limited in terms of the opportunities that might potentially come your way.

Andy Curtis, Christopher Hunt and John Ullyatt in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow and John Buchan.

JAMES

Now, just before Christmas, you were at Vertigo Theatre in Dracula: The Bloody Truth. You were Van Helsing and that’s a play with multiple characters in it and you’ve done The 39 Steps which also has a lot of different characters and there seems to be a lot of that type of theatre happening now. Do you enjoy performing in that kind of show?

CHRISTOPHER

I do. It’s big bold choices – not subtle choices. But if I was just doing roles where I played a bunch of different characters in funny hats and voices and stuff like that I think it would get pretty tiring. That’s what I love about what I do. I can do that, and then I can do The Scarlet Letter or I can do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – all these different challenges.

Philip Riccio and Christopher Hunt in 1979 by Michael Healey
Philip Riccio and Christopher Hunt in the ATP production of 1979 by Michael Healey. Photo by Benjamin Laird.

JAMES

Last year you were the recipient of the 2018 Harry & Martha Cohen Award which is given to individuals who have made a significant and sustained contribution to theatre in Calgary. You were nominated for the award by Grant Reddick and Marilyn Potts and they said, “Season after season, Chris has given performances that are significant, technically assured, innovative, subtle, engaging, amusing and often deeply moving. He is a master of comedy, his energy and timing in farce are delightful, and he tackles serious drama with ease.”

CHRISTOPHER

That was very nice of them to say all those things.

Christopher Hunt and Kristen Padayas in Flight Risk by Meg Braem.
Christopher Hunt and Kristen Padayas in the Lunchbox Theatre production of Flight Risk by Meg Braem. Photo by Benjamin Laird.

JAMES

So, what was it like to win that award which has been given to some really talented people? That’s quite an honour.

CHRISTOPHER

Huge honour. Huge. And yeah, just the other night Denise Clarke was given that same honour for this year. It’s a beautiful club to be a part of and I don’t take it lightly. It’s nice to be recognized for the work we do, and for the longevity, and for the decision to stay in one place and to be a part of one community. People say, “Why didn’t you go to Toronto/Vancouver/L.A./New York?” or whatever, but you know, I can have a family here and a home here and a career here, and I get to work with people from all over. And sometimes I get to go all over, so it’s a pretty sweet gig. I’m certainly not in it for the money but I feel pretty fulfilled and rewarded for the work I do.

Founding Members of Black Radish Theatre – Tyrell Crews, Christopher Hunt, Duval Lang, and Andy Curtis. Photo by Hugh Short.

JAMES

So, you’ve assembled a group of people and you’re starting a new theatre company called Black Radish. Why this group of people? Who are they? What brought you guys together?

CHRISTOPHER

Well, we’re all Calgary-based actors. There’s four of us. And what brought us all together was this bucket list show of Waiting For Godot. I met Andy Curtis back in our university days. He was a Loose Moose improviser and a very funny and talented guy, and then we worked together years later at Quest Theatre and at Ghost River Theatre and One Yellow Rabbit, and we’ve been actors-for-hire and have crossed paths several times over the years. And at some point, maybe ten years ago, we talked about Waiting for Godot. And it was a play we both loved and wanted to do. And then maybe about five years ago – maybe even longer – we said, “Let’s get together and just read it for fun.” And I can’t even remember who the other people were who helped us out that first time, but over the years people came and went, and once or twice a year we would read it and talk about how great it would be to do this play. We’d say, “We should talk to the artistic directors and pitch it and see if anyone would want to do it!” And no one did but, we kept on talking about doing it. And Duval Lang was the next person to come on board, and he would have us over to his place to have coffee and read the play and talk about it. And then Tyrell Crews is the fourth member of Black Radish. He had worked at the Stratford Festival a few years ago and saw an awesome production there and he said, “Man, we could do a play like that easily in Calgary, with the talent here.” And for some reason he thought of me and Andy as the main two guys and we said, “It’s funny you should say that, because we’ve been reading this play for years!” And he went, “Seriously?” So he said, “I’m going to apply for the rights – let’s do it.”

Tyrell Crews is Lucky in The Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.

JAMES

What is it about the play that you find so compelling?

CHRISTOPHER

When I read it in high school I didn’t get it, but I liked the simpleness of it but also the complexity of it. And then the summer before I started at U of C, I saw a production of Waiting for Godot at the Pumphouse that Loose Moose did. Keith Johnstone directed it. John Gilchrist the restaurant reviewer was Pozzo. Dennis Cahill and Mel Tonkin were the main two guys. Frank Totino was Lucky and I believe Keith Johnstone’s wife at the time, Ingrid, played The Boy. And that production blew my head off, and I just went, “This is astounding.” It was so simple. It was so funny. It was so moving. It was a perfect little jewel of a production. And a lot of people loved that production. And I’ve since found out that Keith Johnstone had a huge history with Samuel Beckett. He saw the original English language production in 1955 and loved it. And changed his career to become a theatre guy. And a year later he was the playwright in residence at the Royal Court Theatre, and Samuel Beckett came to London with his next play. And Keith Johnstone met him and they became friends. Keith was one of the first people he allowed in to watch his rehearsals. And Keith’s directed the play maybe eight times since then, including the one that I saw. So Tyrell and I went and chatted with Keith last month and got some of his thoughts on the play and Beckett and that world, How many guys are there in the world who knew Samuel Beckett that are still around? And he’s here in Calgary!

JAMES

Let’s talk a little bit about Godot and that world. How are you approaching it? What do you think of it? I’m curious – what are your thoughts?

CHRISTOPHER

Well, to me, it’s a good play because it’s open to interpretation both for the artists doing it and for the audience watching it. I think what I love about it is its open-endedness, and its ability to speak to whomever. That was one of the nuggets that Keith said. He said, “When I was twenty and I watched this play I went, ‘This play is about me.’ Now, when I read it, this play is about me now as an old man as opposed to a young artist.” And it’s been famously done in Sarajevo and South Africa and prisons, and so it speaks to people everywhere, especially if it’s a good production. And it spoke to me when I saw it and it speaks to me now. It’s deliciously vague and malleable and thought-provoking and funny. And it’s easy I think to veer off and to make it too sombre, or to make it too silly and funny. It’s a tricky balancing act. And that’s what I loved about that Keith Johnstone Loose Moose production because it was moving, funny, and thought-provoking. It was all those things good theatre should be.

Duval Lang is Pozzo in the Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.

JAMES

How would you describe Vladimir and Estragon’s relationship in the play? You’re playing Estragon and Andy Curtis is playing Vladimir, correct?

CHRISTOPHER

Yeah. You know, it took me a long time to start to see any real difference between the two. They’re two kind of clown-like tramp-like figures that are down on their luck and have health concerns and personal concerns and frustrations with each other, but also a long history with each other. And I think as I read more about them and read what other people thought of them I started to figure out that Vladimir is more of the thinker. He’s more looking to the sky, and he’s more thoughtful and intellectual and in his head. And Estragon is more rooted to the ground and hungry and tired and forgetful. And so he’s more earthbound and Vladimir is more outward bound. And they know how to push each other’s buttons, and they know how to support each other. And then there are moments of, “I honestly can’t go on. I don’t think I can do this anymore.” Or, “I think it would be better if we parted,” and those kind of moments hit you like a ton of bricks, because who hasn’t thought about that?

Andy Curtis is Vladimir in the Black Radish Theatre production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.

JAMES

What are you hoping to discover in the rehearsal process for the play?

CHRISTOPHER

Well, we’re all really excited to be working with Denise Clarke as our director and our design team because they’re all super talented and have a lot of intellectual rigour and theatrical knowledge to help bring this story alive. Denise has talked about wanting to honour the text and the history of the play, but also to give people something unexpected. We want to shake things up a bit. And Denise, with her work as a choreographer and a writer and a performer, has a lot of ideas around how to be in a space, especially in the Grand which is a beautiful space to be in.

Andy Curtis as Vladimir and Tyrell Crews as Lucky in the Black Radish Theatre production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

JAMES

You know what’s really interesting to me about the text is that it doesn’t really give you much of a clue about the world outside of this tree and rock and road. We don’t know the truth of the world outside although we do know there’s the Eiffel Tower, but this bleak landscape might be more normal than the exception.

