The Writer Speaks is a selection of interviews I’ve come across over the years on YouTube with a variety of writers including Charlie Kaufman, Christopher Durang, and Emma Thompson. There are many more of course but these are ones I’ve enjoyed and I think any writer interested in learning a bit about the creative process will enjoy these conversations as well.
For myself when I began a more serious attempt at putting something down on paper I read On Writing by Stephen King and I found there were a couple of lessons from King that worked well for me. Probably the most important one is not to share the work until you’ve finished the first draft.
In fact, once you’ve finished the first draft you put it in a drawer and leave it. Let some time pass. Then when you come back to it a month later you have fresh eyes and can read the story with a more analytical mind.
The reason you don’t share the story during the writing process is because you don’t want the story to be influenced by the opinions and thoughts of others. This works well for me but I know there are other writers who like to have input and getting feedback as they write is part of their process. I’m not saying you don’t need to share the work and get feedback I’m just saying for myself early feedback usually disrupts my writing process rather than helps it.
The key of course is to find out what works for you. There is no wrong or right. You’re not Stephen King or Margaret Atwood and what works for them may not work for you.
Anyway, I wish you well on your writing journey and I hope you find the interviews below as informative and entertaining as I have.
Selma Hortense Burke with her portrait bust of Booker T. Washington, 1930s. Smithsonian Archive of American Art. Photography by Pinchos Horn.
Selma Burke was an African American sculptor who played a major role in the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s and 30s which was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theatre, politics, and scholarship.
Burke used her talent to immortalize such historic figures as author and African-American civil rights leader Booker T. Washington, philanthropist, humanitarian and civil rights activist Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, composer, songwriter, conductor and Jazz musician Duke Ellington, and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. who advanced civil rights for people of colour in the United States through the use of nonviolent resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience.
Among her more famous works is a bas-relief bronze plaque honouring President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Four Freedoms which he outlined in his State of the Union speech to Congress in 1941 as Freedom of speech; Freedom of worship; Freedom from want; and Freedom from fear. Burke’s portrait of FDR is recognized by many as the inspiration behind the design of Roosevelt’s portrait on the American dime, which was something she never received credit for in her lifetime.
Caroline and Maria have written a rich and thought-provoking play about the life of Selma Burke that also explores the meaning of art, the Civil Rights Movement, racism, and censorship. I asked Maria and Caroline what sort of experience they hope audiences are going to have when they come to see the play.
CAROLINE RUSSELL-KING
Our goal is to entertain. Our play is not a lecture on art or a biography, it’s a flight of fancy. Selma lived nearly a century – these are ninety minutes of fun.
MARIA CROOKS
An entertaining, stimulating and very humorous one. We hope the audience will find the use of actors playing statues and other objects to be innovative and clever. We also hope that they enjoy getting to know this feisty, intelligent, gifted artist who deserves to be recognized and remembered as a one-of-a-kind artist and human being.
JAMES HUTCHISON
What was your process like working on the play together and what do you think are the key elements that make for a successful writing partnership?
CAROLINE
I think complementary strengths are important. I’m obviously not from Jamaica like Claude McKay is in the play and Maria is. Maria brings her knowledge of French as I am sadly unilingual. Maria is also a great editor. When I am creating plays in my head form and from can often look the same on the page.
MARIA
It was indeed a very stimulating, interesting process for both of us. We brainstormed together, wrote scenes individually then compared the writing and chose sections that best conveyed what we wished to express. We argued, we laughed, we fought to convince the other person of the merit of our ideas. For me, the most important elements that made for our successful partnership were the respect and trust that I have for Caroline’s extensive knowledge and experience as a playwright. She has written numerous award-winning plays, she is also a dramaturg, a critic, and a playwriting instructor. In fact, she was my playwriting instructor and has done the dramaturgy on all my plays.
JAMES
There’s a note in the script before the play begins where you say, “Selma Burke lived from 1900 to 1995 which is approximately 49,932,000 minutes – here imagined are 90 of them.” I loved that because it’s a humorous observation that illustrates the challenge of trying to tell a life story in the span of a play. So, how do you do that? How do you go about distilling the essence of a person’s life into an evening of theatre?
Selma Hortense Burke with her relief plaque of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. From the Archives of American Art Federal Art Project, Photographic Division Collection.
MARIA
We wanted to demonstrate some very salient points about Selma: how gifted an artist she was, her determination to succeed as a sculptor despite having been born Black, poor, and female in the southern US. The obstacles she faced, and the triumphs and accolades that she garnered, the people she knew, including a veritable Who’s Who of the Harlem Renaissance, presidents, and artist she studied with in Europe, the remarkable events that she witnessed, participated in and chronicled of the tempestuous era that was the 20th century. We wanted to do so dramatically but also with humour.
CAROLINE
It’s all about peaks and valleys. I always tell my playwriting students you want to see characters on their best days and their worst days not a Wednesday.
JAMES
One aspect of the play that works really well that you mentioned is that you have actors on stage being the art – the sculptures – that Selma creates. It’s an effective and theatrical way to bring the art alive and to tell Selma’s story. Tell me about how you came up with that idea and what it adds to the play.
CAROLINE
Having her work come to life is very important. In plays there are three types of conflict – person vs person, person vs environment, and person vs self. In Shakespeare’s time characters had soliloquies to express internal conflict. Today people who speak out loud to themselves are either on the phone with earbuds or mentally unwell. So, her relationship with her art is a mechanism to show internal conflict. Secondly, we so often see plays on the stage that could be screenplays or done in other media like TV – I wanted the play to be theatrical. What theatre does really well – is theatre.
MARIA
Caroline had the brilliant idea to have actors portray the artwork and other inanimate objects. This idea is not only dramatic, but as the audience will see, hilarious at times.
Christopher Clare, Norma Lewis, and Heather Pattengale in the Theatre Calgary – ATP Production of Selma Burke. Photo: Trudie Lee.
JAMES
As you got to know Selma from doing your research and writing your play what sort of person was she do you think and what do you think her hopes would be in regards to her legacy and the art she created during her lifetime?
MARIA
She wanted, I believe, to be remembered as an African American artist who created important works and who wanted to uplift her people though her art.
CAROLINE
I think she had a strong vision for her work and the confidence to pull it off – her art speaks for itself. The language of her art is deep and rich – I’m totally in love with her.
JAMES
A couple of the topics touched on in the play are artistic freedom and censorship. Artistic freedom is defined by the UN as “the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions free of government censorship, political interference or the pressures of non-state actors.” In Canada the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects artistic expression. And yet in many countries artists are not free to express opinions that differ from those in power and these days there’s the new phenomena of the online mob attacking artists and their work if it doesn’t agree with their particular point of view. The idea isn’t to engage in an exchange and to challenge the art. The idea seems to be to stop the artist and their work. What are your own thoughts about artistic freedom and the kinds of censorship we’re seeing in the world today and what does that mean for the world in which we live? Why is art and artistic freedom important?
CAROLINE
The play is topical because firstly the struggle to create art is always an issue in hard economic times. More importantly the play is about not only those who get to create art but who has the right to destroy it. In Victoria BC two plays have been shut down, one before opening and one mid run. This is outrageous. It used to be the right that censored artist work now it is the left.
MARIA
We both find this trend alarming and offensive. It stymes creativity and will have artists second-guessing their ideas and their work. Unfortunately, today everyone with a computer, cell phone or tablet can disseminate their ideas to a wide audience no matter how unpleasant they may be and find receptive audiences who go along just to be provoking. Unfortunately, both of us have noticed that this kind of behaviour is not limited to right-leaning people or groups, the left, it seems, wants in on it too.
Christopher Hunt and Norma Lewis in the Theatre Calgary – ATP Production of Selma Burke. Photo: Trudie Lee.
JAMES
A script is words on a page. It takes actors to bring the story to life. A director to guide it. A set designer and costume designer and sound designer to build the world of the play. Tell me a little bit about the cast and crew that’s been assembled to tell the story of Selma Burke and what they bring to the story.
MARIA
There are four actors Norma Lewis, Christopher Clare, Heather Pattengale and Christopher Hunt. All very talented Calgarians. Between them they play over 55 characters, art pieces, inanimate objects and even a plaster-of-Paris leg. The director is Delicia Turner Sonnenberg who hails from California and the stage manager is Meredith Johnson. Javier Vilalta is the movement and choreography coordinator. There are of course many other brilliant, artistic crew members who are creating magic in the background to allow this play to shine.
CAROLINE
We are so lucky to have Delicia as our director. Besides a phenomenal cast the designers are great especially Hanne Loosen who has sculped our set and Adejoké Taiwo who sculpted our costumes.
Heather Pattengale, Christopher Hunt, and Norma Lewis in the Theatre Calgary – ATP Production of Selma Burke. Photo: Trudie Lee.
JAMES
Every artist needs their champions. Someone who believes in and loves their work. So, I’m curious to know who has supported you in the making of your art?
MARIA
We have been supported by every artist at Theatre Calgary and especially the Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary Stafford Arima who has taken an artistic risk on this new piece of art.
CAROLINE
No artist is an island. In addition to what Maria said, I think it’s important to recognize the support that we get from friends and family. A play is such an abstract concept before all of the thousands of hours it takes to realize it on the stage. In the early stages it’s very fragile. Every play starts with the thought “Maybe I could write about that….” Every human has the impetus to make art whether it’s a painting, a garden, or a rebuilt motorcycle… it’s the leap into follow-through that’s difficult. I am grateful that my friends and family have supported me for decades through all of the downs, more downs and the occasional up!
JAMES
Having a production on the professional stage is certainly one of those ups and definitely something to celebrate. Who should come to see the play? Is it a play for everyone?
CAROLINE
No, art cannot possibly be for everyone, that’s part of what makes it valuable. Art which is created as mass production is not art. Everyone has their own set of unique tastes in art. This play is for adults who are curious and love to be entertained in the theatre, in the dark with other aficionados. It’s for people who like me get a thrill out of live theatre and love visual art as well.
MARIA
This play is for audiences who enjoy innovative, fascinating theatre with a big dollop of humour mixed in with theatricality.
***
Audiences can catch Selma Burke at the Martha Cohen Theatre in the Performing Arts Centre until Saturday, April 27th. An ASL-interpreted performance and an Audio Description performance is scheduled for Wednesday, April 24th at 7:30 pm and a Relaxed Environment Performance is scheduled for Thursday, April 25th at 7:30 pm. Tickets are just $39.00 and are available at the Box Office or online through Theatre Calgary or Alberta Theatre Projects.
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 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.
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
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
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
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
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.
The 1000 Monkeys Project featuring five Calgary playwrights is just one of the many shows you can see during the unrestricted, unexpected, unforgettable 17th Annual Calgary Fringe Festival running in Inglewood from Friday, August 4th to Saturday, August 12th.
Other shows include:
Mail Ordered by Shanice Stanislaus – a “Pick of the Fringe” at last year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival that has been described as “Wildly Funny” and “Delightfully Interactive.”
Date Night by the Sunflower Collective Theatre – an interactive, semi-improvised play about dating, caring, and mental illness in today’s world where audiences navigate the awkwardness and joy of second dates and the intimacy of telling someone who you really are behind the dating profile.
Underbelly by Ragmop Theatre – a one-woman surrealist physical comedy featuring monsters, dismemberment, shower opera, inconceivable truths, and a hot date.
For complete details about all the shows in this year’s festival and to purchase tickets for in-person shows or on-demand shows visit the Calgary Fringe Festival Website or drop by the Fringe Festival Box Office at Festival Hall and pick up a program. Regular tickets are just $20 bucks with several shows offering multiple pay-what-you-want performances.
My own ten-minute comedy Happy Birthday Theo about two old friends who have fallen on hard times and now live in a junk heap is a part of the 1000 Monkeys Project and is presented by the Alberta Playwrights’ Network. I contacted Trevor Rueger the Executive Director of APN by e-mail to ask him a few questions about the Fringe and what exactly the 1000 Monkeys Project is all about.
TREVOR RUEGER
The two previous years we partnered with the Calgary Fringe and invited playwrights to spend 24 continuous hours writing a piece for presentation at the end of the 24 hours. We housed, fed, and watered the playwrights at Festival Hall the first weekend of the Fringe. When the 24 hours were up, the writers would go home and sleep, while we would read and rehearse the plays and then present them to an audience that evening.
Because the Fringe is getting back to pre-COVID levels for the amount of work they present (which is a great thing), our presentation time was limited. So, this year we decided to model the 1000 Monkeys Project on an event we produce in Edmonton called EDMONten. We invited Calgary and area playwrights to submit complete 10-minute plays. We had 23 entries, and a jury selected the 5 works that are being presented at this year’s Festival. So, we are considering ourselves the best value for money at the Calgary Fringe – you’re going to get 5 plays for the price of 1.
JAMES HUTCHISON
I like the ten-minute format. In fact, I think you can cover a lot in ten minutes. What are the things you think make for a great ten-minute play and just how big a story can you tell in that time?
TREVOR
I love 10-minute plays, not just because I have a short attention span… (stops writing because he gets a Twitter notification) …sorry where was I? I love 10–minute plays because as a writer you have to get to the crux of the story immediately. You don’t have a lot of time to linger in exposition, specifically about the time and setting.
This means that as a writer you are kind of forced to create a situation that is immediately recognizable to an audience and is universal in its theme. You are also forced as a writer to make the action immediate. If Hamlet was a ten-minute play, you would have the ghost of Hamlet’s father show up and say he was murdered by Claudius. “Ghost: Revenge my untimely murder. / Hamlet: I’m on it pops!” The plays this year are a variety of big themes and events, and small snapshots of human interaction.
JAMES
So, tell me a little about the plays we’re going to see. Are they comedies? Dramas? Rants about corporate greed or diatribes about pineapple on pizza? Are they stories of love? Ambition? Hope? Despair? What are we going to see?
TREVOR
You’re going to see a beautiful mix of plays – an absurdist look at corporate culture, a drama about the restaurant industry, a Beckett-esque search for the meaning of life, a scene from a mysterious waiting room, and a memory play. Each play is wildly different from the next, but what makes them fantastic is the well-crafted characters in a variety of situations dealing with a myriad of crises.
JAMES
Alright, you can’t have a reading without actors. Who are some of the actors you’ve lined up for the show?
TREVOR
Casting a number of plays for one presentation always presents a challenge. We can’t afford to hire the perfect actor for each character. So we cast an ensemble of really talented character actors who are able to make big, strong, and quick choices. What we tell the audience before we start the presentation is that “not every character will be portrayed exactly as written in terms of age, race, or gender, so we ask you to use your imagination.”
In the cast, this year is Elinor Holt who was most recently seen in the Stage West production of 9 to 5: The Musical, for which she received a Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Performance, Lara Schmitz an incredibly talented actor and writer, Eric Wigston who audiences will have seen on stages all over the city, and myself reading stage directions and taking on a couple of roles.
JAMES
This is the 17th year for the Calgary Fringe. We have Fringe Festivals all across Canada including some big ones in Edmonton and Winnipeg. There are lots of festivals in the U.S. and of course the big one in Edinburgh. I’m curious about a couple of things. First, what do you think the Fringe offers artists and second, what do you think audiences get out of Fringe Festivals?
TREVOR
What the Fringe offers artists is an opportunity to create and present without limits. It provides an artist, or collective of artists an opportunity to experiment, develop, and test-drive their material in front of a live breathing audience. What audiences get are the fruits of those labours. The Fringe offers both the artist and the audience an opportunity to take risks. As an artist you might discover that your work has the opportunity for a bigger life after the Fringe, and for an audience you might be seeing the first version of a play that makes it big!
JAMES
I’ve seen some great shows at the Fringe including Six Guitars and Nashville Hurricane by Chase Padgett, God is a Scottish Drag Queen by Mike Delamont, and Clarence Darrow with Brian Jensen playing the legendary lawyer. What has been a great show or two you’ve seen at the Fringe and why and what has it been that has made them so memorable or inventive?
TREVOR
My very first Fringe (Edmonton) as an artist, in 1990 I saw a production of Macbeth by a company called English Theatre In A Suitcase – 5 actors, 90 minutes, 7-minute two-handed broadsword fight at the end. It blew my mind. The only thing that wasn’t created on the stage by the actors was the lighting. It was so simple and dynamic at the same time.
Two of the other memorable shows were made memorable by the fact that they were one-person shows by people who were not actors. They were people who had overcome something major in their lives and shared their very personal experiences. What made them both great was that what they shared was not for the benefit of their own personal healing, but was for the audience to examine themselves and their own situations and hardships. What makes a Fringe show great to me, is the same thing that makes theatre great – the sharing a story with an audience, not the indulging in a story for the artist’s ego.
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.
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.
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.
“I believe we move in the direction that lights us up. That captures our attention. That we feel passionate about. But my end destination keeps changing and what makes me happy keeps changing. I thought when I started all of this, I wanted to be an actress. I didn’t know I was going to be aplaywright. And I like playwriting a whole hell of a lot better. It’s really about trusting the path and letting go of the outcome because how can you really foresee where the path will take you? If someone comes along and mentors you they can only tell you what path they took. But that’s not you. That’s not your path. I used to feel like a failed actress but if I had taken different steps along the way, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up loving playwriting so much or being as happy as I am being a playwright.”
Meredith Taylor-Parry Playwright
Playwright Meredith Taylor-Parry whose previous plays Book Club and Book Club II: The Next Chapter were big hits for Lunchbox Theatre has a new play at Lunchbox premiering on May 10th called Shark Bite. The two Book Club plays focused primarily on the challenges and joys of motherhood and marriage while her new play turns its attention to the relationship between a grandfather and his troubled fourteen-year-old granddaughter Ava as the two struggle to find the love and connection they once shared when Ava was a child.
I first met Meredith back in 2011 at Playworks Ink a theatre conference focusing on playwriting run by the Alberta Playwrights Network and Theatre Alberta. At that time Meredith was just beginning her playwriting journey and she was in the early stages of working on her play Survival Skills which won the New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest in 2013 and was produced Off-Off-Broadway in April 2014 by the 13th Street Repertory Company in New York City.
Meredith is a gifted playwright who is as adept at comedy as she is at drama, and her newest play is a touching and heartfelt glimpse into the age-old challenges of family members trying to reach out across the generations. I contacted Meredith back in March to talk with her about Shark Bite, life-changing decisions, sources of creative energy, and playwriting.
JAMES
One of the things we experience both as an audience and as an artist is a divergence of opinion regarding the work we see and the work we create. And by that, I mean the same movie or book or painting can be praised as the most meaningful and deeply moving experience of someone’s life and someone else will not feel a thing. One person can love it. Another person can hate it. Do you have an explanation for that divergence of opinion in ourselves and in others, and what does that tell you about us as humans?
MEREDITH
I think to sum it up in one sentence – people are complicated. Think of how complicated we are in our personalities and our histories and our experience. So of course, one piece of art is going to mean something completely different to someone else, or they’re going to experience it in different ways. That being said, what I’ve always been told about writing was that the more specific you are to your own experience the more you’re going to relate to a wider group of people.
So instead of trying to figure out what your audience wants, go to the heart and truth of your own experience as much as you can, and you will reach more people. That’s how you find your people. Your audience. The people that want to listen to what you have to say and to what story you want to tell. Because if you’re authentic through your writing and tell your story and your truth, then you seem to reach those people out there who are listening for it. They want to hear it because they experienced something similar.
JAMES
Have you ever had a critical moment in your life where someone or something you’ve encountered has resulted in a decision that changed your life’s path?
MEREDITH
Absolutely. I just feel weird about getting into it because I’m going to get pretty personal but what the f*ck! So, I got involved with a guy who was married back on the East Coast and if you flipped open a sociology textbook you could find a paragraph with our pictures above because it was that typical.
“I’m not happy with my marriage. I’m so sad. And now that you’ve come along, I understand what real love is. Maybe I’m finally ready to leave my wife. But no, I made vows. But I’m so unhappy. And you’re so great and amazing. Let’s get an apartment together! No this is moving too fast for me, I need to think. Blah blah blah.”
And I’ve written about this. I’ve written about this a number of times. Trying to work it out. That’s when I first started writing. That’s what I was writing about. It finally came down to this very dramatic scene in a small rural town in Nova Scotia, where I was sitting in a car and all three characters were there. The mistress, the husband, and the wife and they were screaming at each other. And I thought, “Oh my God, this is a Women’s Television Network fucking movie. And I am part of it. I’ve let my life become this drama.” And it was so clear to me that if one person did not withdraw that this crazy dysfunctional silly drama would continue on for who knows how long. That’s a lot of energy and a lot of pain and a lot of suffering. And I didn’t want any part of that anymore and I wanted to step out of the drama.
So, I did. I went home. I talked to my wonderfully smart, kind, and very wise roomie at the time who was my best girlfriend. And she organized a girl’s camping weekend around the gorgeous Cabot Trail in Cape Breton with a few good friends. By the time we had finished that trip, I decided I was going to get in my car and drive across Canada, cause I love a good road trip, and figure my life out. Those women and that weekend changed my life. Never underestimate the power of the female friendship. So, within two weeks, I packed up all my stuff, dropped it off at my parents and started a road trip and ended up out here. That’s how I ended up in Calgary. So – life-changing.
If I hadn’t done that God knows I’d still be back in Nova Scotia. I never would have had a little look-see and gander around Canada and figured out where I wanted to be. I’m sure I never would have ended up in the arts. I never would have had enough guts to go and do my BFA and my MFA. There’s no way I would have ended up as a playwright.
It’s a really interesting movie. But in the book, there’s a line that goes, “Who we want to be doesn’t matter when there’s no way to get there.” And that really brought to mind the idea of guidance and mentorship in life for me. It’s like how do we figure out how to become the artist?
MEREDITH
I think our picture of who we want to be isn’t the destination. I believe that. When someone says I don’t know the path to get there it’s like – take a fucking step in the direction of where you think you want to go and then watch the magic happen. Because in my life, every time I’ve done a big bold move the universe has come in tenfold.
For example, you may ask how does an elementary school teacher manage to take a road trip across Canada with no job prospects and end up out in Calgary? It’s because within a week after I’d made that decision to leave, I had a big unexpected financial windfall.
I believe we move in the direction that lights us up. That captures our attention. That we feel passionate about. But my end destination keeps changing and what makes me happy keeps changing. I thought when I started all of this, I wanted to be an actress. I didn’t know I was going to be a playwright. And I like playwriting a whole hell of a lot better. It’s really about trusting the path and letting go of the outcome because how can you really foresee where the path will take you? If someone comes along and mentors you they can only tell you what path they took. But that’s not you. That’s not your path. I used to feel like a failed actress but if I had taken different steps along the way, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up loving playwriting so much or being as happy as I am being a playwright.
Anna Cummer, Cheryl Hutton, Kira Bradley and Arielle Rombough in a scene from the Lunchbox Theatre production of Book Club II: The Next Chapter Photograph by Benjamin Laird
I remember making a decision when I was turning thirty. I already had two degrees. I had a Bachelor of Education and a Bachelor of Sociology. Should I go take a Bachelor of Fine Arts and spend all that money or should I go to SAIT and take the film and television course, which was notoriously hard to get into at the time, but it seemed more practical, because I thought, “Well, I could still be on camera. I’ll just be working in television. Maybe I’ll be hosting a show or maybe I’ll work in news.” And that seemed the more practical choice. And if you took a poll of all my friends, which I did, because I used to do that in order to try and make decisions, they all said, “Oh, SAIT. Doesn’t that sound more practical? It’s only two years. You’re not going to spend as much money. I can see you doing television or radio. You’ve always been interested in it.”
Maybe SAIT was more practical, but I went with my gut intuitive feeling that I would not be happy. I got accepted into SAIT. I probably got in because I was relaxed in the interview. I wasn’t hanging all my hopes and dreams on it. I got in, but then I phoned them up and I said, “You know what, I’m declining my seat because I’m going to go to the University of Calgary and I’m going to take my Bachelor of Fine Arts and Drama.” And the admissions person said, “Well, good luck to you.” He was nice. He was just kind of astounded because people wanted to get into the program so badly.
But I just had this epiphany moment and when I made that decision, I decided that from then on, I was going to make bold moves like that. I wasn’t going to do what culturally looked right or what my friends were telling me to do. I was going to go with my gut. And I feel like I’ve been rewarded. I feel very grateful for the life that I live now. I work hard to let go of the feeling that I’m a loser unless I’m a famous Canadian playwright or I’m making good money doing this. Which is so ridiculous because it’s such a crapshoot and there are so few people that are going to go into the arts and make money. Maybe it should just be enough that you’re happy with yourself and you’re happy with trying to get your work out into the world. Sometimes you do, and that should be sweet enough perhaps.
“The Biotechs” Meredith, Tanis, Jenny, and Krista – Banff 2019
JAMES
You mentioned friends. Who do you have in your life that can be brutally honest with you and how brutally honest are you with yourself?
MEREDITH
I subscribe to the philosophy of less brutality and more gentleness. So, I have a really good group of girlfriends who are honest with me, but we’re all each other’s biggest fans and we’re all really gentle with each other. And as far as being honest with myself in a workshop situation, for example, where you bring your play in and you lay it out and all the actors read it, I invite honesty. I just keep assuring people that I want to know if there’s something that doesn’t feel right to them. And you will get a lot of different opinions because as we said before, people are complicated. People respond differently to art. One scene that someone might love and adore another person may think is completely unnecessary. One character that I’m in love with someone else might find creepy.
So, I let everybody know at the beginning I want their honest feedback and that has come with experience. I certainly wasn’t like that at the beginning of my career. Not at all. But now I can handle anything. Just give it to me straight. I will write everything down because I feel like I have a really good inner bullshit meter that will tell me one of two things. Either: “You know what, that comment doesn’t serve the play OR shit they’re right. I didn’t see it before but now that they’ve given me that feedback I have to go back and fix that part. Oh my God, that entire scene has to come out and I have to write something else. What am I going to do? How am I going to fix that?”
Occasionally, I just note a comment and wait for two other people to tell me the same thing then I’ll go back and have a look at it. But I still have the dial on the bullshit meter that says, “Thanks for your feedback!” while I’m thinking, “No way would I touch that. I don’t care if you think that character is creepy. You can not like that character and that’s fine, but I’m not going to change anything or take that character out.”
Arielle Rombough, Kira Bradley, Anna Cummer, Kathryn Kerbes, and Cheryl Hutton in the 2016 Lunchbox Theatre Production of Book Club by Meredith Taylor Parry. Photograph by Meredith Taylor-Parry
JAMES
Let’s talk about creative energy. That’s been one of the challenges I’ve noticed over the last decade with my own writing because I’ve always thought of writing as something finite. In other words, something that gets used up in the day. It’s like a jug of wine, right? You drink as you write and by the end of the day the jug is empty, and you’ve used it all up. And if you use it up on other activities like blogging or writing commercials, which I used to do, there’s nothing left at the end of the day for your stories.
But just the last week I started to think about creative energy more like turning on a tap. In other words, it’s always available. It’s just you have to turn the tap on to use it. So, I could be at work and let’s say I’m a commercial writer, I turn it on. I create whatever I need to make a living. I turn it off when I head home. And then that night, I’ve got a two-hour block where I could turn the tap on again and do my own creative writing. How do you think of creative energy? The energy you use to create your art. Is it a finite thing to use up in a day? Is it a flowing thing? I’m just curious.
MEREDITH
There’s got to be something in the tap when you turn it on. You have to figure out how you replenish that supply or keep that supply flowing. And for me, it comes from other people. For example, my energy has completely changed since we started talking even though this morning, I had a bit of anxiety about doing the interview because I wanted to think carefully about my answers. But now that we’ve started talking about playwriting, I don’t give a shit because I get so excited and all the anxiety goes away. This crazy energy builds up in me and it’s fun because I love talking about writing and I love talking about plays and I love talking about making art.
And if you look at any of my plays they went from one level to a much higher level it was always because of an infusion of creativity from other artists offering their talent, ability, different points of view and brilliance to the project. For example, with Shark Bite Maezy Dennie, Robert Klein, Chantelle Han, and Ruby Dawn Eustaquio were a dream team. I keep getting dream teams at Lunchbox. Like the dream team I had for Book Club and Book Club II. It’s impossible to have all of that artistic talent in a room together and not get inspired. And I know that I need that. It’s just that sometimes I forget to seek that out. I’m pretty good at doing workshops if a workshop pops up from the Playwrights Guild of Canada or whatever. I will do a workshop because I know that I’m going to come out of that two-hour workshop and be full of creative energy, which is going to help my writing that day or the next day or in the weeks to come.
