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.
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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.
Lauren Brotman in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.
Rachel Watson wakes up one morning from a drunken blackout with a gash across her forehead, her hands covered in blood, and no memory of the night before. Adding to the mystery is the unexplained disappearance of Megan Hipwell a woman whose life Rachel has been obsessing over and observing as she travels by train to and from work every day.
Not content to let the police and Detective Inspector Gaskill handle things Rachel begins her own investigation into the mystery while she desperately tries to remember that night and figure out what happened. Add to the mix Megan’s husband Scott Hipwell and Megan’s therapist Kamal Abdic and then throw in Rachel’s own ex husband Tom Watson and his new wife Anna Watson and there are plenty of secrets to be revealed and several suspects to uncover in this exciting and tension-filled thriller.
Jack Grinhaus Artistic Director Vertigo Theatre Photo by Dahlia Katz
I sat down with Jack Grinhaus the Artistic Director of Vertigo Theatre and the director of The Girl on the Train to talk with him about the show, the importance of trust in the rehearsal hall, and what Vertigo Theatre has planned for their 2024/25 Theatre Season.
JAMES HUTCHISON
So, Jack, Vertigo Theatre is producing The Girl on the Train adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel based on the best-selling novel by Paula Hawkins and the Dreamworks film which came out in 2016. How did this particular play land a spot in your season?
JACK GRINHAUS
It was a great book that I read and adored a number of years back and the play is written very much in the thriller mode – which I really enjoyed. I love the idea of a strong female lead. I love that there’s a truth about women in the world and how they are perceived. I thought the issues around alcoholism and memory were really intriguing subject matter to deal with. And the play is also highly entertaining and challenging because you’re trying to tell this story that’s flipping through different times and spaces. So, to me, it felt like a story audiences would get behind but it’s also the kind of work I’m interested in which is very much that fast-paced thriller that I think Vertigo’s been moving towards.
JAMES
You talked about the novel and the challenge always is how do you tell the story in a different medium. How does the play convey the story but still manage to capture the essence of the novel?
JACK
The novel takes the view of all three women. So, you have chapters from Anna, Megan, and Rachel and each chapter kind of overlaps. So, you’re seeing all three women through their own interpretation of their experiences whereas the play focuses on Rachel’s story and Megan and Anna’s stories are told through the eyes and the memory of the other people telling their version of events.
So, when Megan is confessing to having an affair to her husband Scott, she’s cruel and vicious and mean about it because of how he remembers it. He remembers it in that way and in this way, Megan becomes more of an enigma. There isn’t one version of Megan. We see four to five different versions of Megan. We see her how her therapist Kamal sees her. How Scott sees her. How Tom sees her. And how Rachel sees her as sort of this fantasy character.
Adaptations are really about finding a way to distill the book’s ethos into the play and finding a way so that the important tenants of the book and the story and characters are retained in a way that makes sure the book’s main thrust is still present and existing but in a format that is contracted and shrunk.
JAMES
The film boasts an outstanding cast including one of my favourite actors Emily Blunt who was up for an Oscar this year for her role in Oppenheimer. Your own cast that you’ve assembled for this production is outstanding with many Vertigo favourites bringing the story to life. You’ve got Lauren Brotman playing Rachel Watson, Filsan Dualeh playing Megan Hipwell, Tyrell Crews as Tom Watson, Stafford Perry as Scott Hipwell, Jamie Konchak as Detective Inspector Gaskill, Mike Tan as Kamal Abdic, and Anna Cummer as Anna Watson. Tell me a little bit about this cast and what qualities each actor brings to their roles.
JACK
Lauren who plays Rachel is my wife and we’ve worked together for a number of years and Lauren has an extraordinary facilitation with emotion. She’s able to capture emotion in multiple ways. She can go from screaming to laughing to crying in the span of a second or two. And she’s able to make the character of Rachel much more affable because the Rachel character if not done well can come across as this irritating self-absorbed narcissist who’s getting involved in something she shouldn’t get into. But because Lauren is capable of giving us a much more authentic and nuanced experience, she brings complexity and truth to Rachel.
When it comes to someone like Ty and Stafford, they’re both well-known in the community and they’re both strong male counterparts to Rachel. And in this story, they have the opportunity to support Rachel but they also both provide a bit of danger. Ty has played the bad guy a lot and he’s the sweetest guy so he can play a sweet guy but then flip that switch.
And Stafford is someone who feels almost like a little boy in a man’s body. And Scott is like that. He’s just this guy who gets thrown into this situation and he says, “You know five minutes ago I was just a guy with a mortgage and a wife and suddenly now I’m a circus attraction.” And he’s not good at that.
Anna Cummer who plays Anna in the play is so wonderfully idiosyncratic in the way that she prepares as a human and as an actor and as an artist. She’s a seasoned actor – a strong actor – who can give us that neurosis, jealousy, and fear that the Anna character has.
Jamie and Mike are just excellent rocks. You know whenever you cast a company of actors you need a couple of rocks in the company who hold down the fort because we have Rachel and Anna and Scott all emotionally up here so the key to an ensemble is to have two people that are emotionally down here.
And then Filsan brings this beautiful youth and enigma. She’s the youngest person in the company. The one with the newer experience in theatre comparative to the other actors who have maybe ten or fifteen years on her. So that innocence is kind of Meghan in a way, right?
So, they each have qualities that are really within the characterization and a lot of that came up in the audition process and right away we went, “Ah, you embody this character in this way as a person naturally.” And then as a group I needed really strong actors because of the nuanced performances necessary for it to be a believable piece of theatre.
JAMES
You mentioned that your wife Lauren is in the show and that you’ve worked with your wife over the years and I’m curious to know how do you enjoy that professional relationship and how do you maintain a successful personal relationship?
JACK
I don’t know how it is for other people, but we’ve just always been very similar on how the art is done. We can battle in the rehearsal hall, and I know that she’s going to try and do the best out of what she can get from the character, and she knows that I’m only going to try and get the best out of her. But at the end of the workday, we go home and leave it alone. And if someone starts talking about the work at home the other will say let’s wait for the rehearsal. And because I think we see art in the same way the end game is always the same and, in that way, it means we’ll never actually fight because we know we’re both trying to reach the same goal.
Filsan Dualeh and Stafford Perry in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.
JAMES
From what you’re saying I’m taking that trust is a huge part of your relationship with your wife but let’s expand that out to talk about how important is trust in the rehearsal room and putting on a production.
JACK
It’s critical. I always say as a director I need to win the room in the first five minutes of the first rehearsal. Because if I don’t win the trust of that team – if they don’t believe that I can lead the ship – then I’m going to lose them and once you lose the room it’s very hard to get it back.
And so, I like to come in very well prepared and also come in with a great sensitivity to the understanding of the actor process and let them know that I’m strong and I’m here to support their journey. I’m happy to have discussions about things and if I’m curt or I cut you off it’s only because part of my job is about time management, and I have to keep things moving.
So, I’m very clear upfront about the rules of the game. People know I’m the leader of the team, but it doesn’t mean that your voice is not needed wanted or justified and if there’s time to have conversations we will. So, I’m really clear on my vision and the idea I have for the show so that they can buy in. And the key to building trust in that room is about supporting each other and giving them a place where they feel they can work safely.
JAMES
So, let’s say I have a friend this weekend who says I don’t know what to do and I say there’s Vertigo Theatre’s production The Girl on the Train. What should I tell them? Why should they go see it? What’s the hook?
JACK
I think it’s a gripping, exhilarating, crime thriller experience and we all love that storyline. And because you’re following this journey through the eyes of the unreliable narrator there are red herrings and that’s a bit of a puzzle and it’s also highly theatrical in its presentation. The writing and the acting are naturalistic, but the set and the projections are much more expressionistic and metaphoric, so I think it feels very epic in scope. So, if you want a really great experience, you can come out and have a drink and have a conversation with some of your friends and see something that is not only theatrical it’s cinematic in style and it’s a great thriller with great acting.
Lauren Brotman and Jamie Konchak in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The Girl on the Train. Photo Tim Nguyen.
JAMES
Since you mentioned cinematic a couple of weeks ago the Oscars came out and I’ve seen a few awesome films that were nominated this year like American Fiction which just blew me away and The Holdovers which I loved. And on the weekend, I saw Past Lives and that devastated me. Which totally surprised me. But for me out of the films I’ve seen so far, I think the one I like best is The Holdovers. Did you have a favourite out of the films that you’ve seen and were nominated this year?
JACK
I loved Oppenheimer. I really did. I found myself really drawn to it. I mean I love Christopher Nolan the director and I love the work that he does. The performances weren’t necessarily very deep emotional experiences but I’m a big history buff and I love the storytelling and the way it was shot and even though it was a longer film it didn’t feel like it. It didn’t drag at any point for me. I was in it the whole time. I just wish I’d seen it in the movie theatre and not at home because it feels so epic and I would have loved to have been in the cinema for that one.
JAMES
I saw an interview with Jeffrey Wright who was in American Fiction, and he said when he’s making the work he doesn’t think about awards but afterwards awards bring recognition to the work and if they’re going to hand out awards anyway why not hand them out to him. And that made me laugh. So, I’m curious about your thoughts. We have the Betty’s coming up which are our local theatre awards. What are your thoughts about placing artists in competition with each other and that whole idea of awarding work?
JACK
There are many layers to that question. With film and TV when you win an award it can actually bolster awareness about the film and the work helping it to grow but usually a play is completed by the time it gets an award so I’ve always felt that awards are really valuable for young artists who are coming up and it can give them some stature. It’s kind of like good reviews. Those things can bolster grant writing potential and maybe even opportunities for work and so I’ve always thought awards are really great for young people.
I’m also curious about the idea that does a work of art only become great if it’s publicly lauded or can a work of art still be great even without that? You think of some of the greatest artists in history people hated for years and years and years and then suddenly twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred years later their works are being lauded.
I think it’s valuable in it’s a way for communities to get together and to at least acknowledge each other and that’s great but we could also just have a big party at the end of the year – a big theatre party and have a nice dinner together and just celebrate each other in a way without necessarily having to say you’re the best of the best you know.
When Connie Chung was interviewing Marlon Brando she said, “You know you’re considered the greatest actor of all time.” And Brando said, “Why do we always have to deal with absolutes? Why does it always have to be somebody is the best? Somebody is the worst. Can’t you just attune yourself to a thing and be one of the people who does that.”
JAMES
So, last year you gave me a little sneak peak about next season, and I was wondering what do you have planned for the 2024/25 theatre season at Vertigo?
JACK
Well, it’s about turning the page and I always build seasons that are feeling the zeitgeist of the day in a way and trying to understand where we are. And I think even though people would argue the pandemic isn’t over we are certainly past the most fearful stage of it where we just didn’t know anything, and we were all just guessing. And I think we’re in a place now where we have a better understanding that helps us reflect on ourselves and look at that time and think about who we are today.
So, for me – turning the page – are stories about people who are doing exactly that. They’re reflecting on the past and figuring out what are we going to do now in the future. And so, all of the plays live in that ethos a bit. And we also want to provide opportunities for audiences to have a great time next year. It’s still a hard time in the real world so why not enjoy the entertainment that we can provide. And we’ve got four premieres this coming year. So, lots of new plays.
We start the season with The Woman in Black which is a ghost story and just closed in the UK after nearly thirty-five years and over 13,000 performances since 1989. And we were the first phone call to say can we have it because they kept it on moratorium for a number of years – not allowing anyone to produce it. And it’s about Arthur Kipps looking back on his past to try and understand what happened to his family. So, starting off with something like that around Halloween is lots of fun.
Then there’s the Canadian premiere of Murder on the Links which is a new version of a Christie Poirot – which everybody loves with six actors playing thirty roles. That’s exciting. It’s nostalgic with the way we love those chestnuts that time of year. It’s the holiday season. People want nostalgia. They want to look back a little bit and see those things and it’s a great story right.
We have the Canadian premiere of Deadly Murder. Deadly Murder is a dark deep psychological thriller. Very uncomfortable. Very cat and mouse. It’s that thing where you lock two or three people in a room and you see what happens. And it’s the old Hitchcock thing. It’s not scary to find out there’s a bomb in the room. It’s scary to find out there’s a bomb in the room that’s going off in five minutes and now what?
Then we have the world premiere of a new play called A Killing at La Cucina which is about a food critic who dies at a restaurant called Fate where one in a thousand people are fed poison and they go there because of that. And we’re introducing this new super detective who might very well be the next Poirot named Lucia Dante who investigates this fast-paced and intense mystery along with her AI colleague Isabella.
And we close the season with the Canadian premiere of The DaVinci Code which you know is nearing a hundred million copies in sale. It’s been about twenty-odd years since the book came out and I don’t think there’s a person who hasn’t at least heard of it. And I think that audiences are looking for things that they can recognize, and I think DaVinci Code is definitely one that is an exciting piece that is adapted by the same people who did The Girl on a Train, so it’s got that fast pace and that excitement in a treasure hunt adventure that goes all across Europe.
How are we going to do that?
We’re not going to have Europe all over the stage but that’s the beauty of theatre we’re going to use the set design and maybe the projections and the sound and the way that the lighting is set to create those environments where the audience goes – Yes you are in a Piazza in Milan. I see it. I see it all. Right. You’re in the Louvre. I totally take it we’re in Paris. So, I think those challenges – you know a big ten-person or eleven-person cast and a big show to crown the season – are the kinds of things Vertigo is excited about moving into.
Joe Perry in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
The Vertigo Theatre production of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde promises love – betrayal – and murder – and it delivers all three in a highly theatrical production all brought to life by a terrific cast under the artful direction of Javier Vilalta.
Joe Perry takes on the role of the tortured genius in a physically demanding and nightmare-filled performance. Daniel Fong is the voice of reason as Dr. Jekyll’s friend Hastings Lanyon. Grant Tilly plays Gabriel Utterson whose investigations eventually reveal the true relationship between Hyde and Jekyll. And Allison Lynch plays Eleanor Lanyon a smart complex woman who finds herself being drawn towards darkness and obsession.
This is a story of mystery and horror and the lighting, costumes, live music performed by the actors, the towering brick walls, and intermittent fog all add to the growing sense of dread and doom. Nick Lane’s script is faithful to the original story while providing some new and exciting elements. The play works best when there are big bold moments as we follow Jekyll – a man whose desire to provide the world with scientific knowledge – is thwarted by the monstrous pleasure-driven animalistic side of his own humanity.
I contacted Joe Perry to talk with him about the production and the process of bringing this classic tale to the Vertigo stage.
JAMES HUTCHISON
What does Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde say about the light and the darkness that dwells in all of us?
JOE PERRY
It’s really looking at that duality and what happens when desperation and unintended consequences put you in a situation where you have to reconcile your own morals. Dr. Jekyll starts out doing his research looking to leave his mark on humanity but there is this unintended consequence. He feels released physically. Because as Dr. Jekyll he’s trapped in this physically ill body and when he becomes Hyde he’s free. But that freedom has consequences. And now he has to make a choice. Does he move towards that freedom that he gets with Hyde, or does he continue his work with the integrity that he originally intended?
And I also think part of the exploration is that we all have thoughts that are not something we’re proud of or something that we would say out loud, but the repression of that – of its very existence – is not going to make them go away. It’s just going to bottle them up and then they’ll explode out in an animalistic way. I think possibly that’s a bit of what people are afraid of in themselves. And being Hyde gives him this freedom and this release but at a cost to everyone around him and at the cost of his own sanity and at the cost of people’s lives and safety. And yet he can’t not do it because that freedom is so tantalizing.
Daniel Fong, Grant Tilly, and Allison Lynch in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
JAMES
Besides yourself, this production features three other well-known actors to Calgary audiences. There’s Daniel Fong, Allison Lynch, and Grant Tilly. They’re all playing multiple characters in this version of the story. What was the rehearsal process like? What sort of discussions amongst yourselves did you have about Jekyll and Hyde as you brought the story to life?
JOE
Well, our director Javier really challenged us, and we had some conversations about those moral questions that the play was bringing up. And it was a really free and interesting room to be in. I’ve never been in a rehearsal hall like this because Javier works so visually. He has these beautiful stage pictures in his head that he’s putting together. And he sees all these design elements and the four of us are kind of like in this playground made of that but we’re not necessarily seeing all of the elements as he’s seeing them. So, we were able to play and extend in a way that you don’t get to do in a lot of plays.
And I think you see that in a lot of the characters. I think Grant, Allison, and Daniel have transformations as actors on stage as profound as the Jekyll and Hyde transformations. And their characters are just so wonderfully crafted by each of them that it’s really an honour to share the stage with them. They’re people that I have worked with before or I have watched on stage and I have nothing but the utmost respect for them. So, I am just sitting here in full gratitude every day to be able to share the stage with them.
Joe Perry and Daniel Fong in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
Grant Tilly and Joe Perry in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
Grant Tilly, Allison Lynch, Joe Perry and Daniel Fong The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
Daniel Fong and Joe Perry in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
Joe Perry in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
Allison Lynch and Joe Perry in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
Joe Perry and Daniel Fong in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
JAMES
You mentioned that Javier uses a lot of physicality. And the play contains theatrical moments – moments that stick with you – and it’s exciting to see a production embrace that. How did some of those key moments evolve?
JOE
There’s a fight in the play that Javier had seen in his head and we kind of choreographed that together. He knew when he wanted it to go in slow motion and when he wanted it to be an extended, brutal, very theatrical sort of fight sequence. So that was sort of starting from the design first and then putting the movements into what he wanted to do.
But then with something like the first transformation from Jekyll to Hyde, he gave me a framework of where the lights would be and then he let me sort of free flow into it and he’d say, “More. You can go more.”
My favourite bit as an actor and something that I haven’t had the opportunity to do since theatre school is the final shattering of Hyde where it gets really expressionistic in the physicality. That was another bit where Javier told me to, “Just surrender to the physicality. This is not a moment of realism. This is a moment of extension. This is a shattering of the psyche and just surrender to it.”
And being able to do that as an actor is cathartic because you get to extend beyond what you would see in a naturalistic play, or what you would be able to experience in a naturalistic play. So that catharsis was really fun. And Javi had real specific ideas of what these characters would look like and then when he put them over into our hands he was really open to seeing where we were going with them and there was a real give and take and support.
JAMES
How is it to be back on stage and in particular the Vertigo Stage?
JOE
Honestly, it’s just an absolute joy. I was lucky enough to do The Extractionist by Michaela Jeffery here last year. That was the first play I’d done in four years. I mean, it’s my lifeblood. I missed it. I’ve missed it through the pandemic. Stepping away from the stage for that long was never the intention. And the Vertigo audiences are generous and committed. And it’s just a pleasure being able to play these characters on stage. I can’t even really begin to express my gratitude.
JAMES
Jekyll and Hyde are pretty iconic characters in the Western Cannon. They’re pretty well known and played by all sorts of actors in all sorts of adaptions including Spencer Tracey and Lon Chaney during the silent movie era.
JOE
That was one of the first ones I watched.
JAMES
What did you think?
JOE
It was great. Interesting and totally different themes.
JAMES
Yeah, totally. And that’s the neat thing. Do you think maybe part of what makes something a classic is its ability to be flexible in its interpretation?
JOE
Yes. The short answer is yes. The long answer is that this narrative is in almost everything that we watch. It’s Fight Club. It’s The Hulk. Jekyll and Hyde is in almost every movie. It’s in almost every play. Everybody knows Jekyll and Hyde on the macro scale. They know – take a potion and become someone else. It’s The Nutty Professor. And you can explore so many different themes. Nick Lane’s adaptation explores some very specific experiences in his life. Javier’s interpretation of Nick’s adaptation is Javier exploring his own things. And then my acting of Jekyll and Hyde is exploring my own thing. It’s just such a wonderful and rich conduit to explore the human condition because essentially, it’s about the duality of man, which I think is a pretty age-old question in philosophy and art.
Allison Lynch in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Photo Fifth Wall Media
JAMES
There’s a female character Eleanor Lanyon who is new to the story in this adaptation and she seems to have a dual nature in many ways too.
JOE
Yeah, she’s a rich and complex character as well. And the way that Allison portrays Eleanor is super rich and complex. She’s dealing with more than just the potion and the science. She’s dealing with the constraints of a marriage that isn’t fulfilling. She’s dealing with the constraints of the time in society. And this is totally just my own look at that character. But I think she is really struggling with so many different constraints that the men in the play aren’t. We’re doing things for our hubris and honour. She’s doing things for her freedom and her autonomy.
JAMES
So, you got to play Jekyll and Hyde and there are other iconic characters like Hamlet, Poirot, and Sherlock Holmes in the Western canon. Are there other characters – well-known or not – that hold a particular fascination for you that you would like to play?
JOE
I mean, Hamlet is an easy answer. But if we’re going with Shakespeare Prince Hal has had a special part in my heart for a long time. Just an interesting character to me. And I’ve always wanted to do Sam Shepard’s True West with my brother Stafford. But to be honest my passion lies in playing new characters. I love new work. I love working on new plays. I love incepting new characters.
JAMES
What is it that fascinates you about the creation of new work?
JOE
It’s alive. Reprising old work is alive too. You can always look at something through a new lens. But having the ability to take new interesting voices from our communities that are speaking about current contexts and being able to explore that in a way where it’s not going up against an existing benchmark that’s already there or trying to contextualize something from another time into this time I find really exciting. I think there are so many unique interesting Canadian – Calgarian – Albertan voices. And every time I see these new works at any festival or on the larger stages I find it thrilling. Workshopping or acting in a new play in any sort of capacity or a new movie is my passion for sure.
JAMES
That’s where your heart lies, does it?
JOE
Part of it. But it’s always fun to go and see iconic characters. Everybody knows Jekyll and Hyde or Hamlet and the question is how can I authentically bring myself to this role? How can I make it something that’s current and something that’s interesting and something that says something that nobody else could have because so many people have said their own thing with it already? So that’s been a lovely challenge and something I always welcome. And I’m really proud of the work, and I’m really proud of the room, and I’m really proud of all of the people that are involved in this production.