CHRISTOPHER

Yup, that’s true and it’s a field day for designers too, because how do you include those elements? How do you make those elements? What kind of a tree is it? What kind of a rock is it? Some people ignore that, and put it inside of a concrete bunker, and some people ignore the stage directions and have them dress totally different. So it’s what you pick and choose, and what you focus on and what you share that makes your version come alive or not.

Christopher Hunt and Andy Curtis in Waiting for Godot.
Andy Curtis as Vladimir and Christopher Hunt as Estragon in the Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.

JAMES

And your designer is Terry Gunvordahl.

CHRISTOPHER

Yes. Set and lighting designer.

JAMES

The last thing I saw on stage that was Beckett was about eight years ago when he did Krapp’s Last Tape. He was acting in it and Anton deGroot was at Lunchbox at that time doing the RBC Emerging Director’s program and that was the play he had chosen to present. And I went to see it and it was a really good production and Terry was really good in it.

CHRISTOPHER

I’m sorry I missed that. Terry is a big Beckett fan and he’s done this play before – an amazingly well-remembered production in Kamloops years ago with some great actors in it including Jonathan Young from The Electric Company and Betroffenheit which was a big hit all across the world actually. So, Terry knows this play well and he’s really pumped to do it again here at the Grand especially because he used to design shows here when Theatre Junction was more active producing their own work.

Anton Matsigura is The Boy in the Black Radish Theatre production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.

JAMES

So, why should people come and see the show?

CHRISTOPHER

It’s a new company to support, and it’s in a space that’s revitalized and welcoming again. It’s a play that changed the theatre landscape in the world, and makes you entertained in the moment, and lets you reflect on your own situation and the world that you’re in. And that’s the other kind of marker for this play is that existential, you know, absurdist world view of “There’s no God, there’s no religion, there’s nothing to believe in so why are we here? What’s the point of life? What’s the point of continuing on?” This play swims in those waters too. All those kind of questions that sometimes wake us up in the middle of the night or strike us at our most insecure moment.

Waiting for Godot
a tragicomedy in two acts
By Samuel Beckett

Cast

Estragon: Christopher Hunt
Vladimir: Andy Curtis
Pozzo: Duval Lang
Lucky: Tyrell Crews
The Boy: Anton Matsigura

Production

Director: Denise Clarke – Assistant Director: Sarah Wheeldon – Set & Lighting Designer: Terry Gunvordahl – Costume Designer: Ralamy Kneeshaw – Sound Design & Composition: Peter Moller – Stage Manager: Meredith Johnson – Photography and Graphic Design: Hugh Short – Web Site: Keith Watson

BLACK RADISH THEATRE is a new Calgary-based theatre company, founded by Duval Lang, Andy Curtis, Tyrell Crews and Christopher Hunt, and is committed to revisiting relevant theatre classics. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is their first bucket list show and is being performed at The GRAND – Calgary’s theatre since 1912.

Black Radish Theatre presents Waiting for Godot – a tragicomedy in two acts – by Samuel Beckett. April 25th to May 12th at The GRAND. Evening performances Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm. Tickets are just $46.00 for adults and $30.00 for Students and Seniors. Tickets are available online at www.blackradishtheatre.ca

Hamlet: A Ghost Story – Actor Ahad Raza Mir

Posted on by James Hutchison

“I believe that no matter what part we’re playing we have a part of ourselves in that character so you need to find that part of you that fits best with the character. It’s just you at a new address. It’s you exploring yourself in a different place and I think that’s the only way for me to make it honest. In school and in rehearsals, they always go, “Be honest. Be honest. Be honest.” And when I read the script – the first time I read it as me. I’m not reading it as a character. I’m reading it as I would read it. And I think the only way to bring out an honest performance is for you to bring it out from inside. I don’t think it makes sense to put something on because then that becomes acting.” – Ahad Raza Mir

Ahad Mir as Hamlet in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

Last September, I interviewed Haysam Kadri the artistic director of the Shakespeare Company about their season of Hamlet which included, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead with ATP, Hammered Hamlet at the High Performance Rodeo in January, and now Hamlet: A Ghost Story in partnership with Vertigo Theatre. The Shakespeare Company and Vertigo had previously collaborated on a highly successful production of Macbeth and were looking to repeat that success.

Now, Calgary audiences will have a chance to see a thrilling new adaptation of Shakespeare’s most famous play as the tormented prince of Denmark seeks vengeance for the murder of his father at the hands of his Uncle Claudius. The tale is a ghost story, a detective story, and a revenge story all packed into one unforgettable night of theatre. This is a Hamlet for the modern age as The Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Productions, and Vertigo Theatre team up for a ghostly re-imagining of one of the Bard’s greatest works.

This is part two of a two-part series about Hamlet: A Ghost Story. In part one, I interviewed Director Craig Hall and Playwright Anna Cummer, who penned the adaptation, about their unique take on one of Shakespeare’s most famous and most produced play. In part two I sit down with actor Ahad Raza Mir who has returned to Calgary from his native Pakistan to play the title role and to talk with him about his approach to acting and his thoughts about playing Hamlet.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Ahad, you’ve achieved a lot of fame in your native Pakistan, but you’re returning to the Shakespeare Company here in Canada for an opportunity to play Hamlet. So, what is so compelling about the character that brought you back to the stage here in Calgary?

AHAD RAZA MIR

In high school and university, you always hear the name Hamlet. You always hear “To be or not to be” and you kind of go, “What’s the big deal? And then you read it, and you go, “Wow, this is a beautiful piece of literature.” And I think as you mature as an actor and the more work you do you realize that Hamlet is a kind of rite of passage that you have to cross. And for me as an actor, I’ve been doing a lot of film and TV and I think this was the perfect opportunity for me to come back and explore how I’ve matured and how I’ve developed as an actor.

And I also have some very selfish reasons to come back to a place where I originated. The Shakespeare Company and Calgary is what has shaped me to be the actor that I am – not even just the actor but the person that I am. You know I think this place is what groomed me. Canada groomed me. Being at the University of Calgary. Living in Canada.

Ahad Mir as Hamlet in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

Your father, Asif Raza Mir, is also a well-known actor and has had a high degree of fame. Did he have any words of advice to you that have helped you balance the work with the fame?

AHAD

He has advised me about how to handle people. How to handle crowds. But he’s tried to make it a point for me to figure it all out on my own, and that’s because he thinks I tend to be easily influenced, and he thinks that the realities I see about showbiz I need to realize on my own, or they won’t truly make sense to me.

And he comes from a different time. A time when there was just one television channel in Pakistan, so if your show was a hit then the whole nation went crazy about you. There was a show my dad did back in the eighties and the streets would literally be empty because everyone was home watching that show. Now the time is very different. There are multiple channels. There are digital platforms. But the exposure is just as high now because of social media. Sometimes I feel there’s this constant need to inform your fans about what you’re doing on social media whereas my argument is if you’re watching me in a show where I’m in the 1940s and the next second you’re seeing me at the beach with a coffee in my hand it throws your audience off.

JAMES

Breaks the illusion of what you’re trying to create as an actor.

AHAD

I want people to appreciate the performances and appreciate the stories.

JAMES

Focus on the stories and not necessarily on what you’re having for lunch.

AHAD

Exactly.

Ahad Mir as Hamlet in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

You know Hamlet spends a lot of time contemplating life and thinking about existence and looking up into the stars and examining motivations and what’s going on. Is that a characteristic you have yourself? Do you find yourself contemplating all those big questions?

AHAD

I have. I’m someone who struggles to decide between shampoos and what to eat, so I hope Hamlet can teach me something. Although, if you read the play he doesn’t really figure it out in the end, but I think, as Craig our director has mentioned, he’s a man of the new age. And that means you have to give up certain values and certain customs of a time before and then kind of adapt to new things. So, that’s the struggle for him in the play. I know how I should act but there must be some other way for me to approach this. And that option is what confuses him. That thought is what confuses him. And similarly for me, when I have too many options about deciding what do I do with my life that’s a struggle. Being at the University of Calgary I remember I was in business. I was a business student, and I was still doing shows with the drama department there. And I was going, “I want to do business, but I love theatre.” And then one day I went, “I need to decide.” And that decision was so difficult to make but when I finally made it – when I switched to drama – my life changed.