Meredith’s Mother Elizabeth Taylor, Meredith, and her sister Emily Taylor Smith on an Opera Tour in Budapest 2019
And I need to expose myself to other forms of art if I want to get creative energy to put into my own art. I need to visit art museums. I need to look at visual art. I need to listen to a lot of music and different kinds of music. I need to read fiction. I need to go to plays because that will replenish my creative energy. My mom and my sister and I would go on these amazing opera tours pre- Covid. There’s a company out of Ontario called ARIA tours and they handpick the wine that you’re going to drink in the two-star Michelin restaurant where you’re going to dine. And thanks to my Mom, I’ve gone to New York and Scandinavia and several different countries in Europe, and I’ve eaten great food and toured world-class art museums during the day and seen so much opera. I’m truly blessed to have been immersed in such amazing art experiences.
And getting outside. Walking or gardening or yard work. Even shovelling snow. You’re outside. You’re getting your vitamin D. You’re getting some fresh air. You’re doing something kind of mindless that you don’t need your brain for so your brain starts wandering and coming up with creative ideas or starts solving a problem in a play that you’re working on or comes up with an idea that you might use for a play.
All this stuff’s been said before though. I’m not making this up and you just have find what works for you. And those are the three things I can think of that work for me every time: being around creative people, experiencing art in other forms and going outside and walking or just moving your body in other ways like yard work.
JAMES
How has COVID made an impact on you over the last couple of years? How has it impacted you personally and professionally?
MEREDITH
It broke my stride as an artist, I think. It did a lot worse for a lot of other people, so I don’t mean to sound whiny, but I had just rented a desk at cSPACE in the sandbox which is a co-working space at the King Edward. And I would go in once a week dressed up for work with my lunch and my computer and sit at this desk with other people who were renting space. And there’s all this art in there already and a lot of nonprofits and a lot of arts companies and organizations. And I’d go and I’d sit down and work and in a few months I finished an adaptation I was working on. And then COVID hit, and I thought, “Well, I’m not going to go into work anymore.” And for a while they shut down completely. So, now I’m like, “Should I do that again?” It was productive at the time but right now for whatever reason, I’m not super motivated. I already feel really busy.
And the pandemic was the perfect storm for my teenagers and they both encountered a lot of mental health struggles that were worsened during the pandemic and came to light during the pandemic. So, we started a whole journey with both of my kids and that’s taken its toll. It’s been really hard on us as a family but we’re getting through it.
Summer 2021 – Greg, Leo, Noah, and Meredith – Dinosaur Provincial Park – Alberta, Canada
But it also gave me time to rest and say, “Okay, we’re in a pandemic right now. I’m going to support my kids with their mental health struggles and get my kids through grade nine or ten or whatever it was because they’re working from home and they’re going to need my support to get through it.” Neither of them was doing very well independently. They really needed support and help to get through the online learning. So, “I’m going to give myself a break as a writer and I’m not going to feel like I need to be writing every day right now.”
JAMES
You mentioned you have a production coming up with Lunchbox Theatre called Shark Bite. This is the third play of yours to grace the Lunchbox stage and here’s the description, Ava a troubled urban teenager goes to her grandfather’s remote cabin for a visit. The two soon learn that the easy days of their relationship are far behind them and when George tries to find some common ground between them through a hike in the woods, a dangerous turn of events leaves Ava in the position of trying to save them both.
First, I’m curious, Ava’s fourteen and I’m just wondering, what were you like when you were fourteen? What did you think about the world? What was your life like? What did you spend your time doing? And reflecting back now, how much of that fourteen-year-old version remains today and how much did you use it to create the character?
MEREDITH
Oh, God, that’s a tough one. That’s a big question. Okay, so the first part of the question was thinking about yourself at fourteen and I see myself as a gawky, gangly teenager. My nickname was String Bean. And I was a card-carrying perfectionist. I was working really hard in school to try and get good marks. I did extracurriculars. I did sports. Even when they made me miserable I still did them. And then I was looking at everybody else and going why can’t I just be normal like her? Or comparing myself to other people because there was always someone who was better on the basketball team than me and there was always someone who was getting higher marks than me and had a boyfriend when I didn’t. So those kinds of things. Feeling like there’s something wrong with me. That I’m out of place. That I don’t fit in with other people.
I did spend time out in the woods with my father because he was a big outdoorsman. So, the stuff about hiking through the woods in the play and the spruce gum and looking at animal tracks would have still been a part of my world a little bit at fourteen. I don’t know how old I was when I gave up snaring rabbits. When I finally went, “Oh my God this is horrible. And traumatic.” Little t. That was definitely still part of my world at that time.
But when I was writing the play, I also tried to look at it from the point of view of teenagers and I wrote an imagined character who wasn’t really one of my teenagers, but I was certainly drawing from some of their experiences. And then Maezy helped me too in that final workshop that we did in 2021 with Stage One. She helped me be more truthful and authentic. There’s pretty much no other place I’d rather be than sitting in a room with a bunch of actors, trying to make a play better, and then getting to see it. I’m grateful for all the people that I get to work with through Lunchbox and I’m grateful that I’m going to get to work with them again because it’s a pretty damn great place to work.
Maezy Dennie as Ava and Robert Klein as George in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Robert Klein as George in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Robert Klein as George and Maezy Dennie as Ava in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Robert Klein as George and Maezy Dennie as Ava in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Maezy Dennie as Ava and Robert Klein as George in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Maezy Dennie as Ava and Robert Klein as George in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Robert Klein as George and Maezy Dennie as Ava in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Robert Klein as George and Maezy Dennie as Ava in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Maezy Dennie as Ava and Robert Klein as George in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
Maezy Dennie as Ava and Robert Klein as George in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry. Photo by Tim Nguyen
JAMES
One of the themes in the play is an examination of self-harm. And the play really made me think about our culture and the fundamental role punishment plays in our society. The desire to punish ourselves is a message that might find its roots in the very nature of our own culture. In other words, ideas like no pain, no gain and the need to make sacrifices in order to achieve something. So, I’m curious about your own thoughts and what you hope your play opens up in terms of a discussion about self-harm and punishment.
MEREDITH
Self-harm wasn’t originally in the play. I workshopped the play with the St. John Theatre Company just before the pandemic in the fall of 2019. Pamela Halstead was the dramaturge and I also worked with a lot of really talented playwrights in that little circle. We were all finalists in a playwriting competition that was put on by the St. John Theatre Company and in order to enter the competition you had to have ties to New Brunswick or New Brunswick roots. Which I do. I was born there.
And one amazing playwright in attendance in Saint John, John-Michel Cliche said that when he thought about the presence of the lighter in the play he immediately thought about self-harm, and I replied – “Wow.” Sometimes you put things in your play, and you know they’re really important, but you don’t know what the hell they’re in there for. And then someone like Jean-Michel comes along and says, “Well, what about this?” And that opened up the idea of self-harm and I started thinking about it, and then it came into my own life through what my teenagers have been experiencing over the past couple of years. And then it came into the lives of a lot of my parent-friends, who have teens, and you know, pandemic aside, just being a teenager in this age is really, really, really, hard. Right? In this age, of TikTok.
So, I believe there’s a reason why Jean-Michel turned to me and said, “I thought about self-harm when she took that lighter.” Coincidence? I’m not sure. I’m experiencing this with my kids and I know so many people who are experiencing this and this needs to be talked about because this is a big commonality among teenagers right now that’s not being talked about a lot. And there are parents from my generation who are going, “What the hell? I don’t get this. I don’t understand this at all.” So, I think it’s really good if we talk about it a bit and we get some more information out about it and it sparks conversation among audience members.
I also think it really illustrates the generation gap between Ava and George because he’s an even older generation because he’s the granddad and how does a teenager maintain a relationship with a grandparent? How did I maintain a relationship with my grandparents at that point? When you’re fourteen and vulnerable and going through stuff that you don’t want your grandparents to know about because they might not understand it or they might judge you for it, so you don’t really show them who you are. You just have this kind of superficial relationship. They just know that you do well at school and you like horses. You don’t talk to them about what’s really going on. I felt there needed to be issues that illustrate the characters struggling to connect while dealing with topics that the granddad doesn’t understand.
And I don’t know everything there is to know about self-harm but from what I’ve learned about self-harm, and from what people have told me – because I haven’t experienced it myself – is that it is different from punishment. My understanding of it is that you’re inflicting a physical pain to avoid or rescue you from or to stop a profound emotional pain that is being visited upon you, rather than it being a punishment. It’s more like an action to protect you from pain, or to take you out of a painful place that you’re in so that you can avoid experiencing emotional pain.
For more information about self-harm check out the links below:
When you think about life how much do you think about the cycles we experience and the linear progression of time we experience because there are cycles and an individual cycle can be different. So, we have the seasons, and each season has similarities to previous seasons, but each season is also unique, right? This summer was hotter than last summer or whatever. And just as we experience cycles in life on an annual basis, we’re also on a linear track. We’re getting older each day. So, our time here diminishes. And when you look at life, how much do you think about the cycles of life and how much do you think of the linear progression of time?
MEREDITH
I think more about cycles. That’s how I mark time. I really love the change of seasons in our climate. I could never be a snowbird. I have friends who are retiring, and I look on Facebook and they’re like, “We’re snowbirds now and we’re going to go down and live in Florida.” My grandparents did that. And I think, “I couldn’t do that. I’d miss the change of seasons. It’s nice to take a break from winter and go away for a couple of weeks but I like that cycle.”
And every year it seems to light me up even more. I’ll be sitting at my window, and I look outside, and I see birds starting to come around because it’s starting to get a little bit milder and I’ve got bird feeders in the yard and I’m like a little kid, “Oh my God, I saw my first Robin.”
And as I get older that stuff becomes more important and interesting to me. I notice it more. I enjoy it more. I enjoy that spring cleanup and getting out when the earth is starting to soften up a little bit and then you go out and you work in the yard all day and you smell the dirt and the air starts to warm up a bit in the spring. And I love the fall equally with all the smells and sometimes that beautiful weather that keeps going into fall when the skies have never been bluer, and it’s really crisp in the morning. And I love the first snowfall of the year and so I think I focus more on cycles.
And I know there are cycles with parenting because parenting is tough. And it makes parenting a whole lot easier because when you’re in a really tough cycle, or a really tough phase it really helps to look at it and realize, “You know what, this isn’t going to last forever. And right now, it’s really, really tough. But in a few years, they’re going to be a grown-up and we’re going to be sitting down having a coffee together, or going to a movie, or going for lunch and everything is going to be okay.” And it’s really useful to remember that when you’re going through a difficult phase.
JAMES
This too will end.
MEREDITH
“This too shall pass.” My mother used to say that all the time and I honestly believe that. And maybe it sounds trite, but it helps me sometimes to say it to myself. When I’m in my own little mire of bad thoughts or bad times or bad luck. It can help me to say, “This too shall pass.” So, I think in cycles. Definitely cycles.
JAMES
Back in January 2016, we did an interview where you talked about your play Survival Skills which is a fictionalized story about a father committing suicide based on your own experience with your own father completing a suicide after he had received a terminal diagnosis, and in that interview, you said, “You want to write the kind of play where people are going to go home and talk about it, think about it and talk about themselves a little bit. You know, my God, if it got people to think about their own mortality a little bit, how could that be a bad thing? We all run around scared to talk about it, but we’re fascinated by it at the same time. The idea that we’re mortal, just to have that discussion opened up wouldn’t hurt.” So, I thought, let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about mortality and the fact that we’re all at some point in the future going to die. Have your own thoughts on mortality evolved over the course of your life?
MEREDITH
I think they’ve evolved but I can’t really say I spend a ton of time thinking or talking about it either. You know, it’s funny, at that point in time, I was obviously thinking we need to talk about death. It needs to be in a play. But right now, I don’t have a lot of thoughts to share on the topic to tell you the honest truth. I still think what I said was valid and I like what I said.
JAMES
Maybe there are times in your life where you feel the need to discuss your mortality, and maybe there are other times you don’t.
MEREDITH
And maybe you could take out the word mortality and punch something else in there like self-harm or punishment or shame or any of the other things we’ve talked about. I mean isn’t that what one hopes a play does? When I wrote Book Club a lot of thought went into how many moms are experiencing the same things, and shame being one of them, for not being the best mother on the planet. A couple of my plays deal with that theme. But if we don’t talk about it and bring it out into the light, we’ll just go on pretending to the people around us that we’ve got it all under control. Perhaps when we open up and laugh about the things that make us feel ashamed as moms or just human beings and shine a little light on it, perhaps that is a little bit healing.
There’s a Brene Brown quote, and I have it on my mirror in my bathroom. “I think laughter between people is a holy form of connection, of communion. It’s the way you and I look at each other and without words, say, I get exactly what you’re saying.”
So, if you write a funny line in your play about something rather important and your whole audience is laughing about it, there’s a shared humanity in that. Perhaps the audience is thinking “I get it. I get what you’re saying. I’m with you.”
Besides the fact that everyone just laughed at something you wrote down and were fortunate enough to bring to actors and a director and the rest of your creative team and they’ve poured their creativity into it and together you’ve just made a big room of people laugh and walk out together feeling happy and connected.
Playwright Kristen Da Silva. Photo by Patrick Hodgson
“I wrote a comedy with a character who has terminal cancer, and I didn’t know whether that was going to work, whether people were going to be willing to go there and laugh in the same breath as they’re going to cry. I lost my aunt to the same cancer I wrote about, and you know we didn’t get to confront some things in real life, because we’re not always capable of doing that with our loved ones, but I got to confront some of those things in the play. So, I think that comedy is a doorway to some tough conversations. And I set out to entertain people, but I don’t shy away from tackling things that might be more difficult or might evoke sadness, because I think there’s something really cathartic about feeling all of those emotions in one night.”
The Rules for Playing Risk, Where You Are, and Hurray Hard are just a few of the plays where playwright Kristen Da Silva takes a comedic look at the loves, ambitions, and struggles of the everyday people in her plays. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I love her work so much. These are people you can relate to and understand and identify with. These are stories about people trying to navigate the intricate, and mystifying road of relationships, love, and sometimes even death all delivered with humour and humanity.
All the more interesting is the fact that prior to diving into playwriting and acting full-time Kristen spent the first part of her working life in the corporate world. Home on maternity leave with her youngest son, and feeling a need for some intellectual stimulation, she wrote her first full-length romantic comedy Book Club. Other plays were soon to follow including Gibson & Sons and Hurry Hard both winners of the Playwrights Guild of Canada Comedy Award.
Her most recent play, The Rules of Playing Risk, a touching story about a grandfather and his estranged grandson getting to know each other for the first time, premiered in April 2021 in a video-on-demand production from Theatre Orangeville. I contacted Kristen over ZOOM back in February 2021 to talk with her about her creative process, thoughts on comedy, going down rabbit holes, and what she’d say to her younger self if she could go back in time.
JAMES HUTCHISON
A couple of days ago, I watched this documentary from 1964 called Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen, and it reminded me of my childhood, because I grew up in the ’60s, and I was watching the cars and the way people were dressed, and I had this avalanche of nostalgia hit me, and I found myself diving into memories of my childhood. I was wondering, for yourself, do you have triggers that take you back to your childhood? And what was that childhood like?
KRISTEN DA SILVA
My favourite part of my childhood was camping. We used to go up to Wasaga Beach where there was a campground, and we had a trailer, and the smell of smoke from a campfire and the smell of Avon Skin So Soft still brings me right back to my childhood. My parents, like everyone, used Skin so Soft as a bug repellant.
The winters were a bit tougher because when I was seven we moved to Nobleton – which is a village surrounded by farmland. It was very different from the neighbourhood where I had spent the first seven years of my life – where there were a lot of families packed in tightly together with kids, and it just facilitated kids playing more easily. In the country to play with someone, you had to be driven to their house.
But at the campground kids used to play all day, and I remember coming back at whatever time curfew was, but all day long we just ran around and played capture the flag and explored the woods. I have great memories of that.
JAMES
I guess when I think back to my childhood and what’s different today is the sense of freedom children had to play. To explore. I remember riding all over Calgary on my bike, you know, going for miles, all over the place.
KRISTEN
Yeah, it’s very true. It’s really changed. I would lose my mind if my kids were gone all day, and I didn’t know where they were. But that was normal in the ‘80s. There were no cell phones. No way to really check-in. It was just come in when the streetlights come on.
JAMES
Supper time is when the mothers are standing on the porch shouting for the kids.
KRISTEN
One of my aunts used a whistle to call us back. When we heard the whistle, we came running. And other than that – we were on our own.
JAMES
At what point did you find yourself being on stage and telling stories, and where do you think that impulse to perform comes from?
KRISTEN
I think it started with dance. I didn’t really enjoy dance in terms of the lessons, but I remember really enjoying the recitals. That feeling when you go out on stage and you’re suddenly not as bound by your own awareness of yourself, and you can express yourself in braver ways through performance and through playing a character. I think that’s what really drew me to theatre and kept me coming back time and time again.
And I remember when I would go to a movie, I would leave the theatre and still be in that world. I was a big reader and I think I was living in a fantasy a lot of the time. Every activity I did as a kid I turned into a story for myself. I remember going skiing and weaving a tale as I was riding the chairlift about what I was there doing and where I was in the world. I spent a lot of time inside my head. Inside fantasy. And I think being on stage was an extension of that.
I first started acting in school. I believe we did Rapunzel, and I think I played Rapunzel’s mother. I played Mary in the school Christmas pageant, which was in French. I remember going to the manger and we were speaking French. And then after that, once I got into higher grades, there was a school play you could audition for every year, and I always did that.
JAMES
So, it’s interesting to me that you’ve got this storytelling narrative going on in your head and this love of fiction and literature, and then you go to university and major in political science and labour relations. How does that happen?
KRISTEN
Well, I’ve thought about it a lot because it really is strange. And the weirdest part is that my parents encouraged me to major in theatre. And I said, “No.”
I think I felt scared of failing. If I were to pursue what I really cared about – and it didn’t work out – that felt like too big a thing to put on the line. These weren’t conscious thoughts that I had back then, but now looking back on that decision I think that’s the main reason I didn’t major in theatre.
Also, it wasn’t a usual career choice at my high school. I didn’t know anyone who had done that in my peer group or slightly above my peer group. I couldn’t look to someone else and go, “Okay, so that’s a path I could take.”
JAMES
What were the university years like for you? Because I understand you did keep your foot in the theatre circle. You joined an improvisation troupe.
KRISTEN
Yeah, I kind of didn’t deliberately do that. You know honestly, when I think back to that time I was really overwhelmed by the experience of attending university, because keep in mind, like from the age of seven on, I lived in this tiny village, and we had one stoplight, and you know even going to York and seeing that many people in one place was a really new experience for me.
I don’t think I was really sitting down in an organized way and thinking through things. You have to declare a major, and I had done very well in my last two years of high school in history and in law, and I thought, “Well, I’m good at these things. I think maybe I’d like to pursue something like that.”
And then at York, in order to graduate, you have to do an arts credit in your first year, and you can pick any art. I picked theatre because that was what I was already familiar with and liked. It was because of that that I got into the improv company because the professor who taught me, Fred Thury, ran Vanier College Productions, which at that time was sort of like a theatre program for non-majors. It was where people could continue learning about the craft and perform.
He asked all the people that were in his acting class to audition for Vanier College Productions, and – I think even before that happened – they’d already cast the improv company, but somebody had left, so he approached me during class one day and basically said, “You’re going to come and be in this improv company.” It wasn’t really, “Do you want to be in this?” It was, “You’re going to be in this.” Which is sort of how Fred was. He was like, “You’re directing the next play. I see your potential, so I’m not going to give you a choice.” Which I think, given my personality, and how wishy-washy I was – is what I needed.
And after that happened, I was smitten. We were performing sketch/improv shows once a week, but we were rehearsing and writing new sketches, I think, two or three times a week. Some years I was also involved in a mainstage show. It became really busy and was also social, and you know you’d think, before class I’m just going to pop over and help with costumes, then you find yourself there for three hours. Oh, shoot, I missed my whole lecture. I really got distracted and sidetracked, and I had a lot of catching up to do on my other classes.
JAMES
You mentioned you grew up in a small village and you talked a little bit about your friends. Have you retained any friends from your childhood or the university days? And, if so, what’s it like having that long connection with someone?
KRISTEN
I have friends from my camping days. We don’t see each other very often, but once in a while we might chat over Facebook. I’m still in touch with my best friend growing up and we see each other once in a while. We’ve lived in separate places a lot since childhood. She was in Kelowna for several years and then, you know, once you have a young family, you don’t see people as often as you’d like.
The people I’ve stayed closest with are the people I met in university doing improv and doing Vanier College Productions. I’ve made a few very close friends through that, and we lost touch with each other for a little while, but we reconnected probably ten years ago. Some of my closest friends are people I met in university.
What does it mean? I mean, I think it’s just that thing of having a shared experience with someone, someone who understands how dear you hold a place that other people, who have not been a part of that, find hard to understand. We went through these experiences in university that shaped us as people, and as artists, and there’s that sort of mutual history together that matters.
And there’s just that thing of people who have been there for you through your life, the people who have been there for your major milestones, good and bad. They become the people that you trust the most, and you turn to, and in some cases, and for me, this is very true, they become your family, your chosen family.
So, they are very important to me. And particularly in the last few years, as I left my previous career behind to embark on playwriting and acting as a full-time pursuit. That was really scary. And those were the people that kept me focused, cheered me on, and bolstered me, and let me know I’m doing the right thing. And when you lose faith, having somebody there who can say to you, “Don’t lose faith, you are on the right path” is totally invaluable. That’s the role we try to play for each other.
I think anytime you see somebody who’s been successful at something often it’s because of the people around them, who support them. Maybe we don’t appreciate that enough and how important that is, because doing something all on your own and maintaining your own momentum takes superhuman confidence.
JAMES
So, I’m wondering now, at this age and with the life you’ve lived, and the wisdom you’ve gained, if you were to have a time machine and you were able to go back to the campus when you were a young student in the bar having a beer, and you went up to your younger self, what advice would you give her?
KRISTEN
I actually think the way things turned out and the path I took is exactly how it had to happen in order for me to arrive where I am, and I’m happy with where I am. I’m grateful for where I am.
So many things had to be in alignment for me to pursue this career and one of the things that absolutely had to happen was I had to go into the corporate world, because if I had not done that – I wouldn’t have had the money saved to make a go of it.
The business skills I developed are really useful as an entrepreneur, as someone who’s trying to manage their own business, if you will. I have a great agent now, but certainly, in the first few years, everything, marketing my work, negotiating, all of that was me. I learned a lot of those skills in business.
And I also wouldn’t want to tell myself to avoid things that were painful or avoid things that you could look back on as regrets, but you can’t, because as cliche as it sounds, all the things that you’ve done and gone through become where you draw your stories and your understanding of the world from. Life is an incredible teacher. There is no shortcut to learning some things.
So, I wouldn’t want to go back to myself in university and tell myself anything that might change what I decided to do, because I think what I decided to do is why I’m where I am right now.
JAMES
So, you’d buy her a beer and say, “You’re on the right path, kid.”
KRISTEN
Yeah, I think I would probably just give her a pat on the head and maybe tell her it’s going to work out. I think that’s what I would do.
JAMES
I want to talk a little bit about some of your thoughts on theatre and writing, but I want to start by asking you about some of the writers you like and admire and who they are and why you happen to like their writing, and I’m thinking particularly playwrights, but it could be novelists, or other writers too.
KRISTEN
I’m really interested in who else is writing comedy, and I’m big into Canadian writers in general. I’d hate to leave anyone off a list because I have so many friends who write. If I were to pick a single play that really moved me recently it would be What a Young Woman Ought to Know by Hannah Moscovitch. I listened to it on the Play Me Podcast where they do radio readings of Canadian work.
There are some American playwrights whose work I like as well. Annie Baker comes to mind. Currently, I’m reading a Lynn Nottage play called Sweat, which is fantastic.
And in terms of other reading, I tend to gravitate to things that are not comedic. The last novel I read was The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, and I highly recommend it. I finished it at 2:00 am and, without giving too much away, there’s this twist, one of those gut-punch sort of things. The power of really good writing amazes me.
JAMES
We talked about you majoring in political science and I have a BA in sociology. And I’m wondering if political science and sociology are about exploring the balance between the individual and society. And I’m wondering if that’s a fundamental subject of drama, right? Conformity versus individualism, and the tension between those two. So, I’m wondering what are some of your thoughts about freedom and conformity and stories? Do you see any of those themes in your own writing or in writing that you like?
KRISTEN
I view reading as one way to better understand things I have never experienced, or I never could experience myself. I don’t know how much I have to say about the specific subject of individuality versus conformity, but certainly good stories often have a character that’s willing to challenge their status quo or the status quo of the world. To make things better, and that’s certainly a theme that’s appealed to me.
I think reading things that are written from a point of view you don’t personally own can grow empathy and understanding for other people and find the commonalities between yourself and other people because there’s always something, regardless of what the story is, relatable in there. Someone has written this story, and it might be their own story, or it might be a story about their community, and that’s such a gift to be able to open a page and grow your understanding.
JAMES
So how does comedy provide insight into the world? Because you’re a comedy writer, and I agree, I like finding the comedy writers. Why do we need comedy? What does it do for us? How does comedy help us understand the world?
KRISTEN
I think it plays a huge role, and I think that’s because it’s really hard for people to be vulnerable and comedy is a way for us to put down our guard. Laughing with someone is a really quick way to find common ground. We both found something funny, and now we’re laughing. There’s a science behind what laughter actually does in our brain, and some of those brain chemicals allow us to feel a little more open for a while after we feel them. In that way, comedy is like a doorway into being able to examine ourselves without the level of fear we might feel doing that directly.
I think comedy is a huge opportunity to bring people in and have them hear what you have to say. It’s very disarming to laugh. And when people are relaxed, and they’re enjoying the story you can say some things and you can get some things across in a way that you might not be able to do off stage.
I wrote a comedy with a character who has terminal cancer, and I didn’t know whether that was going to work, whether people were going to be willing to go there and laugh in the same breath as they’re going to cry. I lost my aunt to the same cancer I wrote about, and you know we didn’t get to confront some things in real life, because we’re not always capable of doing that with our loved ones, but I got to confront some of those things in the play. So, I think that comedy is a doorway to some tough conversations. And I set out to entertain people, but I don’t shy away from tackling things that might be more difficult or might evoke sadness, because I think there’s something really cathartic about feeling all of those emotions in one night.
Debra Hale, Melanie Janzen, Kristen Da Silva in Theatre Orangeville’s production of Where You Are. Photo by Sharyn Ayliffe
JAMES
In our correspondence, I mentioned that I finally got around to watching all nine seasons of The Office and you wrote back, “Oh, that’s one of my favourite television series.” Why does The Office appeal to you? What do they do well? Why is this one of your favourites?
KRISTEN
The first time I watched The Office I was going through a very tough time. I was living on my own for the first time in my life, I had a one-year-old son, and it was a very stressful, lonely sort of time. And someone said, “There’s this show you should watch, The Office, it’s funny.”
So, I put it on one night, and there was just something so comforting about it. It was about everyday sort of scenarios where people are just going to their office job, and the company they’re in is a paper company, and everything feels kind of low stakes from that point of view, but the personal stakes are really high. Steve Carell is a genius in his role. And that character is so believable, even though he’s so outrageous. The writing is funny, the characters are solid, and you feel like the actors are having fun. It became like comfort food to me.
JAMES
You know the entertainment industry has a tendency to label people. This actor does this type of character. This writer does this type of writing. In what ways is that helpful? And as a comedy writer in what ways do you think that’s a hindrance?
KRISTEN
That’s an interesting question. I don’t know. I don’t know if there would be resistance to seeing something of mine that isn’t funny at all. I think over time, as I’ve written more, I have become more comfortable with putting more drama in my comedy, but I don’t yet feel compelled to write a pure drama, and whether or not people would embrace it – I don’t know.