***
VERTIGO THEATRE presents
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde By Robert Louis Stevenson. Adapted by Nick Lane Four actors bring Robert Louis Stevenson’s gothic horror to life.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde features Joe Perry as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Daniel Fong as Hastings Lanyon, Allison Lynch as Eleanor Lanyon, and Grant Tilly as Gabriel Utterson with Bernardo Pacheco and Tiffany Thomas as Understudies.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is written by Robert Louis Stevenson and adapted by Nick Lane. Directed by Javier Vilalta, Set Design by Lauren Acheson, Costume Design by Ralamy Kneeshaw, Lighting Design by John Webber, Sound Design, Composition and Musical Direction by Kristin Eveleigh, Dialect Coaching by Laurann Brown, Fight & Intimacy Direction by Brianna Johnston, Stage Management by Laurel Oneil, Ashley Rees and Caaryn Sadoway.
Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Last year I started my theatre season by seeing a production of Misery at Vertigo Theatre starring Anna Cummer as Annie Wilkes and Haysam Kadri as Paul Sheldon. The production was directed by Jamie Dunsdon and it was so good I saw it twice. And this year I had a chance to start my theatre season with another Stephen King story by sitting in on the dress rehearsal for the Front Row Centre Players production of Carrie: The Musical.
Stephen King – Photo by Shane Leonard
Stephen King’s writing career or as I like to call it – his Decades-Long Reign of Terror – could conceivably be traced back to the publication of his first novel Carrie in 1974. That novel changed King’s life. In fact, he threw his first few pages of Carrie into the garbage and wasn’t going to spend any more time working on the story until – his wife Tabatha fished it out of the garbage and read it and said it was good and he should finish it.
So, he did. And when the publisher sold the paperback rights for $400,000 half of which went to King, he was able to quit his teaching job and begin writing full time. And I suppose there is an alternate universe where he threw away the story and his wife tossed it out with the garbage and Stephen King remained a teacher of high school students and retired after 40 years of public service and at the age of sixty-five moved to Florida where he enjoys lawn bowling and dining out at the all you can eat Crazy Buffet. Now there’s a horror story. If you want to hear King tell the story of how Carrie came to be check out the link at the bottom of this post where he tells the story in his own words.
Carrie started as a novel in 1974 and became a successful movie in 1976 that starred Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Piper Laurie, and Nancy Allen. In 1988 Carrie was slated for a Broadway run as a musical. And why not? There are plenty of successful horror musicals such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Evil Dead The Musical, and Little Shop of Horrors. Carrie with its supernatural elements and high school drama seems like the perfect story to adapt into a musical. Unfortunately, the original Broadway Production shut down after only 16 previews and five performances and a loss of seven million dollars, but it was far from dead.
Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
There was an Off-Broadway revival in 2012 where the score and book were revised by the original composers Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, and writer Lawrence D. Cohen and several of the original songs were replaced with new compositions. Our own Calgary connection to the story is that the current artistic director of Theatre Calgary Stafford Armia was involved in the readings and workshops that lead to the 2012 revival. This led to an Off-West End production in 2015 that opened to mostly positive reviews.* And when I checked Concord Theatricals which controls the performance rights for the show they had over 50 scheduled productions listed. So, I’d say Carrie has finally found its audience.
And that’s partly because one of the things that makes King such a successful writer is that he writes sympathetic and relatable characters that find themselves in unusual or supernatural circumstances. Life is often cruel and unfair in his stories and that’s one of the reasons we find them so compelling. – who doesn’t like to cheer for the underdog? In The Shining Jack Torrence isn’t simply a mallet-wielding psychopath. No, he’s a man trying to stay sober and be a good father while fighting the supernatural forces that are leading him toward a murderous path. And in The Shawshank Redemption who doesn’t cheer for the innocent Andy Dufresne wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife and sent to prison where his efforts to prove his innocence are thwarted by a corrupt warden and prison system? And who doesn’t travel back to their own long summer days of childhood while watching Stand by Me because it’s a story about friendship, doing the right thing, and being a kid on summer vacation.
Deidra Michel as Carrie White, Becky Salmond as Miss Gardner and Willow Martens as Chris Hargensen in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Lyndsey Paterson as Margaret White & Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Lyndsey Paterson as Margaret White & Deidra Michel as Carrie White in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Russell Bishop as Mr. Stephens and Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC Production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Kianna King as Sue Snell in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Kianna King as Sue Snell and Nolan Brown as Tommy Ross in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Willow Martens as Chris Hargensen in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Deidra Michel as Carrie White and Becky Salmond as Miss Gardner in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Deidra Michel as Carrie White and Selwyn Halabi as Billy Nolan in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Willow Martens as Chris Hargensen in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Dwaigne Quierra as Freddy in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Becky Salmond as Miss Gardner, Deidra Michel as Carrie White, and Nolan Brown as Tommy Ross in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Nolan Brown as Tommy Ross & Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Lyndsey Paterson as Margaret White & Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Alexa Jobs as Carrie and Kianna King as Sue Snell in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
In Carrie, the plot follows Carrie White a shy girl who lives on the edge of the high school community and when not fading into the background at school she spends her time at home with her fanatical Christian mother Margaret White who practices a particularly toxic religious faith. Margaret has kept Carrie in the dark about the facts of life and so when her daughter experiences her first period in the girl’s locker room shower, Carrie reacts with horror and panic. Rather than helping Carrie the rest of the class, being typical high school kids, make her an object of ridicule as they taunt and bully her. It isn’t until the gym teacher, Miss Gardner, steps in that the girls back off and are asked to apologize. When Chris Hargensen refuses to apologize and instead tells Carrie to “eat sh*t” Rita bans Chris from attending the prom.
Sue Snell one of the popular girls who participated in the taunting feels particularly guilty about her treatment of Carrie and convinces her boyfriend Tommy Ross to take Carrie to the prom instead of her. At first reluctant he finally agrees to ask Carrie to the prom, and she accepts. Meanwhile outraged over missing the prom and blaming Carrie for her troubles Chris along with her boyfriend Billy Noland plot their revenge. While all this is going on Carrie discovers that she has telekinetic powers and in the days leading up to the prom she practices her abilities at home by moving and levitating objects. Needless to say, while the prom goes well initially for Carrie this is Stephen King and you know things aren’t going to end well.
Nolan Brown as Tommy Ross & Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
Director Kristine Astop has assembled a talented group of young actors with the lead role being split between Deidra Michel and Alexa Jobs who play Carrie on alternating performances. On the night I saw the show Deidra Michel was playing Carrie and gave a heartfelt performance as Carrie navigates her dismal existence between her life as an outcast at school and her abusive life at home with her mother. Lyndsey Paterson as Carrie’s salvation-obsessed mother can be loving but also savage and terrifying in her zeal to wage war against the world and rid it of sin. Kianna King does a terrific job of playing the guilt-ridden Sue Snell who only wants to make amends for how she treated Carrie. Nolan Brown gives a sympathetic performance as Sue’s boyfriend Tommy Ross the jock with a poet’s heart. Willow Martens is perfect as the self-absorbed and popular mean girl Chris Hargenson who takes things too far, and Selwyn Halabi has the right mix of cocky smart-ass attitude to play Billy Nolan, Chris’ boyfriend, and partner in crime.
The set designed by Jamie Eastgaard-Ross features a multi-leveled platform across the back of the stage that effectively creates different acting spaces that represent the school, Carrie’s home, and the gym on prom night. There’s also live music which is always a bonus when it comes to musicals. A live band can respond to the subtle differences that happen during a performance from night to night and add to the energy of the production.
As far as the actual music goes it sets the scene and moves the narrative along with the most powerful numbers being given to Carrie’s mother Margaret. And perhaps that’s because she’s the most extreme character. She’s the one who is going to save her daughter from damnation and will do anything in order to achieve that. But what I think Carrie: The Musical seems to be missing is a few hit songs – songs that go beyond the stage and make their way into pop culture. Songs like “The Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show or “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera – songs that a lot of people know even if they haven’t seen the musical.
Even so, I enjoyed the show and I think what makes Carrie work today is the fact that all the behaviour we see on stage is certainly reflected in the worst aspects of social media and how we treat each other online. In fact, you could simply argue that social media is just a tool for behaviours that have already been a part of our tribal repertoire for generations. And that undercurrent of hate and anger and mob behaviour creates a sinister feeling to the events that unfold on stage and that’s the perfect subject matter for a musical, don’t you think?
FURTHER READING
How Carrie changed Stephen King’s life and began a generation of horror: Writers and readers recall the shock of reading the debut novel about a high-school outcast who discovers paranormal powers and reflects on its huge influence. by Alison Flood. The Guardian. April 4, 2014
* Carrie: The Musical: Originally premiering in the U.K. in 1988, Carrie opened on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre the same year, but closed after 16 previews and five regular performances.
Talking Volumes: Stephen King on “Carrie” Author Stephen King talks about his first published novel, “Carrie,” during the Talking Volumes series at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kerri Miller hosted the live event on November 18, 2009. He tells the story about how his wife Tabatha fished Carrie out of the trash after King had thrown the first few pages away and decided not to finish it.
Bronwyn Steinberg Artistic Director of Lunchbox Theatre – Photo by David Leyes
Bronwyn Steinberg the Artistic Director of Lunchbox Theatre is a passionate community builder focused on making theatre an inclusive gathering space where stories are shared that celebrate the diversity of human experience.
“The thing is humans are storytellers and stories are the best way I know to help people understand different people’s perspectives, and if you do understand different perspectives that will – at least in my dreams and in my hopes – help lead to more equity and egalitarian workings in the world and something that is less dominated by money and power.”
I sat down with Bronwyn a few weeks ago to talk with her about Bertolt Brecht, the exciting new season at Lunchbox, and her passion for theatre.
JAMES HUTCHISON
Since you were six years of age, you’ve been sitting in on rehearsals because your mother was a drama teacher at the time and she’s now a professor at the University of Calgary. Tell me a little bit about growing up in the rehearsal hall, and how you think that relates to your life’s path.
BRONWYN STEINBERG
Some of my earliest memories are of going with my mom to the rehearsal hall, and I remember she was directing Grease, the musical. And she was very serious about her rehearsal hall. The kids had to be in character all the time. Even if they weren’t on stage. And I just thought it was fun. I just thought it was normal that you grew up and you did plays. And it wasn’t just seeing my mom in rehearsal. She also took me to plays my whole life, and as soon as I had opportunities to do after-school plays I always did them, and so the magic of theatre was always there, and I got to see so many shows, and I just always knew it was something I wanted to do.
The Great Canadian Theatre Company’s 2018 production of Drowning Girls. Directed by Bronwyn Steinberg.
The Great Canadian Theatre Company’s 2018 production of Drowning Girls. Directed by Bronwyn Steinberg.
Bronwyn Steinberg embarking on a life in the theatre.
Bronwyn Steinberg rehearsing Pirate Jenny’s Circus for the 2009 Ottawa Fringe. Devised creation based on the works of Bertolt Brecht.
Bronwyn Steinberg rehearsing Pirate Jenny’s Circus for the 2009 Ottawa Fringe. Devised creation based on the works of Bertolt Brecht.
Breath of Kings: Rebellion at Stratford. Directed by Weyni Mengesha with Assistant Director Bronwyn Steinberg
JAMES
Would you attribute any of your style of directing to having spent those early years watching your mother direct?
BRONWYN
I don’t know if I can pinpoint anything. I have certainly learned a lot from my mom both from just watching the way that she works and the way she is in the world and the way she is as my mom because she’s an incredibly powerful personality and super smart and very strong. I’ve learned how to step into a leadership role when needed, but also I’ve learned how to let someone else lead. And I think that serves me as a director. So, when I need to really take charge in the room I can, but I’m also really good at stepping back and empowering other folks to also have leadership within the space.
JAMES
I was doing some research and I came across a couple of past interviews where you mentioned you studied Bertolt Brecht.1 Brecht was an innovative voice in the theatre, and he was very unconventional in his thinking and approach. He believed theatre should challenge an audience and their view of the world not simply be entertainment. So, what is it about Brecht’s approach to theatre that you find exciting, and what influence has it had on your own work?
BRONWYN
It comes back to my folks and my background and who I am in the world, thanks to my family. My parents Shirley and Joe were always very politically engaged and very much on the left end of the spectrum. And their approach to education was deeply influenced by Paulo Freire2 and critical pedagogy. I am not a Freire scholar, nor would I call myself a Brecht scholar either but what’s interesting is both Freire and Brecht are coming out of similar times even though they are in very different places in the world. They’re coming out of a need to speak against powerful regimes and speak up for the common person. And there was always a feeling observing my parents growing up that felt like whatever I did, whether it was in theatre or otherwise, I had to have a sense of social justice and doing good in the world, and speaking up for people or finding a way to help empower people whose voices haven’t been heard.
And so, when I started learning about Brecht, I found he was one of those theatre creators who took a political philosophy that kind of inherently made sense to me and figured out a way to play with it on stage in his practice. The thing is humans are storytellers and stories are the best way I know to help people understand different people’s perspectives, and if you do understand different perspectives that will – at least in my dreams and in my hopes – help lead to more equity and egalitarian workings in the world and something that is less dominated by money and power.
Lincoln Centre Theatre 2018 Directors Lab. Photograph Joan Marcus
JAMES
So, you’ve gotten experience early in your career at the Lincoln Center in New York and at the Stratford Festival here in Canada. I’m wondering how those particular experiences were a value to both your artistic practice and the development of your career.
BRONWYN
The Lincoln Center was an opportunity to be part of the Directors Lab, so it wasn’t part of their regular programming. I didn’t work on any shows but for three weeks in two summers, I got to be part of a seventy-person lab of people from all over the world talking about directing and engaging with ideas about why we make theatre and how we do it. There was about a third from the New York region and then another third from across the US and then the other third was from all over the world. And at Lincoln Center and at Stratford part of what was so important to my development, both as an artist and within the structure of my career was meeting people. It’s all about the people you meet and the different ideas that are sparked in random conversations over lunch or sitting under a tree or in the rehearsal hall.
It was really powerful for me to learn at Stratford that yes, I was surrounded by some of Canada’s most talented and experienced theatre artists, but they’re also humans and everybody making a play kind of does some of the same things. We all go into rehearsal and put a thing on stage, and we speak the same language even though our approaches are really different. But we’re all just trying to tell a good story and reach an audience and make it clear and make it compelling and make it entertaining and make it meaningful. And both of those experiences, I think, really helped me accept myself as an artist.
Stratford Langhamites – a group photo of participants from the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction after a masterclass with Mary Zimmerman
JAMES
You lived in Ottawa for twelve years. You got your MFA there and you made it home and you became a vital part of the local arts community. In 2013, you formed Theater Artists Cooperative: the Independent Collective Series, which is known by its acronym TACTICS.
TACTICS was designed to give independent artists an opportunity to stage larger-scale works beyond the production limitations of things like the Fringe and to let artists have larger casts and more sophisticated design elements.
And now we’re ten years later; TACTICS has been a huge success. You’ve staged multiple shows. You have a main stage series as well as a number of play development opportunities and though you are no longer in Ottawa as the artistic producer, you are still on the board.
So big congratulations. You started something and not everything that people start succeeds, you succeeded, and it must have taken a lot of drive, determination, and long hours. What was the process like? How did you stay motivated? And what sort of future do you envision for the festival?
BRONWYN
I’m really delighted that I was able to create something that didn’t just end when I left, which is so often what happens to a passion project, and it doesn’t mean the passion project isn’t valuable. It just means that it’s hard to sustain. And so, I’m really glad to see that the Ottawa community has embraced TACTICS and felt like it’s really a necessary thing.
Back in the beginning, I was slow to incorporate the organization. Slow to bring on a board of directors and slow to try to switch from project funding to operating funding because one of the things I really wanted to be sure of was, does Ottawa even need this? Or does Bronwyn need this?
And it was clear that I felt I needed something. I knew I wanted to be an artistic director and I didn’t know how to get a company to take me seriously if I didn’t have any experience. So, I thought, “Well, I’ll create something and be the artistic director of it, and I’ll learn a bunch and that will be a great stepping stone in my career, and hopefully it will make a contribution to the community.” But I wanted to see what contribution it was making in the community before I tried to put all the things in place so that it could sustain a transition.
And it was always a labour of love and always a passion project and I don’t ever want to try to consider how many hours I put into it and what money I actually got paid out of it because there was a lot of unpaid labour as I was building it. That’s not necessarily a good model to start an organization, but that’s the world we live in. If you’re some sort of entrepreneur, you kind of have to build it and hope that they come and then pass it on to new leadership.
I’m so deeply proud of it, and I’m so excited about the new leadership and the growth that is continuing to happen there. Micah Jondel DeShazer is now the Artistic Director, and Lydia Talajic is the General Manager. They’re the staff and now they actually do get to invoice all the hours that they work and have a salary.
TACTICS 2019 – Swedish Furniture by Matt Hertendy
TACTICS 2017 – girls! girls! girls! by Greg MacArthur, produced by Cart Before the Horse
TACTICS 2019 – Albumen by Mishka Lavigne
TACTICS 2018 workshop of Mad Margaret adapted by Bronwyn Steinberg from Shakespeare’s history plays
TACTICS 2019 – The Omnibus Bill by Darrah Teitel, directed by Esther Jun. Behind the Scenes.
TACTICS 2017 – The Hottentot Venus Untold by Jacqui du Toit
JAMES
You did an interview a couple of years ago where you said, Lunchbox is the right job of all the artistic director jobs you’d applied for. You said, “It’s the best fit, but it is also the best timing.” So, what made it the best fit? Why was it the best timing? And now that you’ve been in the job for a couple of years, how is it working out?
BRONWYN
I love Ottawa, but it’s a smaller city and I was ready for new opportunities. So, the timing was really good because we had incorporated TACTICS and had already started to think about a succession plan. But it was also late 2020 and my independent artist career was kind of like staring into a terrifying void like so many of us because everything had been cancelled. And I thought, “Oh, my God. What am I even going to do?” And I felt like I’d won the lottery getting an actual salary and a job at a time when no one knew when theatres were going to open again.
And I also think everything kind of happens for a reason because I did end up at the right place. I think Lunchbox’s emphasis on new works and new Canadian works is really something that is just very beloved by me. With TACTICS I did a lot of new play development and a lot of working with emerging artists. And Lunchbox has quite a history of being a place where emerging artists get their first professional gig or where more established artists get to try something new and actors get to become directors and a lot of what I was doing at TACTICS was creating opportunities for folks to work on a scale they hadn’t before.
And so, it just felt like such a natural fit in those ways. And the programming over the years has kind of a tradition of it’s at lunchtime and you want to have a good time at the theatre. And as much as I talk about socially relevant and political and meaningful work, I still always want to have a good time at the theatre. And even if I am doing something that could have quite heavy themes, I want people to leave feeling uplifted, and as I looked at the history of Lunchbox shows I could see that type of programming. So artistically it felt like a really good fit as well.
Garret Smith and Barbara Gates Wilson in Cottagers and Indians at LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird.
Chris Enright, Trevor Schmidt and Jake Tcaczyk in Flora and Fawna Have Beaver Fever (and so does Fleurette!) at LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird.
Kim Kilpatrick and Ginger in Raising Stanley / Life with Tulia at LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird
Raising Stanley / Life with Tulia by Kim Kilpatrick, Karen Bailey and Bronwyn Steinberg at LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird.
Jameela McNeil and Christopher Clare in Heaven at LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird.
Emily Dallas, Valerie Pearson, Eric Wigston, Sepidar Yeganeh Farid in Home for the Holidays at LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird.
LBT Stage Two workshop of These Moments of Shine by Camille Pavlenko.
Tiffany Thomas and Anna Dalgleish in Countries Shaped Like Stars at LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird.
Maezy Reign and Robert Klein in Shark Bite at LBT. Photo Tim Nguyen.
Kit Benz, Ali DeRegt and Jamie Konchak in All I Want for Christmas at LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird.
Kit Benz, Ali DeRegt and Jamie Konchak in All I Want for Christmas by LBT. Photo Benjamin Laird.
Lunchbox Theatre 2023/24 Season Graphics by Maezy Reign
Lunchbox Theatre 2023/24 Season Grapics by Maezy Reign
Lunchbox Theatre 2023/24 Season Graphics by Maezy Reign
Lunchbox Theatre 2023/24 Season Graphics by Maezy Reign
JAMES
Well, then why don’t we talk about how your current season of plays feeds into that and reflects Lunchbox in the Calgary theatre community and maybe in the Canadian theatre community?
BRONWYN
I don’t usually think of programming around a theme, but as I look at these four pieces, I have realized that all four of them depict moments in people’s lives where another person really changes who they are and changes who they are in the world, which is I hope what theatre does for everyone.
In The Dark Lady there’s this imagined relationship between William Shakespeare and Emilia Bassano that if it happened, it actually transformed the world for all of us because it transformed Shakespearean literature. With Bells On is about this unlikely pair that gets stuck in an elevator together, and it totally opens each of their eyes to different experiences of the world. Kisapmata is a beautiful love story between a visitor to Canada and a Canadian resident who is part of her diaspora. And then The Ballad of Georges Boivin is about this guy who after his wife of fifty years dies decides to go on a road trip from Quebec to Vancouver with his friends to see if his first love is still in Vancouver. He’s not trying to get back together with her he just wants to know if someone who meant something to him fifty years ago is still there.
When I look at these four plays, they really go together in that theme while also being wildly different styles and different kinds of playwrights. Kisapmata is a new play by emerging Calgary artist Bianca Miranda, so it’s very local. With Bells On was developed at Lunchbox about ten or fifteen years ago by Darrin Hagen. The Ballad of Georges Boivin is a translation from Quebec playwright Martin Bellemare. And The Dark Lady by Jessica B. Hill just premiered this summer at Shakespeare in the Ruins in Winnipeg and at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. So, this season is a neat mix of things from – right here, right now; right here, ten years ago; and from other places across the country.
JAMES
In a time of infinite entertainment, we have YouTube, TikTok streaming services like Netflix and Disney+. There are all sorts of amazing shows out there, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Flea Bag, and The Good Place. There are interactive games – Red Dead Redemption, The Last of Us and The Last of Us crossed over and made an amazing mini-series. And you still find good old-fashioned radio, books, and music. So, where in this massive, modern, mix of art, storytelling, and entertainment do you think theatre fits. What does it offer that makes it unique or special?