Meg Farhall as Rosencrantz, Ahad Mir as Hamlet and Behrad Mashtagh as Guildenstern in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

Do you think that’s one of the appeals then of Hamlet? The fact that he struggles with questions that we in our lives also struggle with and as an audience as we’re watching him struggle we somehow relate to that?

AHAD

Yes, because that’s what being human is all about. It’s about making choices. Making mistakes. Making the right decisions. It’s all about the right person to get married to. The right choice for post-secondary. It could be anything, and I think that’s relatability. He’s struggling to make one choice – being that’s it’s to murder somebody or not.

JAMES

It’s a big choice.

AHAD

It’s a big decision, and I think we all struggle with that on a daily basis.

Curt McKinstry as Claudius and Ahad Mir as Hamlet in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

What are you hoping to bring to your Hamlet?

AHAD

I’m hoping that I can bring something relatable to the new age of viewers. To make him feel contemporary so that the eighteen-year-old coming to see the show from first-year university can get it and feel what Hamlet’s feeling. Plus, I’m just trying to make him human.

Ahad Mir as Hamlet in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

I’m curious when you’re playing a character like Hamlet how much of your performance do you know going in and how much is developed through the rehearsal process?

AHAD

I think I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do with Hamlet. I wanted him to be, for lack of a better word, a bro.

JAMES

Hey bro.

AHAD

Hey bro, what’s up? You know somebody you want to hang out with. And as soon as we sat down and started doing the table work, I found out the text supports that he is this kind of melancholy, brooding, depressed soul. And I think he’s almost like a child who is feeling certain emotions for the first time.

Daniela Vlaskalic as Gertrude, Ahad Mir as Hamlet in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

Because he’s lived this charmed life.

AHAD

A perfect life.

JAMES

For thirty years he’s been the son, he’s been the prince, and he’s been allowed to study and then suddenly his dad is murdered.

AHAD

And it’s not just one thing. It’s mom’s married your uncle. Your uncle’s killed your father. You’ve seen the ghost of your dad. And then there’s Ophelia and all these things are happening and he’s feeling these emotions for the first time. I actually think he’s feeling anger and grief all together at once. And feeling it for the first time again like a child that’s getting upset and all they can do is scream because they don’t know what to say and they don’t know what to do so that’s kind of what he’s going through.

Behrad Mashtagh as Laertes, Natasha Strickey as Ophelia, Karen Hines as Polonia, Curt McKinstry as Claudius, Daniela Vlaskalic as Gertrude, Ahad Mir as Hamlet, Allison Lynch as Horatia in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

So, the new production at Vertigo is a ghost story.

AHAD

Yeah.

JAMES

And I’m wondering if you yourself believe in the supernatural and have you ever had any encounters with spirits or ghost?

AHAD

I have. I have. I didn’t really believe in them in the beginning, but I remember one time I visited my grandmother’s grave and I hadn’t seen it before and I went on my own. And I couldn’t find it, and so I went to the guy who knows whose grave is whose and I said, “I’m looking for this lady.” And he goes, “Okay let me go look.” And he goes back to his little office and he’s looking at his books, and I felt this kind of pull. And I’ve never been here. I felt this pull towards this one grave, and I just went up, and I approached it, and I didn’t think anything of it at the time. And I was looking at it and there were some rocks on it and stuff and some little painted flowers, and the guy comes up and he goes, “Okay, here’s the number.” And I’m like, “Okay, where is it?” And he goes, “It’s right here. You found it.” And I just said, “Okay.” I said my prayers and went back to the car and I just started crying because that feeling…was terrifying to be honest…it was just scary. Out of hundreds of graves I just started walking one way and there it was.

JAMES

You feel that she reached out to you?

AHAD

Yeah, I am a hundred percent sure, but it was freaky.

JAMES

She must be happy for your success.

AHAD

I hope so, yeah.

JAMES

So, how do you stay grounded and focused now that you’re dealing with the fame and you’re dealing with trying to focus on the work?

AHAD

I think my father is a big part of that because his father was a cinematographer and a director so fame has been part of the family for a long time. So, any time I let it go to my head my Dad goes, “Big deal.” And my Dad, for example, is the same guy in the house that he is outside when he’s working and when he’s interacting with fans. Whereas I’ve seen people one way outside of work and when they’re at work they’re something else. So, I think seeing that has made me realize that at the end of the day it’s all about the work and being true to yourself and being honest.

Ahad Mir as Hamlet and Natasha Strickey as Ophelia in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

So, how do you approach the work?

AHAD

I believe that no matter what part we’re playing we have a part of ourselves in that character so you need to find that part of you that fits best with the character. It’s just you at a new address. It’s you exploring yourself in a different place and I think that’s the only way for me to make it honest. In school and in rehearsals they always go, “Be honest. Be honest. Be honest.” And when I read the script – the first time I read it as me. I’m not reading it as a character. I’m reading it as I would read it. And I think the only way to bring out an honest performance is for you to bring it out from inside. I don’t think it makes sense to put something on because then that becomes acting.

JAMES

Tell me about the actors you’re working with here – what are you excited about in terms of working with these folks?

AHAD

There’s a connection that is sometimes lacking in film and TV. Not to put film and TV down. I mean, it’s because of film and TV that I am where I am. But I think the connection you create – I won’t even say with another actor – I’ll say with another individual – another human being during rehearsal and during a scene, there’s a kind of magic behind it. There’s no retake. The moment is the moment. And I’m working with actors I remember seeing in productions when I was in University, and when I was starting out professionally, and now I’m getting a chance to work with them and that’s exciting.

Curt McKinstry as Claudius, Ahad Mir as Hamlet, Behrad Mashtagh as Laertes, Allison Lynch as Horatia in the Vertigo Theatre, Shakespeare Company, Hit+Myth Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story. Adapted by Anna Cummer. Directed by Craig Hall. Set & Costume Designer Hanne Loosen. Lighting Designer David Fraser. Citrus Photo

JAMES

Why should we come to see the show?

AHAD

I think at the end of the day Shakespeare is always relatable. But the reason you should come watch our show is because we’re going to give it not just a modern contemporary spin but then there’s the whole ghost element, and the supernatural, and the thriller vibe that comes in with Vertigo. We’re doing it in a way that I don’t think has been seen before, and I think it will be interesting because you’ve got somebody who is coming from a very different background performing Hamlet. And I can’t believe I forgot to tell you this, but one of the other reasons I’m back is that you know in Canada we’re really focused on diversity and diversity on the stage. You know our cast should reflect our society and even though we’re good at it I don’t think we push that enough. I remember being in University and there were a bunch of white people and me, and I know so many Pakistanis and Indians and whatever it might be that live in Canada and want to explore music, dance, art and all these things and sometimes it’s sad to say their parents don’t let them explore those avenues even though being in Canada is one of the best places to do it because outside those options aren’t there. So, I want to set an example for the young minorities and say, “Hey if I can do it you can do it.” You know maybe I’ll inspire somebody to go, “I don’t want to do biomechanics. I want to learn how to play the guitar and do music.”

JAMES

And I don’t think the arts and theatre are going to survive unless we diversify the audience and in order to diversify the audience one of the things we have to show is people of different backgrounds performing these roles.

AHAD

And I think Canada is still doing a good job about that, but the issue is even before all that. It starts at the home. It starts with allowing that child to explore what he wants to explore. And maybe some young Pakistani guy goes, “Hey, he did it, why can’t I do it?” And hopefully, he goes and argues with his parents and hopefully his parents will be supportive.

JAMES

But first he’ll take business and then he’ll realize he’s in the wrong thing.

AHAD

Yeah, but if I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have realized it. So, maybe that’s what it takes.

