Category: Directing

The Girl on the Train: Interview with Director Jack Grinhaus

Posted on by James Hutchison
Lauren Brotman in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.
Lauren Brotman in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.

Rachel Watson wakes up one morning from a drunken blackout with a gash across her forehead, her hands covered in blood, and no memory of the night before. Adding to the mystery is the unexplained disappearance of Megan Hipwell a woman whose life Rachel has been obsessing over and observing as she travels by train to and from work every day.

Not content to let the police and Detective Inspector Gaskill handle things Rachel begins her own investigation into the mystery while she desperately tries to remember that night and figure out what happened. Add to the mix Megan’s husband Scott Hipwell and Megan’s therapist Kamal Abdic and then throw in Rachel’s own ex husband Tom Watson and his new wife Anna Watson and there are plenty of secrets to be revealed and several suspects to uncover in this exciting and tension-filled thriller.

Jack Grinhaus Artistic Director Vertigo Theatre Photo by Dahlia Katz

I sat down with Jack Grinhaus the Artistic Director of Vertigo Theatre and the director of The Girl on the Train to talk with him about the show, the importance of trust in the rehearsal hall, and what Vertigo Theatre has planned for their 2024/25 Theatre Season.

JAMES HUTCHISON

So, Jack, Vertigo Theatre is producing The Girl on the Train adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins and the Dreamworks film which came out in 2016. How did this particular play land a spot in your season?

JACK GRINHAUS

It was a great book that I read and adored a number of years back and the play is written very much in the thriller mode – which I really enjoyed. I love the idea of a strong female lead. I love that there’s a truth about women in the world and how they are perceived. I thought the issues around alcoholism and memory were really intriguing subject matter to deal with. And the play is also highly entertaining and challenging because you’re trying to tell this story that’s flipping through different times and spaces. So, to me, it felt like a story audiences would get behind but it’s also the kind of work I’m interested in which is very much that fast-paced thriller that I think Vertigo’s been moving towards.

JAMES

You talked about the novel and the challenge always is how do you tell the story in a different medium. How does the play convey the story but still manage to capture the essence of the novel?

JACK

The novel takes the view of all three women. So, you have chapters from Anna, Megan, and Rachel and each chapter kind of overlaps. So, you’re seeing all three women through their own interpretation of their experiences whereas the play focuses on Rachel’s story and Megan and Anna’s stories are told through the eyes and the memory of the other people telling their version of events.

So, when Megan is confessing to having an affair to her husband Scott, she’s cruel and vicious and mean about it because of how he remembers it. He remembers it in that way and in this way, Megan becomes more of an enigma. There isn’t one version of Megan. We see four to five different versions of Megan. We see her how her therapist Kamal sees her. How Scott sees her. How Tom sees her. And how Rachel sees her as sort of this fantasy character.

Adaptations are really about finding a way to distill the book’s ethos into the play and finding a way so that the important tenants of the book and the story and characters are retained in a way that makes sure the book’s main thrust is still present and existing but in a format that is contracted and shrunk.

JAMES

The film boasts an outstanding cast including one of my favourite actors Emily Blunt who was up for an Oscar this year for her role in Oppenheimer. Your own cast that you’ve assembled for this production is outstanding with many Vertigo favourites bringing the story to life. You’ve got Lauren Brotman playing Rachel Watson, Filsan Dualeh playing Megan Hipwell, Tyrell Crews as Tom Watson, Stafford Perry as Scott Hipwell, Jamie Konchak as Detective Inspector Gaskill, Mike Tan as Kamal Abdic, and Anna Cummer as Anna Watson. Tell me a little bit about this cast and what qualities each actor brings to their roles.

JACK

Lauren who plays Rachel is my wife and we’ve worked together for a number of years and Lauren has an extraordinary facilitation with emotion. She’s able to capture emotion in multiple ways. She can go from screaming to laughing to crying in the span of a second or two. And she’s able to make the character of Rachel much more affable because the Rachel character if not done well can come across as this irritating self-absorbed narcissist who’s getting involved in something she shouldn’t get into. But because Lauren is capable of giving us a much more authentic and nuanced experience, she brings complexity and truth to Rachel.

When it comes to someone like Ty and Stafford, they’re both well-known in the community and they’re both strong male counterparts to Rachel. And in this story, they have the opportunity to support Rachel but they also both provide a bit of danger. Ty has played the bad guy a lot and he’s the sweetest guy so he can play a sweet guy but then flip that switch.

And Stafford is someone who feels almost like a little boy in a man’s body. And Scott is like that. He’s just this guy who gets thrown into this situation and he says, “You know five minutes ago I was just a guy with a mortgage and a wife and suddenly now I’m a circus attraction.” And he’s not good at that.

Anna Cummer who plays Anna in the play is so wonderfully idiosyncratic in the way that she prepares as a human and as an actor and as an artist. She’s a seasoned actor – a strong actor – who can give us that neurosis, jealousy, and fear that the Anna character has.

Jamie and Mike are just excellent rocks. You know whenever you cast a company of actors you need a couple of rocks in the company who hold down the fort because we have Rachel and Anna and Scott all emotionally up here so the key to an ensemble is to have two people that are emotionally down here.

And then Filsan brings this beautiful youth and enigma. She’s the youngest person in the company. The one with the newer experience in theatre comparative to the other actors who have maybe ten or fifteen years on her. So that innocence is kind of Meghan in a way, right?

So, they each have qualities that are really within the characterization and a lot of that came up in the audition process and right away we went, “Ah, you embody this character in this way as a person naturally.” And then as a group I needed really strong actors because of the nuanced performances necessary for it to be a believable piece of theatre.

JAMES

You mentioned that your wife Lauren is in the show and that you’ve worked with your wife over the years and I’m curious to know how do you enjoy that professional relationship and how do you maintain a successful personal relationship?

JACK

I don’t know how it is for other people, but we’ve just always been very similar on how the art is done. We can battle in the rehearsal hall, and I know that she’s going to try and do the best out of what she can get from the character, and she knows that I’m only going to try and get the best out of her. But at the end of the workday, we go home and leave it alone. And if someone starts talking about the work at home the other will say let’s wait for the rehearsal. And because I think we see art in the same way the end game is always the same and, in that way, it means we’ll never actually fight because we know we’re both trying to reach the same goal.

Filsan Dualeh and Stafford Perry in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.
Filsan Dualeh and Stafford Perry in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.

JAMES

From what you’re saying I’m taking that trust is a huge part of your relationship with your wife but let’s expand that out to talk about how important is trust in the rehearsal room and putting on a production.

JACK

It’s critical. I always say as a director I need to win the room in the first five minutes of the first rehearsal. Because if I don’t win the trust of that team – if they don’t believe that I can lead the ship – then I’m going to lose them and once you lose the room it’s very hard to get it back.

And so, I like to come in very well prepared and also come in with a great sensitivity to the understanding of the actor process and let them know that I’m strong and I’m here to support their journey. I’m happy to have discussions about things and if I’m curt or I cut you off it’s only because part of my job is about time management, and I have to keep things moving.

So, I’m very clear upfront about the rules of the game. People know I’m the leader of the team, but it doesn’t mean that your voice is not needed wanted or justified and if there’s time to have conversations we will. So, I’m really clear on my vision and the idea I have for the show so that they can buy in. And the key to building trust in that room is about supporting each other and giving them a place where they feel they can work safely.

JAMES

So, let’s say I have a friend this weekend who says I don’t know what to do and I say there’s Vertigo Theatre’s production The Girl on the Train. What should I tell them? Why should they go see it? What’s the hook?

JACK

I think it’s a gripping, exhilarating, crime thriller experience and we all love that storyline. And because you’re following this journey through the eyes of the unreliable narrator there are red herrings and that’s a bit of a puzzle and it’s also highly theatrical in its presentation. The writing and the acting are naturalistic, but the set and the projections are much more expressionistic and metaphoric, so I think it feels very epic in scope. So, if you want a really great experience, you can come out and have a drink and have a conversation with some of your friends and see something that is not only theatrical it’s cinematic in style and it’s a great thriller with great acting.

Lauren Brotman and Jamie Konchak in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.
Lauren Brotman and Jamie Konchak in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.

JAMES

Since you mentioned cinematic a couple of weeks ago the Oscars came out and I’ve seen a few awesome films that were nominated this year like American Fiction which just blew me away and The Holdovers which I loved. And on the weekend, I saw Past Lives and that devastated me. Which totally surprised me. But for me out of the films I’ve seen so far, I think the one I like best is The Holdovers. Did you have a favourite out of the films that you’ve seen and were nominated this year?

JACK

I loved Oppenheimer. I really did. I found myself really drawn to it. I mean I love Christopher Nolan the director and I love the work that he does. The performances weren’t necessarily very deep emotional experiences but I’m a big history buff and I love the storytelling and the way it was shot and even though it was a longer film it didn’t feel like it. It didn’t drag at any point for me. I was in it the whole time. I just wish I’d seen it in the movie theatre and not at home because it feels so epic and I would have loved to have been in the cinema for that one.

JAMES

I saw an interview with Jeffrey Wright who was in American Fiction, and he said when he’s making the work he doesn’t think about awards but afterwards awards bring recognition to the work and if they’re going to hand out awards anyway why not hand them out to him. And that made me laugh. So, I’m curious about your thoughts. We have the Betty’s coming up which are our local theatre awards. What are your thoughts about placing artists in competition with each other and that whole idea of awarding work?

JACK

There are many layers to that question. With film and TV when you win an award it can actually bolster awareness about the film and the work helping it to grow but usually a play is completed by the time it gets an award so I’ve always felt that awards are really valuable for young artists who are coming up and it can give them some stature. It’s kind of like good reviews. Those things can bolster grant writing potential and maybe even opportunities for work and so I’ve always thought awards are really great for young people.

I’m also curious about the idea that does a work of art only become great if it’s publicly lauded or can a work of art still be great even without that? You think of some of the greatest artists in history people hated for years and years and years and then suddenly twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred years later their works are being lauded.

I think it’s valuable in it’s a way for communities to get together and to at least acknowledge each other and that’s great but we could also just have a big party at the end of the year – a big theatre party and have a nice dinner together and just celebrate each other in a way without necessarily having to say you’re the best of the best you know.

When Connie Chung was interviewing Marlon Brando she said, “You know you’re considered the greatest actor of all time.” And Brando said, “Why do we always have to deal with absolutes? Why does it always have to be somebody is the best? Somebody is the worst. Can’t you just attune yourself to a thing and be one of the people who does that.”

JAMES

So, last year you gave me a little sneak peak about next season, and I was wondering what do you have planned for the 2024/25 theatre season at Vertigo?

JACK

Well, it’s about turning the page and I always build seasons that are feeling the zeitgeist of the day in a way and trying to understand where we are. And I think even though people would argue the pandemic isn’t over we are certainly past the most fearful stage of it where we just didn’t know anything, and we were all just guessing. And I think we’re in a place now where we have a better understanding that helps us reflect on ourselves and look at that time and think about who we are today.

So, for me – turning the page – are stories about people who are doing exactly that. They’re reflecting on the past and figuring out what are we going to do now in the future. And so, all of the plays live in that ethos a bit. And we also want to provide opportunities for audiences to have a great time next year. It’s still a hard time in the real world so why not enjoy the entertainment that we can provide. And we’ve got four premieres this coming year. So, lots of new plays.

We start the season with The Woman in Black which is a ghost story and just closed in the UK after nearly thirty-five years and over 13,000 performances since 1989. And we were the first phone call to say can we have it because they kept it on moratorium for a number of years – not allowing anyone to produce it. And it’s about Arthur Kipps looking back on his past to try and understand what happened to his family. So, starting off with something like that around Halloween is lots of fun.

Then there’s the Canadian premiere of Murder on the Links which is a new version of a Christie Poirot – which everybody loves with six actors playing thirty roles. That’s exciting. It’s nostalgic with the way we love those chestnuts that time of year. It’s the holiday season. People want nostalgia. They want to look back a little bit and see those things and it’s a great story right.

We have the Canadian premiere of Deadly Murder. Deadly Murder is a dark deep psychological thriller. Very uncomfortable. Very cat and mouse. It’s that thing where you lock two or three people in a room and you see what happens. And it’s the old Hitchcock thing. It’s not scary to find out there’s a bomb in the room. It’s scary to find out there’s a bomb in the room that’s going off in five minutes and now what?

Then we have the world premiere of a new play called A Killing at La Cucina which is about a food critic who dies at a restaurant called Fate where one in a thousand people are fed poison and they go there because of that. And we’re introducing this new super detective who might very well be the next Poirot named Lucia Dante who investigates this fast-paced and intense mystery along with her AI colleague Isabella.

And we close the season with the Canadian premiere of The DaVinci Code which you know is nearing a hundred million copies in sale. It’s been about twenty-odd years since the book came out and I don’t think there’s a person who hasn’t at least heard of it. And I think that audiences are looking for things that they can recognize, and I think DaVinci Code is definitely one that is an exciting piece that is adapted by the same people who did The Girl on a Train, so it’s got that fast pace and that excitement in a treasure hunt adventure that goes all across Europe.

How are we going to do that?

We’re not going to have Europe all over the stage but that’s the beauty of theatre we’re going to use the set design and maybe the projections and the sound and the way that the lighting is set to create those environments where the audience goes – Yes you are in a Piazza in Milan. I see it. I see it all. Right. You’re in the Louvre. I totally take it we’re in Paris. So, I think those challenges – you know a big ten-person or eleven-person cast and a big show to crown the season – are the kinds of things Vertigo is excited about moving into.

***

Interview Morris Ertman – Artistic Director Rosebud Theatre

Posted on by James Hutchison
Morris Ertman Artistic Director of Rosebud Theatre

In the summer of 1973 LaVerne Erickson, a music and visual arts teacher started Rosebud Camp of the Arts as a summer outreach program for Calgary youth. By 1977 the program was developed into Rosebud Fine Arts High School combining academics, arts, and work experience. As part of Rosebud’s centennial in the summer of 1983 the School’s drama department, led by Allan DesNoyers launched the Rosebud Historical Music Theatre. Allen’s play, Commedia Del’ Arte was presented on an outdoor stage along with a country-style buffet and musical entertainment.

From those beginnings Rosebud Theatre now offers five professionally produced shows per year on two stages, in addition to summer concerts and special presentations. The country-style buffet and good old-fashioned Rosebud hospitality has evolved and now includes Chef Mo’s delicious buffet served in the Mercantile building before the show. The shows themselves are performed and produced by a resident company of artists and guest artists and provide apprenticeship opportunities for students from Rosebud School of the Arts, now a post-secondary theatre training school.

Morris Ertman who has been the Artistic Director of Rosebud Theatre for the past twenty years began his career by working extensively in Canada as a director, designer, and playwright. He has been recognized for his work with several nominations and awards including nine Elizabeth Sterling Awards in Edmonton and a Dora Mavor More Award in Toronto. Recent productions for Rosebud Theatre include The Mountain Top, A Christmas Carol, Bright Star, The Trip to Bountiful, The Sound of Music, and All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914. I contacted Morris to talk with him about the early days of his career, his approach to the work, and what makes Rosebud such a special and mystical place where people gather to tell stories are share memories.

  • LaVerne Erickson who founded Rosebud School of the Arts and Rosebud Theatre.

JAMES HUTCHISON

So, I read that you grew up in Millet Alberta. What are some of your memories of your childhood, and I was wondering how do you think family life and growing up in a small town shaped you as a person and an artist.

MORRIS ERTMAN

Oh, boy. Well, lots of things. I actually grew up on the farm outside of Millet Alberta. So, it’s even smaller. Well, my mom loved music and literature and was a theologian in her own right. My dad loved to build things. He would build beautiful furniture. And so, I grew up surrounded by ideas and craft. It was part of the family.

And to this day I still get up between five and five-thirty a.m. because I had to milk the cows every single morning. And so, I guess growing up on the farm taught me a little bit about discipline. It didn’t matter how late you were up the night before. Dad would knock on the door and say, “Time to get up.” And off you went.

And I would credit the absolute freedom of growing up in a rural environment with imaginative freedom. I grew up listening to the radio. Sitting in front of CBC listening to Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and symphony orchestras and imagining stories. I just think that rural environment broke open the imagination, and I met characters growing up that were worthy of a W.O. Mitchell novel. They were fantastical and interesting and nutty and made you curious about who they were.

And, of course, I went to school in small town Alberta and so you know everybody. And lots of people made room for me as a creative when I was a kid. In the church there’d be a play and, “Well, Morris likes to do that. Let’s get him to do it.” And there’s no stakes, right? Nobody’s going to live or die by the play that you do in a church or the play that you do in your high school. And so, I was free to play. Free to figure it out. And if you’re a storyteller, it is not a choice. It’s just the way you think. And you think that way because it’s put in you. It’s innate. And when there’s no stakes you just practice it. You love doing it. I can’t imagine doing anything else.

It’s a Wonderful Life at Rosebud Theatre 2013. Directed by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

Before we talk about the importance of mentorship at Rosebud, I understand that Robin Phillips was one of your mentors. He came from England and was the Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival from 1974 to 1980 and he led the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton between 1990 to 1995. He had a long career including productions on Broadway and in the West End and he was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2005 and in 2010 he received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. How did the two of you meet and what sort of role did he and maybe other mentors play in your life and career over the years?

MORRIS

Well, I was a young designer – an Edmonton theatre designer – as well as a director, but I met him as a theatre designer. That’s how he employed me. And I remember Margaret Mooney who basically ran the Citadel and took care of every artistic director that was there called me up one day and she said, “Morris, Robin wants to see you. Don’t screw it up.” And I knew who he was, of course, so I scrambled my portfolio together and I went in to see him and he looked at my work and he went, “Lovely darling.” And then two weeks later he handed me all the biggest shows in the season.

And I found out later that he had seen a couple of things that I had done the year before. So, I wasn’t totally new to him. And he just handed it to me. And then our working relationship grew over a period of about eight years. I designed his first operas for the Canadian Opera Company. He was incredibly generous with the work, and I was known in Edmonton, but I didn’t have a career outside of Edmonton.

And so I credit him with catapulting my career into the national spotlight and getting national work and getting an agent in Toronto and everything else. It was because of Robin. He gave me a leg up. But I also learned by watching him over the years direct shows and watching the magic with which he staged shows and in particular the way he dealt with the chorus in a musical. I probably learned the most about directing by participating in his shows as a designer.

And the other thing about him too was that he was incredibly liberating when it came to creative things. I would go to Margaret’s desk with a white paper model of a set and I’d say, “This is for Robin. It’s a preliminary idea.” I’d come back at the end of the day and there’d be a note. “Lovely, darling.” And off, we went. The biggest discussion we ever had in terms of conceptual discussion around a show was for The Music Man. He walked into the design office and said, “Gingerbread.” And I said, “Clapboard.” And he said, “Lovely, darling.” And that was the longest discussion we had conceptually about any show. And I would deliver the designs and he would jump off of them and make all kinds of magic.

Morris Ertman – Artistic Director of Rosebud Theatre

JAMES

What was the magic he saw in you?

MORRIS

Well, of course, I can’t speak for him, and we never really talked about it, but I am a minimalist. I’m most interested in saying many things with one thing. The brevity of image, the brevity of staging with nothing wasted, I suspect is what we held in common. And that sensibility in terms of design came from another mentor of mine by the name of Brian Currah, who is a West End London designer who actually designed almost all the original Edward Bonds and Harold Pinters in the West End. I didn’t know that at the time.

And I once stood over him watching him draw a design for Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. I looked over his shoulder and he’d drawn a beam. And I was in awe. He had succeeded in speaking and telling the whole story of the play in that beam. And I think I was a minimalist already, but those guys helped. They basically confirmed and modelled things that I already had in me and then pushed them further.

And there was W.O. Mitchell. I am going to speak his name too. You know, there’s my musical Tent Meeting, which I co-wrote with Ron Reed, but the very first draft of that play I wrote as a young theatre artist running my own company in Edmonton and I wrote that because I read Who Has Seen the Wind. And that story gave me the permission to put pen to paper. I hadn’t done so before. And since then, I’ve written a lot. Those are some pretty amazing people that lined up.

Tent Meeting with Travis Friesen, Jonathan Bruce, Deborah Buck, Stephen Waldschmidt, Jonathan Bruce, and David Snider. Rosebud Theatre 2007. Directed by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

You know since you mentioned Tent Meeting — it’s a show that you wrote many years ago — I didn’t know it was your first. But I know you’ve done various versions of it and that it’s grown and developed and I wonder what’s it like having a piece of work like that follow you through your career?

MORRIS

It’s a gift. I wrote that first version with a company of actors, some of whom – we still work together, and that was forty years ago. And so, there’s the relationships that were fostered in that development and initial performance process that are enduring. That’s been wonderful.

And then of course, Ron Reed joined me in co-writing the next draft, which is the draft that wound up being the one that was produced in the US and Canada. We just got a lot of productions out of it, and he joined me because he saw the original production and he wanted to do it on the Pacific Theatre stage. And I said, “It’s not good enough. It needs a rewrite. And I don’t have any time to rewrite it.” And Ron said, “Well, I’ll write it with you.” And so, we did. And of course, Ron Reed and I have been colleagues and friends for forty years. So those things – those relational things are part of it.

The other thing is the fact that it is really, really, really a privilege, it’s an honour that something that you penned and pulled out of the ether in one way or another wound up capturing people’s imagination and moving people. You know, it wasn’t just the songs. It was everything. And so somehow a story set in a rural Albertan religious setting made it universal. And I think that’s pretty cool. I think of it as a tribute in lots of ways to the church community I grew up in. I go, this is them. This is their love. These are their songs. So, there are lots of connections.

Morris Ertman Artistic Director of Rosebud Theatre

JAMES

Well, one of the connections is I know it was produced at Rosebud and let’s talk a little bit about that. So, you were having your career and in 1998 I believe you did Cotton Patch Gospel at Rosebud and a couple of other shows and then they offered you the Artistic Directorship in 2001. So, what did you think of Rosebud when you arrived in this little village to direct your first show and here we are now many decades later — what’s it been like to work in Rosebud – to see the growth of the community and the creation of this vibrant theatre season. What sort of journey has that been like?

MORRIS

Well, when I first produced Tent Meeting forty years ago it had its first incarnation in Edmonton and then at the Pumphouse in Calgary. And Allen Desnoyers, who was running Rosebud’s theatre adventures at the time, brought everybody in from Rosebud to see the show at The Pumphouse, and he invited me to come back out to Rosebud and do a workshop on directing.

I did, and while I was there I saw the very first play in the Opera House called When the Sun Meets the Earth, which was his show that he had written. And since, of course, we’ve done many things together. So that was my first introduction to Rosebud. And at that time it was just cool. Great. Wonderful. And after I was onto other things and that was that. But then when they asked me to come and direct Cotton Patch Gospel several things happened.

I met a company of people who were in it. The Rosebud river valley boys were really the core of it. I met a group of people and we would talk late into the night about how theatre mattered and how connecting to an audience mattered. And how having a communal relationship with an audience mattered. And some of those things were new to me because I was a jobber. I was a freelancer. And so, I think those guys woke a hunger in me to be a part of something bigger than just to do a show.

And there was a synergy that we had. And that was cool. And in that show – Cotton Patch Gospel, there was a young student by the name of Nathan Schmidt, who played the fiddle and he had no lines. I built the whole show around him. He didn’t know it. He didn’t have any lines, but I built the whole show around Nathan Schmidt and later on, you know, as we’ve talked about it, he told me he was so mad as a young student that he didn’t have any lines and he had no idea that I saw his magic, right away and I went, “Boy, this guy’s compelling.” And we built the show around him.

So, I guess one of the things I would have to say about Rosebud is that there’s a core company of artists like the core of a band. You know, U2 stuck together for how many years and made music and they were brothers, and in our case we’re brothers and sisters – we’re a band. There’s a shorthand language. We share a lot of the same sort of passions and values. And that’s a privilege to be a part of such a thing.

The Trip to Bountiful with Nathan Schmidt as Ludie, Heather Pattengale as Jessie Mae and Judith Buchan as Carrie Watts. Rosebud Theatre 2023. Directed by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

You know we’re more conscious these days about honouring the Indigenous people who originally made this land their home. And I’ve read things that you’ve written where you’ve spoken about the tradition of storytelling in the valley, and I was wondering how is Rosebud connected to those Indigenous storytellers of the past and how does that legacy of storytelling live on?

MORRIS

It’s more mystical than practical in my mind. I believe the valley is a storied valley. And I’ve always had an admiration for Indigenous culture ever since I was a kid. Growing up on the land like I did, I think I have some understanding of what that means. And I think that in some kind of mystical way when we’re doing plays and telling stories in the Opera House or in the Rosebud Valley – those elders are kind of smiling upon us. Because they were storytellers. And that’s more mystical than it is anything else. And I just feel every which way we can understand our connection to those that came before us makes the work we do richer and more expansive in ways that we probably do not understand.

JAMES

I watched a short documentary about a day in the life of Rosebud by Canadian filmmakers Eric Pauls and Michael Janke. In the film you mention thin places and you mention that’s an idea that comes from Ireland. And you mention also that you love Ireland. So, I’m curious about your connection to Ireland and then how thin places relate to Rosebud and what happens here?

MORRIS

My wife Joanne and I early in our marriage before I was even finished university, we spent some time in England, and of course travelled to Ireland. And we took a fishing boat across to the Aran Islands where Synge had set his play Riders to the Sea. And I was so struck by this windswept rock that I wrote a piece called Sea Liturgy that failed miserably. But it was about the wind and it was about sacred places. And I remember we would go into these ash woods that were sacred druidic woods – and they were so amazing to me – and this is a little mystical because our yard here in Millett where we live is filled with ash trees that we didn’t plant.

And so, Ireland to me wakes magic. And there’s just a belief in the mystical. I think there is an innate understanding of the mystery of life and about being tied to the earth and the sky and everything else that I completely buy into and you get that feeling in Ireland. And so, here’s Rosebud. And the very first time I did Cotton Patch Gospel here it was a really green summer. And I remember looking out over the hills and thinking this feels a lot like Ireland. And then of course I’d read somewhere or heard somebody talk about thin places – that is a place where the membrane between heaven and earth is so thin that you can reach across.

And all of a sudden you feel like you can be in touch with the things that are intangible. I believe that I can be in touch with my parents who have passed on. I believe that the great cloud of witnesses that the apostle Paul talks about is actually true. And I think however we try to articulate it when we live our lives within the context of that mystery, I think that worlds of magic open up to us, worlds of possibility.

The Rosebud Theatre Production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 by Peter Rothstein – Ensemble – Kenaniah Love Schnare, Mark Kazakov, Steve Morton, Joel Braun, Tim Dixon, Aaron Krogman, Griffin Cork, Blair Young – Photos by Morris Ertman

JAMES

As a director how do you work with actors and designers and in particular, I’m interested in how you utilize the stage at Rosebud. What’s your process like?

MORRIS

Well, the story is the thing. The actor carries the story. Those are really fundamental things for me, and I never want it to be different than that. I think human beings embodying the story is the most compelling thing on God’s green earth. And everything else that we try is not nearly as compelling as a human being spinning out the story. So, the actor is central to the aesthetic.

And I am informed by the movies. I do not know when I clued into this but you know when you watch a movie you never stop the action to change the scene. Why? Because the whole language of it is all about staying with the emotional journey of the central characters. You never drop the feeling in a good movie. So, there’s nothing extraneous. And I think I’ve spent the better part of my career trying to apply that to the stage. What is the essence of the moment that is happening in front of our eyes and how does it multiply with each beat in the story?

And in my rehearsal halls, I put a lot of emphasis with actors on the fact that everything is real. And that you can’t compartmentalize it. What just happened in the scene before – the residue of that must inform the next scene. And we don’t know where the story is going. We don’t actually know what the play is about. We just know how to begin. And of course, that beginning happens way back early on when a person is talking to designers. And I tend to choose people with an aesthetic that is evocative and simple. And my charge to designers always is – nothing can get in the way of the action of the play. We can never stop it.

Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

MORRIS (CONT’D)

So, in The Sound of Music all of a sudden, we’re changing Maria’s clothes on stage, and we turn that into story, and it winds up spinning itself out into two changes and finally her changing von Trapp’s tie on stage just before they go off to the concert. And I didn’t know that was going to happen when we began but you enter the thing and then you’re sculpting.

And when I was a designer predominantly, I would go into an art store and I would just walk up and down the aisles. I’d buy handmade papers and things that were just beautiful. And when I think about casting, I’m assembling the most beautiful group of human beings, and I want to find out how they embody the play and how the play is embodied in them. And then I think it just goes deeper.

JAMES

I can attest to watching your shows that they flow, and that the transitions between scenes feels more like a dissolve and don’t interrupt the action. And I think that certainly influences the impact that the story and play has on the audience.