BRONWYN
I think it offers what it always offered, which is a chance to be in community while you hear a story. And I think that all the amazing entertainment that is out there and the different media that is out there is really exciting. I love it. I consume all kinds of different things as a watcher and sometimes player but that doesn’t replace the need to actually share in the live theatrical experience. It’s similar to watching the game on TV or going to the game. Going to the concert or listening to the recording. Even going to the movies versus watching it at home on Netflix. Humans are social and we understand something differently when we do it with other people.
This amazing thing always happens when the first audience arrives for a show. Suddenly as a director I see the play differently. The whole time I have been rehearsing the show I’m trying to think what will audiences not understand? What will they find funny. And all that stuff? And then when I have someone sitting next to me, and they don’t have to do anything. They don’t have to laugh. They don’t have to ask me a question. They don’t have to give me feedback. The fact of them sitting there while we watch the same thing together in the room – boom – makes me see it differently. The way we observe something is different in company.
And I think that theatre will always have an important place in our storytelling and in that human need for storytelling because of what it offers by doing it live. You feel it as an audience member and you certainly feel it as a performer or theatre maker and it’s like, okay, we have this moment together. We’re here. You’re watching me. I am watching you and we are sharing in this creation of this idea about this story or character. And it is something we do together.
Maezy Reign and Robert Klein in the Lunchbox Theatre Production of Shark Bite by Meredith Taylor-Parry, directed by Chantelle Han. Set and Costumes by Bianca Guimarães, Sound by Kathryn Smith, Lighting by Ajay Bodoni. Photograph by Tim Nguyen.
JAMES
I noticed when I was doing some research for this interview that back in 2012 you did a production of The Hobbit at a prison. The only reason I mentioned it is because some years ago, I had an adaptation of my version of A Christmas Carol produced at a prison down in the US and I wrote a blog post about it. What was it like to do that show?
BRONWYN
Getting to do that show in the prison was a really special experience. It really taught me a lot about how important what we do is and how transformative it can be for people. And I got to attend a really neat conference presentation about prison theatre at an international theatre conference and they do a lot of theatre in prison in Italy. And it was an Italian director talking about it and everything he presented was amazing to me, but also completely unsurprising after my experience. They have found that in their prisons before the theatre program it was 60% of people that would re-offend or something like that and with inmates that had gone through their theatre program the rate was 6% and it was like this wild reduction.3
There is something really powerful about being a part of something like a theatre experience. It takes a person completely out of their day-to-day in the prison and gets them to be part of serving a greater purpose, which is the story and offering it to someone else, which is the audience. And I think we don’t realize how important it is for people to feel valued in the world and that they matter, and theatre is such a simple way to do that and it’s incredibly powerful. And actually, A Christmas Carol is kind of a great parallel because I think so much of Scrooge’s journey parallels what the guys that I worked with in prison were learning about being a part of something bigger and being a part of society in a way that a lot of them were never told they could.
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To purchase individual tickets to any Lunchbox show or play passes for the season visit the Lunchbox Theatre Box Office online or call 403-221-3708.
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1Bertolt Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956) was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. He developed the theory and practice of Epic Theatre. Epic Theatre proposes that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her. Instead, theatre should provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage. Brecht wanted audiences to have a critical perspective in order for them to recognize social injustice and exploitation and to be moved in order to go from the theatre and effect change in the outside world.
2Paulo Freire (19 September 1921 – 2 May 1997) was a Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy insists that issues of social justice and democracy are not distinct from acts of teaching and learning. The goal of critical pedagogy is emancipation from oppression through an awakening of the critical consciousness. When achieved, critical consciousness encourages individuals to effect change in their world through social critique and political action in order to self-actualize. His influential work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is considered one of the foundational texts of the critical pedagogy movement.
INTiP – International Network of Theatre in Prison The INTiP intends to support theatre projects for planning, relationship-building, debate and qualification in prison institutions around the world. INTiP presents itself as an instrument, a reference to the many operators of this growing field in the context of a phenomenon that originated internationally over 60 years ago.
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.
Ryan Parker, Vanessa Sabourin, Shannon Blanchet, Scott Shpeley, Garett Ross, Sheldon Elter, and Beth Graham in the Catalyst Theatre Production of Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathan Christenson. Production Design by Bretta Gerecke. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
Before I dive into a deeper look at Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe I’ll start off by simply saying I give it two thumbs up. I’d give it more thumbs but those are all I got. Evolution has seen fit to stop at two thumbs per person and that does seem to serve us well although had evolution seen fit to give me four I’d give Nevermore four thumbs up. So, yes – go see it. It’s a show that comes highly recommended not just from me but from countless other reviewers and audience members.
I think the best filmmakers, painters, and writers all have a particular vision. We know A Wes Anderson film from a single frame. We know a Van Gogh on sight, and we recognize a Rolling Stones song after hearing a few notes. That’s what makes these artists stand out. Their work is unique in form and structure and execution. These artists see and understand the world from a slightly different angle than the rest of us and so they bring new life to many of the things we take for granted – be that a sunflower or the life of a poet.
And so, who better to bring to the stage the life of Edgar Allan Poe – an artist with his own unique artistic view of the world – than Catalyst Theatre and writer, director, and composer Jonathan Christenson. Nevermore is filled with energy that explodes across the stage in bold and theatrical storytelling that distinguishes Catalyst Theatre as a truly unique and visionary voice in Canadian Theatre. And if Poe was able to shake off his uneasy slumber and journey from his resting place in Baltimore to Calgary and see the show – I have little doubt that he would be pleased with this nightmarish and mesmerizing telling of his tale – elaborate costumes, rhyming prose, imaginative staging, and a rather macabre story all set to music and flawlessly choreographed.
Scott Shpeley in the Catalyst Theatre Production of Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. Photo by Tim Nguyen. Production Design by Bretta Gerecke.
Nevermore first graced the Vertigo Stage in 2011 and this revival has the good fortune of bringing back together the incredible ensemble from that original production. Scott Shpeley channels the bedevilled poet with a wide-eyed wonder and a growing sense of doom as the other cast members transition between a multitude of characters in Poe’s life including his mother Eliza Poe an actress who dreams of fame and fortune played by Vanessa Sabourin.
Sheldon Elter brings to life Edgar’s older, gregarious, and optimistic brother Henry while Garett Ross takes on the role of the pious and stingy Jock Allan who gave Edgar a home when Edgar became an orphan after his mother died.
Ryan Parker plays the rather aloof Rufus Griswold once a friend of Edgar’s who becomes jealous of Edgar’s talent and makes it his mission to tarnish Poe’s reputation. Shannon Blanchet plays Elmira Royster Edgar’s first love whose father isn’t too keen about the prospect of his daughter marrying a poet. And Beth Graham plays Edgar’s first wife Sissy who must endure scandalous rumours about her husband’s involvement and affection for another woman.
These are big bold characters that move about the stage like living marionettes and the entire cast energetically throws themselves into a story that depicts the tragedies and hopes that haunt Edgar’s short life.
Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. Production Design Bretta Gerecke. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. Production Design Bretta Gerecke. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
Ryan Parker, Vanessa Sabourin, Shannon Blanchet, Scott Shpeley, Garett Ross, Sheldon Elter, and Beth Graham in the Catalyst Theatre Production of Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jonathan Christenson. Production Design by Bretta Gerecke. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe covers Poe’s life from birth to death. Forty years in a little over two hours. Like all biographical plays, certain things are adjusted and manipulated to tell a coherent and simpler story because – well you’ve only got two hours.
And in some ways, I think a play is very much like a painting – paintings are a version of reality seen through the lens of the artist and the subject matter of a play is a version of reality seen through the lens of the playwright and director and the actors and the entire creative team and the purpose of the play is to entertain – to enthrall its audience and Nevermore succeeds on every level.
Catalyst Theatre’s
NEVERMORE: THE IMAGINARY LIFE AND MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF EDGAR ALLAN POE
A whimsical and chilling musical fairy tale at Vertigo Theatre
The Cast
Shannon Blanchet (Elmira Royster) Sheldon Elter (Henry Poe) Beth Graham (Rosalie/Fammy/Sissy) Ryan Parker (Rufus Griswold) Garett Ross (David Poe/Jock Allan) Vanessa Sabourin (Eliza Poe/Muddy Clemm/Louise Gabriella) Scott Shpeley (Edgar Allan Poe)
The Creative Team
Jonathan Christenson – Writer/Director/Composer Bretta Gerecke – Set/Costumes/Lighting Designer Laura Krewski – Choreography Wade Staples – Sound Designer Matthew Skopyk – Music Producer Leo O’Reilly – Catalyst Production Manager John Raymond – Stage Manager Nyssa Beairsto – Assistant Stage Manager Ruth Alexander – Music Director Keven Green – Catalyst Technical Director Alexandra Prichard – Lighting Associate Kat Evans – Costume & Props Associate Jonathan Beaudoin – Costume Coordinator Rebecca Cypher – Costume & Props Assistant Derek Miller – Sound Design Assistant
Vertigo Theatre presents a highly entertaining and suspenseful production of Gaslight by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson based on the play Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton. Bringing the play to life is a terrific cast including Kelsey Verzotti as Bella, Braden Griffiths as Jack, Valerie Planche as Elizabeth, and Hailey Christie-Hoyle as Nancy. The production is directed by Jack Grinhaus and delivers plenty of mystery and suspense.
Kelsey Verzotti as Bella and Braden Griffiths as Jack in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Gaslight by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson. Directed by Jack Grinhaus. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
All devoted husband Jack Manningham wants is for his wife Bella to get well. Ever since moving into their new home in London Bella has experienced a number of episodes that have made her doubt her own sanity. Items disappear, noises are heard, and the gaslight dims on its own. Jack enlists the help of Elizabeth the housekeeper and the new maid Nancy to make sure that Bella gets the rest and quiet she needs in order to recover. But things aren’t exactly as they seem and as layers of the story are revealed – including the disturbing history of the house – Bella must figure out what’s really going on before things turn deadly.
I spoke with the director of Gaslight Jack Grinhaus about the play, his role as Artistic Director of Vertigo Theatre, and what fictional detective he’d want to clear his name if he’d been wrongly accused of murder.
JAMES HUTCHISON
So, Gaslight takes place in Victorian London. There are mysteries at play and sinister forces at work. Tell me about your production of Gaslight and what audiences can expect from spending a night with Bella and Jack.
JACK GRINHAUS
It’s a great classic thriller but because of this new adaptation it feels very present and modern. There’s this woman who feels isolated in her home and I think we’ve all known what that feels like over the last few years, and she’s in a relationship she can’t understand, and she is confused about herself. And in this new adaptation, Bella is the agent of her own freedom, as opposed to the original script which had a detective come in and help solve the puzzle. All three women in the story are extremely strong actors and characters and it’s been really exciting to work with them.
And I see the play very much as a superhero origin story because there’s this woman who starts off feeling like she can’t believe in herself. She doesn’t trust herself. She doesn’t trust the world around her. She thinks maybe something is going on in her mind, but as time progresses she’s like Neo in The Matrix. She starts to accept that she can actually expose all the truths of the story. And I think audiences will have a really great time following her because it’s from her point of view and while she’s being gaslit we’re gaslighting the audience as well with the way we’re staging the play and with the way we’re using the design elements.
Braden Griffiths as Jack and Kelsey Verzotti as Bella in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Gaslight by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson. Directed by Jack Grinhaus. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
JAMES
Our perception of ourselves often depends on the feedback that we get from others.
JACK
Yes.
JAMES
How much of our identity do you think comes from what others reflect back to us?
JACK
Well, that kind of goes back to that existentialism, Sartre kind of idea, right? There’s no shame until we are witnessed by others. It’s a really intriguing question. I’m going to give you a little anecdote of me gaslighting myself recently.
During our run of Murder on the Orient Express, Haysam who starred as Poirot was doing the big Poirot finale. I was in my office. I was listening to the play on the program sound outside in the hallway.
I thought, “Okay, I’ll go down and see the applause and go talk to the audience after the show. I’ll just hang out in the office until then because I’ve seen it fifty times.” And I waited for a particular point in Poirot’s final monologue, where he speaks about one of the characters and he says, “Oh, she’s in a new play called No, No, Nanette on Broadway and she’s very successful.” And I went, “Okay, great. I’m going to head down.”
And I went downstairs, and I went into the theatre, and I slowly opened the door, and as soon as I walked in Haysam was on stage saying, “Oh, she’s in a new Broadway show called No, No, Nanette and she’s very successful.” And I went, “What the hell? How? Didn’t I just hear?” And I started to question myself. I went, “Oh, no. I must have only thought I’d heard that line.” And then I found out after the show that a woman had actually shouted in the audience and they’d stopped the show. She thought her husband was having a medical emergency, but he actually just had his eyes closed and was listening.
So, they decided to restart the play and go back to the top of the monologue, and I walked out of my office and into the theatre at the same moment in Poirot’s final monologue missing all of what happened in between. I thought, “I must have lost my mind.” It was funny because why wasn’t my first instinct to think, “Oh, maybe something happened on stage, and they had to go back?” Instead, my first instinct was to think that there’s something wrong with me. I basically gaslit myself.
And I think people who are predators can really take advantage of that kind of thing. Knowing that people self-deprecate and blame themselves and their sense of shame and guilt is so high in relationship to other people that they doubt themselves. And it’s because we always want to please the people around us. That’s the secret weapon of the person who does the gaslighting.
JAMES
You’ve got Kelsey Verzotti as Bella, Braden Griffiths as her husband Jack, Valerie Planche as the housekeeper Elizabeth, and Hailey Christie-Hoyle as the new maid Nancy. What are some of the qualities this cast brings to their characters and to the telling of the story?
JACK
I’ve known Val for a long time. We’ve worked together in the past. And so, I knew Val and I knew her as a great rock in a company, a strength in a company. She’s a director as well, which I like as a director because you’ll get someone who’s looking at the big picture from the inside. And her great strength of character I knew would support some of the younger women in the show, Kelsey and Hailey, who are still new to a certain extent. They’ve both started to have burgeoning careers, but they’re still in the early stage of their career. And I thought here’s their first big chance at a really intimate big show here in Calgary. It’s good to have someone like Val who can keep them grounded and supported when needed and Val’s also such a strong actor that she brings up the people around her too.
And there’s something about Haley’s ability, even in her youth, to show great strength of character and independence. And that’s really great for her playing Nancy, who’s sort of an obstinate maid in the house who’s got her own game going. So, Haley right from the audition had this kind of maturity and wisdom that I felt was important for playing Nancy because Nancy is someone who probably came from the street, probably has a lot more street sense and streetwise than education and wealth because she came from nothing. And so, she has to have – even in her youth – this look in her eye that shows experience and life.
Hailey Christie-Hoyle as Nancy in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Gaslight by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson. Directed by Jack Grinhaus. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
Braden is a brilliant actor and has always been the good guy in shows in Calgary. He’s never really been known as the bad guy. So, this is a great way to gaslight the audience by going, “Hey, look it’s the nicest guy in Calgary.” And I just think Braden’s such a strong actor bar none that his ability to play the ambiguity of Jack is really exciting because that’s really hard. It’s hard to direct an actor into ambiguity. And that’s what we need because you can’t totally know whether Jack is really the bad guy or not. And maybe he isn’t. You have to see the production to find out. And that ambiguity that Braden brings to the character keeps the audience guessing for as long as possible.
And Kelsey is such a strong, young actor who needs to be able to carry the weight of the show. She has this great sensitivity and emotional availability and vulnerability, but at the same time you can see there is a powerful spirit there, a strong human there. And that’s Bella. Bella is both. And oftentimes you’ll find actors who play one or the other better. Somebody who’s better at playing somebody who’s vulnerable and not as strong. And then other people can play someone with a hard edge but not as vulnerable. And Kelsey has this great balance flowing between those two worlds which is what we need to legitimately believe Bella’s journey. We need an actor who can be vulnerable and then finds the strength to empower themselves to success.
And the cast has really great chemistry and the second we had the first read we knew we nailed it. They all have these qualities that I perceived as important for the version we are telling of Gaslight.
Kelsey Verzotti as Bella and Valerie Planche as Elizabeth in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Gaslight by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson. Directed by Jack Grinhaus. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
JAMES
The title of the play is Gaslight but in a greater sense we’re talking about betrayal. Being betrayed leaves a deep wound and it seems to be a common theme in a lot of plays and movies and books. Why do you think it is we like stories about betrayal?
JACK
Partly because we all understand it. We’ve all had a moment in our life where we’ve been gaslit. We’ve all had personal or professional relationships in business and in life where somebody has led us down a particular path and then pulled the rug out from under us. And I think we all know what a terrible feeling it is to go through that.
But I also think betrayal is part of the bigger picture of what we do at Vertigo, which is intrigue. I think most people in our world are honourable as humans. And for us, we’re fascinated by the underbelly of society. We’re fascinated with people who are willing to do things that we may not be willing to do. And so, you have television shows like Succession and even though these stories are dramas it’s really about the intrigue. It’s about trying to figure out why, how, and who in regard to the story. The thing about Vertigo is we lay so many breadcrumbs that our audiences are used to watching every blink, every chin movement, and every hand gesture. And so, I’m really marking those moments in the play, and I think the audiences love that. I think that we as humans love to solve puzzles and riddles.
Kelsey Verzotti as Bella, Braden Griffiths as Jack and Valerie Planche as Elizabeth in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Gaslight by Johnna Wright and Patty Jamieson. Directed by Jack Grinhaus. Photo by Tim Nguyen.
JAMES
Part of the job of the artistic director is to provide a vision forward in regard to the theatre and the plays it produces. Next season you’ll be designing your first season as Artistic Director of Vertigo Theatre. I’m curious to know what goes through your mind as you’re picking the plays you want to produce and designing an overall season.
JACK
It’s a great question. It’s a huge one. Because you’re encapsulating quite a bit. As an artistic director you have to imagine that there are maybe thirty or forty balloons that you’re trying to hold all the strings together on. First is the theatre you’re working at and its mandates. You have to serve that. Then you have to serve the needs of the patrons, the donors, the staff, the marketing, the board, the funders, the sponsors, the local community, and your own artistic interests.
Jack Grinhaus Artistic Director Vertigo Theatre Photo by Dahlia Katz
And, of course, you’re making sure that there is parody and equity in the voices and faces involved in projects. And I like to look at what the tone of the world is at the time, what’s going on in the ether at the moment. What’s the zeitgeist reading so that people always feel like there’s something interconnected in the works they’re seeing artistically.
Our current season I said was so much about people escaping isolation. Which is intriguing because that is exactly what we’ve all been doing. Next season is a season of what I call transformation. A season of people starting to look again at who they are and trying to affect the world around them and how that works. And to me, that’s very much what we’re doing now. We’re coming out of the pandemic and we’re asking ourselves, who are we now and how do we impact the world around us? And so, all the plays for next season were built around that thematic element.
And I’m interested in authenticity and intensity in the work. I think it’s really important that people are drawn into the stories and the emotional experience. And I love high theatricality, so I always pick plays that are really theatrical in nature, and I’m also interested in balancing seasoned and new audiences’ interests.
And so as an artistic director I’m trying to blend all of those things together in an exciting, engaging, and thrilling season and to offer something fun because people have been beaten up over the last little while and they want entertaining plays with great stories and I think that’s what makes Vertigo seasons so successful.
JAMES
While I was doing a little research on you and I came across Bound To Create Theatre which was formed in 2004 by yourself and Lauren Brotman. And on your website, it says in regards to the type of work you create that you are keenly interested in the beauty, boldness, and truth born from confronting the challenges that face the human spirit. So, what has been a highlight or two from the work that you’ve created with B2C Theatre about the challenges of being human and what sort of impact do you hope it’s had?
Lauren Brotman in Hedda Noir adapted by Jack Grinhaus from the Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler. Photo by Philomena Hughes.
JACK
When we started the company we realized there were a lot of niche issues that were not necessarily being discussed and so we started taking on stories that we felt were about lesser-known issues and also exploring highly theatrical means and premiering incredible works by new voices in theatre.
One that really sticks out for me is dirty butterfly by Jamaican British playwright debbie tucker green, which is kind of a poetic piece about the collateral damage of domestic abuse. We had this incredible underbelly storyline, and we’re also premiering in North America for the first time this incredible black playwright from the UK. Obsidian Theater, who’s the premier black company in Canada, partnered with us for that.
And it was incredible because we would have women’s shelters coming to see the shows and women coming out saying, “You know, seeing your show made me understand that I’m not alone.” And when you hear that – that’s kind of everything. Martha Graham once said that if she affected one person in her show in the entire run then it was worth it. And now debbie tucker green’s work is world-renowned.
Lauren Brotman, Kaleb Alexander, and Beryl Bain in dirty butterfly by debbie tucker green. Photo by Joe Bucci.
Also, Meegwun Fairbrother’s Isitwendam (An Understanding) which was a play about a young man who is half indigenous and half white and he goes to work for the Conservative Government and his first job is to go and discredit a residential school survivor’s reparation claim. And when he goes there his whole life is turned upside down as he finds out about residential schools. We started this fifteen years ago and now we’re hearing more about residential schools, but at the time that was not a subject that most places or people were interested in negotiating.
We worked with Native Earth in Toronto that premiered our play and we toured it all over the country and it was just a real opportunity to deal with a really important issue but in a really unique way. It was a detective fiction basically because it was about a young man who is trying to figure out the mystery of his missing father. And it ends up that his father was at one of the schools and had taken his life. That’s what started to pull me into the detective genre because I co-wrote and co-created it with Meegwun Fairbrother – the writer – the creator. He brought his story and I sort of created this bubble of detective fiction and Lauren and I sort of tweaked and worked in that. And so that was really exciting.
Meegwun Fairbrother in Isitwendam by Meegwun Fairbrother and co-created by Jack Grinhaus. Photo by Joe Bucci.
For the first fifteen years or so we were purposefully tackling things that we just didn’t think people did. And we were very lucky to have a very strong audience and community-based support behind it. And it was really exciting. And we learned how to do everything – write, produce, direct and it really defined who we were as artists and our integrity as artists and our passion and how hard we work.
Ray Strachan and Lauren Brotman in Hedda Noir adapted by Jack Grinhaus from the Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler. Photo by Philomena Hughes.