***

***

CAST
Ahad Mir as Hamlet
Joel Cochrane as Ghost, Player King, Priest
Meg Farhall as Marcella, Rosencrantz, Player Queen
Karen Hines as Polonia
Allison Lynch as Horatia
Curt McKinstry as Claudius
Behrad Moshtagh as Laertes, Guildenstern
Graham Percy as Barnardo, First Player, Grave Digger
Natasha Strickey as Ophelia
Daniela Vlaskalic as Gertrude

CREATIVE TEAM 
Craig Hall, Director
Anna Cummer, Playwright
Hanne Loosen, Set & Costume Designer
David Fraser, Lighting Designer
Peter Moller, Sound Design
Karl Sine, Fight Director
Jane MacFarlane, Text & Vocal Coach
Claire Bolton, Stage Manager
Chandler Ontkean, Assistant Stage Manager
Derek Paulich, Production Manager
Rebecca Fauser, Assistant Director

***

Vertigo Theatre has entertained audiences for 42 years with high-quality programming, evolving into a truly unique organization. We are Canada’s only fully professional theatre company dedicated to producing plays based in the mystery genre. Vertigo is located at the base of the Calgary Tower in the heart of downtown Calgary and is home to the organization its two performance venues and the BD&P Mystery Theatre Series. Our artistic mandate allows exposure to a broad demographic and our diverse audience includes all walks of life. We build strong partnerships through our various student and professional outreach initiatives that are designed specifically to help meet our community investment objectives. Vertigo Theatre is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (P.A.C.T.) and engages artists who are members of the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

The Shakespeare Company is Calgary’s lean and mean classical theatre company, highlighting the best of the Bard in all his comedy, tragedy, and bawdiness. Founded in 1995, by Richard Kenyon and LuAnne Morrow, TSC has brought the Bard alive for Calgarians through both Shakespeare and Shakespeare inspired plays. We are committed to making Shakespeare accessible through innovative performances and inspired directing.

Hit & Myth Productions is a professional independent theatre company based in Calgary, Alberta. Hit & Myth was established in 2006, and since that time has produced over 30 professional shows, engaging numerous local actors, directors and designers. Hit & Myth has produced musicals, comedies and cutting edge dramas, a genre that we lovingly call “commercial alternativism.” From musicals like Urinetown and Evil Dead, to hard-hitting dramas like Martin Mcdonagh’s The Pillowman and David Mamet’s Race, to dark comedies like Neil Labute’s reasons to be pretty; to vibrant adaptations of both Shakespeare (Titus Andronicus and All’s Well That Ends Well) as well as Shakespeare inspired (William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead and Equivocation) works. Hit & Myth seeks to entertain, while always packing a serious theatrical punch. Hit & Myth collaborates with small to mid-sized sized theatre companies and independent artists to co-produce theatre that is provocative, modern, sensational, and above all else, entertaining. Our productions strive to reflect the dynamic and diverse theatrical community of Calgary and Calgary audiences.

Interview with Haysam Kadri: Artistic Director The Shakespeare Company

Posted on by James Hutchison
Haysam Kadri Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company

Haysam Kadri Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company talks about Hamlet, theatre, and just how the Shakespeare Company’s Madness in Great Ones season came about. Hamlet will be haunting several Calgary stages over the coming year as The Shakespeare Company along with Hit & Myth Productions have partnered with Vertigo Theatre, The High Performance Rodeo, and Alberta Theatre Projects, to bring Calgary audiences four different tellings of the melancholy Dane’s tragic tale. It’s a full season of Hamlet!

JAMES HUTCHISON

I was wondering as the Shakespeare Company what are some of the challenges you face mounting a large cast show with a really short rehearsal period?

HAYSAM KADRI ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

We have the best mandate and the worst mandate at the same time because we always have to populate the stage with ten to fifteen people which always has its challenges. Anytime anybody does Shakespeare you never have enough time, but what the Shakespeare Company has found out is that brevity is the soul of wit. When you trim some of the fat that Shakespeare gives you we find it makes the plays more accessible to an audience and we find that it’s better for the process technically of rehearsing and putting up a play. Because it’s not a kitchen sink drama. There are a lot of things going on. There are supernatural elements. There’s war. There’s fight scenes. There’s these extraordinary characters in extraordinary circumstances.

JAMES

These are big stories.

HAYSAM

They are big stories. It’s never easy to put them up in three and a half weeks let alone five weeks or six weeks. When it comes down to it it’s about money and ultimately you have to be lean and mean which is our company motto and as efficient as possible.

JAMES

When you’re mounting a play you’ve done before and you’re familiar with it as an actor or director does getting a second or third chance at it make it easier to mount?

HAYSAM

The first time we remounted a play was when we put on The Scottish Play with Vertigo Theatre. The Vertigo patrons just loved it and so what happened was they snatched up a lot of the tickets and then our patrons came on board and the run was already sold out. So, it was incumbent upon the Shakespeare Company and myself to reprogram it for the following season. Number one because there were a lot of our patrons that didn’t get a chance to see it and number two as a company for efficiency. The sets were already built. The production is in hand. The rehearsal process is shortened. And so it was a no-brainer and you know it’s been the most successful show in the history of the company.

Anna Cummer as Lady Macbeth and Haysam Kadri as Macbeth in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Macbeth. Directed by Craig Hall. A Coproduction of Vertigo Theatre, The Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Productions. Photograph Benjamin Laird

JAMES

You took over the company in 2012. How have the last six years gone in terms of what you wanted to do with the Shakespeare Company and where you’re at now?

HAYSAM

You know when I took over the company in 2012 I had never run a company before, so I had a clean slate and I was able to start building the culture that I wanted. I really wanted to build and increase the skill set of the performers and the performances. So, I felt it was really important to start developing a strong core of equity actors to comprise half the company. That’s a very expensive initiative but I felt it was really important.

The other important thing was to make Shakespeare much more accessible to a larger audience. All our Shakespeare plays are two hours with a fifteen-minute intermission and since I took over we’ve increased our audience by four-hundred and fifty percent and we’ve extended all our runs to three weeks and we hire on average six equity actors per show and we’ve developed and built a core audience.

We really wanted to key in on those young students in high school that get a bad taste in their mouth for Shakespeare because they think it’s three hours long and it’s boring and it’s in a foreign language and so we’ve done everything we can to make it really accessible. And you know that’s one of the benefits of being in the studio theatre. You see the blood on the Scottish King’s face and it’s visceral and it’s present and it’s intimate and so we benefit from a small space even though we’d love to expand to a bigger space which we will be doing for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

And as our high school contingent has grown into young professionals or gone on to university they’ve been coming on their own. They’re not coming in school groups anymore they’re single ticket buyers and they’ve become part of the fabric of our patronage. So, our 18 to 25 demographics are unreal and amazing and has been our biggest success.

Cast members in Alberta Theatre Projects’ presentation of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. A Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Production. Photo: Benjamin Laird. (Set: Scott Reid. Lights: David Fraser. Costumes: Hanne Loosen)

JAMES

So, let’s talk about the new season since you mentioned Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and that’s the first play of your season focused on Hamlet. Where did the idea for Madness in Great Ones originate?

HAYSAM

I’ll confess, I didn’t think I was going to do an all Hamlet season, it wasn’t an epiphany that I had. What happened was I was in talks with Craig Hall the Artistic Director at Vertigo Theatre and we wanted to collaborate again because Mackers was such a big success and we would be totally remise if we did not entertain another partnership. And Craig and I had always wanted to do Hamlet because Hamlet is a ghost story and Vertigo Theatre is a mystery theatre and so we started with Hamlet and Vertigo.

HAYSAM

And then I talked to David Fraser the production manager over at ATP and I said, “Hey, what would it take for us to be in your space?” And David and I just started talking and then he talked to the artistic team and the artistic team came back to me and they said give us a couple of proposals for plays. And I’ve always wanted to do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and I thought well we could always have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Hamlet in the same season so I pitched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead to the artistic team at ATP and they thought it was great programming for Alberta Theatre Projects.

JAMES

A good fit.

HAYSAM

Yeah, and for us.

JAMES

Let’s talk a little bit about that one because it’s coming up right away here and interestingly enough it’s being directed by the same director you worked with on The Virgin Trial and The Last Wife.

HAYSAM

Yes, Glynis Leyshon.

JAMES

So that’s exciting and you’ve got quite the cast lined up.

HAYSAM

It’s pretty stellar.

Myla Southward, Christopher Hunt, and Julie Orton in Alberta Theatre Projects’ presentation of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. A Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Production. Photo: Benjamin Laird. (Set: Scott Reid. Lights: David Fraser. Costumes: Hanne Loosen)

JAMES

You’ve got Julie Orton and Myla Southward and I see Mark Bellamy in there as well…

HAYSAM

…Christopher Hunt…

JAMES

…and Tenaj Williams is going to be Hamlet.