MORRIS

I think so too because the audience is tracking those characters. They’re falling in love with those human beings. They want to know with every emphatic bone in their bodies what’s happening next with those human beings. So, nothing can get in the way of that. And when we’re lucky, when it really, really, really works, the scenery becomes a metaphor, and the scenery just somehow emotionally heightens what is going on in the story.

Rosebud School of the Arts 2023 Production of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams featuring Judite Vold as Laura.

JAMES

So, you’re educating the next group of storytellers and artists and designers and actors. How does mentorship play a role in the development of young artists here in Rosebud?

MORRIS

Well, I think it’s everything. It’s not lost on me that every electrician has to apprentice. Every mechanic has to apprentice. Every guy that takes over his parent’s farm, in a sense, has apprenticed. And so, it just makes sense that you learn the craft from the people who come before you. Of course, that was Rosebud’s philosophy right from the very beginning and I just stepped into it.

And it makes all kinds of sense. It makes sense to me that for the student when a mentor says, “Yeah, you’re on. You’ve got the goods.” Well, that’s a kind of naming. And if I look back on my own career there were many namings that happened. And those namings help you stand in this business.

And so, I think that all those namings that happen with those students when they’re working with Nathan as their acting coach or Paul Muir as an acting coach or Cassia Schramm as a voice coach or working in one of my productions, I think every single one of those namings, those challenges offered and met are what make Rosebud’s training great. And I think it’s what makes confident young people confident enough to step out there and do their thing. They are not just doing it because they made a grade, they’re doing it because people believed in them and not just people but people with credibility believed in them. You know, all of our moms and dads believe in us but in my life it took Robin and others to actually help me stand tall in the work that I do.

  • Ray Strachan as Martin Luther King Jr. in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Mountaintop. Directed by Morris Ertman.
  • Ray Strachan and Patricia Cerra in Rosebud Theatre’s The Mountaintop.
  • Ray Strachan and Patricia Cerra in Rosebud Theatre’s The Mountaintop.
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Rosebud Theatre 2022. Directed by Morris Ertman.
  • Stones In His Pockets – Rosebud Theatre – 2022
  • Cassia Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
    Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Cassia Schmidt and Ian Farthing in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Fiddler on the Roof – Rosebud Theatre – 2008. Directed by Morris Ertman.
  • Katharine Venour in The Syringa Tree at Rosebud Theatre. Directed by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of Tent Meeting
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of Tent Meeting
  • The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain. Adapted for the stage by Heather Pattengale and Morris Ertman.
  • The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain. Adapted for the stage by Heather Pattengale and Morris Ertman.
  • The Diaries of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain. Adapted for the stage by Heather Pattengale and Morris Ertman.
  • Executive Director Paul Muir and Morris Ertman Artistic Director of Rosebud Theatre

JAMES

I’m wondering when people come out to Rosebud and they’ve enjoyed a meal – they’ve seen a show – they’ve shared in that community experience what is it you hope audiences take away with them when they’ve experienced as you have put it – “good old fashioned emotional storytelling.”

MORRIS

Well, number one, I hope they are emotionally impacted. Either they are bawling, or they can’t stop giggling, or they can’t stop thinking about a moment in the play. We win if they can drive home and not dismiss the thing as ho-hum. Then we win. We win and when I say we I mean the audience and us win. And when an audience watches Nathan Schmidt grow from a student into a fine accomplished actor and it happens in front of their eyes – they know him – they know Cassia – they know Glenda – they know these people – I think that is invaluable. And the richer that relationship can be, the more it feels like family when people come into the valley and when they leave.

And man, there’s no greater pleasure than somebody coming up to me and saying you know when you did that play or that show and there was a moment where this happened and I just can’t forget about it – that’s it – that’s the reason for being right there. Because ultimately, I believe that when people are opened up emotionally, it’s a doorway to the mystic. I think when people are impacted by a story that actually reaches deep and by the way, it can reach deep by making you laugh your silly head off, but when it reaches deep into you and elicits a response, I actually think it changes your nature. Just like any dramatic experience in life does. And all we’re doing is we’re creating artificial experiences – stories that hopefully go as deep and as rich as life itself.

***

To find out more about Rosebud Theatre and their current season visit RosebudTheatre.com.
To find out more about Rosebud School of the Arts visit RosebudSchooloftheArts.com.

Link Graphic to Bronwyn Steinberg Artistic Director of Lunchbox Theatre Interview

Mieko Ouchi: 2023 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist

Posted on by James Hutchison
Photograph of Meiko Ouchi

On September 16th, 2023, friends, family, and members of the Alberta arts community gathered in Medicine Hat to celebrate this year’s recipients of The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Awards. This year’s recipients include playwright and theatre artist Mieko Ouchi, film and theatre performer Michelle Thrush, and film animators Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis.

Chair of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Arlene Strom said, “Albertans can be proud of the contributions of these Distinguished Artists who have pushed the boundaries of art to reflect indigenous identity and expression, present a more inclusive and diverse view of Alberta’s history, and highlight the art of film animation in Alberta and worldwide. Each has contributed immeasurably to the development of the province’s artists, arts communities and expanding art disciplines.”

L to R: Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis, Her Honour Salma Lakhani, Mieko Ouchi, Michelle Thrush, Photo Credit Randy Feere
L to R: Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis, Her Honour Salma Lakhani, Mieko Ouchi, Michelle Thrush, Photo Credit Randy Feere

Her Honour, the Honourable Salma Lakhani, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta said, “The women receiving the Distinguished Artist Award this year have offered important contributions to the arts in Canada. We have all been granted the opportunity, through their work, to learn and grow in our understanding of the human condition. Artists such as these are essential to the lifeblood of our communities, and we are truly fortunate to have them as cultural leaders in their respective disciplines, in our province and our country as a whole.”

I contacted Michelle Thrush as well as Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis to talk with them about their work and creative process. You can read those interviews by following the links above. I also spoke with Mieko Ouchi who is a theatre and film director, screenwriter, dramaturg, playwright and a passionate champion for new play development. She is also a fierce advocate for accessibility, inclusivity, diversity and equity across all ranges of artistic output. In our conversation we talked about her approach to storytelling, how she works as a dramaturge to help other artists bring their work to the stage, and what it means to be recognized for her work by receiving The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award.

JAMES HUTCHISON

You have a big body of work now and I wonder when you look back at that has your approach to telling stories grown and changed over the years?

MIEKO OUCHI

I think as an artist you do grow and change as you write more, and you create more, but I also feel like there’s a heart that always remains the same. And maybe this was best illustrated quite a few years ago when Red Deer College commissioned me to write a play for a group of students. I pitched a couple of new ideas and then I said, “There’s this play that I started writing in grade eleven about the DaDa Art movement and I did some workshops with some professional theatres, but it was never finished, and I’d love to go back and finish that play as an adult.” And that was the project they chose.

And I went back and read this draft of the play that I’d written when I was seventeen and the wild thing is there were lots of things obviously, I had to change and fix but there was a way of writing – of turning a phrase – an approach to text – that remains to this day – and I recognized my voice in that script.

And right now the thing I feel like I’m growing in most is learning to build empathy for all my characters, and I think my goal is continually to make them more than 2D characters and to make them very complex people that actors will have to really dig into and figure out and audiences will too. Because to me those are the most interesting characters for myself as an audience member.

The Citadel Theatre’s production of The Silver Arrow (2018) written by Mieko Ouchi and featuring Natasha Mumba, April Banigan and Lara Arabian. Photo by David Cooper

JAMES

I think those types of characters are the most relatable because they are the most human because we are so complex and grey. And how often have we done something and then said to ourselves, “That’s so unlike me. Why did I do that?”

MIEKO

That’s right. We recognize that people don’t fit neatly into boxes – that they do things impulsively. They do things against their better judgment or in spite of themselves all the time. And I think theatre is such a beautiful place to explore those impulses.

JAMES

As a playwright you bring new works to life, but you also work as a dramaturge and director assisting other artists to bring their work to the stage. What are some of the important elements you feel are needed to help workshop and develop a new play?

MIEKO

I really see my job in those roles as being like a doula or a midwife. So, you’re in the room. You’re highly connected to the event – to the people – but you’re also a little bit separate and you’re there to help, encourage, and support the person who is giving birth to the new play.

So, I feel like I’m there as an encourager. I’m there as someone with a lot of experience to say, “Here are some things I’ve noticed in the past when we’ve made these kinds of theatrical decisions.” You know someone who knows a little bit more about technical theatre and how theatre is put together and can help playwrights who might not have a background in that. I’m really kind of a sounding board and another set of eyes to say, “I really noticed this. Did you notice that?” Or “This really landed on me this way today.” Just some information for the playwright to take in.

Playwright/performer Mieko Ouchi in a reading of Hiro Kanagawa’s ‘Forgiveness’ at the 2019 Banff Playwrights Lab. Photo by Jessica Wittman.

I always think it’s not up to me to fix the play. I hate the word fixing plays because the play’s not broken. We’re just continually digging out new layers and things that we want to explore. And it’s not for me to write the play. I’m there to help the playwright find the best form of the play that they can find and that they can write.

And also, in that sense of a doula I want the experience to be a positive one. So, I think I’m also there to make sure the process is a safe and comfortable and a pleasurable experience to go through because it can be stressful. Just like birth. You’re there to make it be the best and most happy place it can be.

JAMES

You mentioned creating a safe space and I understand that but sometimes we’re dealing with plays that are asking difficult and complex questions and so we have to be open to uncomfortable discussions and exploring possibilities. How do you create a room that is open to discussion and yet is respectful and safe?

MIEKO

I think transparency is really helpful. Just being very transparent about those things and talking about them in advance and to say, “You know we’re coming up on this scene that’s really challenging and there’s a lot of content in there that might challenge us in personal ways.” So, you just give people a heads up and say, “If this brings up feelings and thoughts that are unexpected or that take over in a way that you weren’t hoping they would – just come and let me know and we can take a break.” Everyone has a heads up and there’s an open conversation.

And I think there are other artists now that we can invite into the room. There are fight choreographers. There are intimacy co-ordinators. And there are other people we can bring in who have the tools to help us. So, I think that’s been a really great evolution and it has made those things less like – let’s wing it and hope for the best to having a bit more structure and having conversations around it. I find when people have that space then things stay nice and calm, and we figure it out step by step, and everybody feels more comfortable.

JAMES

You’ve talked about your play The Red Priest and you’ve called it a very transformational experience. And I understand that it came into being because of Catalyst Theatre and they had commissioned some writers – you among them – to write short six-minute pieces. And you wrote something called Eight Ways to Say Goodbye. And afterwards you started working on expanding it because it had a great response.

And then Ron Jenkins made you playwright in residence – even though you’d never actually written a finished play – because he believed in you. And you ended up finishing the play, and it was nominated for a Governor General Award, and it won the Carol Bolt Award for Drama from The Playwrights Guild of Canada, and if you’re going to write a first play that’s a pretty auspicious beginning. So how did writing that play, winning that recognition, and having people believe in you transform your view of yourself as an artist?

Ashley Wright and Jamie Konchak in the ATP 2014 Production of The Red Priest (Eight Ways to Say Goodbye) by Mieko Ouchi. Photo Leah Hennel Calgary Herald

MIEKO

Well, I think one of the key things is I was so extraordinarily lucky to have Ron recognize me so early as a writer and to encourage me before I had that belief in myself. He believed in me before I believed in me. And there was something about the passion that he brought by saying, “I know you can do this. You have a voice. You just have to be brave enough to let it out,” that got me over the finish line.

He encouraged me to take a risk because it was a very personal story. From the outside you won’t know that. But I’d just gone through a really really heartbreaking relationship breakup in my life and that is very much imbued in the play even though the play’s not in any way autobiographical. A lot of the emotional feelings of what happened are in that play. He encouraged me to let that be there. And I think the lesson that I learned from that play with the recognition that it received was that the moments that people all brought to me afterwards – like audience members would say, “Oh, this moment is the moment that meant the most to me,” were all things that were true. They were emotionally true. There was a core of it that had happened to me, and I was revealing something very very honest. And I think to learn that lesson that early as a writer was an incredible gift because it taught me that when I was truthful people connected.

JAMES

How much do you think drama then is exploring our emotional response to the world?

MIEKO

I think it’s everything. I think that’s exactly what it is. Theatre just gives us this incredible chance to explore feelings that you might not have fully explored in real life where we don’t have a chance to say that to our parent or to our partner or to our child, but on stage we can kind of enact that.

Augusto Boal said, “Theatre is a rehearsal for change.” And I believe that too. It’s a chance to try out things that haven’t happened yet or to say, “What would happen if I put this scenario into a play?” So, for me, it’s been an incredible chance to explore not necessarily autobiographical things but emotionally things that I’ve been through or are thinking about.

JAMES

And then people who have experienced that same emotion even though the context might be different can relate to it.

MIEKO

Yeah.

JAMES

I’ve heard other artists talk about the more specific you make it the more universal it becomes.

MIEKO

One hundred percent. I’ve felt that totally. I really did feel that. And it was very exciting because at the same time that I was having this experience I was also working as a filmmaker and making documentaries. Initially, they were about my family and very biographical and even autobiographical types of projects. And so, I think I was in a world where I was trying to find truth. Whatever, that meant to me and to bring that forward. And that recognition really said, “You’re on the right track. Be brave. You’re onto something. Just keep going.”

The Citadel Theatre’s production of The Silver Arrow (2018) written by Mieko Ouchi. Photo by David Cooper
The Citadel Theatre’s production of The Silver Arrow (2018) written by Mieko Ouchi. Photo by David Cooper

JAMES

You mentioned you went back to a play you wrote when you were seventeen and it seems to me all the writers I know have a drawer full of unfinished work. Sometimes we hit a wall and other projects become priorities and I’m curious about those unfinished projects. Do they go quietly into the drawer? Do they protest? Do they whisper to you? Do they remain dormant? When do you open that drawer and take them out and look at them again and work on them?

MIEKO

Those dormant plays – they’re just kind of asleep right now. They’re having a long nap – at the moment. Yeah, I have a couple. And I think they have to find their right time where I feel mentally ready to go back and explore them.

Meilie Ng as Lily in the 2011 ATP Production of Nisei Blue by Miecho Ouchi.

I have a project that premiered at ATP called Nisei Blue which was a noir detective story. And I felt like I didn’t quite get to the heart of it by the end of that production. It was a very fraught time because my father had just passed away before we started rehearsals. And my mind wasn’t fully hitting on all cylinders, and I wasn’t able to get to the heart of it because of everything going on in my life. So, now I’ve actually started a process of adapting that play into a novel and I feel like I am very slowly archaeologically getting there through a different medium. Sometimes it’s about digging into a play at a different time theatrically or maybe it’s approaching it through a different entry point.

JAMES

So now you’re exploring writing a novel — how is that? Fun? Exciting? What have you learned? Where are you at with that?

MIEKO

Oh, my gosh. So, when I started it was terrifying but also it was weirdly exciting because I thought, “I don’t know anything about this. So, who cares? Throw all the rules out the window. I don’t feel beholden to any rules or any lessons because I haven’t had any yet other than being an avid reader and knowing what I like to read. I don’t know any of the things that we’re supposed to know as a novelist. So, I’m just going to start writing the story from my heart — the way I kind of wrote The Red Priest” And there’s just something exciting to be at the very beginning of a learning process. To be at the bottom of this giant mountain looking up at the peaks and the great writers.

And I’m really intrigued by the interior voice. That’s something this novel has let me dig into with this character that I was never able to share with the audience in a stage production. I think my main character in Nisei Blue is a character with a really rich interior world and so writing a novel has really opened up the story for me because I’m able to share what’s running through his mind. And that’s been exciting. That’s been a totally fresh take on it. And it feels right. It feels like a good way to tell the story.

The Citadel Theatre’s production of Pride and Prejudice (2023), directed by Mieko Ouchi and featuring Morgan Yamada, Nadien Chu, Ben Elliott, Beth Graham and Gianna Vacirca. Photo by Nanc Price.

JAMES

This year there’s been a lot of chat about artificial intelligence, and I believe we’re on the edge of a really big disruption in science, business, and technology. And I don’t know what that looks like, and I don’t know if anyone really does but as an artist I was curious about your thoughts about AI and what sort of impact you think – positive or negative – it might have on the arts and the work you create.

MIEKO

Well, I think as a writer there’s a part of it where my heart just sinks at the thought of it. Because I believe in that human journey of struggling to find the path through writing and to find the path to expression. And to allow a computer-generated draft to be hacked out kind of hurts my soul a little bit as a writer, to be honest. But I suppose there might be some places where it is useful. There’s just something to me about the struggle to figure out the path of the story or the play that’s essential to its final shape and its humanity. And I know that some of the things that I’ve seen that have been AI generated that have been in the voice of Chekov or Shakespeare are kind of like gobbledegook.

As writers, we sometimes have this filler dialogue when we’re struggling and you have one person say, “Hello.” And the other person says, “Hi. Why are you looking at me that way?” And they say, “I don’t know. Why are you looking at me that way?” And nothing’s actually happening. We’re just going back and forth. It’s like we’re getting the rusty water out through the pipes until the clear water comes through and you get to the heart of a scene. And I sometimes feel that AI writing is a bit like that rusty water. It’s filler. It doesn’t really have that human drive and that soul that we need for writing to be compelling.

JAMES

There you go. Art is the exploration of the human soul.

MIEKO

That’s great. I love that.

Medal Presentation L to R: Arlene Strom, Chair Lg Arts Awards Foundation Board, Distinguished Artist Mieko Ouchi, Her Honour Salma Lakhani, Photo Credit Randy Feere
Medal Presentation L to R: Arlene Strom, Chair Lg Arts Awards Foundation Board, Distinguished Artist Mieko Ouchi, Her Honour Salma Lakhani, Photo Credit Randy Feere

JAMES

So, my last question is about you receiving the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award and I was wondering what the actual evening was like for you where everyone gathered to honour the recipients and what does it mean to you as an artist to be recognized for your work and receive a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award?

MIEKO

Well, it was such a surprise to find out I was receiving the award. It was really just a kind of a heart-stopping moment to hear Kathy Classen on the other end of the phone when she called and told me. I couldn’t quite believe it. And going to Medicine Hat was a wonderful experience.

All of the recipients were able to bring friends and family members along and it really felt like a family kind of weekend. And they rolled out the red carpet for us. They put on this beautiful art festival at the centre with kids doing art. We had our event and then we had a street party with a concert headed up by none other than Hawksley Workman who I worked with on a production of my play The Silver Arrow. He wrote the music for it at the Citadel. They didn’t know that when they set it up but to have Hawksley there was like the cherry on top of the cake.

That night felt like such a beautiful recognition of Alberta and all the people who have supported these distinguished artists to help them get to where they are. So many people talked about the mentors they had along the way. The people who supported them. Fellow artists. Community members. Teachers. Family members. So, it really did feel like a celebration of all that it is to be an Alberta artist and to be someone that has chosen to come here and work or to remain here and work and there’s just something so beautiful about having that connection to Alberta.

L to R: Clint Lawrence, Mieko Ouchi, Michelle Thrush, Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, Photo Credit Randy Feere
L to R: Clint Lawrence, Mieko Ouchi, Michelle Thrush, Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, Photo Credit Randy Feere

And everybody spoke about that and I think back to my earliest days being a student at Artstrek and having my first tiny little play workshopped at ATP and having Ronnie Burkett as my set designer and Kathy Eberle my high school drama teacher helping me submit my play for that program. And you know Marilyn Potts has been a supporter since way back and then you know Bob White and Dianne Goodman – and all the folks at ATP – John Murrell and so many other folks in this province.

And then all the folks when I came to Edmonton who supported me. You know Stephen Heatley gave me my first summer job at Theatre Network as a summer student. Ron Jenkins supporting me as a first-time playwright and as a playwright in residence. And then all the way up to now working here at the Citadel with Daryl Cloran as his Associate Artistic Director and his support of me and my writing but also my directing on A-House stages.

He gave me my first A-House directing job and he gave me my first commission for an A-House play with Silver Arrow. You really need those folks encouraging you and, in your corner, making opportunities for you to help you find your path.

And so now I get to have that reversed a little bit and in my job at the Citadel I get to support emerging artists and help them get their first assistant directing job or be a part of the playwright’s lab and help them work on their new plays, and I’m really enjoying being able to pass it along and being an opportunity maker for other artists.

Murder on the Orient Express at Vertigo Theatre – Interview with Director Jovanni Sy

Posted on by James Hutchison
Murder on the Orient Express Poster for Vertigo Theatre Production
Vertigo Theatre 2022/23 Season Misery, Murder on the Orient Express, The Extractionist, Gaslight, Nevermore

Murder on the Orient Express at Vertigo Theatre is a masterful and thrilling production of the Agatha Christie classic cleverly adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig.

***

Everything is not as it seems. That statement has never been more true of a murder mystery than in Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. Hercule Poirot finds himself surrounded by an eclectic assortment of characters including wealthy American businessman with a shady past Samuel Ratchett, the elderly Russian Princess Dragomiroff forced to live in exile, and the overbearing, loud, and life of the party Mrs. Hubbard, an American. Before the train can reach its destination, it is stopped by a snow drift in the mountains and during the night one of the passengers is murdered!

Poirot is assigned the task of investigating the murder by his friend and manager of the railroad Mousier Bouc who is also travelling on the train. There’s an abundance of clues. An abundance of suspects. And only Hercule Poirot can untangle the web of deception and decipher all the clues to figure out his most baffling and morally challenging case.

Vertigo Theatre takes you along for a thrilling, fun, and intriguing murder mystery featuring a terrific cast including Haysam Kadri as Hercule Poirot. I sat down with the director of the play Jovanni Sy who is also a playwright and actor to talk with him about Murder on the Orient Express, what makes the mystery genre so popular, and how he came to play Mr. Miyagi in the premiere of The Karate Kid – The Musical.

JAMES HUTCHISON

The murder mystery is a popular genre of fiction. So, I’m curious what do you think it is about that genre that has such a lasting appeal, and then I’m wondering specifically, why is Poirot such a popular figure? What did Agatha Christie stumble upon or deliberately design to make Poirot the much beloved and popular character that he is?

JOVANNI SY

I have a theory. I think people love mysteries because the detective is ultimately a seeker of truth. It’s solving a puzzle but it’s also trying to uncover the truth in the face of all your adversaries trying to inundate you with lies. There’s something really appealing about that, about being able to weed through all the deception, weed through all the artifice to uncover a nugget of truth.

And as for Poirot, I think people love him because he’s a showman. He’s so idiosyncratic. One of the really interesting things about the whole detective genre is that we get to know most well-known detectives on a reasonably superficial level. The story is not about their journey to get from point A to point B and learn something along the way. It really is a plot-driven genre, so people will like mysteries in as far as the mystery is compelling and good.

I don’t think Poirot would’ve been a popular detective if Christie weren’t extremely adept at constructing these wonderful puzzles for him. We know his characteristics, but they’re all rather external. They’re about his vanity or his pomposity or his strict moral code. But he doesn’t often undergo a dramatic journey the way protagonists in other genres do. It’s really about how good is he at solving the mystery.

Production Still Murder on the Orient Express at Vertigo Theatre
Mike Tan as Monsieur Bouc, Sarah Roa as Countess Andrenyi, and Haysam Kadri as Hercule Poirot in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig and directed by Jovanni Sy. Photo by Tim Nguyen

JAMES

In this production, you’ve assembled a stellar cast including Haysam Kadri who is portraying Poirot. What do you think are the qualities Haysam brings to his portrayal of Poirot and as the director of the play how much of that is the director’s vision and how much is the actor’s vision? How did that collaboration work on this production?

JOVANNI

What Haysam brings, other than being a superlative actor is real fierce intelligence. He’s really good at thinking through the text. I mean, I think it’s no surprise he is the artistic director of The Shakespeare Company, and you know for most interpreters of Shakespeare you really need a very rigorous sense of diction and thought. Thought and text have to be aligned and with Shakespeare it requires a real cerebral kind of technique.

And I think approaching the character ultimately, it’s him. He’s the guy doing it. I think where I help is early on in rehearsal, I felt he was doing a wonderful job right off the top, but it felt like his Poirot had a more Sherlock Holmes kind of rhythm to him. Because, you know he’s done such a wonderful job of playing Holmes where everything was super direct, and Holmes is like tunnel focused and everything is to get to the point. Poirot’s not like that.

Poirot is a hedonist. Poirot loves his rich food and his expensive wines and beautiful women. And he is a bit of a showman. In Ludwig’s text he has a lot of stuff where Poirot’s constructed something like the way a magician would present a trick – you sit there and in a second I will show you – this! And he constructs a lot of reveals in a very ostentatious almost vaudevillian kind of way.

So, we almost had to slow down Haysam’s motor. I think his own personal motor is probably more closely aligned to a Holmes-like character who is super fast, super cerebral, super to the point, and instead have him sit back and really enjoy the indulgences of a Poirot and the way he enjoys unfurling the mystery for you in a very showy manner.

JAMES

You know, it’s interesting too with Poirot being as you mentioned a hedonist that perhaps he is more in touch with the psychology and motivation of his suspects.

JOVANNI

Absolutely. I think you’re quite right. Whereas Holmes is much more evidence-driven, science-driven, and data-driven with his kind of process Poirot is about constructing the mindset of the killer. He definitely looks at a murder scene and thinks, “Is this a tidy or an untidy kind of killing? What frame of mind were the perpetrator or perpetrators in? Were they in a hurry? Were they enjoying themselves?” He really tries to pinpoint the psychological makeup and motivators for any kind of crime and match that against his range of suspects. Whereas Holmes is practically on the spectrum where he observes a lot but misses things about the way people work because he’s clinical and robotic in his approach.

Production still Murder on the Orient Express at Vertigo Theatre
Lara Schmitz as Greta Ohlsson, Haysam Kadri as Hercule Poirot, Elizabeth Stepkowski-Tarhan as Princess Dragomiroff in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Agatha Christies’s Murder on the Orient Express adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig and directed by Jovanni Sy. Photo by Tim Nguyen

JAMES

One of the interesting things about Murder on the Orient Express is of course the setting because the play takes place on a train, and that certainly provides challenges for your set designer, Scott Reid and your actors. But it’s also fun to see on stage. Can you talk a little bit about the set design and what it was like to create that world and put the characters into it?

JOVANNI

It has its inherent challenges. Some things are really hard to circumvent as in Ratchet’s sleeping compartment must be next to Mrs. Hubbard’s on one side and Poirot’s on the other. You can’t really get around that. I think the geography of the crime is pertinent to its uncovering. So, some things are set in stone.

It’s a challenge because a train is a confined space and I think we leaned into it as much as possible. We didn’t try to do an abstract representation where a train corridor could suddenly easily accommodate the five people who needed to be in the corridor. So, you know, in that scene where they’re all passing each other, we just leaned into how even in the most luxurious train on earth you still have a problem if it gets crowded when you try to pass each other in a corridor. Or when you have nine people in a room that is literally three by five how do you stage that?

It was tricky and it takes a lot of precision so that people aren’t blocking each other. Fortunately, the sight lines are good. Scott created some really smart conventions like being able to see through the walls from the rooms to the corridor and having walls implied but not completely filled out.

Luigi Riscaldino as Michel the Conductor, Sarah Roa as Countess Andrenyi, Haysam Kadri as Hercule Poirot, Mike Tan as Monsieur Bouc the Vertigo Theatre Production of Agatha Christies’s Murder on the Orient Express adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig and directed by Jovanni Sy. Photo by Tim Nguyen

JAMES

So, I want to talk a little bit about another iconic character because you’re also an actor and earlier this year you were in the world premiere of The Karate Kid – The Musical, and you played Mr. Miyagi, who in the original movie was played by Pat Morita. What was it like to work on that show and become part of the DNA, so to speak, of Mr. Miyagi?

JOVANNI

It was surreal is the only word I have for it. I mean, that was such an iconic movie for me. I was sixteen when it came out. And, Pat Morita, you have to understand, was like an idol to a whole generation of Asian performers, because we were so underrepresented. There were so few figures in television and film that weren’t the stereotypical background kind of guy who was a buffoon or an idiot or just inconsequential. Mr. Miyagi had power and agency and dignity and humour and pathos and Pat Morita did an incredible job. He got an Oscar nomination. So, he’s an iconic figure to so many Asian performers and artists of my generation and subsequent generations.

So, to walk into his shoes was daunting because he created a character that everybody knows – everybody loves, and the challenge was how to interpret it and make it my own and not try to just copy him because I couldn’t even if I tried. Even if I just wanted to say, “Hey, let me just crib, everything Pat Morita did.” I’m not Pat Morita. It wouldn’t work. And, in the end, what made it even more surreal was Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, and Martin Kove they all came out to see the show in St. Louis. Talk about meeting your idols. So, it was an incredible experience.