JAMES
For my last question let me set the scene for you. It’s been a weekend where you and a number of other artistic leaders from the Calgary community have been brought together at a remote mansion by an eccentric millionaire named Sir Cedric Digglesworth who wants to leave his fortune to the arts community, but rumours are rampant that not everyone is on his good list and he’s about to change his will. Then in the middle of the night, a gunshot rings out and when everyone rushes into the library they find you holding the proverbial smoking gun and the lifeless body of our famous arts patron Sir Digglesworth lying dead at your feet. You stand wrongly accused of murder. What famous fictional detective would you want to investigate the crime and clear your name and why would you want to pick that particular detective?
JACK
This one is going to be the shortest answer and the easiest one for me. I would take Batman, the Dark Night Detective, any day of the week. Batman would come in and not only solve the crime, but he would equally punish the appropriate criminal in a way that would be a more fitting justice than maybe what the cops would. And so my go-to is always going to be Batman.
JAMES
Was Batman a hero when you were a kid?
JACK
Oh, of course. I had all the comics on the walls and all the books as well. And he’s called the Dark Night Detective, you know, and the new Batman is that detective genre style.
JAMES
Do you have a favourite Batman?
JACK
Listen, I’m a kid in the nineties, so I gotta go with Keaton. The sound of his voice is always going to be Batman to me. And my favourite actor ever is Jack Nicholson. It’s really hard to beat that joker.
“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.
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.
***
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.
“I guess the other thing that I love so much about our industry is the amazing people who have all, for better or for worse, made this decision to become a part of this crazy thing that we do. And they give their hearts, and their souls, and their blood, and their sweat, and their tears, and we all have our crazy stories about the crazy hours and the hard work and all of the things that go into making theatre, but at the end of the day we get each other, and we come together in this almost spiritual way and support each other and make something beautiful – and then it’s gone. It’s like poof, and it’s gone, and I just love that – I love the temporary nature of what we do. And sometimes it’s heartbreaking, but it’s a big part of what I love about theatre.”
Samantha MacDonald has been a part of the Canadian theatre scene for thirty years and has spent a substantial part of that time as both a director and theatre administrator. She was the Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Producer of Project X Theatre Productions in Kamloops BC from 2004 to 2010 and was the Artistic Producer of Theatre North West in Prince George BC from 2010 to 2014, and for the last five years she’s been a vital part of the Lunchbox Theatre team. MacDonald joined Lunchbox in 2014 as the Production and Operations Manager and then became the Associate Artistic Producer from 2015 to 2017 and for the last two years she’s been leading the company as the Artistic Producer.
In addition to her administrative and arts leadership work, she’s an accomplished director having directed several Shakespeare plays including, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Tempest, and Hamlet for Project X and more recently As You Like It for Shakespeare by the Bow. She’s also directed several contemporary plays including To Dream Again for Storybook Theatre and several productions for Lunchbox Theatre including the very touching and poignant Flight Risk by Meg Braem, the smart and complex In On It by Daniel MacIvor and the very funny and successful Guttenberg! The Musical! which was the final play in the 2018/19 Lunchbox Theatre season.
I sat down with Samantha to talk with her about her love of theatre, Lunchbox, and her plans for the future.
JAMES HUTCHISON
So, I’ve listened to and read other interviews with you and sometimes you’ll say, “Oh dear, I’ve gotten on my soapbox about theatre.” But I want to hear you on your soapbox. I want to hear what it is you love about theatre. What is it?
SAMANTHA MACDONALD
Oh God, how long do you have? (Laughs) There are a number of things, but I think the first thing I fell in love with about this medium and what we do is just telling a great story. It’s the opportunity to put a bunch of people together in a room and touch them emotionally and to allow them all to feel something and to connect to something in a way you can not do in any other medium. Live theatre is the one place where we all share something so visceral and engaging in one space and we all experience it together at the same time, and part of that experience is how we respond together in a dark space to whatever we’re watching. And I love that.
David Balser, Desiree Maher-Schley, Danielle Dunn-Morris, and Ryan Egan in the 2006 Project X Production of Elizabeth Rex. Directed by Samantha MacDonald
SAMANTHA
Two weekends ago I had the great pleasure of adjudicating the Provincial High School Drama Festival in Red Deer, and my partner in crime was designer Anton de Groot, and one of the things he talked a lot about in his adjudications was exactly that and how on stage you are able to do things that you can’t do on film in terms of engaging an audience. So, you can take a piece of fabric that was once a parachute and turn it into waves or into a mountain or whatever, and the audience goes with you on that journey, and I love how you can tell a story in such an incredible way that maybe you would never have imagined.
And I guess the other thing that I love so much about our industry is the amazing people who have all, for better or for worse, made this decision to become a part of this crazy thing that we do. And they give their hearts, and their souls, and their blood, and their sweat, and their tears, and we all have our crazy stories about the crazy hours and the hard work and all of the things that go into making theatre, but at the end of the day we get each other, and we come together in this almost spiritual way and support each other and make something beautiful – and then it’s gone. It’s like poof, and it’s gone, and I just love that – I love the temporary nature of what we do. And sometimes it’s heartbreaking, but it’s a big part of what I love about theatre.
Creator and performer Michelle Thrush in Inner Elder, co-presented with One Yellow Rabbit as a part of the High Performance Rodeo. Photo Credit: Benjamin Laird
JAMES
When did you decide to go into this profession?
SAMANTHA
When I was in elementary school I was an actor, and I’m not an actor now, and I never ever will be, but I was an actor in elementary school and I loved it. I loved being on stage. I was Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore. I was Tiny Tim in Christmas Carol. I did all these things and as I got a little older I used to see shows whether it was my sister in a high school production or whatever, and when I would watch theatre there was always this hole in my chest that I could never explain and that I never understood, but I would watch theatre, and I would just have this kind of pain.
After high school I decided I was going to be a corporate lawyer and work for Coca Cola, and because I’d worked on a couple of theatre productions in high school I took a technical theatre class my first year of college, and the second day of this class we went to the Sagebrush Theatre, which is where we would do most of our learning in Kamloops, and I walked into the theatre, and I stood on the stage, and that hole I had been feeling went fwump. And I went, “I’m never going to be a corporate lawyer.” (Laughs) And that was it. The joy of this medium just filled that empty space in me and I was in love. And you know, here we are thirty years later and I still love it. I still absolutely love it. And whatever that hole in me was it never reopened. It went away that day and it’s never come back.
First day of full costume for the 2010 Project X production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Director Samantha MacDonald and her assistant director dress up to show solidarity and support for the cast.
JAMES
Let’s talk a little bit about the unique story of Lunchbox because lunch-time theatre was a big thing in the seventies. I was doing a little research about it and I was reading that in London you could see great actors like Bob Hoskins on stage, and interestingly enough there does seem to be a bit of a resurgence of lunchtime theatre going on now, but a lot of the original theatres have disappeared. So, what do you think it is about Lunchbox – because Lunchbox has had good times and tough times and it’s still here – what do you think it is about this theatre company that has made it possible to last for forty-five years?
SAMANTHA
I think there are a few things. I think the organization has always been very good at listening to its audience, and I think we’ve done very well over that large span of time of making sure that we are growing and changing with what our audience needs and wants. And our audience as a result of that has trusted us, and so even when we offer them something that’s maybe a little more challenging or a little different than they’re used to they will go on that journey with us because they trust us and what we’re giving them.
Devon Dubnyk and Arielle Rombough in the 2018 Lunchbox Theatre production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, adapted by Joe Landry. Photo credit: Benjamin Laird
SAMANTHA
And I think there’s something really lovely in terms of being able to come for an hour and eat your lunch and watch great entertainment and then go away again. You know it’s a great story, but it’s not a huge commitment, and I think that’s something – particularly in our day and age – that a bite-sized bit of theatre is a great way for people to connect. It’s also, if you’re new to theatre, a really nice way to check it out without a huge commitment.
JAMES
Looking at this last season what have been some of the highlights for you at Lunchbox?
SAMANTHA
One of the big highlights for us was the opportunity to premiere a brand-new musical which we commissioned from a young local playwright. Emily Dallas is incredibly talented and a lovely young woman and so to have an opportunity to say to her, “I want you to write a piece of theatre and these are the parameters I need you to write within,” and then for her to come back with a piece like Brave Girl, which was our Remembrance show was really exciting, and our hope is she’ll be able to take it and expand it beyond a one act.
Elinor Holt, Jessica Eckstadt, and Tara Jackson in the 2018 production of Brave Girl by Emily Dallas. Photo credit: Benjamin Laird
JAMES
How did you two connect?
SAMANTHA
I directed Emily in As You Like It for Shakespeare by the Bow a couple of summers ago, and for one of her audition pieces she sat down at the piano in the Theatre Calgary rehearsal hall and played this beautiful song she’d written about a young person’s struggle in high school and about being your own hero. And by the end of the song, both Susan McNair Reid and I were in tears and then having worked with her all summer long I had a strong sense of both her ideals as a theatre creator and also her talents as an artist. I mean, I would say I took a risk, but it wasn’t really a risk, because I knew she would come up with the goods.
JAMES
Brave Girl is, as you mentioned, a one-act play and Lunchbox does one-act plays. What is it you’re looking for when you select a one-act play for your season? What jumps out at you?
SAMANTHA
It has to have heart. The content and story arch can be about anything, but at the end of the day what we know is that our audiences really connect with and are engaged with stories that have heart. And by that I mean it has to be a piece that connects to our audience in a positive emotional way so whether it’s something that affirms their beliefs, or something that reminds them that there is good in the world, or something that takes them on a journey – at the end of their sixty minutes with us – even if it’s a dark piece – even if it’s a piece that takes them to a place that’s more challenging – it still, at the end of the day, leaves them feeling better off than they did when they arrived.
So, for example, I directed In on It by Daniel MacIvor which was a challenging piece for our audience because it was nonlinear, and it was darker, and there was a character who died in it, and it was about dealing with grief and death, but I think our audience really liked being engaged in those ways. And in Brave Girl there’s the story of these two sisters and their struggles and how it tears them apart, and then of course at the end it puts them back together again, and it’s also the story of the mother who loses her spouse, and then she watches this rift develop between her two children, and it’s her journey as well, and so Brave Girl has lots and lots of heart in it.
Mark Bellamy and Stafford Perry in the 2016 Lunchbox Theatre production of In On It by Daniel MacIvor. Photo Credit: Benjamin Laird
JAMES
Let’s talk a little bit about the season coming up. I’m curious, as an artistic producer, how do you balance your artistic vision with the business realities of running a theatre?
SAMANTHA
Well I mean obviously, as you know, financially it’s always a huge challenge, so when I was programming the 18/19 season, which is just wrapping up, part of what I was really aware of was that we needed to try and find a way to balance things financially in order for us to survive. So part of that was bringing in some shows because they tend to cost a little less, but I was really adamant that moving forward we were going to find a way to get back to producing more local work and hiring more local artists for our 45th season.
And in terms of programming, I always listen to the kinds of things my audience is saying, and I’m always looking at the things that do well for us and what people are talking about. And I suspect over the years we’ve lessened the number of actors over the course of our season so for us a big show is six. It’s a Wonderful Life was a six-person show and that was massive for us, but we also knew that show would sell really well so at the end of the day it wasn’t a risk. People really love the Remembrance show and the Christmas show, and so it is a bit of a challenge in terms of continuing to find new works that fit into both of those two categories.
Selina Wong in the 2016 Lunchbox Theatre Production Lest We Forget, created by JP Thibodeau and Joe Slabe. Photo credit: Benjamin Laird
JAMES
You’re doing Last Christmas by Neil Fleming next year and I was wondering how you arrived at that play as the right choice for next season?
SAMANTHA
I was looking for a Christmas show, and I went back over our history, and we had decided as a team that for our 45th season we wanted to look back in order to look forward a little bit. So with the Remembrance show and the Christmas show we said, “Okay, let’s look back at some of the stuff we’ve done in the past.” And Last Christmas had gone through our Stage One Festival, and it had an original production that had done very well for us, and now here we are ten years later and I think it’s a relevant family story with heart.
JAMES
And it’s funny. Even though it deals with some very serious issues like cancer it’s actually very humourous.
SAMANTHA
It is yeah. And it has that family connection between grandkids and grandparents which I think is relevant, and that’s a connection we don’t see a lot on stage. So, it’s nice to have that multi-generational story. And then similarly we picked Flanders Fields for this year’s Remembrance show because it was our very first Remembrance show that we did and it did really well for us. It also came through Stage One and it has a very clear affiliation with us as an organization, and it’s another moment of looking back to look forward.
Miles Ringsred Riley and Karen Johnson-Diamond in the 2011 Lunchbox Theatre production of Last Christmas by Neil Flemming. Photo credit: Tim Nguyen
JAMES
You’ve also got a world premiere coming up called Old Man the Napi Project can you tell me a little bit about that?
SAMANTHA
Yes, and that won’t be the real title that’s just the working title. So, Justin Many Fingers and I connected about this time last year, and we started to talk about what we can do and one of the things we’re going to do is have an artist in residence program. So, the intention is to take an Indigenous artist and offer them the opportunity to devise a brand-new show under Justin’s mentorship under the auspices of Justin’s company and Making Treaty 7 with Lunchbox as the production side of things. And Justin has now chosen that artist and it’s going to be Zachary Running Coyote, and he will create a show. And the intention is to take the trickster character Napi from the Blackfoot and to look at the trickster character from a variety of different nations perspectives and legends. I’m super excited that it’s going to be Zach because he is a super talented young guy and just a lovely – lovely human and a great storyteller.
JAMES
You’re ending your season with Nashville Hurricane with Chase Padgett who came here a couple of years ago to do his Six Guitars show. And for anybody who hasn’t seen him, he is the most amazing talented performer you’re ever going to see. I even went up to the Fringe in Edmonton last summer just to see Six Guitars, so I’m thrilled to see him coming back to Lunchbox.
SAMANTHA
Our season catchphrase is Together. The whole season is really about togetherness and acceptance and it’s about being all in this together and from the first show to the last show in the season that’s the message. And so in that last moment in Nashville Hurricane where he talks about his epiphany and realizing that we’re all here together and we’re all a miracle – that was for me – a beautiful way to wrap up this season which is really an encapsulation of who we are as Lunchbox Theatre and who we want to be in our community so yeah, it was the perfect show.
JAMES
So, after five years at Lunchbox you’ve made a decision to say goodbye and when it was announced that you were leaving I had this little moment of, “Oh, no not again.” Because you’ve brought Lunchbox to such a good point, and it’s healthy, and the seasons are good and they’re entertaining, and I was like who are they going to get?
SAMANTHA
When I announced to my team that Shari Wattling was my replacement and they cheered I went, “Yeah, okay we’re good. I can leave you guys and you’re in good hands and you’re happy so that’s what matters to me.” And Shari is such a smart lady, and she has really great ideas about where Lunchbox is going, and she has a significant history with the company. Her first professional gig was here. She’s directed for us. She’s dramaturged for us. She’s acted on our stages a number of times, and she was in the office for a period of time, so she has a really good love and understanding of the organization, and I think that’s super important.
So then, what brought you to this point in your life? Why did you make the decision to leave?
SAMANTHA
There are a couple of things. I should be super clear that I am not leaving Lunchbox. It has nothing to do with this organization. I love this company, and I love the work that we’re doing, and my team is amazing, and if it were ten years ago and I still had the energy and the space in my life that I had then – then I would stay.
But I have been running companies solo essentially for about seventeen years without a break, and I just turned forty-seven, and what I became very aware of in the last couple of years is – that as much as I love the work that we do and as much as I love this industry – my own well has begun to run dry, and I needed to take steps to do a little self-care to refill that well before I started getting bitter and before I started getting angry. Before I stop loving what I do.
And another part that plays into that is when I was twenty-two my mom died of cancer at forty-eight and as I approach that milestone I am aware that in her forty-eight years she lived a vast life, and she raised five children, and she volunteered and studied and had a very rich life. She was an exceptional human. And as I look at my own life in my forty-seven years I’m aware that there’s something a bit lacking for me, because all I’ve done is work and that’s meant the end of a marriage of fifteen years and a lot of stress. So, I made a commitment to myself that I’m going to do something different and see if I can figure out how to live a little bit of life for the next little while. So it’s not about leaving Lunchbox, or even necessarily leaving theatre, it’s about finding a way and a space for me to have a life with a capital L and to re-evaluate things and then move forward from there, and I don’t know what that will look like but that’s the plan. And I’ve been saying for years, “I’m going to get a life one of these days,” and I finally just went, “No I actually have to do something in order to make that happen. No one’s going to hand it to you.” And I always say the Universe provides, and it always has in my thirty years in this industry. I’ve never been without a job, and there are lots of opportunities sort of floating around out there, and I’m just waiting to see what the next thing is that the Universe offers.
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You can check out the entire 2019/20 Lunchbox Theatre season below. Individual tickets to Lunchbox shows are just $25.00 or save some money and purchase a play pass which gives you seven flexible admissions for the price of six. Complete season details and ticket information can be found at LunchboxTheatre.com.
Lunchbox Theatre 2019/20 Theatre Season
The Pink Unicorn By Elise Forier Edie September 14 to October 5
Some battles only a mother can fight. When Trisha Lee’s daughter announces that she is genderqueer, the small-town Texas widow’s world is upended. Suddenly at odds with her faith and her family, Trisha must struggle to understand and accept her daughter’s truth. Hilarious and heartfelt, The Pink Unicorn explores a mother’s boundless love for her child.
In Flanders Fields By Rober Gontier & Nicky Phillips October 19 to November 9
This stunning work was our inaugural Remembrance play in 2010, when it received a Betty Mitchell Award nomination for Outstanding Production of a Musical. Based on the extraordinary life of Lt.-Col John McCrae, In Flanders Fields sweeps from rural Ontario to the mud of the French trenches, revealing the brotherhood, love, and true humanity of one of Canada’s most famous poets.
Last Christmas By Neil Flemming November 23rd to December 21st
Last Christmas, Jake’s wife Marge was still alive and every ritual was observed. This year, between two feuding daughters and a delinquent grandson, Jake’s holidays will be anything but traditional. This heartwarming comedy offers a contemporary look at the joys and challenges of the season, and reminds us that family just might be the greatest gift of all.
Good Morning Viet Mom Created and Performed by Franco Nguyen January 11 to January 25
Filmmaker Franco Nguyen travels to Vietnam seeking inspiration for his first feature film and finds an unexpected subject – his mother. Good Morning, Viet Mom is a comedic and bittersweet gem from a first-generation Canadian raised by his single immigrant mother. Nguyen shares stories about childhood; his relationship with his mother; and their emotional trip to Vietnam.
Old Man: The NAPI PROJECT A Partnership with Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society
The culmination of a co-operative Artist in Residence program with Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society, this project will explore the tradition of Trickster, and stories that examine our morals and the choices we face. The project will be an exploration of what this cultural character evokes and inspires in an Indigenous artist.
A Tender Thing By Ben Power March 21 to April 11
What if Romeo and Juliet had lived? This is the question Ben Power poses in this delicate and profound “remix” of the greatest love story ever told. The premise is simple – rather than taking their own lives, the young lovers have grown old together, their dazzling love undimmed, to endure a more commonplace tragedy. Shakespeare’s timeless poetry creates a new, deeply romantic and powerful play, and a strikingly different love story.
Nashville Hurricane Written by Chase Padgett & Jay Hopkins April 18 to May 09
Forty years ago a mysterious guitarist appeared from nowhere, conquered the music industry, and then vanished without a trace… until now.
Hot on the heels of his smash hit 6 Guitars, virtuoso actor and musician Chase Padgett becomes a manager, a mother, a mentor, and the guitar prodigy himself as each one tells their side of the rise, demise, and resurrection of the best damn guitar player you’ve never heard of: the Nashville Hurricane.
509 By Justin Many Fingers October 3 to October 12 Season add on in Partnership with Making Treaty 7
Still in creation, 509 is an examination of a young man’s connection to his Blackfoot ancestors, a connection he only discovers as he lays dying. The show will be a dance theatre piece, mostly in the Blackfoot tongue. This piece is part of a triptych created by Justin Many Fingers, supported by Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society and Lunchbox Theatre. This show is an add on to the 2019/2020 season, presented at The GRAND Theatre.
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LUNCHBOX THEATRE: Lunchbox Theatre is one of the most successful noon hour theatre companies in the world. It aims to provide patrons with a unique theatre experience by producing one-act plays that engage and entertain audiences. Lunchbox Theatre produces six plays per season, as well as the Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work and the RBC Emerging Director’s Program. It is one of Calgary’s longest-running professional theatre companies and is located in the heart of downtown at the base of the Calgary Tower.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak at Stage West Calgary is one of the most entertaining and fun shows I’ve seen on a Calgary stage. This production is outstanding, and I guarantee you’ll be delighted and amused and laughing at the exploits of Monty Navarro as he plots and murders his way into high society.
The Tony Award winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder tells the story of Monty Navarro whose mother was cast out and disinherited by the D’Ysquith family when she married for love. Monty and his mother are forced to live in poverty as the D’Ysquith family remains unmoved by his mother’s appeals for reconciliation. When Monty’s mother dies and Monty learns the truth of his birth and that he’s eighth in line for an earldom he sets about to avenge his mother’s death and take his rightful place as head of the family.
The book, songs, and music from a Gentleman’s Guide are smart, fun, and witty, but having great source material only works if you have an exceptionally talented cast to pull it off, and director Mark Bellamy’s production has assembled a stellar cast that works seamlessly together. Kate Blackburn as Sibella and Ellen Denny as Phoebe are pitch perfect and hilarious as the women in Monty’s life who tempt him, tease him, and manipulate him based on their own desires and ambitions. Tyler Murree shows he has a real gift for farce as he portrays every member of the D’Ysquith family with an air of comic pomposity and entitlement. And Sayer Roberts plays Monty Navarro with all the charm of Cary Grant and the elegance of Fred Astaire making Monty one of the most gracious and likeable rogues you’ll ever meet.
The play is filled with memorable and smart songs including, I Don’t Understand the Poor, Better With a Man, and I Will Marry You as Monty knocks off his relatives one by one on his quest to become the Ninth Earl of Highhurst. Will Monty succeed or will he get caught? Will fate lend a hand? Will he marry Phoebe? Will he always love Sibella? You’ll have to see it in order to find out.
This is easily a five-star production and worthy of two thumbs up. In fact, it’s so good I’m seeing it again, and I’d highly recommend you see it before it closes, because you’ll have a darn good time, and this production won’t be available on demand. Theatre and live performance is the ultimate “here for a limited time” experience.