HAYSAM

Julie and Myla are a dynamic duo together on stage and they’re a perfect fit for the characters. And Glyniss Lyshom is a big Tom Stoppard fan and a great mentor of mine and a great director and someone that I trust implicitly with everything especially with text and the classical works and I had her in mind before we knew it was going to be an ATP coproduction. I really wanted to bring her on board and it just worked out perfectly. It’s a really exciting cast and I just think this play is ridiculously brilliant and funny.

JAMES

So, now you’ve got these two plays in place – then what happened?

HAYSAM

Well, then I was talking to the High Performance Rodeo because I wanted to partner with the Rodeo and I’ve always wanted to do Drunk Shakespeare. Negotiating Shakespeare sober is a challenge in itself but adding another element to it, I think, is really exciting. So, we’re going to create Hammered Hamlet and if I do Hammered Hamlet I can’t just stop there I have to go full throttle on this and so I thought of creating a season based on Hamlet where you see four different interpretations of a story.

HAYSAM KADRI Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company

Then I got this idea to do a movement piece and I phoned Denise Clarke who is a genius and a Canadian legend and truly a gem in our city and I just pitched the idea. I said Denise, I love your Radioheaded series they’re fresh and innovative and I want to see if you can transplant that into Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And her eyes and ears and everything just lit up and we went back and forth on it and we decided we wanted to do Hamlet Frequency which is an ensemble piece and a reimagining of Shakespeare’s story choreographed and staged by one of Canada’s greatest choreographers.

So, it’s a bold season and I think it’s exciting and I’m really curious to see how it’s going to unfold and I think a lot of people are really excited about the idea of doing four different interpretations of the same play.

JAMES

What are some of the things the Shakespeare Company has done marketing wise to sell tickets?

HAYSAM

Well, we’re constantly trying to find more ways to be creative with social media and to get people in the door. The other thing – partnerships – partnerships are the way of the future because if you cross-pollinate your audience you maximize your resources because you’re collaborating – there are many benefits to being partners with other organizations.

JAMES

One of the companies that you partner with is Hit and Myth productions how did that partnership evolve?

HAYSAM

Joel Cochrane who is the Artistic Director of Hit and Myth productions is passionate about theatre and particularly Shakespeare and so he’s been an amazing partner and supporter of our company and he’s been a huge part of the success of our organization. Joel has a strong business background and so you know as an Artistic Producer you have to balance the left and the right brain. You’re not just worrying about the art you’re worrying about how you make the art happen and so a guy like Joel who has a strong – business acumen I value because I’ve learned so much from him and many other companies.

JAMES

And he’s a pretty good actor too.

HAYSAM

Yeah, he’s a great actor. He’s really cut his teeth over the last ten years – now he’s a force on stage, and I really like watching him and working with him.

Joel Cochrane as Don Pedro in The Shakespeare Company with Hit & Myth Productions Production of Much Ado About Nothing – Photo by Tim Nguyen

JAMES

So, is Hamlet mad or is he playing mad? What is your own personal take on the madness of Hamlet?

HAYSAM

I think Hamlet is thrown into an extraordinary situation. Just imagine yourself in a situation where you find out that your dad was poisoned by your uncle and now your uncle is married to your mom and you’re a prince and you live in a castle and the tabloids are all around. So, to me, I can’t help but not think that there is a touch of madness that permeates his being because he’s faced with the task of taking action and revenging his father’s death. And to me, Hamlet’s a bookworm. He’s doing his Ph.D. over at Wittenberg University and he’s a head case – literally, he’s in his head. He’s cerebral and then he’s asked to use his body, his heart, and his soul.

JAMES

He’s asked to put down the pen, and pick up the sword.

HAYSAM

Put down the pen and pick up the sword and therein lies the great conflict and the exciting dramatic action where he takes all his time to get the courage to do something that other people would have done the second they heard.

JAMES

One of the brilliant things about Shakespeare is when you look at different forms of storytelling – the novels great strength is that it can go into the mind of its character right – often we say a play is dialogue driven but by using monologues Shakespeare is able to let the audience in on the mind of the character. He uses the device of novels in stage plays.

HAYSAM

I think that’s why when the Richard the thirds and the Iagos of this world turn to the audience and they go, “I’m a complete asshole now watch me do this.” audience members walk away going, “Oh my God, I loved Richard the third!” But how could I love a guy who is hell-bent to kill and murder, but it’s because you’re complicit – because he invites you in – because he shares his plot with you – and so you become a part of that story as you watch it unfold. That’s why you connect with these characters because of this device. And it’s exciting to explore those types of characters. Characters who explore the darker sides of their humanity. Those are fun characters to play.

Glenn Davis as Othello and Haysam Kadri as Iago in the Shakespeare Company production of Othello by William Shakespeare. Directed by Ron Jenkins. Photograph Benjamin Laird.

JAMES

Well, look at Walter White in Breaking Bad.

HAYSAM

Walter White is the perfect parallel.

JAMES

It’s not his good side that we’re fascinated by it’s that evil bit that nasty bit. Or Dexter

HAYSAM

The serial killer who kills serial killers.

JAMES

These are interesting guys.

HAYSAM

And that’s the Richard the third that we were talking about. You watch this underdog character navigate his way through the world in a very unconventional way. Those are interesting people to me.

Haysam Kadri Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company’s Madness in Great One’s Season of Plays

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead By Tom Stoppard – October 9 – 21, 2018

Up first and in partnership with Alberta Theatre Projects is the Tony Award Winning comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard. It’s the story of Hamlet as seen through the eyes of Hamlet’s ill-fated university friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.  The show is running in the Martha Cohen Theatre and ATP has a pay what you can preview plus that $10.00 ticket thing for students. Regular tickets start at just $30.00 and can be purchased online at the ATP website or by calling the box office at 403.294.7402.

Julie Orton and Myla Southward in Alberta Theatre Projects’ presentation of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. A Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Production. Photo: Benjamin Laird. (Set: Scott Reid. Lights: David Fraser. Costumes: Hanne Loosen)

CAST:  Julie Orton as Guildenstern, Myla Southward as Rosencrantz, Mark Bellamy as Polonius/Ensemble, Daniel Fong as Alfred/Ensemble, Natascha Girgis as Gertrude/Ensemble, Braden Griffiths as Horatio/Ensemble, Christopher Hunt as The Player, Robert Klein as Claudius/Ensemble, Natasha Strickey as Ophelia/Ensemble, and Tenaj Williams as Hamlet

CREATIVE TEAM: Glynis Leyshon – Director, Scott Reid – Set & Properties Designer, David Fraser – Lighting Designer, Hanne Loosen – Costume Designer, Allison Lynch – Musical Director, Composer & Sound Designer, Haysam Kadri – Fight Director, Jane MacFarlane – Text & Vocal Coach, Ailsa Birne – Stage Manager, Ian Lane – Assistant Stage Manager, Derek Paulich – Production Manager

Hammered Hamlet January 23 – 26, 2019

Then the fun continues at this year’s High Performance Rodeo with Hammered Hamlet – in the tradition of the John Barrymore school of acting actors will try to navigate the tricky plot and intricate text of Shakespeare while consuming enough shots to trip up even the most well-trained tongue. Tickets will go on sale in November.

Hamlet: A Ghost Story Adapted by Anna Cummer – March 20 – April 13, 2019

Then Vertigo Theatre and the Shakespeare Company reimagine one of the Bard’s greatest works by presenting Hamlet as a ghost story, a detective story and a revenge story all rolled into one classic plot.  Agatha Christie would be proud. Brought to you by the same creative team that created the chilling and supernatural Macbeth.  Hamlet: A Ghost Story is a macabre reimagining of one of the Bard’s greatest works. Tickets are just $35.00 and available online at the Vertigo Theatre website or by calling the box office at 403.221.3708.