Director, Actor, Playwright Jovanni Sy

JAMES

I did read somewhere that there are plans for Broadway. Is that correct?

JOVANNI

It’s still in the works. I think if it happened it would probably happen in 2024, but you never know. It could happen. I hope it does. I would love to do that show again.

JAMES

Is that an ambition of yours to get on the Broadway stage?

JOVANNI

You know, it wasn’t. I’m pretty happy with my career in Canada. I mean it’s not an ambition in the sense of one that I would say I actively pursued. There are musical theatre specialists who move to New York, and they’re clearly working towards that trajectory. So it was, I would say more of a fantasy than an ambition. I thought about it the same way I thought it would be great to play shortstop for the Jays, you know, it’s just in the back of my mind. I took no concrete steps to get there. It just sort of happened. But would it be great to be on Broadway? Yeah.

JAMES

I understand that when this opportunity first came up you were busy with a lot of other things and you went, “Nah, I’m not going to do it.” But your wife, Leanna Brodie, had some good career advice for you.

JOVANNI

That’s absolutely true. When I got the call I was directing my thesis play at the University of Calgary. I had just started. I was at the busiest I could have been and I was also scheduled to direct a show in Winnipeg around the time that Karate Kid would’ve happened. So, I thought, you know, I already said I’d do something else, but she said, “Look your friend would understand if you got this. You could pull out of your directing commitment.” Which I ended up doing. But she told me, “If you’re going to do it, don’t just do it half-ass. Do a good job.” And I listened to her. I actually really worked on the video audition. I sent it in still thinking this is ridiculous. There’s no way. But it happened. It just happened and I almost didn’t bother submitting because I thought I’m too busy. Leona is the smartest person I know and always gives very good advice.

Daniel Chen as Victor Fung and John Ng as Tommy Lam in the Vertigo Theatre Premier of Nine Dragons by Jovanni Sy. Directed by Craig Hall. Photo by Tim Nguyen.

JAMES

You’re an actor, director, and you’re also a playwright. Your very own mystery, Nine Dragons, premiered on the Vertigo stage in 2017, which I saw, and I really liked. The story follows Chinese Detective Tommy Lam in 1920s Hong Kong, while he investigates the deaths of several women, and he finds himself battling racism and he risks losing his career, reputation, and maybe even his life. So where did the inspiration for that story come from and what does the future hold for Detective Tommy Lam?

JOVANNI

The funny thing is, I had an image of Tommy’s foil the character Victor Fung, first. I think I saw a picture of a Chinese man in a beautiful tuxedo looking very Noel Cowardesque and I thought, what an interesting man, who is he, why is he dressed like this? And I thought of a Victor Fung like character and I’ve always loved mysteries so the idea to make it noiresque and set it in 1920s Colonial Hong Kong came early.

I was working on this piece in Toronto before I moved out to Vancouver in 2012, but I ran into Craig Hall the artistic director of Vertigo Theatre at a conference in Calgary and we talked about this piece I was writing and he thought, that sounds really interesting. And Craig has his own connection to Hong Kong, and he’s been to Hong Kong a number of times. So, that’s how it started. That’s the connection to Vertigo and why it premiered there. It wouldn’t have happened without Craig.

And what’s in store for Tommy? Craig actually commissioned a prequel, which is another Tommy Lam story that takes place about thirteen years before Nine Dragons. So, we’re talking 1911, Hong Kong and I started working on it. And it may have a future at Vertigo. Jack Grinhaus the current artistic director of Vertigo Theatre and I have been talking about it but it’s early. We’ll see.

JAMES

You know, you’re writing plays and you’re creating this character have you ever thought of writing some Tommy Lam mystery novels? You could write a whole series.

JOVANNI

I haven’t. But you know I love that genre and if I were to turn to long-form fiction, I think I would go in the mystery direction.

John Ng as Tommy Lam and Duval Lang as Henderson in the Vertigo Theatre Premiere of Nine Dragons by Jovanni Sy. Directed by Craig Hall. Photo by Tim Nguyen.

JAMES

So, you not only write mystery, but you also write comedy and congratulations are in order because you recently won the Playwrights Guild of Canada Comedy Award for your play, The Tao of the World. And it’s a free adaptation of William Congreve’s Restoration comedy, The Way of the World. Your modern version takes place in Singapore, and it’s two years after a pandemic and the wealthy elite are making up for lost time by hatching schemes to bed other people’s partners and to swindle each other out of their dynastic fortunes. What’s the story behind the creation of that work?

JOVANNI

It’s really weird. I was at the UofC doing my MFA in directing and I needed to direct a thesis play. It kind of happened coincidentally because I was working on this Nine Dragons prequel which is a totally different beast and I had plans to direct this other play, a Brecht piece and then the faculty had some reservations about the viability of doing that piece so they suggested I do something else. And somebody said, “You know, we’re in the middle of COVID, we could use some laughs. Have you thought about doing a comedy?”

So, I thought, I’ve always loved Restoration comedy. I remember seeing a bunch early in my career and being a fan of a number of them. And I started looking at them and I thought about The Way of the World, but I thought at the same time, how can I take this established piece and try to reinterpret it from modern times because there’s something interesting about a new definition of restoration.

The Restoration comedies are all about the restoration of the monarchy after Cromwell. You know, the years of the Republic. So it’s the restoration of the monarchy coming in because most of the English royalists had been exiled in France. But what does restoration mean today? And to me it really meant the restoration of everyday life after we’ve been shut down.

I started working on it right in the middle of COVID when we were still working remotely, learning remotely. Masks were mandatory. Social distancing was mandatory. And so, what would it be like after COVID? Because I imagine the rich and wealthy would be just as naughty post-COVID as they were post-restoration of the monarchy, there’d be a kind of a giddy bawdiness and licentiousness.

And of course, I wanted to set it in an Asian setting because that’s what I’ve done with a lot of my works is try to recenter the experience to interpret it to a modern audience that includes Asians but doesn’t exclude everyone else. So that’s how it came about and was set in Singapore. It was almost like an experiment that just went really, really well.

JAMES

So, you know, it’s funny you mentioned needing a play and then this comes along. How much of your work do you find is just having the practical thing that you need and then inspiration strikes?

JOVANNI

That happens more often than you’d guess. I hadn’t even thought of it that way. Thank you. Wow. That’s a real, Aha! Yeah. I think it’s born of pragmatism first then the inspiration comes later. Or you know, not even inspiration. It’s like, I’ve got something to solve, so how do I solve it? I’m almost a believer that inspiration’s overrated and that if you frame creativity as a series of puzzles to be solved where you can define the parameters what you would call inspiration comes afterwards because you’ve had something active to work on.

Which is why I love writing in genre. I love the mystery genre. So, genre can actually be liberating because it sets the parameters for you and gives you something to do so you don’t have time to worry about do I have some kind of divine inspiration? You’re just trying to crack a knot, right?

JAMES

Inspiration is problem-solving.

JOVANNI

Yeah.

JAMES

We read mysteries, and we watch them on TV or at the movies, but there’s something extra fun and engaging about going to the theatre and seeing detective fiction. What makes the stage such an ideal and fun medium for experiencing a who-done-it and what sort of fun are audiences in for when they come to see your production of Murder on the Orient Express?

JOVANNI

I think first, it’s ultimately a fair test because you are literally, as an audience member, seeing everything exactly the same as the detective is seeing it. Everything that’s happening is happening in front of your eyes. There are no edits. There’s no selective choosing of things. You are solving the mystery at the same rate and with the same details that the detective has. So, it’s fair.

But the other thing is the implication that you can experience a surprise. The gasp. It’s happening right in front of your eyes – the mystery or shock, or unexpected bit of violence, or an unexpected bit of mayhem – it’s so immediate. And I think that’s why the stage is one of the best places to see mystery because it’s a visceral thing. You get that immediate connection when reading a mystery but it’s not in front of your eyes. You’re not seeing blood or a flash of light or hearing a sound that resonates to your core. So, if you’re going to see Murder on the Orient Express, you’re in for a literal ride. It’s like a train ride. You feel like you’re there on the train confined with the passengers and there’s a sense of danger and a sense of fun.

***

VERTIGO THEATRE presents Agatha Christie’s classic
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
Adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig

Agatha Christie’s MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS features Haysam Kadri as Hercule Poirot, Luigi Riscaldino as Michel the Conductor/ Head Waiter, Stafford Perry as Col. Arbuthnot/Ratchett, Jesse Del Fierro as Mary Debenham, Elinor Holt as Mrs. Hubbard, Alexander Ariate as Hector MacQueen, Mike Tan as Monsieur Bouc, Elizabeth Stepkowski-Tarhan as Princess Dragomiroff, Lara Schmitz as Greta Ohlsson and Sarah Roa as Countess Andrenyi.

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS is Directed by Jovanni Sy, Assistant Direction by Camryn Hathaway, Set & Projection Design by Scott Reid, Costume Design by April Viczko, Assistant Costume Design by Katriona Dunn, Lighting Design by Jonathan Kim, Sound Design & Original Composition by Andrew Blizzard, Assistant Lighting Design by Tauran Wood, Fight & Intimacy Direction by Brianna Johnston, Stage Management by Donna Sharpe, Ashley Rees, and Raynah Bourne.

Interview with Producer/Director Matt Boda: Absurd Hero Productions – Get It Made X

Posted on by James Hutchison

Producer/Director Matt Boda – Absurd Hero Productions

“Where preparation and opportunity meet is what makes luck seem so magical. I think if you prepare yourself for an opportunity, such as selling a movie script, then you can attract that scenario by actively working toward making yourself prepared and making it not so much about luck anymore and making it more about fate.” 

***

Producer/Director Matthew Boda has ambitions of taking his company, Absurd Hero Productions, into the big leagues and producing film and television across multiple genres. I connected with Matt through the Austin Film Festival where my comedy Masquerade had been a finalist in the playwriting category in 2018. After chatting with Matt about that script we got to talking about his love of film and television and I was immediately impressed by his boundless energy and enthusiasm for telling stories and so we set up a time to continue our conversation. I connected with Matt over ZOOM at the start of May to find out more about his personal vision for Absurd Hero Productions and his plan to bring new stories and screenwriters into production through his Get It Made X initiative.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Tell me a little bit about your logo for Absurd Hero productions. What does it mean and what does it symbolizes?

MATT BODA

It’s from the myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus is, you know, a Greek character being punished forever and eternally having to push a boulder up the side of a mountain only to achieve the task and then have the boulder roll back down the mountain and he has to do it all again. Over and over and over. And it becomes an absurd task. There’s no meaning. There’s no reason to push the boulder up the mountain. There is no benefit, but he does it anyway.

It’s also a super hard thing to do. To push that boulder up a mountain every single day. So, it takes a hero’s spirit to be able to accomplish the task and do it anyway, in spite of its meaninglessness. 

And essentially, Albert Camus who is an existential philosopher wrote his own version of the myth of Sisyphus and likened the absurd hero to modern man. Life inherently has no meaning except for the meaning that we give it. 

So, knowing all that philosophy I went out to do one of the most difficult things that there is, and that’s to create a production company from zero not knowing anyone. Not having any direct contacts. Not coming from money. To do an absurd task. To try and become a filmmaker and make a production company and be involved at the highest level of making content that lasts forever and that’s super beneficial to the people that watch it and it felt right to me to do it under the brand name of an Absurd Hero.

JAMES

I have a quote for you by filmmaker Ted Kotcheff. He directed The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz which featured Richard Dreyfuss, First Blood with Sylvester Stalone, Weekend at Bernie’s, a lot of different films and he’s done a lot of television. He said, “Everything about filmmaking tries to distract you from that first, fine, rapturous vision, you have of the film.” I’m wondering how much you agree with that, and how do you keep that spark alive to make you see a film through from idea to screen?

MATT

Well, I agree with it completely because essentially what happens is the vision comes into the mind of the creator. Whatever way you believe it gets there – whether it’s a muse, or it’s God, or its creative energy, or whatever – something inspires the idea in the first place. 

For me, it comes in a flash. I have a vision. I see the whole movie in a moment in my mind’s eye, and it fills me with the desire and motivation to do the work to pull that out of my mind, and put it into the real world, and see what it will look like.

So, saying that everything after that is designed to get in the way of the original vision is completely true, because you have to compromise with the reality of what you can create and your fantasy of what you had envisioned. 

So, it’s like, “Okay I guess I can’t have him on top of the Titanic.” “Well, what if he’s in a little rowboat on the side of a dock on a lake?” “Okay, well does it embody the same theme that you were trying to express for the character on the deck of the Titanic?” “Yeah, it actually does.” “Okay then, let’s put him in the skiff.” “Cool. Problem solved.” That’s the compromise between fantasy and reality that any filmmaker has to go through in order to see their vision go from inception to completion.

JAMES

One of the projects you have in development is called The Container. Where did the idea come from for that project, and how did that develop, particularly in light of the times we’re living in, and how current and significant the subject matter is.

MATT

That project is making its rounds. I’m super proud of it. It scored really well on the Blacklist. Everyone that reads it gives it their praise, and I’m super grateful for that. 

That idea came in a flash from my mind’s eye and that’s usually born from needing to find a solution to a problem. In the beginning when I first started making films my ideas were visions about myself and my own life experiences, and so I started to make art about my life experiences, and I wasn’t getting the kind of response that I wanted to have with the work. It was too personal.

It was me all over everything. Me the director. Me the producer. Me the actor. It felt like a one-man-band in a way that alienates the audience. It makes them feel like they can’t identify with the story because all they see is you trying to work out your own problems on the screen. And I had fallen into that trap a couple of times because I had run with someone telling me to “write what you know.” Which for me was a mistake, because it made me dive into this selfish realm that a lot of people get into where they think they need to show that they can do everything, as opposed to embodying the true spirit of filmmaking which is completely collaborative. 

So, I was stressed out after a big movie that I had personally financed called Blood Sweat and Years, that even though it was shot well and had great music, just fell flat, and I was in need of a new idea. And I was actually in line to go to a movie in the middle of the day and my mind was hijacked, and what I saw was a little girl looking through a crack in a shipping container at the waves and the ocean and when she looked back into the container I saw all these people. They were all Chinese people and they were stuck in the shipping container, and I saw this whole movie in my head and it all ended in this terrible tragedy, and this little girl was the only one who lived to tell about it. In my mind’s eye that’s what I saw. So I immediately went home, and I found out through a little research – and thank God for Google you can go directly to the source – I started finding out that it was true. That before China became the giant manufacturing mogul it is now Chinese people used to flee the country because there were no opportunities in China, and they used to do it via shipping containers coming through ports in America like Long Beach. And I read all these articles, so I started to formulate it around China, and then I realized that all that stuff was actually twenty years old. So, I shifted and I did a bunch of research and I created this framework that took this really neutral approach to writing the movie, that’s about a group of North African migrants stuck in a shipping container. 

It’s eighty-eight pages long, and it’s like a thrill ride that ends with a wallop. It punches you in the gut. It’s a humanitarian film in the same vein of Cary Fukunaga’s film Beasts of No Nation on Netflix or Hotel Rwanda. That’s how The Container came to be.

JAMES

But it would not have existed, I think, unless you had worked, originally on Blood Sweat and Years, because the creative journey of that film involves you doing the previous film and learning from it. So, now how much do you draw upon your personal life? How do you balance that mix of taking from your past experiences to tell a story that isn’t necessarily about you individually, but might reflect some of the themes, feelings, ideas, and experiences you’ve been through?

MATT

It’s really simple. Now, I imagine being someone else. Just like an actor. I imagine what I would do in that person’s situation, but I let them do it just like the actor lets the character do it. So you know, let’s say I was from Eritrea, and I was living on a thousand calories a day, and I had scrounged up every cent I had to try and escape, and I just think what would I do in that situation, but I don’t imagine my face as the person accomplishing it. I imagined the face of a little girl, or the gentleman, you know, that needed something that I’ve never needed in my life but if I did, how would I go about doing it. I put other faces on it and that removes me from the equation so it’s not a self-centred approach. It’s universal.

JAMES

A film from twenty or forty years ago reflects the time they were born in, and yet some films even though they might have been made fifty or sixty years ago, still feel like they have a universal appeal or a universal story. What do you think it is in great films that makes some of them feel timeless?

MATT

It’s definitely making the audience identify with a core theme of the story. So, for instance, in The Container, it poses the question, “As you sit there and complain about what you’re going to eat tonight and how fast your internet is – imagine this: “What would you do if you were in this container and you’d paid a thousand bucks that took you eight months to save and you had your daughter with you and this was your last chance to get out of the country. You know, the country that made your life a living hell. What would you do if you were someone else?” And it takes the audience out of who they are and it makes them reflect on what they have. So, the audience has to identify in a very personal way with what’s happening in your subject matter and what’s happening in your concept, or it’s going to be forgettable.

JAMES

With film you’ve got two hours. In series television like Game of Thrones you have seventy hours. I think the difference in the amount of storytime you have means that film has to be much more concentrated. Much more to the point. Do you think films work best when they have a single protagonist that you’re seeing the story through?

MATT

I think they’re two different mediums that both approach story in a different way. For film, it’s much more focused. It’s like, “What do you want the audience to get out of this one movie, because they’re only going to watch it that one time and then it’s over and the world your telling begins and ends in that movie?” 

Whereas the purpose of a TV show is for people to fall in love with the actors, and they get plot and structure and story through the whole thing but the most rewarding part is being fed this story that feels so real in this episodic way so you can spend so much more time with a character, as opposed to learning a theme.

You know, films to me are themes. Like Fight Club has all these themes you can dissect forever whereas in Game of Thrones I love Tyrian, and I love Sansa. They’re like my sister and my uncle and you know they’re my family because I went through all this hardship with them, and I know what they went through. I know their story and their stories are just like me knowing my best friend’s story who you know maybe he was a drug addict and his dad died. The thing about the episodic story is you love the person, whereas in a film you love the idea and you love the people that are expressing that idea.

Matt on set – Absurd Hero Productions

JAMES

Right, well let’s talk about ideas. What kind of ideas do you enjoy exploring what kinds of stories attract your creative energy?

MATT

Well, you know, nowadays, I’ve just been super focused on executive producer roles where I champion multiple projects. So, I’ve got all these fires burning now and I created this program, Get it Made X, which is essentially a union for non-union writers. 

So, any writer that’s accepted to the program comes into the fold with all the rest of our members, and they all compete for funds that we put into the program as well as they pay membership dues. So, all of that all gets put into a pot. And they compete to make proof of concept films with that money and we make multiple projects so right now I have five of them. 

And I can talk about each one of those projects the same way that I talk about The Container. Because what we do is reverse engineer long-form materials. So, if somebody has a script they love and its scoring well in the screenplay world what we do is have them write a five-page version. Maybe the most pivotal scene that really showcases what the world of the film or the show or whatever it is would be about. And we go that extra mile because I have a production company. I own all the cameras. I have 5000 square feet of office space and everything you’ll need as well as all of the contacts and the relationships and the infrastructure because I’m in Los Angeles and I’ve been doing this for twelve years. 

So, we go right to the source and make these films and then we put these packages together with known entities and then we go to the studios. Because I have contacts at the studios, but they won’t read words on a page from an unknown writer. They just won’t do it. But what they will do is watch a five-minute film that’s well produced.

So, I’m like, “Hey what are you guys looking for?” “Oh, we’re always looking for easy horror stuff.” ” Okay, well I’ve got this thing about a demon baby and a crazy girl next door concept.” “Ok, send me the demon baby thing.” Boom, I text him a link that goes to a proof of concept movie, and he watches it and at the end he goes, “Hey, do you have the full script?” And then we send the book and the full script and all the people that are attached to the project. “Oh, you got the guy from Weeds as the main actor. Or, “Oh you got the guy from Brooklyn Nine Nine to direct it.” Now all the studio has to do is inject funds into a group of artists that are already mobilized, and a product will emerge. That’s what we’ve been doing now, and it’s just awesome. 

JAMES

So, what then is your vision for Absurd Hero Productions in the future? What is your goal.

MATT

What I imagined us to be is like Bad Robot. Bad Robot makes film and television shows across all genres. And if I have the right number of members in Get It Made X, I’ll be able to turn out twelve films across all genres, a year. So, my vault will be full – just filled to the brim with ideas that are packaged on paper and have known talent that have said that they will be a part of the project.

JAMES

Getting a film made is a tough business, so I was wondering how much do you think luck plays a part in a person’s success?

MATT

Where preparation and opportunity meet is what makes luck seem so magical. I think if you prepare yourself for an opportunity, such as selling a movie script, then you can attract that scenario by actively working toward making yourself prepared and making it not so much about luck anymore and making it more about fate. 

JAMES

You’re prepared to take advantage of the opportunities when they present themselves.

MATT

And luck is opportunity in disguise. You know what I’m saying? If you’re prepared for the opportunity and you get it, it’s going to feel like luck, but no it wasn’t really luck it’s because you were ready to take on that opportunity.

Matt – Early Days in LA

JAMES

You said you’ve been doing this for 12 years in LA. What brought you to LA? How did you get there?

MATT

I lived in Florida, and I started in Miami. I was in a rock band until I was 25 and I got way too caught up in that scene in terms of just all it has to offer in terms of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. 

So, I had to rebuild my belief system mentally from the ground up about what I expected out of life and what my life was going to be now that the rock band was over. I made a lot of decisions in terms of, you know, not allowing chemical dependency to become this everyday thing in my life. I had to shed that whole older beginning of being in a rock band, and of being rebellious, and being the lead singer, and being the center of attention.

And that’s how I ended up in LA when I was 25. You know, new brain power and new motivation, and that’s when I started from the ground up. And I rode a bike. I didn’t have a car. I rode a bike and went to any film place, and I literally said I’d work for free for a week to show you guys who I am and my attitude and to see if you guys want to hire me. 

And it was no, no, no, no and then a lighting rental house said yes, and they hired me, and I learned lighting, and I met people. I got into the union for camera and lighting, and I spent the next eight years working on movies and television and being a lighting technician, and I did camera a bunch too.

JAMES

But I think the first 25 years of your life has been really informative for you in terms of your journey and who you have become.

MATT

Yeah, I just wish I didn’t waste so much time. You know what I’m saying. You can get off the elevator at any floor. For me, I decided to go to the sub-basement for some reason.

JAMES

How important is forgiving yourself for those years to having a more positive and better future now?

MATT

As an artist, you know, having internal conflicts is the reason why I feel I need to have a voice. I feel like the only way to dissipate these internal pressures for me is through art.

Matt on Set – Absurd Hero Productions

JAMES

What filmmakers and films do you find inspiring? Who speaks to you? Who do you get excited about? 

MATT

I collect 11 x 17 movie and TV posters. Right now I’m looking at posters for Game of Thrones, The Tudors, Neon Genesis which is an anime from Japan, Silver Linings Playbook by David O. Russell, Cary Fukunaga – Beasts of No Nation all the way to stuff like Blue is the Warmest Colour, which is a crazy indie that came out of France.

But my favourite stuff is historical fiction. Like The Last Kingdom which is about the Danish coming over to England when England was multiple nations in the eighth and ninth century during the reign of King Alfred the Great. And I’ve watched that series, like three times and it’s got four seasons now and I’ve watched each season three full times and they’re ten hours each. Same thing with Game of Thrones, you know, every single night I’m watching a piece of something, you know, all the way to shows like Billions, or Homelands.

JAMES

So, having lived a different life when you were younger and being your age now what would you say to your younger self? What sort of advice would you give to your younger self?

MATT

You know pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. I took the crazy route and then wallowed in my suffering so a lot of my joy was robbed from me.

I guess I would just say, “Just go easy on yourself. Don’t beat yourself up so much. You know, dude just keep going. Who cares? Does it really matter that much? Just try and don’t give up, because if you give up – it’s definitely not gonna happen.”

The worst part is that for the vast majority it never happens for them. They write three or four scripts and then they don’t write any more. And that’s it. It’s done. They’ve written a bunch of scripts that maybe placed in a few contests, but they never got made. But Get It Made X is going to be a way for people that are in the non-union realm to compete with everybody that’s in the union realm without having to wait to win the lottery – so to speak – and we want to do that for as many people as possible.

***

Download PDF version of Interview with Producer Director Matt Boda
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview Trevor Rueger: Actor, Director, Dramaturge

Posted on by James Hutchison

Trevor Rueger – Photograph by Hannah Kerbes

“When you sit down as a playwright and you start to think about a character that’s going to inhabit your world, that’s a piece of coal. Until you put that piece of coal under pressure, you’re not going to reveal all of its facets. So, characters have to be put under pressure. And that’s where you as a writer, and your audience is going to discover all of the facets of that character. And you’re going to turn that piece of coal into a diamond. With facets that shine and shape and inform. It’s pressure. But the pressure can be lost if the writer gives it too much time.”

Trevor Rueger has been an actor, director, writer and dramaturge for over 30 years. In 2011 he received the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance as Billy Bibbit in Theatre Calgary/Manitoba Theatre Centre’s production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. As an actor, he’s been seen at Theatre Calgary, Lunchbox Theatre, Sage Theatre, Vertigo Theatre, Stage West, and the Garry Theatre.

His directing credits include When Girls Collide, Columbo: Prescription Murder and Columbo Takes the Rap for Vertigo Theatre, Ai Yah! Sweet and Sour Secrets, Life After Hockey and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) for Lunchbox Theatre, Heroes for Sage Theatre, SHE and Matadora for Trepan Theatre, Medea and 33 Swoons for Rocky Mountain College and Courage for Lost Boy Productions

For 20 years he was an ensemble member and writer for Shadow Productions. Trevor was also an original ensemble member of Dirty Laundry which is a weekly improvised soap opera and for 10 years he was chair, writer, and producer of the Betty Mitchell Awards which recognizes excellence in Calgary Theatre.

I’ve worked with Trevor several times over the last decade as a dramaturge and I’ve always found his feedback on my plays to be insightful and constructive. He asks the right questions. Questions that make me think about my story and characters in a manner that results in a better draft.

I sat down with Trevor at Alberta Playwrights Network where he’s been the executive director for the past eleven years to talk with him about his career and his approach to acting, directing, and working with playwrights. Our interview took place in late January, a few months before the current pandemic and lockdown, and so the impacts of COVID-19 on the Canadian Theatre Community were not a part of our conversation.

JAMES HUTCHISON

I’m curious, how did you get interested in theatre and what were some of those early experiences and influences?

TREVOR RUEGER

I didn’t get involved in theatre until high school. I come from a family that was certainly not against the arts. We as kids were just allowed to find our own way. So, when I was a kid, for me, it was sports for the most part.

I was a middle child with six years difference between me and my younger sibling out on an acreage where the nearest neighbour, who was five years older than me, was two miles away. So, I spent a lot of time by myself inventing games and inventing sports and I was quite imaginative and creative, and I was a bit of a gregarious kid as my mother would state.

So, in high school, my mom said, “Well, you should probably take a drama class because you’re such a ham.” And I said, “Okay.” So, I did.

And on the first day of the drama class, it was announced that auditions for the school play were happening that afternoon, and so I signed up for an audition. The play was called Present Tense and it’s a fun little play about a kid in the 50s who’s having trouble with his girlfriend and he imagines that his girlfriend is having all of these wild and crazy love affairs with everyone but him. So, I auditioned for the play and the next day I was cast as the lead in the show.

JAMES

Had you not been cast, who knows?

TREVOR

Oh, exactly. Absolutely. And so, I took drama and played sports all the way through high school. And there was a bit of a pull between my basketball coach and my drama teacher as to which I should focus on. And when I was in grade 12, there were some conflicts between my basketball schedule and my drama schedule and suddenly my schedule all worked out, because unbeknownst to me until I found out many years later, my basketball coach and my drama teacher had gone behind my back and negotiated my schedule.

High School Years

JAMES

Oh, that’s cool. So, then you went off to the University of Calgary to pursue a degree?

TREVOR

I didn’t start out pursuing a degree in theatre. I did one year of General Studies and then I was going to go off into the Education Department where I was going to become a math teacher. But I took drama 200, which was the introductory acting class with Grant Reddick. Halfway through the course you get your grade, and you have a little meeting with the instructor.

So, I go into Grant’s office and sit down and Grant says, “The work is really coming along and you’re really doing well and here’s your grade. How are you doing in your other drama courses?” And I said, “I’m not taking any other drama courses, I’m actually, in General Studies and going into the Education Department.” He went, “Oh, no.” And I said, “What do you mean?” He went, “You should probably take the other drama classes.” And I went, “Okay.”

So, I went home and had a challenging conversation with the parents about switching my major and going into the drama department.