As an actor, I do both. I have done a lot of comedy on stage, but I’ve done drama on stage as well. And in terms of film and TV work, it’s mostly drama. I think that some of the best comedic actors are also some of the best dramatic actors, because I don’t think the skill set is different. I just think that with comedy, there’s a technicality that sort of comes in about timing, and for some people that doesn’t come naturally to them. The really great actors are gifted with that skill, and they always say you should play a comedy like a drama. You should take it very seriously. Whatever’s going on should mean the world to your character. I think that’s what makes comedy work. If we go back to The Office, you know, Dwight is just as serious as can be. And it’s funny, because the actor, Rainn Wilson, has chosen to commit to that.
JAMES
Now that you’ve written six, seven, eight plays are you noticing any particular themes in your stories? Is there anything that you gravitate towards now that you’ve got a body of work?
KRISTEN
Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. The same themes show up in everything. For me, it’s a lot of stuff around relationships and familial history. Mothers and daughters. Daughters and fathers. Fathers and sons. Brothers. Pretty much everything I’ve written, except one thing I think, speaks to those themes and explores the challenges inherent in those relationships. A lot of things around people trying to work out what happened in their past and make amends.
I’ve just finished writing, The Rules of Playing Risk. It’s about a grandfather and his estranged fourteen-year-old grandson who he doesn’t really know and whose father he didn’t really know either. The story is about what prevented the grandfather and his son from having a really meaningful father-son relationship and how that has impacted the grandson.
The play also deals with trauma and with PTSD. Not in a very open way, it really only deals with it through how the characters have adapted (or maladapted) to their own traumas. I was interested in the idea of how many generations does this affect – what gets passed down and how far-reaching some of that stuff is. I have a personal connection with that. And in the research for this play about this grandfather and grandson I took a lot of details from my own family history.
Both of my grandfathers were in the Second World War, and when I asked my family what my grandfathers had told them about their memories of being in the war it was sort of shocking to me that, at least in my family, they never talked about it. I mean, they would have gone through some horrific things that we now understand carve a lasting imprint on the brain and affect everything about somebody.
And I was interested in that. You know, how does a person go through this terrible thing that must have had a deep impact on him at a young age, and then come home, marry, and have kids immediately. That had to impact him and the way he parented, and it had to have impacted everyone around him. And so, I was curious to see how that showed up in my own family when I was growing up. And how does it show up in me now?
Neil Foster and Liam Macdonald in Theatre Orangeville’s production of The Rules of Playing Risk. Photo by Sharyn Ayliffe
JAMES
If you look at the plays you’ve written and characters you’ve created is there a particular character or a couple of characters that maybe are closer to who you are as a person?
KRISTEN
I don’t know. I’ve never thought of that. I would probably have to say that the character I’ve got in this new piece, The Rules of Playing Risk, whose name is Maggie is probably the most like me in terms of how she thinks and how she responds. Our backstories are different, but I would say in terms of personality, she’s probably the closest. She’s quick-witted but cares about people, and she engages in the world with humour, more so than anything else, which is very me. There are probably parts of me in everybody I write. Probably, there are parts of you in everybody you write too.
JAMES
Even some of the nasty characters? The not-so-nice characters?
KRISTEN
Oh yeah, that’s the interesting stuff, right? Like, where did those come from? Are those the things we don’t like about ourselves that we’re exploring on the page? I haven’t written a lot of villains because my plays don’t tend to have a villain. The only play that I can think of that really has someone who was set up to appear to be a villain at first is Five Alarm where there’s the rivalry between the two main characters competing in this chili cook-off. And a lot of that was extracted from my own life. The character isn’t based on me, but some of the things that end up explaining her behaviour I could relate to.
For her, it was the feeling of being left out of things, and she acts this way, because she feels rejected. And I can remember feeling some of those things in my life and certainly, I’ve observed other people who are very spiny and have a hard time letting people in or being vulnerable and that stems from having been rejected and not feeling safe around other people.
JAMES
I suppose that’s because as humans, so often, our behaviour is designed to protect us.
KRISTEN
Yeah, exactly. I think most people want to experience a true connection with others. And it’s just, there are so many things that happen in our life that scar us and make that hard. The more things that someone’s been through the harder it is for them to find the courage to open themselves up and to be hurt again. There are people who struggle with that forever and never resolve it. And it’s sad. Unfortunately, tragic things happen, and people become so defensive over a lifetime that they can’t let others in. That theme shows up a lot in my writing.
JAMES
Do you think a lot of theatre and stories are about characters attempting to be their authentic self and maybe that’s why we relate to it? Is that one of the appeals of drama? Watching characters trying to do that. And then how hard is it for people in life to be their authentic selves?
KRISTEN
It’s really hard. I do think that’s the appeal. I think that’s the appeal in writing it too. Sometimes you can resolve things through writing that you can’t resolve in the world, because in writing I have the ability to force the conversation between two people. And as a writer, I can choose to allow that person to take whatever step, even if it’s just that tiny step that allows the conversation to start. I can force them to do that.
In the real world we all have people in our life that you want to say, “Stop! Everything you want is available to you. If you would just lay down your defences and reach out for it you would have richer, more meaningful relationships and that might mitigate some of your feelings of being rejected.” You see these people struggling to belong, and a lot of the time their struggles are self-defeating. You’re right – it’s fear-driven. No one wants to be hurt, and vulnerability is the most important ingredient in connection, but it’s so hard for most of us to be vulnerable.
JAMES
We started talking about comedy, and now I think we’re talking about tragedy.
KRISTEN
I think they’re the same.
JAMES
Are they?
KRISTEN
I think they are. I don’t know about you but if you were to break down what your comedies are about you could take some of these same subjects and make them into a drama. If you took out some of the jokes and changed the dialogue.
Even my play Hurry Hard, which is about these people who want to win a local regional bonspiel, is really a story about this estranged couple whose marriage ended because they weren’t able to find vulnerability together and figure out their problems.
And it’s also about this relationship between two brothers where this tragedy happened. The older brother was on track to having an incredible NHL career, and a stupid choice by his younger brother led to an accident that basically took him out.
And they both have to live with that in their relationship – the level of guilt, on one hand, that has made this relationship dysfunctional and then, on the other hand, this guy who loves his brother, but his brother took something away from him and that’s left him bitter about what his life ended up actually being.
All of these storylines could be put into a drama very easily and still work. I don’t think comedy and tragedy are very different.
JAMES
Subject matter may not be different, but the tone is.
KRISTEN
Yes.
Adrian Shepherd-Gawinksi, Bruce Davies, and James Hawksley in Lighthouse Festival Theatre’s Production of Hurry Hard. Photo by Melissa McKay
JAMES
How would you describe your writing process?
KRISTEN
I think most of my writing happens when I’m not in front of my laptop. So, before I start writing, now, usually I have had the idea in my head for a while, and I have started to work out some of the details, so when I get to the actual phase of sitting down to start writing dialogue I have a sense of who the people are already. Their voices have been in my head. I’ve probably already played with some lines of dialogue, I’m starting to figure out the relationships, I know what the conflict is and I’m working out the details.
So, I do a lot of thinking before I sit in front of my computer, and then I tend to write in bursts of a day or two where I’ll sit at the computer the whole day and I’ll get a lot of writing out. Usually, the first thirty pages of something new flow out of me and they’re really easy to lay down. When I’m writing a two act play once I get to a point where there will be a natural intermission there’s always a timeout. I almost feel like I lose momentum at that point, because I’m trying to figure out act two.
The first few times that happened, I panicked. And then once I had worked my way through that painful period a few times, now I expect it to come, so I don’t panic. And I will take as much time off as I need. There might be a break of a month or two in between writing. I have things I need to work out, because I don’t really do detailed plotting. I don’t plot it out on paper. I plot it out in my brain, but I also leave space for the characters to tell me what’s going to happen. I think at some point the characters start talking, and they start doing things, and then you’re just there to report it. I think they need room to do that.
JAMES
Do you find you always know where the play is heading in terms of an ending? I know John Irving – this is so bizarre to me – in interviews, he says that he always comes out with the last sentence of his novel. He writes down the last sentence for The World According to Garp or Cider House Rules – he writes down the last sentence and then he writes the story, and he said, he has never changed the last sentence. That just shows you how unique writing is. There’s no other writer in the world who does that. But that’s how he writes. So, maybe talk a little bit about endings and when those come to you and how they help you in your writing process.
KRISTEN
I don’t always know the ending. I usually have an idea of where it will go, or I have two or three alternate endings in my mind where it could end up. And that’s because I find as you’re writing you’re taking new paths you didn’t expect.
At some point something occurs, and you follow it, and it opens up a different lane, if you will, and you need to be able to be open to that effecting where the story ends. And I think part of the pleasure of writing is discovering that. The reason I don’t write a detailed plot is because I think I would lose interest if I already knew where it was all going to go. I think part of the joy of writing, for me, is discovering the story.
JAMES
A lot of your stories deal with relationships and romance. Are you a romantic?
KRISTEN
I have to admit, after all these plays I’ve written about love that I must be a romantic. I didn’t think I was before. I really didn’t.
I don’t know what your childhood was like, but my parents and family weren’t effusive, and we dealt with life through humour. That’s how we would show love. That’s how we managed disagreement. We managed most things through humour, and humour is a door. Humour can be used to open a door, but it can also be used to close things off.
So, I have had a hard time with romance in my real life. But I think there’s a part of me that really yearns for that and has always wanted the world to be more ideal. And you have to believe in love, right? What else is there? If you can’t root for love and root for the most powerful thing in life then suffering will quickly outweigh everything else. I think, again, back to what we really, really truly yearn for, above all else, is connection. It’s human connection. We are social creatures who rely on each other.
JAMES
I read in a couple of interviews you gave that your friends say you have a tendency to head down rabbit holes.
KRISTEN (Laughs)
Oh, God.
JAMES
How do these rabbit holes serve you in terms of your creative life? Are the results useful?
KRISTEN
I think it’s always useful. You might not need the specific information or knowledge that you’ve gained but there is something useful about constantly challenging your brain and opening new pathways and learning new things. So, something will catch my interest, and my interests are varied, and I think what my friends find amusing are the unexpected topics I’ll go down a rabbit hole on.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I got super into astrophysics, and I was trying to understand string theory, and I still don’t understand it. I watched hundreds of hours of video and read more things about it because once I’m curious about something my brain doesn’t want to let go of it until I understand it.
I sort of hyper-focus on things and that includes writing, which I think is a gift as a writer to be able to hyper-focus and get a lot done in a short period of time, but as a human, it’s a gift and a curse, because you can get distracted by it and end up down a path that really isn’t overly productive. Maybe it will be later, but I don’t think at any point in the future anyone is going to call on me to save the world using string theory.
JAMES
If this is a plot point in a play when you say, “No one is going to call on me to save the world using string theory.” We of course know you’re going to need it.
KRISTEN
Exactly. Well, I better do more research then because I’m just not ready yet. I actually don’t understand it.
JAMES
I’ll bet half the people studying it don’t understand it. Let’s talk a little bit about the first play you wrote called Book Club. Tell me how that came about and why you decided to write it.
KRISTEN
Book Club is the only play that I wrote without any plan going in whatsoever. Like none. It started as a lark. I was on mat leave with my youngest son, and it’s physically busy, but it’s not intellectually very challenging, and I needed something for my brain to work on. I really didn’t write it with a lot of intention. In my later work, if I was going to talk about a subject, I gave it some thought as to what I was trying to say, as opposed to just improvising the whole thing. So, that play, I think, is quite different from the rest of my work.
JAMES
You had mentioned to me that Norm Foster is a mentor and somebody you connected with. How did that relationship happen? How did you connect with Norm, and what sort of sage advice has Norm Foster provided you in your career?
KRISTEN
Oh, gosh, we initially connected on Twitter. I had made a joke and I wrote, “I wish community theatres would do a goddamn Norm Foster play every once in a while.” Which is obviously a joke because it’s hard to find a community theatre that doesn’t have a Norm Foster play in its season. But I didn’t know him, and I tweeted that and someone else – not Norm – took exception to my tweet.
JAMES
They didn’t understand it as a joke.
KRISTEN
No. I thought it was obviously tongue-in-cheek.
JAMES
Yeah, I thought it was obvious too. I thought it was funny.
KRISTEN
Because he’s extremely well produced. Like he is the most produced playwright in Canada, and it’s well earned.
JAMES
If only Tom Hanks could get a break.
KRISTEN
Right. “I wish people would recognize Tom Hanks and put him in some movies.” It was that kind of a joke. Anyway, someone took exception to it and that person responded angrily to my tweet and listed all the places that Norm’s been produced, and I didn’t even see it. I’m at work and my friend texted me and she goes, “Oh my God, you gotta go on Twitter. Somebody didn’t like your tweet and Norm Foster responded to that person defending you.” So, I went on Twitter and Norm basically had said, “I think she was being tongue-in-cheek, and I thought it was funny.”
And then we followed each other, and I was talking to another new playwright, and he had shared his play with me, and in his play he had a foreword he had written, and it included a quote from Norm about his play. And I wrote him back and I said, “Did Norm Foster read your play?” And he said, “Yeah, if you send him a play, he’ll read it.” And I thought, wow, that’s wild that he takes the time to read other people’s plays, because people must be sending him plays constantly.
So, I sort of put that knowledge away, and I still didn’t really have the guts to ask him, because I didn’t know him. And I thought that’s sort of an audacious thing to ask someone, you don’t even know, to spend three hours reading your play when you don’t have a name, and no one knows who you are.
But then one day, I think he had just liked a tweet of mine or something, I decided why not just ask? At that point, I’d written Book Club, and I thought it wasn’t terrible, maybe it won’t be a waste of his time. Maybe he’ll have something to say about it, and maybe he’ll offer some feedback. So, I found myself writing a message. And as I’m writing the message, I find myself not just saying, “Will you read the play, but will you mentor me?”
And, he responded and said, “I’ll read your play. Send it to me.” So, I sent it to him, and he read it right away, and I thought, “Wow how generous that he not only will read my play, but he will read it immediately and provide me with paragraphs of commentary on it.” So, he read Book Club, and he wrote me an email that said, “It’s very difficult to write comedy, and you know how to write comedy.” And he said, “I would love to mentor you. I want to be who discovers you.” And that was the start of what ended up being, to this day, a really meaningful friendship in my life.
He didn’t teach me how to write, but he did help me figure out what worked and what didn’t work. He gave balanced feedback, you know, as complimentary as he was about it, he also had things to say that helped sharpen it. And so, I would ask him questions, if I was confused about something, or if I was struggling with something. And it could be related to the writing itself, or it could be related to the industry.
Because he knows how the industry works. And I didn’t know. I didn’t understand anything about it. I didn’t know how playwrights made money. I didn’t know who made decisions, or how to submit things, and how you get your work produced. I didn’t know any of that. He gave me really solid advice, and he opened doors for me by introducing my work to other people. That is what eventually led to me being produced professionally. There aren’t enough words to describe how important he’s been in my career.
JAMES
Every artist needs their champions.
KRISTEN
Absolutely. And he’s had success and he has the grace as a human being to be willing to send the elevator back down and help other people succeed, and nurture other people with their writing, whether they show great promise or not, he will still read and give notes to people. He has an incredibly generous spirit to other writers because he is really passionate about writing.
JAMES
I’m going to take a little side shift here.
KRISTEN
Okay.
JAMES
Because the reality is we’re in COVID. And we’re in lockdown, and we’re experiencing it, and I’m just wondering what have you found the most challenging, for you personally, living in a pandemic?
KRISTEN
Well, being very honest it’s mental health. Anxiety. I didn’t write for the first nine months of the pandemic or do anything that I loved really, because I was using so much of my energy and my personal resources to manage my way through how scared I felt.
I felt really worried about the sickness itself. Especially in the beginning when we had very little information. I remember thinking, “Can I be outside? Am I going to get sick if I walk my dog?” We didn’t know anything about the virus yet. We didn’t know how contagious it was or how deadly it was. And so, I was scrubbing my groceries down with Lysol thinking if I didn’t do that my family might get sick and God forbid one of them could die, and as a mom of three kids, like all parents, you worry.
So, there was that, and I love my career. I love what I do, and I had an amazing exciting season lined up, and now all of a sudden, I had to watch each show sort of wash up on the shore. Cancellations came in waves. Things got cancelled or postponed, and I know a lot of artists probably felt the same way – it’s not just your livelihood. If you work in the arts, it’s not something you just do to make money. It’s the opposite, right? We almost make no money, and we do it anyway. So, there’s something in it that’s completely integral to our existence. And that being threatened sent me into an existential crisis. I thought, “What would I do if theatre didn’t recover? How would I find meaning for myself? My children give me a lot of meaning and purpose, but theatre also gave me a lot of meaning and purpose.”
JAMES
It’s part of your identity. It’s part of who you are.
KRISTEN
Absolutely. My entire life has included theatre and performing. So, it’s been a profoundly challenging year, but it’s also been a very ground-breaking sort of breakthrough year in terms of understanding that you cannot build your whole life around one thing – that’s very dangerous. So, you have to figure out where your inherent happiness is and how to find joy in life if things you count on right now were to go away, because they can. That’s what we’ve all learned. Things can go away very quickly.
Andy Pogson and Beryl Bain in Lighthouse Festival Theatre’s Production of Five Alarm. Photo by Daniel G. Wiest
JAMES
I want to talk about honesty, and I want to talk about it on three levels. How important, do you think, is it to be honest with yourself? How important is it to be honest in our personal relationships, and how important is honesty in the writing and presenting of stage plays?
KRISTEN
It’s vitally important in all three areas, I think, again, going back to vulnerability, which requires telling the truth and looking at yourself with a clear eye. Like being able to see the things about ourselves we might not like, and not reject those things but embrace them and accept them. You know, accepting that we’re fallible, that we all have flaws, we all make mistakes, make bad choices. Being able to confront that with honesty, but not with condemnation. I think that’s meaningful when you’re talking about being honest with yourself, but it’s also meaningful when you talk about being honest within relationships. I think dishonesty is often a protective measure. There’s that feeling that if I’m honest about something – whatever that might be – if I’m vulnerable, I might be rejected. They might not accept me anymore.
But deep truly meaningful love and intimacy only comes from the ability to be extremely honest. You can’t build a relationship with somebody on dishonesty because the other person is operating without information that they might need in order to understand why you behave the way you do, and you’re also not able to be yourself. So first, you have to do the work of confronting that in yourself. Why do I react to that? Why does that trigger me to be really upset or feel threatened or angry? You have to be willing to look at things that have either happened to you or that you are ashamed of.
The topic of shame and how it keeps us from being honest with ourselves is also very interesting to me. As a kid I struggled in school to complete things, and I struggled with being able to pay attention. And the way that the world reacted to that was that I was not behaving. I wasn’t being compliant. I was a troublemaker. I didn’t care. I was lazy about school. And those labels stuck to me. And so now, whenever there’s something in my life where I’ve dropped the ball my immediate reaction is to feel shame. I feel ashamed that I’m not as good as other people at organizing my life.
And it’s the same in interpersonal relationships. I think we avoid that feeling of shame because it’s so threatening, because to feel that we aren’t worthy of other people’s acceptance and love is threatening. You know – the idea that we can be ostracized and wouldn’t have people around us, that we would be abandoned. Fear keeps people from being vulnerable with each other.
And on stage, if you want the audience to go on a journey with you, you have to have vulnerability. So as an actor you have to find that. As a writer you have to find that. You have to tell the truth about things. You have to be willing to tell an honest human story showing people that are flawed and still lovable.
JAMES
You mentioned your play, Where You Are, was more personal, because it was inspired by your aunt who suffered from the same cancer as one of the characters in the play.
KRISTEN
Yeah.
JAMES
Why did you feel the need to explore that and create a story around that experience?
KRISTEN
Because I love my aunt so much, and I guess it was sort of a love letter to her. She inspired that story. And I wanted to do what I could to keep parts of her here. I didn’t know how to say goodbye to her and close that chapter. And writing something felt like a way to express what she meant to me. But it also, in a way, helped me process my own grief.
My aunt was given a year when she was diagnosed. And you’ve got one year to do everything you’d want to do, and at the same time, you’re battling an illness. It made me think about my own mortality a lot and what it would be like to know that you had a finite amount of time left. The play, however, is not about my aunt. A lot of the piece is fictionalized. Most of it is very fictionalized. It’s just about the experience.
JAMES
It’s inspired by that experience.
KRISTEN
It’s inspired.
JAMES
Sometimes audiences don’t understand that even though your aunt died from the same cancer the actual story you end up writing from that has touchpoints…
KRISTEN
…but is different. Exactly. One of the main things in the play is the decision to treat the cancer or not. And that came from a conversation with my uncle. He told me she had struggled really hard with the decision to stop chemotherapy because she didn’t want to let her sisters down. She didn’t want to say to her sisters, “I’m not going to do everything I can do to prolong my time here.” Because it comes down to time. When you have a terminal cancer all the treatment is designed to buy you more time, it’s not going to cure it.
And with my aunt and many people who go through cancer treatment, the treatment itself is very debilitating. She would have the chemo, and that whole week she would feel miserably sick. And just as she started to come around it would be time for another round of chemo. And so, she had to make the decision whether she wanted to prolong the time she had or accept that her time might be shorter, but that her quality of life would be better for the last months that she had. And I wanted to explore what it would feel like to be terminally sick and to be thinking about your loved ones and trying to make decisions that are best for you but also honouring your loved ones and the sense of obligation you feel, and that’s really what the character in the play struggles with.
In the play, she has a hard time telling her niece that she’s sick because she doesn’t want it to change their relationship and then everything between them will suddenly have a different colour. Which it does once you know someone’s sick. Every time I spoke to my aunt – every time I saw her – I thought, what if this is the last time? And I remember saying goodbye to my aunt. She had a celebration of life, for her birthday. And I knew saying goodbye to her that day after this celebration would be the last time I would look her in the eye and say goodbye. And we said goodbye like it wasn’t the last time. We said goodbye like it was just another visit and we would see each other again at Christmas. And we both knew we wouldn’t.
So, there was a great deal of pain, but there was also a great deal of beauty and grace the way she navigated all of that. It was really inspiring. And I thought, you know, if I can do anything, I can write this story and maybe if I write this story, it will help other people also understand their pain.
JAMES
What’s been some of the audience reaction to seeing the play? What have you heard back from people?
KRISTEN
It’s been really touching, because I’ve had people reach out to me on social media that saw the play elsewhere and wanted to tell me that they really connected to it because of a personal experience they were either going through or had gone through. And in some ways, although it’s tragic and there are parts of the play that are gut-wrenching, there’s also a message of hope to it and ultimately joy, and that’s what I wanted to achieve. I’m really proud of that piece.
JAMES
Do you think that play indicates a shift in your writing?
KRISTEN
Yeah, I do. I think that’s the first time I really tackled something more challenging. And then it emboldened me to continue to explore things that aren’t light-hearted. It’s comedy, but it’s also real life. And real life is tragic sometimes. I hope that people can find something in the finished play that helps them process their own life in some way.
“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.
I spend a lot of my time thinking about story and what story means and how stories should be told. I’ve read Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee, Making Movies by Sidney Lumet, The Playwright’s Guidebookby Stuart Spenser, and The Hidden Tools of Comedyby Steve Kaplan among others and you can learn something from all of them. In fact, I’m starting to reread some of these books because most of them I read seven or eight years ago. I’ve listed these books along with a dozen others at the end of this blog post that you can check out.
Plus if you’re looking for some submission opportunities have a look at my Submission Opportunities for Playwrights page. I’ve listed several opportunities and provided a short description of each as well as a link to each opportunities website for further information. This is a list I update and add to a few times a year adding new opportunities or removing old ones that have been discontinued.
When it comes to writing you’re always learning – always seeking knowledge – always on a quest to improve your ability to tell a good story. Which brings us to the subject of this blog. What do you say when somebody asks you about your story? Do you have a one-line description? Do you dive into a quick summary of the plot? Do you even know where to begin? It can be a challenging question to answer because it depends on how you define your story.
Do you define it by genre?
Do you describe your story based on its three-act structure?
Do you describe your story based on a classification system such as the one described in the book Save the Cat by Blake Snider where he identifies ten different types of movies including Monster in the House, Dude with a Problem, and Superhero? Each type of movie Snider discusses has particular storytelling elements. For example, in Monster in the House, the protagonist is trying to survive a monster. The house must be a confined space and some sort of sin is committed that unleashes the monster. So, in the film Fatal Attraction the Monster is Alex Forrest played by Glenn Close and the sin is the affair. These are primal films.
That’s one book. Another book is 20 Master Plots by Ronald B. Tobias and his categories include Master Plot Classifications such as Quest, Escape, Underdog, Metamorphosis, Forbidden Love, and Revenge. Again, each Master Plot has specific elements and in the Quest plot, for example, your protagonist is motivated to find a person, place, or thing. The protagonist should have one or more companions on his journey and in the end what the protagonist discovers is different than what he thought he’d find.
And just this week I stumbled upon another book called The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker. This is a hefty volume with the paperback edition coming in at 738 pages compared to 278 pages for 20 Master Plots and 195 pages for Save the Cat. This is a much more academic book and his classification system includes The Quest, Rags to Riches, and Comedy. Yes, comedy is a stand-alone category. So, too, is tragedy.
So, which of these classifications is the right one? The answer is they’re all right and you can use whatever one works for you. I’ve come to the conclusion that the most important thing is whether or not it helps you with your writing. Can you use it to understand your story and does it give you a way to talk about your story with others?
So, I’ve been thinking do any of these classification systems work for me? And I like a lot of the things they say and the story elements they discuss, but I think they’re too complicated. So, after some thought here is my unscientific story classification system including thirteen examples of each.
I think there are only three types of stories. There’s the survival story, the love story, and the quest story. That’s it. And each story can be told as either a comedy or a drama with extreme comedy being satire and extreme drama being tragedy. As far as genres go each type of story can have multiple types of genres so, for example, you can have a science fiction or fantasy story that is about survival, or you can have a historical fiction or a vampire story that is about love.
THREE TYPES OF STORY – SURVIVAL STORIES
SURVIVAL STORIES
TYPE
GENRE
ENDING
Ready or Not
Satire
Horror
Happy
Marathon Man
Drama
Suspense
Happy
A Quiet Place
Drama
Science Fiction
Happy
Misery
Drama
Suspense
Happy
Sleuth
Tragedy
Mystery
Unhappy
Shawshank Redemption
Drama
Epic
Happy
Parasite
Tragedy
Suspense
Unhappy
Star Wars
Drama
Science Fiction
Happy
Zombieland
Satire
Horror
Happy
Harry Potter
Drama
Fantasy
Happy
Death Wish
Drama
Revenge
Happy
The Incredibles
Comedy
Superhero
Happy
The Poseidon Adventure
Drama
Disaster
Unhappy
Survival stories are pretty easy to define. The main character is trying to survive. The threat could be a supernatural force or a real threat like a shark or an aspect of society such as an oppressive prison system. It’s also a category that doesn’t have a lot of comedy but the comedy it has tends to be satire and that’s probably because most of the time we’re dealing with life and death here. In terms of endings, it seems most of the time the protagonist survives the ordeal but often at a terrific cost. And if he doesn’t survive it’s often because the protagonist sacrifices his life for the greater good or for a particular person or cause.
THREE TYPES OF STORY – LOVE STORIES
LOVE STORIES
TYPE
GENRE
ENDING
The English Patient
Tragedy
War
Unhappy
While You Were Sleeping
Comedy
Romantic Comedy
Happy
The Princess Bride
Comedy
Fantasy
Happy
Airplane
Satire
Romantic Comedy
Happy
Up In the Air
Tragedy
Dramedy
Unhappy
Moulin Rouge!
Drama
Musical
Unhappy
Sleepless in Seattle
Comedy
Romantic Comedy
Happy
Die Hard
Drama
Action
Happy
Doctor Zhivago
Tragedy
Epic
Unhappy
Christmas in Connecticut
Comedy
Romantic Comedy
Happy
Some Like It Hot
Comedy
Crime
Happy
Her
Comedy
Science Fiction
Unhappy
Marriage Story
Drama
Family Drama
Unhappy
So, our second great human urge is love. This was an interesting category. A lot of the films make sense. The Princess Bride and While You Were Sleeping are obviously films about love but Die Hard? How is that a film about love? Well, the first Die Hard is about John McClane trying to save his wife and prove himself worthy of his family’s love. The later Die Hard films I’d classify as survival stories because the primary goal is simply survival and beating the bad guy since there is no longer the tie-in to love as a motivating force. The thing that defines a love story is that the main motivation which moves the story forward is the pursuit of the person who is loved. In the end, the protagonist either finds love or doesn’t find love, but either way he or she grows in some way as a person.
