Tag: Rosebud Theatre

Interview Morris Ertman – Artistic Director Rosebud Theatre

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

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

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

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

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

JAMES HUTCHISON

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

MORRIS ERTMAN

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

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

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

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

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

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

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

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

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

Morris Ertman – Artistic Director of Rosebud Theatre

JAMES

What was the magic he saw in you?

MORRIS

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

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

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

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

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

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

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

Morris Ertman Artistic Director of Rosebud Theatre

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

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

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

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

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

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

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

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

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

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

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

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

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

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

MORRIS (CONT’D)

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

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

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

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

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

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

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

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

JAMES

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

MORRIS

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

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

***

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

Link Graphic to Bronwyn Steinberg Artistic Director of Lunchbox Theatre Interview

All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 – At Rosebud Theatre

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

The voices of the past whisper to us.

They have stories to tell.

All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 at Rosebud Theatre is a deeply moving and memorable production. The story is brought to life by a wonderful ensemble and is partly told through the use of letters home from the soldiers who found themselves spending that first Christmas in the trenches. Many of those soldiers thought the war would be over by Christmas but tragically the war continued for another four years and didn’t end until November 11, 1918.

In addition to the letters home much of the play consists of songs including classic Christmas Carols like We Wish You a Merry Christmas and The First Noel along with many contemporary songs of the day including It’s a Long Way to Tipperary and Keep the Homefires Burning. Playwright Peter Rothstein has weaved together the music and the words of these soldiers in a way that from the first moments of the play to the final scene keeps us fully immersed in this tragic but humanizing war story.

The Rosebud Theatre Production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 Ensemble - Kenaniah Love Schnare, Mark Kazakov, Steve Morton, Joel Braun, Tim Dixon, Aaron Krogman, Griffin Cork, Blair Young

All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 tells the story of a brief pause in the fighting during World War I. The Germans and the English sang carols and songs to each other and on Christmas day the soldiers feeling a sense of connection eventually left their trenches and met in no man’s land – the killing field between the trenches. On that first Christmas, they sang songs. They exchanged gifts. They played soccer. They buried their dead. And they wondered what the hell were they doing there trying to kill each other. Of course, the truce ended, and the war continued, and millions would die. But for a moment — there was hope.

The Rosebud Theatre Production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 Ensemble - Kenaniah Love Schnare, Mark Kazakov, Steve Morton, Joel Braun, Tim Dixon, Aaron Krogman, Griffin Cork, Blair Young

Morris Ertman’s direction is flawless as the soldiers interact and tell their stories and there are moments of laughter, moments of faith, moments of grief, and moments of hope. It shows how powerful theatre can be. That’s one of the reasons why we go to the theatre – to experience the emotion of the story. To identify with the characters and understand something more about life and hopefully, we come away feeling a little more connected to our shared humanity.

In no small measure the costumes and setting also add to the experience but what I found particularly moving and worth noting is the musical direction by Bill Hamm because it’s the harmonies of this extraordinary cast that conveys so much of the story. Since the play is giving voice to the words and thoughts of those soldiers long dead having the music performed a cappella really draws us in and connects us to those men whose words are being brought back to life.

The Rosebud Theatre Production of All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 Ensemble - Kenaniah Love Schnare, Mark Kazakov, Steve Morton, Joel Braun, Tim Dixon, Aaron Krogman, Griffin Cork, Blair Young

So, did I like it? I loved it and not just the play, but I loved the whole experience of going out to Rosebud to see the show. Rosebud has become a favourite destination and a place where good memories are made. A big part of going to the theatre is about who you share the play with – the person sitting beside you – that’s the real joy of seeing a show together. The shared experience with someone you care about and who cares about you. Yes, a live audience adds to the experience but when I think of theatre now it’s all about who I see the show with, and I was fortunate enough to see All Is Calm with my son Graham who also enjoyed the show and the meal very much.