JAMES

How did you approach that? I mean, you said they were pretty open but a number of years ago there was more of a thought that you picked a career and stuck with it. You didn’t have options. Now days people will have four or five careers.

TREVOR

That was certainly their major concern. This does not seem like a career choice. This does not seem like something you can make a living at. This sounds like something, that while it may satisfy you in one way, is going to be incredibly challenging. And so, they’re really looking out for me, right?

JAMES

As parents do.

TREVOR

Yeah, absolutely. It was a difficult conversation. It was three or four years later that I finally realized they were acting out of love and protection and wanted the best for me. But I kind of had them over a barrel because they had made a promise to all of their kids that if you went to university or college they would pay for it. So, I threw the gauntlet down and said, “That’s fine. I am out of here and you’re really reneging on your promise.” So, there was some negotiation and my dad kept pushing me to do a fallback degree afterward. But oddly enough, all the way through my university I was working professionally as an actor. I was studying during the day and doing shows at night.

JAMES

What kind of shows?

TREVOR

I got my first paycheck from Stephen Hair for doing a straight play called Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie at Pleiades Theatre back in that time. I think I played a police officer who had six lines.

Pleiades Mystery Theatre – Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie

JAMES

So, you’re in university and right away you get taken in by the Calgary theatre community. How do you think that helped you build your career here in the city?

TREVOR

I have to take a step back slightly because I already knew a lot about the Calgary theatre community before university because my high school drama teacher Kathryn Kerbes was a professional actor and did some shows while she was a teacher. And her husband Hal Kerbes was quite well connected and a fantastic artist and actor, singer, and costumer. He did it all. In fact, our high school drama class was thrown a party by Hal and Kathryn Kerbes at their home after we graduated where they invited all of their theatre friends over. And so, at that point, I was already quite well immersed and I already knew a few of the people who were part of the cast of my first Pleiades show.

JAMES

So, how do you approach a character? How do you get into the mind of the person you’re going to be? The character you’ll be portraying.

TREVOR

I start big. I start with a big wide canvas. And then I bring the lens into smaller and smaller and smaller details. The first thing I look at is the narrative journey and arc of the character. And then figuring out within that arc what the character wants. That to me is the fundamental question approaching any material. What does the character want? Then once I discovered that I ask how does the character fit into the story? Then I start to look at the text. What does my character say? What does my character say about myself? What do other characters say about my character?

And then I start to develop a physical vocabulary that comes from the world around me and the world that we’re creating in the rehearsal hall and then ultimately on stage. If I’m in a family drama one of my tricks is to look at my relatives and steal their moves. I’ll decide within the family structure who is the most influential on my character, and then I’ll pick up their mannerisms.

So, for instance, I was playing Happy in a production of Death of a Salesman at the Garry Theatre directed by Sharon Pollock. And I just watched the physical mannerisms of the actor who was playing Willie, and the actor playing my older brother Biff and it wasn’t mimicry, but I just went, with a similar physical vocabulary.

JAMES

Any particularly fond memories of a role that you really enjoyed working through and capturing,

TREVOR

I’ve enjoyed a lot of the work I’ve done but the work I did as a young actor with Sharon Pollock at the Garry Theatre was really great stuff to be able to cut my teeth on. The Garry Theatre was a pretty amazing experience because I was directed by her in roles that I would never have had an opportunity to even audition for at other theatres in Calgary or across the country. I played Alan Strang in Equus, I played Happy in Death of a Salesman and I played two or three characters in a production of St. Joan. But I was so green. I was absorbing the work without actually being able to articulate what I was doing.

Cast from the 2016 Stage West Calgary Production of Suite Surrender by Michael McKeever

JAMES

What was it like for your family to come and see you on stage?

TREVOR

They were always supportive, and they came to see as much of the stuff that I was in as they could. And my dad was quite gregarious as well and spent a fair amount of time telling stories in various pubs in and around Forest Lawn, and I would go and meet him every once in a while in the afternoon for a beer after class. And going through university my dad was always, “ You know you could get your education degree.” And in year two it was, “You could get a real estate license.” Year three it was, “You know, you could probably turn these drama skills into sales. I know a guy who owns a car dealership. You could sell cars on weekends. Or you could always learn to be a backhoe operator.” So, he was always just going, “Get something else to fall back on. It doesn’t have to be another four-year degree.” And my dad would introduce me when friends would come over to the table as this is my son he’s going to university. Well, finally there was that day my dad introduced me to one of his pals who’d never met me before as, “My son. He’s an actor.” I went alright.

Realizing the divas are about to discover they’ve been roomed together, assistant Mr. Pippet jumps into the arms of hotel GM Mr. Dunlap

JAMES

So, tell me about what attracts you to directing and what type of shows are you attracted to?

TREVOR

Here’s the thing that I discovered which leads me very well into the world of being a dramaturge. It’s not that I dislike the performance aspect of being an actor. I quite enjoy it. I love putting on the costume. I love walking out in front of an audience. I love hearing them react and knowing that you’ve had an effect on them in some way. But when you get into the run of a show, it’s the law of diminishing returns. So, what I discovered when I started directing, which has led me into dramaturgy, is I love making big discoveries. And that’s the rehearsal hall. It’s the same way as I was just discussing how I approach a character right. Starting with this big broad canvas. So those big discoveries. What is this world that we’re going to create? Who are the people who inhabit this world? How do they connect to each other? What are we telling an audience? What are we showing? What are they seeing? All tied back to, we’re supporting the work of the playwright.

The 2010 Theatre Calgary Production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Dale Wasserman. Based on the novel by Ken Kesey. Directed by Miles Potter.

JAMES

How did you end up getting involved in dramaturgy?

TREVOR

It was working with Sharon Pollock. It really was. It changed the notion of how I look at work and how I look at plays. And at that point, I had no idea what dramaturgy was, but she looks at work as a director, as a writer, as an actor, and with such a writer’s eye, and with such dramaturgical care for the work that it made me read differently.

Again, we were doing Death of a Salesman and in our first read through the actor, playing Willy Loman made a choice with a line delivery on about page eight or nine. And it was our first read-through and Sharon stopped there and went, “That’s a very interesting choice that you’re making. I just want to warn you, let’s not get trapped into that yet because while you do say that and that could be the emotional content of what you’re saying here – forty pages from now you say this.” And I thought – how is she on page eight, and on page forty at the same time, and it was because she had a concept or saw the whole. And it made me start to look at work differently. As an actor to look at work differently. As a director. And then realizing a few years later, oh, that’s dramaturgy. That’s dramaturgy – defending the work of the playwright and seeing the big idea within that world.

Directed by Trevor Rueger

JAMES

I find it takes a couple of reads to understand the connection between page eight and page forty because on a first read you don’t always see the connection between the two.

TREVOR

Absolutely. Though, as a dramaturg it’s not that I don’t give work multiple readings before actually crafting a response to a playwright but I generally make my notes on the first reading because for me – what the playwright has asked me to do as the dramaturge is to be their very first audience. And an audience is only going to see a work once. So, I approach it with that mindset. So, I will read it and make my big notes and observations. Then usually upon a second or third reading, I start to be able to see, “Oh, hang on, my bad. I misread that. Oh, I see, that connects to that.” Or, “Mmmm, it seems to be that the idea is shifting or has shifted or wants to shift.”

JAMES

This is why I think it’s very important not to share the work too soon. Because if you share it too soon you can never get that first reader back. Although to help make it fresh again one of the things I find useful is to put the work back into the drawer for six months.

TREVOR

Absolutely. So much of my practice, as a director has touched on that kind of notion. I feel that within the Canadian theatre system, we do not have enough time to rehearse nor do we have enough time to let the work germinate for the artists because of the commercial aspect of things, right, that you have to create a new product virtually monthly or bimonthly. Rehearsal periods are truncated and the work just gets rushed to the stage. So, for me as a director wherever possible I do five-hour days with my cast instead of an eight-hour rehearsal day. We’ll do eight hours for the first couple of days and then we’ll shift as soon as possible to a five-hour day.

JAMES

What do you find the shorter hours do for them?

TREVOR

They come back the next day fresh. They’re still working eight hours. They’re not doing eleven and twelve-hour days. So, they’re actually doing eight hours of work but you only have access to them for five. And that creates within the rehearsal hall a demand to be focused. People come in fresh and you can usually start those final days of rehearsal at noon. So it’s like 12 to 5. So, you come in fresh because you’ve had a morning. You’ve had an evening. You’ve had an opportunity to do some work. You’ve had an opportunity to think about the work. You’ve had an opportunity to reflect on notes. As opposed to coming home at the end of an eight hour day throwing some food in your face, trying to learn your lines, getting up the next morning and taking a look at the work you’re going to be doing the next day. It’s all so exhausting. It’s also exhausting for a director and a stage manager.

Jamie Matchullis as Jennifer, Chantelle Han as Lilly, Ben Wong as Charlie, and Kelsey Verzotti as Jade in the Lunchbox Theatre production of Ai Yah! Sweet and Sour Secrets by Dale Lee Kwong. Directed by Trevor Rueger – Photograph by Benjamin Laird

JAMES

So, tell me about APN.

TREVOR

The Alberta Playwrights Network is a membership-driven organization devoted to supporting, developing, and nurturing the work and the playwright through education, advocacy, outreach, and any other resource or technology that we can provide our membership.

JAMES

You’ve been running APN for eleven years. Where do you think you were as an organization when you started and where do you think you are now?

TREVOR

APN, as I’ve always known it, was a healthy, vibrant, energized organization. And the organization that I inherited, certainly was that. Strong membership base. Pretty interesting programming that people were taking advantage of. But over the last eleven years, the biggest thing that I’ve seen shift and change and alter is the theatrical landscape.

When I came into the organization Canada Council had just paid for a research paper to be written by Ben Henderson who was with Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre and Martin Kinch who was with Playwrights Theatre Center in Vancouver. Both organizations very much like APN. They wrote a paper called From Creation to Production that talked about the new play development model, as it existed in Canada, and as it existed in the UK and in some parts of the United States. And at that time, it was a pretty standard that a play gets selected for a workshop. A play gets developed. A play gets produced. Or a playwright gets developed and produced.

There were a lot of ideas in there that I looked at and I read. “Okay, is APN doing this? Yeah, we seem to be doing that. All right. That seems to be successful. We seem to be doing this. That seems okay. We don’t seem to be doing this. I don’t know if our organization could ever do this.”

So, I enacted a five-year plan at that point which focused on playwright advocacy and doing more work and providing greater agency for our members by getting their plays into the hands of people that might produce them. So, through that came a number of things including the catalogue which featured plays ready for production by our members. Fast forward ten years later, that paper, From Creation to Production, is completely out of date.

JAMES

It’s now a historic document.

TREVOR

Yeah, absolutely. And so that’s why APN with funding from the Canada Council is currently engaging in this national research project, to discover – who we are and where we are as a nation – and as producers and creators and playwrights and theatre companies – and trying to figure out what the landscape is as it pertains to new play development, new play creation, new play curation and to find out what we can do.

Mike Czuba, Kira Bradley, Melanie Murray Hunt, and Trevor Rueger workshopping new work with APN

JAMES

Well considering where we are right now can you talk a little bit about diversity and inclusion as an organization.

TREVOR

Three years ago, at a board retreat, one of our board members brought up as a point of discussion that we don’t seem to be doing a lot of work in the realm of diversity which lead to a really great conversation that we had never had as an organization. Because our organization has always been open, and available, to anyone and everyone.

JAMES

If you’re a playwright, call us.

TREVOR

If you’re a playwright, call us. We don’t discriminate based on age, race, country of origin, religious background, sexuality, or sexual identity. None of that has ever been a part of our membership process. And we’ve never asked those questions, nor did we ever care to. So that led us to the discovery that while that may be our internal belief that may not be our external perception.

And as we’ve done some surveys and spoken to diverse theatre creators about this what we discovered is not that the outside perception was necessarily wrong, but that the outside perception was different from our internal belief. We believed that we were an open door for everyone, but what we discovered is we have to take that door out to people and let them know that we exist and that we have this belief?

JAMES

It’s not enough to just have the door open.

TREVOR

Exactly. So, we’ve held a couple of meetings with diverse artists from across a number of disciplines both in Calgary and Edmonton. We’re also undergoing a process with the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and there’s a number of Calgary theatre companies that have gotten together for two or three meetings to have frank and open discussions about equity, diversity, and inclusion that are chaired and convened by diverse artists which has been really eye-opening to us.

We just got some money from Calgary Arts Development, to dig into this work a little deeper. So, we’ve just hired what we’re calling a Community Outreach Ambassador, who for a period of time is going to go out and engage with diverse and underrepresented communities and just have frank and honest conversations with them about what our organization does. Here’s who we are. Do you have creators? Do you have writers? What can we offer you? Is there anything that we could provide that would assist you on your artistic journey?

By the end of this year we’ll probably be creating some value statements that we will publish on our website and those value statements around equity, diversity, and inclusion will trickle down and be at the forefront of thoughts regarding programming.

For ten years Trevor Rueger was the chair, writer, and producer of the Betty Mitchell Awards. The Betty Mitchell Awards recognize excellence in Calgary’s Professional Theatre Community. Photograph by Jasmine Han

JAMES

So, let’s talk about dramaturgy. How do you engage with the playwright? What works best?

TREVOR

For me, dramaturgy is a philosophy. And the philosophy is simply about helping the playwright find the ideas, both big and small in the world that they’re trying to create. I tend to start every dramaturgical session by asking the playwright, “Tell me about you and tell me about your work. And tell me about the creative process that you’ve been engaged in thus far and tell me what you want to say.” A lot of the questions and feedback that I tend to formulate, as I’m reading a work generally always come back to, “What are you trying to say? What do you want the play to say? What do you want the audience to think, feel, and be saying when they’re walking out of the theatre? What’s the experience you want to take them through?” So that’s always where I start a conversation. And that becomes a touchstone from which we can negotiate.

JAMES

Do you have any particular way of breaking down scripts?

TREVOR

There are three things that I really focus on. One is character. If I was to pick up this script as an actor or a director, based on what I’m seeing right now, would I be able to either give a performance, akin to what the playwright has written, or as a director get to a performance that’s akin to what the playwright has written. That’s usually where I have a lot of questions about the character and the character journey. To me, it starts with character, then it moves into structure. How is the world structured? How is your narrative structure? And then my third one is time. I think the notion of time is overlooked by emerging playwrights.

JAMES

What do you mean by time?

TREVOR

What I mean by time is how much time expires in the world of your play. Because time has a powerful effect within a narrative in terms of an emotional state. When I teach my introduction to playwriting, I use the epilogue at the end of Death of a Salesman as an example of time. Linda is standing at Willy’s grave and in the reality of the play he passed two or three days ago. She’s got this beautiful speech about, “I can’t cry Willy. I can’t cry. Every time I hear the screen door open, I expect it’s you. I can’t cry.” And I always ask playwrights in the course, “Okay, so that’s three days ago, but let’s imagine she’s standing at the grave a year later and says those exact same words.”

JAMES

It totally changes everything.

TREVOR

It totally changes everything, right? The audience now is getting a completely different story. And all you’ve done is change the element of time. The actor is going to play it differently. The director is going to approach it differently. So, that’s what I mean by the notion of time, and how time is important and sometimes we give a story too much time. It becomes too epic and the hero’s journey loses all of its stakes.

When you sit down as a playwright and you start to think about a character that’s going to inhabit your world, that’s a piece of coal. Until you put that piece of coal under pressure, you’re not going to reveal all of its facets. So, characters have to be put under pressure. And that’s where you as a writer, and your audience is going to discover all of the facets of that character. And you’re going to turn that piece of coal into a diamond. With facets that shine and shape and inform. It’s pressure. But the pressure can be lost if the writer gives it too much time.

L to R: Col Cseke, Kathryn Kerbes & Trevor Rueger in an APN workshop for Saviour by Maryanne Pope – January 2019

JAMES

I really like the fact that you’re talking character, structure, and time, because then it doesn’t matter whether it’s comedy – doesn’t matter whether it’s a tragedy – because those function in every story. And those things are the elements the story is built out of.

Okay, I have one final question. Speaking as a dramaturge you’re working with a new playwright. He’s written a new play called Hamlet. What are your dramaturgical notes on Hamlet because it’s a pretty good play?

TREVOR

Yeah, it’s pretty good. One question would be, “Do you feel that the Fortinbras plot is overwritten for what thematically you think it’s giving you?” Because that’s the plot that always gets cut. And I ask people when I’m teaching my introductory playwriting course, “In Hamlet, how long from the first scene on the parapets of Elsinore castle to the end of the play? How much time has expired in the real world?”

JAMES

You know, I’ve never thought about it, but it feels like it’s a lot of time. Well because he travels to England and comes back. I don’t know. A month. Two months?

TREVOR

Six months.

JAMES

Six months.

TREVOR

Six months in order to travel by boat to and from England. And there is a reference to six or seven months actually later in the text. But if Hamlet was to be that slow and wishy-washy for seven months…

JAMES

…he wouldn’t have our sympathy. We’d be frustrated with him.

TREVOR

Yeah, we’d want to punch him in the face. So, our mind shortens it to an acceptable amount of time. Yeah, I could see how he would have difficulty making a choice in two months. But you know, if I’m really thinking about the fact that it’s taking him six to seven months to make a decision, I’m starting to turn off the character. Yeah, so maybe you want to take a look at time.

I did a speech for a seniors group at Theatre Calgary many years ago about dramaturgy and I created a fictional case study on if I was to dramaturg Hamlet, but it was like, draft one, right? So, Shakespeare comes to me and he goes, “Okay, I got this great idea for a play. Here’s what’s going to happen. Kid comes back from college because his dad’s died. And then his mom is sleeping with his uncle and his uncle killed his dad.”

“Oh, that sounds really great.”

“Yeah. And then he enacts revenge.”

“Okay, great. Question. Did he witness the murder?”

“No, he did not witness the murder.”

“Did somebody witness the murder?”

“No, no, no. This is how the uncle is getting away with it. Nobody witnessed the murder.”

“So how does Hamlet know that his uncle did it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you said he exacts revenge on his uncle for the murder of his father?”

“Yeah?”

“So how does he know his uncle killed his father?”

“Ah, yeah, I see what you’re saying. (Pause) Ghost of his dad?”

“Ghost of his dad! Good idea. Let’s have him show up.”

Alberta Playwrights’ Network is a not-for-profit provincial organization of emerging and established playwrights, dramaturgs, and supporters of playwriting. Our members come from across the province in both rural and urban communities, with the largest portion of our membership residing in Calgary and Edmonton. We strive to be a truly province-wide organization, with representation from all corners of the province. Alberta Playwrights’ Network exists to nurture Albertan playwrights and provide support for the development of their plays. APN promotes the province’s playwrights and plays to the theatre community while building and fostering a network of playwrights through education, advocacy, and outreach.

DOWNLOAD – James Hutchison Interviews Trevor Rueger: Actor, Director, Dramaturge

This image links to an interview with Matt Dy the Director of Script Competitions at the Austin Film Festival

A Christmas Carol by James Hutchison at Johnson City Community Theatre Tennessee

Posted on by James Hutchison

Scrooge was in love – once long ago. This must be clearly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the tale you are about to hear.

That’s not exactly how A Christmas Carol begins. No, it begins with Marley was dead and looooong buried. Marley was Scrooge’s business partner and only friend in the world, but Scrooge had once been in love. That is true. He had loved Belle. They were engaged. His life could have been very different and that’s what makes Scrooge such a tragic and sympathetic character.

This Christmas, 176 years after the story was first published, the Johnson City Community Theatre is producing my big cast version of a Christmas Carol from Thursday, December 5th to Saturday, December 22nd. The production is being directed by Melanie Yodkins and stars Tom Sizemore as Ebenezer Scrooge. I connected with Melanie and Tom early in November to talk with them about the Johnson City Community Theatre and the production of the play.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Tell me a little bit about the Johnson City Community Theatre.

Director Melanie Yodkins

MELANIE YODKINS

Johnson City Community Theatre is the longest consecutively running community theatre in the entire state of Tennessee and next year will be our 108th season. The patrons have always kept it going. The people who love to perform. The people who love to be in the productions.

We have an archive going all the way back 108 years with photographs and production brochures and memorabilia. We’ve got folks who have been here forever. Generation after generation.

That’s really the joy of community theatre. Family is really the biggest piece. My husband Jason and my son Andrew are in the play. My son is a year old and cute as the dickens.

TOM SIZEMORE

No pun intended.

MELANIE

No pun intended. I literally only have them walking across the stage and they light the lamps in the street scenes. Andrew is definitely not old enough to handle much more than that. My husband and I actually met on that stage six years ago. We met and fell in love. We were doing a Christmas play, and we started dating on December 18th. We were married less than two years later. And just before our third wedding anniversary, Andrew was born and now he gets to perform on the same stage.

JAMES

But, isn’t that nice. We were talking about history and so when your son is twenty years old there will be a production photo of him and his dad in the play. So, what do you think theatre provides a community?

MELANIE

I think people crave story. I think they crave that connection with literature with the past with people with opposing viewpoints, and I think theatre allows those doors to just be blown wide open, to allow for people to see and to experience things that otherwise they would not.

Actor Tom Sizemore

TOM

And with the times we’re living in people can be transported to, in this case, Victorian England and so it’s a way for them to feel better and feel good about things that maybe in other areas or other walks of life they’re not feeling so good about. And I think it’s a wonderful way for children to develop self-esteem, self-image and confidence.

JAMES

How young were you when you got on the stage, Tom?

TOM

Well, I’ve been doing community theatre for about twenty years. But my parents always said that I was singing before I could talk. I’ve been singing my whole life and after college and having been in a few musical productions it just made sense for me to branch out and do some non-musicals as well.

JAMES

You’ve had a lot of vocal and musical training and I’m wondering when you’re doing a play like a Christmas Carol, which is not a musical, how does your vocal training impact your ability to portray a character?

TOM

Quite a bit, actually. There are moments in this play that are sublime – that really tug at the heartstrings – that are very tender – that are very touching. And so, from a vocal standpoint, and especially in a smaller, more intimate venue, which is what is here at the theatre in Johnson City I’m really trying to use different vocal techniques to bring out some tenderness – to bring out in this character, some vulnerability. Which I definitely think should be there. But at the same time when the spirits are aggravating me to death and wanting me to see things that I really don’t want to see and I don’t want to deal with – then my disapproval or my impatience with that whole situation comes out and I use a lot of vocal techniques to let them know that I’m not happy.

JAMES

So, Tom, you and Melanie are talking to me from a room in your home that is filled with Christmas Carol memorabilia. Clearly this story is a love and a passion for you.

TOM

It is. I told Melanie that this is a dream come true for me. I had played Marley in a previous production but to play the old miser is something I’ve always wanted to do. I grew up in the Washington DC area and it was a tradition for us to go to Ford’s Theatre, every Christmas and see their production of Christmas Carol. I’ve been fortunate because I’ve been able to meet Charles Dickens’ great-grandson and his great, great-grandson and to have been to Dickens’ home in London. When I was growing up the story was one that I just loved, and I’ve seen every version that I could find whether it was film or television or just in any media. And then I started collecting things that are related to that including a 1916 poster from a version of A Christmas Carol, and I actually have a silent movie and was produced by Thomas Edison.

JAMES

You’ve been prepping for this role for a long time.

TOM

I have.

The Ghost of Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge in the Johnson City Community Theatre Production of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison. Directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography

JAMES

Melanie, I’m curious to know what resonated with you about my particular adaptation?

MELANIE

I read over fifty scripts and when I was reading through your script what it provided that no other script did was the ability to add my own creative flair to the story. And you had already written in several things that I wanted to do. For example, the part where Christmas Future comes out of the box and wraps all of the chains around Scrooge and then Scrooge ends up in the box and I wanted to do that very same thing and it was already written in your script.

And I was reading it myself but I decided I needed more voices so I could just sit and listen to the voices telling the story so I could visualize it. So, I put together a table reading with some folks who I trusted and I just sat there and I listened. And it just resonated so deeply with me. And it was a no brainer. I was like, “This is the one I want. This is the one I want to do.”

JAMES

So, tell me a little bit then about some of the things you’re doing in terms of design elements for your vision of the story?

MELANIE

Andrew Whitman is our set designer. He’s actually one of my students from eons ago. He was in high school doing a summer arts program and I was one of the teachers running the program. And he has since graduated from college and worked at the Barter Theatre, the equity theatre up in Virginia. And so, I asked him to pitch me some ideas after reading the script himself. And one of the things that he brought up was that he wanted the desk to also be Scrooges bed and Scrooges tomb.

So, we’ve built this gargantuan desk. It’s big enough that Tom can fit on top of it. And Tom can also fit inside of it with another person. We really wanted to play on that concept that the desk represented Scrooges Empire. It really is his idol. It really is his life and then to have him buried in it or entombed in it we thought would be a really poignant way to drive home that little nugget. And then we also have it on a three-foot-high platform. So, I’ve got two staircases that kind of move around this platform so you can create different spaces based on where the stairs are so for example when they’re both in front of it that’s when it’s Scrooge and Marley’s. So, it’s this homage to the great and powerful desk and Scrooge.

JAMES

One of the most challenging parts for me to write was the scene where Belle leaves Scrooge. I rewrote that a number of times because I needed to make it very clear what was going on there. I love that the older Scrooge watching the scene tells his younger self to “Go after her you fool.” That’s a wonderful moment but we wouldn’t feel anything unless we had the earlier scenes where we see some real tenderness and love between them.

MELANIE

You have to feel something for Scrooge, or it wouldn’t matter. It’s not enough to know that he is who he is. You have to understand how he got to be the way he is. And you have to understand what he sacrificed to become that person without even realizing that he was sacrificing it.

You know, the first time the actors playing young Scrooge and Belle went through that scene their levels just kept going up and up and up until they were actually yelling at each other. And all of a sudden she says, “Are you not miserable?” And he just looks at her and there’s this dead silence there for a minute and you just sit there holding your breath. And, then she goes on to say, “I have no choice but to release you. And, I hope you’re happy in the life that you’ve chosen instead of a life with me and I will always mourn the life that we could have had.” And she leaves him standing there absolutely shredded.

  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.
  • The Johnson City Community Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography.

JAMES

Tom, what are your thoughts about Scrooge’s journey to redemption?

TOM

By the end of the play he needs to show how deeply affected he is by what he has been shown, but he resists and fights it tooth and nail and he tries to make excuses. And one of the other ways I’ve looked at it is Scrooge is a businessman and being a businessman he’s smooth and persuasive and he’s used to getting his own way and when he doesn’t that’s not a feeling that he is very comfortable with. But I also think there is a humourous aspect to it as well. For instance, when the Ghost of Jacob Marley asks him, “Do you believe in me or not?” Melanie has blocked the scene so that Marley is only about an inch from my face. And then Scrooge says, “No, I do not.”

JAMES

Why do you think A Christmas Carol resonates today so many years after it was originally written?

MELANIE

I think there is a little bit of Scrooge in every single person. To the extent that we get wrapped up in me, me, me, my, my, my, this is my world, this is what I’m doing. These are my goals. This is my focus. And then all of a sudden, Christmas comes around and we’re like, oh, hey, we can give ten dollars to a charity or we can collect food for the food bank or we can give gifts to people that they’re going to love. But then you still have people who don’t even want to do that.

I love the fact that this truly is a story of redemption which makes a really beautiful connection to Christmas too. Because if we think about the biblical side of it Christmas represents the time of Christ’s birth and the beginning of redemption and you kind of have a really nice parallel with Scrooges own redemption and the redemption that we find in Christ, which is much of what literature of the time alluded to back when A Christmas Carol was written. People weren’t writing Bible stories, but they were utilizing the same moral concepts from Scripture and putting it into story form.

And so it touches people’s hearts in such a way that doesn’t make them feel like we’re shoving Jesus down their throat. We’re touching people’s hearts on a totally different level and reminding people about charity and compassion and those are the things that should really be our business in life. That’s why we’re here. We’re here for all of humanity. It’s all our responsibility. And all of those elements work together to create a reason why so many people love this story.

JAMES

Tom, how about you?

TOM

Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge in the Johnson City Community Theatre Production of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison. Directed by Melanie Yodkins. Eric Donahue Photography

If Scrooge can change, we all can change, but that process is not easy. And in Scrooge’s case I think there’s a reason Dickens wrote it as a ghost story. It’s significant to me that in order for this process to begin, Scrooge has to be scared to the point that his legs are shaking. He’s never experienced anything like this before in this life. So, in order for change to occur sometimes, we have to experience something that we would never expect or something out of this world has to happen in order for a person to change. And because of all of the relationships, the family bonds, the love of the Cratchits the story is timeless. We probably all have, truth be known, family members that we are reminded of from the story.

JAMES

Why should folks come out and see Johnson City theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol?