THREE TYPES OF STORY – QUEST STORIES
QUEST STORIES
TYPE
GENRE
ENDING
Chinatown
Tragedy
Detective
Unhappy
Lord of the Rings
Drama
Fantasy
Happy
Stand by Me
Comedy
Coming of Age
Happy
2001: A Space Odyssey
Drama
Science Fiction
Happy
Wizard of OZ
Drama
Musical Fantasy
Happy
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Satire
Myth
Unhappy
Moana
Comedy
Myth
Happy
Pirates of the Caribbean
Comedy
Action Adventure
Happy
The Hangover
Satire
Buddy Movie
Happy
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Drama
Action Adventure
Unhappy
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Comedy
Buddy Movie
Happy
Jumanji
Comedy
Fantasy Adventure
Happy
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Drama
Western
Happy
Quest stories are those stories where the main character is on a quest to gain knowledge or solve a problem or get home. It’s often a story of transformation as the person who starts the journey isn’t the same as the person who ends the journey. For example, the first Indiana Jones movie Raiders of the Lost Ark is different than any of the other Indiana Jones films because Indy isn’t a believer in the supernatural. It isn’t until his encounter with the supernatural forces unleashed at the end of Raiders that he realizes there might be more to this world than he thought.
There’s one type of quest story where the protagonist doesn’t really change and that’s the traditional detective story. Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, Columbo – none of these characters go on a personal journey. Instead, they solve a crime. Do we really want our detective to be going through a personal journey? No. We want our detective to outsmart the killer.
CLEAR OUTCOME
So, each of these categories has a clear outcome. In the survival story, the protagonist either defeats the enemy or is defeated. In the love story, the protagonist either wins the love of the person they want to be with or they don’t. In the quest story, the protagonist either completes the quest and wins or doesn’t complete the quest and fails.
If you look at something as complicated as Game of Thrones it becomes clear that the story at its very basic level is a quest for the Crown. And of course, what we learn is that anyone who goes after the throne is eventually destroyed.
So, what am I going to do with this? I think it’s a good way for me to keep my stories focused when I start working on a new project. That means I need to figure out which category my story fits into and then I need to make sure that what drives my story is either survival, love, or a quest. The specific elements of the story are based on the genre. And that’s something I’ll need to think about on a deeper level because there are all kinds of genres out there. The good thing is I don’t think you need to understand every genre you only need to understand the genres you write about.
STORY PLANNER
So, I’m going to incorporate some of these ideas into my story planner and that means one of the first things to decide when I start writing something new is what type of story is it? Is it a story about survival like my comedy 500 bucks and a pack of smokes, or is it a story about love like my comedy, Under the Mistletoe, or is it a story about a quest like my detective story Heart of Stone: A Jessica Quinn Mystery? And then I’ll evaluate whether or not this is a helpful exercise.
In the meantime, I have some reading to do. The Secret Life of the American Musicalby Jack Viertel beckons. Plus, I’ve recently finished a new blog post called The Four Rules of Comedy. In the meantime, check out some books on writing and submission opportunities for playwrights by following the link at the bottom of the page.
BOOKS ON WRITING
I thought I’d add a section to this blog post and list some of my favourite books on my bookshelf related to writing so you can check them out for yourself.
Stephen King – On Writing
A Memoir of the Craft
“Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, Stephen King’s critically lauded, classic bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work. “Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999–and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it–fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.” (Description from Thrift Books.)
With insight, humor, and practicality, Natalie Goldberg inspires writers and would-be writers to take the leap into writing skillfully and creatively. She offers suggestions, encouragement, and solid advice on many aspects of the writer’s craft: on writing from “first thoughts” (keep your hand moving, don’t cross out, just get it on paper), on listening (writing is ninety percent listening; the deeper you listen, the better you write), on using verbs (verbs provide the energy of the sentence), on overcoming doubts (doubt is torture; don’t listen to it)—even on choosing a restaurant in which to write. Goldberg sees writing as a practice that helps writers comprehend the value of their lives. The advice in her book, provided in short, easy-to-read chapters with titles that reflect the author’s witty approach (“Writing Is Not a McDonald’s Hamburger,” “Man Eats Car,” “Be an Animal”), will inspire anyone who writes—or who longs to. (Description from Authors Website)
“This description may be from another edition of this product. Learn the basic techniques every successful playwright knows Among the many “how-to” playwriting books that have appeared over the years, there have been few that attempt to analyze the mysteries of play construction. Lajos Egri’s classic, The Art of Dramatic Writing, does just that, with instruction that can be applied equally well to a short story, novel, or screenplay. Examining a play from the inside out, Egri starts with the heart of any drama: its characters. All good dramatic writing hinges on people and their relationships, which serve to move the story forward and give it life, as well as an understanding of human motives — why people act the way that they do. Using examples from everything from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Egri shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise — a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior — and to develop the dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior. Using Egri’s ABCs of premise, character, and conflict, The Art of Dramatic Writing is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in writing.” (Description from Thrift Books.)
The Last Book On Screenwriting That You’ll Ever Need
Here’s what started the phenomenon: the best seller, for over 15 years, that’s been used by screenwriters around the world Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny and candid look inside the movie business. “Save the Cat” is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying, including: The four elements of every winning logline The seven immutable laws of screenplay physics The 10 genres that every movie ever made can be categorized by — and why they’re important to your script Why your Hero must serve your Idea Mastering the 15 Beats Creating the “Perfect Beast” by using The Board to map 40 scenes with conflict and emotional change How to get back on track with proven rules for script repair This ultimate insider’s guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a showbiz veteran who’s proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat. (Description from Thrift Books.)
20 Master Plots and How to Build Them by Ronald B. Tobias
“This book shows the reader how to take timeless storytelling structures and make them immediate, now, for fiction that’s universal in how it speaks to the reader’s heart and contemporary in detail and impact.Each chapter includes brief excerpts and descriptions of fiction from many times, many genres – myth and fairy tale, genre and mainstream fiction, film plots of all types, short story and novel.Find 20 fundamental plots that recur through all fiction – with analysis and examples – that outline benefits and warnings, for writers to adapt and elaborate in their own fiction.Ronald B. Tobias has spent his career as a writer moving from genre to genre, first as a short story writer, then as an author of fiction and nonfiction books and finally as a writer and producer of documentaries for public television. He is currently a professor in the Department of Media and Theatre Arts at Montana State University and the author of the Insider’s Guide to Writing for Screen and Television. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.”
The Complete Guide to Turning Story Concepts Into Movie and Television Deals by Michael Hauge
“No one is better than Michael Hauge at finding what is most authentic in every moment of a story.” –Will Smith “Michael Hauge is a story master, and this book is an absolute must have for anyone serious about telling great stories for the screen.” –DeVon Franklin, Vice-President of Production, Columbia Pictures Concise, authoritative, and comprehensive, Writing Screenplays that Sell is the most complete guide available on the art, craft, and business of screenwriting for movies and television. Renowned Hollywood story consultant Michael Hauge–considered “one of the most sought after lecturers and script consultants in the U.S.” by Scriptwriter magazine–covers every aspect from concept to deal: screenplay development, artistry versus commerciality, adaptations, copyright protection, living and working outside Los Angeles; finding an agent; and more. Reflecting the latest trends and scripts, Writing Screenplays that Sell includes insight and detailed information on: Finding and selecting commercial story concepts Guidelines for story structure, including: Opening scenes that immediately grab the reader – The five most common goals in Hollywood movies – Why most adaptations fail – The most effective use of flashbacks – Creating emotionally powerful endings Tips for marketing a script–script consultants, script competitions, pitch fests, virtual pitching, e-mail blasts, log-line listings, audio script readings, and Internet resources for screenwriters A complete, in depth analysis of the screenplay for Avatar, the biggest box office success of all time Whether you’re an aspiring artist looking to break into the business or a seasoned pro looking for tips to boost your skills, Writing Screenplays that Sell is the one essential guide you need. (Description from Thrift Books.)
Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
A succinct, engaging, and practical guide for succeeding in any creative sphere, The War of Art is nothing less than Sun-Tzu for the soul. hat keeps so many of us from doing what we long to do? Why is there a naysayer within? How can we avoid the roadblocks of any creative endeavor-be it starting up a dream business venture, writing a novel, or painting a masterpiece? Bestselling novelist Steven Pressfield identifies the enemy that every one of us must face, outlines a battle plan to conquer this internal foe, then pinpoints just how to achieve the greatest success. The War of Art emphasizes the resolve needed to recognize and overcome the obstacles of ambition and then effectively shows how to reach the highest level of creative discipline. Think of it as tough love . . . for yourself. Whether an artist, writer or business person, this simple, personal, and no-nonsense book will inspire you to seize the potential of your life. (Description from Thrift Books.)
“Could you be getting in your way of producing great work? Have you started a project but never finished? Would you like to do work that matters, but don’t know where to start? The answer is Do the Work, a manifesto by bestselling author Steven Pressfield, that will show you that it’s not about better ideas, it’s about actually doing the work. Do the Work is a weapon against Resistance – a tool that will help you take action and successfully ship projects out the door.Picking up where The War of Art and Turning Pro left off, Do The Work takes the reader from the start to the finish of any long-form project–novel, screenplay, album, software piece, you name it.Do The Work identifies the predictable Resistance Points along the way and walks you through each of them. No, you are not crazy. No, you are not alone. No, you are not the first person to “hit the wall” in Act Two.Do The Work charts the territory. It’s the stage-by-stage road map for taking your project from Page One to THE END.” (Description from Thrift Books.)
Turning Pro is the follow-up work to Steven Pressfield’s classic, The War of Art. What we get when we turn pro is we find our power. We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and to live out.
Substance, Structure, Style, and The Principles of Screenwriting
Robert McKee’s screenwriting workshops have earned him an international reputation for inspiring novices, refining works in progress and putting major screenwriting careers back on track. Quincy Jones, Diane Keaton, Gloria Steinem, Julia Roberts, John Cleese and David Bowie are just a few of his celebrity alumni. Writers, producers, development executives and agents all flock to his lecture series, praising it as a mesmerizing and intense learning experience. In Story, McKee expands on the concepts he teaches in his $450 seminars (considered a must by industry insiders), providing readers with the most comprehensive, integrated explanation of the craft of writing for the screen. No one better understands how all the elements of a screenplay fit together, and no one is better qualified to explain the “magic” of story construction and the relationship between structure and character than Robert McKee.(Description from Thrift Books.)
Thanks, But This Isn’t For Us by Jessica Page Morrell
A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing Is Being Rejected
A fun, practical guide that reveals the essentials of good fiction and memoir writing by exposing the most common mistakes literary writers make. All great works of fiction and memoir are unique-but most bad novels, stories, and memoirs have a lot in common. From clunky dialogue to poorly sketched out characters, sagging pacing to exaggerated prose, these beginners’ mistakes drive any agent or editor to their stock rejection letter, telling the aspiring writer “Thanks, but this isn’t for us,” and leaving many to wonder what exactly it is that they’re doing wrong. Veteran writing coach, developmental editor, and writing instructor Jessica Page Morrell will fill in the gaps in every rejection letter you’ve ever received. In Thanks, But This Isn’t for Us, Morrell uses her years of experience to isolate the specific errors beginners make, including the pitfalls of unrealistic dialogue, failing to “show, not tell,” and over-the-top plot twists. These are just a few of the problems that keep writers from breaking through with their work. Sympathetic and humane, but pulling no punches, Thanks, But This Isn’t for Us shows writers precisely where they’ve gone wrong and how to get on the right track. In sixteen to-the-point chapters, with checklists, exercises, takeaway tips, and a glossary, Morrell helps readers transcend these mistakes so that they don’t have to learn the hard way: with another rejection letter. (Description from Thrift Books.)
While other books give you tips on how to “write funny,” The Hidden Tools of Comedy offers a paradigm shift in understanding the mechanics and art of comedy itself, and the proven, practical tools that help writers translate that understanding into successful, commercial scripts. Steve Kaplan unlocks the unique secrets and techniques of writing comedy, deconstructing sequences in popular films and television to show when comedy works, when it doesn’t, and why. (Description for Kaplan Comedy)
An insightful primer on the art of dramatic writing
An accessible, contemporary guide to the art of dramatic writing During the ten years that Stuart Spencer has taught playwriting, he has struggled to find an effective playwriting handbook for his courses. Although most of the currently popular handbooks have good ideas in them, they all suffer from the same problems: they’re poorly organized; are composed mostly of quirky, idiosyncratic advice on how specific playwrights have gone about writing their own work; and are full of abstract theorizing on the nature of art. As a result, they fail to offer any concrete information on how to construct a well-written play or any useful guidelines and exercises. Moreover, few of these books are actually written by working playwrights. Out of frustration, Spencer wrote his own book. The result, The Playwright’s Guidebook, is a clear, concise, and engaging handbook. Spencer addresses the important principles of structure, includes insightful writing exercises that build upon one another, explores the creative process, and troubleshoots recurrent problems that playwrights actually face. (Description from Thrift Books.)
Why does a director choose a particular script? What must they do in order to keep actors fresh and truthful through take after take of a single scene? How do you stage a shootout–involving more than one hundred extras and three colliding taxis–in the heart of New York’s diamond district? What does it take to keep the studio honchos happy? From the first rehearsal to the final screening, Making Movies is a master’s take, delivered with clarity, candor, and a wealth of anecdote. For in this book, Sidney Lumet, one of our most consistently acclaimed directors, gives us both a professional memoir and a definitive guide to the art, craft, and business of the motion picture. Drawing on forty years of experience on movies that range from Long Day’s Journey into Night to Network and The Verdict –and with such stars as Katharine Hepburn, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, and Al Pacino–Lumet explains how painstaking labor and inspired split-second decisions can result in two hours of screen magic. (Description from Thrift Books.)
This week my play Written in Stone is premiering at the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival along with twenty-four other Canadian plays. In last week’s blog, I interviewed Michael Halfin the Artistic and Executive Director of the festival and Heather Dick a director, actor and playwright who is directing my play.
The plays are grouped into four themed Pods with six plays being presented in each Pod. Written in Stone is part of the “you|TURN” Pod and tells the story about the creation of the Ten Commandments and explains the reason man was given a soul, and how Lucifer ended up in hell. The production is being directed by Heather Dick and stars Bridget Bezanson as Michael, Meredith Busteed as Lucifer, Stephanie Christiaens as Gabriel, and Alexia Vassos as God.
Usually, I’m the one doing the interviewing on my blog but this week I’m answering some questions Heather asked me about my writing and specifically about what inspired me to write Written in Stone.
HEATHER DICK
What sparked your writing of Written In Stone? Was it in response to an event or interaction between people that you observed? Or something else entirely?
JAMES HUTCHISON
I was inspired by God. In a manner of speaking. I was doing a lot of reading about Greek mythology and the Bible and early Christians and I’d just written a play called The Blood of a Thousand Chickens which is my interpretation of the story of Oedipus and an examination of belief using Zeus and the ancient Greek Gods to look at customs and traditions and practices. So, I was thinking of ancient times and Gods and exploring religion and that got me to thinking about what might be the best ten commandments for creating a healthy and vibrant society where equality and environmental stewardship were the cornerstones of the law. And so while musing about all of that the idea of placing the creation of the ten commandments in a corporate setting where God is the boss and he’s escaped for the weekend to go play golf while leaving his employees to do the work he’s going to take credit for popped into my mind.
HEATHER
How do you approach writing a play? Do you begin with characters, an issue you’d like to explore, a theme?
JAMES
It varies. I’m a gardener when it comes to writing. I like to plant the seeds and see what grows. I’m not big into structure initially. I need the spark of an idea to get me going, and then I just sit down and start writing. Sometimes the whole play will simply emerge in a matter of a week or two or in a day if it’s a short play, and sometimes it can take years where I keep coming back to a script and a story I’ve been working on for some time until I get it finished. The big thing for me is I need the spark or the beginning moments usually in order to start writing, and that often gives me enough to get a third of the play written. So, at that point, I’m learning about the characters and the story and what they want and who the protagonist is and who the antagonist is, but once I hit a certain point then I really need to figure out my ending. I need to know how the story ends in order to continue writing the play, because knowing the ending informs the structure of the story and all of the obligatory scenes you need to have in order to reach the end, because everything is leading towards a specific outcome.
Sometimes the story and structure of the play come earlier and sometimes it comes later, but once I know the ending then I put on my architect hat and sketch out the rest of the plot. And if I can’t figure out the ending that’s where the play stalls, and it goes back into the drawer maybe to re-emerge at another date or to join the millions of other unfinished stories in drawers and on hard drives around the world to forever be forgotten.
One of the other things I’ve discovered about my writing is that what I need to know about the character is also influenced by the story. I have a bunch of questions I will ask about my characters especially for longer plays and doing that helps me understand the history of my character and the choices they’ve made in life and what’s important to them. Just as a side note, I never begin with the physical description of a character. It bugs the hell out of me that so many character profiles begin with hair colour and weight and all these other least interesting characteristics. What you need to do is determine the kind of a person your character is, and that means who they are and what they do for work. How they treat people. The physical person is determined by the career and ambitions of your character otherwise you are letting your physical description, which is only the surface aspects of your character, determine the very nature and soul of who your character is and what they want, desire, and need in life. Now that might mean in the end certain physical aspects might be extremely important in terms of self-identity such as a person who values their physical strength but is now growing older and feeling the effects of age. So that character in order to maintain the physical beauty and strength of their youth might be willing to do something such as sell their soul or take an experimental drug to keep what they value most.
And I don’t sit down and necessarily fill out the entire character description at the beginning. I tend to go back and forth making discoveries in the writing of the play which means going back and answering more questions about my character in the character profile. So, for example, you could be writing a scene and suddenly your character mentions having worked at an all-night diner in her twenties and that isn’t something you knew before so now you go back and you ask about that time in her life and who she met and what her day was like and how that has informed her life and the choices she’s made and her view of people. Then having that knowledge you go back and continue the story and now the character has specific memories rather than vague ideas. It makes for a more vibrant and interesting story.
A really big thing for me – is finding the right name for a character. In fact, if I don’t have the right name I can’t write. I spend lots of time looking at baby names and the meaning of names and testing names out until I land on the right one. So, once I get an idea for a play then I have to discover who the characters are and what their names are and once I have the right name – boom I just start writing. So, for example in my play Death and the Psychiatrist – Death’s name isn’t death it’s actually Mortimer Graves. Mortimer means “Dead Sea” and Graves means well – graves. And it wasn’t until I had the name that I was able to write the play although the idea for that play – Death having a psychiatrist – came to me late one winter night while I was out walking my dog Zeke and a little voice in my head just whispered, “What if death had a psychiatrist.” It was several years later before I actually sat down and wrote that play and that was the first play I wrote on my current journey as a playwright.
For Written in Stone the choice as far as character names go was made for me because I chose to dramatize the story by using existing characters from Christian mythology including Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer and of course the big guy himself – God. The thing is I’ve played around a bit with who these characters are in order to make it more entertaining and surprising for the audience.
HEATHER
How is writing a 10-minute play different than writing a full-length play? What are the unique challenges you face?
JAMES
Written in Stone wasn’t a ten-minute play. It’s actually a half-hour play cut down to ten minutes. Here’s one of the cut lines from the longer version of the play, “What were you doing standing in line squeezing the pumpernickel?” I love that line. Out of context, it sounds ridiculous. So, I don’t always write with the intention of writing a ten-minute play. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. The reason I cut Written in Stone down to ten minutes is simply because there are so many ten-minute play contests out there and I want my work to be produced and seen.
JAMES
For a lot of years, I worked as a commercial writer/producer so I’m used to telling stories in thirty seconds. Advertising is all about storytelling. It’s about connecting a particular product or service to your target audience emotionally and the best way to do that is through a story that illustrates the qualities the product possesses. That’s the first truth of marketing and advertising. The product actually has to deliver on the promise. Take Tim Horton’s for example. They’ve had a terrible fall from grace as a Canadian icon because they are no longer what they were. They’ve finally degraded the product to a point where they’ve lost the loyalty of their clients. In fact, I want to write a short play about it called Glory Days where we have these two Canucks talking about the glory days of Tim Hortons where they’re reminiscing about when Tim Hortons used to make the donuts in store and how amazing they were. On a personal note, my favourite Tim Hortons pastry was the walnut crunch. It was this heavy cake dough with icing and nuts, and it was awesome. And then the company that owned Wendy’s bought Tim’s and that was the first round of cutting quality and they brought out this revamped version of the walnut crunch that didn’t have the same texture, flavour, or feel of the original and was kind of spongy and light and of course, it failed. Last year Tim Hortons went from the fourth-best brand in Canada to fiftieth, but it’s been a decline that’s been in the works for a couple of decades. And now I’m thinking maybe this is a time travel story and we have these two Canuck scientists who are determined to travel back in time to get a walnut crunch and a double-double and relive the glory days of Tim’s.
That whole rant was simply to say that I worked for a long time in an industry where you had twenty-five seconds and sometimes less to tell a story so ten minutes is a huge amount of time. You can cover a lot and what I really like about the ten-minute format is that you don’t always have to tell a conventional story – you can explore a mood or a question. It’s like music. An individual song might not tell a story but it might paint a particular image and speak about the human experience on some level. I think short play formats have the power to do that as well and something that might be boring in a two-act structure might really be fascinating and compelling in ten minutes. The thing is you have to create some sort of satisfactory experience for your audience so they feel satisfied and engaged. When you work on a longer work then you need layers, so whereas a short play might be akin in some ways to a pop song a long play could very much be compared to a classical concert. So, in a full-length play, you dramatically explore a particular question and in a classical concert, you explore a particular melody with all kinds of variations.
HEATHER
What do you hope that audiences will take away from seeing Written In Stone?
JAMES
I hope they laugh. My favourite quote of all time is from George Bernard Shaw. “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.” To me, satire and comedy are wonderful tools for holding up a mirror to our hypocrisy and lies. I’ve always liked comedy and satire and one of my favourite films is Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb by Stanley Kubrick starring Peter Sellers and George C Scott, and it’s all about the insanity of living in a world where we live minutes away from Global nuclear annihilation. The first time I saw the film was at an Arthouse here in Calgary called the Plaza theatre, and it was when Ronald Reagan was sabre rattling, and the USSR was burning its way through elderly communist party leaders, and so tensions were high between the two superpowers, and we were living with jets in the air ready to respond to a nuclear threat within minutes. And this is just an insane way to live, but the fact that we live in this insanity is what makes the film so tremendously funny. And now with Putin, a couple of years ago threatening to rearm his nuclear arsenal and the potential of another arms race being bantered about I have to say the film is as relevant if not more relevant today. And so, with my little play, I’m asking people to think about the ten commandments and what they say and examine them based on what we’ve learned about our world and our place in it. So, yes I want people to laugh, but I think if they want to go out after the play and have a pint and play God and discuss what laws their ten commandments would contain I think they’d have a terrific discussion about what is truly important in life and what if any are the guiding principles we should live by.
HEATHER
Are you working on a new piece now and if so, would you like to talk about it?
JAMES
I don’t talk about new work until after the first draft is finished and it’s sat in a drawer for some time and then come out for a polish. I find if I talk about an unfinished piece of work the feedback I get takes me down the wrong path. Now for other people – they thrive from feedback. They love to take ten pages and share them. Me, I don’t work that way. In fact, nothing kills my idea quicker than getting the wrong feedback. It sabotages my creative process because I can’t unhear what I’ve heard. So, my advice is, if you’re like me, don’t share your work before it’s finished. That’s the same advice Stephen King gives in his book On Writing which I read back in 2010 when I began this playwriting journey and have reread several times since.
Having said that I’m in the process of finishing a new two-act comedy called Under the Mistletoe. These were originally two one-act plays that I’ve combined into one full-length play. And this is a good example of a play that’s had a long journey to completion. Early drafts of some of this work go back to 2011. It’s come in and out of the drawer several times and even had a couple of workshops. The second act worked fine, but I’d had some feedback on the first act and it took me in a direction where the story died. And it’s been dead ever since. I kept trying to rewrite the first act, over the years, but I could never get it to work. I’d lost the spark – the thing that gave it life, and no matter what I did I couldn’t get it back. Well a few months ago I thought I’d try again, and I pulled the play out of the drawer, and I decided to rename the characters, and once I gave the characters new names it made the play feel fresh and I was able to give it a complete rewrite and recapture the magic that had been there when I originally wrote the play.
JAMES
Basically, it’s similar to Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite. The play takes place in one hotel, but each act is a different story with different characters. I also wanted to write a play about characters in their fifties because I’m in my fifties and life is very different now that time is short.
The play takes place at Christmas thus the name – Under the Mistletoe. In act one there’s a character named Mike Riley who’s unemployed, divorced, and living in his brother’s basement. So, he’s a little depressed especially because he’s spending the holidays in the Gingerbread Suite at the Prairie Dog Inn Regina. But then he meets Claire McKenzie and they spent a romantic night together and Mike thinks his luck is finally starting to change so On Christmas Eve he purchases the Two Turtle Doves Holiday Romance Gift Basket and hopes to make his relationship with Claire more than a one-night stand.
Then in act two, I have Harvey Swanson and Nancy Potter who have been friends for years but after they kiss in a movie theatre during the ending credit of Casablanca they decide to try and make their friendship a romantic one. So, they book the Candy Cane Suite at the Prairie Dog Inn Regina for a romantic rendezvous. The only problem is Harvey is having a tough time getting over the death of his wife and he feels guilty about being with another woman. So, the big question is will Harvey and Nancy become lovers or will these new romantic feelings and Harvey’s reluctance to let go of the past end their friendship?
That’s going to be up on my website come January.
Otherwise, I’ve got a huge amount of rewriting to do and I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my blog and interviewing other playwrights, actors, and directors. I love doing the blog because I’ve always liked to learn about people and what drives them. I have a degree in sociology and had considered becoming an archaeologist when I was younger, but my life took a different path. Still, I’m interested in people and society and why we do what we do and live as we do. Sociology, archaeology, and playwriting are all just different aspects of exploring humanity.
And if you’re interested in reading up on Brand Rankings from 2018 see the link below to the Maclean’s article on Tim Hortons. Just on a side note this year Tim Horton’s was ranked 33rd. Still a long way from the position they once held and not the place you’d expect such an iconic Canadian brand. Although, is it really Canadian any longer and has it really been Canadian for some time?
“Last year, Tim Hortons reputational brand ranking plummeted from 4th place among Canadians in 2016 to 50th, according to Leger. Another survey in 2018, from the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business in Victoria, B.C., found Tims had free fallen to 203rd spot on a brand trust basis, from 27th place a year earlier and number one overall as recently as 2015. It’s a short drive from iconic to notorious, when you’ve driven off a cliff.
The company’s owners since 2014, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), were based in the U.S. before moving the head office to Oakville, Ont., with a further move slated to downtown Toronto. And RBI is backed by Brazilian investors 3G Capital, who are legendary, if not downright notorious, themselves for their love of cost-cutting at the companies they buy.”
Heather Dick – Director Written in Stone
Heather is excited to be directing at the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival for the first time. As a director, actor and voice artist she has worked across the country. Favourite directing credits include: Earth Tourist (Chandlier Factory Prods.), Forgotten Voices (World Premiere), Mail-Order Annie and Streethearts ( Sirius Theatrical Co.), The Art of Listening (Canadian Premier, Southern Mirrors Prods.), La Sante C’est Pas Sorcier (Waterwood Prods. – Ontario Tour), and The Peacemaker (Golden Horseshoe Players). For over 30 years, Heather has coached and taught workshops in acting, comedy and voice for many independent Toronto acting studios. She is also the Founding Artistic Director of the Sirius Theatrical Company (Toronto) where she currently teaches acting and voice and has produced multi-disciplinary performance pieces. Heather Dick is a member of Canadian Actors Equity Association. www.siriustheatrical.com
Stephanie Christiaens in the NNPF 2019 production of Written in Stone by James Hutchison. Directed by Heather Dick. Scenic design, Ellen Brooker. Costume Design, Madeline Ius. Lighting Design, Christopher Pattenden. Photo: Jason Wighton.
Michael Halfin, Artistic & Executive Director Newmarket National Play Festival “I have always been fascinated by the 10-minute format. I find it exciting and I had my senior students write 10-minute scripts for production every year. I came to see that this was a format akin to the studies visual artists do before they explore a concept on a larger canvas. Playwrights such as ‘Tennessee Williams and William Inge explored these short versions of plays before they expanded them into full-length scripts. So, what is wonderful about the format, is that it is an invitation for EVERYONE to write. For EVERYONE to have a voice because it’s a format wherein even the novice playwright can find success.”