I sat down with the director of the show Mark Bellamy and actor Sayer Roberts who plays Monty, the Wednesday before the finale of Game of Thrones, to talk with them about the play, musical theatre, and our predictions of who will sit on the Iron Throne.
Mark Bellamy – Director and Musical Staging – A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder at Stage West Calgary
JAMES HUTCHISON
How did you both get involved in the Canadian premiere of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder here at Stage West?
MARK BELLAMY
I’ve loved this show from the minute I’d heard about it. I love the music and I’m a huge fan of this style of musical theatre. There’s a lot of old school techniques that have been put into the writing and the structure of it. So, I learned they were doing it while I was here directing Baskerville last year, and they announced their season, and I was like, “Ah you’re doing Gentleman’s Guide.” And Kira Campbell who’s the Artistic Associate said, “Yeah we’ll get you for Gentleman’s Guide or for this other show, and I’m not sure which one to put you on.” And I was like, “Oh God, please put me on Gentleman’s Guide.” And they did.
Actor Sayer Roberts who plays Monty Navarro in the Stage West Calgary Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
SAYER ROBERTS
I saw it ages ago when they did the performance on the Tony Awards, and for a lot of Canada that was the first time any of us had seen or heard anything about the show. And I remember watching it and asking, “What is this amazing show?” And then I got a chance to see the show a couple of years later on Broadway, and I instantly knew that this was one show that I would very much like to do. And the fellow doing it too – he wasn’t the original – he was a replacement – but he was incredible, and I thought, “That’s what I aspire to be as a performer.” So, when the audition posting came out that Stage West was doing this I know that myself and almost every other Canadian was, “What? They’re doing this. I have to be a part of it.”
JAMES
The stars aligned.
SAYER
Exactly.
MARK
Yeah, they sure did.
SAYER
So, I went into the audition with a healthy dose of the cynicism that you always have to have as an actor, “This isn’t my show yet. I’m just going to lay down what I can do and show them what I would bring to the role, and if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t you move on.” But as soon as I walked into the room and Mark was there and Kira and Konrad Pluta, the musical director, and we started working on material I really felt like Mark gets this show, and I really wanted to work on it. It was a really fun audition, and I just felt good about it regardless of if I got the part or not, and as an actor you have to take that as a win. It doesn’t matter if you get the show or not. That’s not in your control. So, I left the audition going, “That was really fun, and I had a good time, and I feel like I established a good relationship with the people who are in the room and if that gets me the job that remains to be seen.” It was just one of those things where I felt this could work really well.
Ellen Denny as Phoebe D’Ysquith and Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
JAMES
Mark, I’m curious about how much you look at the individual and how much you look at the chemistry between the actors when you’re casting a show?
MARK
That’s hugely important to me. I’ve always said that one of my superpowers as a director is that I cast really well. And you don’t just cast the individual roles. You have to cast the rehearsal hall. You have to cast people that are going to work well together and especially in a show like this that has a long run you have to cast people who are going to get along well, and after many years of doing this I have a pretty good sense of who a person is and how they’re going to fit the room. Like Sayer said, so many people were excited to do the show – we had over seven hundred submissions between Toronto, Calgary, and the West Coast, and we saw probably two-hundred of those people either in person or via video because everyone wanted to be in this show. So, I was really fortunate that I got to pick from an incredible pool of talent.
JAMES
Have you ever had that amount of choice before?
MARK
Never.
JAMES
Are you spoiled now?
Kate Blackburn as Sibella, Sayer Roberts as Monty, and Ellen Denny as Phoebe in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
MARK
Yes. (Laughs) I’m really spoiled. Especially after working with these guys because there are some really distinct requirements for this show. You have to have people who have legitimately trained voices. Who can sing without a pop sound and these guys all can – as you’ve heard. Especially Sayer, Kate, and El – that trio of voices has to be so clean and they’re extraordinary. And I can’t actually think of anybody else in Canada I’d want to do this show with other than these people. I’ve been saying this – even before rehearsals started – that I have the best cast in the country, and this will be the cast that you will have to beat from now on.
JAMES
This needs to go on tour.
MARK
I would put this production on any stage in Canada.
JAMES
This is one of my favourite shows I’ve seen at Stage West in the last ten years.
MARK
I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen here. And not that I’m biased because I directed it – but I am. (Laughs) I love the show, and because it was the Canadian premiere we worked really hard, and I was able to get these incredible performers. I was like, “We have to make this good. We can’t compromise anywhere. We have to push and push and push to make it as good as we possibly can.”
Elizabeth Stepkowski-Taran as Miss Shingle and Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
JAMES
I’ve been telling people about it and saying you’re going to like it – young or old you’re going to like this show. What do you think are the elements in this play that make it work so well?
MARK
I think there is something about a charming villain that we love. He’s like the antihero. But he is supremely charming, and we root for him. It helps that all of the people he offs, for the most part, have a slightly despicable edge to them or are deserving of their deaths in some way. But I think we love to see someone who’s an underdog and a bit of an outsider succeed in spite of all the odds, and it satisfies that part of our soul that goes, “I know he should get caught but he’s not going to and that’s so great!”
SAYER
The writing is why it appeals to me. It’s the book and the lyrics and the melodies. And it’s like a mixture of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward and Noises Off and the classic British farce and Gilbert and Sullivan. It’s just such a perfect marriage of all of the mediums coming together to create such an exquisitely written piece. And I think, just like Mark was saying, the antihero charmingness – the fun farce side of it – he’s murdering people and yet this is fun, and there’s the underdog story, and it’s all bouncy and light from the beginning. It’s an entertaining show.
MARK
And there’s a lot of great humour in it. So, there’s that aspect and also the aspect that we have one actor, Tyler Murree, playing all of the D’Ysquith family. That’s a fun little tour de force. And it plays into that theatrical convention, and it gives the audience a bit of that, “Oh we know what’s going on. We’re in on the joke.”
Tyler Muree as Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith and Katherine Fadum as Lady Eugenia D’Ysquith in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
SAYER
As if the show isn’t funny enough already it just bumps it up so much more once the audience starts to catch on that that’s the same guy…
JAMES
…and he’s playing all the parts…
MARK
…and it’s really clever, and it starts out really slowly, and as you escalate towards the end of act one you just suddenly start to rip through these people. Like literally in scene eleven – which is the ultimate finale of act one – there are four times where he changes characters and comes in and out.
JAMES
Well, on a show like this just how vital is that backstage crew for you?
SAYER
This show would not be possible without a dynamite costume crew and running crew.
MARK
There are two crew members who are dedicated to doing nothing but changing Tyler Murree into all the D’Ysquiths. And all of those costumes had to be constructed.
SAYER
So, he might be wearing a full suit, but it’s all connected with a zipper in the back.
MARK
So, shirt, tie, vest, jacket it’s all one thing.
JAMES
One piece that he can step into and out of.
MARK
Because for some of his costume changes he’s literally got fifteen seconds.
JAMES
That’s part of the magic for the audience. Didn’t he just leave and then he comes back.
MARK
I think we’re so good at it that sometimes people don’t realize what just happened, because it’s so seamless and he’s coming out so calmly that sometimes you don’t realize he’s just made an immense costume change.
Tyler Muree as Lady Hyacinth with her entourage in the Stage West Theatre production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
JAMES
So, in terms of the production, how do the costumes and the set add to the overall experience of seeing the play.
SAYER
Well for me as an actor whenever I put on a costume it instantly amps up by twenty percent whatever the character was before in rehearsal and that’s particularly true when you’re doing period dramas. Costumes give you the aesthetic, and it definitely adds to the British sensibility of the show, and it changes how you move, how you sit, how you stand. I know for the women wearing those kinds of dresses and with their trains behind them it completely changes things for them. I didn’t have to deal with that as much because I simply wear high waisted suspender pants which I could live the rest of my life in very comfortably. (Laughs) And Monty goes from poor to slowly getting richer and the changing of the jackets really helped with that. That’s a real juxtaposition from starting with a rather old well-loved jacket that literally has pockets that are falling apart to ultimately finishing in a tux.
Tyler Murree as Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith Katherine Fadum as Lady Eugenia D’Ysquith, Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro, and Ellen Denny as Phoebe D’Ysquith in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
MARK
I think the set and the costumes are so vital to this show which was another challenge for Stage West because we need these Edwardian costumes, and that’s not something Stage West has a ton of sitting in their storage room, because they don’t do a lot of shows like this. So, a lot of this had to be created. Leslie Robison-Greene who is our costume designer is a genius. It was just incredible what she came with, what she was able to construct while she was here, and what she was able to adapt.
JAMES
Are there any particular songs that you just love and why?
MARK
I’ve Decided to Marry You, I think, is the pinnacle of the show.
JAMES
Is that the one with the two doors where he has Sibella in one room and Phoebe in the other room and he’s trying to keep them apart?
SAYER
Yes. I think with the exception of the bench scene from Carousel between Billy and Julie there’s no better example of musical theatre than the doors. I shouldn’t say of any musical theatre because there are lots of different genres but going for musical comedy there’s nothing better than that door scene.
MARK
It so hits the peak of the farce that the show is and that kind of encapsulates the whole thing. I think one of the things that’s beautiful about the music is that even though it echoes the British Music Hall and it echoes Gilbert and Sullivan it does it in such a way that it’s a homage that doesn’t copy it, and it doesn’t feel antiquated.
SAYER
It’s accessible.
MARK
It’s accessible and very modern and every single song carries the story forward and that to me is the hallmark of a really good musical.
Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro and Kate Blackburn as Sibella Hallward in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
JAMES
It reminds me a lot of My Fair Lady.
MARK
Yeah.
SAYER
It’s very Lerner and Loewe.
JAMES
I Don’t Understand the Poor really reminds me of…
SAYER
Why Can’t the English
JAMES
Yes, but it feels fresh and original.
MARK
I’m a huge fan of the Golden Age Musicals of the late fifties to mid-sixties, and this really does echo back to that era when all the great American musicals were being produced.
Ellen Denny as Phoebe D’Ysquith and Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
JAMES
So, what is it about musical theatre that adds to a theatrical experience? What does the music bring?
SAYER
Well, there’s an old saying, or a piece of wisdom, or whatever you want to call it, that says, “When you have something to express you speak it. If you can’t speak it – you sing it. If you can’t sing it – you dance it.” And the progression of that so perfectly encapsulates what musical theatre is. And in good musical theatre there is a reason the character is singing. I love speaking Shakespeare. I love speaking monologues and straight plays, but there is nothing quite as deep as you can get into, in my experience, as you can in musical theatre when you sing words that are accompanied with some kind of soaring melody that is an expression of the turmoil or the joy or whatever is going on inside the character. Scientifically music evokes a different part of our brain so the audience tunes into it on a different level. So when you mix the emotion that you can gain from poetry and the emotion you can get from a piece of orchestral music and you put that together that’s double the amount of emotion you could have alone by itself.
MARK
Music is visceral. It just is. It affects you in a different place, and I think it carries emotion in a way that a scene – I mean not that scenes can’t – but it just heightens everything, right? Which is what I think that saying is about. As you continue to heighten and heighten and heighten – the song heightens the scene and the dance heightens the song. And I think it’s thrilling to watch, and I think it’s also thrilling to watch really talented performers who can sing the way that these guys sing, and when you hear these voices it’s stunning, and it’s beautiful. So, I think that’s part of it because I started my career as a performer doing musicals, so they hold a special place in my heart because I think you can move an audience in a way with a musical that you can’t with a straight play.
Sayer Roberts as Monty Navarro in the Stage West Theatre Production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
JAMES
Well speaking of moving an audience, why should an audience come see this show?
SAYER
I think it’s probably because they’ve never seen a show like this before. And if you like British Farce, if you like musicals, if you like comedy and drama – you’ll like this.
MARK
It’s got a bit of everything. And I think it’s probably one of the most entertaining evenings you’ll spend in a theatre for a very long time. It’s ridiculously fun. It’s ridiculously entertaining.
JAMES
Okay, quick question for both of you – off topic – do either of you watch Game of Thrones?
MARK
Oh, God yes.
SAYER
I haven’t started yet.
MARK
Not any of it?
SAYER
No.
JAMES
I’m interviewing you now, but by the time this gets published the finale will have aired this coming Sunday. So, Mark who do you think is going to end up on the Iron Throne?
MARK
Oh, God.
JAMES
I’ll tell you who I think.
MARK
I don’t know. If you asked me that two weeks ago I would have had a different answer, but now after seeing what just happened…I think it’s going to be Arya.
JAMES
Oh, interesting.
MARK
I think she’s the only one who isn’t conflicted in some way who can actually do it.
JAMES
Interesting choice. My choice is Tyrion in the South, Sansa in the North, and Jon goes back to his direwolf.
MARK
I read a whole article comparing it to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and how you know Frodo doesn’t stay – he ends up going to the Gray Havens and that Jon Snow is Frodo and he won’t stay. He wouldn’t be happy on the throne. But that’s an interesting theory – that it splits. That might be it.
JAMES
Who knows? I’ve been wrong about so much.
MARK
Who saw any of this coming? Who saw that last episode coming? It will be interesting to see what happens. I had this random thought the other day that the only other person it could possibly be is Gendry because he’s actually been legitimized.
JAMES
Oh yeah.
MARK
She made him a Lord. He’s actually been acknowledged as a Baratheon. Spoiler! He’s the last and technically the Baratheons are kind of still on the throne. Anyway…
JAMES
…we shall see.
SAYER
I just love that.
MARK
People are so invested.
SAYER
And it just shows you that people need this stuff in their lives so much so that here we are talking about something fictitious and completely meaningless in the rest of the trajectory of our life and our world and politics and everything and yet it matters so much to us what happens to these characters and that’s why we’re engaged, and that’s why entertainment is not frivolous.
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman Music and Lyrics by Steven Lutvak Based on the novel by Roy Horniman
CAST
Mark Allan – Ensemble, The Magistrate, Mr. Gorby & others Alicia Barban – Ensemble, Miss Evangeline Barley & others Understudy for Phoebe D’Ysquith Kate Blackburn – Sibella Hallward Emily Dallas – Ensemble, Tour Guide, Pub Owner’s Wife & others Understudy for Sibella Hallward Ellen Denny – Phoebe D’Ysquith Katherine Fadum – Ensemble, Lady Eugenia D’Ysquith & others Understudy for Miss Shingle Sarah Gibbons – Ensemble, Understudy for Female Ensemble roles Jeremy LaPalme – Ensemble, Understudy for The D’Ysquith Family Luke Marty – Ensemble, Tom Copley, Dr. Pettibone, Guard & others Understudy for Monty Navarro Tyler McKinnon – Ensemble, Detective Pinckney, Pub Owner & others Tyler Murree – The D’Ysquith Family Sayer Roberts – Monty Navarro Elizabeth Stepkowski-Tarhan – Miss Shingle
THE BAND
Konrad Pluta – Musical Director/Keyboards Rob Hutchinson – Bass sub Jonathan D. Lewis – Violin Jim Murray – Trumpet sub Keith O’Rourke – Clarinet Sean Perrin – Clarinet sub Jason Valleau – Bass Andre Wickenheiser – Trumpet
CREATIVE TEAM
Mark Bellamy – Director & Musical Staging Konrad Pluta – Musical Director Howard Pechet – Executive Producer David Fraser – Set Designer Leslie Robison-Greene – Costume Designer Norman Macdonald – Wig Designer Anton de Groot – Lighting Designer Michael Gesy – Sound Designer/Head of Audio Shane Ellis – Scenic Artist Kira Campbell – Production Manager Artistic Associate Sean D. Ellis – Technical Director Ashley Rees – Stage Manager Darcy Foggo – Assistant Stage Manager Jennifer Yeung – Apprentice Stage Manager Taisa Chernichko – Dresser Chris Cooper – Followspot Operator
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“It’s a play that changed the theatre landscape in the world, and makes you entertained in the moment, and lets you reflect on your own situation and the world that you’re in. And that’s the other kind of marker for this play is that existential, you know, absurdist world view of ‘There’s no God, there’s no religion, there’s nothing to believe in so why are we here? What’s the point of life? What’s the point of continuing on?’ This play swims in those waters too. All those kind of questions that sometimes wake us up in the middle of the night, or strike us at our most insecure moment.”
Christopher Hunt
Andy Curtis as Vladimir, Duval Lang as Pozzo, Christopher Hunt as Estragon, and Tyrell Crews as Lucky, in the Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.
Although we’re a long way in both time and distance from January 5, 1953 when Waiting for Godot premiered in Paris – and opened up new possibilities of expression for the stage – the play still resonates with a modern audience. ‘Before Beckett there was a naturalistic tradition. After him, scores of playwrights were encouraged to experiment with the underlying meaning of their work as well as with an absurdist style. As the Beckett scholar Ruby Cohn wrote: “After Godot, plots could be minimal; exposition, expendable; characters, contradictory; settings, unlocalized, and dialogue, unpredictable. Blatant farce could jostle tragedy.”
At it’s simplest, the play is about two longtime friends waiting on the side of a road near a tree to meet with Godot, but on a deeper level, Godot explores the existential nature of existence and the underlying perseverance of humanity. It’s also a play rich in comedy, and a thought-provoking piece of theatre. So, it seemed rather appropriate that on World Theatre Day I journeyed to The GRAND to meet up with Christopher Hunt, one of the founders of Black Radish Theatre, to talk with him about his acting career, Black Radish Theatre, and the ageless appeal of Waiting for Godot.
Christopher Hunt is Estragon in the Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.
JAMES HUTCHISON
In a previous interview you talked about having inspirational teachers at the start of your career when you were getting interested in drama and acting. Who were some of those teachers and how were they inspiring for you?
CHRISTOPHER HUNT
The first play I ever did was Tom Sawyer in grade four, and Mrs. Allen was my teacher. I remember she had auditions and I thought Sam Crystal was going to be Tom Sawyer because he was so outgoing, and I was really surprised when I got the part of Tom. And we did the play – you know – whitewashing the fence and Aunt Polly and all that stuff, and I just have such vivid memories of the fun that that performance gave me.
And then a few years later in Junior High I had a teacher named Mrs. Palmer who taught drama as an option, and again she played these theatre games that I’d never experienced before, and it allowed this shy little farm boy to open up and try different things and be funny.
And then in High School, I had a teacher named Marlene Hansen – she directed us in one-act plays for festivals, and one year when I was in grade eleven a grade twelve student won a scholarship to the Drumheller Drama School, and this guy didn’t want to go by himself, so Mrs. Hansen scraped together some money so I could tag along too, because I was a young keener. And once I found the Drumheller Drama School, that was like finding my tribe. These were theatre nerds like me – I didn’t know there were so many! And that lead me to take the Drumheller Drama School the next year and the year after that, when I was out of high school.
Jan Alexandra Smith and Christopher Hunt in the Theatre Calgary production of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. Photo by Trudie Lee.
JAMES
After that, you ended up going to the U of C, and I was interested to learn that you originally went into Education, and I was wondering why you chose Education and what made you switch to Drama?
CHRISTOPHER
I think it was because of those influential teachers that inspired me, and I thought that teaching would be great because I had so much fun with them when I was a student. I remember going to matinees as a student to Theatre Calgary in the old QR Centre and seeing The Importance of Being Earnest with Stephen Hair and Maureen Thomas, and I just thought that was amazing, but I never thought I could do that. I just loved the theatre and the fact that I was doing plays in high school was enough for me so I thought teaching drama would be a great thing to do. But when I got into university and I took some Drama courses and some Education courses – the Education courses were a bad fit, but the Drama courses were a good fit. So I talked it over with my parents who were helping me pay for university, and I said, “I think I’m going to switch.” My dad was a farmer all his life, and he was worried about me going into an industry that was even less reliable than farming. He wanted something a little more stable for the only one of his kids who went on to a university education. My brothers went to Olds College for agricultural studies, and my sister took some college courses. But then my parents did some plays in the amateur High River theatre group – Windmill Theatre Players – and once they saw what it was like, they could understand why I was so enamoured with it, and it became a little easier to get their support.
Christopher Hunt and Cast in the Caravan Farm Theatre production of Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Photo by Tim Matheson
JAMES
As an actor you’ve said you’re open to using all sorts of different tools and techniques for creating a performance and I’m just curious how being able to draw on different techniques such as improvisation or method acting has been helpful in terms of hitting the stage, rehearsing plays, and developing characters.
CHRISTOPHER
I think as actors and as theatre people we get a chance to go into a whole bunch of different worlds and different stories and different kinds of telling stories and different buildings in which to tell those stories and different audiences to tell those stories to. And I’ve seen and worked with people who have a specific way of approaching the work. They always prepare this way. They always warm up this way. They always present themselves a certain way, and to me I admire that, but I think it can be limiting when you have all these variables in terms of types of stories, types of venues, types of characters, and because there’s so much variety, I think it’s better to embrace the variety than protecting a particular way of working. You have to be open, otherwise I think you’re limited in terms of the opportunities that might potentially come your way.
Andy Curtis, Christopher Hunt and John Ullyatt in the Vertigo Theatre Production of The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow and John Buchan.
JAMES
Now, just before Christmas, you were at Vertigo Theatre in Dracula: The Bloody Truth. You were Van Helsing and that’s a play with multiple characters in it and you’ve done The 39 Steps which also has a lot of different characters and there seems to be a lot of that type of theatre happening now. Do you enjoy performing in that kind of show?
CHRISTOPHER
I do. It’s big bold choices – not subtle choices. But if I was just doing roles where I played a bunch of different characters in funny hats and voices and stuff like that I think it would get pretty tiring. That’s what I love about what I do. I can do that, and then I can do The Scarlet Letter or I can do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – all these different challenges.
Philip Riccio and Christopher Hunt in the ATP production of 1979 by Michael Healey. Photo by Benjamin Laird.
JAMES
Last year you were the recipient of the 2018 Harry & Martha Cohen Award which is given to individuals who have made a significant and sustained contribution to theatre in Calgary. You were nominated for the award by Grant Reddick and Marilyn Potts and they said, “Season after season, Chris has given performances that are significant, technically assured, innovative, subtle, engaging, amusing and often deeply moving. He is a master of comedy, his energy and timing in farce are delightful, and he tackles serious drama with ease.”
CHRISTOPHER
That was very nice of them to say all those things.