MELANIE

Because the artistic concept of how we’re presenting this play, while telling an absolutely fabulous story, isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen. It’s incredibly original. And we have incredible actors. After Tom auditioned, I needed to find a Marley that matched the epitome of the Scrooge that Tom brought to his audition. And the young man who is playing Marley, absolutely, bar none just blew me out of the water. It brings such a high calibre of performance quality to this production that people need to come and see the hard work, the dedication and the heart of storytelling that is found only on this stage this season.

TOM

I think it’s definitely an ensemble cast so that each person brings something to their role and their character. People will be talking about it and raving about it. And it goes without saying that I’m just honoured and privileged to be part of it.

Cast A Christmas Carol

Olivia Ares, Gavin Arsenault, Larry Bunton, Asher Church, Lorelai Church, Sam Church, Adam Derrick, Tony DeVault, Camden Downes, Hudson Downes, Cierra Fannon, Jada Greenlee, Shanna Greenlee, Danielle Hammonds, Andrew Headen, Jason Headen, Linden Hillhouse, E.C. Huff, Landon Kell, Audrey Kuykendall, Magee Little, Jamie Lombardi, Richard Lura, McKenna Marr, Tom Sizemore, Nathaniel Oaks, Evangeline Perreault, Matthew Pickle, Raelyn Price, Elizabeth Renfro, Saqqara Scott, Derek Smithpeters, Alice Tester, Lucy Tester, Daniel Tester

Links to Play Page where you can download four Christmas Play Scripts by Playwright James Hutchison for Free including the comedy What the Dickens, the romantic comedy Under the Mistletoe, and both a large cast version and small cast version of A Christmas Carol.

A Christmas Carol by James Hutchison at Wokingham Theatre England

Posted on by James Hutchison

“You may find me cold and unfeeling sir, but I would venture to say I am a man of my word; a man whose word carries weight; a man whose word allows him the ability to strike a deal and back it up with his signature. My signature is worth something. Yours it would appear – if you continue to treat your financial obligations and business dealings in this manner – will soon be worthless.”

Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison. Directed by David Stacey. Photograph Simon Vail Photography

These are the words of a man who hates Christmas! A man who hates anything that does not make him richer and so he hates Christmas most of all. These are the words of a man filled with pride who has forsaken humanity and measures his life in dollars or pounds sterling only. These are the words of Ebenezer Scrooge.

And this Christmas those words, which happen to be from my adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, are being brought to life in Wokingham England where Wokingham Theatre is producing my small cast version of the play from December 4th to 14th. The production is being directed by David Stacey who I connected with in early November to talk with him about Wokingham Theatre and his production of the play.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Tell me a little bit about Wokingham. The community and the theatre.

Director David Stacey

DAVID STACEY

It’s quite a traditional lovely old English town that has a good community atmosphere. The theatre group itself started back in the 1940s. And through community spirit and amateur theatre clubs it developed and sustained itself and in the 1980s they built a theatre. Unlike a lot of other theatre groups who have to either rent accommodation or share the space with other societies or groups Wokingham Theatre has its own space.

JAMES

Why do you think A Christmas Carol still resonates so many years after it was originally written?

DAVID

The Christmas that we know, certainly here in Britain, with the roast turkey or roast goose, the Victorian Christmas carols and all those kinds of traditions come from Dickens. Everybody, when they’re celebrating Christmas, encounters all of those as part of the Christmas season. So that’s partly it, but it’s also a lovely moral story that taps into what is important about Christmas. And that’s not necessarily anything to do with religion, even though it’s obviously a religious feast, but for those that aren’t religious they can still tap into the spirit of the story and what Christmas means. And everybody knows the story and they like to listen to it, again and again, year after year, and it has a happy ending which audiences love.

Vicky Lawford as Mrs. Dilber and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph Simon Vail Photography

JAMES

What are some of the unique things that you’re bringing to your production?

DAVID

When the spirits arrive there will be some video projection onto the stage to add special effects. And we’ve got music that has been written for the show. It’s not a musical or anything but rather than just taking pre-recorded Christmas carols or Christmas music, which everyone will have heard before, we’re composing music. I also wanted to keep it traditional. So, we’re still using the Victorian setting and we still have the Victorian imagery and everything, but we’re doing things slightly different with how the spirits look and how that’s played.

So, for example, the second spirit rather than dressed exactly in the costume, as described in the book, our second spirit is going to be on stilts. So, he’s quite the giant but a bit more like a circus or Willy Wonka type of character rather than a Santa Claus character in the big beard and costume. And the third spirit is traditionally done as a grim reaper, so I wanted to do something different with that. He’s quite creepy. You look at his face that has a mask on and a black suit and he has these long fingers. And we have an interactive set that moves and hopefully the audience will be magically surprised by that.

JAMES

What do you like about directing?

DAVID

It’s the creativity. I do acting as well as directing. And when I act in something I tend to miss the directing and when I direct something I tend to miss the acting. But I really like directing and trying to get my vision of the story out and seeing it created. Whether that’s doing a small black box studio theatre show or something larger on the stage in Wokingham with more people involved. It’s about bringing the magic of the story to the audience. And I will read the script and think this is my vision of it. And I want to then be able to turn that into a reality and that’s why I really enjoy reading play scripts, rather than novels. Because the play script is written for somebody else to take and to visualize it and to physically produce it and turn it into something for people to watch. And I find that really exciting, rather than books which stay in your head, you’re not expected to physically recreate the physicality of it. And I like that the audience is watching it from the front, and then from behind you have all of these sets that are actually all fake. And it’s all people in makeup and costumes that are taking on a character and I really, really like that.

  • Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph Simon Vail Photography
  • Peter Pearson as Jacob Marley and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph by Simon Vail Photography.
  • Becca Tizzard as the First Spirit and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph by Simon Vail Photography
  • Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph by Simon Vail Photography
  • Vicky Lawford as Mrs. Dilber and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph Simon Vail Photography
  • Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photography Simon Vail Photography

JAMES

One of the things I tried to do in my adaptation was have Scrooge interact more with the spirits or speaking to the people that are memories and making him more resistant to changing by having him argue more with the spirits than what’s in the book. Scrooge has to take the whole night to change and that’s a process and a journey and I wonder if you’ve found that playing well and just how the actors are using it.

DAVID

That’s one of the things that attracted me to this particular script. And also because you introduced the device of the letters. The letters allow Scrooge to have more regret at the end. In the original book he wakes up the next morning and is going to change but there needs to be some sort of regret as well because he’s lost out on marrying his childhood sweetheart because he didn’t behave very well. And that’s life. You can’t go through life behaving badly and then decided to change your mind and get everything back that you’ve missed out on. The letters are a lovely, lovely device to really emphasize that and as you say the talking to the spirits is good fun. He’s particularly argumentative with the first spirit and we’re having the first spirit be quite argumentative back. She’s not playing it all nice. Because even though it’s not a complete nightmare, it isn’t a pleasant dream he’s having in any way.

JAMES

Well as a playwright I’m not set in you having to produce the play as I’ve described it. Generally when I write I try to minimize the amount of character description and character action I put in my scripts because I believe those things are going to be discovered by how you design the set, by the actors you cast, by how you want to stage the play, by the size of your stage, all of these things that I can’t anticipate. So, it’s absolutely wonderful and so fascinating to see the different takes on telling the story that all come from the same script.

DAVID

And because our audience is an adult audience we’re not trying to do anything that’s too saccharine or anything like that. It’s not really targeted to a child or family audience so we can have some bits that are maybe a little bit more unpleasant or you don’t have to worry about scaring kids or getting them upset.

And so one of the other things I’ve introduced for when Scrooge travels with the spirits is to make the journey quite unpleasant. Particularly with the first spirit. When she says, “I will take you or let’s go and see somebody else or the Fezziwigs – that kind of stuff – she grabs hold of Scrooge and it’s almost as if he’s being electrocuted. So, there’s going to be lots of special effects of electricity and sparks and things like that. And it’s painful for him. And then with the second spirit, it’s a bit more wonderous and swirly and everything is going to get spun around and he’s going to get physically thrown around as if he’s on a sort of like a roller coaster. I didn’t want it to be where they all just float off into the sky like Peter Pan and drift around pleasantly, because then I’m not convinced that Scrooge has changed. Or why would he change if it’s all been a nice dream? No, it’s because he’s been taught a lesson in a painful way and I think the script allows for that.

JAMES

I think you found my big cast version of the script first and then I sent you my smaller cast version for you to read. That version has one actor play Scrooge and then the other actors play multiple roles. How is that working for you in terms of staging the play and telling the story

DAVID

Wokingham Theatre is a relatively large group, but we certainly couldn’t have cast a thirty strong production. So, I really liked how you reduced it down and have the multi rolling and have it as an ensemble piece. And, that’s the main reason I went with the smaller cast version although we didn’t go strictly with the casting as you have it in your script. But I like the idea of the actors taking on more than one role because it gives them more to do and they do enjoy that in my experience, and it gives them a bit more stage time.

Peter Pearson as Jacob Marley and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph by Simon Vail Photography.

JAMES

Tell me a little bit about the cast.

DAVID

Jerry Radburn who is playing Scrooge and has been acting at Wokingham Theatre and at various other theatres for a very long time is someone I know very well. I’ve been in lots of plays with him but I haven’t directed him before. Most of the cast I know and I’ve worked with in various guises either being in plays with several of them or directed them in other shows but there’s one or two that I’d never met before who turned up because we have open auditions. And so, it’s really, really nice when we get new people coming along. And as part of this season I had a policy that I sent to all of my directors that you needed to cast at least one new person for each show if they’re suitable for a particular role just to expand the diversity of the group. And we have a youth theatre group, as part of Wokingham Theater, which runs classes and so we often tap into that to find keen youngsters who want to take parts and be in our main season shows. And so that’s kind of good fun to work with the youth cast as well. The key thing is that everybody’s doing it because they love it. Everyone has fun and that’s the main priority.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and adapted for the stage by James Hutchison runs from December 4th to December 14th at Wokingham Theatre. The production stars Jerry Radburn as Scrooge and is directed by David Stacey. To find out more about Wokingham Theatre and their upcoming season visit the Wokingham Theatre Website.

Wokingham Theatre – A Christmas Carol – Cast & Crew

Jerry Radburn – Scrooge
Matthew Lugg – Fred
Claire Bray – Bob Cratchit, Scrooge as a young man
Peter Pearson – Mr. Bentley, Jacob Marley, Thomas
Chris Westgate – Mr. Granger, Second Spirit, Mr. Fezziwig
Gary Smith – Mr. Harrington, Old Joe
Vicky Lawford – Mrs. Dilber, Mrs. Fezziwig, Mrs. Cratchit
Becca Tizzard – First Spirit, Martha Cratchit. Rose
Louise Punter – Cook
Sophie Marsden – Belle, Emma, Caroline
Andi Lee – Granny Cratchit

Youth Cast:
Oliver Lees, Nicholas Zezula, Amber Pearce, Annabel Brittain, Jonathan Willis, Joseph Rea

Director – David Stacey
Assistant Director – Heather Maceachern
Production Manager – Claire Lawrence
Stage Manager – Mike Rogers
Costume – Rosemary Matthews & Sue deQuidt
Props/models – Claire Willis
Lights – Nick Gill & Richard Field
Sound – John Gold
Original Music – Charlie Lester
Choreography – Lesley Richards
Set Design – Henry Ball

Links to Play Page where you can download four Christmas Play Scripts by Playwright James Hutchison for Free including the comedy What the Dickens, the romantic comedy Under the Mistletoe, and both a large cast version and small cast version of A Christmas Carol.

JP Thibodeau – StoryBook Theatre

Posted on by James Hutchison
JP Thibodeau Storybook Theatre
Artistic Director – JP Thibodeau

StoryBook Theatre is Canada’s largest volunteer-run Theatre for Young Audiences and produces a season of plays that are designed to offer mentoring opportunities and artistic development to emerging artists while providing high-quality entertainment at affordable prices for Calgary families and theatregoers. In addition to offering a season of plays, StoryBook also runs a year-round theatre school that provides classes in acting, dance, and music for children, teens, and adults. Now in its 43rd Season and operating out of the Beddington Theatre Arts Centre StoryBook has entertained more than a million Calgarians and has become an important part of the cultural fabric of this city and an integral link between the professional theatre community and emerging artists.

Part of the driving force behind StoryBook Theatre’s success and growth has been its Artistic Director JP Thibodeau who is an award-winning actor, director, and theatre designer. Over the last few years JP has worked with playwright and composer Joe Slabe to create world premiere musicals, including Lest We Forget, Naughty But Nice, and the multi-award- winning Touch Me: songs for a disconnected age, presented by Theatre Calgary. He has worked on stage and behind the scenes on a variety of productions including Richard III and Romeo & Juliet with The Shakespeare Company; Rock of Ages and The 39 Steps with Stage West; Dad’s in Bondage and Lest We Forget with Lunchbox Theatre: and A New Brain and Avenue Q with StoryBook Theatre. JP has directed more than 55 musical productions and has worked tirelessly to foster the growth and development of young musical theatre artists across the country. He is the recipient of the 2016 Greg Bond Memorial Award for outstanding contribution to musical theatre in Calgary and was just awarded the Sandstone City Builder Award at the Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions in recognition of his work with StoryBook theatre and emerging talent.

I met with JP at his office in the Beddington Theatre Arts Centre at the end of July just before he was about to begin directing the North American tour of Queen’s We Will Rock You by Ben Elton for Annerin Productions and Jeff Perry Promotions to talk with him about his own journey and his vision for StoryBook.

Storybook Theatre Production Still Rent
StoryBook Theatre’s Production of Rent

JAMES HUTCHISON

You got a nice honour at the Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions this year. You received the Sandstone City Builder Award.

JP THIBODEAU

The award is really about the initiatives we’ve been doing here at StoryBook. And I didn’t really realize it but my entire career has been about emerging artists and community building. I think the hard part about getting the award is that I get the honour of the award, but there really is a team of people that contribute in a lot of different ways.

JAMES

So, you came into StoryBook with a vision that you’re now seeing realized. Can you can talk about that initial idea and vision?

JP

I left a previous job after ten years because I got to a point where I wasn’t fulfilled artistically or business-wise. So, I had to walk away from that for my own sanity, and at that point I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up.

And George Smith, who was running StoryBook at the time, had reached out to me and said, “Can you direct a show for us?” And so, I came out and directed a show and we had lots of talks about StoryBook and where it was because the year previous it had almost gone bankrupt. So, they were trying to figure out what it needed to be when it grew up.

So, we were both in this – what do we want to be when we grow up stage?

And when 2013 came around, they asked me to take over interim, but I knew I didn’t want to take a job just because I needed a paycheck. I needed to make sure that there was some fulfillment in it. So, the board and I talked a lot about vision. And we had a retreat and I said, “What’s missing in this community is a bridge between the professional theatre community and the amateur world.”

And there’s nothing wrong with the amateur world. There’s an important place in the world for community theatre. But what’s missing is that in between for the people who’ve gone away to school and they’ve come back to Calgary, but they can’t get hired at Theatre Calgary or anywhere professionally yet. And there’s no one helping them hone their musical theatre craft and saying you have potential – so let’s change that and put them with some professionals.

And one of the biggest realizations I had my first year when I took over was understanding the importance of networking in the arts and how fundamental that is to any career longevity. You need to know people. You’re not going to get an audition – you’re not going to get an interview – you’re not going to get anything with anybody unless they’ve heard of you, or someone in their circle has heard of you. And so that really became my focus as an emerging artist myself.

JAMES

What were some of the pillars that you wanted to put in place to make your vision of StoryBook a reality?

JP

My kids had a big part of that because at that time we were going to the Saddledome to see The Wiggles, or we were going to see these big touring shows that we’re paying 80 and $90 to go see. And there’s nothing in it for the parent. It’s just for the kids. So, as parents, you’re just chaperones, you’re just babysitters and I’d think, “This isn’t family time because I’m not getting anything out of it.”

And StoryBook used to have this thing called Cookie Cabarets, and the audience would come in and all the kids would file down to the front of the building, and the parents would sit at the back, and I would go to the booth and watch the show from the back, and I’d see all the parents on their phones while all their kids are down front, and they weren’t sharing the experience because we were telling them the kids sit close and the parents sit at the back. We were telling them don’t enjoy this as a family.

Within the first month after seeing that I changed it and said, “We aren’t doing it anymore.” And I got lots of backlash. And I said, “No, they need to enjoy this together.” So, then it became if they’re going to enjoy it together, there’s got to be something in it for the adults. So how do we do that? And that’s when the re-planning and the reshaping of what our seasons would look like began.

Storybook Theatre - Artistic Director JP Thibodeau - Season 43

JP

And for me, it became about engaging professionals. Every show needed to have professional mentorship. Whether that was the director or the choreographer, or the stage manager, whoever it was, there needed to be that professional development and mentorship on the team. And in those early years, and even today, I really make sure that everyone on the team is offering some kind of a mentorship to those emerging artists who are finishing high school or have just come back from university or college. And by giving them that mentorship we instantly elevate the quality of the show.

And that’s when directors like Mark Bellamy or Karen Johnson Diamond or Kevin McKendrick and all these other great Calgary artists got involved and started really helping me shape who we were going to be. And so, we started elevating the production quality and that gave the parents something. So now they’re going, “For my $25 I’m getting so much more, and it’s worth the time with my kids.” And I think the beauty of theatre, in general, but especially in our city with a lot of oil and gas families where mom or dad work a lot is that they get to spend that time in the theatre with their kids and this is their hour they’ve set aside to come and be with the family.

JAMES

One of the things I really like is that you have the cast come out for autographs and selfies at the end of the show.

JP

That was the one thing I was told I would not be allowed to change, but when I first took over I didn’t want to do it.

JAMES

Really?

JP

As an actor, I don’t like being me. I like being a character on stage. But after watching the first season I thought I don’t know how you couldn’t do it. We get letters from the kids and from the parents who took their child to their first show ever where they got to see the show and then meet the people in the show after.

And when we do our first meet and greet for a new show that’s starting production we talk about the importance of what we do and why we do it. We talk about StoryBook and who we are and where we’ve been, and why I’ve assembled the team I’ve assembled for that show.

And we talk about how they’re going to be someone’s first theatre experience and someone in that audience is going to be moved enough to pursue this as an art form or become a future patron all because of what we do in this show. And nine times out of ten that someone comes and talks to you after the show and you may not even realize it until I get the email later and forward it to you.

Mary Poppins at StoryBook Theatre
StoryBook Theatre’s Production of Mary Poppins

JAMES

Where do you want StoryBook to be two, three, four years from now?

JP

Right now the office runs with two – three people – max and at this point we want to look at the internal and figure out how do we support me? How do we support the office? How do we support the Theatre School in a way that has longevity and sustainability, because while we were growing all the programming, we never grew the office. So, we never gave focus to the bloodline that makes this all actually happen.

The board and I had a great talk last year and I said, “You know, when I first took over, I said in ten years, we should be equity, and be a full union house.” And last year, I said to them, “I’m going to retract that. I don’t know that we should because I still think we’re a necessary part of the building blocks of the community. We are the next step for someone who’s looking to make a career. But we’re not the full step. And so, we need to focus on the educational component, and really make sure that what we’re offering is mentorship and guidance into the next level of someone’s career.”

And we do that right now through the shows but I’d love to see that transcend a little bit more into education. And you know, by no means am I suggesting that in five years StoryBook will become a college or anything like that and it’s not necessarily the Rosebud model either but something where a student could finish school and we offer internships where they’re directly correlated to a school program where they can come here and work on set design, for example, and create these relationships beyond the StoryBook doors. But right now, we don’t have the capacity to do that administratively, so I want to figure out how to grow us from the inside.

JAMES

So, what you’re looking for is the business model that will allow for people to come here and work and mentor and build an organization that has stability.

JP

That’s exactly what we’re looking at is the business model and I think this current season has the right number of shows for us, and I think beyond this it would probably be doing tours. We could take some of the shows we’ve created, or some of the shows that we’re working on, and start touring them. Like Alberta tours, or Western Canada tours, or across Canada tours.

JP Thibeadeau Singing with the Cast of MisCast – A StoryBook Theatre Fund Raising Event

JAMES

StoryBook offers subsidized programming can you tell me about that?

JP

When I first took over, we had a theatre school and at that point we were seeing about 500 kids a year. Now we see about 3000. And so it’s grown a lot. But one of the biggest comments we would get on feedback forms was parents saying they wish they could do more but they can’t afford it. And so, we started talking in the office, and I said to the team, “Well, what’s one more kid? It doesn’t cost us anything more to throw one more kid in the classroom.” And I said, “Let’s just try it.”

And so it quickly became our mantra to not say no to anybody. So, on average we get five or six requests for subsidy a week. And I remember I was talking to this one girl’s dad and he said they feel like they’ve done their daughter a disservice because they couldn’t afford piano or dance or voice lessons for her because this is her love, but they just have no money to do it. And they were so so happy that she can at least audition for the shows and get in and that made me realize how fortunate I was as a kid. I was fortunate enough to have voice lessons and piano lessons because my parents could afford it.

But there are so many kids who can’t. So, we decided that we’d create this program, The Ellie Tims Project named after one of the founders of StoryBook. And the intention is to give youth whose families can’t afford it free piano or dance or voice lessons for a semester and provide free building blocks and inspire them. That’s part of the reason we want to look at the business model and figure out how to get more fundraising to support these programs.

JAMES

So, what you initially started in order to create a bridge between the professional world and the community theatre world has turned into city-building and community-building.

JP

It is now, for sure.

JAMES

I bet you didn’t anticipate that.

JP

I didn’t. Not at all. I never saw myself as an emerging artists advocate. But when I ran this dinner theatre in Canmore, you know, having been freshly out of school, I was hungry for a job. So, I knew where the hungry people were, right, the ones who were just finishing school. They’re keen, they’re eager, they’re willing to try and do things and they have a more naive, yet energetic attitude, and there’s more optimism to them wanting to be a part of something.

So I did that – then, and I’m still doing it now. And at StoryBook our Student Summer Intensive Program is the nearest and dearest to me. It’s all these young people who have just found themselves. They’ve just decided who they are, and how to express themselves and you watch them form these relationships that will last a lifetime. They don’t know it yet, but we know it – watching it.

And so, you watch them bond and I always say to the parents on opening night that this program isn’t about them putting on a show. It’s about them finding themselves and creating something together and being community builders. And usually, at the end of the program, I’ll ask who’s planning to make this a career and less than half raise their hands.

There was one girl a couple of years ago who went through the program and now she’s in her fourth year of University because she’s always wanted to be a lawyer, but she took the program because she just loves it. That made me realize that this is about building and understanding community. And theatre is about community and how we interact with each other. Good or bad. We work together. We work through it.

StoryBook Theatre’s Production of The Wizard of Oz

JAMES

One of the things I want to talk about, other than the StoryBook is your own work because you’re a designer, you’re an actor, you’re a singer. You’ve done all these other things. I’m just curious about some aspects of you as an artist. What about as a director? How do you approach a show?

JP

The script has to be one that I’m excited about and passionate about and I think a lot of it comes down to casting. And I think for me as a director I’m okay with young people who don’t have it already there. I think for a lot of directors the casting is 90% of the work, because if you cast the right people the show is done. But I like casting the diamonds in the rough. The talent is there, but it might not be polished, and I like that, as a director, I like that challenge and seeing them grow in the process.

JAMES

And perhaps an artist at that stage is going to grow a great deal more given that opportunity.

JP

I think so. A lot of my process is about living on your growing edge and so I talk about that a lot in the rehearsal process. If the scenes are too comfortable, you’re not growing. And so, we talk a lot about that and a lot about storytelling and that musicals aren’t about music they’re about storytelling and using the music to help tell that story. So, if that means that the song isn’t as perfect and beautiful as it could be that’s okay as long as you’re telling the story because the audience can feel the story and hear the story and that’s fundamentally your job.

JAMES

Any particular show on your wish list that you want to direct?

JP

There’s two. One is A Chorus Line. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m not a dancer, and I’m not a choreographer. But I’ve always had this great vision for this show, and I would just love to see it come to fruition. The first time I saw it I don’t think the director understood the show. It was a tour. I saw it in Toronto. All the acting was disconnected from the song. And I felt like there was acting going on and then songs going on and there was no connection. And for me, as a director, in my rehearsals I’ll talk a lot about how dialogue is the extension of music.

So when a song is up tempo the dialogue immediately following that song should still be in that tempo. And the dialogue in that scene should take us to whatever the tempo is for the next song. We should feel that naturally. It shouldn’t feel jarring when all of a sudden the song stops and now we’re talking to this person in the scene.

I think the way A Chorus Line is set up is it is very much – dialogue by this person, they sing a song, next person, and so on, right. Given that the title of the show is Chorus Line it’s about the group of people not the individuals, and I think, every time I’ve seen it, that’s been a part that I feel is lost – the idea that this is about that group, the whole group of people and their connection to each other, not just one person, which is the irony of the show.

JAMES

So, that’s one.

JP

Yeah, that’s one. And I want to direct Shakespeare but I don’t know it well enough. And I’ve done my fair share of contemporary Shakespeare designs but I just don’t feel Shakespeare’s as accessible for a modern audience as it could be. I think the Shakespeare Company’s done a great job of bringing that together but I would like to direct it and make it more accessible to a modern audience and someone more like me.

JAMES

That would mean commissioning and reworking the script obviously.

JP

Totally.

JAMES

The Lion King did a pretty good job of reimagining Hamlet.

JP

I think my bucket list would be to do something like that. Something that’s innovative. I’d love to create something new and be a part of the creation of it and a part of a team of creators.

JAMES

What are you working on right now?

JP

I’m working on Queen’s We Will Rock You by Ben Elton for a North American tour.

The 2019/20 North American Tour Cast of We Will Rock You – The Musical by QUEEN and Ben Elton

JAMES

How did that opportunity come about?

JP

I think this is one of those networking opportunities where you’re just connecting with all the right people at different times and then somehow, they all connect and come together at the same time.

This is through Annerin Productions here in Calgary and Jeff Perry Promotions. Jeff has been one of the biggest stadium promoters in Canada for years and they wanted to start creating shows. And they’ve done this with RAIN and Let It Be that went on to Broadway and the West End. And they recently did that with Jukebox Hero and when they were developing that show they asked me for advice and input about how they could do it in Calgary.

And with We Will Rock You I think there are ten Alberta based artists performing in the show out of a cast of sixteen and the whole band is from Calgary. The entire production company is all Calgary based and so it’s pretty impressive for a North American tour coming out of Calgary to be happening.

JAMES

I’m seeing A Chorus Line down the road.

JP

There you go.

JAMES

So, here’s a logistical question. You’re designing a show that you’re going to pick up, and you’re going to set up that morning, you have a quick tech and that evening you have a show, and then you strike and go to the next town. What are some of the logistics of creating a touring show like that?

JP

My brain has been hurting? Just so many questions. Every stage is a different size. So, how do I block the show? Do I block it for the smallest stage? Do I block it for the medium stage? So we’re making decisions as we go and seeing what works best. And there’s been a lot of that kind of stuff. Plus, Queen’s pretty heavily involved. Which is so cool and so scary all at the same time. So, their music Supervisor flies in on Monday to be with us for the first week of rehearsals to make sure all of the music is learned the way that Queen wants it learned.

JAMES

So, you have to lock things in earlier. Things that you wouldn’t normally have to lock in at that point.

JP

Yeah. The show’s been designed to travel and transport and build in four hours and so it’s got to easily pack up and the set has to be built before we even start rehearsals. I have to commit to everything whereas with StoryBook there’s a little more flexibility.

JAMES

When does it open?

JP

It opens September 3rd in Winnipeg and then travels to ninety-plus cities in the US and Canda through to March 2020. Including New York City at Madison Square Gardens in November and then it comes back to Calgary December 27 at the Jubilee.

JAMES

I have one other question. So how do you manage your time? Like with your commitment at StoryBook and your directing how do you keep organized? How do you keep things on schedule? Because you’re such a busy guy.

JP

Well first, I hate the word busy. I call it living. It’s a choice and no one’s forcing me to do it. So, it’s not busy and I know my wife on certain days will disagree, but I think we’ve gotten a custom in our society to glorifying busy or the idea of busy. You know someone might say to me, “I’m so busy at work today.” And I’ll go, “What’s so busy?” And they’ll say, “Well all these patients today.” And I’ll say, “Oh, so like you went to work. You did your job.” So busy now is just working. That’s why I hate it

JAMES

Alright, I’ll change the question, then. How are you so productive?