Heather Dick, Director Written in Stone“For me, one of the themes the play explores is the traditional corporate structure and goals such as getting the corner office and the expense account at the cost of perhaps personal integrity and values. Changing the genders allows us to question how women have perhaps succumbed to following these traditions in order to take their place in the business world both as employee and owner. I’m hoping that an all-female cast will start people talking about and questioning female roles and power within a corporate structure, especially as God is presented as a woman.”
I’m very excited to announce that for the second year in a row I have a play being produced in the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival. Last year my drama Valentine’s Day which is a story about a recently widowed old man named Tom remembering the day fifty years ago when he met the love of his life, Heather, was part of the festival. This year my short comedy, Written in Stone, which is about the creation of the Ten Commandments is one of twenty-four new plays being premiered from Monday, July 22nd to Sunday, July 28th. 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.
Download Play Script
It took Charlton Heston, Cecile B Demille, and Hollywood $122,000,000 million dollars, adjusted for inflation, and 220 minutes to tell a story I can tell in 10 minutes with a much smaller cast and budget. Of course, I didn’t really cover the part of the story where Moses is set adrift as a baby into the reeds and grows up as a son of Pharaoh, and I didn’t deal that much with the 10 plagues, although I mention it, and the Exodus doesn’t really appear in my version of the story although it obviously happened because Moses is heading up Mt Sinai to get the commandments and he had to cross the Red Sea in order to get there.
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. Written in Stone which is part of the “you|TURN” Pod tells the story, as mentioned before, about the creation of the Ten Commandments but it’s also about the reason man was given a soul, and how Lucifer ended up in hell. The production is being directed by Heather Dick and stars Bridget Bezanson as Michael, Meredith Busteed as Lucifer, Stephanie Christiaens as Gabriel, and Alexia Vassos as God. Other plays in the “you TURN” Pod include Running Low by Jessica Ayana-May where a misty morning jog along a mountain trail leads to a disturbing discovery and Penance by Peter Genoway where the un-cloistered truth leads two nuns into conflict. This pod is suitable for most ages and is described as: “When travelling the winding road, it’s hard to see the curve that lies ahead.”
If your tastes run a little more mature you might want to see the “end|RUN” Pod which has plays dealing with mature themes, and contains adult language, and violence. This Pod includes Plus ça change by Genevieve Adam where a royal romping rumpus disrupts the king’s court and Not Going Nowhere by Natalie Frijia where more than a house is reduced to ashes as the fire rages on. This Pod is described as: “If the end is inevitable, why didn’t we know that from the beginning?”
The third Pod called “stand|OUT” includes a story about a lonely woman who hopes a furnace repairman can restart her pilot light in a play by Jerri Jerreat called Seducing Harry and Nothing but the Tooth by Jody McColman which is an incisive story about a cash transaction that goes hilariously awry. This Pod is suitable for most ages and its description reads: “Sometimes, a door isn’t locked; It’s just stuck in place.
“Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.” That’s the description of Pod number four: “after|LIFE”. Plays include Dispatch by Andrew G. Cooper about a 911 operator coping with the unceasing trauma of the job and Like a Kite by Ron Fromstein where the traditional family dinner goes up in smoke in this half-baked comedy. This pod is intended for a mature audience as it contains disturbing scenes and deals with mature themes and language.
A few weeks ago, I did an interview with Michael Halfin the Artistic and Executive Director of the Newmarket National Play Festival to talk with him about this year’s festival and his thoughts about the importance of Art as well as an interview with the director of my play Heather Dick.
Michael Halfin – Founder, Artistic and Executive Director Newmarket National Play Festival
JAMES HUTCHISON
This is year three of the festival and it continues to grow. What have you retained from the past two years and what have you added or improved on the festival for this year?
MICHAEL HALFIN
I am very excited about our partnership with the Newmarket Group of Artists. We explored the idea of combining a visual arts interpretation of our pod themes in year one with some success but went another direction last year. This year, we’ve returned with more lead time to the idea of the art exhibition, and I’m thrilled that we have close to 50 pieces linked to our four themes. We are offering guided tours of “NGA-EXPLORE” that focus on the theme of one pod at a time. Patrons explore a theme—like after|LIFE—as a visual art experience, then they go up and see the performance art exploration of that same theme.
JAMES
So, every year the festival selects twenty-four plays and you put those plays into four individual pods that are focused on particular themes. And last year you told me you don’t “theme” the festival and people can write about whatever they want, but what you’ve discovered is that playwrights are attuned to the Zeitgeist and seem to write around particular themes on any given year anyway so the plays seem to naturally group around particular themes and that seems to indicate that playwrights are responding to issues and events of the time, and so I’m wondering what do you think the themes at this year’s festival tell us about what’s on people’s and playwrights minds?
MICHAEL
That, sir, is a great question. I don’t want to be too pinned down on that one because we collocate words as pod themes. That is, a pod like After|Life can be read and interpreted in many different ways such as: Someone is after your life which is threatening; the afterlife we know from our faith systems; the pursuit of happiness and people’s dissatisfaction with their life as it is because it seems like people are chasing after the life they think they deserve rather than the life they are living; a new reality such as climate change means we are now living life after a change from the way we’ve always lived it. And that’s as much as I’m going to give you because if I deconstruct the various interpretations of each pod theme, I’m ruining the fun for the playgoer. And, in any case, there’s the after-show talks where people can explore how the pod theme applied to each of the six plays in it.
JAMES
Over the last few years, I’ve entered a lot of ten-minute festivals and they’re not all equal in terms of their treatment of writers and artists. One of the things I really appreciate and like about the NNPF is the amount of exposure and support and professionalism you offer the winning playwrights and participating artists. You put a biography online for all the playwrights, directors, actors, and production staff with links back to their websites if they have one. You promote the festival as well as individual playwrights and artists through your social media including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You are a Canadian Actors’ Equity Association production under the Festival Policy. You offer playwrights that can come to the festival an opportunity to do a public reading from another work. Plus, and this is a big plus, all playwrights receive a royalty for the production of their plays. To me, you really set the standard for what a 10-minute play festival should be especially when asking to premiere new work. I’m curious, how did you arrive at this vision and decide this was the way you wanted to produce the festival?
MICHAEL
Wow. You’re forcing me to put as much thought into my answers as you are putting into your questions. I guess this idea had been growing in my mind for many years. As the Coordinator of the Regional Arts Program at Huron Heights Secondary School, I wanted kids to know what Canadian Culture is. To that end, I conceived what we called the Canadian Play Festival, which I ran for 25 years and the school is still producing to this day. In any given year, we produced 6-7 Canadian Plays. I would order 60 or so scripts a year from Playwrights Canada for student directors to comb through and select what we should produce. I am proud to say that Playwrights Canada told me that Huron Heights had the largest library of Canadian plays in the country.
I have always been fascinated by the 10-minute format. I find it exciting and I had my senior students write 10-minute scripts for production every year. I came to see that this was a format akin to the studies visual artists do before they explore a concept on a larger canvas. Playwrights such as Tennessee Williams and William Inge explored these short versions of plays before they expanded them into full-length scripts. So, what is wonderful about the format, is that it is an invitation for EVERYONE to write. For EVERYONE to have a voice because it’s a format wherein even the novice playwright can find success.
Table work and Rehearsals for this year’s National Newmarket 10 Minute Play Festival. Photo Jason Wighton.
JAMES
The arts would not exist without partnerships and support from the community, local business, and governments. I think the success of your festival indicates you’ve spent the time and energy to develop and nurture those partnerships. How did you go about creating those partnerships and what do your partners get out of participating and supporting the festival?
MICHAEL
I couldn’t ask for more from our principal partner, The Town of Newmarket. We had our table read on Tuesday, July 2nd and the Mayor and half of the town councillors came out to welcome the 24 companies. How do I get that kind of buy-in? I honestly don’t know. I just believe that we can do things in better and different ways than people have done before, and others seem to want to ride along on this dream. But, honestly, it’s very hard work. It’s 365 days a year, it’s—literally—walking up and down the same street dozens of times to talk to people, thousands and thousands of emails and phone calls, and pitching, pitching, pitching. My dad was a salesman and when he retired, my mother wanted me to take over his business. I said, “No, mom, sorry, I’m not a salesman.” I realize, now, that I am very much my father’s son. He said to me once, “Michael, you can’t sell anyone something they really don’t want to buy.”
JAMES
You often hear people question the value of arts and yet music surrounds us. We hang paintings on our wall. We watch television. We go to movies and music festivals. And many of us paint and play instruments and write fanfiction or poetry. So, we are surrounded by art and consume art on a daily basis. To remove art would be to remove much of what gives life value and meaning. Because it’s a national play festival how do you think the NNPF contributes to the artistic and cultural life of our country?
MICHAEL
Another great question and I’m not going to give you a cliché answer. I spent 35 years as a drama educator and the last 20 of those as a very vocal arts advocate. You’d think that the point you’ve made here is obvious—why wouldn’t the “Everyman” realize what a huge consumer of arts and culture he really is? Well, do we actually have to concentrate on breathing, or do we just autonomically do it? Well, that’s the arts. We breathe it in and out and don’t realize how it sustains us and is the life’s breath that permeates our collective consciousness. That’s why the NNPF, through the art exhibition, the director/actor talk back sessions, the pints with the playwrights, the staged readings of plays we are helping to develop from 10 minutes to full-length scripts, the playwriting workshops, and of course, the playwright readings are all about connecting the artists with their audience and the audience with their artists. We have 16 of 24 playwrights coming to the festival this year and many of them, as you can see from their biographies, come from all over Canada. Whether it be Newfoundland or B.C, our regions shape our views. Those regional voices come together here, and I feel, help us articulate what it means to find our unity in our diversity.
JAMES
Last year you told me a little bit about your vision for the future of the festival so I’m curious about where you’re at with your vision of expanding the festival to go beyond the ten-minute play?
MICHAEL
Well, as I just referenced, we are taking two scripts that were introduced at last year’s festival and are performing them as staged readings with two performances each on July 22 and 23. One show, in particular, has had a lot of dramaturgical support from us and the playwright has told me that the script has grown enormously through the process. My guess is our next step will be to do full productions on plays like this as either an adjunct to the summer festival or as part of a winter season.
JAMES
Okay, so my play in this year’s festival is more or less a discussion about the Law of God and what those laws should be. If you had the power to add a commandment to God’s Law what would it be? What do you think is a good guiding principle for mankind? And just so you know it can be serious or otherwise. My own favourite unserious but highly beneficial commandment would be, don’t forget to floss.
MICHAEL
Yes, I do have an 11th commandment, and I’m quite serious about it. It is, “Thou shalt not be mediocre.” I find wayyy too many people are satisfied with doing the minimum; that, well, that’s good enough. Nothing is ever good enough. Luisa, a character in The Fantasticks, exclaims, “Oh, God. Oh please. Don’t let me be normal!” That’s the point. Don’t be normal—be excellent!
JAMES
Final thoughts? Anything you want to add?
MICHAEL
I really appreciate your kind words about how we respect the work of the artists who participate in NNPF. This is a place where you will find respect and the freedom to create.
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Actors, directors, and designers all make significant contributions to bringing a play to life and no two productions are ever going to be the same so it’s always fun to get a chance to talk with the people putting your work before an audience. I asked Heather Dick, the director of my play a bit about her own theatre company as well as some questions about working on Written In Stone.
JAMES HUTCHISON
Heather, you’re the founding Artistic Director of the Sirius Theatrical Company. Tell me a little bit about the company and how it started and what type of theatre you generally produce?
HEATHER DICK
I founded the company in 1989 because I was interested in creating theatrical performances and working on roles that inspired and challenged me in ways that I wasn’t being cast at the time. As is often the case, I was frustrated with the roles I was being offered and wanted to work on darker material and themes and to experiment with a variety of styles of theatre including traditional, site-specific, and others that would leave audiences questioning traditional perspectives. Founding the Sirius Theatrical Company gave me the opportunity to experiment and work in non-traditional ways. Now, the shows that I produce are very connected to the community in which I live and work and incorporate themes and issues that are relevant to the people who live here.
JAMES
Have you found that the themes or types of the plays you produce now compared to when you started the company are different and if so why and if not – why do you think that would be?
HEATHER
When I first began producing, I wanted to focus primarily on Canadian work and as much as possible new work. Since early 2006 I have produced large scale multi-disciplinary performance pieces that incorporate photography, dance, music and poetry as well as traditional scene work. I’ve also written several of the pieces, which I’ve very much enjoyed doing and which has sparked my work as a playwright. This work is very connected to issues that are specific to the community in which the company is located.
Gwyn Beaver, Dan Karpenchuk, Stephen Ingram in Valse Sentimentale (stand|OUT) by Wyatt Lamoureux, Directed by Trevor Curran. Scenic design, Ellen Brooker. Costume Design, Madeline Ius. Lighting Design, Christopher Pattenden. Photo: Jason Wighton
JAMES
You’re directing two plays in this year’s Newmarket National Play Festival. Buried by Sarah Anne Murphy and my play Written In Stone. Tell me a little bit about what attracted you to these particular plays and why you wanted to tell their stories?
HEATHER
I loved both Buried and Written In Stone the minute I read them. They are as different as can be from each other in style, characters, setting and story, yet both grabbed my heart in different ways.
Buried is a mother/son relationship story and, as you might imagine, touches on so many aspects of the love and ties between a mother and her son. It is bitter, sweet, loving, sometimes pain-filled and sometimes full of joy and happiness. As a mother, I understand how hard and scary it is to let a child fly on their own when all you want to do is, perhaps selfishly, keep them close. As a daughter, I understand the need to be my own person unbound by parental issues and needs. I wanted to share all of this with an audience.
Your play, Written In Stone, had me laughing but also asking myself, “Could this be the way the ten commandments were written? What if……?” I love that it makes me reflect on traditional beliefs while taking place in such a contemporary corporate setting that everyone will be able to relate to the characters, their relationships and the questions it poses. I also love all the humour. I hope that people leave the theatre chatting about it and laughing too.
JAMES
When I originally wrote the play it was about God and three angels working on the ten commandments and it was intended for an all-male cast but for the NNPF we’ve recast the play so that all the parts are being played by women. I’m curious to know if changing genders offered any additional insights or new takes on the themes of the play?
HEATHER
I’d say ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
For me, one of the themes the play explores is the traditional corporate structure and goals such as getting the corner office and the expense account at the cost of perhaps personal integrity and values. Changing the genders allows us to question how women have perhaps succumbed to following these traditions in order to take their place in the business world both as employee and owner. I’m hoping that an all-female cast will start people talking about and questioning female roles and power within a corporate structure, especially as God is presented as a woman.
Written In Stone also looks at traditional stories/beliefs surrounding the creation of the ten commandments and asks us to reflect on whether or not they all still have value and relevance in the world as it is today, as represented by the modern corporate boardroom setting. I think this reflection stands whether the gender of the characters is male or female, so changing the gender doesn’t affect this questioning.
Stephanie Christiaens in the NNPF 2019 production of Written in Stone by James Hutchison. Directed by Heather Dick. Scenic design, Ellen Brooker. Costume Design, Madeline Ius. Lighting Design, Christopher Pattenden. Photo: Jason Wighton.
Bridget Bezanson in the NNPF 2019 production of Written in Stone by James Hutchison. Directed by Heather Dick. Scenic design, Ellen Brooker. Costume Design, Madeline Ius. Lighting Design, Christopher Pattenden. Photo: Jason Wighton.
Bridget Bezanson, Meredith Busteed, Stephanie Christiaens in the NNPF 2019 production of Written in Stone by James Hutchison. Directed by Heather Dick. Scenic design, Ellen Brooker. Costume Design, Madeline Ius. Lighting Design, Christopher Pattenden. Photo: Jason Wighton.
Meredith Busteed in the NNPF 2019 production of Written in Stone by James Hutchison. Directed by Heather Dick. Scenic design, Ellen Brooker. Costume Design, Madeline Ius. Lighting Design, Christopher Pattenden. Photo: Jason Wighton.
JAMES
Okay, so my play in this year’s festival is more or less a discussion about the Law of God and what those laws should be. If you had the power to add a commandment to God’s Law what would it be? What do you think is a good guiding principle for mankind? And just so you know it can be serious or otherwise. My own favourite unserious but highly beneficial commandment would be, don’t forget to floss.
HEATHER
Find a moment of laughter in everything you do.
The Last House (after|LIFE) by Andrew Paulsen. Photo: Jason Wighton
JAMES
What have been some of your discussions with the cast about the play and its story and themes?
HEATHER
I’m delighted with the cast. Everyone is bringing a sense of humour and play to both the rehearsals and the production. Bridget Bezanson is playing Michael, Meredith Busteed is Lucifer, Stephanie Christiaens is Gabriel and Alexia Vassos is God. Our wonderful stage manager is Ashley Frederick who keeps all organized and on time with a light and caring touch. To date, our discussions have focussed on character relationships – employee to employee, employee to boss, and jealousy – which are all relevant to many of the commandments and how we treat our fellow human beings.
JAMES
So, I asked Michael the same question, you often hear people question the value of arts and yet music surrounds us. We hang paintings on our wall. We watch television. We go to movies and music festivals. And many of us paint and play instruments and write fanfiction or poetry. So, we are surrounded by art and consume art on a daily basis. To remove art would be to remove much of what gives life value and meaning. I was wondering what you felt arts in general and the Newmarket National play festival specifically contributes to the artistic and cultural life of our country?
HEATHER
The Festival is a gift to the actors, directors, and production crew who have an opportunity to create and learn in a generous and supportive environment. For our country, it is building a stronger Canadian cultural voice.
DIRECTOR, CAST, and STAGE MANAGER
WRITTEN IN STONE
Heather Dick – Director
Heather is excited to be directing at the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival for the first time. As a director, actor and voice artist she has worked across the country. Favourite directing credits include: Earth Tourist (Chandlier Factory Prods.), Forgotten Voices (World Premiere), Mail-Order Annie and Streethearts ( Sirius Theatrical Co.), The Art of Listening (Canadian Premier, Southern Mirrors Prods.), La Sante C’est Pas Sorcier (Waterwood Prods. – Ontario Tour), and The Peacemaker (Golden Horseshoe Players). For over 30 years, Heather has coached and taught workshops in acting, comedy and voice for many independent Toronto acting studios. She is also the Founding Artistic Director of the Sirius Theatrical Company (Toronto) where she currently teaches acting and voice and has produced multi-disciplinary performance pieces. Heather Dick is a member of Canadian Actors Equity Association. www.siriustheatrical.com
Bridget Bezanson – Buried, Seducing Harry, Written in Stone
Bridget is excited for her third summer with the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival. She is an actor and classically trained singer with credits in regional theatre throughout Ontario and Atlantic Canada. Favourite performances include Funeral Sandwiches (NNPF), Rockbound (Two Planks and a Passion), Love You Forever (Stirling Festival), No Way to Treat a Lady (Festival Antigonish), and Annie (Neptune Theatre). Other credits include voice work in radio drama and animation (CBC), radio commercials, and narration. A versatile vocalist, Bridget has recently performed at corporate events for Manulife and Shoppers Drug Mart, and performs regularly as a soloist and band singer. Bridget Bezanson is a member of Canadian Actors Equity Association. www.bridgetbezanson.com
Meredith Busteed – Secret Santa, Written in Stone
Meredith is thrilled to be joining The Newmarket National Ten Minute Play Festival this summer. She is a music theatre performer with credits in regional theatre throughout Southern Ontario and the United Kingdom. Favourite performances include The Wizard of Oz (Diversified Theatre), 9 to 5 The Musical (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Assassins (RCS), Up the River (Thousand Islands Playhouse), Anne in Anne of Green Gables (MMT), and Mary in Mary’s Wedding (Theatre Kingston). Other credits include commercials with Rogers (Next Issue), Anti-mean tweets campaign (Sportsnet). A versatile performer, Meredith has also dedicated her career to teaching private voice, musical theatre and dance to the next generation of artists. @mabusteed
Stephanie Christiaens – Like a Kite, Written in Stone
Steph is excited to be making her debut at the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival! She has been performing around Southwestern Ontario for over 20 Years and recently made her professional debut last summer at the Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover in Stage Fright. Favourite performances include The Day They Shot John Lennon (Players’ Guild of Hamilton), Noises Off! (Dundas Little Theatre), The Whores (Stage 88), Key For Two (The Aldershot Players), and Don’t Misunderstand Me (Act 4 Productions). Other credits include TV commercials (CTV London), independent film productions (Post-Life Productions), and reporting for Rogers Local access network.
Alexia Vassos – Nothing but the Tooth, Secret Santa, Written in Stone
Alexia is delighted to be involved with the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival for the very first time. She is a recent graduate from the Theatre and Drama Studies program at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College. Alexia’s credits include: Olga in Three Sisters (Theatre Erindale), Silenus/Therapist/Baucis in Metamorphoses (Theatre Erindale) and Maria in Twelfth Night (Theatre Erindale).
Ashley Frederick – Stage Manager
Ashley is thrilled to be participating in the Newmarket National 10 Minute Play Festival for her first time! Recent stage management credits include The Teeny Tiny Music Show (Hamilton Fringe, 2016), This Is War (York University, 2016) R.E.M. (York University, 2017), and InspiraTO Festival- Blue Show (2017). Ashley is also a performer, director, deviser, and founding member of Atomic Oddity Productions, whose first show After George premiered this year at the Devised Theatre Festival, and the Theatre Centre. Ashley will be graduating from York University’s Theatre program with a specialization in Devised Theatre in January 2020.
Allison Lynch is Darling, Ayla Stephen is Boo, Kiana Wu is Sweetie, and Geoffrey Simon Brown is Baby in A Dinner Party by Christopher Duthie. Directed by Julie Orton
We write songs about love. We tell stories about love. We long for love. We celebrate love. Love is all around us and yet we don’t always know what it means. If we did we wouldn’t need to keep discussing it and exploring it and talking about it. We are, it seems to me, bound by our heart’s desire. So, what is this thing called love? I think if I was to define love – I would simply call it absurd.
So, I’m really excited that Christopher Duthie, Julie Orton, and Ayla Stephen have joined forces to bring Calgary the premiere of Christopher Duthie’s new play, A Dinner Party, which just so happens to be an absurdist examination of love.
When Boo, Darling, Baby and Sweetie are unable to agree on a common definition of Love, their otherwise normal dinner party spirals into an absurd chaos of marriage proposals, identity crises, culinary emergency and polite cannibalism. Part absurdist meta-theatre, part romantic cringe comedy, A Dinner Party asks how we know our individual Selfs and understand our Love for one another in the fragmented social landscape of the 21st Century.
If that doesn’t sound like a fun night at the theatre I don’t know what does. I sat down with Christopher, Julie, and Ayla while they were in rehearsal to talk with them about the play and how it explores relationships and love.
JAMES HUTCHISON
We’re going to be talking about your play A Dinner Party which is an exploration of love and so I’m curious about what your favourite love song is and why?
CHRISTOPHER DUTHIE
I think my favourite love song is, Naïve Melody – This Must Be the Place by the Talking Heads because it’s so beautiful and also because it’s about what we think love will be and then we discover what it is.
JAMES
Are you checking Google music?
AYLA STEPHEN
Yeah. (Laughs) I can’t think of any. I love – love songs so much and they always hit me right in the heart but then I forget about them and find new ones.
JULIE ORTON
I have two. The first one is Little Person by Jon Brion and it’s from the movie Synecdoche, New York which is a Charlie Kaufman movie.
JAMES
It’s a strange movie.
JULIE
It’s a very strange movie but it’s a beautiful song and it’s very reminiscent of this play. It’s about going through the world in a disconnected way hoping that one day you’ll bump into that other person you’ve been waiting for and that you can just live a simple life together with that other person. And my other one is When you Get to Ashville by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell because it’s just a really pretty lovely yearning song.
Christopher Duthie – Playwright – A Dinner Party
JAMES
So, where did the inspiration for this play come from?
CHRISTOPHER
I was doing my MFA in creative writing from 2015 to 2016 in Guelph when I was living in Toronto and I needed to figure out what to do for my thesis, and I had literally written down this conversation that I’d woken up with in my head that was funny, and then I’d put it away and I had figured once I finish my thesis I will come back to it. And I think I was secretly intimidated by the pressure of writing a thesis play and having to write something serious and important. And as a way of psyching myself out of that kind of thinking I just said, “I’m going to write this ridiculous play and try to make myself laugh and give myself the freedom to make myself laugh and see if anything comes from it.” And that scene became the play and quite quickly the structure and setting of the play became very clear, and I found that as I started writing something emerged that would be funny at first and then it would stop being funny and it became kind of serious, and once it was serious something real would happen and it would become funny again.
JAMES
So, what is the play about?
CHRISTOPHER
A Dinner Party is an absurdist party about two couples whose evening is thrown off course into a kind of chaos of marriage proposals, heartbreak, culinary emergency, polite cannibalism…but essentially it’s about two young couples disagreeing on what love is.
JAMES
The definition of love.
AYLA
It’s a millennial viewpoint on love and relationships that’s absurdist and highly relatable and also very funny. And I say millennial in a good way. It’s not derogatory and it’s not a judgemental term. It’s just that’s where we are and that’s where these characters are living.
JULIE
And one of the great things about the way Christopher has written the play is that it can to be explored in an ungendered way. So, every character could be played by anyone and have any sexual orientation. And it’s funny because when you end up with your cast, just by virtue of the dynamics in the room, all of a sudden, you’re making a different comment on a love dynamic. And so you can tell many different versions of love and many different stories.
And so we have a couple in the play who have been together for a long time and in our version of the play, they’re being played by two female-identifying performers. And so all of a sudden, the dynamics of an older settled love between two women is a really interesting story to dig into compared to the younger love couple in the play being played by a male-identifying performer and a female-identifying performer. Suddenly the dynamic of the settled female couple becomes much more interesting when compared to the younger male and female couple.
And the first time I was introduced to the play was when we did a reading at Christopher’s house. So myself and Mike Tan, Graham Percy, and Brett Dahl, were invited to read the play. And so in that dynamic, I was the only female and there were different dynamics at play for sure. But it didn’t change the arc of the play, it didn’t change the relationships at the core and what their issues are. It was fascinating. Now we have the inverse of that where we have one male and three females, and it works just the same.
JAMES
Who have you cast in the show?
AYLA
I’m playing the character Boo, and Allison Lynch is playing Darling, who is my partner in the show. And we have Geoffrey Simon Brown playing Baby and Kiana Wu playing Sweetie.
JAMES
Did you make any interesting discoveries during the writing process in terms of love that you didn’t expect?
CHRISTOPHER
I think I confirmed ideas that I had always sort of operated with. Like, I don’t necessarily believe that everyone experiences love in the same way. I don’t necessarily believe that there’s one person for everyone. I don’t necessarily think that everyone wants as their ultimate fulfillment of self to be with another person. I think those sorts of ideas made themselves apparent.
JULIE
There are definitely parts of both couples that I can relate to. You have this young couple that are in the early stages of being together. Like six weeks of being together and everything is wonderful. Everything is new and fresh. And there’s definitely parts of that relationship where I go, “Oh, I remember what that was like.” And it was so perfect, right? “Why can’t we live there forever?”
And then there’s this more settled couple that I recognize immediately. And I think, okay, I love the intimacy of how well they know each other. And I love the comfortability between them, but I also see the traps of that. And I also see the disconnections that can happen after spending a lot of time with someone. And so, I think for me, same as Christopher, it just confirmed the things that had been swimming around in my head.
JAMES
Ayla, what about yourself? Have you discovered anything new in terms of your views of love and relationships?
AYLA
I haven’t been in relationships as long as my character has but there is that beautiful comfortability and knowing that even if you’re having a fight there’s still that underlying love, and support and commitment that’s there. And not to say that’s easy or that makes it okay when you are not nice to the person you love, but there is a kind of security built into that.
Julie Orton – Director – A Dinner Party
JAMES
Why do we do that? Why aren’t we nice to the people we love? As actors, you do dramas all the time, where people who are supposed to love each other are not nice to each other. Any insights on good old human nature?