Christopher Hunt and Kristen Padayas in the Lunchbox Theatre production of Flight Risk by Meg Braem. Photo by Benjamin Laird.
JAMES
So, what was it like to win that award which has been given to some really talented people? That’s quite an honour.
CHRISTOPHER
Huge honour. Huge. And yeah, just the other night Denise Clarke was given that same honour for this year. It’s a beautiful club to be a part of and I don’t take it lightly. It’s nice to be recognized for the work we do, and for the longevity, and for the decision to stay in one place and to be a part of one community. People say, “Why didn’t you go to Toronto/Vancouver/L.A./New York?” or whatever, but you know, I can have a family here and a home here and a career here, and I get to work with people from all over. And sometimes I get to go all over, so it’s a pretty sweet gig. I’m certainly not in it for the money but I feel pretty fulfilled and rewarded for the work I do.
Founding Members of Black Radish Theatre – Tyrell Crews, Christopher Hunt, Duval Lang, and Andy Curtis. Photo by Hugh Short.
JAMES
So, you’ve assembled a group of people and you’re starting a new theatre company called Black Radish. Why this group of people? Who are they? What brought you guys together?
CHRISTOPHER
Well, we’re all Calgary-based actors. There’s four of us. And what brought us all together was this bucket list show of Waiting For Godot. I met Andy Curtis back in our university days. He was a Loose Moose improviser and a very funny and talented guy, and then we worked together years later at Quest Theatre and at Ghost River Theatre and One Yellow Rabbit, and we’ve been actors-for-hire and have crossed paths several times over the years. And at some point, maybe ten years ago, we talked about Waiting for Godot. And it was a play we both loved and wanted to do. And then maybe about five years ago – maybe even longer – we said, “Let’s get together and just read it for fun.” And I can’t even remember who the other people were who helped us out that first time, but over the years people came and went, and once or twice a year we would read it and talk about how great it would be to do this play. We’d say, “We should talk to the artistic directors and pitch it and see if anyone would want to do it!” And no one did but, we kept on talking about doing it. And Duval Lang was the next person to come on board, and he would have us over to his place to have coffee and read the play and talk about it. And then Tyrell Crews is the fourth member of Black Radish. He had worked at the Stratford Festival a few years ago and saw an awesome production there and he said, “Man, we could do a play like that easily in Calgary, with the talent here.” And for some reason he thought of me and Andy as the main two guys and we said, “It’s funny you should say that, because we’ve been reading this play for years!” And he went, “Seriously?” So he said, “I’m going to apply for the rights – let’s do it.”
Tyrell Crews is Lucky in The Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.
JAMES
What is it about the play that you find so compelling?
CHRISTOPHER
When I read it in high school I didn’t get it, but I liked the simpleness of it but also the complexity of it. And then the summer before I started at U of C, I saw a production of Waiting for Godot at the Pumphouse that Loose Moose did. Keith Johnstone directed it. John Gilchrist the restaurant reviewer was Pozzo. Dennis Cahill and Mel Tonkin were the main two guys. Frank Totino was Lucky and I believe Keith Johnstone’s wife at the time, Ingrid, played The Boy. And that production blew my head off, and I just went, “This is astounding.” It was so simple. It was so funny. It was so moving. It was a perfect little jewel of a production. And a lot of people loved that production. And I’ve since found out that Keith Johnstone had a huge history with Samuel Beckett. He saw the original English language production in 1955 and loved it. And changed his career to become a theatre guy. And a year later he was the playwright in residence at the Royal Court Theatre, and Samuel Beckett came to London with his next play. And Keith Johnstone met him and they became friends. Keith was one of the first people he allowed in to watch his rehearsals. And Keith’s directed the play maybe eight times since then, including the one that I saw. So Tyrell and I went and chatted with Keith last month and got some of his thoughts on the play and Beckett and that world, How many guys are there in the world who knew Samuel Beckett that are still around? And he’s here in Calgary!
JAMES
Let’s talk a little bit about Godot and that world. How are you approaching it? What do you think of it? I’m curious – what are your thoughts?
CHRISTOPHER
Well, to me, it’s a good play because it’s open to interpretation both for the artists doing it and for the audience watching it. I think what I love about it is its open-endedness, and its ability to speak to whomever. That was one of the nuggets that Keith said. He said, “When I was twenty and I watched this play I went, ‘This play is about me.’ Now, when I read it, this play is about me now as an old man as opposed to a young artist.” And it’s been famously done in Sarajevo and South Africa and prisons, and so it speaks to people everywhere, especially if it’s a good production. And it spoke to me when I saw it and it speaks to me now. It’s deliciously vague and malleable and thought-provoking and funny. And it’s easy I think to veer off and to make it too sombre, or to make it too silly and funny. It’s a tricky balancing act. And that’s what I loved about that Keith Johnstone Loose Moose production because it was moving, funny, and thought-provoking. It was all those things good theatre should be.
Duval Lang is Pozzo in the Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.
JAMES
How would you describe Vladimir and Estragon’s relationship in the play? You’re playing Estragon and Andy Curtis is playing Vladimir, correct?
CHRISTOPHER
Yeah. You know, it took me a long time to start to see any real difference between the two. They’re two kind of clown-like tramp-like figures that are down on their luck and have health concerns and personal concerns and frustrations with each other, but also a long history with each other. And I think as I read more about them and read what other people thought of them I started to figure out that Vladimir is more of the thinker. He’s more looking to the sky, and he’s more thoughtful and intellectual and in his head. And Estragon is more rooted to the ground and hungry and tired and forgetful. And so he’s more earthbound and Vladimir is more outward bound. And they know how to push each other’s buttons, and they know how to support each other. And then there are moments of, “I honestly can’t go on. I don’t think I can do this anymore.” Or, “I think it would be better if we parted,” and those kind of moments hit you like a ton of bricks, because who hasn’t thought about that?
Andy Curtis is Vladimir in the Black Radish Theatre production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.
JAMES
What are you hoping to discover in the rehearsal process for the play?
CHRISTOPHER
Well, we’re all really excited to be working with Denise Clarke as our director and our design team because they’re all super talented and have a lot of intellectual rigour and theatrical knowledge to help bring this story alive. Denise has talked about wanting to honour the text and the history of the play, but also to give people something unexpected. We want to shake things up a bit. And Denise, with her work as a choreographer and a writer and a performer, has a lot of ideas around how to be in a space, especially in the Grand which is a beautiful space to be in.
Andy Curtis as Vladimir and Tyrell Crews as Lucky in the Black Radish Theatre production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.
JAMES
You know what’s really interesting to me about the text is that it doesn’t really give you much of a clue about the world outside of this tree and rock and road. We don’t know the truth of the world outside although we do know there’s the Eiffel Tower, but this bleak landscape might be more normal than the exception.
CHRISTOPHER
Yup, that’s true and it’s a field day for designers too, because how do you include those elements? How do you make those elements? What kind of a tree is it? What kind of a rock is it? Some people ignore that, and put it inside of a concrete bunker, and some people ignore the stage directions and have them dress totally different. So it’s what you pick and choose, and what you focus on and what you share that makes your version come alive or not.
Andy Curtis as Vladimir and Christopher Hunt as Estragon in the Black Radish Theatre Production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.
JAMES
And your designer is Terry Gunvordahl.
CHRISTOPHER
Yes. Set and lighting designer.
JAMES
The last thing I saw on stage that was Beckett was about eight years ago when he did Krapp’s Last Tape. He was acting in it and Anton deGroot was at Lunchbox at that time doing the RBC Emerging Director’s program and that was the play he had chosen to present. And I went to see it and it was a really good production and Terry was really good in it.
CHRISTOPHER
I’m sorry I missed that. Terry is a big Beckett fan and he’s done this play before – an amazingly well-remembered production in Kamloops years ago with some great actors in it including Jonathan Young from The Electric Company and Betroffenheit which was a big hit all across the world actually. So, Terry knows this play well and he’s really pumped to do it again here at the Grand especially because he used to design shows here when Theatre Junction was more active producing their own work.
Anton Matsigura is The Boy in the Black Radish Theatre production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Photo by Andy Curtis.
JAMES
So, why should people come and see the show?
CHRISTOPHER
It’s a new company to support, and it’s in a space that’s revitalized and welcoming again. It’s a play that changed the theatre landscape in the world, and makes you entertained in the moment, and lets you reflect on your own situation and the world that you’re in. And that’s the other kind of marker for this play is that existential, you know, absurdist world view of “There’s no God, there’s no religion, there’s nothing to believe in so why are we here? What’s the point of life? What’s the point of continuing on?” This play swims in those waters too. All those kind of questions that sometimes wake us up in the middle of the night or strike us at our most insecure moment.
Waiting for Godot a tragicomedy in two acts By Samuel Beckett
Cast
Estragon: Christopher Hunt Vladimir: Andy Curtis Pozzo: Duval Lang Lucky: Tyrell Crews The Boy: Anton Matsigura
Production
Director: Denise Clarke – Assistant Director: Sarah Wheeldon – Set & Lighting Designer: Terry Gunvordahl – Costume Designer: Ralamy Kneeshaw – Sound Design & Composition: Peter Moller – Stage Manager: Meredith Johnson – Photography and Graphic Design: Hugh Short – Web Site: Keith Watson
BLACK RADISH THEATRE is a new Calgary-based theatre company, founded by Duval Lang, Andy Curtis, Tyrell Crews and Christopher Hunt, and is committed to revisiting relevant theatre classics. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is their first bucket list show and is being performed at The GRAND – Calgary’s theatre since 1912.
Black Radish Theatre presents Waiting for Godot – a tragicomedy in two acts – by Samuel Beckett. April 25th to May 12th at The GRAND. Evening performances Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm. Tickets are just $46.00 for adults and $30.00 for Students and Seniors. Tickets are available online at www.blackradishtheatre.ca
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.
“I like farce. I like the challenge of farce. I like the pace of farce. The fast thinking. I like the door slam timing. The mechanics of it. I like the hard math of a good farce. I love Shakespeare. Your mouth feels good just saying those incredible words and negotiating those fantastic ideas and the colourful language and the use of metaphor from such a rich writer.”
Stage West is serving up a healthy dose of farce with a talented cast in their current production Drinking Habits 2 Caught in the Act. This is a sequel to the hugely popular Drinking Habits that Stage West produced a couple of years ago and features most of the original cast from that production.
In the first play the Sisters of Perpetual Sewing were trying to save their convent this time around they’re trying to raise $5,000 to save an orphanage and according to Sister Augusta, played by Natascha Girgis, and Sister Philamena, played by Esther Purvis-Smith, the best way to do that is to secretly produce a batch of their much in demand wine. In addition, to the wine, Mother Superior played by Elinor Holt and Father Chenille played by Robert Klein decide to raise the necessary funds by putting on a play which of course doesn’t go smoothly. And as a farce there are plenty of other plots in the works and secrets to be revealed as the Sisters of Perpetual Sewing try to do God’s Holy work.
I sat down with Natascha Girgis to chat with her about the production and her approach to comedy.
Esther Purves-Smith as Sister Philamena & Natascha Girgis as Sister Augusta in the Stage West Production of Drinking Habits 2 Caught in the Act by Tom Smith. Directed by J. Sean Elliott
JAMES HUTCHISON
Natascha, is there a different approach you take when performing comedy as opposed to drama?
NATASCHA GIRGIS
I don’t think so. How I prepare depends on the piece. If there’s a historical precedent or if it’s an individual who has existed in the past then there’s research to be done. If it’s The Bard then obviously there’s a lot of book work. For comedies I find the work happens in the room. If it’s a prop-heavy show or a prop-heavy role where I need to manipulate a lot then the sooner I can get off book and have my hands available and be an active listener the better. That lets me react in the moment in the room to the other actor or to the circumstances without thinking, “Oh, what’s my next line?”
JAMES
Are there any famous comic actors that you admire that you kind of pattern yourself after? Or have been a great influence.
NATASCHA
My body is tattooed with Buster Keaton.
JAMES
When did you discover Buster Keaton?
NATASCHA
I might have been eighteen or something like that and it was purely by accident. I was working at the Plaza Theatre in Kensington and we had access to whatever movies we wanted to go see. I meant to see a Danish film, but it didn’t come in because of shipping so they put their Buster Keaton festival on early and I thought, “A silent film, really?” So, I stayed and saw Pale Face which was one of his shorts and my head exploded and I thought who are you? And I went every day after that to every one of the festival dates and have followed up ever since.
Buster Keaton – American actor, comedian, film director, producer, screenwriter, and stunt performer.
JAMES
What is it about Keaton’s performance that you find so mesmerizing?
NATASCHA
He lives, eats, breathes his medium. His work was everything. It defined who he was. He’d been working since he was an infant on vaudeville with his parents. He never went to school. His training was in the theatre. It was on the boards. It was a very rough knockabout physical act. His physical facility is incomparable, and he dates well because in his films – he’s man against the machine – he’s man against the world. His stuff is still funny and the risks that he took were astonishing. I own virtually every film and virtually every book that’s ever been written on him and I’m a member of both the British Society and the American Society of Keaton fans.
JAMES
So, what plays do you like? What makes you laugh?
NATASCHA
I like farce. I like the challenge of farce. I like the pace of farce. The fast thinking. I like the door slam timing. The mechanics of it. I like the hard math of a good farce. I love Shakespeare. Your mouth feels good just saying those incredible words and negotiating those fantastic ideas and the colourful language and the use of metaphor from such a rich writer.
Natascha Girgis as Sister Augusta in the Stage West Production of Drinking Habits 2 Caught in the Act by Tom Smith. Directed by J. Sean Elliott.
JAMES
I’m interested in how you approach physical comedy yourself and use that aspect in your performance.
NATASCHA
Very technically. I’ll throw an idea out there. I’ll think about the gag and how to physically orchestrate it and how to tell the story with your body and if there’s a fall or some sort of mechanical element required. And then I just clean it and clean it and clean it and try to make it very specific and very precise. And a Keatonism that I try to apply is think slow act fast. So, let the audience catch up with you but not get ahead of you and then surprise them if you can. And my approach is to give one hundred percent. Don’t mark it. If you mark it your body learns nothing. You have to give one hundred percent the entire time you’re in rehearsal.
JAMES
What do you mean by mark it?
NATASCHA
It’s often applied to dancers – sometimes they’ll go full out and sometimes they’ll just mark it – where they’re not doing it full out. I find you train your body if you do it full out every single time. It helps train your body for what is necessary in that moment.
JAMES
Let’s talk a little bit about the show you’re in now. What’s the play about?
NATASCHA
It’s about the sisters of perpetual sewing trying to raise some money to help save an orphanage. And everybody’s doing their best to assist with that because the most important thing is saving the orphanage, but everybody has a different idea about how to do that and so there’s a little bit more subterfuge involved in getting all that done.
Natascha Girgis as Sister Augusta, Luc Trottier as George & Esther Purves-Smith as Sister Philamena in the Stage West Production of Drinking Habits 2 Caught in the Act. Directed by J. Sean Elliott.
JAMES
You’re working with a lot of the same cast from the first play what’s that like?
NATASCHA
Many of which are my really good friends in life, and they approach the work the same way I do. There’s always another laugh to be mined, or if something is starting to go a little awry and you’re not getting the same laugh you used to you can talk about it. They never stop working because every show means something. Every show is important because you have a paying audience who deserve the same performance that you gave at the beginning of the run. And hopefully, it’s more informed. Hopefully, there’s more gags. You always keep working. And they approach it the same way I do which is why I like working with them.
Esther Purves-Smith as Sister Philamena & Natascha Girgis as Sister Augusta in the Stage West Production of Drinking Habits 2 Caught in the Act by Tom Smith. Directed by J. Sean Elliott.
JAMES
It’s interesting to me to hear you say the comedy continues to develop and mature. How does new material work its way in over the course of a run?
NATASCHA
You still need to be consistent but if there’s room for it and you’ve been given license by the director that within a certain set of parameters you can add something there might be a gag that can be mined. You’ll try something and it’s small and you’ll hear some laughter about it, but you watch to make sure that you’re not stepping on someone else’s moment. The more experience you have hopefully the more aware you are of everything that’s going on and when you can add something and when you shouldn’t because you don’t want the focus to suddenly shift to you when it shouldn’t be on you, to begin with. That’s just being responsible. That’s being considerate.
Esther Purves-Smith as Sister Philamena, Kate Madden as Kate, Elinor Holt as Mother Superior & Natascha Girgis as Sister Augusta in the Stage West Production of Drinking Habits 2 Caught in the Act. Directed by J. Sean Elliott.
JAMES
The nice thing about this play is that there are several roles for women and so I’m just wondering with the length of time you’ve been in the theatre performing different things are you starting to see a move towards better parts and more parts for women?
NATASCHA
There seems to be a growing awareness from producing bodies to include more female writers and to mentor more female writers not that women are the only ones writing parts for women but there seems to be a better inclusion of women where possible. Elinor Holt said it very succinctly the other day that sometimes in a play it’s just an occupation, but we always presume it has to be played by a man. Like you’ll have a judge, or you’ll have a police officer and for our now day sensibility our audience would buy it if you say – okay here we have the judo master and the judo master is a woman.
Natascha Girgis as Sister Augusta, Jeremy LaPalme as Paul and Esther Purves-Smith as Sister Philamena in the Stage West Production of Drinking Habits 2 Caught in the Act by Tom Smith. Directed by J. Sean Elliott.
JAMES
So, why should somebody come and see your show? What would be your sales pitch?
NATASCHA
Don’t be afraid of the sequel if you haven’t seen the first one. You’re going to get a fast-paced broad comedy with a lot of experienced performers who enjoy working with one another and hopefully that makes the comedy infectious. It’s a great night out. It’s not Strindberg on Ice. It’s not a long piece of theatre. It’s a short little foray into silly.
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Drinking Habits 2 Caught in the Act by Tom Smith and directed by J. Sean Elliott runs until April 14th. The show stars Natascha Girgis, Charlie Gould, Elinor Holt, Robert Klein, Jeremy LaPalme, Kate Madden, Esther Purves-Smith and Luc Trottier. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 403.243.6642 or online at www.stagewestcalgary.com
Tyrell Crews and Mark Bellamy in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Diane + Mike Photography
Mark Bellamy, former artistic director of Vertigo Theatre, returns to the stage to take on the role of Sidney Bruhl in Ira Levin’s intensely entertaining thriller Deathtrap. Joining him on stage is Tyrell Crews as aspiring playwright Clifford Anderson, Barbara Gates Wilson as Bruhl’s wife Myra Bruhl, Karen Johnson-Diamond as psychic Helga Ten Dorp, and Kevin Corey as attorney Porter Milgram. The production is being directed by Jamie Dunsdon.
Deathtrap is one of the longest running mystery thrillers to ever hit Broadway and even though the play premiered more than forty years ago it’s as fresh and funny and thrilling today as it was the day it opened. The only problem is that because the play is filled with so many twists and turns and surprises you have to talk about the play without talking about the play. The only thing I can tell you, without revealing any spoilers, is how the play begins.
Sidney Bruhl, once a successful Broadway murder mystery playwright, has fallen on hard times after numerous flops, so when he receives a brilliant murder mystery play in the mail from a former student, Sidney begins to contemplate murderous thoughts about how he might steal the play for himself. I sat down with director Jamie Dunsdon and actors Mark Bellamy and Tyrell Crews to talk about weapons of choice and Vertigo Theatre’s production of Deathtrap.
Barbara Gates Wilson as Myra Bruhl and Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanna Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.
JAMES HUTCHISON
I’m going to start off with a hypothetical question. If you had to commit a murder – not saying that you would – what would be your weapon of choice?
MARK BELLAMY (Without hesitation)
Poison.
JAMES
Poison?
MARK
I have mine all planned out.
JAMES
Who’s the victim?
MARK
Oh, I can’t tell you that.
TYRELL CREWS
You’re looking at him.
JAMIE DUNSDON
It’s been a rough week. (Everyone laughs)
MARK
After running this company for ten years, you just amass so much knowledge that I actually figured out how I would do it. There’s a plant. I’m not going to say what the plant is, but you can grow it. It’s very common and there are different varieties of it. You can grow it in your garden and if you take the root and you soak it in vodka it makes it a tasteless, odourless, and almost untraceable poison that mimics a heart attack.
JAMES
It’s kind of disturbing that you’ve given this so much thought.
MARK
There’s even more. I figured out how I was going to use that poison.
No, no, no – just never accept a cup of coffee from me – that’s the deal!
JAMES
Tyrell?
TYRELL
You know I haven’t given it as much thought as Mark.
MARK
Who has a detailed plan.
TYRELL
Well, like you said you lived in this building. I don’t know how I’d do it but what I will tell you is that last night I dreamt that I actually killed somebody with my bare hands – strangling – which was not even the major part of the dream. The major part of the dream was covering it up. There was a cell phone involved and I had to destroy the cell phone and the sim card itself and make sure the sim card was absolutely disintegrated because that’s the only thing that would have traced that individual to me.
MARK
This is exactly our characters.
JAMES
Good casting.
TYRELL
The violent one.
MARK
And the plotty one.
JAMES
Jamie, do you have a weapon of choice?
JAMIE
I do, but it’s for a very specific person. I would use peanuts.
MARK – TYRELL – JAMES
Ahhhh.
JAMIE
Yeah, I’d take them for a walk out in the mountains. Somewhere far away from their EpiPen and then I’d throw some trail mix their way. I would make it really pedestrian. Very every day.
Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl, Barbara Gates Wilson as Myra Bruhl, and Tyrell Crews as Clifford Anderson in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo
JAMES
So, then let’s talk about the play. Deathtrap is one part thriller, one part comedy, and one part mystery and I’m wondering how do you balance all those elements so that we’re laughing where we’re supposed to and we’re screaming where we’re supposed to?
JAMIE
I think the script does most of it for us. The script is very well constructed, and it’s tried and tested. The playwright doesn’t drop in laughs except to break the tension and I think we just follow that lead for the most part. As far as the mystery and the thriller aspects go that’s more of a balancing act and we’re still working on that in rehearsal. It’s all about who knows what and when and then when do we want the audience to know what and when? So that’s the work – the final stage of rehearsal – we know what we’re doing but now we’re shaping the experience for the audience.
JAMES
And making sure you don’t telegraph to the audience at the wrong time what’s going on.