The Hamlet Frequency Directed and Choreographed by Denise Clarke – May 16 – 25, 2019

For the final show of the season you’ll meet Hamlet and the rest of the murderous and murdered ghosts of Elsinore as they wander and haunt the halls of the theatres that play them and stagger to their feet on an electromagnetic wave, ready to start all over again only this time they will grieve, plot and rage through the music of their minds in this reimagining of Shakespeare’s story, choreographed and staged by Denise Clarke with One Yellow Rabbit’s education troupe beautifulyoungartists. Tickets are just $35.00 for adults and $25.00 for students and are available through the Shakespeare Company website.

***

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The Shakespeare Company is Calgary’s lean and mean classical theatre company, highlighting the best of the Bard in all his comedy, tragedy, and bawdiness. Since 1995, we have brought the Bard alive for Calgarians through both Shakespeare and Shakespeare inspired plays. We are committed to making Shakespeare accessible through innovative performances and inspired directing. Alongside our mainstage productions, we have two community initiatives: Page to Stage Outreach Program and DiVerseCity.

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Haysam Kadri Artistic Director has been with The Shakespeare Company since 2012 and has worked to elevate its main stage productions and outreach programs in Calgary. A graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory for classical training at the Stratford Festival, Haysam spent six seasons as a company member with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada. He has worked extensively as a Theatre Arts instructor with Red Deer College, Mount Royal University, and the University of Calgary. Haysam is an Actor, Director, Fight Choreographer, and Teacher. Since 2012, The Shakespeare Company has enjoyed countless nominations and rewards under his leadership.

***

Hit and Myth Productions is a professional independent theatre company based in Calgary, Alberta. Hit & Myth was established in 2006, and since that time has produced over 30 professional shows, engaging numerous local actors, directors and designers.  Hit & Myth collaborates with small to mid-sized sized theatre companies and independent artists to co-produce theatre that is provocative, modern, sensational, and above all else, entertaining. Our productions strive to reflect the dynamic and diverse theatrical community of Calgary and Calgary audiences.

This interview with Haysam Kadri Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company has been edited for length and clarity. Last revised August 20, 2022.

An Interview with Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry – Part Two: Book Club

Posted on by James Hutchison
Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry
Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry – Photograph by James Hutchison

***

“The pattern is clear, women are drinking more. And not just in my circles. I think it’s a phenomenon in stay at home moms. It’s a way to get through the witching hour. It’s a way to relieve the anxiety and the pressure of information overload that moms now have because we’re trying to make the right choices. But there are so many choices laid out for us, with so many different arguments for which one is the right one, that we’re walking around with this mind boggling anxiety all the time that we’re making the wrong ones.”

 ***

There’s a new play premiering at Lunchbox Theatre next week by Calgary Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry called Book Club. It’s a funny and insightful look at being human, motherhood, and coping with life’s disappointments and joys.

And it’s funny – did I mention that?

Very funny. And beautifully written. I highly recommend it. So, take your daughter and your mother and your grandmother. Get your son and your father and your grandfather. Gather up the whole family, members of the Book Club, the Wine Club and the Social Club and make sure you head to Lunchbox Theatre and catch this gem of a play.

Last week, I published the first part of my interview with Meredith where we talked about her play Survival Skills. This week, in part two, we talk about her play Book Club.

 ***

JAMES HUTCHISON

You came to the acting late, and now you’ve come to the writing later. And even though you haven’t been writing a long time you’ve had good feedback and some success including a production Off Off Broadway for your play Survival Skills. And now you have a new production coming up, here in Calgary, at Lunchbox Theatre for your play Book Club. How much do you feel maturity has played a role in you becoming a writer?

MEREDITH TAYLOR-PARRY

For me maturity was very important. I don’t think I would have had the confidence or the stories to become a writer if I’d tried this when I was nineteen.

For someone else, who’s got that confidence and talent right from the womb, they can sit down in their twenties and tell these great stories. But I wouldn’t have had the confidence to be able to tell them on paper and be brave enough to share them and get the feedback. I feel like I needed to gather confidence over the years, and then just gather a wealth of stories because life happens to you, and to other people, and you can write them down and turn them into drama.

And I struggle with that, from time to time, as a writer – when someone tells you something personal and you go, “Jesus, that’s a good line.”  But if you’re a writer that’s what you do. I don’t make this stuff up. It’s hand delivered right to you – and you sit there and you take things in and you remember details.

JAMES

What is Book Club about?

MEREDITH

It’s about a bunch of mommies who are meeting for Book Club and I wanted to examine different kinds of mommies that I’ve met or mommy types. You know there’s the type of mommy, like me, that would give her kid a hot dog, and then there’s the type of mommy that would see that as child abuse. But we’re all mommies, right.

And then there’s that competitive nature we seem to have as human beings. That seems to happen with mommies. If you show up with bought cookies, from Safeway on bake sale day, you feel less than the person who shows up with homemade cookies that she must have spent all night slaving over.

And I also wanted to explore a darker idea. The phenomenon of wine being a civilized version of Valium in our generation. You know people get together for play dates and they have wine. They meet for book club and they have wine. The pattern is clear, women are drinking more. And not just in my circles.

I think it’s a phenomenon in stay at home moms. It’s a way to get through the witching hour. It’s a way to relieve the anxiety and the pressure of information overload that moms now have because we’re trying to make the right choices. But there are so many choices laid out for us, with so many different arguments for which one is the right one, that we’re walking around with this mind boggling anxiety all the time that we’re making the wrong ones.

JAMES

Tell me about workshopping the play at Lunchbox.

MEREDITH

Once I did the workshop process it became pretty clear right away – any wine drinking that happened had to be pretty tame because we wanted it to be a comedy and we didn’t want to explore the idea of addiction in stay at home mother’s at this time.

JAMES

You touch on it very lightly.

MEREDITH

Very lightly.

JAMES

There’s a resolution at the end of maybe we should stop drinking wine and actually read some books. So it is dealt with. But it’s a very funny play. And I think it’s all about trying to figure out life – it’s about hopes and dreams and figuring out how you can do the role you’ve been put into and whether or not that role fits you. And even though it’s about motherhood I think it’s about anybody because male or female we can relate to that because that’s a universal thing. How many dads are dads going – “Did I want to be a dad? I did want to be a dad. But now that I’m a dad –

MEREDITH

– boy does this ever suck –

JAMES

– this isn’t exactly where I want to be –

MEREDITH

– I wouldn’t trade them for anything but wow this sure sucks in some ways.”

JAMES

I love that you explore that because that’s not an unusual feeling. To think what life could be without the children but we’re made to feel guilty about that.

MEREDITH

Or to want other things, right? Because being a parent is supposed to be our most important role. Yeah, I want to be a great mom but I also want to be a great writer too. But, no, no, no, I have to want to be a great mom more – right? That’s more important.

Thanks for all the positive feedback by the way. I was shocked that everybody found it so funny and liked it so much because it was such a pleasure to write and it was easy to put down on paper. It just fell out of me.

When I did the workshop I’d get up early in the morning and I’d write a new scene and I’d go in and I’d be sick to my stomach when they sat down to read it because I’d just wrote it that day. And then when I got good feedback I just remember being continuously shocked – “Really? You really like it? Does that work?” And then when Mark Bellamy from Lunchbox read it and said, “I really like your play.” Once again I’m still kind of astonished that the feedback has been so good.

JAMES

Are you astonished in one sense because it was such an easy journey to reach a professional stage?

MEREDITH

Yes, absolutely – to reach a point where it’s going to be produced by a professional theatre. Yeah. That’s astonishing to me. So what does that tell you? I guess you should write what you know.

JAMES

How much do you credit the workshop? Because it was a wonderful ensemble – right – it just seemed to really work well.

MEREDITH

Yes, I had a bunch of superstars – fantastic actors – almost all of them young moms and then I had Shari Wattling and she’s a great director and a great dramaturge.

I also wanted to write a play with just female roles because the year before I put a play in and Glenda Stirling was at Lunchbox then and she said, “Wow four women up on stage – I love it! It didn’t make the cut this year but I really loved your play and I’d love to see all women up on stage.” And I said, “Yeah.  I want to write good roles for women because I’m a woman and I’m an actor and I know how hard it is to find good roles.” So that was important.