JULIE
I think in order to be in a long term committed relationship, you have to maintain a certain amount of vulnerability at all times. And I think it is human nature when you are feeling not as strong as you did yesterday or if you’re feeling a little insecure to occasionally swipe out in order to protect yourself. And sadly, it tends to be at the person that you love the most, because they know you the best. And it’s frustrating, and you wish it didn’t happen, but it does.
JAMES
Do you think in love we expect too much from our partner?
JULIE
Oh yes. And I think committing to one person is a really cuckoo experiment because you are an individual fully formed human with a much different experience leading up to the day you met them. And so, your way of interpreting things or looking at things or defining things is different than theirs. And so sometimes you come up against something that is just a conflict of experience and it’s really hard to say we’re two different people, but we’re going to continue on the same path, even though we don’t know where this is going.
JAMES
Is that a cultural thing or is it a human thing?
CHRISTOPHER
Without giving too much away I have right in the play that we have these two holy things in the West, in our culture. We have the dream of the perfect monogamous love, and then we have this dream of total personal freedom. And those ideas are at war constantly. Because I don’t really believe you can have both. Because I think how we define perfect love in our culture involves giving up a piece of yourself and surrendering to the fact that I’m with you on this road that we are creating together. And that is going to involve some of where you want to go, and that’s going to involve some of where I want to go, and we are going to disagree. And if our dream is to stay together, then we need to figure out a way to do that.
Ayla Stephen is Boo in A Dinner Party
JAMES
How much do you think we understand our partners and how does the play explore that?
AYLA
I think the play explores that quite a bit. I think that might be one of the thesis points. How are we communicating and what language are we using? Because if your timelines are different, and the way you’re talking about getting there is different – even if it might look the same – it’s not the same thing. And that can cause feelings of insecurity and vulnerability that can lead to those miscommunications and those anger points. So it’s like, “Oh, it sounds like we’re not working towards the same thing? Is this the right relationship for us to be in?”
JULIE
And I think another thing that the play explores is not just how well do we know our partners, but how well do we know ourselves in our partnerships, because I think we invest a lot in a dual identity and we end up losing a little bit of our individual identities. And so, at the end of the day, when you sit down with yourself and think how well do I know my partner – I think it’s actually who am I in this relationship?
JAMES
Julie, I want to ask how did you go from reading it in Chris’s home to now sitting in the director’s chair. At what point did you go, “I’m going to be the director?”
JULIE
Not one point did that happen. When I read it my gut reaction was I really want to be in this play because there are so few opportunities to do absurdist Theatre in Calgary these days. There’s been a little more this season with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and Waiting for Godot which is great but not new absurd theatre. I don’t think I have seen a new absurdist play in years. And Christopher’s writing is so funny and quick and smart, and really profoundly beautiful.
So after reading it that first time, I just thought, “Oh, my God, I really hope he’s gathered us all here because he wants us to be in his play.” And then I didn’t hear a lot about it because he was working on his thesis. And then he reached out to me and said, “I want to talk to you about A Dinner Party,” and we met for coffee and he said, “I think you should direct it.” And it scared the poop out of me James, but I think I said yes immediately and then I went home and I was like, “What have I done? I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea the first thing about how to direct a play, how to lead a room, how to talk to actors. I just know how to be talked to as an actor.”
AYLA
See, and I disagreed.
JULIE
Yeah, you did.
AYLA
Julie and I worked on Goodnight Desdemona Good Morning Juliet together. And that was the first time we’ve been actors in a room together since University. And I was like, Julie’s had so many opportunities to work as an actor in Calgary and outside of Calgary. She’s immensely skilled and the way that she’s able to communicate with a director about what she’s doing and what she’s doing with us as actors in the scene I was like, “Julie should move into directing.”
CHRISTOPHER
You were the first person that said, “Julie could direct this.”
JULIE
And I’m excited that I said yes because it’s been profoundly exciting in the room. It’s been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, for sure. But there’s nothing I like more than sitting in a room and watching actors pull apart a script and invest in characters. And this is a character-rich play and so it hasn’t felt like I’m a total fish out of water. It feels like I can actually communicate what’s happening. And it’s been so joyful and I don’t know what happens next with me as a director, but right now, God, I love it!
Playwright/Producer Christopher Duthie; Sound Designer Thomas Geddes; Actors Kiana Wu, Geoffrey Simon Brown and Allison Lynch; Actor/Producer Ayla Stephen; Director Julie Orton; Fight Director Brianna Johnston; Set/Costume/Props Designer Deitra Kalyn – in rehearsal for A Dinner Party by Christopher Duthie
JAMES
So, you were all at the University of Calgary together and I understand that you’ve wanted to work together again for some time and now you’re finally making that happen. What was the process of bringing A Dinner Party to the stage?
AYLA
Chris did a lot of the legwork writing grants and finding opportunities and making partnerships and connecting with people in the community to get extra support. Like Vertigo came on board, once we had some grants, and they’re really doing a lot to support indie artists who are coming up.
CHRISTOPHER
They’re our venue sponsors.
AYLA
We had that support and we had people in our lives who were really excited about seeing us working together again because we’ve established ourselves as artists in the community now. And we raised additional funds through a Kickstarter campaign and it’s all for generating new work which I think hasn’t been happening as robustly as it had been in Calgary about five years ago. And we’re excited to be contributing to that.
CHRISTOPHER
I will say too that, as much as we are friends we admire each other’s work. And what we’ve talked about is coming to each other with projects we’re interested in leading and trying to find a sustainable way of supporting each other and making theatre in the long term. And also to help each other build the skills that we have and can share with each other to develop our own practices and production abilities.
JAMES
So, just before we wrap up here what’s your favourite line from the play? Without giving too much away.
AYLA
“I could so be a shepherd.” I love that line.
CHRISTOPHER
It feels a bit like tooting my own horn but actually, I really like the line, “No, I knew you were behind me.”
JULIE
Yes, that’s a good one. I like, “Love isn’t just one feeling it’s an amalgamation of every feeling.”
JAMES
And final question, just curious, what is polite cannibalism?
CHRISTOPHER
Oh, you’ll have to find out.
AYLA
Come see the show.
JULIE
Pinkies up.
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A Dinner Party runs from June 20 to June 29th in the Studio at Vertigo Theatre. Tickets are just $30.00 for adults and $25.00 for students and seniors and can be purchased by calling the Vertigo Box Office at 403.221.3708 or online at VertigoTheatre.com. Please note that the show does contain adult themes and nudity and is intended for a mature audience.
Calgary theatre artists Christopher Duthie, Julie Orton and Ayla Stephen are proud to present the independent premiere production of A Dinner Party by Christopher Duthie, directed by Julie Orton at the Vertigo Studio Theatre from June 20-29, 2019.
Written as Christopher Duthie’s MFA thesis in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph, A Dinner Party is a comedy about true love for the post-truth era. This new take on the absurdist genre is hitting the stage for the first time in an independent production supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, a generous community of Kickstarter crowd funders, the venue sponsorship of Vertigo Theatre and the partnership of Inside Out Theatre’s Good Host Audience Inclusion Program.
A Dinner Party is the pilot project of an indie-producing collaboration between Duthie, Orton and Stephen. With over a decade of experience each onstage as actors and offstage as playwrights, theatre creators and/or producers, they are banding together to play a more active role in making exciting theatre happen in Calgary.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“Everything I do is to survive. What’s going on out there, and what’s going on in here. You think I’m not counting down the days? I can feel my mind unravelling at the seams. Waking up in the night, cold sweats, my heart pounding so hard I think my ribs are gunna’ crack. I can’t tell what’s fucken’ real anymore there’s this banging and drilling on the walls like someone’s hammering away – is it real? I don’t know.”
CONNER from the Play Come Home by JC Charlton
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Living in Australia and working on the oil rigs far from home Connor Evans a young Calgary man finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a life of drug abuse and criminal activity. Come Home is a raw and honest play about addiction, the importance of friendship, and second chances.
Christopher Scott working the Rigs in Australia
The play is based on the real-life experience of Christopher Scott who along with his friend JC Charlton presented the play at the 2017 Calgary One Act Play Festival and the 2017 Alberta Provincial One Act Play Festival where it won several awards including Best Overall Performance and Best Original Script.
Now two years later the play has been workshopped and expanded and is being presented by Urban Stories Theatre from May 1st to 11th in the Motel Theatre at the Arts Commons. Tickets are $20.00 for adults and $15.00 for students, seniors, and artists and are available online at www.urbanstoriestheatre.org
Sally Cacic and JC Charlton in the Urban Stories Theatre Production of Come Home by JC Charlton. Directed by Nova Lea Thorne.
I sat down with JC and Chris, while they were in rehearsals, to talk with them about how the play came about and what message they want audiences to remember.
Christopher Scott musical artist and sound designer.
JAMES HUTCHISON
Come Home is inspired by your real-life experience of becoming involved in the drug trafficking world in Australia when you were there and eventually being given a second chance. Why did you want to tell your story?
CHRIS SCOTT
For the longest time, it was like a dark spot on the soul. I still held it deeply internally and it just started to eat away at me. I didn’t talk about it to anyone but when this opportunity arose to tell this story as part of the Calgary Regional One Act Play Festival I thought what better way to make something creative and positive come out of something dark and negative.
JAMES
How much of the play is based on real life and how much is poetic license?
JC CHARLTON
We’re saying it’s inspired by a true story. We’re not saying it is a true story. For example, we combined two different people from Chris’s life into one character that became our antagonist. The events we show were events that happened to Chris but at different times and with different people and we just lumped them together so we changed the timeline, so we could tell a story that had a solid beginning, middle and end.
JAMES
I know it’s a personal story but was there some sort of moral message you wanted to convey in the telling of the story?
CHRIS
Yes, you always have to stay positive because there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel it’s just sometimes you have to tough it out to get there. Looking back one thing kind of led to another and I’m surprised by how deep and dark it went. You just have to hold onto your friendships and stay away from nefarious people.
JC Charlton actor and theatre creation artist.
JC
You often watch a movie about drug addiction or drug trafficking or crime and it’s going to have a depressing ending. It’s solely a cautionary tale where you see the characters suffer and lose it all, and in this story – yes there’s suffering – yes there’s loss – but in the end – it’s the belief in this person by his friends and family that pulls him out of it, and I think that’s what separates our story from other stories.
CHRIS
The bonds that we have for each other can save us.
JAMES
The play has a whole soundscape that accompanies it. What was the process like for creating the music and sound for the production?
CHRIS
It was a lot of trial and error. We’d try to capture the feeling of what section we were working on and then we would tweak the soundscape and the music to try and enhance that feeling or that mood.
JC
There’s one section where the main character is having a panic attack envisioning all the terrible things that are going to happen to him, and the only thing that pulls him out of it is his girlfriend and, we’ve got this lovely piano melody that comes in there that’s very separate from anything else we’ve heard in the play up until that point. And then that melody keeps coming through the remaining pieces until we lead to the climax of the play.
JAMES
So, how different is the production that you’re presenting at the Motel compared to the one you did a couple of years ago at the One Act Festival?
JC
The script was in its infancy at the one-act festival. Since then we got in touch with Helen Young from Urban Stories, and I was blown away the first time I talked with Helen, because we wanted to get it into their play festival, and she told me couldn’t because the play was more than twenty minutes, but straight off the bat she said, “From the sounds of it we might want to do this for a mainstage show.” So, we sent her the script and went for a coffee with her, and the next thing we knew it was all in the works. We had them producing it. We’re going to be at Motel. We had a dramaturg come in, and we were fortunate enough to be given enough time to work on the script and develop it further.
Christopher Scott and JC Charlton (foreground) in the Urban Stories Theatre production of Come Home by JC Charlton. Directed by Nova Lea Thorne.
JC
We workshopped the script with Caroline Russell-King, who is a very talented dramaturg, and we completely changed the vehicle for the narrative. Before it was in the form of somebody telling their story to a friend, and now it’s all happening in the moment. And we’ve changed what the play is really about. Before it was focused on a single friendship and this friendship progressed the narrative, but now we’re focusing more on the individuals that Chris knew in Australia. The ones that kept him going when he was completely isolated. We get to know more about them and that changes the outcome of the play so now we have a new emotional climax – which I’m not going to spoil – but the main difference is that we’re including so many more characters and people responsible for bringing Chris home.
Sally Cacic, JC Carlton and Justin Many Fingers in rehearsal for the Urban Stories Theatre production of Come Home
JAMES
So, why should people come see it?
JC
It’s a unique show that combines theatre, electronic music, text and it’s inspired by a true story that happened to a local Calgarian here. Helen’s given us a lot of freedom to develop the play and to assemble a pretty talented production team. Our director is Nova Lea Thorne, and our lighting designer is Neil Fleming. Alexandria Inkster is designing the set, and Justin Many Fingers has come in and been a guest choreographer for us on a couple of occasions.
CHRIS
It’s an excellent tool for healing and also a way for us to express and showcase ourselves theatrically and artistically.
Sally Cacic and JC Charlton in the Urban Stories Theatre Production of Come Home By JC Charlton. Directed by Nova Lea Thorne
JC
When we did the show two years ago we were lucky enough to have a police officer come and see it, and what he said to me after the show was, “You know in my job it’s real easy to get jaded doing what I do, but after seeing this I’m going to remember that the next time I’m arresting a crack head or a drug dealer is that everyone has a story.” And I was surprised by how many people came up to me after the show with tears in their eyes and said that they had a family member that’s gone through the exact same thing. And that’s really what we’re trying to accomplish here. We’re trying to give an entertaining performance, but we’re also trying to do something that’s going to change the way people see people who are going through a hard time.
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Urban Stories Theatre presents Coming Home by CJ Charlton May 1st to 11 in the Motel Theatre at the Arts Commons. Tickets are $20.00 for adults and $15.00 for students, seniors, and artists and are available online at www.urbanstoriestheatre.org
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Come Home By JC Charlton
CAST JC Charlton Christopher Scott Sally Cacic
Directed by Nova Lea Thorne Set Designer by Alexandria Inkster Sound Design by Christopher Scott Lighting Design by Neil Fleming Guest Choreographer – Justin Many Fingers
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JC Charlton
JC is an actor and theatre creation artist based in Calgary, Alberta. JC is a University of Lethbridge alumni with degrees in education and fine arts. He has dedicated his career to acting and the development of new Canadian works. He has trained in advanced direction under his mentor Gail Hanrahan. Selected theatre credits include; (Kaahsinnoniks, dir. Justin Many Fingers), (Moon, Moon, No Moon, dir. Blake Brooker), (Come Home, dir. JC Charlton), (Okotoks, dir. Justin Many Fingers), (The Bear, dir. JC Charlton), (509, dir. Justin Many Fingers). 2016 Calgary + Provincial One Act Best Male Actor.
Christopher Scott
Christopher is a musical artist based in Calgary, Alberta. With a passion for melodic and bass heavy electronica he aims to create unique soundscapes and exciting experiences in a combination of theatre and sound design. He is a part of the new electronic duo, Mannequin. Chris has worked in a variety of fields from the drilling rigs in Canada and Australia to landscaping and construction here in Calgary, he has completed his training and holds certificates in the Fundamentals of Firefighting and Hazardous materials/ WMD incidents.
Sally Cacic
Sally Cacic is a West Australian actor. She is a graduate of Company of Rogues Actors’ Studio Master Class Program and StageMilk Drama School, and an ongoing member of StageMilk Drama Club in Sydney, Australia. She apprenticed in the Meisner Technique under her mentor Stacie Harrison, which she applies across her work in both theatre and film & television. Select theatre credits include Laughter (Urban Stories Theatre), How To Almost Be An Adult (Urban Stories Theatre), Late Night At The Plaza (Late Night Productions), and Australian productions A Chorus Line (The Old Mill Theatre), and Beauty & The Beast (The Ballet Company). Select film credits including Bright Hill Road (Nevermine Films), The Little Things (Shotlist Films), Joy To The World (SAIT Film Productions) 2017 AMPIA Rosie Award Finalist, and The Hundy (SAIT Film Productions) 2017 AMPIA Rosie Award Winner.
Nova Lea Thorne
Nova Lea is excited to be working on her first show with Urban Stories Theatre. She is grateful for the opportunity to direct this exceptional piece created by JC Charlton. Although much of her career, of late, has been in the area of stage management, she began her career as a performer, with Theatre New Brunswick, and has been involved in performance training and directing artist in residence programs, in Alberta, since the late 1990’s. She has instructed young performers with Quest Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Triangle Theatre School, as well as Theatre Works School of the Arts, a musical theatre school that she co-owned for twelve years. Nova Lea is the proud recipient of the Duval Lang Theatre for Young Audiences Award, a Betty Mitchell Juried Award.
Alexandria Inkster
Alexandria is a Calgary-based artist comes to performance through visual arts. She obtained her BFA in Sculpture in 2014 from the Alberta College of Art + Design (now the Alberta University of the Arts), and her MFA in 2016 from the University of Calgary. In her creative|research practice, Alexandria investigates the activation of agency and collective mobilization by enacting experiences of ambivalence, intimacy, freedom, and magical ideation. These investigations most often take the form of live performance and/or sculptural installation, where somehow her body always seems to become enmeshed in the work. Come Home is Alexandria’s first stint as a “set designer,” and she is absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to work with its amazing cast and crew.
Neil Fleming
Neil is delighted to be part of the Come Home artistic team helping Chris and Jeff bring this story to life. Primarily a playwright, Neil sometimes likes to stretch his theatrical design muscles. Some past design credits include: Okotoks (Niitsitapi Dance, MT7), Gruesome Playground Injuries (Ground Zero, Hit & Myth), A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream (CYPT), The Vajayjay Monologues (Urban Curves), Shopaholic Husband Hunt (Lunchbox Theatre), Almost Perfect Thing, Kitchen Witches, In A World Created By A Drunken God, The Attic, the Pearls, & Three Fine Girls (New West Theatre), And So It Goes, Goodness, Bone Cage, Arm’s Length Embrace (Downstage).
Urban Stories Theatre supports local playwrights writing about social justice and humanity issues by nurturing their ideas from first draft to finished production. The company is made up of a core group of local artists who will oversee all productions and workshops. Budding actors, directors, stage managers and designers will be encouraged to share their ideas by becoming part of the team on a show by show basis.
Vision: To give local artists a voice in creating theatre that tells stories about real life.
Writer, composer, musical director and founding artistic director of Forte Musical Theatre Guild: Joe Slabe
“Music is able to tap right into a visceral emotional reaction that doesn’t require words or which can layer on top of words so there’s a whole other way of communicating that comes into play, because yes there are usually lyrics but the music can lift and elevate those lyrics and actually create a short cut to your emotional core and make you feel things. And when movement and dance get involved that’s a whole other level of expression. It’s really all the arts because theatre involves architecture and colour theory and costume and literature and music and dance and so musical theatre is sort of all the arts in the pursuit of a single vision or message.”
When the boys from St. Mark’s join the girls from St Anne’s to present Cyrano de Bergerac, three friends get more of an education that they bargained for. Love blossoms, jealousies flare, and secrets are revealed that may end their youthful innocence forever as life imitates art in this funny and poignant coming of age story. Winner of five awards for excellence at the New York Musical Festival, Crossing Swords is a backstage musical that shows that sometimes being yourself is the most heroic act of all.
I dropped into the Beddington Theatre Arts Centre, a couple of weeks ago where rehearsals were underway for Crossing Swords, in order to talk with Joe Slabe about musical theatre and the journey his play has taken to reach the stage.
JAMES HUTCHISON
You’re in musical theatre. You’re a composer. Sometimes you’re on stage.
JOE SLABE
Yup.
JAMES
So, I was wondering what kind of music does Joe Slabe listen to when he’s home alone just chillin’?
JOE
I listen to a lot of musicals obviously, because I’m passionate about those, but I like jazz, and I still like classical. I was trained as a classical pianist. So, it depends on my mood. I also still like the pop music of my youth – the pop music of the eighties – and so. if I’m having people over sometimes I’ll just put on that channel on Stingray.
JAMES
Any particular artists? Any particular songs?
JOE
I would say the big popular musical influences on me were the piano-based artists like Billy Joel and Elton John, because you could feel cool as a piano player because they made the piano rock – which was great. And I think every generation discovers the Beatles, and I discovered the Beatles when I was in my teens, and they were a huge influence on me.
I was writing these little musicals and I was really interested in the idea of new musical theatre in Calgary because everyone was doing new plays, but no one was doing new musicals. And I was pitching them, and no one would touch them. They said, “No they’re too expensive. You can’t do that.” And then I went well, “Be the change you want to see.” And so, I started the company, and what’s interesting is that within two or three years suddenly everyone was doing new musicals. But that’s okay, we were the first.
Sometimes racy, sometimes sweet, Naughty but Nice! takes a hilarious and slightly risqué look at everyone’s favourite holiday season and promises to leave you with a song in your head and hope in your heart! – Forte Musical Theatre Guild
JAMES
Having your own company gives you more control over the process.
JOE
Yes, you’re not waiting around forever for people to workshop your stuff or whatever. The thing is, I’ve really been trying to work with younger writers too, and that’s why the review shows that we do are so great, because you don’t have to write a whole musical. You can write a song and get a chance to see how it plays in front of an audience. So, in a show like Naughty but Nice or Touch Me – Songs for a (dis)connected Age those were shows structured around a theme where a young writer has a chance to write material for a show, but they didn’t have to write an entire show.
JAMES
I read in an interview you sent me that during your first year of high school you were playing the music for a production of West Side Story.
JOE
Yes.
JAMES
And that really sparked your love for musical theatre, but I’m wondering now, many years later, what do you retain from that young kid who first thought that theatre was special and magical?
JOE
It’s the sense of finding my tribe, I think, this group of people who care about the same things I do. And I feel like musical theatre is a force for good in the world. If you look at the history of musical theatre its always been, sort of, on the leading edge of social justice like, Showboat, which came out in the 1920s and tackled racism head-on or West Side Story where they don’t demonize either group of kids – they just recognize that juvenile delinquency arose out of big social problems, and I think theatre has always been ahead of movies and television in addressing social or hot button issues.
JAMES
Do you think theatre has the ability to respond quicker and to get that work out there?
JOE
And there are fewer filters on the writer and the artists, because in theatre the playwright is the final word. You can’t change a single word without the playwright’s permission. Whereas, in movies the author is the studio, and so they can hire and fire the writer and still own the show, and they can bring someone in to change it. In theatre you can do it faster and there are fewer filters that you have to pass through.
Touch Me – Songs for a (dis)connected Age – Equal parts hilarious and heart wrenching, this modern musical revue impresses with its soaring vocals and refreshingly true depictions of our most private technological transgressions. Winner of three Calgary Critics’ Awards, Touch Me is bound to get you thinking about the connections in your life. Forte Musical Theatre Guild
JAMES
So, what do you think are the unique opportunities for musicals to tell stories?
JOE
It communicates directly with your gut. Music is able to tap right into a visceral emotional reaction that doesn’t require words or which can layer on top of words, so there’s a whole other way of communicating that comes into play, because yes, there are usually lyrics, but the music can lift and elevate those lyrics and actually create a short cut to your emotional core and make you feel things. And when movement and dance get involved that’s a whole other level of expression. It’s really all the arts because theatre involves architecture and colour theory and costume and literature and music and dance and so musical theatre is sort of all the arts in the pursuit of a single vision or message.
Austentatious is a hilarious play within a play musical that follows the Riverdale Amateur Players as they unwittingly butcher Jane Austen’s beloved classic as they present a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Terrible theatre at its absolute comedic best. By Joe Slabe, Matt Board, Kate Galvin, Jane Caplow, and Luisa Hinchliff. Forte Musical Theatre Guild.
JAMES
Well, let’s talk a little bit about Cyrano de Bergerac, because that is your inspiration for your play Crossing Swords, and I’m wondering what is it about the original story – the original play – that appeals to you?
JOE
I’m in awe of it because if it’s done right, and I’ve seen it done well and I’ve seen it done really badly, but if it’s done right, it’s really funny. It’s lushly romantic. There’s sword fighting, and it’s tragic, and it’s heartbreaking, and I can’t think of another play that balances those elements so well. And so, my challenge was to try and write a show that was funny and was romantic and was sad. And when I started writing it-it was going to be a tragedy, but I backed off the tragic element of the show when the Dan Savage, “It Gets Better” campaign happened, and I kind of went, “You know the world doesn’t need another gay coming of age tragedy. The world needs a gay coming of age hero.” But the ending is bittersweet because of the love triangle. No one gets what they want, and they all emerge a little bit bruised but wiser, and the kids are alright in the end.
Katie McMillan as Nicky, Troy Goldthorp as Jeremy, and Adam Forward as David in the Storybook Theatre Forte Musical Guild Production of Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe.
JAMES
So, how did the idea for Crossing Swords actually begin?
JOE
I was doing my masters in musical composition in London and up until then I was writing mostly comic stuff, and my sense of humour was a little bit dirty and kind of smart-alecky, so a lot of the songs in my book were these smart witty things, and my instructor on the course said, “You know talking to you-you seem like the kind of guy that cries at long distance commercials. You know, I feel like you are a very sentimental person, and yet I don’t see any of that in what you write.” And he challenged me to write something that was from my heart instead of from my head. And I sort of took that on board, and I went well, “I think that’s true,” and I remembered when I was a teacher at St Francis, we had done a production of Cyrano and how much I had loved it. And I’d say Crossing Swords is kind of a summation of all my teaching experience, because I taught stage combat, so there’s stage combat in the show, and I taught with amazing colleagues, and so – the teachers in the play are kind of composites of a bunch of people I worked with that I thought were really fantastic, and the kids are composites of the thousands of kids that I taught and how cool they were, and so – I found myself drawing on all that and the affection that I felt for the characters arose out of the affection for this program I taught and working with these colleagues and with these students, and I think that comes through in the show, because there’s no villain. Like not even the uptight math teacher even. I think we learn a lot about him and grow to like him. I love all of the characters in the show, but there are conflicts that arise.
Cast from the 2012 production of Jeremy de Bergerac now retitled Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe. Nominated for five Betty Mitchell Awards and three Calgary Critics’ Awards. Cast: Adam Schlinker, Tory Doctor, Selina Wong, Roberta Mauer Phillips, Eric Wigston. Forte Musical Theatre Guild
JAMES
Did having such a personal attachment to the material make it an easier show to write or a more difficult show to write?
JOE
It’s one of the few times where I’ve been writing and it really was like taking dictation. A lot of writer’s talk about this experience of suddenly the characters just start talking to them, but it had never happened to me before, and what was really weird was – as I’m typing they were saying things that were surprising me. It’s a freaky experience, because I’d go like, “Oh, really? Are we going there? Holly Crow! Oh my God!” And that’s my inner monologue as I’m typing what the characters are saying. So, that was certainly easy. The other thing was a lot of times when you’re writing comedy you’re never really sure if it’s good until it’s in front of an audience, but as I was writing this show I was pretty sure that it was good, and moreover I actually didn’t care what people thought of it, because I believed that it was good. So, that was a very unique experience for me.
JAMES
So you wrote the first act while you were taking your masters in London in 2005. And then it kind of percolated for about six years while you went off and did a bunch of other stuff, and then you wrote the second act and finished the play for the New York Musical Festival.
JOE
No, I wrote it for here first. And it was called Jeremy de Bergerac, and we did it in the Joyce Dolittle at the Pumphouse Theatre. It was one of those things where I was going to produce a show with Forte and the rights for that show fell through, and then I needed a show, and I kind of went, “Oh, maybe this is the universe saying you should finish this show?” So, I did.
JAMES
So, you produced it in Calgary in 2012 and then at the New York Musical Festival in 2013, and then you had a production in 2016 with The American Theatre Group in New Jersey, and now you have the production here. So, you’ve had multiple directors and performers and several different people all contributing to the development of the musical over a period of many years, and I’m wondering what do you get from all these different collaborators?
JOE
Well, the great thing is when you have actors inhabiting the role they’re really focused on their individual character. When you’re the playwright you’re looking at the big picture, and even as a director you’re looking at the big picture. But an actor is really interested in their character. So you get great notes from actors, and I trust – if an actor is having trouble with a line and if they’re a good actor – chances are there’s a problem with that line. And seeing different actors in a role is really interesting because they make different choices, and it shows you that there’s always more than one way to do things that can be equally effective.
American Theatre Guild Production of Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe
JAMES
How do you determine which notes are the ones I’m going to take and seriously have a look at, and how do you determine which ones might not be something you need?