MARK
That’s the hardest part, I think.
TYRELL
Yeah, I think, it’s about playing these moments honestly and what’s on the page in that specific situation. I think Jamie’s done an amazing job in knowing when those secrets or the scheming are supposed to bubble up to the surface and peak through.
JAMIE
That’s right, it’s entirely volume control because we know this play so well now that – once you’re inside it – it’s hard to get back outside.
MARK
It’s super hard from the inside.
JAMES
Because you know everything.
MARK
I know everything and I think the previews will be really neat because I’m sure there’s going to be one night where we go way too far one way and then way too far the other. It’s about finding where the sweet spot is. And it’s really finite, isn’t it? It’s really particular.
JAMIE
There’s a narrow band that we need to live within and so that’s the work we’ve been doing the last couple of days and it’s a little bit subjective, right? It’s a little bit here’s how much I think we need to turn it up but I’m kind of the audience surrogate so I do my best to gage that but we could have audience members who are smarter than me and pick up on things earlier.
Karen Johnson-Diamond as Helga Ten Dorp in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.
JAMES
And you’ve got a great cast you’re working with on this show.
JAMIE
We have a room that already understands the mystery genre because everybody in this show has worked with Vertigo multiple times which is fantastic. I’m leaning on their expertise as well, so for example, Mark caught something in rehearsal the other day that was very forensic. So, we have a room full of experts and fantastic people at the top of their craft and they’re also funny which is nice.
TYRELL
I think any hall that I have found success in is one where there’s the willingness to collaborate. It’s knowing that we’re all on the same playing field. Of course, Jamie has the final say but it’s the willingness to play and experiment which is supremely helpful for this type of play – auditioning every choice and volume level that we can.
JAMES
Now, Mark, you directed Deathtrap previously, haven’t you?
MARK
A long time ago. Sixteen or seventeen years ago. It was in 2002, I think.
JAMES
So, I’m kind of curious – you were the director and now you get to be the actor in it. Does having directed a show and now having had the chance to have aged into a part give you any additional insights?
MARK (Laughs)
It certainly gave me a familiarity with it. And when I directed it Stephen Hair was in it and Stephen was the former Artistic Director of the Pleiades.
JAMIE
And he had also directed it.
MARK
He had directed it! So there’s this weird little legacy.
JAMES
So, Jamie does that mean you’re going to be doing a female version of Deathtrap at some point?
JAMIE (Laughs)
Yes, I’m the next Sidney Bruhl.
JAMES
Mark, when you were directing it did you imagine that’s a part I want to play in twenty years?
MARK
I probably did. I fell in love with this play when I was in University. I saw the movie first and I’ve always been a fan of Deathtrap, but I don’t think back then my twenty-year-old self imagined my fifty-five-year-old self being Sidney Bruhl. I think I probably saw myself as a Clifford at some point when I was young, but that never happened.
JAMES
Tyrell, are there any particular parts that you want to play one day?
TYRELL
Hamlet is one of them. I’m a big Shakespeare guy so playing Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing with the Shakespeare Company last year was another one.
Tyrell Crews as Clifford Anderson and Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanna Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.
JAMES
Is Sidney in your future?
TYRELL
Ahhh, I love this play. I love this part, but it will be a very very long time before I get Mark Bellamy out of my head.
MARK
Oh dear. Oh dear. I’ve affected you.
TYRELL
In a good way.
MARK
Well, there are two moments in the show where I channel Stephen Hair. I’m not going to say where they are. I don’t channel. I homage. I homage – like I remember what Stephen did. There’s only two though.
Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl and Kevin Corey as attorney Porter Milgram in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.
JAMES
So, murder mysteries look at the darker side of humanity and there’s always an element of desperation to the characters contemplating murder – why do you think audiences enjoy watching desperate characters making morally questionable decisions?
JAMIE
Probably because we do it in real life. We don’t go as far down that path so, it’s delightful to see someone have that impulse and actually follow it through. There’s something a little bit cathartic in that.
TYRELL
And they’re relatable. You like these people and you’re invited into their home and you meet them and they’re very charming and you kind of fall in love with them.
MARK
And they’re funny.
TYRELL
And I think the way the plays mapped out you can see the decision making that goes into the escalation and so you can understand that decision making.
JAMIE
It’s a character-driven thriller – which you can probably speak to that more Mark because I’m not sure how common those are. This is a thriller that’s plot-heavy and it’s plot driven but the characters are all grounded.
MARK
What characterizes a thriller as opposed to a who done it is the thriller is more about the people and what they’re going to do and how they’re going to do it and not what they’ve done. A who done it is for us to figure out. A thriller is more like what are they going to do now?
Mark Bellamy as Sidney Bruhl and Karen Johnson Diamond as Helga Ten Dorp in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanna Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Citrus Photo.
JAMES
So, we’re telling people about this wonderful play and if somebody were to ask you what you’re in and you say you’re in Deathtrap – and they say well why should come I see that? What would your sales pitch be?
MARK
Directed by Jamie Dunsdon
JAMES
That’s a good reason.
JAMIE
Stars Mark Bellamy.
MARK (Laughs)
I would say that it is probably the epitome of the American thriller. Deathtrap, to me, is the American thriller version of what the Mouse Trap is to the who done it. And it’s fun. It’s funny. It will scare you. You’ll jump out of your seat and if you can stay ahead of these characters then you’re a genius.
JAMIE
I always tell people the same thing I have written in my director’s notes for the show. I was working for Craig, the artistic director of Vertigo Theatre, a couple of years ago and he had me look through something like fifty plays from the genre in a matter of months and there was some great stuff there but there was also some not so great stuff and when I read Deathtrap in the first hour of reading it I was already gasping and doing little ahahs with my cats and so if you can get that out of a read then think how good it would be on stage.
JAMES
And because you are directing this Jamie, I was wondering how significant and important do you feel getting a chance to stage Deathtrap at Vertigo is in terms of your career development?
Tyrell Crews & Mark Bellamy in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. Directed by Jamie Dunsdon, costumes by Hanne Loosen, set by David Fraser, Photo by Diane + Mike Photography
JAMIE
It’s huge for me, but that’s half my battle right now is to not get too worried about that. I just have to applaud Craig because there’s not a lot of artistic directors who give young female directors a chance and he did and so I’m so grateful for that opportunity and really grateful for him as a mentor in my life and I’m just now trying to focus on the work and not on the monumental career step in it for me.
JAMES
Well speaking of next steps what have you got coming up?
JAMIE
Nothing I can talk about. I’m in workshops for things that are coming up at Verb and I’m in the early stages of some stuff…like early design phase of some things that haven’t been announced yet so I can’t talk about them.
JAMES
Tyrell, you’re part of a new theatre company called Black Radish and I see you’ve got a production of Waiting for Godot coming up in April. Tell me a little bit about the creation of the company and the production.
TYRELL
It’s a passion project. A huge passion project for us all. Myself, Duval Lang, Chris Hunt and Andy Curtis have been meeting and reading and discussing the play for the last three maybe four years. We shopped it around a little bit but it wasn’t a good fit with any existing company in the city so we decided to bite the bullet and give it a crack ourselves and now Denise Clarke is directing it so we have a chance to work in the Flanagan Theatre at The Grand and they want to open their doors and invite the community in and have a fresh start and that’s a big push for me as an artist and an individual with our little company.
JAMES
Mark, you’ve got a show coming up later in the year at Stage West?
MARK
I’m directing A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. It’s a Broadway musical that won the Tony Award in 2014. It’s very funny and it’s based on the film Kind Hearts and Coronets with Alec Guinness and it’s about a guy who thinks he is very poor but he discovers that he is actually the ninth in line to become Earl of Highhurst so he goes about murdering all of his relatives who are ahead of him and the great conceit in the show is that all of his family – all of the eight relatives – are played by one actor. It’s superbly funny and has really great music.
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Deathtrap by Ira Levin and directed by Jamie Dunsdon and starring Mark Bellamy, Tyrell Crews, Barabara Gates Wilson, Karen Johnson-Diamond and Kevin Corey runs at the Vertigo Mystery Theatre from January 26th to February 24th. Tickets start at just $29.00 and are available online at Vertigo Theatre or from the box office by calling (403) 221-3708.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Last edited on August 29, 2019.
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!
You might know Barb Mitchell as the cohost of Calgary’s first morning show for Global back in the early nineties. Or you might remember her as Miss Calgary back in the early eighties. Or more recently you might have seen her on television as a judgmental church lady in the gritty Depression-era drama Damnation. I sat down with Barb, just after this year’s Calgary Stampede, to talk with her about her experiences as a broadcaster and her career as a stage and television actor.
JAMES HUTCHISON
So, your first experience on stage was playing Piglet from Winnie the Pooh in Junior High – certainly one of the more complex characters in the hundred-acre wood.
BARB MITCHELL
Yes, I did a deep dive into Piglet.
JAMES
Was there anything from that performance that ignited your love for the stage?
BARB
Well, I loved my drama teacher, Miss Main. She was incredible and fun, and we got to escape and experiment and I loved it – so when they didn’t have enough kids turn out for the play and she asked me to be in it I jumped in and did it.
Barb takes a “deep dive into Piglet” from the Hundred Acre Wood
Haysam Kadri Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company
Haysam Kadri Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company talks about Hamlet, theatre, and just how the Shakespeare Company’s Madness in Great Ones season came about. Hamlet will be haunting several Calgary stages over the coming year as The Shakespeare Company along with Hit & Myth Productions have partnered with Vertigo Theatre, The High Performance Rodeo, and Alberta Theatre Projects, to bring Calgary audiences four different tellings of the melancholy Dane’s tragic tale. It’s a full season of Hamlet!
JAMES HUTCHISON
I was wondering as the Shakespeare Company what are some of the challenges you face mounting a large cast show with a really short rehearsal period?
HAYSAM KADRI ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
We have the best mandate and the worst mandate at the same time because we always have to populate the stage with ten to fifteen people which always has its challenges. Anytime anybody does Shakespeare you never have enough time, but what the Shakespeare Company has found out is that brevity is the soul of wit. When you trim some of the fat that Shakespeare gives you we find it makes the plays more accessible to an audience and we find that it’s better for the process technically of rehearsing and putting up a play. Because it’s not a kitchen sink drama. There are a lot of things going on. There are supernatural elements. There’s war. There’s fight scenes. There’s these extraordinary characters in extraordinary circumstances.
JAMES
These are big stories.
HAYSAM
They are big stories. It’s never easy to put them up in three and a half weeks let alone five weeks or six weeks. When it comes down to it it’s about money and ultimately you have to be lean and mean which is our company motto and as efficient as possible.
JAMES
When you’re mounting a play you’ve done before and you’re familiar with it as an actor or director does getting a second or third chance at it make it easier to mount?
HAYSAM
The first time we remounted a play was when we put on The Scottish Play with Vertigo Theatre. The Vertigo patrons just loved it and so what happened was they snatched up a lot of the tickets and then our patrons came on board and the run was already sold out. So, it was incumbent upon the Shakespeare Company and myself to reprogram it for the following season. Number one because there were a lot of our patrons that didn’t get a chance to see it and number two as a company for efficiency. The sets were already built. The production is in hand. The rehearsal process is shortened. And so it was a no-brainer and you know it’s been the most successful show in the history of the company.
Anna Cummer as Lady Macbeth and Haysam Kadri as Macbeth in the Vertigo Theatre Production of Macbeth. Directed by Craig Hall. A Coproduction of Vertigo Theatre, The Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Productions. Photograph Benjamin Laird
JAMES
You took over the company in 2012. How have the last six years gone in terms of what you wanted to do with the Shakespeare Company and where you’re at now?
HAYSAM
You know when I took over the company in 2012 I had never run a company before, so I had a clean slate and I was able to start building the culture that I wanted. I really wanted to build and increase the skill set of the performers and the performances. So, I felt it was really important to start developing a strong core of equity actors to comprise half the company. That’s a very expensive initiative but I felt it was really important.
The other important thing was to make Shakespeare much more accessible to a larger audience. All our Shakespeare plays are two hours with a fifteen-minute intermission and since I took over we’ve increased our audience by four-hundred and fifty percent and we’ve extended all our runs to three weeks and we hire on average six equity actors per show and we’ve developed and built a core audience.
We really wanted to key in on those young students in high school that get a bad taste in their mouth for Shakespeare because they think it’s three hours long and it’s boring and it’s in a foreign language and so we’ve done everything we can to make it really accessible. And you know that’s one of the benefits of being in the studio theatre. You see the blood on the Scottish King’s face and it’s visceral and it’s present and it’s intimate and so we benefit from a small space even though we’d love to expand to a bigger space which we will be doing for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
And as our high school contingent has grown into young professionals or gone on to university they’ve been coming on their own. They’re not coming in school groups anymore they’re single ticket buyers and they’ve become part of the fabric of our patronage. So, our 18 to 25 demographics are unreal and amazing and has been our biggest success.
Cast members in Alberta Theatre Projects’ presentation of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. A Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Production. Photo: Benjamin Laird. (Set: Scott Reid. Lights: David Fraser. Costumes: Hanne Loosen)
JAMES
So, let’s talk about the new season since you mentioned Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and that’s the first play of your season focused on Hamlet. Where did the idea for Madness in Great Ones originate?
HAYSAM
I’ll confess, I didn’t think I was going to do an all Hamlet season, it wasn’t an epiphany that I had. What happened was I was in talks with Craig Hall the Artistic Director at Vertigo Theatre and we wanted to collaborate again because Mackers was such a big success and we would be totally remise if we did not entertain another partnership. And Craig and I had always wanted to do Hamlet because Hamlet is a ghost story and Vertigo Theatre is a mystery theatre and so we started with Hamlet and Vertigo.
HAYSAM
And then I talked to David Fraser the production manager over at ATP and I said, “Hey, what would it take for us to be in your space?” And David and I just started talking and then he talked to the artistic team and the artistic team came back to me and they said give us a couple of proposals for plays. And I’ve always wanted to do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and I thought well we could always have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Hamlet in the same season so I pitched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead to the artistic team at ATP and they thought it was great programming for Alberta Theatre Projects.
JAMES
A good fit.
HAYSAM
Yeah, and for us.
JAMES
Let’s talk a little bit about that one because it’s coming up right away here and interestingly enough it’s being directed by the same director you worked with on The Virgin Trial and The Last Wife.
HAYSAM
Yes, Glynis Leyshon.
JAMES
So that’s exciting and you’ve got quite the cast lined up.
HAYSAM
It’s pretty stellar.
Myla Southward, Christopher Hunt, and Julie Orton in Alberta Theatre Projects’ presentation of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. A Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Production. Photo: Benjamin Laird. (Set: Scott Reid. Lights: David Fraser. Costumes: Hanne Loosen)
JAMES
You’ve got Julie Orton and Myla Southward and I see Mark Bellamy in there as well…
HAYSAM
…Christopher Hunt…
JAMES
…and Tenaj Williams is going to be Hamlet.
HAYSAM
Julie and Myla are a dynamic duo together on stage and they’re a perfect fit for the characters. And Glyniss Lyshom is a big Tom Stoppard fan and a great mentor of mine and a great director and someone that I trust implicitly with everything especially with text and the classical works and I had her in mind before we knew it was going to be an ATP coproduction. I really wanted to bring her on board and it just worked out perfectly. It’s a really exciting cast and I just think this play is ridiculously brilliant and funny.
JAMES
So, now you’ve got these two plays in place – then what happened?
HAYSAM
Well, then I was talking to the High Performance Rodeo because I wanted to partner with the Rodeo and I’ve always wanted to do Drunk Shakespeare. Negotiating Shakespeare sober is a challenge in itself but adding another element to it, I think, is really exciting. So, we’re going to create Hammered Hamlet and if I do Hammered Hamlet I can’t just stop there I have to go full throttle on this and so I thought of creating a season based on Hamlet where you see four different interpretations of a story.
HAYSAM KADRI Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company
Then I got this idea to do a movement piece and I phoned Denise Clarke who is a genius and a Canadian legend and truly a gem in our city and I just pitched the idea. I said Denise, I love your Radioheaded series they’re fresh and innovative and I want to see if you can transplant that into Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And her eyes and ears and everything just lit up and we went back and forth on it and we decided we wanted to do Hamlet Frequency which is an ensemble piece and a reimagining of Shakespeare’s story choreographed and staged by one of Canada’s greatest choreographers.
So, it’s a bold season and I think it’s exciting and I’m really curious to see how it’s going to unfold and I think a lot of people are really excited about the idea of doing four different interpretations of the same play.
JAMES
What are some of the things the Shakespeare Company has done marketing wise to sell tickets?
HAYSAM
Well, we’re constantly trying to find more ways to be creative with social media and to get people in the door. The other thing – partnerships – partnerships are the way of the future because if you cross-pollinate your audience you maximize your resources because you’re collaborating – there are many benefits to being partners with other organizations.
JAMES
One of the companies that you partner with is Hit and Myth productions how did that partnership evolve?
HAYSAM
Joel Cochrane who is the Artistic Director of Hit and Myth productions is passionate about theatre and particularly Shakespeare and so he’s been an amazing partner and supporter of our company and he’s been a huge part of the success of our organization. Joel has a strong business background and so you know as an Artistic Producer you have to balance the left and the right brain. You’re not just worrying about the art you’re worrying about how you make the art happen and so a guy like Joel who has a strong – business acumen I value because I’ve learned so much from him and many other companies.
JAMES
And he’s a pretty good actor too.
HAYSAM
Yeah, he’s a great actor. He’s really cut his teeth over the last ten years – now he’s a force on stage, and I really like watching him and working with him.
Joel Cochrane as Don Pedro in The Shakespeare Company with Hit & Myth Productions Production of Much Ado About Nothing – Photo by Tim Nguyen
JAMES
So, is Hamlet mad or is he playing mad? What is your own personal take on the madness of Hamlet?
HAYSAM
I think Hamlet is thrown into an extraordinary situation. Just imagine yourself in a situation where you find out that your dad was poisoned by your uncle and now your uncle is married to your mom and you’re a prince and you live in a castle and the tabloids are all around. So, to me, I can’t help but not think that there is a touch of madness that permeates his being because he’s faced with the task of taking action and revenging his father’s death. And to me, Hamlet’s a bookworm. He’s doing his Ph.D. over at Wittenberg University and he’s a head case – literally, he’s in his head. He’s cerebral and then he’s asked to use his body, his heart, and his soul.
JAMES
He’s asked to put down the pen, and pick up the sword.
HAYSAM
Put down the pen and pick up the sword and therein lies the great conflict and the exciting dramatic action where he takes all his time to get the courage to do something that other people would have done the second they heard.
JAMES
One of the brilliant things about Shakespeare is when you look at different forms of storytelling – the novels great strength is that it can go into the mind of its character right – often we say a play is dialogue driven but by using monologues Shakespeare is able to let the audience in on the mind of the character. He uses the device of novels in stage plays.
HAYSAM
I think that’s why when the Richard the thirds and the Iagos of this world turn to the audience and they go, “I’m a complete asshole now watch me do this.” audience members walk away going, “Oh my God, I loved Richard the third!” But how could I love a guy who is hell-bent to kill and murder, but it’s because you’re complicit – because he invites you in – because he shares his plot with you – and so you become a part of that story as you watch it unfold. That’s why you connect with these characters because of this device. And it’s exciting to explore those types of characters. Characters who explore the darker sides of their humanity. Those are fun characters to play.
Glenn Davis as Othello and Haysam Kadri as Iago in the Shakespeare Company production of Othello by William Shakespeare. Directed by Ron Jenkins. Photograph Benjamin Laird.
JAMES
Well, look at Walter White in Breaking Bad.
HAYSAM
Walter White is the perfect parallel.
JAMES
It’s not his good side that we’re fascinated by it’s that evil bit that nasty bit. Or Dexter
HAYSAM
The serial killer who kills serial killers.
JAMES
These are interesting guys.
HAYSAM
And that’s the Richard the third that we were talking about. You watch this underdog character navigate his way through the world in a very unconventional way. Those are interesting people to me.
Haysam Kadri Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company’s Madness in Great One’s Season of Plays
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead By Tom Stoppard – October 9 – 21, 2018
Up first and in partnership with Alberta Theatre Projects is the Tony Award Winning comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard. It’s the story of Hamlet as seen through the eyes of Hamlet’s ill-fated university friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The show is running in the Martha Cohen Theatre and ATP has a pay what you can preview plus that $10.00 ticket thing for students. Regular tickets start at just $30.00 and can be purchased online at the ATP website or by calling the box office at 403.294.7402.
Julie Orton and Myla Southward in Alberta Theatre Projects’ presentation of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard. A Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Production. Photo: Benjamin Laird. (Set: Scott Reid. Lights: David Fraser. Costumes: Hanne Loosen)
CAST: Julie Orton as Guildenstern, Myla Southward as Rosencrantz, Mark Bellamy as Polonius/Ensemble, Daniel Fong as Alfred/Ensemble, Natascha Girgis as Gertrude/Ensemble, Braden Griffiths as Horatio/Ensemble, Christopher Hunt as The Player, Robert Klein as Claudius/Ensemble, Natasha Strickey as Ophelia/Ensemble, and Tenaj Williams as Hamlet
CREATIVE TEAM: Glynis Leyshon – Director, Scott Reid – Set & Properties Designer, David Fraser – Lighting Designer, Hanne Loosen – Costume Designer, Allison Lynch – Musical Director, Composer & Sound Designer, Haysam Kadri – Fight Director, Jane MacFarlane – Text & Vocal Coach, Ailsa Birne – Stage Manager, Ian Lane – Assistant Stage Manager, Derek Paulich – Production Manager
Hammered Hamlet January 23 – 26, 2019
Then the fun continues at this year’s High Performance Rodeo with Hammered Hamlet – in the tradition of the John Barrymore school of acting actors will try to navigate the tricky plot and intricate text of Shakespeare while consuming enough shots to trip up even the most well-trained tongue. Tickets will go on sale in November.
Hamlet: A Ghost Story Adapted by Anna Cummer – March 20 – April 13, 2019
Then Vertigo Theatre and the Shakespeare Company reimagine one of the Bard’s greatest works by presenting Hamlet as a ghost story, a detective story and a revenge story all rolled into one classic plot. Agatha Christie would be proud. Brought to you by the same creative team that created the chilling and supernatural Macbeth. Hamlet: A Ghost Story is a macabre reimagining of one of the Bard’s greatest works. Tickets are just $35.00 and available online at the Vertigo Theatre website or by calling the box office at 403.221.3708.