You see Rosebud includes the drive out and the meal and then the show and the drive home. It’s a chance to step away from your routine and to make a good memory and enjoy some of that good old-fashioned Rosebud hospitality which includes Chef Mo’s absolutely delicious buffet. It’s really about taking some time to share a meaningful experience and enjoy each other’s company and to connect and when you see a show as meaningful and memorable as All is Calm it just makes the experience all the more special.

All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 runs until Saturday, December 23rd. Tickets are available at RosebudTheartre.com or by calling the box office at 1-800-267-7553. The show runs for approximately 70 minutes without intermission.

All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914
Written by Peter Rothstein
Vocal Arrangements by Erick Lichte & Timothy C. Takach

Ensemble
Joel Braun
Griffin Cork
Tim Dixon
Mark Kazakov
Aaron Krogman
Steve Morton
Kenaniah Love Schnare
Blair Young

Understudies
Taylor Fawcett
Caleb Gordon
Dan Hall
Bill Hamm

Artistic Personnel
Director: Morris Ertman
Musical Director: Bill Hamm
Original Scenic/Costume Designer: Carolyn Rapanos
Lighting Designer: Becky Halterman
Stage Manager: Samantha Showalter
Assistant Stage Manager: Christopher Allan
Rehearsal Pianist: Terrah Harper

Production Personnel
Production Manager/Technical Director: Mark Lewandowski
Production Stage Manager: Brad G. Graham
Head of Wardrobe: Amy Castro
Hair: Tracy’s Place Salon Studio
Scenic Carpenter: Wojtek Kozlinski
Scenic Artist: Cheryl Daugherty
Props Builder/Buyer: Brad G. Graham
Load-in/Lighting Crew: Cory Eliuk, Josie Kaip, Kalena Lewandowski, John McIver
Student/Volunteer Crew: Katie Corrigan, Connor Dixon, Joshua Erhardt, Immaneul Halterman, Jack Loney, Kaila Martin

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

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

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

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

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

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

JAMES HUTCHISON

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

NATHAN SCHMIDT

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

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

JAMES

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

NATHAN

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

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

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

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

JAMES

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

NATHAN

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

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

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

W.O. Mitchell reading at Trent University

JAMES

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

NATHAN

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

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

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

JAMES

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

NATHAN

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

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

JAMES

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

NATHAN

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

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

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

The Syringa Tree at Rosebud Theatre – Interview with Katharine Venour

Posted on by James Hutchison
Katharine Venour in the Rosebud Theatre production of The Syringa Tree.
Katharine Venour in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien. Directed by Morris Ertman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

The stage lets us travel to other times and places and this summer Rosebud Theatre is taking audiences on a journey to South Africa during the time of Apartheid in Pamela Gien’s 2001 Obie Award-winning play The Syringa Tree. Apartheid was an institutionalized system of legalized racial segregation between South Africa’s white minority and nonwhite majority that existed from 1948 until the early 1990s.

Katharine Venour plays twenty-two different characters in a one-woman show that tells a story about two families – one white and one black – caught in the grips of a system where the colour of your skin determines your place and opportunities in South African society. The primary narrator of the story is Elizabeth the six-year-old white daughter of Isaac her Jewish father and Eugenie her Catholic mother. In the play her nanny Salamina secretly gives birth to a daughter she names Moliseng. Elizabeth’s family and Salamina’s family are forced to hide and protect Moliseng from the authorities and other members of the community. Although the story contains tragic events the play ultimately delivers a message of love and hope.

The Syringa Tree is a powerful story told on an intimate stage in a brilliantly directed production by Morris Ertman that mixes a simple set with sound and lights to create a world where Katharine Venour delivers a compelling and deeply moving performance. I contacted Katharine after seeing the show to ask her some questions about her approach to acting as well as questions about the play including how seeing the story through the eyes of a child impacts how the story is told.

JAMES HUTCHISON

What do we mean when we say that an actor’s job is to serve the story?

KATHARINE VENOUR

I think the story is the most important part of the theatre experience. The story is everything. And the actor’s job is to speak the story, speak the words as truthfully and powerfully and clearly as possible and to bring that story to life for an audience.