But that process with Shari and the other actors was just gold because they gave me lots of things to think about. Lots of ideas. We discussed and talked about it at the table, and then I went home and thought about things they had said. When someone as talented as Myla Southward or Cheryl Hutton says, “I don’t know about that part – that’s a real harsh line or that falls flat with me…” and that’s the last thing you hear as you head out the door you think about that until bedtime. I trusted their opinions. These are talented artists. I was lucky to get that group.

That’s the dumb luck part. The dumb ass luck part that Vern Theissen talked about when he was talking about a career as a playwright in his workshop that we went to.

JAMES

So, so far, you’ve had a lot of dumb ass luck.

MEREDITH

I’ve had a lot of dumb ass luck man. I don’t know what’s going on? But I also think I got a lot of bad writing out of my system early on which feels good. When I look back on the classes I took with Clem Martini when I was taking my BFA at the U of C fifteen years ago I purged a lot of crappy writing off the top…kind of like the head on a beer, you know. I look back on some of that stuff and it just makes me laugh at how bad and self-involved it is – and how it’s not dramatic and I don’t care about structure. Or when I was trying to be funny – oh man, that’s painful.  So, I feel like I purged a bit of that. And then to come back at it years later I was in a different place.

JAMES

You told me Clem encouraged you to write so he must have recognized something.

MEREDITH

Yeah, I guess. I don’t know. I mean I never did exceptionally well in his classes or anything but he’s a good teacher and a lot of the stuff he told me stayed with me. He told us about writing dialogue, about structure, and about the hero’s journey – and that stayed with me over the years and I’d think about it, you know, when I’d read a book, or watch a movie, and maybe that was because I was supposed to become a writer in the end.

JAMES

Are you able to picture what you want the future to be for you as a writer?

MEREDITH

I want to be writing of course. I would like to spend more time collaborating with other artists like we did that week when we did the workshop at Lunchbox. That’s when I’m at my best. Not when I’m on my own but when there’s a group of people around and we’re on the same creative page. You know not just writing in my own little office but being able to collaborate with other artists in order to make something you’ve created even better.

***

Book Club Poster Lunchbox 2

Book Club by Meredith Taylor-Parry

Directed by Shari Wattling

What happens at book club, stays at book club.

Jenny is the perfect wife and mother. At least that’s what her book club thinks until one day she disappears and they have to turn detective and follow her trail! This mad cap, adventure-filled romp, shines a light on the pressures of motherhood and the value of true friendship.

World Premiere at Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary from February 8th to 27th, 2016 with the following cast and crew.

Cast

  • Lisa – Cheryl Hutton
  • Ellen – Anna Cummer
  • Mary – Kathryn Kerbes
  • Kathy – Kira Bradley
  • Jenny – Arielle Rombough

Creative Team

  • Playwright – Meredith Taylor-Parry
  • Director – Shari Wattling
  • RBC Emerging Director – Jenna Rogers
  • Stage Manager – Ailsa Birnie
  • Apprentice Stage Manager – Melanie Crawford
  • Scenic & Lighting Design – Anton de Groot
  • Costume Design – Dietra Kalyn
  • Sound Design – Allison Lynch

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Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry

Meredith Taylor-Parry is a playwright based in Calgary, Alberta. Her play Survival Skills won the New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest in 2013 and was produced Off Off Broadway by the 13th Street Repertory Company, NYC in April 2014. Her play Devices received a production in Week One of the New Ideas Festival at Alumnae Theatre in Toronto in March of 2015. Her most recent work, Book Club, was developed as part of the Suncor Energy Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work at Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary in 2014 and will receive a world premiere at Lunchbox in February 2016. Meredith is Co-Artistic Director of Bigs and Littles Theatre Society and also enjoys writing and performing for young audiences.

You can contact Meredith at LinkedIn by clicking the link above or by email at: mtaylorparry@gmail.com

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Book Club was part of the Suncor Energy Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work at Lunchbox Theatre in June of 2014 where it received a workshop and reading.

Cast

  • Lisa – Brieanna Blizzard
  • Ellen – Myla Southward
  • Mary – Kathi Kerbes
  • Kathy – Cheryl Hutton
  • Jenny – Arielle Rombough

Creative Team

  • Playwright – Meredith Taylor-Parry
  • Director/Dramaturge – Shari Wattling
  • Assistant Dramaturg – Jacqueline Russel

Setting

The action takes place over a few hours in Lisa’s home, at a male strip club, outside a tattoo parlour, in a rough part of town, and outside an airport.

Synopsis

When Jenny is a no show on Book Club night the mommies start to worry. When she sends them a text to tell them she has booked a flight to Italy, they really get frantic. The group heads out on the town to track down their friend and hopefully talk some sense into her. This is a play about motherhood, from the stress of competitive parenting to the beauty of a good girlfriend who will help you get through it.

Lunchbox Theatre

Bartley and Margaret Bard and Betty Gibb founded Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary in 1975. Lunchbox delivers a fun and unique experience to its audience – upbeat performances in an intimate and comfortable atmosphere. Patrons are encouraged to eat their lunch while they enjoy the show. Lunchbox Theatre focuses on the development and production of original one-act plays; many of which are written by local Calgarians.

Interview Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry – Part One: Survival Skills

Posted on by James Hutchison

Survival Skills by Meredith Taylor-Parry won the New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest in 2013 and was produced Off Off Broadway by the 13 Street Repertory Company, in New York City in April 2014.

“You want to write the kind of play where people are going to go home and talk about it, and think about it, and talk about themselves a little bit. You know, my God, if it got people to think about their own mortality a little bit, how could that be a bad thing? We all run around scared to talk about it, but we’re fascinated by it at the same time. The idea that we’re mortal. Just to have that discussion opened up wouldn’t hurt.”

Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry Survival Skills
Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry – Photograph by James Hutchison

Her most recent work, Book Club was developed as part of the Suncor Stage One Festival at Lunchbox Theatre and will receive a world premiere at Lunchbox in February.

I sat down with Meredith, while her four-month-old Beagle Tucker, lay happily nearby chewing puppy toys, to talk with her about Survival Skills and Book Club, as well as her writing process.

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JAMES HUTCHISON

When you go to a play what is it you go for? What is it you hope to get out of it?

MEREDITH TAYLOR-PARRY

I guess I want to be moved emotionally, always. I like Opera. I always write while I listen to Opera. I want to be moved. I like the tragic. I like stories where you watch people getting put through the wringer. Watching characters go through hell and then some. And I like stories and plays with some expression of hope at the end. That’s very important. It doesn’t need to be wrapped up perfectly, but just something.

JAMES

Tell me about the reason you wrote Survival Skills.

MEREDITH

Well, my Dad committed suicide in two thousand and two after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I always knew that I wanted to write about it. I never thought about writing a novel – I always thought it would be a play.

JAMES

How difficult was it to put that out into the world? Because that’s a very personal thing.

MEREDITH

It was difficult, but when an experience like that happens to you – or at least my experience is – you’re compelled to tell that story over and over and over again.

And I’ve heard some people say, yeah but some people never want to talk about it again – but that wasn’t me. I was compelled to tell that story to friends – to grief groups –I’m just compelled to share it. I don’t know how many times my mom and I would get on the phone after it happened and we’d end up retelling that day – the actual event – when we found the suicide note – when we called the police – when my brother went out to look at the body that afternoon.

And I originally thought the play was going to open with that scene, but then I went to a Playworks Ink Conference in 2011 and I signed up early and got into Daniel MacIvor’s workshop. And he started the workshop by reading the scene you’d submitted. And he’s a pretty fantastic actor and he did all the different parts. I had my sister there, my brother there, my mother in the scene, and the character that represented me. We were all there and he just read through that first scene from beginning to end and when he finished – it was silent and he said, “That’s a hell of a way to start a play. People discovering a suicide note.”

And I went, “Yeah, yeah I guess it is.  I wasn’t really thinking about that.”

He said, “We’re going to end the scene right here where your brother hangs up the phone and I want you to write the next scene.”

And I wrote the next scene and that became the first scene of the play because I took his advice – that is a hell of a way to start a play. But I think I needed to write the suicide scene first because that was the hardest scene to write – bar none – and to go back and remember those moments in specific detail.

JAMES

How much do you credit that workshop with moving forward on the play?

MEREDITH

Huge. He looked at me and said, because I had some humour in there, “Meredith, any play that can bring levity to the topic of death needs to be written.” He said, “I myself am terrified of the medical system. I’m not afraid of dying – I’m terrified about becoming a patient of the medical system.”