JOE
Trusting the source is number one. If you’re working with a director that you respect then their instincts are probably going to be good. I did have an experience when I was in New York at the music festival and the director Igor Golden leaned over to me in rehearsal and he just said, “The scene ends here.” And I said, “Oh yeah, but there’s this really great thing coming up.” And he said, “Yeah, but I think the scenes over.” So I said, “Okay I’m going to take it away and I just want to see – because I’ve got some really great stuff here – and so I’m just going to see if I can move that earlier in the scene and then I’ll bring it in.” And he said, “Okay, we can try it.” So, we tried it the next day, and I went, “Yeah, that sucks.” (Laughs) “You’re right. The scene ends here.”
JAMES
And it did very well at the New York Festival. It won five awards.
JOE
It did. It won for best book of a musical. So, it won for the script, and it also won something called the Theatre for the American Musical Prize which is the show that best exemplifies the American Musical Theatre Tradition of balancing book and song. I thought that was funny because I’m a Canadian.
2013 New York Musical Festival production of Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe. Crossing Swords won five awards at the festival including the Awards for Excellence in Writing (Book), Direction, Musical Direction, Individual Performance and the Theatre for the American Musical Prize! Cast: Linda Balgord as Miss Daignault, Steve Hauck as Sir, Lyle Colby Mackston as Jeremy, Ali Gordon as Nicky, Marrick Smith as David.
JAMES
So, let’s talk a little bit about your current creative team in this new production coming up. Who have you assembled to bring us the show in 2019 here in Calgary?
JOE
Well, I have Val Pearson directing, and sitting in rehearsal with her is like a master class in acting. She directed the very first version, and she is amazing with young actors, and we have some very young actors on the show. And JP Thibedeau who is, of course, the Artistic Director at Storybook is doing sets and lights for us, and we’re in the Vertigo Studio so that’s great. He’s very familiar with the space.
JAMES
So, you have more options than you had when you presented it at the Pumphouse in 2012.
JOE
Yeah a few more options, although we’re keeping it pretty simple. The nice thing about the show is it doesn’t require a lot of huge production elements because your imagination does a lot of the work, because it’s a memory play and we’re remembering these events that happened, because we get to see the kids as older characters and then they’re remembering this pivotal experience that changed their lives. So, because it’s a memory play we don’t need the entire cast of Cyrano, we just need the three principal characters, because that’s who we remember and these were the important events.
Adam Forward as David, Katie McMillan as Nicky, and Troy Goldthorp as Jeremy in the Storybook Theatre Forte Musical Theatre Guild production of Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe.
JOE
And I’m really excited about the cast. Katie McMilliam who played young Mary in Mary and Max at Theatre Calgary is in it. She also played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz at Storybook, so it’s great to have her. Adam Forward who won the Broadway World Award for his performance in The Outsiders here at Storybook is in it, and he’s seventeen, and Katie is eighteen, and the characters are supposed to be seventeen. Adam’s still in high school, so it’s fantastic to have these actors. who are the right age, playing these parts. And then Troy Goldthrop is playing Jeremy, and he actually grew up here, and he has a little more experience. He’s been out in Ontario. He was in the Charlotte Town Festival, and he’s come back home, and he’s playing the lead in our show. And then we have Troy Doctor playing Sir who’s a musical theatre veteran here in Calgary, and Shari Wattling is playing Miss. I’ve worked with her a number of times on musicals, and she hasn’t been performing as much lately, because she was working at Theatre Calgary as their literary manager and then as their associate artistic director and then as their acting artistic director.
JAMES
Her plate was full.
JOE
Her plate was a little full, but it’s been great to get her back on the stage.
Shari Wattling as Miss and Tory Doctor as Sir in the Storybook Theatre Forte Musical Theatre Guild Production of Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe.
JAMES
So, why should Calgary audiences come out and see the show?
JOE
Well, they sing while fencing. They actually have stage choreography that they act out that’s timed to beats in the musical numbers, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before, so I think that’s pretty cool. And also, because it started here, and the level of talent from these Calgary artists is amazing, and because it’s a really timely story. You know, you always think that the battle for understanding for LGBT kids is done. You think, “oh that’s done – surely that’s accomplished” and yet we’re still talking about things that you thought were long settled and weren’t an issue, and they just come back, and so maybe we need an empathy lesson. And that’s what theatre does great. It puts you in the shoes of someone whose experience is different from yours and creates empathy. And that’s not just the gay coming of age story. The play puts you in the shoes of a math teacher who’s very uptight and has very strong opinions about the way the world should be that are quite diametrically opposed to the French drama teacher, and she has her very strong ideas about the way the world should be, and it’s not that they’re wrong – it’s just that they have different opinions, and the strength of this show is that it allows you to understand and sympathize with the other point of view. Which is something sorely lacking right now in our political and social discourse. People are so locked into their silos that they’re not willing to entertain other people’s point of views, and this show is about Jeremy and his best friend having to come to terms with – “You’re not the person I thought you were, and how do I wrap my head around this, and how do I make peace with that when I don’t agree or understand where you’re coming from.” And it’s just we’re human, and our job as humans is to learn how to understand each other.
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Storybook Theatre presents Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe in partnership with Forte Musical Theatre Guild from April 19th to May 4th at the Vertigo Studio Theatre. Evening shows run Tuesday to Saturday at 7:00 pm with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm. There will be a relaxed performance on Friday, April 26th at 7:00 pm. Tickets are just $30.45 for adults and $25.20 for students and are available online at www.storybooktheatre.org
Troy Goldthorp as Jeremy in the Storybook Theatre Forte Musical Guild Production of Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe.
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Crossing Swords by Joe Slabe
CAST
Troy Goldthorp as Jeremy Katie McMillan as Nicky Adam Forward as David Tory Doctor as Sir Shari Wattling as Miss
PRODUCTION TEAM
Valerie Ann Pearson: Director Christ Thompson: Assistant Director Joe Slabe: Musical Director Jocelyn Hoover Liever: Choreography Karl Sine: Fight Director Darcie Howe: Costume Design Cat Bentley: Hair Design Allie Higgins Pompu: Make-Up Design JP Thibodeau: Set/Lighting Design Emma Know: Props Jennifer Merio: Marketing Jody Low: Production Supervisor
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Joe Slabe is a Calgary-based writer, composer and musical director who obtained his Masters Degree in musical theatre composition from Goldsmiths College at the University of London. In 2013, Joe presented his play Crossing Swords at the New York Musical Theatre Festival where it won five NYMF awards including Excellence in Book Writing and the Theatre for the American Musical Prize. Joe also co-wrote the 2007 NYMF hit, Austentatious, which was recently published by Playscripts Inc. and has played London, New York, Philadelphia and Calgary. Other musicals Joe has written include, Maria Rasputin Presents (produced by Forte Musical Theatre Guild and nominated for three 2013 Betty Mitchell Awards including Outstanding New Play) If I Weren’t With You, (presented by Lunchbox Theatre and nominated for a 2013 Calgary Critics’ Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical), Jeremy de Bergerac (re-titled Crossing Swords and nominated for five 2012 Betty Mitchell Awards including Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Composition and Outstanding Production of a Musical) and Twisted (nominated for three 2011 Betty Mitchell Awards including Outstanding Production of a Musical). Joe is also an award-winning musical director having musically directed fourteen shows in Western Canada over the past four years. In that time, he has been recognized with three Betty Mitchell Awards for his work. Joe is the founding artistic director of Forte Musical Theatre Guild and received the 2004 Greg Bond Award for outstanding contributions to musical theatre in Calgary.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Last updated April 19, 2019.
“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.
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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
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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
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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:
“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)
Maryanne Pope – Playwright, Screenwriter, Blogger & Novelist
Maryanne Pope is a playwright, screenwriter, blogger and novelist. She is the author of A Widow’s Awakening and the founder of Pink Gazelle Productions where she blogs and works to create literary, theatrical, and cinematic works that challenge, enrich and inspire both artist and audience.
“It’s about the power of dreams. And I’m a huge person on believing in dreams. I mean that’s what I live for is to achieve my dream. I just think dreams are hugely important and I just – I don’t know – I just decided a long time ago – for many reasons – the big one being John’s death – that I don’t want to die having lived an unfulfilled life.”
Maryanne is also the Chair of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund a charity committed to raising public awareness about why and how to ensure workplaces are safe for everyone, including emergency responders. The charity was started after the death of Maryanne’s husband, John Petropoulos, who was a member of the Calgary Police Service. John died in the line of duty on September 29, 2000 while investigating a break and enter complaint when he stepped through a false ceiling, because there was no safety railing to warn him of the danger, and he fell nine feet into the lunchroom below and succumbed to brain injuries.
I sat down with Maryanne to discuss the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund and her life as a writer.
JAMES HUTCHISON
You’ve wanted to be a writer for a long time?
MARYANNE POPE
Oh yeah, I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was seven. I think that was probably when I first thought of it. But I never really got the concept that you actually have to sit down and write. It was always something in the distance that I wanted to do.
JAMES
As far as your writing career goes your husband’s death seems to be a marker. There was a life before that and a life after that.
MARYANNE
After I graduated from the University of Calgary when I was twenty-five and up until John’s death when I was thirty-two I wanted to try and write a novel. I had no interest in playwriting or screenwriting or anything like that. So, I started to work on a novel but I didn’t really know what I was doing and I was just creating a female protagonist who’s unhappy with her life and wanted to change the world and become a writer. And I wasn’t unhappy with my life, but I was unhappy with the fact that I wasn’t finding the time to write because by this time John and I were married. We’d bought a house. The financial pressure was on. The family pressure was on – are you going to have kids? You’ve got the mortgage now. John’s working full time. I was working full time, and so I was writing less and less and I was very anxious.
John & Maryanne on the beach in White Rock
MARYANNE
I knew I was on the right path with the right guy, but I wasn’t doing the work that I knew I had to do, and I was stressed right up until the point before the night John died when we had this big discussion and I said to him, “I am so scared that I am going to wake up twenty years from now and still not have become a writer.” And we had just had a big fight. We’d come back from a holiday and we had a big fight and we didn’t speak to each other for two days and he turned to me and he said, “Maryanne you know that is exactly what is going to happen in twenty years. You are not going to become a writer until you make your writing a priority – until you believe in yourself you will not become a writer.” And he died that night. He went to work and died at 4:00 o’clock the next morning.
And within two weeks after his death I sat down at my computer and I started to write what would become in eight years A Widow’s Awakening and of course because he died in the line of duty that meant that I was financially okay. My house was paid off. I got his income for twenty-one years and then I switch over to his pension, so I got exactly what Virginia Woolf had said – in a room of one’s own women need a secure – or any writer really – needs a secure income and a place of their own to be able to truly write. So, I got what I wanted, but I lost that which I loved the most.
JAMES
The interesting thing to me is how much of your writing has been focused on that tragedy and dealing with it. You have your novel A Widow’s Awakening and you have a one-act play called The Widows.
MARYANNE
Yes, it touches on that.
JAMES
And then you also have Saviour which is a full-length play.
MARYANNE
And that is hugely about John’s death, but it’s also about what I imagine his perspective to be on his death. And so he’s in the process of dying – that’s very much an imagined perspective on that but then I’m in the play as well.
Maryanne Pope at a workshop for her play Saviour with the Alberta Playwrights Network – January 2019
JAMES
Can you encapsulate Saviour, so people understand what it’s about?
MARYANNE
Saviour explores the concept of whether or not another person can save a person or whether the true meaning of a saviour is to help a person save themselves – to empower someone. So, this play looks at the example between John and me because his death gave me the financial freedom to pursue my dream. I just don’t get him and he doesn’t get to pursue his dream so it’s a real double-edged sword. And then it also goes into the bigger concept of a saviour from our Christian paradigm and whether or not we are, in some level of our consciousness in the West, expecting a saviour to come back and fix our problems.
L to R: Col Cseke, Kathryn Kerbes & Trevor Rueger in an APN workshop for Saviour by Maryanne Pope – January 2019
JAMES
Death is, of course, a big part of all our lives and I’m wondering in what ways you think our desire to write and tell stories is an attempt for us to navigate our feelings about death and our own mortality?
MARYANNE
Oh, I think it has everything to do with it because I have found that writing about death and loss and grief – my experience with it – helps me sort out and make sense of what happened. Helps me express my feelings and helps me move forward emotionally and psychologically whether it’s a blog or a story. And then to polish it a little bit and share it with other people is a gift and based on the feedback I get people do resonate with it because you’re right – death is a part of all our lives – we’re all going to go through that you know – losing people we love – or pets we love – or whatever. And when I write about death I like to be super honest about the good, the bad, and the ugly of what I was really thinking and experiencing.
JAMES
In a sense, John’s death fuels or has fueled a large part of your writing how do you feel about that?
MARYANNE
My mom was a psychiatric nurse at one point and she was very concerned about me working on A Widow’s Awakening for so long. And I think there is validity in that because if you constantly write about a tragedy it’s very difficult to move on because you sort of stay stuck in the past.
However, from a creative perspective, it’s an incredible story. And I know from the feedback I get from the book plus when I go out and deliver presentations that it’s a very powerful story and it’s very emotionally impactful. There are many many life lessons in there so I can pull different things for different projects whether it’s presentations, whether it’s a blog, whether it’s a book, whether it’s a screenplay, whether it’s a play. It was horrific to experience John’s death, but in a way the universe not only delivered me the financial means to become a writer the universe delivered me one hell of a story to tell.
JAMES
One of the things you established after John’s death was the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund which is an organization that strives to eliminate preventable workplace fatalities and injuries to first responders by educating the public about its role in helping to keep these workers safe on the job. What initiatives are you the proudest of and have been the most successful in your promotion of that safety message?
MARYANNE
We’ve done eight public service announcements and one ten-minute safety video. The picnic PSA, for example, is about traffic safety and reminds drivers to slow down when they see emergency vehicles – police, firefighters, paramedics, and the tow truck drivers along the side of the road. Then there’s the three put yourself in our boots videos. One tells the story of a police officer in exactly the same situation that John died under, and then there’s one where firefighters get trapped in a burning building because someone left clutter at the emergency exit and they couldn’t get out, and then in the emergency services one the paramedics are impacted because of a distracted driver.
Often, we get the most powerful feedback from people after they’ve seen one of our safety presentations. As part of our safety presentation, we physically go into a business or a school and we’ll talk about John’s death, show our public service announcements and the safety video. And when I’m the one doing the presentation and they hear the story they see it in my face because I’m this widow and then they see the videos and you see the light turn on. And I’ve heard from people in person after the presentation and in lots of e-mails and the number one comment is, “I never thought about safety in our workplace from the perspective of a first responder going in who wouldn’t be familiar with our building. Your story and your public service announcements and your video helped me change my perspective.” And that’s our goal. And I see that shift when I’m the one doing the presentation.
Maryanne and Sadie on the road
JAMES
Speaking of a shift, back in 2017 you decided to sell your house – put all your belongings into storage – and hit the road with your golden retriever Sadie. Your journey began on January 12, 2018. You left Victoria and headed down into the states for three months of travel and writing staying for short periods in various places and working on different projects and maybe living a bit of a Bohemian life.
MARYANNE
Very Bohemian.
JAMES
What motivated you to take that trip, and what did you learn about yourself as a writer?
Maryanne’s Henna Octopus Tattoo
MARYANNE
That trip was something I had been wanting to do for a long time. I just needed to have the financial freedom of the house behind me and my stuff in storage so I’m not trying to run a household, and the motivation was just to travel and be on the road, and to write, and to eat road trip food. That’s what motivated me. What I learned though – and this is what I’m still baffled about – is that I love that Bohemian lifestyle! I love life on the road!
Like right now I’m staying in one place for three months and I get a lot of work done, but I’m already getting antsy. And I never, never, would have guessed that about myself even though I’ve been a traveller all my life. And I to love travel but I am also a huge homebody but what I’ve discovered about myself is that home for me doesn’t necessarily have to entail being surrounded by my own things in my own home. Home for me is being with my laptop, my writing, my vehicle, my dog and so wherever I am becomes home. I would have never imagined that about myself. I always thought I’d feel like I was on the road but now I find home is wherever I am. It’s a shift in my thinking.
JAMES
So, now you’re able to write anywhere?
MARYANNE
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely anywhere. And my office is all over the place. And I’ve no problem with the discipline. What I have a problem with is the opposite. Turning it off and taking those breaks and saying, “No, it’s Sunday I’m not going to write today.” But I’ve learned that the breaks even if it’s only one or two days a week that I take off – those payoff in spades when I’m back working because that break away makes my writing that much stronger whereas when I work right through, even if it’s only a few extra hours a day, then I burn out.
On the Road Bohemian Writing Space
JAMES
What were some of the best places you went to on your trip for your writing?
MARYANNE
Sedona is magic. Sedona is one of the best places on the earth that I’ve found to write. So, I’ve gone there twice now. Once on my trip and then I went back at the end of September. I went for a week and did some intensive writing. There’s something there, right? There’s the energy and the vortexes and all that sort of stuff. I tap into it. It’s amazing and I’d just go write in the mornings, and then I’d go for a hike in the afternoon, and then I’d just listen to music in the evening. It’s incredible. I got most of a script written there so that was really good. I would go, for sure, to Sedona again.
Bell Rock Sedona, Arizona
MARYANNE
Another place that was extremely magical was Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon. And these are all interior like Utah and Arizona which is shocking because I’m a total beach person – a total water person. I live to be by the ocean. And I absolutely loved the Oregon and California coast but these other places were new and just incredible. Yeah, that trip was just life-changing. I had a sense of freedom on that trip that I don’t remember ever experiencing in my life. I loved it. I loved every moment. And Sadie and I had a ball and I got lots of writing done and I just loved it. I loved the whole scene.
Sunrise at Bryce Canyon, Utah
JAMES
You also do a lot of blogging so I’m kind of wondering how did the blogging evolve?
MARYANNE
Sable and Maryanne
I started blogging in 2010 when I sold my home in Calgary, and I was leaving to go and live on Vancouver Island, and I was working with a marketing person who had suggested writing blogs, and I thought, “Oh God I don’t have time to write blogs on top of everything else, I’m stressed. I’m getting out of this house.” Well, wouldn’t you know it my doggie Sable goes blind. So, here I am in this huge house and normally I’d be out visiting a thousand people because I was leaving Calgary, but I couldn’t because my dog was blind and I live in a house full of stairs. So, I physically had to be with her so I’m in this house that’s all packed up and I took her advice and I started to write a blog about this experience of what it’s like to pack up a house with a blind dog starting on a new journey with so much sadness knowing that this dog isn’t going to be around for very long. And then when I got to Vancouver Island I kept blogging regularly, and I liked the feeling of satisfaction you get from completing a short piece after working on longer pieces that are taking so long to finish like my screenplay, God’s Country, which is about Nell Shipman the silent screen star.
On the Road
JAMES
I’ve noticed on your blogs that you’ve posted a couple of quotes from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
MARYANNE
Yes. Yes. Yes.
JAMES
Is that a favourite book?
MARYANNE
Oh, yeah. I’ve read it so many times now.
JAMES
What does it provide you with?
MARYANNE
Oh, it provides me with the reminder that – it’s the quote – that the universe conspires to help us achieve our dreams. The universe is there. It’s got our back. It will do everything it can to help us along and what seems like a setback is not a setback. It is just an opportunity for us to learn the lessons so that we can move forward in our dream. It’s about the power of dreams. And I’m a huge person on believing in dreams. I mean that’s what I live for is to achieve my dream. I just think dreams are hugely important and I just – I don’t know – I just decided a long time ago – for many reasons – the big one being John’s death – that I don’t want to die having lived an unfulfilled life.
Maryanne & Sadie on the road in Utah
JAMES
So, you were on the road when you celebrated your 50th birthday on February 23rd 2018 with friends in Oceanside California. How did you feel about reaching that landmark and did you gain any new insights about yourself or life now that you’ve lived half a century?
MARYANNE
Well, I was just so flipping excited and I still am. I feel way better than I ever thought I would at fifty. At twenty I thought fifty was old, and I had better have achieved everything I wanted to achieve by then because I’d pretty much have just rolled over and died by then. And now that I’m at fifty I feel great. The only thing is I have lots of energy during the day and during my creative time and stuff but I’m pretty much useless after seven pm. And it used to be a joke and funny and now it is what it is and because of the writing and intellectual work that I do all day I need a lot of sleep, and I just shut down at seven o’clock at night and then I just get up early and go for it. You know the bodies not the same. There are wrinkles and stuff but that stuff doesn’t bother me. I just think it’s like Coco Channel said, “You get the face after fifty that you’ve lived.” It shows. And Gloria Steinem said, “After fifty all the bullshit is gone.” And that I’m noticing. Oh my God, my tolerance for people that are pissing me off – that are toxic – that are bringing me down – that are bugging me – whatever – I don’t have the time for it. I don’t have time for all the extra shit that I don’t want to do anymore. And it has just become so much easier to just say no to that.
Heather, Maryanne and Ella, Heather’s daughter, celebrating Maryanne’s 50th Birthday
JAMES
Well, lets talk a little bit about your screenplay God’s Country which as you mentioned is about Nell Shipman the Canadian born silent film actress, screenwriter and director. You’ve been working on that project for a long time so I’m just curious where you’re at with that.
MARYANNE
Ah, yes well that went through a big rewrite in the summer and then I sent it to the director and the producer here in Calgary that I want to work with. And I had a big meeting with the director and he still isn’t happy enough to take it on but we brainstormed ways that I might change it so that he will because I really want to work with these guys they’re so good.
But I had changed the story to be a biopic. So it was cradle to grave and his suggestion was we just need to give it a bit more oomph a bit more magic and you know it’s so funny because this book I’m reading about marketing and stuff which is all about story and about clarifying the message is exactly what this director told me is the flaw in God’s Country at present. Now we have Nell being born – now she’s on vaudeville – now she’s getting married – all this sort of stuff that tells a beautiful story about someone’s life but what is the meat and potatoes of this story.
Canadian actress, author, screenwriter, producer, director, and animal trainer: Nell Shipman
JAMES
Are you talking about her inner motivation?
MARYANNE
Yeah, what does she want? And you know I know her so well now because I’ve lived with this character for fifteen years – I know her family so well now because I’ve become very close with her family – her descendants. And it feels like I’m battling with her instead of working with her. I’m telling the story that she wants me to tell because I’ve read this autobiography and I’ve seen her movies and I want to be true to her but I also want to tell a contemporary story.
I’m just frustrated with myself as a writer because for some odd reason I haven’t always been able to grasp the basics of what a good story is. I’m more of a writer who just wants to tell what I want to tell, and I really don’t care what the textbooks have said about you have to have your inciting incident – you have to have your characters wants – you have to have to have stakes. I know all that but I don’t think I’ve really internalized it and I’m frustrated with myself because those scripts are not getting made.
So now I’m being forced to become a better writer and a better storyteller and that’s not easy, right James? It’s not. It’s growing. It’s exhausting. It’s hard work. I’m tired of being rejected but this is the path I chose and most of the time I love it.
JAMES
John with Sable at Emerald Lake
So, as you mentioned before, your husband John said to you the night before he died, “Maryanne you know that’s exactly what’s going to happen in twenty years. You are not going to become a writer until you make writing a priority until you believe in yourself you will not become a writer.” So now almost twenty years after his death what do you think John would say to you about what you’re doing and what you’ve accomplished with your writing?
MARYANNE
I think he’d be super proud of what I’ve accomplished and where I’m at, but I think he’d be kind of puzzled, as I am puzzled, as to why some projects are taking so long to complete even though I’m doing my job, and I’m showing up every day and doing the work, and I’m finishing a project and then it goes out into the world and then the world sends it back, and I think he’d be interested – I think we’d be having some good conversations about that.
JAMES
So, then looking ahead what is your vision of life as a writer?
MARYANNE
I would say the life of a writer is learning to embrace the process and learn to love the process of writing. Like the day in and day outness of it. So, for me being able to get up in the morning and be super excited where I’m at – no matter where I’m at in the cycle of a project – no matter if it’s going well or not going well. If it’s not going well to embrace the challenge and if it’s going well to go, “Yes, I’m almost done and it’s going to be great.”
Maryanne Pope on the road. “Embracing the process.”
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity. This particular post is a combination of two interviews with Maryanne Pope. One conducted on April 8, 2016, and one conducted on December 8, 2018. DOWNLOAD – James Hutchison Interviews Maryanne Pope
Queen of the Ring by playwright Wendy Froberg is the story of Johnnie Mae Young who spent over seven decades of her life slamming, punching and clawing her way to the top of the women’s professional wrestling world. Despite her pin-up good looks, she was a trash-talking bad girl the crowds loved to hate. From the carnival sideshows of the dirty thirties to the glitz and drama of the WWE, Mae Young rose to fame as the toughest, most dangerous female and one of the top attractions in the rough and tumble, disreputable world of old-school pro wrestling.
JAMES HUTCHISON
So, Wendy, how did you stumble upon the story of Johnnie Mae Young?
WENDY FROBERG
I was reading my Facebook newsfeed in early 2014 and a story came up about her because she had just died at the age of 90. And even though I’m a native Calgarian and I grew up with Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling I’d never heard of Johnnie Mae Young. The photo of this blonde bombshell throwing another woman around a wrestling ring captivated me and I just had to click on the link and once I started, I couldn’t stop. Everything I read led me to the conclusion that this was one of those, truth is stranger than fiction, stories that needed to be told.
JAMES
Well, why did you feel this need to tell her story and write a play?
WENDY
This woman wrestled from the dirty thirties of the depression era right up to the post-millennium WWE. Seven decades. Can you imagine stepping into the wrestling ring and getting tossed around when you’re in your eighties?
Johnnie Mae and other female wrestlers like her had to overcome incredible odds to make their mark in a world dominated by men. A lot of them escaped brutal childhoods where they were neglected or abused, and they were exploited physically, sexually and financially by the male wrestling promoters who they depended on to make a living.
These women lived in a time when women were supposed to be demure ladies in heels and make-up, and not down-and-dirty, ass-kicking fighters. They broke the rules about how women were supposed to behave sometimes at a great cost to themselves. These women were feminists before we had a name for it. They were trailblazers who proved that despite the theatricality and fakery involved in wrestling it’s a true sport and they were bona fide athletes.
And as someone who writes for the theatre, you can’t find anything more theatrical than professional wrestling! So, audiences coming to the show should be prepared for a lot of physicality, some sweating, and slamming, and maybe even being made to feel a little uncomfortable by the rawness of Mae’s life. But don’t be afraid to get involved in the moment because we all know it’s always a lot more fun when you pretend it’s real!
JAMES
What sort of message do you think Mae’s story has for the people of today?
WENDY
There has always been a history of people in power, often white men, taking advantage of those with less power, often women and people of colour, and so I think Mae’s story is very timely considering the greater awareness and growing power of the #metoo and #timesup movements. Mae and her colleagues fought back against their exploitation and rose to create lives of truthfulness and empowerment. She knew she had skills, talent, ambition, and drive and didn’t let anyone stand in her way which sometimes led to real fights outside of the ring as well as in. But it’s also true that she used her sexuality as a source of power and this brings up another question we grapple with today and that’s if a woman chooses to use her sexuality to get ahead, is she still being exploited because it’s largely men who want what she has? That’s something I’ll let the audience decide for themselves.
JAMES
Any time you tell a story there’s a certain amount of poetic license involved. How did you balance the real story of Mae’s life with the needs of creating a compelling story for the stage?
WENDY
I wanted to honour this woman by telling her story accurately, but you can’t fit everything in because there just isn’t enough time in a stage play. Sometimes you have to condense characters or change the order or timing of events. But I’ll say this: the characters in the show are real people and the events really did happen and the spirit of her story, the amazing contributions she made to the sport of wrestling, is one hundred percent truthful.
JAMES
Tell me about the creative team behind the production. Who is the cast and who is the director and what’s it been like to work with that team?
WENDY
I’ve been so impressed with the professionalism of Attollo Productions. They’re a new company and they’ve worked hard and employed all their creative skills to figure out a way to tell Mae’s story in a compelling, exciting and engaging way. They’ve respected my script and my role as the playwright and they’ve honoured the actors time, skills and process. The production is being directed by Chelsea Friesen who is also a fight choreographer, so she’ll be ensuring the safety of our actors while working with all the performers to make the wrestling moves believable. Brett Waring is producing the play and she’s also the dialect coach and assistant fight director on the production. Chelsea and Brett and several of the other cast members had previously worked on developing Queen of the Ring so I’m grateful we’ve been able to keep many of the original cast and I’m really honoured they’ve chosen my play for their inaugural production.