JP

I don’t think I would be if I wasn’t organized. And there are times of the year where it’s great and there are times when it’s a gong show. Christmas time is a gong show every year until December 12th hits, and it’s my birthday, and all the shows that I’m part of are open. It’s fortunate that in the position I’m in now and where I am at in my life that I can be a little bit more prescriptive about when I work, or when I’m on-site to work. Because I can do a lot of it from other places. And we’ve done pretty good as a family setting aside time. I’ve got two boys. So, even driving here today, I was dropping my boys off at swimming and I would reach over and poke my son and do these things that annoyed the hell out of me as a kid when my dad would do it. And I’m doing it now because I just want to be connected to him. But it’s tricky, because, my job is night and my wife’s job is day and so we’re passing ships in the night sometimes.

JAMES

You have a very clean desk for a person who is so productive.

JP

It’s funny, you’re the third person this year, who has said that to me. Someone came into my office and said, “Well, who’s desk are you sitting at?” I said, “Mine.” He said, “That is your desk? I figured your desk would be the messiest desk.” And everyone in the office was laughing because that’s exactly, I think, how people see me. They see everything I’ve got my fingers in, and they think I must live in chaos. And I don’t. I can’t be artistic and thrive unless I’m organized, at least I know that works for me.

Interview with Mark Bellamy and Sayer Roberts: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at Stage West

Posted on by James Hutchison

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak at Stage West Calgary is one of the most entertaining and fun shows I’ve seen on a Calgary stage. This production is outstanding, and I guarantee you’ll be delighted and amused and laughing at the exploits of Monty Navarro as he plots and murders his way into high society.

The Tony Award winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder tells the story of Monty Navarro whose mother was cast out and disinherited by the D’Ysquith family when she married for love. Monty and his mother are forced to live in poverty as the D’Ysquith family remains unmoved by his mother’s appeals for reconciliation. When Monty’s mother dies and Monty learns the truth of his birth and that he’s eighth in line for an earldom he sets about to avenge his mother’s death and take his rightful place as head of the family.

The book, songs, and music from a Gentleman’s Guide are smart, fun, and witty, but having great source material only works if you have an exceptionally talented cast to pull it off, and director Mark Bellamy’s production has assembled a stellar cast that works seamlessly together. Kate Blackburn as Sibella and Ellen Denny as Phoebe are pitch perfect and hilarious as the women in Monty’s life who tempt him, tease him, and manipulate him based on their own desires and ambitions.  Tyler Murree shows he has a real gift for farce as he portrays every member of the D’Ysquith family with an air of comic pomposity and entitlement.  And Sayer Roberts plays Monty Navarro with all the charm of Cary Grant and the elegance of Fred Astaire making Monty one of the most gracious and likeable rogues you’ll ever meet.

The play is filled with memorable and smart songs including, I Don’t Understand the Poor, Better With a Man, and I Will Marry You as Monty knocks off his relatives one by one on his quest to become the Ninth Earl of Highhurst. Will Monty succeed or will he get caught? Will fate lend a hand? Will he marry Phoebe? Will he always love Sibella? You’ll have to see it in order to find out.

This is easily a five-star production and worthy of two thumbs up. In fact, it’s so good I’m seeing it again, and I’d highly recommend you see it before it closes, because you’ll have a darn good time, and this production won’t be available on demand. Theatre and live performance is the ultimate “here for a limited time” experience.

I sat down with the director of the show Mark Bellamy and actor Sayer Roberts who plays Monty, the Wednesday before the finale of Game of Thrones, to talk with them about the play, musical theatre, and our predictions of who will sit on the Iron Throne.

Mark Bellamy – Director and Musical Staging – A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at Stage West Calgary

JAMES HUTCHISON

How did you both get involved in the Canadian premiere of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder here at Stage West?

MARK BELLAMY

I’ve loved this show from the minute I’d heard about it. I love the music and I’m a huge fan of this style of musical theatre. There’s a lot of old school techniques that have been put into the writing and the structure of it. So, I learned they were doing it while I was here directing Baskerville last year, and they announced their season, and I was like, “Ah you’re doing Gentleman’s Guide.” And Kira Campbell who’s the Artistic Associate said, “Yeah we’ll get you for Gentleman’s Guide or for this other show, and I’m not sure which one to put you on.” And I was like, “Oh God, please put me on Gentleman’s Guide.” And they did.

Actor Sayer Roberts who plays Monty Navarro in the Stage West Calgary Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

SAYER ROBERTS

I saw it ages ago when they did the performance on the Tony Awards, and for a lot of Canada that was the first time any of us had seen or heard anything about the show. And I remember watching it and asking, “What is this amazing show?”  And then I got a chance to see the show a couple of years later on Broadway, and I instantly knew that this was one show that I would very much like to do. And the fellow doing it too – he wasn’t the original – he was a replacement – but he was incredible, and I thought, “That’s what I aspire to be as a performer.” So, when the audition posting came out that Stage West was doing this I know that myself and almost every other Canadian was, “What? They’re doing this. I have to be a part of it.”

JAMES

The stars aligned.

SAYER

Exactly.

MARK

Yeah, they sure did.

SAYER

So, I went into the audition with a healthy dose of the cynicism that you always have to have as an actor, “This isn’t my show yet. I’m just going to lay down what I can do and show them what I would bring to the role, and if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t you move on.” But as soon as I walked into the room and Mark was there and Kira and Konrad Pluta, the musical director, and we started working on material I really felt like Mark gets this show, and I really wanted to work on it. It was a really fun audition, and I just felt good about it regardless of if I got the part or not, and as an actor you have to take that as a win. It doesn’t matter if you get the show or not. That’s not in your control. So, I left the audition going, “That was really fun, and I had a good time, and I feel like I established a good relationship with the people who are in the room and if that gets me the job that remains to be seen.” It was just one of those things where I felt this could work really well.

Ellen Denny as Phoebe D’Ysquith and Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.

JAMES

Mark, I’m curious about how much you look at the individual and how much you look at the chemistry between the actors when you’re casting a show?

MARK

That’s hugely important to me. I’ve always said that one of my superpowers as a director is that I cast really well. And you don’t just cast the individual roles. You have to cast the rehearsal hall. You have to cast people that are going to work well together and especially in a show like this that has a long run you have to cast people who are going to get along well, and after many years of doing this I have a pretty good sense of who a person is and how they’re going to fit the room. Like Sayer said, so many people were excited to do the show – we had over seven hundred submissions between Toronto, Calgary, and the West Coast, and we saw probably two-hundred of those people either in person or via video because everyone wanted to be in this show. So, I was really fortunate that I got to pick from an incredible pool of talent.

JAMES

Have you ever had that amount of choice before?

MARK

Never.

JAMES

Are you spoiled now?

Kate Blackburn as Sibella, Sayer Roberts as Monty, and Ellen Denny as Phoebe in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

MARK

Yes. (Laughs) I’m really spoiled. Especially after working with these guys because there are some really distinct requirements for this show. You have to have people who have legitimately trained voices. Who can sing without a pop sound and these guys all can – as you’ve heard. Especially Sayer, Kate, and El – that trio of voices has to be so clean and they’re extraordinary. And I can’t actually think of anybody else in Canada I’d want to do this show with other than these people. I’ve been saying this – even before rehearsals started – that I have the best cast in the country, and this will be the cast that you will have to beat from now on.

JAMES

This needs to go on tour.

MARK

I would put this production on any stage in Canada.

JAMES

This is one of my favourite shows I’ve seen at Stage West in the last ten years.

MARK

I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen here. And not that I’m biased because I directed it – but I am. (Laughs) I love the show, and because it was the Canadian premiere we worked really hard, and I was able to get these incredible performers. I was like, “We have to make this good. We can’t compromise anywhere. We have to push and push and push to make it as good as we possibly can.”

Elizabeth Stepkowski-Taran as Miss Shingle and Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

JAMES

I’ve been telling people about it and saying you’re going to like it – young or old you’re going to like this show. What do you think are the elements in this play that make it work so well?

MARK

I think there is something about a charming villain that we love. He’s like the antihero. But he is supremely charming, and we root for him. It helps that all of the people he offs, for the most part, have a slightly despicable edge to them or are deserving of their deaths in some way. But I think we love to see someone who’s an underdog and a bit of an outsider succeed in spite of all the odds, and it satisfies that part of our soul that goes, “I know he should get caught but he’s not going to and that’s so great!”

SAYER

The writing is why it appeals to me. It’s the book and the lyrics and the melodies. And it’s like a mixture of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward and Noises Off and the classic British farce and Gilbert and Sullivan. It’s just such a perfect marriage of all of the mediums coming together to create such an exquisitely written piece. And I think, just like Mark was saying, the antihero charmingness – the fun farce side of it – he’s murdering people and yet this is fun, and there’s the underdog story, and it’s all bouncy and light from the beginning. It’s an entertaining show.

MARK

And there’s a lot of great humour in it. So, there’s that aspect and also the aspect that we have one actor, Tyler Murree, playing all of the D’Ysquith family. That’s a fun little tour de force. And it plays into that theatrical convention, and it gives the audience a bit of that, “Oh we know what’s going on. We’re in on the joke.”

Tyler Muree as Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith and Katherine Fadum as Lady Eugenia D’Ysquith in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

SAYER

As if the show isn’t funny enough already it just bumps it up so much more once the audience starts to catch on that that’s the same guy…

JAMES

…and he’s playing all the parts…

MARK

…and it’s really clever, and it starts out really slowly, and as you escalate towards the end of act one you just suddenly start to rip through these people. Like literally in scene eleven – which is the ultimate finale of act one – there are four times where he changes characters and comes in and out.

JAMES

Well, on a show like this just how vital is that backstage crew for you?

SAYER

This show would not be possible without a dynamite costume crew and running crew.

MARK

There are two crew members who are dedicated to doing nothing but changing Tyler Murree into all the D’Ysquiths. And all of those costumes had to be constructed.

SAYER

So, he might be wearing a full suit, but it’s all connected with a zipper in the back.

MARK

So, shirt, tie, vest, jacket it’s all one thing.

JAMES

One piece that he can step into and out of.

MARK

Because for some of his costume changes he’s literally got fifteen seconds.

JAMES

That’s part of the magic for the audience. Didn’t he just leave and then he comes back.

MARK

I think we’re so good at it that sometimes people don’t realize what just happened, because it’s so seamless and he’s coming out so calmly that sometimes you don’t realize he’s just made an immense costume change.

Tyler Muree as Lady Hyacinth with her entourage in the Stage West Theatre production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

JAMES

So, in terms of the production, how do the costumes and the set add to the overall experience of seeing the play.

SAYER

Well for me as an actor whenever I put on a costume it instantly amps up by twenty percent whatever the character was before in rehearsal and that’s particularly true when you’re doing period dramas. Costumes give you the aesthetic, and it definitely adds to the British sensibility of the show, and it changes how you move, how you sit, how you stand. I know for the women wearing those kinds of dresses and with their trains behind them it completely changes things for them. I didn’t have to deal with that as much because I simply wear high waisted suspender pants which I could live the rest of my life in very comfortably. (Laughs) And Monty goes from poor to slowly getting richer and the changing of the jackets really helped with that. That’s a real juxtaposition from starting with a rather old well-loved jacket that literally has pockets that are falling apart to ultimately finishing in a tux.

Tyler Murree as Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith Katherine Fadum as Lady Eugenia D’Ysquith, Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro, and Ellen Denny as Phoebe D’Ysquith in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

MARK

I think the set and the costumes are so vital to this show which was another challenge for Stage West because we need these Edwardian costumes, and that’s not something Stage West has a ton of sitting in their storage room, because they don’t do a lot of shows like this. So, a lot of this had to be created. Leslie Robison-Greene who is our costume designer is a genius. It was just incredible what she came with, what she was able to construct while she was here, and what she was able to adapt.

JAMES

Are there any particular songs that you just love and why?

MARK

I’ve Decided to Marry You, I think, is the pinnacle of the show.

JAMES

Is that the one with the two doors where he has Sibella in one room and Phoebe in the other room and he’s trying to keep them apart?

SAYER

Yes. I think with the exception of the bench scene from Carousel between Billy and Julie there’s no better example of musical theatre than the doors. I shouldn’t say of any musical theatre because there are lots of different genres but going for musical comedy there’s nothing better than that door scene.

MARK

It so hits the peak of the farce that the show is and that kind of encapsulates the whole thing. I think one of the things that’s beautiful about the music is that even though it echoes the British Music Hall and it echoes Gilbert and Sullivan it does it in such a way that it’s a homage that doesn’t copy it, and it doesn’t feel antiquated.

SAYER

It’s accessible.

MARK

It’s accessible and very modern and every single song carries the story forward and that to me is the hallmark of a really good musical.

Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro and Kate Blackburn as Sibella Hallward in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

JAMES

It reminds me a lot of My Fair Lady.

MARK

Yeah.

SAYER

It’s very Lerner and Loewe.

JAMES

I Don’t Understand the Poor really reminds me of…

SAYER

Why Can’t the English

JAMES

Yes, but it feels fresh and original.

MARK

I’m a huge fan of the Golden Age Musicals of the late fifties to mid-sixties, and this really does echo back to that era when all the great American musicals were being produced.

Ellen Denny as Phoebe D’Ysquith and Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

JAMES

So, what is it about musical theatre that adds to a theatrical experience? What does the music bring?

SAYER

Well, there’s an old saying, or a piece of wisdom, or whatever you want to call it, that says, “When you have something to express you speak it. If you can’t speak it – you sing it. If you can’t sing it – you dance it.” And the progression of that so perfectly encapsulates what musical theatre is. And in good musical theatre there is a reason the character is singing. I love speaking Shakespeare. I love speaking monologues and straight plays, but there is nothing quite as deep as you can get into, in my experience, as you can in musical theatre when you sing words that are accompanied with some kind of soaring melody that is an expression of the turmoil or the joy or whatever is going on inside the character. Scientifically music evokes a different part of our brain so the audience tunes into it on a different level. So when you mix the emotion that you can gain from poetry and the emotion you can get from a piece of orchestral music and you put that together that’s double the amount of emotion you could have alone by itself. 

MARK

Music is visceral. It just is. It affects you in a different place, and I think it carries emotion in a way that a scene – I mean not that scenes can’t – but it just heightens everything, right? Which is what I think that saying is about. As you continue to heighten and heighten and heighten – the song heightens the scene and the dance heightens the song. And I think it’s thrilling to watch, and I think it’s also thrilling to watch really talented performers who can sing the way that these guys sing, and when you hear these voices it’s stunning, and it’s beautiful. So, I think that’s part of it because I started my career as a performer doing musicals, so they hold a special place in my heart because I think you can move an audience in a way with a musical that you can’t with a straight play.

Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.

JAMES

Well speaking of moving an audience, why should an audience come see this show?

SAYER

I think it’s probably because they’ve never seen a show like this before. And if you like British Farce, if you like musicals, if you like comedy and drama – you’ll like this.

MARK

It’s got a bit of everything. And I think it’s probably one of the most entertaining evenings you’ll spend in a theatre for a very long time. It’s ridiculously fun. It’s ridiculously entertaining.

JAMES

Okay, quick question for both of you – off topic – do either of you watch Game of Thrones?

MARK

Oh, God yes.

SAYER

I haven’t started yet.

MARK

Not any of it?

SAYER

No.

JAMES

I’m interviewing you now, but by the time this gets published the finale will have aired this coming Sunday. So, Mark who do you think is going to end up on the Iron Throne?

MARK

Oh, God.

JAMES

I’ll tell you who I think.

MARK

I don’t know. If you asked me that two weeks ago I would have had a different answer, but now after seeing what just happened…I think it’s going to be Arya.

JAMES

Oh, interesting.

MARK

I think she’s the only one who isn’t conflicted in some way who can actually do it.

JAMES

Interesting choice. My choice is Tyrion in the South, Sansa in the North, and Jon goes back to his direwolf.

MARK

I read a whole article comparing it to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and how you know Frodo doesn’t stay – he ends up going to the Gray Havens and that Jon Snow is Frodo and he won’t stay. He wouldn’t be happy on the throne. But that’s an interesting theory – that it splits. That might be it. 

JAMES

Who knows? I’ve been wrong about so much.

MARK

Who saw any of this coming? Who saw that last episode coming? It will be interesting to see what happens. I had this random thought the other day that the only other person it could possibly be is Gendry because he’s actually been legitimized.

JAMES

Oh yeah.

MARK

She made him a Lord. He’s actually been acknowledged as a Baratheon. Spoiler! He’s the last and technically the Baratheons are kind of still on the throne. Anyway…

JAMES

…we shall see.

SAYER

I just love that.

MARK

People are so invested.

SAYER

And it just shows you that people need this stuff in their lives so much so that here we are talking about something fictitious and completely meaningless in the rest of the trajectory of our life and our world and politics and everything and yet it matters so much to us what happens to these characters and that’s why we’re engaged, and that’s why entertainment is not frivolous.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman
Music and Lyrics by Steven Lutvak
Based on the novel by Roy Horniman

CAST

Mark Allan – Ensemble, The Magistrate, Mr. Gorby & others
Alicia Barban – Ensemble, Miss Evangeline Barley & others Understudy for Phoebe D’Ysquith
Kate Blackburn – Sibella Hallward
Emily Dallas – Ensemble, Tour Guide, Pub Owner’s Wife & others Understudy for Sibella Hallward
Ellen Denny – Phoebe D’Ysquith
Katherine Fadum – Ensemble, Lady Eugenia D’Ysquith & others Understudy for Miss Shingle
Sarah Gibbons – Ensemble, Understudy for Female Ensemble roles
Jeremy LaPalme – Ensemble, Understudy for The D’Ysquith Family
Luke Marty – Ensemble, Tom Copley, Dr. Pettibone, Guard & others Understudy for Monty Navarro
Tyler McKinnon – Ensemble, Detective Pinckney, Pub Owner & others
Tyler Murree – The D’Ysquith Family
Sayer Roberts – Monty Navarro
Elizabeth Stepkowski-Tarhan – Miss Shingle

THE BAND

Konrad Pluta – Musical Director/Keyboards
Rob Hutchinson – Bass sub
Jonathan D. Lewis – Violin
Jim Murray – Trumpet sub
Keith O’Rourke – Clarinet
Sean Perrin – Clarinet sub
Jason Valleau – Bass
Andre Wickenheiser – Trumpet

CREATIVE TEAM

Mark Bellamy – Director & Musical Staging
Konrad Pluta – Musical Director
Howard Pechet – Executive Producer
David Fraser – Set Designer
Leslie Robison-Greene – Costume Designer
Norman Macdonald – Wig Designer
Anton de Groot – Lighting Designer
Michael Gesy – Sound Designer/Head of Audio
Shane Ellis – Scenic Artist
Kira Campbell – Production Manager Artistic Associate
Sean D. Ellis – Technical Director
Ashley Rees – Stage Manager
Darcy Foggo – Assistant Stage Manager
Jennifer Yeung – Apprentice Stage Manager
Taisa Chernichko – Dresser
Chris Cooper – Followspot Operator

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Hamlet: A Ghost Story – An Interview with Director Craig Hall & Playwright Anna Cummer

Posted on by James Hutchison

“And in Shakespeare the stakes are massive, but I think we all have injustices and little revenges that we want to take on a daily basis. That’s why Hamlet is such a frustrating character in so many ways because the ghost of his father comes and says your uncle killed me. You need to take revenge and do your duty as a son. And then he proceeds to find every excuse to not do it because he’s a man of the modern age where complexity and morality have become so much more real and palpable. Like, duty to the state is of a kind of time and I don’t think Hamlet’s a man of the court in that same way. It’s not just all black and white. He lives in a world of grey morality and philosophy.” Craig Hall, Director – Hamlet: A Ghost Story

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

This is part one of a two-part series about Hamlet: A Ghost Story. In part one I’ll be talking with Director Craig Hall and playwright Anna Cummer and in part two I’ll be talking with Ahad Raza Mir who has returned to Calgary from his native Pakistan to play the title role.

Back in September, I interviewed Haysam Kadri the Artistic Producer 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 produced a highly successful re-imagining 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.

I sat down with the director of Hamlet and Artistic Director of Vertigo Theatre Craig Hall and playwright Anna Cummer, who penned the adaptation, to discuss their unique take on Shakespeare’s most famous and most produced play.

JAMES HUTCHISON

You’re calling this new adaptation Hamlet: A Ghost Story.

ANNA CUMMER

We are.

JAMES

So, do you believe in the supernatural and have you had any ghostly encounters yourself?

ANNA & CRAIG

They laugh.

ANNA

Yes, I am a firm believer. The thing is I never see them. I feel them. I have a sense that something is there. I have encountered two ghosts for sure. One was in the South of France and the other one was in Vancouver when our upstairs neighbour died in the middle of the night and I had a flash of him in my mind as we were going to bed and he was laughing and having a really good time. And I said to Craig, “That’s really weird but Jack from upstairs just flashed into my head.” And the very next day his caregiver said, “Just so you guys know, Jack passed away last night.” And it was right around the time he visited us.

And actually, I had another one in Ottawa where a very dear friend of ours had died a couple of days earlier and his wife had called. My mother was with me. I was doing Pride and Prejudice at the NAC. It was a co-pro with Theatre Calgary. So, we found out that Donovan had died, and it was really, really, sad and it wasn’t expected at all and I had misplaced my wedding ring. I went, “Well where’s my wedding ring? This is terrible.” And I didn’t want to tell Craig because I was always losing it and it turned out that my daughter, who was all of two at the time, had picked it up off the counter and had put it on the switch of a lamp and never in a million years would I have found it. But that night Donovan, the man who had died, came to me in my dreams and said, “Your ring is on the lamp switch. You’ll find it there in the morning.” And lo and behold I found it there in the morning.

JAMES

Craig what about yourself? Anything?

CRAIG HALL

Little inklings here and there. I don’t want to go too far into this, but my father passed away last summer and I was with him when he passed. So, he passed and there was sort of mourning with my mom and sister and then I just needed a bit of space and I walked out into the hallway and as I was walking down the corridor in the hospital, I sort of felt a presence. And I sort of saw something in the periphery and I looked, and he wasn’t there but I knew it was my dad.

JAMES

You sensed him.

CRAIG

I sensed him. I think to me the supernatural is all about some sort of barriers between different sorts of realities and existence. I don’t have any religion in my family or in my history, so I don’t think of it in a religious sense but certainly in some sort of energy sense. I believe that the energy that is in us doesn’t go away. It doesn’t stop. So, it’s released into the world and I feel that sometimes that energy can get captured in a place or it can remain in a place for a reason, but I’ve never really thought too deeply about it. It’s kind of like Anna said, it’s not like you see something. There’s a presence. A coldness in a place that has no reason to be cold.

JAMES

Sounds though, like these have been positive encounters.

CRAIG

Yeah, but they’re still affecting and hair raising.

Meg Farhall, Behrad Mashtagh, Joel Cochrane, Curt McKinstry, and Daniela Vlaskalic 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, what kind of discussions did you have then in developing the script while you were in the process of adapting it?

ANNA

Well, interestingly enough Hamlet was one of the potential productions that Craig submitted when he was applying for the Artistic Director job at Vertigo.

CRAIG

Eight years ago.

JAMES

So, this has been on your mind for a long time.

CRAIG

Not in a deep way but certainly when I was contemplating that sort of mystery genre…

ANNA

…and pushing the mandate…

CRAIG

…and looking at the genre and going, “If I did this job then what’s in it for me? How limiting is it?” And realizing that there’s a whole lot of work outside of the obvious genre that can be embraced as genre work like the Macbeths and the Hamlets. And I don’t think we’re making Hamlet a ghost story – it is a ghost story. We’re turning up the dial but that’s what it is. It’s a revenge thriller. It’s a ghost story

ANNA

It’s a detective story as he tries to figure out whether the ghost has told him the truth or if he’s being led down the garden path.

CRAIG

And before he can act, he has to convince himself that there’s no chance that his uncle is innocent. So, he does this very intricate detective work and he sets up stings and so when you look at the work through that lens that was exciting for me because it meant the range of work that Vertigo could potentially have access to is far greater than some sort of antiquated drawing room murder mystery. So, in a way that seed was the thing that made me want to take the job at Vertigo and that’s been percolating ever since.

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

ANNA

And with Hamlet one of the major issues about the play in production is the madness and how does one as an actor or how does one as a director or an adaptor approach the madness? Is it feigned all the time? Are there moments where he cracks? How can you convey to an audience a heightened sense of anxiety? And we went, well what if he’s being haunted? What if he is hearing these voices more preveniently than in the original script? Then we, as a modern audience, can buy into the other characters in the play going, “Oh yes, he’s mad.” Because he’s talking to himself and his behaviour is frenetic and for the other characters those are hallmarks for insanity, but of course our audience will be in on it. They’ll be able to hear those voices as well. They’ll be able to see the ghost when the ghost is not present in the original but might be present in our version.

The Ghost 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, what are some of the main themes you wanted to explore in the script and then once you have those in the script how do you put those into practice in the production?

Anna Cummer – Playwright

ANNA

I had very concrete ideas heading into this but now that we’re in rehearsal and we now have other voices than the ones in my head who are lending their interpretations and lending their ideas to the whole scenario I think things have changed a little bit. But to me, the real thesis statement of the play is, “To thine own self be true.” And that ultimately everybody has difficulty when they’re not being true to themselves or when they are being forced to be something that they are not. So, I started there because Claudius is pretending to be the best King on earth even though he got his crown by very dubious and treacherous means. Gertrude is also putting on a brave face and doing it for the state and trying to keep her son happy and comfortable and placate the new husband. There’s a lot of stuff happening. Same with Polonia – in our version, Polonius is played by a woman.

CRAIG

So, it’s a mother rather than a father. And that does change it. And we’re really making sure that change of gender trickles down so the way that Polonius talks to his daughter and his son has a completely different feeling than the way Polonia talks to her daughter and son. And it’s automatic. Polonia is a thoughtful mother, not just a bumbling fool. She’s a thoughtful mother who actually cares about her family and cares about her place in the court but generally for the sake of the family.

ANNA

So that way Laureates, Ophelia and Polonia can stand as the healthy example of family and familial interaction in comparison to the incredibly dysfunctional family that we now have in Claudius, Gertrude and Hamlet.

And with regard to Hamlet and, “To thine own self be true,” he’s been asked by his father – who was warlike, and action based – to do something that is completely out of character for him. He’s a thinker. He’s a philosopher. He’s a student. He’s wrestling with who he is as an individual and recognizing that he can not avenge his father the way that his father would want it to be done.

CRAIG

Hamlet is a man of the age. He’s not a man of the court. For all intense and purposes, he allows the coronation of his uncle. He doesn’t state his case. He doesn’t bring a petition to the council. It all kind of happens and he’s in mourning and he’s trying to reconcile things but there’s no sense to me that he’s eagerly anticipating stepping into his father’s shoes. He’s got a different kind of morality. He can’t do the actions because, I think, he’s an existential kind of thinker. He’s got a new way of thinking and a new morality and he just can’t be a man of action the way that’s required.

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 wondering what you make of how he treats Ophelia and what’s his end game and thought process for doing that because the end result is she kills herself.

ANNA

Craig and I kind of cracked it. Or, I feel like we cracked it. We were asking the same question. There’s this loving relationship and he just instantly turns on her and why is that? Is she a pawn in his ultimate game? Is she something to be used in his attempt to find out whether or not Claudius killed his father or not? And we were going through it – and this is just Craig and I literally on the couch and I went, “What if they’ve gone all the way?” And so, they’ve had this loving relationship that has been consummated and so Ophelia in all her scenes with her mother is trying very very hard not to let her know that. Her brother we think has more of an inkling because of his frank conversation with her as he leaves. “Do, not lose your chastity to this guy.” And she’s, “Oh yeah, don’t worry about it. I got it. No worries. Oh no, I already have. Oh dear.” And mom comes in and then says the same sort of thing, “Keep your distance for my benefit and my honour.” And so, we’re toying with the idea that they’ve had a very – very close relationship and that she is his island of solace. She is the touchstone to which he returns time and time again and in his time of mourning, she has been a rock for him. None of this is in the original so we have to seed it for our audience.

Natasha Strickey as Ophelia and Daniela Vlaskalic as Gertrude 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

CRAIG

Because in the action of the play as it’s written you have no real inkling of their relationship before he starts treating her terribly. But if there was a deeper relationship that existed then that’s why when he comes to her funeral he explodes and rails there. It’s actually based on something.

And if her participation in Claudius and Polonia’s plot is a real betrayal of Hamlet and he realizes that they’re being watched when Ophelia comes back to him and says here’s all your letters and remembrances of yours and in that moment he realizes that she’s turned on him and that she’s become…

ANNA

…a confederate of the others…

CRAIG

…a tool of the Uncle. Then it’s not just arrogance and pettiness and meanness that makes him act the way he does – he’s been betrayed.

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

Earlier you mentioned that Hamlet is a revenge story. Why do you think we have this fascination with revenge stories?