Most professional actors go through a 4-year training program – either at a university or an acting school – to train their bodies, voices, hearts, and minds to become good instruments in the telling of story. As an actor, my goal is to be the best storyteller that I can be.

I believe that an actor is engaged in an act of service when she takes on a role. You are serving something bigger than you. Your job is to lift up and embody the words and character and vision that the playwright has created for you on the page. The playwright has woven a world, and as an actor I need to figure how I fit into the world and vision of the playwright.

Words are at the heart of the theatre and they can be the conveyors of truth and beauty. I want to speak those words in a truthful and compelling way for an audience, and that takes technique and imagination and inspiration. These are tools that an actor learns and hones in an acting program and throughout one’s career.

Many actors continue to take workshops with master teachers throughout their careers to continue to grow and improve as artists. It’s a life-long craft and process that requires humility and courage. For me, the best way I take it on is to know that it’s bigger than me. That makes the work meaningful.

Katharine Venour in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien. Directed by Morris Ertman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

How much do you think an actor’s performance is based on analysis and reason and how much do you think is based on instinct? Or maybe how do those two things mix when you’re working on a part?

KATHARINE

Yes, this is a great question. I think critical analytical skills in reading a play as well as instinct and gut response are all valuable and crucial for me as an actor.

During my acting training at the University of Calgary, acting students were required to take courses on theatre history where we read three plays a week and analyzed them. I think this was great for me as an actor – and also coincided with my love for literature which I continued in my graduate literature studies at UBC – so I loved it.

I think learning about themes, imagery, character relationships, conflict and the overall structure of a play – as varied as that can be – is so helpful to me as an actor and fires up my imagination and helps me to understand the vision of a playwright and then the director and how I can bring the character I play to life.

But instinct and that gut reaction and the way a play calls to you as an actor are also powerful tools for the actor. For me, I have to feel a heart connection to a story. And I don’t really know how to explain that except that I feel like I want to be part of the story. I want to be a part of speaking it into the world because it is meaningful to me and I connect emotionally or spiritually to it. And in the acting moment on stage, you learn as an actor how to follow your instincts for playing a scene or a moment. For me, the physicality of the character and the voice are significant places where I start and where I really live as an actor onstage.

I think this is why I’m so drawn to and fascinated by athletes. I think acting is about action – doing – and figuring how the body communicates. You want to embody a character and that requires attention and figuring out what the physical life is for the character moment by moment. Once you figure that out, acting is very, very liberating and free.

Katharine Venour in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien. Directed by Morris Ertman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

Let’s talk a little bit about the play you’re currently in – The Syringa Tree. The play starts in 1963 and is told for a large part by Elizabeth a young child living with her parents in South Africa during Apartheid. It’s always an interesting choice to have a story told from a child’s perspective and I’m curious what you think having that viewpoint brings to the telling of the story.

KATHARINE

Well to begin with, the play is based on the playwright, Pamela Gien’s, experience as a child growing up in South Africa. Though most of the characters are fictional, they are shaped and informed by her life as a child. So, there is that somewhat autobiographical element to the choice of speaking the story through a child as Gien herself was a child growing up in South Africa during apartheid, and this is her story.

Also, the choice of telling this story through a child is a powerful way for an audience to connect to and empathize with the main character of the play, who is an innocent. Her naivety leads her to report what she sees, and she doesn’t judge or have the skills of an adult to fully process them. We see her experience and begin to work things out.

Lizzy is also an imaginative and emotionally open child, and so it’s fascinating to see into her world. We see her powerful love for her black nanny, Salamina, and Salamina’s child, Moliseng. And that relationship is at the very heart of the play.

The play is, in part, about family – two families who cross racial divides to bond with one another. Two mothers. Two children. And we see how their lives are intertwined even when living in a brutally divisive and dangerous apartheid society that actively and in the most authoritarian way seeks to divide them. In the telling of her story, Lizzy conjures up, as an imaginative child would do, the people who had a profound impact on her.

Having the main character as a child, also allows the play to gesture towards the invisible world of imagination, and then also to the invisible world of faith or the miraculous as moments of grace subtly break through into the characters’ lives at different moments in the story. The things we cannot see are given a part to play in this story.