And here’s this man who has written all these beautiful plays with all this fabulous experience and wisdom but at the same time he’s a really good teacher too. He really has the right touch. And I think he just knew the right thing to say to help keep me going. He also made us promise, before we left the workshop, to send him the first draft by a certain date. And I did, because it’s Daniel MacIvor, right. I wasn’t not going to do it. I was two weeks late, but it made me finish it.

JAMES

You worked on the play for a couple more years and then entered it into the New Plays of Merit Contest in 2013 and won. What was it like getting the phone call that the play had won?

MEREDITH

That’s what my dream was up to that point. That someone was going to phone me up and tell me that I was good enough to win a contest. And I felt really good about it because it was New York. Because to me that was the place where all the good playwrights go. So, that was a real shot in the arm – no question. I felt pretty good about that – but I was stunned.

JAMES

What was it like to go see your play on stage?

MEREDITH

I vowed that I wasn’t going to be critical of my work because I don’t know if this is ever going to happen to me again. The idea of going to New York to see your play – Off Off Broadway in a little old theatre with a little old 92 year old Broadway performer running it. I mean this theatre had a lot of history. Tennessee Williams’ plays were performed there. And I thought, don’t ruin it by sitting there thinking about all the things that are wrong with your play. It wasn’t perfect, and I still think there are things that can be improved about the play, but I just vowed I was going to go and enjoy it.

JAMES

It’s interesting to me because there’s a certain completion to the journey. From the experience of your father having committed suicide, to writing the script, to winning the contest, to getting it produced. How you would sum up the whole experience as you were watching the production with your family?

MEREDITH

Well the first word that popped into my mind was surreal, and the second thing was how much I enjoyed the performances, and how much the actors brought to it. I just vowed I was going to go and enjoy it and I wasn’t going to worry about my family as far as taking care of them or worry about their reactions to it either. But you know, I also worked through a lot of stuff with that play.

When dad was suspecting a bad diagnosis – this was three days before he completed suicide – I phoned his room at the Moncton Hospital from Calgary. And he said, “Oh they’re going to do some tests and things.” Because at first they thought it might be a bowel infection and a reaction to antibiotics. But there was a moment where he hesitated on the phone and in my mind I wondered what was he was going to say next. To me there was something that he meant to say and tell me. Like he opened his mouth to say it and it didn’t come out and I wondered if it was, “Listen if it’s a bad diagnoses this is what I’m going to do.” But he didn’t say anything, and I heard this kind of breath, or hesitation, and I wondered, and wondered, and wondered about that afterwards.

And then I thought, well what would you have done if he had said, you know, this is not going to go well…would I have suspected…because we knew his philosophical stance on end of life.  He always said, “If I ever got a bad diagnosis that would be it.” But it’s a leap in your mind to hear those words and really imagine your father actually doing that.

So I thought, in my state of mind, what would I have done? I probably would have called mom and told her not to leave him for a minute. And then there’s a part of you that would have said, “Okay – whatever you need – I’ll do it – I’ll help you.”

And I did end up inadvertently helping him complete the act by flying to the Maritimes, because when my mother came to pick me up at the airport that’s when he completed. So I felt complicit in that, and that bothered me for a long time, even though it was inadvertent. It was a window of opportunity, and he took it, and I provided that. So, in a way I helped whether I wanted to or not.

I changed the play so that the character who plays me actually does make the decision to fly home to get her mother out of the house so that her father will have the window of opportunity very knowingly not inadvertently.

JAMES

Dramatically that’s a good choice.

MEREDITH

Dramatically it was a hell of a lot better choice than what really happened.

JAMES

Because then the character is active.

MEREDITH

Yes.

JAMES

What do you think your dad would think of this play?

MEREDITH

Wow. I just think he’d be horrified, because he was such a private person. I had to struggle past that a little bit because he’d be so horrified that I laid it all out. But you know what? Whatever form – and I do believe there is some kind of spiritual form that he takes now – I don’t think he has those same opinions any more.

And after he was gone, I pretty quickly said this is more about me than it is about him. This is more about us. And that’s how I was able to write it. I was lucky, because my family wasn’t upset. But dad would have been. I think for sure. But I wouldn’t have had to write it – you know what I mean – unless it had happened.

JAMES

Was it cathartic for your family in some ways?

MEREDITH

Maybe in some ways. I sat right beside my mom and my aunt and I could feel the seat shaking because they cried and cried and they laughed too, but there was a lot of tears you know. I know that my aunt and mom told me they sat up all night in the hotel room talking about it. My brother said, “Man it’s weird to see your life up on stage like that.” But it was probably not as cathartic for them as it was for me

JAMES

What are your hopes for the story?

MEREDITH

I would love to see it produced again, of course. Published and produced. Those are the things that I’m looking for with all my plays. I don’t really want them to just sit stagnant. You want to write the kind of play where people are going to go home and talk about it, and think about it, and talk about themselves a little bit. You know, my God, if it got people to think about their own mortality a little bit, how could that be a bad thing? We all run around scared to talk about it, but we’re fascinated by it at the same time. The idea that we’re mortal. Just to have that discussion opened up wouldn’t hurt.

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Next week, in Part Two, I talk with Meredith about her play Book Club, and its upcoming production at Lunchbox Theatre.

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Meredith Taylor-Parry Survival Skills - Survival Skills Poster

Survival Skills by Meredith Taylor-Parry

A father takes his life.  The family gathers to mourn.  Only one saw the body.  Only one knows what really happened.

Winner: 2013 New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest

Premiered at 13th Street Repertory – NYC April 3 – May 1, 2014, with the following cast and crew.

  • Directed by Leanora Lange

Cast

  • Kathleen – Aimee Thrasher
  • Annalise – Kristen Busalacchi
  • Eliza – Mary Ruth Baggott
  • Oscar – Jason Kirk
  • Len – Danny Sauls

Crew

  • Stage Manager – Alex Bishop
  • Properties Assistant – Aimee Thrasher
  • Dramatrug – Kurt Hollender
  • Producer – Sandra Nordgren

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Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry

Meredith Taylor-Parry is a playwright based in Calgary, Alberta. Her play Survival Skills won the New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest in 2013 and was produced Off Off Broadway by the 13th Street Repertory Company, NYC in April 2014. Her play Devices received a production in Week One of the New Ideas Festival at Alumnae Theatre in Toronto in March of 2015. Her most recent work, Book Club, was developed as part of the Suncor Energy Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work at Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary in 2014 and will receive a world premiere at Lunchbox in February 2016. Meredith is Co-Artistic Director of Bigs and Littles Theatre Society and also enjoys writing and performing for young audiences.

You can contact Meredith at LinkedIn by clicking the link above or by email at: mtaylorparry@gmail.com

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Survival Skills by Meredith Tyalor-Parry – Synopsis

“He saw a window of opportunity.”

A man diagnosed with terminal cancer commits suicide, leaving his family behind to struggle with the aftermath. Our journey begins 20 years later as Annalise and her sister sit at their dying mother’s bedside. The daughters are compelled to relive with the audience the horrible days following their father’s death when those closest to him came together to mourn and try to understand his choice. The play moves between past and present.

Their father’s decision is a controversial one. It was terribly painful for his wife and children to experience such a sudden, violent loss. But as we watch the sisters sit with their mother we begin to understand the motives behind his action. Is the choice to let death come in its prolonged and often agonizing way any less traumatic for those involved? Should we have the right to choose?

As in any time of family crises, personalities clash and sibling rivalries are revisited. Annalise’s frustration grows as her father is both accused of being a coward and applauded as hero. Finally she reveals an awful secret; her father needed her help. It is only by sifting through the memories that haunt her, that she will find forgiveness.

New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest

New Works of Merit is an international playwriting contest developed in 2003 to bring works of social significance to the general public.

13th Street Repertory Company

The 13th Street Repertory Company, founded in 1972 by Artistic Director Edith O’Hara, provides a place for actors, directors, playwrights, and technicians to develop their craft in a caring, nurturing, professional environment.

Link to Interview with Juliet Liraz
Link to The Hemingway Solution Parts Unknown, and Anthony Bourdain