Craig Hall, Director – Hamlet: A Ghost Story

CRAIG

I think justice is a huge thing. I think going back to the mystery genre or the who done it people watch those things because they want to see somebody get their just desserts or take revenge. And there’s a weird celebration that comes along with you wanting to see the hero win the day and see the bad guy pay.

And in Shakespeare the stakes are massive, but I think we all have injustices and little revenges that we want to take on a daily basis. That’s why Hamlet is such a frustrating character in so many ways because the ghost of his father comes and says your uncle killed me. You need to take revenge and do your duty as a son. And then he proceeds to find every excuse to not do it because he’s a man of the modern age where complexity and morality have become so much more real and palpable. Like, duty to the state is of a kind of time and I don’t think Hamlet’s a man of the court in that same way. It’s not just all black and white. He lives in a world of grey morality and philosophy.

JAMES

Tell me about the cast you’ve assembled for this production.

CRAIG

I think this is probably one of the most eclectic group of actors that I’ve ever worked with. You know we’ve got Calgary stalwarts like Curt McKinstry playing Claudius, Daniella Vlaskalic who works everywhere has returned to play Gertrude. Then we’ve got Karen Hines who’s known more as a writer and a solo performer playing Polonia.

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

ANNA

Who’s never done Shakespeare before in her life but she’s killing it already. And we’ve got a lot of people with great comedic chops in it. So, Meg Farhall is playing one of the servants and Rosencrantz. And then Graham Percy who is just killer at Shakespeare gets to be the gravedigger and the prologue the player.

CRAIG

Joel Cochrane from Hit and Myth is playing our ghost dad and is one of the players.

ANNA

And then Behrad Moshtagh a UofC grad – he and Ahad went to school together – he’s playing Laertes.

CRAIG

And we’ve got Allison Lynch playing Horatia and then, of course, Ahad Mir as Hamlet. We decided very early on that we wanted a younger Hamlet and we also wanted some diversity in the piece.

ANNA

And Ahad was involved in our production of Macbeth and he actually understudied Haysam as Mackers and he has a certain facility with the text and also a really lovely innate ability to make it modern and conversational.

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

CRAIG

Ahad has had such an interesting journey as a young UofC grad coming up in the city and then suddenly he disappears to Pakistan and gets a whole other kind of training as an actor and gets all these new tools he can use because he’s been doing film and television over there. And we did Mackers in that deep thrust in the studio and we felt one of the things that made that really really successful was the intimacy of the performance space. You know you don’t have to suddenly play Shakespeare to hit the back of a proscenium house.

ANNA

A twelve hundred seat theatre.

CRAIG

The relationship with the audience can actually be much more vital and connected. And frankly, Calgary is bleeding its young diverse artists. They’re going to Toronto. They’re going to Vancouver. They’re going to Pakistan for opportunities that they’re not necessarily finding here. These young diverse actors are going to other cities and becoming super successful and we need to figure out some way to keep them here.

ANNA

So, if we can get them to come back it’s always a joy.

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

So, why come see the show?

ANNA

It’s lean and mean the way that the Shakespeare company always is so it’s going to come in at about two hours and fifteen minutes including intermission. And we’ve done away with all the political and historical stuff and we’ve distilled it down to a family drama that just happens to have murder and ghosts in it. It’s Downton Abbey with death and ghosts.

CRAIG

And we’re amping up the suspense and I think everybody wants to see something entertaining and dark and I think that’s what we’re really doing.

ANNA

Sex, death and revenge.

JAMES

The big three.

ANNA

It’s biblical. It’s epic.

***

Vertigo Theatre presents the Shakespeare Company and Hit and Myth’s Production of Hamlet: A Ghost Story which runs from March 20th to April 13th in the Studio at Vertigo Theatre. Performance times are evenings at 7:00 pm, no performance on Monday, 2:30 pm matinees on March 23, 24, 30 and April 6,7, and 13th. Tickets are $35.00 and are available by calling the Vertigo Theatre box office at 403.221.3708 or online at www.vertigotheatre.com

***

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. 

If you enjoyed this interview with Craig Hall and Anna Cummer you might also enjoy:

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Last updated May 07, 2022.

Interview with the director of 500 bucks and a pack of smokes – Ruthie Dworin

Posted on by James Hutchison
Poster for 500 bucks and a pack of smokes Directed by Ruthie Dworin and starring Carolyn Applebaum, Reed Thurston, Kajol Char, and Gayathri Rao.

“I think the most important thing comedy provides is catharsis – especially with farce – like this is a tragic situation that we get to laugh at Donny being a fool and we get to laugh at everyone else on stage being horrible and we get to live out some ridiculous aspects of human nature and laugh at it and not take it seriously and that makes the world a little bit lighter. And then there’s also the communal experience of being in a theatre and hearing everyone else laugh around you and that’s why live theatre still exists.” Ruthie Dworin

My one-act comedy, 500 bucks and a pack of smokes, is one of two student productions at the University of Chicago this weekend. 500 bucks and a pack of smokes is the story of Donny Bracco who after being told by his doctor that he’s dying puts out a contract on his own life. So, when his doctor calls him on his birthday and tells him the lab made a mistake, Donny is more than a little upset. Making matters worse, the original killer Donny hired, subcontracted the hit to another killer – who subcontracted it to another killer – who subcontracted it to another killer – who doesn’t know Donny is the one who put the hit out on himself. With time running out, Donny has to find the killer and convince him to call off the hit, otherwise, this might be the last birthday he ever celebrates.

Cast & Crew for 500 bucks and a pack of smokes. L-R Jess Robinson – Stage Manager, Gayathri Rao (Carmen), Reed Thurston (Vinnie, Murphy, Powell, Stubby), Kajol Char (Sophia, Sid), Carolyn Applebaum (Donny), Ruthie Dworin – Director

The production stars Carolyn Applebaum as Donny Bracco; Reed Thurston as hitman Vinnie Torelli, Officer Powell, Detective Murphy and Stubby the hobo; Kajol Char as widow Sophia Falco and butcher Sid Valencia; and Gayathri Rao as Sid’s sister Carmen. Ruthie Dworin is directing. The production is being stage-managed by Jessica Robinson with sound design by Ro Redfern. Tickets are just $6.00 in advance or $8.00 at the door and are available online at the University of Chicago Box Office. Plus you can catch a free preview on Thursday, February 7th.

I gave Ruthie Dworin a call a couple of weeks ago to talk with her about the University of Chicago, the production, and her approach to directing.

JAMES HUTCHISON

As a director what type of culture do you try and create for your actors in the creation of a play?

Ruthie Dworin

RUTHIE DWORIN

I grew up doing a lot of acting so I’ve seen a lot of different kinds of rehearsal rooms. I’ve seen a lot of directors who create good rehearsal rooms and bad rehearsal rooms and everything in between. So, I’m a student director and I’m still honing my craft and figuring out how to create the rehearsal room that I want but the best rehearsal rooms that I’ve been in as a director and actor have been one where the director sets forth a clearly stated vision so that everyone knows what we’re all working towards and to provide a framework and a container for the actors to fill. And that allows for a lot of creativity from the actors and from the designers and that allows for a lot of play too which I feel is very important.

And then I like to use Viewpoint exercises to build an ensemble. Ensemble work I think is good for any kind of play. We use ensemble building for helping people to feel comfortable and physically liberated which allows them to explore how the characters move in different ways and also allows them to take a lot more risks. Viewpoints can also be more helpful for exploring character relationships with different kinds of boundaries and with different kinds of constraints than a typical rehearsal room using scene work and what the script offers.

JAMES

You mentioned before our interview that you were part of a commedia dell’arte troupe and that’s a particular kind of comedy with a long tradition behind it. How does your work with the commedia dell’arte help you in terms of putting on a contemporary play like 500 bucks and a pack of smokes?

RUTHIE

Commedia’s been helpful in a lot of different ways. It’s been helpful in allowing me to think of emotions on a much higher scale because what makes a commedia show funny is that it takes every day human emotions and then takes them up beyond the scale often even bigger than 10. I explicitly said those words in rehearsal and I think that’s going to help the actors a lot. It also frankly gives me a lot of exercises that I can use with actors that are unfamiliar with taking emotions to that kind of height and I can help them get more comfortable with amplifying reality and amplifying realistic emotions.

Ruthie and other members of her Commedia Troupe in Performance

RUTHIE

It’s also helpful for thinking about each character. So, I wrote down for each of the characters in the play who their commedia character would be because it’s helpful for me to think about the show and it’s helpful for me to think about helping actors in crafting their characters. So, I’m calling Donny – Tartaglia because the person who plays Tartaglia in my troupe plays him very much like a straight man where everything is happening to him and he’s just trying to gain some control in that environment and he’s very nervous and falling over all the time which are some of the characteristics for Donny.

JAMES

As the playwright, I’m curious about what attracted you to the play?

RUTHIE

I like that the script moves so quickly. I like the dry humour. I like that everything is huge and that a lot of the humour allows for the actors to get up and play a lot more with the words. And the characters were so clearly delineated, and I have one guy playing Vinnie, Murphy, Powell and Stubby and he’s having a lot of fun creating all those characters.

Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago

JAMES

From a student point of view, what are some of the things you really like about the University of Chicago?

RUTHIE

There’s a million ways for students to get involved. Our shows are entirely student-produced – all our main stages, all of our workshops, every single small production is student-produced so students are making everything happen from start to finish. Students are acting, students are directing, students are designing, students are production managing, students are stage managing, and students are picking the shows that actually get produced. 

JAMES

What kind of experience do the professors and instructors and support staff bring with them that you think is really beneficial for students? 

RUTHIE

Basically, every single person who works as a professional staff member here is involved in the professional theatre community in Chicago – one of my professors is a senior ensemble member at a theatre uptown and I’ve gone to see a couple of shows that he’s directed at that theatre and I’ve learned a lot from them.

And for the mainstage shows we have professional staff for each of the areas of design and for production management and stage management and for direction. So, student directors have a weekly cohort where they sit down with a professional director and workshop things to make their shows work well and look good and the student designers do a lot of the same things. It’s very helpful and they also teach classes as well.

That’s why Chicago is the first and only place I applied because I just fell in love with the school and I’m not majoring in theatre I’m majoring in linguistics because the linguistics program here is very good, but I also wanted to be able to do theatre with an exciting group of people without having to go to a conservatory.

A Streetcar Named Desire, University Theatre – Fall 2018, Photo by Matt Mateiscu

JAMES

You mentioned you’re taking your degree in linguistics and since you’re looking at language how does that focus on language influence the directing and staging of a play.

RUTHIE

I think a lot about language in terms of specific word choice because it informs all of the characters and it also informs a lot about how all the people talk differently to each other. Does Donny talk differently to Sophia than he does with Vinnie? Those things are very important. Linguistics is a scientific abstract version of things and theatre takes that knowledge and applies it to a specific situation which I think is fun and very useful.

JAMES

Do you have a preference for comedy or drama?

RUTHIE

I don’t really have a preference. The last several things I have worked on have been dramas and have been very heavy on symbolism and so I was specifically looking for a comedy this time around.

JAMES

What do you think comedy provides us in terms of its snapshot of the world?

RUTHIE

I think the most important thing is catharsis – especially with farce – like this is a tragic situation that we get to laugh at Donny being a fool and we get to laugh at everyone else on stage being horrible and we get to live out some ridiculous aspects of human nature and laugh at it and not take it seriously and that makes the world a little bit lighter. And then there’s also the communal experience of being in a theatre and hearing everyone else laugh around you and that’s why live theatre still exists.

JAMES

Why should people come out and see your production?

RUTHIE

The show is going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to laugh a lot and we’re going to throw things around on stage. Things are going to break and the actors are going to have a lot of fun on stage creating a lot of very huge characters that people can laugh at and enjoy and audiences will be able to relate to the small seeds of truth in it.

* * *

Ruthie Dworin is a second-year student at the University of Chicago majoring in Linguistics. Her theatrical background is mostly acting, but she discovered directing sophomore year of high school. She has assistant directed in her hometown, Louisville, KY, and at the University of Chicago on productions like A Bright Room Called Day by Tony Kushner, Julius Caesar, and Animals Out of Paper by Rajiv Joseph. In Louisville, she directed 26 Pebbles by Eric Ulloa and at UChicago she has directed Love, Loss, and What I Wore by Nora and Delia Ephron and short pieces by local playwrights for the annual New Work Week.

The Committee on Theatre and Performance Studies supports innovative work at the intersection of theory and practice across a broad spectrum of disciplines. The University of Chicago’s undergraduate and graduate programs in TAPS stand out for the intellectual commitment they demand, the interdisciplinary perspective they require, and the extraordinary collaborative opportunities they provide with theatre, dance, and performance companies in Chicago, across the country, and around the world.

Commedia dell’arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italy, that was popular in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century. The characters of the commedia usually represent fixed social types and stock characters, such as foolish old men, devious servants, or military officers full of false bravado. The characters are exaggerated “real characters”, such as a know-it-all doctor called Il Dottore, a greedy old man called Pantalone, or a perfect relationship like the Innamorati. (Source Wikipedia)

Viewpoints is a technique of composition that acts as a medium for thinking about and acting upon movement, gesture and creative space. Originally developed in the 1970s by choreographer Mary Overlie as a method of movement improvisation, The Viewpoints theory was adapted for stage acting by directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau. Bogart and Overlie were on the faculty of ETW at NYU in the late 1970s and early 1980s during which time Bogart was influenced by Overlie’s innovations. Overlie’s Six Viewpoints (space, story, time, emotion, movement, and shape) are considered to be a logical way to examine, analyze and create dances, while Bogart’s Viewpoints are considered practical in creating staging with actors. (Source Wikipedia)

Deathtrap at Vertigo Theatre: An Interview with director Jamie Dunsdon and actors Mark Bellamy and Tyrell Crews

Posted on by James Hutchison
Tyrell Crews and Mark Bellamy in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Diane + Mike Photography

Mark Bellamy, former artistic director of Vertigo Theatre, returns to the stage to take on the role of Sidney Bruhl in Ira Levin’s intensely entertaining thriller Deathtrap. Joining him on stage is Tyrell Crews as aspiring playwright Clifford Anderson, Barbara Gates Wilson as Bruhl’s wife Myra Bruhl, Karen Johnson-Diamond as psychic Helga Ten Dorp, and Kevin Corey as attorney Porter Milgram. The production is being directed by Jamie Dunsdon.

Deathtrap is one of the longest running mystery thrillers to ever hit Broadway and even though the play premiered more than forty years ago it’s as fresh and funny and thrilling today as it was the day it opened. The only problem is that because the play is filled with so many twists and turns and surprises you have to talk about the play without talking about the play. The only thing I can tell you, without revealing any spoilers, is how the play begins.

Sidney Bruhl, once a successful Broadway murder mystery playwright, has fallen on hard times after numerous flops, so when he receives a brilliant murder mystery play in the mail from a former student, Sidney begins to contemplate murderous thoughts about how he might steal the play for himself. I sat down with director Jamie Dunsdon and actors Mark Bellamy and Tyrell Crews to talk about weapons of choice and Vertigo Theatre’s production of Deathtrap.

Barbara Gates Wilson as Myra Bruhl and Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanna Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.

JAMES HUTCHISON

I’m going to start off with a hypothetical question. If you had to commit a murder – not saying that you would – what would be your weapon of choice?

MARK BELLAMY (Without hesitation)

Poison.

JAMES

Poison?

MARK

I have mine all planned out.

JAMES

Who’s the victim?

MARK

Oh, I can’t tell you that.

TYRELL CREWS

You’re looking at him.

JAMIE DUNSDON

It’s been a rough week. (Everyone laughs)

MARK

After running this company for ten years, you just amass so much knowledge that I actually figured out how I would do it. There’s a plant. I’m not going to say what the plant is, but you can grow it. It’s very common and there are different varieties of it. You can grow it in your garden and if you take the root and you soak it in vodka it makes it a tasteless, odourless, and almost untraceable poison that mimics a heart attack.

JAMES

It’s kind of disturbing that you’ve given this so much thought.

MARK

There’s even more. I figured out how I was going to use that poison.

TYRELL

I’m suddenly second-guessing our post-show martinis.

MARK

No, no, no – just never accept a cup of coffee from me – that’s the deal!

JAMES

Tyrell?

TYRELL

You know I haven’t given it as much thought as Mark.

MARK

Who has a detailed plan.

TYRELL

Well, like you said you lived in this building. I don’t know how I’d do it but what I will tell you is that last night I dreamt that I actually killed somebody with my bare hands – strangling – which was not even the major part of the dream. The major part of the dream was covering it up. There was a cell phone involved and I had to destroy the cell phone and the sim card itself and make sure the sim card was absolutely disintegrated because that’s the only thing that would have traced that individual to me.

MARK

This is exactly our characters.

JAMES

Good casting.

TYRELL

The violent one.

MARK

And the plotty one.

JAMES

Jamie, do you have a weapon of choice?

JAMIE

I do, but it’s for a very specific person. I would use peanuts.

MARK – TYRELL – JAMES

Ahhhh.

JAMIE

Yeah, I’d take them for a walk out in the mountains. Somewhere far away from their EpiPen and then I’d throw some trail mix their way. I would make it really pedestrian. Very every day.

Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl, Barbara Gates Wilson as Myra Bruhl, and Tyrell Crews as Clifford Anderson in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo

JAMES

So, then let’s talk about the play. Deathtrap is one part thriller, one part comedy, and one part mystery and I’m wondering how do you balance all those elements so that we’re laughing where we’re supposed to and we’re screaming where we’re supposed to?

JAMIE

I think the script does most of it for us. The script is very well constructed, and it’s tried and tested. The playwright doesn’t drop in laughs except to break the tension and I think we just follow that lead for the most part. As far as the mystery and the thriller aspects go that’s more of a balancing act and we’re still working on that in rehearsal. It’s all about who knows what and when and then when do we want the audience to know what and when? So that’s the work – the final stage of rehearsal – we know what we’re doing but now we’re shaping the experience for the audience.

JAMES

And making sure you don’t telegraph to the audience at the wrong time what’s going on.

MARK

That’s the hardest part, I think.

TYRELL

Yeah, I think, it’s about playing these moments honestly and what’s on the page in that specific situation. I think Jamie’s done an amazing job in knowing when those secrets or the scheming are supposed to bubble up to the surface and peak through.

JAMIE

That’s right, it’s entirely volume control because we know this play so well now that – once you’re inside it – it’s hard to get back outside.

MARK

It’s super hard from the inside.

JAMES

Because you know everything.

MARK

I know everything and I think the previews will be really neat because I’m sure there’s going to be one night where we go way too far one way and then way too far the other. It’s about finding where the sweet spot is. And it’s really finite, isn’t it? It’s really particular.

JAMIE

There’s a narrow band that we need to live within and so that’s the work we’ve been doing the last couple of days and it’s a little bit subjective, right? It’s a little bit here’s how much I think we need to turn it up but I’m kind of the audience surrogate so I do my best to gage that but we could have audience members who are smarter than me and pick up on things earlier.

Karen Johnson-Diamond as Helga Ten Dorp in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.

JAMES

And you’ve got a great cast you’re working with on this show.

JAMIE

We have a room that already understands the mystery genre because everybody in this show has worked with Vertigo multiple times which is fantastic. I’m leaning on their expertise as well, so for example, Mark caught something in rehearsal the other day that was very forensic. So, we have a room full of experts and fantastic people at the top of their craft and they’re also funny which is nice.

TYRELL

I think any hall that I have found success in is one where there’s the willingness to collaborate. It’s knowing that we’re all on the same playing field. Of course, Jamie has the final say but it’s the willingness to play and experiment which is supremely helpful for this type of play – auditioning every choice and volume level that we can.

JAMES

Now, Mark, you directed Deathtrap previously, haven’t you?

MARK

A long time ago. Sixteen or seventeen years ago. It was in 2002, I think.

JAMES

So, I’m kind of curious – you were the director and now you get to be the actor in it. Does having directed a show and now having had the chance to have aged into a part give you any additional insights?

MARK (Laughs)

It certainly gave me a familiarity with it. And when I directed it Stephen Hair was in it and Stephen was the former Artistic Director of the Pleiades.

JAMIE

And he had also directed it.

MARK

He had directed it! So there’s this weird little legacy.

JAMES

So, Jamie does that mean you’re going to be doing a female version of Deathtrap at some point?

JAMIE (Laughs)

Yes, I’m the next Sidney Bruhl.

JAMES

Mark, when you were directing it did you imagine that’s a part I want to play in twenty years?

MARK

I probably did. I fell in love with this play when I was in University. I saw the movie first and I’ve always been a fan of Deathtrap, but I don’t think back then my twenty-year-old self imagined my fifty-five-year-old self being Sidney Bruhl. I think I probably saw myself as a Clifford at some point when I was young, but that never happened.

JAMES

Tyrell, are there any particular parts that you want to play one day?

TYRELL

Hamlet is one of them. I’m a big Shakespeare guy so playing Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing with the Shakespeare Company last year was another one.

Tyrell Crews as Clifford Anderson and Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanna Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.

JAMES

Is Sidney in your future?

TYRELL

Ahhh, I love this play. I love this part, but it will be a very very long time before I get Mark Bellamy out of my head.

MARK

Oh dear. Oh dear. I’ve affected you.

TYRELL

In a good way.

MARK

Well, there are two moments in the show where I channel Stephen Hair. I’m not going to say where they are. I don’t channel. I homage. I homage – like I remember what Stephen did. There’s only two though.

Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl and Kevin Corey as attorney Porter Milgram in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.

JAMES

So, murder mysteries look at the darker side of humanity and there’s always an element of desperation to the characters contemplating murder – why do you think audiences enjoy watching desperate characters making morally questionable decisions?

JAMIE

Probably because we do it in real life. We don’t go as far down that path so, it’s delightful to see someone have that impulse and actually follow it through. There’s something a little bit cathartic in that.

TYRELL

And they’re relatable. You like these people and you’re invited into their home and you meet them and they’re very charming and you kind of fall in love with them.

MARK

And they’re funny.

TYRELL

And I think the way the plays mapped out you can see the decision making that goes into the escalation and so you can understand that decision making.

JAMIE

It’s a character-driven thriller – which you can probably speak to that more Mark because I’m not sure how common those are. This is a thriller that’s plot-heavy and it’s plot driven but the characters are all grounded.

MARK

What characterizes a thriller as opposed to a who done it is the thriller is more about the people and what they’re going to do and how they’re going to do it and not what they’ve done. A who done it is for us to figure out. A thriller is more like what are they going to do now?

Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl and Karen Johnson Diamond as Helga Ten Dorp in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanna Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.

JAMES

So, we’re telling people about this wonderful play and if somebody were to ask you what you’re in and you say you’re in Deathtrap – and they say well why should come I see that? What would your sales pitch be?

MARK

Directed by Jamie Dunsdon

JAMES

That’s a good reason.

JAMIE

Stars Mark Bellamy.

MARK (Laughs)

I would say that it is probably the epitome of the American thriller. Deathtrap, to me, is the American thriller version of what the Mouse Trap is to the who done it. And it’s fun. It’s funny. It will scare you. You’ll jump out of your seat and if you can stay ahead of these characters then you’re a genius.

JAMIE

I always tell people the same thing I have written in my director’s notes for the show. I was working for Craig, the artistic director of Vertigo Theatre, a couple of years ago and he had me look through something like fifty plays from the genre in a matter of months and there was some great stuff there but there was also some not so great stuff and when I read Deathtrap in the first hour of reading it I was already gasping and doing little ahahs with my cats and so if you can get that out of a read then think how good it would be on stage.

JAMES

And because you are directing this Jamie, I was wondering how significant and important do you feel getting a chance to stage Deathtrap at Vertigo is in terms of your career development?

Tyrell Crews & Mark Bellamy in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Diane + Mike Photography

JAMIE

It’s huge for me, but that’s half my battle right now is to not get too worried about that. I just have to applaud Craig because there’s not a lot of artistic directors who give young female directors a chance and he did and so I’m so grateful for that opportunity and really grateful for him as a mentor in my life and I’m just now trying to focus on the work and not on the monumental career step in it for me.

JAMES

Well speaking of next steps what have you got coming up?

JAMIE

Nothing I can talk about. I’m in workshops for things that are coming up at Verb and I’m in the early stages of some stuff…like early design phase of some things that haven’t been announced yet so I can’t talk about them.

JAMES

Tyrell, you’re part of a new theatre company called Black Radish and I see you’ve got a production of Waiting for Godot coming up in April. Tell me a little bit about the creation of the company and the production.

TYRELL

It’s a passion project. A huge passion project for us all. Myself, Duval Lang, Chris Hunt and Andy Curtis have been meeting and reading and discussing the play for the last three maybe four years. We shopped it around a little bit but it wasn’t a good fit with any existing company in the city so we decided to bite the bullet and give it a crack ourselves and now Denise Clarke is directing it so we have a chance to work in the Flanagan Theatre at The Grand and they want to open their doors and invite the community in and have a fresh start and that’s a big push for me as an artist and an individual with our little company.

JAMES

Mark, you’ve got a show coming up later in the year at Stage West?

MARK

I’m directing A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. It’s a Broadway musical that won the Tony Award in 2014. It’s very funny and it’s based on the film Kind Hearts and Coronets with Alec Guinness and it’s about a guy who thinks he is very poor but he discovers that he is actually the ninth in line to become Earl of Highhurst so he goes about murdering all of his relatives who are ahead of him and the great conceit in the show is that all of his family – all of the eight relatives – are played by one actor. It’s superbly funny and has really great music.

***

Deathtrap by Ira Levin and directed by Jamie Dunsdon and starring Mark Bellamy, Tyrell Crews, Barabara Gates Wilson, Karen Johnson-Diamond and Kevin Corey runs at the Vertigo Mystery Theatre from January 26th to February 24th. Tickets start at just $29.00 and are available online at Vertigo Theatre or from the box office by calling (403) 221-3708.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Last edited on August 29, 2019.

Interview with Artistic Director of Verb Theatre Jamie Dunsdon: The Wolves

Posted on by James Hutchison
Verb Theatre Jamie Dunsdon
Jamie Dunsdon – Artistic Director and Founder of Verb Theatre

***

“I work really hard to pick plays that I feel are important or valuable or ground-breaking in some big way, at least to me, and there is an immense satisfaction in sharing that kind of experience with others. I’ve been transformed by theatre, and I want to offer that gift to others. And although I don’t think theatre is the most efficient tool for social change, I do think it’s a high-impact tool for inquisitive thinking. We need more complex thinking and feeling in this universe, and I truly believe that if you can open an audience member’s heart or mind just enough, it will stay open after the show.”

***

David Rooney from the Hollywood Reporter describes The Wolves by Sarah Delappe as “A dizzying whirl of attitude,  anxiety and adolescent hormonal volatility…” He goes on to say that DeLappe’s “…dialogue has the unwritten sound of real conversation, much of it inconsequential, even banal or endearingly silly. But out of that jumble of words comes an imperceptibly shaped snapshot of the tricky gulf separating girlhood from maturity, a portrait spilling over with humor, insight and, in the closing stretch, searing pathos — all of it undiluted by the distorting filters of the male gaze.” 

That sounds like a good evening of theatre to me and Calgary audiences are rather fortunate because The Wolves is being produced and directed by Jamie Dunsdon the Artistic Director and founder of Verb Theatre. The show runs from October 4th to 13th at the West Village Theatre and tickets are a steal at just $20.00 for adults and $15.00 for students and are available online at the Verb Theatre and Calgary Young People’s Theatre websites.

I sat down with Jamie to talk about The Wolves, her experiences running a local theatre company and her approach to directing.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Jamie, as the Artistic Director of a small Theatre Company what do you find to be some of your biggest challenges and how have you been able to address them?

JAMIE DUNSDON

The boring answer is money, but you’ll hear that from every producer.

When we’re in the thick of it, and we’re opening a show, I always wish we had more resources to get more people out to our shows. Marketing is expensive, but at a small company like Verb where our work is so carefully chosen for strong impact, I care way more about audience response than about getting audience money. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve let into Verb shows for free because they showed up 30 minutes late to whatever is happening in the big theatre down the hall, and I don’t want them to leave the building without having their heart touched.

We struggle with that sometimes, especially when doing small-cast shows, because we don’t have the financial resources for large ad buys or massive outreach campaigns or the time to do it ourselves. I’m often directing our shows as well, which means the week before show is artistically intense, but also not full of loads of free time to think about last-minute outreach strategies. It’s why we value audience members who share their experiences with others. Word of mouth is big.

JAMES

So, what is it about theatre and running your own company that keeps you going because it’s a lot of work…it’s a lot of time and energy…what’s the big payoff?