JAMES
So, who should come and see the show?
WENDY
Everyone—assuming you’re eighteen or over. The producers decided that since the show is raw and deals with sensitive subject matter such as sexual abuse, it would be best to limit the audience to adults. If you love a good, rollicking story, if you’re interested in the history of an unusual, sometimes wild and wacky sport, if you love stories about real-life, flawed people who nevertheless inspire us as we see them overcome obstacles and live their truth—then this play is for you.
JAMES
If Mae were alive today and could come to see the show you’ve created what do you think she’d say – or what do you hope she’d say?
WENDY
Well, I’d be scared shitless if I got it wrong and she didn’t like it, because that woman – literally – wouldn’t pull any punches about letting me know what she thought. I do think—or hope—she’d see that we’ve recognized the depth of her skill and tenacity, the obstacles that she and her fellow female wrestlers had to overcome to survive and thrive in a tough, unfair world, and the fact that she didn’t care about being nice or liked, as so many women do. We didn’t sugar-coat anything or cover up any ugly realities about her less-than-perfect behavior. We captured her strength, resilience, and love of the sport as both an athlete and an entertainer. Mae Young truly did it her way and I think she’d agree that we showed that.
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CAST: Jade Benoit, Hailey Carr, Chris Gibson, Kathryn Kozody, Fred Krysko, Jesselle Lauren, Shaylea Pangle
CREATIVE TEAM: Playwright Wendy Froberg, Director & Fight Director/Choreographer: Chelsea Friesen, Stage Manager: Danelle White, Producer & Dialect Coach & Assistant Fight Choreographer: Brett Waring, Intimacy Director: Anastasia St. Amand, Costume Design: Christie Johnson, Props Manager/Costume Intern: Kaylee Pratt, Dramaturg: Caroline Russell-King Produced by Attollo Productions.
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WENDY FROBERG: Wendy’s solo shows Interruptions and A Woman of a Certain Age® were each awarded “Outstanding Original Script” at the 2011 and 2013 Calgary One-Act Play Festivals, with AWOAC going on to win “Best of Fest” at the Calgary International Fringe Festival. Her plays, Riches and Best Interests, were produced in 2013 and 2014 by Urban Stories Theatre. She wrote the libretto for the 2015 Cowtown Opera Company production Annie Davidson. Wendy is also an actor who has appeared on stage with Theatre BSMT, Morpheus, Urban Curvz, Fire Exit and Scorpio theatres in a wide range of roles. In addition to working in theatre, Wendy is a registered clinical psychologist. She hopes you, like her, are inspired by the story of Mae Young and her fellow tough broads of wrestling!
If you have ambitions of pursuing a career as a screenwriter or television showrunner then I’d highly recommend you attend the Austin Film Festival. I attended the 2018 Austin Film Festival Writer’s Conference and found it to be a very rewarding and exciting opportunity to connect with industry professionals as well as up-and-coming writers. This interview with Matt Dy, the Director of Competitions about the Austin Film Festival will give you a comprehensive overview of what the festival is about and why you should enter the competition.
Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Austin Film Festival Barbara Morgan talks with the 2017 AFF Awardees: Walter Hill, Keenen Ivory Wayans, and Kenneth Lonergan.
We all have favourite stories – favourite films – favourite television shows and books and plays – because these stories somehow reach us. They make us laugh, or cry, or reflect more deeply about life, or simply give us a momentary escape from our troubles.
That’s why I’m really excited to announce that my play Masquerade is a finalist in the stage play competition at this years Austin Film Festival – which is a festival that’s dedicated to story. Masquerade is about an empty nest couple, Sarah and Glenn, that have drifted apart. They were talking divorce and selling the house until they discovered a book called: A Good Marriage is Just a Fantasy by Dr. Ravi Shasta. Basically, it’s a book about exploring your sexual fantasies with your partner. Unfortunately, sometimes what is real and what is fantasy can become blurred and what was intended to bring a couple closer together can sometimes drive them apart.
The Austin Film Festival is a celebration of film and television that focuses on story and the people who write the screenplays and teleplays. The festival features industry professionals as well as up and coming writers. I’ll be flying down to Austin to participate in the festival as well the staged reading of my play. I gave Matt Dy, the Director of Competitions for The Austin Film Festival, a call to talk to him about how the festival began and what participants can expect.
Gabbi Lindgren, Script Competitions Coordinator & Matt Dy, Director of Script Competitions – Austin Film Festival
JAMES HUTCHISON
The Austin Film Festival was founded in 1993 by Barbara Morgan, who still serves as Festival Director, for the purpose of furthering the art and craft and business of screenwriting and filmmaking. So, I’m curious over the last twenty-five-year history of the festival how have those founding goals been developed?
MATT DY
The Festival was also co-founded by Marsha Milam who is still involved in a limited capacity, but Barbara Morgan is sole Executive Director for the Festival now. The two of them started the festival because they felt there was a need for a community like this. There really wasn’t a writer’s festival let alone very many screenplay competitions at the time. There were maybe a handful and now there are hundreds of them in existence, but we’re one of the original ones which is a really nice thing to be able to say.
The thing that still remains intact over the twenty-five-year history of the festival is our goal and mission to champion the screenwriter. We’re now open to playwrights and eventually we may become more of a hub for all forms of story because we’re also expanding into fiction podcasting and we have a digital series component as well – content for the web – so there’s a lot of different formats that we’ve embraced over the years but the mission to champion the writer is still the same.
First Day of the Austin Film Festival in 2017 – a room full of storytellers.
JAMES
You know when I think of successful screenwriters they might have different success stories but I’m wondering if there might be a couple of qualities that sets the successful screenwriter apart and I’m thinking one of those qualities is having a dedication to the craft. In what way do you think a dedication to the craft benefits a writer’s career and development?
MATT
That is absolutely essential and it’s easier said than done. I’m a writer as well and I tend not to take my own advice – to write every day you know – you hear of people who have nine to five jobs and they’re married, and they have kids, and maybe they have a second job, and they still make time to write. So my thing is to not make excuses anymore and just do it. It is about dedication. It is about finding time to write because, as a writer, you want to treat the writing as if it’s going to be your job. You need to set deadlines and goals and that’s why competitions are a great thing for writers because you work towards a deadline to get your script in for the competition.
It’s also teaching you about persistence. You’re a finalist in our Stage Play Competition. You’re in the top three out of 655 plays that were submitted but a lot of people that didn’t make it as far as you have may actually have a really good play and we may have overlooked it because – it’s a little bit of the luck of the draw – trying to find a good match for the reader that might respond to it. It’s a human process, and it’s incredibly subjective, so you’re going to get different results from different competitions, and so it’s also about being persistent and moving on and entering the next competition
JAMES
Enter other ones or give it a rewrite and enter again.
MATT
Yeah, and you’ll find that exists in every creative field. And if you pick any popular film or stage play that has gotten produced – if you talk to those writers they will tell you consistently that they had so many doors closed on them – so many people told them this would never get produced or shouldn’t be produced and yet they still got it produced. And so the writer’s process is to write every day and stay persistent, stay focused, and write the story you want to tell.
Writer, director, actor Dennis Hopper at the Austin Film Festival in 1997.
JAMES
You said you’re a writer yourself so I’m just wondering from your own perspective – because you’re surrounded by writers – what does keep someone going? I mean those rejection letters are piling up and you work for years for little money…what is that keeps writers going? Why do they keep writing stories?
MATT
Passion. Love. A lot of playwrights are incredibly passionate – they love their work – they do it for the love of the art – and I think a lot of screenwriters feel the same way. It’s a dream and if you don’t have a dream it’s hard to find the motivation to get up each day and work on that passion project
JAMES
I wonder if part of it might be realizing that when you sit down at your desk to begin the research, the writing, the outlining or just diving into writing your script you might be starting a ten or fifteen or twenty-year journey in order to realize that project.
MATT
Absolutely. Everybody has their own process. There are some writers who end up having one project that they spend their entire lives working on, but there are other writers who work on many different projects all at the same time because they know their one pet project may not be the one that gets them discovered.
JAMES
The festival has a number of writing competitions. You’ve got the feature-length drama. You’ve got the comedy feature. Horror. Sci-fi. So you’ve got lots of different categories, but I’m wondering, regardless of the genre, do you notice anything that the winning scripts seem to possess? Something in them that makes this writing stand out.
MATT
I think if I had to pin it on one thing it would be stories that have that unique voice – that unique perspective. Those stories end up winning or advancing in the competition. It’s always their unique spin on a familiar story. A different perspective so that when you’re reading it you go, “Oh that’s brilliant. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Each writer is going to have their own perspective on the world and so their version of a story is going to be different than someone else’s version of the story, and you can tell when they’re writing something for themselves for the passion and for the love of their story rather than when they’re trying to write something for the masses that they think would sell.
Writer/Director Robert Altman – M.A.S.H., McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nashville, and The Player talks with screenwriter and actor Buck Henry – The Graduate, Get Smart, and Catch 22 at the Austin Film Festival.
JAMES
You bring up an interesting point because I just watched Get Out which was a huge hit last year and so I’m wondering when you have a hit like that – a film that, you know, is well made, does well at the box office, gets awards – does the success of that film, in the marketplace, influence the types of scripts you see being entered into the festival?
MATT
Oh yeah, not just the marketplace but also the climate – and what’s happening politically and what’s been happening in the industry with movements for diversity. All these different ancillary things that are happening in the world obviously effect what people are writing and submitting to the competition. You can definitely feel that when you’re reading scripts, and you’ll find that there are many people who are commenting on the current President and many of the other things that are happening in the Zeitgeist because we write to talk about and make sense of the world we live in.
Of course, there are going to be people who are going to try and anticipate what is marketable and usually if they try to emulate what’s popular right now they’re too late because those projects were long in gestation and they’re striking a cord now. As a writer, you should just continue to write what you’re passionate about and then something might happen to make your script a timely subject. There was a playwright here from last year in the playwriting competition who happened to write a play about immigration on a border town in Texas. It was a play she had written a long time ago that never got produced but she pulled that back out of her drawer because she knew this is the time for it.
JAMES
Well, let’s talk a little bit about the festival. There are two components. There’s the film festival and there’s the conference and the conference is filled with industry professionals and established as well as up and coming writers. What’s the conference part of the festival about?
MATT
I like to call it summer camp for screenwriters except it’s only four days. It sort of has that Kumbaya feel when you first arrive. It’s palatable – at least for me. You know you can stereotype writers and say they’re all an isolated bunch who are very introverted who don’t like to converse or be communal, but I find that even the most introverted screenwriter, deep down, really wants to connect, and I think when they realize that wow, I’m not the only one who feels that way, and they come to a conference where it’s a bunch of introverts and a lot of thinkers and creative types who are just like them then the walls start to come down. And we try to make it easy for them to get to know each other and just converse and make friends. Usually without fail that’s what happens.
Samuel Weller, Allison Norlian, Sean Collins-Smith, and Emily McGregor at one of the many mix and mingle functions at the 2017 Austin Film Festival
MATT
I also think a lot of people come to the conference with the goal of getting their script sold and produced or getting an agent or manager but that rarely ever happens at the festival. I like to think of the festival as an incubator where things just take time to develop. Like you’re planting the seeds. You’re making connections with people you wouldn’t normally be able to meet. If you place in the competition you’re going through a special track of panels with people who are just like you – quality writers, talented people with great ideas, so you’re in a very talented room with people that you’re going to several events with and you never know you might find your next collaborator or somebody who would love to read your work and would introduce you to somebody that they know in the industry and so usually those are where most of the success stories come from.
JAMES
As a participant in the conference there are panels there are readings what kind of things are happening?
MATT
Everything that happens at the conference is about the creative and business sides of story, so if you want to learn about other people’s writing process and how you can apply that to your own writing you can do that, or if you’re really wanting to understand how it works in the TV writers room we usually have that covered. We have pitching opportunities, we have script reading workshops, we have an indie filmmaker track as well if you’re a filmmaker and want to learn more about microbudget filmmaking. We have a playwriting track. We have a panel that covers writing for webisodes. We have a script to screen series where writers will show a few clips from their film or show and show the process of what they wrote and how that translated to the screen. We have a conversation series with people who just talk about their career in general and usually, those are the bigger people and in particular our awardees like Tony Gilroy
Barbara Morgan co-founder and Executive Director of The Austin Film Festival hosts In Conversation with Kenneth Lonergan the writer/director of Manchester by the Sea.
JAMES
Why don’t we talk a little bit about that since you brought it up? As part of the festival, you honour screenwriters and filmmakers, and the very first person that was honoured at the festival was Horton Foote who wrote Tender Mercies and adapted To Kill a Mockingbird for the screen, and then last year you had Kenneth Lonergan at the festival who wrote and directed Manchester by the Sea. Who are you honouring this year and why?
MATT
I mentioned Tony Gilroy who is a screenwriter and filmmaker. He’s somebody that we’ve tried to get for a very long time. We try and find people that have a rich history of contributing to storytelling and also have an ability to be accessible to our audience because that’s something we also pride ourselves in is that you have an opportunity to meet Tony Gilroy and talk with him or meet somebody like Vince Gilligan the creator and showrunner for Breaking Bad who took the time to meet everybody when he was here for the festival.
Tony Gilroy is the writer/director of the Oscar Nominated thriller Michael Clayton starring George Clooney. He also wrote the first three Bourne films and co-wrote and directed the fourth film in the franchise. More recently he is the co-writer of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the writer/producer of the political thriller Beirut starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike.
MATT
Another awardee we have this year is Daniel Petrie, Jr. who we’re giving our Heart of Film Award and we invited him because he’s been involved with the festival for such a long time and he really loves our festival and he’s very giving and he comes almost every year and we even gave his production company a category the Enderby Entertainment award because his company produced a finalist script from I think 2008 or 9 from our competition and it premiered here at the festival, and they’ve worked with many writers that they’ve met here at the festival. And so usually we try to find in an awardee who has left a mark on the industry and is somebody who can share words of wisdom for the next generation of creators.
Daniel Petrie, Jr. will receive the Heart of Film Award for his many contributions to the film and television industry and his service to the screenwriting community. Dan’s screenwriting credits include the Oscar-nominated Beverly Hills Cop as well as The Big Easy, Shoot to Kill, and Turner and Hooch. Dan is also a two-term past president of the Writers Guild of America West and a long time panelist and supporter of the Austin Film Festival.
JAMES
And you’re also honouring Roger Corman. How many careers has he helped launch?
MATT
Yes, I know that’s another reason it was very clear why we chose him because when you find out all the careers he’s started you wonder why he hasn’t received more credit. It was clear for us that he needed to be an awardee.
Roger Corman has been credited with discovering such talent as Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Diane Ladd, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, and James Cameron. He is the director of over 500 films including Little Shop of Horrors, Death Race 2000, and The Pit and the Pendulum. Corman’s company New World Pictures was also a distributor of foreign cinema including the work of Francois Truffaut, Akira Kurosawa, and Federico Fellini.
JAMES
And then you’ve got Larry Wilmore.
MATT
Yes, and he’s somebody else who has been so great as well. Somebody who has been great talking with our attendees and very giving and very accessible as well.
Emmy Award winning Larry Wilmore has been a television producer, actor, comedian and writer for more than 25 years. Wilmore created the Bernie Mac Show which ran for five seasons on FOX and recently helped launch ABC’s Black-ish. On camera, Wilmore was the “Senior Black Correspondent” on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and was the host of his own show The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore for two years on Comedy Central.
JAMES
So, my play Masquerade is a finalist in this year’s Stage Play Competition and I’m really excited to be attending the festival, but I was curious about why you decided to add a stage play category to the film festival?
MATT
It was our Executive Director who had the idea to do it because we work with many playwrights, and we find that many screenwriters and tv writers aren’t just screenwriters and tv writers they also have plays and a lot of these people have been asking us to start a playwriting competition. A lot of playwrights living in New York City, for example, find it hard to make any money as a playwright so a lot of them make their money in TV. The Americans, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black those writer’s rooms took place in New York and a lot of them consisted of playwrights. We started the screenplay competition in 1994 because there was a need for something like that and so we thought this would be a great way for playwrights who want to make that transition into film and television to utilize the resources that we already have in place. And also to give recognition to your own play because the placement and the exposure your play gets from the festival could help get it produced because every playwright still wants to have their play produced.
JAMES
Let’s talk about the other aspect of the festival – so you’ve got the conference part but it’s also a film festival and the film festival runs for an additional four or five days after the conference ends. What are some of the highlights coming up this year as far as films go?
Closing Night Film at the 2018 Austin Film Festival is The Front Runner starring Hugh Jackman. Based on the real-life story of politician Gary Hart whose 1988 run for the Democratic Presidential Nomination was sidelined by reports of an extramarital affair with Donna Rice.
MATT
What I love about our film festival is that our mission to honour the writer still exists. All the awards that are handed out for the different categories in the film competition are handed out to the writers of the film. Not the director or the producer. You know when you watch award shows or you’re at a film festival and they announce the best picture they usually hand out the awards to the director and the producing team. Unless it’s a writer/director but usually the writer isn’t involved with directing or producing they just wrote the script. But at our festival, the writer is the one who actually receives the award. We put a stronger emphasis on the quality of the writing than the marketability or the production values of the films that are chosen to be in the festival. So story really is the thing that we look for the most.
Greta Gerwig the writer and director of the Oscar-nominated film Lady Bird attends the 2017 Austin Film Festival screening of her film.
MATT
The thing that’s nice about our festival is that we’re after Toronto after Venice – after all the bigger film festivals that have those Oscar contenders – and so we have a lot of those big films that end up getting nominated for Oscars. Last year, I think, we might have had nine or ten of them. We had Lady Bird, Three Billboards, I Tonya, Mudbound, and Call Me By Your Name.
JAMES
That was quite the lineup.
MATT
And while a lot of people are going to be gravitating towards the bigger marquee films that we have this year like The Favourite or Boy Erased or Widows you don’t want to miss out on all the other films that are playing within the film festival competition because those are films that you might not be able to see anywhere else anytime soon.
JAMES
So, as I mentioned this is my first time going to the conference. What basic tips or advice can you tell me about coming to the festival that I should know and would help prep me or anybody else who is going?
MATT
Well, get familiar with our list of panelists that are attending the festival and the conference. Find out if your screenwriting heroes are going to be here because they’re going to be out during the festival. They’re going to be at the Driskill bar and they’re going to be at the partner parties and their badge is just going to say their name. It won’t tell you any of their credits or if they’re a panelist. So you never know who you’re going to be standing next to and if you recognize them you can respectfully introduce yourself like, “Hi I’m a finalist in the playwriting competition.” And there aren’t very many finalists. There’s about fifty of you and that’s a huge difference from the ten thousand five hundred scripts that were submitted this year. And your badge will say finalist and you should wear that badge proudly and introduce yourself, “I’m James, I’m a finalist in the playwriting competition.” And that is something that will hopefully open doors. “Oh, you’re a finalist. Okay, tell me about your play.” And of course what’s also going to happen next is, “Well what else are you working on?” And so be prepared to talk about other work that you’ve written and of course be ready to talk about your play.
2017 Panelists Amy Berg, Eric Heisserer, Megan Amram, and Raamla Mohamed attend the Writers Guild of America West Welcome Party
MATT
You’d be surprised how many writers come here and they have a fantastic piece of work but they don’t know how to talk about it to people. So, just be prepared for that elevator pitch but I wouldn’t necessarily call it pitching at the festival because nobody really likes to be pitched to. A lot of these agents and managers and producers who are here are here to have a good time and to meet writers and contribute to the festival. They don’t want to be treated as if the only reason you’re talking to them is so you can send them your script – there’s so many people that are after them that they just want to be treated like a human being.
JAMES
Well, treat them like you would want to be treated if you were in their position.
MATT
Yeah, exactly and as a manager, it’s all about the relationship and so if that’s how you’re going into it they’re probably going to think I’m not sure I want a relationship with this person. And don’t forget about your fellow writers that are sitting right next to you because you know everybody comes here wanting to try and meet the panelist or agents and managers but it’s a chance for you to meet other writers like yourself and develop your network and friendships and your professional relationships.
JAMES
I was thinking about the legacy of the festival. And I have to say I really like what you guys are doing with the Austin Film Festival – On Story. Tell me a little bit about how that started and what you guys are doing with that part of the festival.
MATT
So, Barb our Executive Director had always envisioned that we would have a TV show and so she had the foresight to record all of our panels during the festival and to keep a record of it so that we could utilize it in some way one day. And we also had a lot of people who attended our festival asking if we had any recordings so there was a demand for it. And so we went through our archives and created a quality product that PBS loved and picked up and our marketing team has gotten us in almost all the markets for PBS and now On Story has expanded into a book and a radio show on PRI and we have a podcast as well. So On Story has really become its own brand and people really love it.
JAMES
I watched a couple of them on YouTube and shared them through Facebook, and Twitter and Instagram. I watched Carl Reiner talking about the early days of working on the Dick Van Dyck Show and it was really interesting, and I watched Kenneth Lonergan who you had here last year and I thought it’s nice to have those things available.
Vince Gilligan creator of Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul at the 2013 Austin Film Festival
MATT
And we’re proud to say we’re an Emmy award winner as well. We won an Emmy for our episode featuring Vince Gilligan whom I had mentioned earlier and actually, we’re nominated this year for an Emmy for our episode featuring Eric Heisserer the writer for Arrival.
JAMES
I’ll have to hunt those down and watch them. Are there any legendary stories from the festival that you can share?
MATT
Oh God. Legendary stories. Well from the first year the winning script in our competition actually got optioned and produced rather quickly. It was called Excess Baggage and it was written by Max D. Adams. It had Alicia Silverstone and Benicio Del Toro in it.
I believe the first screenwriters’ conference for AFF happened at Willie Nelson’s old opera house, but it was run down, and it was rainy but somehow it brought people together, and you know we said magic happened there. I wasn’t around for it but this is what our director Barbara Morgan has said repeatedly over and over again – that magic happened there despite all the chaos because everybody was there because they believed in story and telling their stories. And a lot of big influential people from Columbia Pictures were there as well and they felt the magic too, and I think that helped encourage them to become more involved with us and to see us as a legitimate resource for writers, and they optioned that first script and produced it and that’s really what put us on the map.
Austin Film Festival 2017 Awards Lunch (L to R) Walter Hill, Extraordinary Contribution to Film, Keenen Ivory Wayans – Extraordinary Contribution to Television, Kenneth Lonergan, Distinguished Screenwriter
MATT
And you know what feels legendary for me each year is the Awards Luncheon and hopefully you’ll see that and feel that too when you’re here because the awards luncheon is where we celebrate the winners in the competition and win or lose it’s still a really great event because on that stage we are awarding up and coming writers from our competition and we’re also honouring the established writers like the Tony Gilroys, the Larry Wilmores, Roger Corman, Dan Petrie and so they’re all on the same stage together. And what’s so beautiful is that one of those awardees, almost without fail, will comment on what they’ve seen from the up and coming writers. They’re deeply moved by the time they get up on stage because they’re also not sure what to expect at our festival. So, when they see we’re really championing the writer and they’re hearing all the winner’s stories and we even have a young filmmakers award so they end up seeing young kids going up there and accepting awards too it makes an impact. And these kids are in awe of what they are seeing – you know these teenagers are seeing people from different backgrounds and ages winning our script competition and our film competition and then they’re seeing highly established people as well and so that’s really inspiring for the next generation of young people who are going to continue to create and write and tell stories. And for me, that feels legendary because everybody always comes away feeling so invigorated and inspired.
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The Austin Film Festival and Writers Conference runs from October 25th to November 1st. You can check out all the details regarding the Festival at their website online.
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AFF is pleased to announce the 2018 Script Competition Finalists and Winners. 51 scripts were chosen for the Final Round with one winner to be determined in each of the 13 categories. The winners were announced during this year’s Conference at the Awards Luncheon held on Saturday, October 27 at the Austin Club. (Winners in Bold.)
COMEDY FEATURE SCREENPLAY Presented by Sony Pictures Animation
Sex APPeal by Tate Elizabeth Hanyok Darryn the Bold and the Sword of Boldness by Justin Best Meet Cute by Noga Pnueli My Date Is Kate by Carlin Adelson Orientation by Eve Symington
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DRAMA FEATURE SCREENPLAY Presented by Writers Guild of America, East
Horsehead Girls by Wenonah Wilms The Death of Colm Canter by Revati Dhomse & Hector Lowe Dig Two Graves by Jared Schincariol The Huntress by Abdullah Alhendyani The Innocent and the Vicious by Dominique Genest & Nick Kreiss
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SCI-FI FEATURE SCREENPLAY Open to science fiction, fantasy, horror, surrealism, myth/legend and fantastical storytelling.
Our Own Devices by Paul Vance Darryn the Bold and the Sword of Boldness by Justin Best No Man’s Land by Jeffrey R. Field & Michelle Davidson
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HORROR FEATURE SCREENPLAY Open to thrillers, dark suspense, sci-fi, and macabre themes.
The Patience of Vultures by Greg Sisco Blood of Israel by Davey Morrison Shaky Shivers by Andrew McAllister & Aaron Strongoni
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ENDERBY ENTERTAINMENT AWARD For feature scripts in all genres with an original concept and distinctive voice that can be produced for under $10 million. The production company was founded by Rick Dugdale and Daniel Petrie, Jr.
Project Horizon by Charles Morris Grit N’ Glitter by Seth Michael Donsky The Patience of Vultures by Greg Sisco Put Your Hands In by Warner James Wood Surfmen by Christopher Rhoads
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AMC DRAMA TELEPLAY PILOT All Semifinalists will be reviewed exclusively by AMC who will determine the Finalists and eventual Winner.
Worth by Stuti Malhotra Double Time Dames by Davia Carter Liberty Falls by Robert Attenweiler Lifers Anonymous by Sean Collins-Smith Mindset by Ethan Solli & Ziba Sadeghinejad Ticker by Connie O’Donahue & Jeremy Nielsen
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COMEDY TELEPLAY PILOT
What Will Jessie Do? by KevinLuperchio Band of Mothers by Sabrina Brennan Bastards by Erin Muroski The Last Abortion Clinic in Kansas by Tammy Caplan Rice, Fish, and La Croix by Naomi Iwamoto
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DRAMA TELEPLAY SPEC
The Handmaid’s Tale: Rebels by Angela Jorgensen Billions: Trust by Amanda Parham The Handmaid’s Tale: The Abduction by Todd Goodlett
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COMEDY TELEPLAY SPEC
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy Volunteers! by Maggie Gottlieb Better Things: Goy Vey by Robert Axelrod Master of None: Headspace by Honora Talbott
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SHORT SCREENPLAY
Ruby Throat by Sarah Polhaus Seat 23B by Eliott Behar A War on Terror by Peter Haig
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SCRIPTED DIGITAL SERIES Presented by Stage 13
Epizootic by Daniel Young Halcyon by Jonathan Marx hello, world\ by Michelle Sarkany
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STAGE PLAY
Particular Disposition by Benjamin Fulk Masquerade by James Hutchison Disposable Necessities by Neil McGowan
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FICTION PODCAST
The Rest Stop at the End of the Universe by Samuel Suksiri Alethea by Katrina Day & Phillip R. Polefrone Forces by Len Sousa Welles D-11 by Simon Nicholas
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JOSEPHSON ENTERTAINMENT SCREENWRITING FELLOWSHIP FINALISTS In addition to this year’s Script Competition Finalists, we are proud to announce the Finalists for the inaugural Josephson Entertainment Screenwriting Fellowship. This new opportunity will provide a one-on-one mentorship with producer Barry Josephson and his team in Los Angeles for the writers of one feature screenplay and one teleplay pilot.
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Feature Screenplays
The Death of Colm Canter by Revati Dhomse & Hector Lowe Darryn the Bold and the Sword of Boldness by Justin Best Meet Cute by Noga Pnueli The Patience of Vultures by Greg Sisco Sex APPeal by Tate Elizabeth Hanyok
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Teleplay Pilots
Lifers Anonymous by Sean Collins-Smith Band of Mothers by Sabrina Brennan Mindset by Ethan Solli & Ziba Sadeghinejad Ticker by Connie O’Donahue & Jeremy Nielsen Worth by Stuti Malhotra
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Revised on November 26, 2018.