The Hamlet Frequency Directed and Choreographed by Denise Clarke – May 16 – 25, 2019
For the final show of the season you’ll meet Hamlet and the rest of the murderous and murdered ghosts of Elsinore as they wander and haunt the halls of the theatres that play them and stagger to their feet on an electromagnetic wave, ready to start all over again only this time they will grieve, plot and rage through the music of their minds in this reimagining of Shakespeare’s story, choreographed and staged by Denise Clarke with One Yellow Rabbit’s education troupe beautifulyoungartists. Tickets are just $35.00 for adults and $25.00 for students and are available through the Shakespeare Company website.
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The Shakespeare Company is Calgary’s lean and mean classical theatre company, highlighting the best of the Bard in all his comedy, tragedy, and bawdiness. Since 1995, we have brought the Bard alive for Calgarians through both Shakespeare and Shakespeare inspired plays. We are committed to making Shakespeare accessible through innovative performances and inspired directing. Alongside our mainstage productions, we have two community initiatives: Page to Stage Outreach Program and DiVerseCity.
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Haysam KadriArtistic Director has been with The Shakespeare Company since 2012 and has worked to elevate its main stage productions and outreach programs in Calgary. A graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory for classical training at the Stratford Festival, Haysam spent six seasons as a company member with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada. He has worked extensively as a Theatre Arts instructor with Red Deer College, Mount Royal University, and the University of Calgary. Haysam is an Actor, Director, Fight Choreographer, and Teacher. Since 2012, The Shakespeare Company has enjoyed countless nominations and rewards under his leadership.
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Hit and Myth Productions is a professional independent theatre company based in Calgary, Alberta. Hit & Myth was established in 2006, and since that time has produced over 30 professional shows, engaging numerous local actors, directors and designers. Hit & Myth collaborates with small to mid-sized sized theatre companies and independent artists to co-produce theatre that is provocative, modern, sensational, and above all else, entertaining. Our productions strive to reflect the dynamic and diverse theatrical community of Calgary and Calgary audiences.
This interview with Haysam Kadri Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Company has been edited for length and clarity. Last revised August 20, 2022.
This summer if you want a great show, a fantastic meal, and a night out that will leave you feeling optimistic and happy in these strange and uncertain times head on down to Stage West Calgary and catch Red Rock Diner. Director and choreographer David Connolly has assembled an energetic, youthful, fun, and talented cast for this tribute to the early music of rock ‘n’ roll.
Lee-Anne Galloway, Ben Chiasson, Scott Beaudin, Ben Cookson, Carter Easler, and Sarah Higgins singing Johnny B Goode in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan is a rockabilly jukebox musical that celebrates the music of the fifties and features plenty of classic hits like Johnny B. Good, Who Wrote the Book of Love and Great Balls of Fire! The play is loosely based on the early career of Canada’s champion of rock ‘n’ roll music DJ Red Robinson who started spinning rock ‘n’ roll records on Vancouver’s CJOR while he was still in high school in 1954.
1954 was also the year the transistor radio – that marvel of modern technology – made it’s debut and made music portable. The first transistor radios were manufactured by Texas Instruments and sold for $49.95. That’s about four hundred and fifty bucks in today’s dollars, and even though the price was steep, Texas Instruments sold 150,000 units. Soon other companies jumped into the market and started manufacturing and selling their own radios and the price dropped and the radios sold, and the music spread. It spread because of DJ’s like Red Robinson who made it their mission to give the teens the music they wanted.
Red Robinson & Ben Cookson who plays Red in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner
I spoke with both the original Red Robinson and Ben Cookson who plays Red in the show. Red, who is 81, still has a youthful energy and infectious enthusiasm for rock ‘n’ roll more than 70 years after he first heard and helped spread the music of Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, The Big Bopper and Elvis. I asked Red where the idea for the play Red Rock Diner came from.
RED ROBINSON
Well, it started in the brain of Dean Regan who had written things like A Closer Walk with Patsy Kline and other things like that. And he came to me one day and said, “I’m doing a play, a musical, about you.” And I said, “Why the hell would you do that?” “Red,” he said, “when I saw you getting into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame I said, I went to school with that guy and I’ve got to write something.” And he did. And that’s how it was born.
JAMES HUTCHISON
So, you guys know each other from high school. Isn’t that cool. I didn’t know that connection. You know when I look at the show there’s a lot of great songs in it. But, I’m wondering – did he consult you about the music?
RED
Oh yeah, for sure.
JAMES
How did you decide what music to put in the show?
RED
Well, when he has the script for what’s going to be said then you can place the music. You know it’s like photography. Years ago, when I had an ad agency the girls would come to me and say look, “We’ll write this up and then get a picture to go with it.” And I said, “You’re doing it backwards. You get the picture and then you write it up.” That’s the way plays work too, musicals, you have the script and then you place the music and I think it was incredible his brain remembered the music from that period and he made it all match.
Sarah Higgins, Lee-Anne Galloway, Carter Easler, Scott Beaudin, and Ben Chiasson in The Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES
There’s a lot of great songs in the show like Rock Around the Clock, Stand By Me, and Tequila. What are some of your favourites
RED
Oh, there are so many, I like Roy Orbison of course, he was a good friend for twenty-three years and he really was a gentleman. And I like Rebel Rouser, which was my theme, and it was really how I was. (Chuckles) A rebel without a cause.
JAMES
Well, you had a cause though, didn’t you?
RED
Oh, I did. It was to make rock ‘n’ roll acceptable to the public. People forget it was not welcomed by anyone except the youth – the teenagers.
Carter Easler, Lee-Anne Galloway, Ben Chiasson, Ben Cookson, Scott Beaudin, and Sarah Higgins in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES
What do you think it is about rock ‘n’ roll that was so appealing to the kids?
RED
You could get up and dance to it. And that’s one of the ways you met girls. It was incredible. Jan and Dean told me they started Jan and Dean because they just wanted to go out and meet girls.
JAMES
There’s a lot of musicians who learned music and picked up a guitar so they could meet some girls.
RED (Laughs)
No question are you kidding?
Lee-Anne Galloway in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES
You know you bring up an interesting thing because there’s a lot of male acts from that day but what about the girls? What about the females?
RED
We wanted more but we had a limited edition. There was a rockabilly singer by the name of Wanda Jackson – she was terrific. Elvis dated her for a while but then who didn’t he date? Brenda Lee was one. When she started singing my God it was amazing. This little girl who was not even five feet not really – belts out music like she was born to it. Well, she was, no question. Connie Francis another. I loved those ladies they were great, but it was very limited.
When I joined CKWX in Vancouver they had a playlist on the wall in the control room. Male, female, and this comes up in the play, male, female instrumental and group. And the program director called me in and said, “Hey you’re not following our format.” And I said, “How can I?” “What do you mean?” he said. And I said, “We got two maybe three female singers and that was it.”
JAMES
That’s certainly changed when you look at how many big stars are females today.
RED
Oh, it’s the opposite. It’s the opposite. Totally changed. And for the better.
JAMES
I do have an acting question. Ben Cookson is playing you in Red Rock Diner. What acting advice would you give Ben for portraying Red Robinson?
RED (Laughs)
That’s an odd feeling watching somebody play you. I think my advice to him would be to have fun and to just to act naturally – you know just like the song says by Ringo Starr. Get up there and have fun, act naturally but have compassion for the music and the people – the audience.
JAMES
So, you were there at the beginning of rock ‘n’ roll. Did the stars align for you or were you pushing in some way to get into that position? How did you end up being the person introducing rock ‘n’ roll to Canada?
RED
Nobody else would take a gamble, and they didn’t know what they were doing, and I’m not being rude. I was a kid. I was seventeen, and I knew what the kids in high school wanted. You know the teachers would throw a dance and play Glenn Miller, but in truth we all went down to a little restaurant called The Oakway at the corner of Oak and Broadway – it’s not there anymore. And the guy had a jukebox and he played rhythm and blues and we were all getting up and dancing to it and that’s where the idea of Red Rock Diner came from you know the title of the play. We just had fun.
Scott Beaudin in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES
How did you discover the music to put on the air?
RED
Well, I’d go down to the music stores in those days and you’d ask for it and they’d reach under the counter and put it in a brown paper bag and give it to you like it was pornography. It was unbelievable. And I think it was because they were black artists – that was the problem – and you know that all changed – thank God.
So, I’d buy my own records and when I couldn’t get them fast enough I would go to a little record store in Billingham Washington just across the border, and I made a deal with a company called Stark Music and every new record that came in I took them. And I’d drive down – it’s about sixty miles – I’d drive down – get them and come back home and play em on the radio. By the time they were pressed in Canada and mailed out it would be another week to ten days.
JAMES
So, you were offering something that was fresh and on the cutting edge.
RED
That’s right.
JAMES
Where did the confidence come from? How did a seventeen-year-old guy have so much confidence and such a clear picture about what to do?
RED
Well, you know the story on teenagers. You think you can never die, and so what if you fail. I mean it meant nothing to me to fail. And I didn’t. I had a dream. I had a vision and I went ahead and I pursued it. And I think any young person who has a passion for anything whether it’s computers or whatever – they’ll make it so long as they’re dedicated to it internally.
JAMES
No fear of failure is powerful at that age.
RED
Oh absolutely.
Red Robinson spinning Rock ‘n’ Roll Tunes
JAMES
I went to your website Red Robinson – Home of the Legends and I listened to one of the programs you have on your website through Soundcloud about a concert in Vancouver on October 23rd, 1957. That’s the concert where you were introducing all the acts – it’s called – I think The Biggest Show of Stars.
RED
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
JAMES
Oh my God, what a lineup. Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Paul Anka.
RED
I’ve got a poster from that year and it is unbelievable.
JAMES
Did you get it autographed?
RED
Ha, ha, no I didn’t.
JAMES
Damn.
Red Robinson and Buddy Holly
RED
I’ve got Buddy Holly’s autograph. And that was where I got my first interview with Paul Anka and he was fifteen at the time and was full of self-confidence and all the same things I was. I played it for Paul in later years and he said, “Oh my God I’m a kid.” And there was Fats Domino, Jimmy Bowen, Buddy Knox, Buddy Holly and the Crickets and so many acts it was just unbelievable. The story is Irvin Feld who owned Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey saw rock ‘n’ roll as I guess a circus and he decided to take it on the road.
JAMES
You had all these amazing acts and they’re coming out and only doing a couple songs.
RED
Well Buddy Knox said, “We come out” – and well they only had a couple of hits at that time – “and we do the two hits and then we’d do one more and if we had enough applause or whatever we had an encore and you had to come out and do another song. That was it.” But I mean how can you have more than that with all the acts they had.
JAMES
What are some of your special memories because we’re talking about this show from 1957 and then there’s your radio days and the Expo in Vancouver in 86 where you presented The Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll – you mentioned Roy Orbison was a friend for twenty-three years, for example.
RED
Oh, yeah, he was a good friend. As a matter of fact, we were going to buy a radio station at one point. He always liked to invest in the arts. During the Expo in Vancouver in 86 we got the whole list of everybody we wanted and we wanted Roy but he was on the comeback trail with the Travelling Wilburys and he was a little reluctant but he said, “You know Red, you and your partner in the promotions department by the name of Les Vogt were the only guys who ever bonused me.” We gave him a couple extra grand because he made us a lot of money and that bought a house for me and one for Les – in a sense because we were both able to put down the down payment. That’s the kind of relationship we had in those days. The disc jockeys and the recording artists.
JAMES
You know I love the Traveling Wilburys that was a wonderful album. So, sad he passed away right then. What a voice.
RED
What a voice and what a gentleman.
JAMES
You know I think even though Red Rock Diner is a play that appeals to the memory of people who grew up with that music this music appeals to everybody today.
RED
No question. I’ve had – my grandkids say to me – I wish we grew up in your era – your music was fun. I think that people were just trying to get the thoughts of the wars and everything on the back turntable if you know what I mean. Then the message songs came along during the Vietnam War years but for me, I think music is like movies they should be an escape. That’s what it is to me. But then, I’m not the authority on all this stuff, I just think that to play music that’s fun and uplifting is the right thing to do.
Ben Chiasson, Sarah Higgins, Scott Beaudin, Sarah Higgins and Carter Easler in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES
I understand that Michael Bublé was in the original cast
RED
He was. I saw him yesterday by the way.
JAMES
How’s he doing?
RED
Oh fine. He’s back from the road and he’s waiting for the third baby to be born. So, he’s home for that. He’s just a wonderful rooted guy. He’s never let the ego take over his life. And he’s got a grandfather who inspired him to listen to music other than rock ‘n’ roll and he listened to Sinatra and Dean Martin and Elvis. Everybody says he’s Frank Sinatra but no he’s not. He likes Bobby Darin and Elvis Presley. That’s the truth. He’s a wonderfully talented kid. You’ve got to go to his show. This guy’s got a built-in sense of humour you can’t believe. And he’s down to earth.
JAMES
Did he play you in the play?
RED
He played the Elvis part. Here’s a quick story. Bruce Allen manages him and I’m on the phone on a long-distance call with David Foster and Paul Anka and they said, “Red would you talk to Bruce and tell him to sign Michael Bublé?” I said, “Is he reluctant?” And they said, “Oh yeah.” And so I said to Bruce, “You saw Red Rock Diner but you didn’t see what was going on behind the scenes. After the show every night the girls would swamp – you know I’ve got David Foster and Paul Anka listening – they would swamp the backstage trying to get an autograph from Michael. And he wasn’t even established yet and Paul Anka says on the phone, “Oh that brings back some memories.” (Red laughs) Bruce signed him after that. I don’t know if I was responsible, but I think I gave him a new light – a new look at him.
JAMES
Well you know musicians need their champions, right? I think that’s a good way to think about you. You were a champion for that music and for those artists.
RED
I really was, and I believed in it. And I’ll tell you one thing I never told anybody. I traveled by airplane all around this province doing sock hops, taking my own music with me, taking giveaways, and you know only because I believed in it and I wanted the music to spread and so if anyone hates rock ‘n’ roll you got to hate me.
Red Robinson & Elvis
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Bringing the character of Red Robinson to life on stage is Ben Cookson. Ben bears an uncanny likeness to the young Red Robinson and has the same infectious positive attitude and smile.
Scott Beaudin, Sarah Higgins, Carter Easler, Lee-Anne Galloway, Scott Beaudin and Ben Cookson in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES HUTCHISON
So, when thinking about Red Rock Diner are there any particular numbers that really stand out for you? Because there’s a lot of great stuff in it.
BEN COOKSON
I get to rock out to every single tune on stage while it’s being played and performed and it’s hard to choose a favourite, but I really like Sh-Boom and one of my other favourites is Cry that Carter gets to sing in the second act.
Carter Easler in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES
You know one of my favourites is the one you do.
BEN
Oh Boy?
JAMES
Yeah, Oh Boy. I saw the show on Friday and you were absolutely fantastic. Loved the song. Loved the feel of that. It was a beautiful moment.
BEN
Thank you so much. It opens up the second act. It’s a difficult voice to imitate because Buddy Holly was so unique and distinct in his sound and quality.
JAMES
Why do you think this music still resonates today?
BEN
This music still resonates today because the eighty-year-olds are still playing it for their kids and grandkids. I think rock ‘n’ roll introduced a heartbeat into music. I think it’s a heartbeat that appears in all genres today. Rock ‘n’ roll creates this internal feeling that you can’t help but move to.
JAMES
Is it a little something primal maybe?
BEN
Yeah, exactly. You get hooked on it right away. And I think that’s why that music is still being played.
Sarah Higgins, Carter Easler, Scott Beaudin, Ben Chiasson, Ben Cookson, and Lee Ann Galloway in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES
What’s it like for you to perform in a show that’s running for a couple of months?
BEN
A show like Red Rock Diner – especially for the other five guys – is a heavy breathing show. They’re working their butts off. And it definitely becomes easier over time and that allows us to sink into the text of the songs and the actual beats of it and the reaction of the audience a little more, but it’s all for the audience because it’s their first time seeing the show even though it may be our sixtieth time doing the show. We owe it to them to give it our best every time.
JAMES
What type of research did you do?
BEN
I definitely looked into reel to reel tape and how that was used in radio production because at the time they were doing some pretty intense physical editing and changing records and Red would do all that himself. He’d be in the DJ booth changing records – changing 45s – and then going reel to reel in order to play the next commercial and he was constantly doing things. And I definitely listened to a lot of music. That’s not a bad assignment for homework. I listened to a lot of music a lot of the fifties stuff.
Ben Cookson as Red Robinson in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
JAMES
Did you listen to a lot of music growing up?
BEN
Well, my parents are both singers themselves they’re not professional but it’s a hobby they certainly love doing. So, music was a part of my childhood. My parents listen to all kinds of music. Elvis Presley was in the mix – the musical Jesus Christ Superstar was played every Easter, a lot of Celtic stuff, East Coast, Great Big Sea was a huge one growing up.
I did a lot of performing growing up in choirs and then I did the Grand Theatre’s High School Project in London Ontario where you get a chance to work with real professionals in the industry and see what it’s actually like to put on a full-scale musical. I did it two years in a row. I did Footloose and then I did My Fair Lady and I played Willard in Footloose and Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, and then I went to Sheridan College for their Honours Bachelor Musical Theatre Performance Program. That program was intense. It was everything I needed. It was the training I needed and it helped me make the connections that I needed
JAMES
Are there particular musicals that you want to do in the future?
BEN
I have soft spot for golden age musicals, but I definitely would love to do Les Mis. Les Mis is probably one of my favourite shows. I’d love to play Jean Valjean later in life or just one of the guys in the ABC Café…it’s a show where I could play any role and enjoy it.
JAMES
So, here’s a question for you. Did you like the movie?
BEN (Laughs)
I did. I’m one of the few who actually really enjoyed it in my friends’ circle. I enjoyed the rawness of it. I enjoyed the power and it was all about the music for me.
JAMES
I loved it. However, my sister completely disagrees with me and thinks I’m an idiot.
BEN
Yeah, a lot of people disagree with me as well.
JAMES
I think it’s competing against the love of the stage play.
BEN
It is. I enjoy the stage play more than the movie, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the movie. I really enjoyed the movie, but I love the stage production of it. I love it so much it makes me weep it makes me cry. It makes me laugh. It’s everything to me.
JAMES
So, tell me about working with this group of talented folks you share the stage with every night on Red Rock Diner.
Scott Beaudin, Ben Chiasson, Carter Easler, Ben Cookson, Sarah Higgins, and Lee-Anne Galloway in the Stage West Production of Red Rock Diner by Dean Regan – John Watson Photography
BEN
Well, to start it’s nice to work with a small cast. There’s only six of us in the show and we became a family within the first week. I mean you kind of go through trials and tribulations together when you’re rehearsing a show but all of us get along so well it’s so much fun to work with Carter and Lee-Anne and Sarah and we do trips to the mountains on our days off. It’s a blast and I went to school with Ben Chiasson. He was in my graduating year. And I’d met Scott the year before and Carter also went to Sheridon. We’re just a happy little family which I just really enjoy and I look forward to spending the rest of the summer with them.
JAMES
What’s your impression of Stage West as a company and Stage West as a performance space?
BEN
I think the large reason our cast has become such a family is because the production team and the family here at Stage West is so strong. Everyone cares so much about the production. Everyone cares so much about each other. It’s hard not to love what you’re doing and who you’re working with.
Stage West as an experience is very cool because you get a great buffet before the show and then you get your dessert at intermission and it’s a comfortable setting where you’re not cramped next to another person. And Red Rock Diner is a show that you can’t come to and not have a good time – you can’t not have fun at the Red Rock Diner.
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Red Rock Diner runs until August 30th at Stage West Calgary. Tickets are available online or by calling the box office at 403-243-6642. Red Rock Diner is a fun show filled with great music presented by a young and talented cast and gets a full five out of five great balls of fire for being a Rockin’ Robin good time.
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Red Rock Diner – Vancouver Canada June 1957
The Cast – Red Rock Diner: Scott Beaudin as Val, Ben Chiasson as Richard, Ben Cookson as Red Robinson, Carter Easler as Johnny, Lee-Anne Galloway as Connie/Dance Captain, Sarah Higgins as Venus
Creative Team – Red Rock Diner: David Connolly – Director/Choreographer, Dean Regan – Playwright, Konrad Pluta – Musical Director, Executive Producer – Howard Pechet, Production Manager/Artistic Associate – Kira Campbell, Technical Director/Set Designer – Sean D. Ellis, Costumer & Wig Designer – Norman Galenza-MacDonald, Lighting Designer – David Smith, Sound Designer/Head of Audio – Michael Gesy, Scenic Artist – Shane Ellis, Stage Manager – Laurel Oneil, Assistant Stage Manager – Darcy Foggo, Dresser – Brianne Hughes, Replacement Stage Manager – Ashley Rees, Apprentice Stage Manager – Jennifer Yeung, Followspot Operator – Chris Cooper
The Band – Red Rock Diner: Musical Director/Keyboards – Konrad Pluta, Sub Musical Director/Keyboards – Jon Day, Drums – Jeff Fafard, Saxophone – Keith O’Rourke, Guitar – Brad Steckel, Bass – Rob Vause
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Additional Media about Stage West’s Red Rock Diner
Interview: Legendary radio DJ Red Robinson: The Homestretch CBC He helped shape the radio scene in Canada in the 1950s. He has met everyone from the Beatles to Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley. Red Robinson is an influential force who spent decades spinning tunes. He retired last year at the age of 80. His life inspired a new show now on at Stage West called Red Rock Diner. Red joined host Doug Dirks on the line. July 16, 2018 – Length: 08:27
Red Robinson: Home of the Legends The official Red Robinson Web site where you can check out Red’s musical memories buy his book and listen to some terrific podcasts.
The 50s: A Decade of Music That Changed the World – During the few years when high-octane rock & roll ruled unchecked, the possibilities seemed limitless. By Robert Palmer. Rolling Stone April 19, 1990.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s mission is to engage, teach and inspire through the power of rock and roll. The world’s only Hall of Fame devoted to rock and roll: the foremost cultural movement of our time.