JAMIE

I believe in the work! I work really hard to pick plays that I feel are important or valuable or ground-breaking in some big way, at least to me, and there is an immense satisfaction in sharing that kind of experience with others. I’ve been transformed by theatre, and I want to offer that gift to others. And although I don’t think theatre is the most efficient tool for social change, I do think it’s a high-impact tool for inquisitive thinking. We need more complex thinking and feeling in this universe, and I truly believe that if you can open an audience member’s heart or mind just enough, it will stay open after the show.

But I’ll be honest with you. There are days where it’s hard to see the payoff, as you put it. Those days are rough. They happen often.

The other thing about running my own company is that I get a lot more control over what kind of ideas are being put into the universe, and how they are being delivered. I get to pick the stories that are valuable to me. If I went freelance, I probably wouldn’t have as much agency in that, and I’d probably get restless and end up self-producing my own work as well anyway.

JAMES

This year you’ll be directing The Wolves by Sarah Delappe – this play was a winner of the 2015 Relentless Award for Playwriting which was established to honour Philip Seymour Hoffman and it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2017. Those are both extraordinary honours and the play has received wide praise and positive reviews. What was it that attracted you to this particular play?

JAMIE

I found it very funny. I found it very real and resonant. This play is surgical in its exploration of female relationships. No detail is too small. One of the characters is described as “wearing eyeliner” as defining character trait, and I don’t know if you can appreciate the significance of that, but it’s huge and it’s different than describing a girl as “beautiful in that next-door-neighbour kind of way” as we often see in casting calls. A girl who wears eyeliner on the soccer field is a very particular kind of person, and the playwright allows for her to be that and be rich and three dimensional. And this play asks questions about what breaks girls apart and what brings them together in ways that I’ve never heard vocalized before.

But I also just needed a play like this.

I took the loss of Hillary Clinton in 2016 pretty hard. I have a ton of empathy for her as a woman in leadership, a woman who has been misunderstood, as a woman whose passion is often obfuscated by fear and misogyny in those around her. I was finding certain roadblocks in the theatre world that resembled in some small ways the roadblocks she stumbled on. Plus, I kind of look like her. Anyway, I read The Wolves shortly after Donald Trump began his presidency. It was like I was feeling solid ground under my feet after treading water for a year. These were real teen girls speaking the way real teen girls speak and I work at Calgary Young People’s Theatre as well, so I know a thing or two about how teen girls speak. And this script allowed them to be real. They were allowed to be smart and stupid, insightful and oblivious, moral and immoral. And I think I needed that. After 2016, I needed to see girls being allowed to be themselves. I’d grown weary of watching girls have to fit into someone else’s mold.

Jamie Dunsdon - The Wolves director at West Village Theatre in Calgary 2018. (Photo by Rob Galbraith/Little Guy Media)
Mya Welsh, Nadia Kolesnikova, Dana Prather, Tess Larson, Sarah Shepherd, Haley Mowatt, Thea Libin, and Vicky Pablo in the Verb Theatre and The Young People’s Theatre production of The Wolves by Sarah Delappe. Direct by Jamie Dunsdon. (Photo by Rob Galbraith/Little Guy Media)

JAMES

The play is about a girl’s soccer team and the action of the play takes place as the girls warm up and practice throughout the season. There’s a certain attraction to having characters perform real activities but I’m wondering what sort of challenges does that pose for the actors as they try to do both the physical actions required and also tell a dramatic story.

JAMIE

Um. We have to keep eyes on soccer balls, because an errant ball can disrupt the flow of dialogue. Luckily this cast gets that and understands how to adapt.

I think the activity really helps ground the performances. When you’re kicking a soccer ball or stretching or doing some kind of exercise, that takes up the same brain space that would otherwise kick in and start over-thinking about things like what do I do with my hands? So the task allows them to just exist in the world.

It’s been a bit different for me, though, because most of the tools in my directorial kit have to do with how characters move as a response to their objectives in the scene. But when characters are moving because they have to as part of a stretch or exercise, it changes the way physicality functions onstage. Fascinating and thrilling to navigate that.

JAMES

Do you have a consistent approach as a director when you’re doing a play or do you adjust your style of directing depending on whether or not you’re doing a comedy like The Importance of Being Earnest which you directed a few years ago or a drama like Blackbird which you directed last year or The Wolves which you’re directing this year?

JAMIE

No, I don’t have a directorial method, if that’s what you’re asking. Or if I do, it’s simply to learn what each play needs and learn to direct all over again based on those requirements. But every play is so different, as is every artist, so I’m constantly adjusting my process.

I carry around a director’s tool kit in my head, and the more experience I get, the more tools I have, which make me a better director. I collect them. Steal them. Some tools are for shaping, some are for cutting away. Some are for actors, others are for designers, others are for me. But the trick is to know which tool to use when, and to recognize when you don’t actually possess the tool yet… and to know where to look to find it.

JAMES

Theatre and television and movies have focused on male stories for a long time but now we’re starting to see more stories about women and their struggles and challenges in life. Do you think The Wolves might be the start of a movement towards more female stories and if so have you seen other playwrights and theatre companies that are working to give those stories a platform?

JAMIE

I’m seeing it more in film and TV, with all-female treatments of certain stories or with female-dominated worlds like Orange is the New Black or GLOW, which both have some pretty amazing female perspectives in them. But there’s also a lot of sexual objectification in those worlds as well. The pilot episode of GLOW has Alison Brie take off her shirt for absolutely no reason.

In theatre, we’re certainly seeing a push toward gender equity and ethnic diversity, which is encouraging, but I don’t know if there’s a movement toward more complex female characters just yet. I think a lot of female actors have been culturally trained not to think that way, so it might take some time.

JAMES

Last year I saw your production of Blackbird and can easily say it was one of the best productions I saw over the course of the year. It’s a powerful play and you had two extraordinary actors Curt McKinstry and Camille Pavlenko in the lead roles. It was a raw and emotional theatrical experience. But that was mostly with a cast of two so you can really focus the energy and the emotion. But with The Wolves, you’ve got a cast of ten. How do you build and control the dramatic energy of a play when you’ve got such a large cast and so many storylines?

JAMIE

The Wolves and Blackbird have a lot in common – both are written in that hyper-naturalistic style that tries to capture the way real humans speak. Both explore nuanced grey zones of human experience. Both have Rachel Mah in them. Rachel is an amazing young actor who appeared as the “girl” in Blackbird and who plays our goalie in The Wolves.

But The Wolves is written to be experienced differently than Blackbird. Blackbird is strung up by a thread, so you follow a very intricate and specific story the full way. The Wolves, however, has many threads, and it’s impossible to just focus on one… which means the audience will get a bit more of a collage effect. The girls talk over each other a lot, so there are entire chunks of the play where you simply CAN’T hear any one conversation. Instead, hopefully, you absorb the effect. The big picture. If Blackbird is a taut thread, The Wolves is a taut tapestry. There are some who would argue it’s a bit more of a feminist structure in that regard, but I’ll leave that to the scholars.

Jamie Dunsdon The Wolves The Calgary Young People's Theatre Company present The Wolves by Sarah Delappe at the West Village Theatre. (Photo by Rob Galbraith/Little Guy Media)
Back Row left to right: Rachel Mah, Sarah Shepherd, Haley Mowatt, Thea Libin. Front Row left to right: Tess Larson, Mya Welsh, Dana Prather, Nadia Kolesnikova. The Wolves by Sarah Delappe. Produced by Verb Theatre and The Calgary Young People’s Theatre Company. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon. (Photo by Rob Galbraith/Little Guy Media)

JAMES

Why should someone come to see the show, and when they do what are you hoping audiences will get out of seeing The Wolves?

JAMIE

Everybody should see this show because it might make them feel something. And we live in a time that is very unfeeling. Everybody should see this show because it might make them question something. And we live in a time that is very uncurious. Everybody should see this show because it stars a cast of 9 outstanding young female actors from diverse backgrounds, and they are our future and they will make you feel better about our future. Everybody should see this show because Anna Cummer makes a cameo in it that is worth the ticket price alone! Everybody with a teenager should see this show. Everybody who was a teenager should see this show.

***

The Wolves a Co-production between Verb Theatre and Calgary Young People’s Theatre opens Thursday, October 4th and runs until Saturday, October 13th at the West Village Theatre. Evening performances begin at 7:00 pm and there is a 2:00 pm matinee on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are just $20.00 for adults and $15.00 for students and are available through the Verb Theatre and the Calgary Young People’s Theatre Websites.

***

Plus, mark your calendars, Jamie will be directing Death Trap by Ira Levin which runs at Vertigo Theatre from January 26th to February 24th, 2019. Death Trap is a fun and twisted tale of murder and intrigue and stars an outstanding cast including Mark Bellamy, Barbara Gates Wilson, Tyrell Crews, Karen Johnson-Diamond, and Kevin Corey. I’ll be talking to Jaimie more in the new year about her experiences running a theatre company and her approach to directing Death Trap.

***

The Wolves by Sarah Delappe

Cast: #00 – Rachel Mah, #02 – Haley Mowatt, #07 – Nadia Kolesnikova, #08 – Thea Libin, #11 – Tess Larson, #13 – Mya Welsh, #14 – Dana Prather, #25 – Sarah Shepherd, #46 – Vicky Pablo, Soccer Mom: Anna Cummer

Creative Team: Director: Jamie Dunsdon, Stage Manager: Sara German, Costume Coordinator: Rebecca Toon, Sound Design: Kristin Eveleigh, Lighting Design: Ajay Badoni, Assistant Director: Shea Heatherington

***

Jamie Dunsdon is the Artistic Director of Calgary’s Verb Theatre, Artistic Producer of Calgary Young People’s Theatre, and a sessional instructor for the University of Lethbridge Calgary Campus. She is also an active director and creator, and occasional designer. In 2013/14, Jamie was the Artistic Associate at The Grand Theatre in London. Directing Credits (Selected): Blackbird, Easter Island, Sextet, Lungs, The Dandelion Project, NOISE, Marg Szkaluba: Pissy’s Wife, Jim Forgetting, John and Beatrice, The Shape of a Girl (Verb Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest, Playwrights Cabaret (The Grand Theatre); Unity 1918, Macbeth, Village of Idiots, Richard III, The Lost Prince, A Little Princess (Calgary Young People’s Theatre); Bridge to Terabithia (Storybook Theatre). Upcoming: In 2018/19, Jamie will be directing The Wolves for Verb and CYPT, and Deathtrap for Vertigo Theatre.

VERB Theatre:  TOMORROW’S THEATRE, TODAY Here at Verb, our mission is to provide for our audiences theatrical experiences that explore cutting-edge ideas in cutting-edge ways. We look to explore conversations and theatrical forms that will be important to our audiences tomorrow with our surprising, important, and innovative performance. And as for you? We simply invite you to expect the unexpected.

Calgary Young People’s Theatre: OUR MISSION STATEMENT: We aim to inspire and encourage the next generation of the theatre community by providing a safe, creative space where young people can freely express themselves and their ideas. Through this we hope to foster in them a strong sense of community, passion and appreciation for the arts.

Revised September 8th, 2020

Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival Celebrates Canadian Theatre

Posted on by James Hutchison

I’m very excited to announce that my play, Valentine’s Day, is one of twenty-four plays being produced at the 2018 Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival. The NNPF is a festival dedicated to Canadian plays and the diverse voices of this country and takes place forty minutes north of Toronto in Newmarket Ontario. 

The plays are grouped into four themed Pods with six plays being presented in each Pod. Tickets are just twenty bucks per Pod and each Pod is presented four times during the festival. Valentine’s Day which is part of the “off BALANCE” Pod is about Tom who remembers the day fifty years ago when he met the love of his life, Heather. The production is being directed by Dale Sheldrake and stars Dan Karpenchuk as Old Tom, Tiffany Deobald as Heather, Kyra Van Den Enden as Karen, and Ilya Iyashyk as Young Tom.

Other plays in the “off BALANCE” Pod include Hero by Peter Cavell a sweet romantic comedy where even heroes need a hero and Funeral Sandwiches by Greg White where a grieving Barbara learns the truth about her husband and another woman. This pod is suitable for most audiences and is described as: “In life’s ledger, what we lose and what we gain always affects the balance.”

If your tastes run a little more mature you might want to see the “side KICKS” Pod which deals with mature themes, coarse language and sexuality and includes If the Shoe Fits by Genevieve Adam where a loyal knight, a glass slipper, and a pig farmer provide a new twist on an old tale and The Kiss by Janet Kish where Panda learns about the give and take of love in an innocent clown-like world. This Pod is definitely meant for a mature audience and is described as: “Best Buddies. Sidekicks? Boon companion or boot the companion? Relationships are so complex!”

The third Pod called “social ORDERS” includes a story about two unlikely refugees who encounter unanticipated obstacles when they try to cross the border in a play by Guy Newsham called The Other Side. This Pod is suitable for most ages and its description reads: “Independence. Interdependence. When there’s no comfort in conformity, something’s out of order.”

“Sometimes we get what we’ve longed for. Sometimes, what we get, is long overdue.” That’s the description of Pod number four: “past DUE.” Plays include Daphne of Evora by Samantha Machado which is about Daphne who faces a forced marriage to an English duke after being stolen from her homeland and Cataloguing the Stars by Andrew Lee where Agnes and Alex’s relationship is catalogued in notes that reach across the chasm of space and time. This Pod contains mature themes and is therefore intended for a mature audience.

Interview with Michael Halfin Artistic Director of the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival

“We’ve received submissions from every province in Canada and from Canadians from around the world. We’ve received scripts from China, Tasmania, Australia, Ireland, many states throughout the U.S., and so on, and I think that Canadians are catching on to the idea that this is their festival.”

Michael Halfin, Artistic & Executive Director NNPF

Michael Halfin, Artistic & Executive Director NewMarket National Play Festival

I talked with founder and Artistic Director of the NNPF Michael Halfin and to Dale Sheldrake the director of my play about this year’s festival.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Michael, I understand you had retired and when we think of retirement most of us think of golf courses and trips to Europe and working in the garden, but after eight months of retirement, you decided to create a national festival of ten-minute plays. Where did the idea for the festival come from, and why did you take on the challenge of putting the festival together?

MICHAEL HALFIN

I’ve always been fascinated by the ten-minute play format, and as a drama teacher, I’d found it to be a great format to teach students dramatic structure, acting process, characterization…really the whole package that full length plays offer, without having to deal with pages and pages of text that kids are resistant to reading. Moreover, I’d read these plays and sometimes find myself weeping at the end – and they were only 10 pages long! It wasn’t long before I was getting kids to write their own ten-minute scripts and inviting professional playwrights into my classroom to dramaturge with them. The results were outstanding. I knew this was a format for writers, actors, and audience, and so the opportunity to create a national play festival exclusively for Canadian writers would be so inviting to playwrights because of the format’s tight structure and huge dramatic pay off just seemed logical to me.

As for retirement, I felt after 35 years it was time to leave teaching and apply all I’d learned in a different way. I’ve always been a creator, and I guess, it’s just impossible for me to stop.

JAMES

One of the things I really like about the festival is the fact that people have a chance to see twenty-four original Canadian plays. What has been the response from the playwriting community across the country, and why do you feel it’s important to showcase so many plays?

MICHAEL

I think what’s been most delightful to see in these first two years is where people are submitting scripts from. We’ve received submissions from every province in Canada and from Canadians from around the world. We’ve received scripts from China, Tasmania, Australia, Ireland, many states throughout the U.S., and so on, and I think that Canadians are catching on to the idea that this is their festival. We don’t “theme” the festival. People can write whatever they want, and what we consistently find, is that Canadians are attuned to the Zeitgeist and have a kind of “collective unconsciousness” and tend to write scripts on the same themes in a given year. So, we select twenty-four and they just naturally fall into the six-pack pods we build around themes that are common in those six scripts.

Breanne Dietrich, Jake Wilkinson, in A Little Reservation. Book & Lyrics by Trevor Curran; Music by JaeMoon Lee. Directed by Mandy Roveda. Photo: Jason Wighton – Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival

JAMES

The first year was very successful and in its second year, the festival is getting bigger and better having expanded from two days to five. What is your ultimate vision of what the festival can become?

MICHAEL

Ultimately, I’d like to see us expand into divisions of the festival that would be ten-minute, one act, full-length, and even full-length musicals, but for now, the most important thing is establishing that we are a credible, committed organization that respects creative artists and wants to open the door to the diverse voices of our country. And just as importantly, honour that ten-minute format that appeals to every generation–especially the i-generation people who want information fast and to the point. If we want theatre to be viable, we have to get the youngest generations into our houses.

JAMES

How is the community of Newmarket involved in the production and running of the festival?

MICHAEL

At the board level, all of us are volunteers. We don’t take a single cent from gate receipts for ourselves. Last year, we were overwhelmed by volunteers and we couldn’t find enough work for them to do. This year, we’ve identified our areas of need more clearly to make the best use of people’s time during festival week. We’ve also had tremendous buy-in by the restaurateurs and merchants in the downtown core who are giving ticket holders discounts on their meals and purchases. Just incredible validation from small business owners! And I can’t say enough about the Town of Newmarket itself. Without their support, this festival simply couldn’t happen. Lastly, we have a number of people in town who are billeting a number of our artists for the month of July. You can’t ask for better community support than that.

JAMES

Why should someone come to the festival?

MICHAEL

First, I think they should come for the plays! This is theatre for people who’ve never liked theatre. My 22-year-old son hates theatre, but even he likes this format. He said, “Dad, I know if five minutes in I don’t like the play, at least I know a new one is coming five minutes later. I don’t have to sit there being bored for two hours!” For experienced theatre-goers, the themed pods of six plays give them a full diet of what they’ve come for. We also build the festival around the plays. Last year, local visual artists curated an entire exhibition around our four pod themes, and we’ll be doing that again. We have 14 playwrights coming to do readings of some of their other work before the audience engages the performance of their ten-minute play. We have director and actor talkback sessions, historical tours, and have built Buskerfest into our program so people have lots of live performances to see on the streets. It’s fun. It’s great theatre and it tells us who we are as Canadians. All of these activities are free. The only thing you pay for is your theatre ticket. Somebody tell me where you can get more bang for twenty bucks?

***

Artistic Director Michael Halfin watches a rehearsal of actors Ilya Ilysshyk and Meghan de Chastelain in For the Love of Austen by Stefanie Curran, directed by Dale Sheldrake. Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival

Interview with Dale Sheldrake Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival

“Telling and hearing stories keeps us in the emotional and intellectual company of one another. I think deep down, people desire to know they can rely on other people, and stories and theatre can offer that by creating a like-minded culture.”

Dale Sheldrake, Director Valentines’ Day

***

One of the exciting things about having your plays produced at festivals is the chance to connect with the artists who are producing your play. I’ve made connections in England, and Australia and now in Newmarket Ontario.  A few weeks ago I connected with the director of my play Dale Sheldrake.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Dale, you’re directing four plays in this year’s festival. Which plays are you directing and what attracted you to each particular play?

DALE SHELDRAKE

I’m directing Hero by Peter Cavell, For the Love of Austen by Stefanie Curran, Pausing At The Fringe by David Healey, and Valentine’s Day. Each play has aspects of love involved in its story: the need for love, lost and found love, new love, old love, restricting love, freeing love. These aspects of love shift and evolve in each play and reveal how present and important love is to every person’s day, existence and lifetime.

I was drawn to these plays because they’re well told but also because three of them have messages of hope in them regarding love. That’s a theme I like to share with audiences when possible. Valentine’s Day is different because of its context, but still, the main character, Tom, reflects on how his life was more meaningful than he could have ever hoped for because of his love for his wife Heather. So his hope is in reflecting on the love he had which comforts him in his current lonely life. That’s a nice twist.

JAMES

You’ve had a rich and successful career working in film and television on lots of different shows including The Handmaids Tale and Penny Dreadful. You’re a playwright and published poet, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, a singer and a musician, and apparently make a mean Tex-Mex chili. You’ve worked in a lot of different mediums and have experience in a lot of different areas of production. With all these various skills what in particular do you use as a theatre director to help bring a story to life on the stage?

DALE

Everything, really. I love storytelling and can’t get it out of my system. Having experience in different entertainment mediums and settings has been valuable for staging a performance and helpful with directing. As a starting point, I read the play and visualize it, considering what is connecting with me emotionally, in regards to the characters and what’s happening between them. This opens up aspects of presentation that can be applied to the story. The purpose, of course, is to figure out what will make the audience best able to relate personally to these characters, feel the emotions the story conveys and understand the underlying lesson? I think most stories try to teach a lesson of some kind or offer a perspective on one.

JAMES

As a person deeply involved with the creation and telling of stories why do you think people have this deep desire to hear and tell stories?

DALE

People need and want social interaction, whether it’s in person or not. Stories tell us about each other and give us a lens to look at ourselves and our behaviour. Live storytelling, like theatre, brings groups of people together, entertains us, and lets us share in emotional experiences without being personally involved. It’s safe and it feels good to laugh with others, and shed a tear with these sudden communities and friendships. Telling and hearing stories keeps us in the emotional and intellectual company of one another. I think deep down, people desire to know they can rely on other people, and stories and theatre can offer that by creating a like-minded culture.

JAMES

You had a table read with all the actors a few weeks ago where all twenty-four plays were read. What was that experience like for the people involved in the festival?

DALE

The full company table read was super! There are actors who would never have met each other during the festival because of different schedules so it worked as an introduction. It gave a depth and shape to what a huge commitment and undertaking it is to put this festival together. It gave an overview of all of the terrific writing and talent involved. Everyone loved it!

JAMES

What do you find most inspirational about the NNPF and want people to know about the festival?

DALE

The Newmarket play festival preparations are incredibly professional, and having everything creative in one place: rehearsals, set design, wardrobe, staging, props, it all just buzzes like a beehive on certain days. Most inspiring is the growing presence of the magic of theatre, of numerous people working together to build something visual, thought-provoking, heart-grabbing and grand from the words on the page. Excitement grows a little day by day as we near opening night.

***

The Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival runs from July 25 to July 29th. Tickets are just twenty bucks per show and there are four shows of six plays based on a common theme available to see. You can get tickets and check out the complete festival schedule at the Newmarket National Play Festival Website.

***

Man, I wish I could be there. I’d love to see all the plays and meet the other playwrights and actors and directors and I’d definitely be heading to the Chip+Malt for some fish and chips. The Chip+Malt is just one of the many restaurants and retailers offering discounts during the festival. But that’s what festivals are – they’re about going out with friends, making new friends, seeing some shows, talking about those shows, having something to eat, and exploring the community. And the great thing is the world wide web expands that community and it lets me offer my support to the festival and help spread the word. In fact, anyone with a Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account can help support the arts by just letting people know about the festivals they attend and the theatre they see. I have no doubt this year’s festival will be a huge success and Michael’s plans to grow the festival beyond the ten-minute format to a celebration of all theatre formats is an exciting prospect for Candian playwrights. In the meantime, I want to acknowledge the creative talent working on my show and all the actors, directors, designers, stage managers, and volunteers that make this festival possible. Bravo!

***

Cast and Director for Valentine’s Day

Dan Karpenchuk – Old Age and Treachery; The Other Side; Valentine’s Day: After spending a lifetime as a broadcast journalist in Canada and Europe, about fifteen years ago, Dan turned to his other great love, acting. His film credits include: MurdochMysteries, Taken, Forensic Factor, Mayday and Masterminds. His most recent theatre credits include; Oakes in The Prince of Naples at the Kingston Fringe Festival, Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street at Upper Canada Playhouse in Morrisburg, Falstaff in the Merry Wives of Windsor the Humber River Shakespeare, Ivan in Drinking Alone at the Rose Theatre, Brampton, and Andrew Wyke in Sleuth also at the Rose. Dan’s Shakespeare credits include Othello, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, and All’s Well That Ends Well. Dan heads back to Morrisburg this winter for the Upper Canada Playhouse production of The Christmas Express which opens on November 30. Dan is thrilled and grateful to be a part of this year’s Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival.

Kyra Van Den Enden: Daphne of Evora; Late Romances; Valentine’s Day: Kyra Van Den Enden is a Ryerson University Theatre Performance graduate. She is thrilled that she will be continuing her theatre education at the Ecole Internationale De Theatre Jacques Lecoq this fall. Her Acting credits include: The Rover (Dir. Banuta Rubess, 2018); Jack and the Beanstalk (dir. Andrew Lewis Smith, 2017); Eurydice (dir. Robynne Harder, 2017); The Artful Widow (dir. Adam Paolozza, 2017). She also performed in several original works as a part of the 2018 New Voices Festival including two of her own works, DINGBAT DODO DOWN DISCO! which she co-created and directed with Veronica Hortiguela, and Now Presenting the Really Cool, and Totally Awesome Girl On Fire: ANALEISE. She couldn’t be happier to be performing in the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival for a second year.

Ilya lyashyk – For the Love of Austen; Valentine’s Day: Born in Poltava, Ukraine, Ilya Marvin Ilyashyk, is an actor living in Toronto. He has recently graduated with a BFA-Acting degree from the University of Windsor. Previous credits: Pete- On the Rocks (Small But Mighty Productions), Earnest- The Anger in Earnest and Earnestine (OPIA), Nick- The Plausibility of Teleportation in an Oxygen Deprived Environment (Get-Go), Man- Best Before (Hamilton Frostbites Festival). At the University of Windsor: Bill- The Driver (self-written), Gerry- Dancing at Lughnasa, Fire chief – The Bald Soprano

Tiffany Deobald – Daphne of Evora; The Pipe Test; Valentine’s Day:  Tiffany Deobald is an actor from North Battleford, Saskatchewan. She holds an advanced diploma from George Brown College’s Theatre Arts Program (2014). Theatre credits include: Sex&This (Aim for the Tangent), Much Ado About Nothing (Single Thread), The Tempest (Theatre Calgary) and The Mourning After the Night Before (Alumnae Theatre). Film credits include: A Walk in the Park (Aries 6), Outfield (York University), #R.I.P. (Eden Films), INCONTROL (Umbrella Collective Films), Cody Fitz (Umbrella Collective Films). Tiffany is very excited to be working with these new pieces in the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival and she hopes you enjoy the shows!

Dale Sheldrake: Director – For the Love of Austen; Hero; Pausing at the Fringe; Valentine’s Day: An ADR Supervisor in film and television for over 30 years, Dale works closely with incredible writers and actors on productions such as Vikings, The Tudors, The Borgias, Crash, Barney’s Version, Penny Dreadful, and The Handmaid’s Tale. He’s won several awards for his work and loves that theatre direction and ADR are such compatible aspects in entertainment, both building on the importance of performance, dialogue, storytelling and emotion. He is also a playwright, published poet, author, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker (Helldrivers, OLN 2007), singer and musician, and makes a mean Tex-Mex chili. Theatre directing credits: Of Mice and Men; Standing at The Edge of the Universe of Disunity; The Author; Crazy; Day Care; Brother, Brother (InspiraTO Theatre Festival); Tuesdays With Morrie (Theatre Aurora). Dale is thrilled and inspired to be part of the 2018 Newmarket National Play Festival. He thanks Michael Halfin for the wonderful opportunity, the marvellous crew and actors for their amazing energy, professionalism and talent, but most of all, his wife, Petra, for her love, patience and keeping the fire going at the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival

Creative Process – Playwrights – Actors – Directors

Posted on by James Hutchison

Welcome to my corner of the world where you can download my plays and read them for free. You can also read my interviews with other playwrights, actors, and directors about their work and creative process.

Way way back in the early days of community cable television myself and a group of friends used to produce a show called Profile. We did exactly what I do in this blog – talk with creative people about their work and process.

My very first guest on Profile was a guy named David Cassel. A quick Google search shows he’s been a busy guy over the last forty-plus years. He was a mime artist. Is a mime artist – as well as a designer, writer, producer, and director.

Other guests included Playwright Sharon Pollock, Theatre Director Louis B. Hobson, and Vicki Adams Willis from Decidedly Jazz Dance Works.

When I got back into theatre and started writing plays, I also wanted to include the occasional interview on my website with other creative people.

Link to interview with Christopher Hunt about his work and creative process.
Link to interview with Ahad Raza Mir about his work and creative process.
Link to interview with Meredith Taylor-Parry about her work and creative process.

Check out some of my more recent interviews over the past few years with such wonderful and talented individuals as film and television director David Winning, playwright Caroline Russell-King, theatre photographer Tim Nguyen, Artistic Director of Lunchbox Theatre Bronwyn Steinberg, and playwright Kristen Da Silva.

***

If you enjoy listening to great interviews with creative people then check out Q with Tom Power and this terrific interview with John Irving. Or this interview from the Dramatists Guild Foundation between playwrights Christopher Durang and David Lindsay-Abaire. Or this raw and uncensored interview from the Writers Guild Foundation with author and screenwriter William Goldman.