Katharine Venour in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien. Directed by Morris Ertman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

You’ve worked with Morris Ertman the director of the show many times before but this is your first time working out here in Rosebud. And in The Syringa Tree, you’re portraying over twenty different characters. So, I’m curious about a couple of things. First, how would you describe your working relationship with Morris and second, what was the process like as the two of you lifted this story from the page to the stage and brought it to life?

KATHARINE

It is always a gift for an actor to work with a director you know really well. Morris is just brilliant at so many aspects of directing. He understands narrative and identifies the heart of a story. He communicates very well with me and he understands me as an actor. He knows sometimes I just need to work out a moment and he gives me the space and time to do that.

He is rigorous and clear about keeping the acting “grounded” – that means finding the psychological and emotional and physical reality of a moment or scene and that it is a real gift to an actor when a director can articulate that so clearly and in a way that inspires. He is specific and he is very generous in filling out the thoughts and feelings of a moment so that it makes sense for the actor.

He can see when something isn’t clear and he was particularly insightful in this process at bringing a clarity to my flips between characters in an elegant way that also allows the story to spill out and gives the blocking – the movement of the piece – a real natural flow that one can follow and understand.

Morris is passionate about the telling of story in a way that is authentic and true to life, rewarding for an audience, and he does this with great kindness to his actor. And besides his deep understanding of the acting process, he also knows how to weave sound and lights within the acting moments so beautifully. That has been particularly powerful in this production where the sound and lights create a world that we can imagine and feel.

Morris also has a great sense of humour so we have good laughs too, and the rehearsal hall is a place where the rigour of our work gets done in a joyful way.

Katharine Venour in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien. Directed by Morris Ertman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

I love small intimate theatre spaces like the Rosebud Studio Stage because I find these types of spaces are particularly compelling for telling stories. Small gestures and a change in voice or a moment of silence seem to have a bigger emotional impact since you’re not trying to reach the second balcony as you would in a large theatre space. How do you think the Studio Stage – lends itself to the telling of this story and this production of The Syringa Tree?

KATHARINE

Yes, I love intimate theatre spaces too – as an actor and an audience member. It allows for an intimacy between performer and audience member and that really serves this story. The smaller space gives the audience that wonderful experience of being very close to the performer and seeing every nuance – like a close-up in a movie. I’ve worked a lot on “alley staging” which is the stage formation for our production and where the audience sits on both sides of the playing space. I really like alley staging as it feels natural to me and allows me to use the whole space for movement as I’m working every side of the stage. It’s great for a one-person show as well as it provides a lot of visual variety for the audience.

JAMES

When we look at the story and its depiction of Apartheid, I think it not only shines a light on South Africa and its racial policies at the time but it makes us reflect in a bigger sense on Man’s tendency to oppress and divide throughout history. Every nation including our own has examples of these kinds of attitudes and behaviour. What do you think the story has to say about those aspects of humanity?

KATHARINE

Yes, humans dominating humans has certainly been a part of the history for many nations and it is good and healthy, though difficult, to reflect on that. But there are also examples throughout human history of moral frameworks which challenge bigotry, discrimination, and the will to dominate and instead encourage us to see all humans as integrally connected and valuable.

Christian scriptures, for example, teach that all humans are created in the ‘image of God’ and every human being has an inherent, intrinsic value that should be cherished and honoured. One of the commandments Jesus gave was to love one’s neighbour as oneself. The ancient South African philosophy of Ubuntu also shares this view of the interconnectedness of all human beings. According to Ubuntu philosophy, if a person hurts another person, they also hurt themselves. Systems like apartheid create a twisted and disturbed society that does not reflect what I see to be the fundamental human spiritual impulse towards love and connection – that ‘image of God’ planted in us.

The play reveals characters who struggle against division and oppression and towards loving relationships across racial lines. In that, it expresses something very deep and true about who we really are as humans and what we really long for in life, while not shying away from or minimizing the evil that we are capable of. The human spirit is strong, and I believe that when we acknowledge a power greater than ourselves – that is God – we can really live into our true calling by helping and loving others. And that way of being human aligns with the ‘image of God’ in us. For me, the play reveals that divine calling for humanity and in a haunting and beautifully subtle way gestures towards moments of grace and the invisible realm of the miraculous, as well as portraying the strength and perseverance of the human heart to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Katharine Venour in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien. Directed by Morris Ertman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

You make your home in Vancouver now but you grew up in Calgary and lived in Priddis and went to the University of Calgary where you studied with Grant Reddick a well-known actor and teacher in the Calgary theatre community and so you have a history here – this was once home and so I’m wondering what’s it like to get a chance to perform on the Rosebud stage and share this story?

KATHARINE

It’s so lovely to be staying in Rosebud and performing in this beautiful play on their Studio Stage. It’s a one-woman show, but really I feel like the whole creative team is up there onstage with me. Luke Ertman has created an exquisite sound design and Brad Graham a beautiful lighting design and those elements of sound and lights feel like acting partners to me as they are so beautifully woven into the story by my director, Morris Ertman.

My costume is designed by Amy Castro and I love it as it moves with me through the portrayal of 22 different characters. The set I play on was built by Mark Lewandowski and scenic painter Cheryl Daugherty, creating an intimate space for me and the audience to explore the life of this play. My stage manager, Shannon Klassen, is the only other human who accompanies me on this journey, besides every member of the audience, and I am so grateful for her diligent and exacting work.

Katharine Venour

And then, of course, there is the playwright Pamela Gien whose words and wondrous story I am given to embody when I walk on stage. Theatre is always a collaboration of many artists, regardless of how many actors appear onstage, and I am so grateful to be surrounded by such gifted designers and artists here at Rosebud. The people of Rosebud are kind and hospitable, and it is also such a delight to be surrounded by the natural beauty of the land every day I walk to the theatre.

Vancouver has been home for me for 30 years now, and I have had beautiful professional opportunities there and great friendships. It is really wonderful to see my friends from Vancouver travel out to Rosebud to see the show – like two worlds – two homes – coming together.

And Alberta will always feel like home to me too. My husband and I and my two boys have travelled to Alberta every summer for the past 23 years to visit family. My parents spent 60 years of married life in Alberta. Both have died now – my Dad last Spring – so performing in Alberta this summer has a poignancy to it. I know my parents would be delighted that I am here on stage as they always supported my acting dreams and career. I have an enduring connection to Alberta.

I am forever grateful to my acting teacher and mentor, Grant Reddick, for his friendship and giving me such a strong and powerful foundation for acting when he taught me at the Theatre Department at the University of Calgary. He has been one of those people who has profoundly formed me.

This play is about home, as well as the deep bonds and influences that certain people have in one’s life and growth, so I resonate with that as I certainly feel the deep and loving influences of my parents, my family, my friends, my colleagues, and my teacher, Grant, in my life. The play also speaks to one’s connection to the land, and I feel that in Alberta. The prairies and the people of this province will always be a part of me.

The Sound of Music at Rosebud Theatre – Interview with Cassia Schmidt

Posted on by James Hutchison

This summer you can travel to Rosebud and enjoy a family-friendly and thoroughly entertaining production of the Rogers and Hammerstein much beloved musical The Sound of Music. The story is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers and contains many popular songs including “Do-Re-Mi”, “My Favorite Things”, “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”, “Edelweiss”, “Climb Every Mountain”, “So Long, Farewell”, and the title song, “The Sound of Music”.

The original Broadway production won five Tony Awards including Best Musical and the play was adapted into the 1965 film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and went on to win five Academy Awards including Best Picture.

The story is set in 1938 Austria in the dark days leading up to the start of World War II and shortly before Germany annexed The Federal State of Austria into the German Reich. Against this backdrop we meet Maria who has taken a job as governess to the seven von Trapp children while she decides whether or not to become a nun.

Maria soon finds herself bonding with the children and eventually falling in love with their widowed father Captain von Trapp. Once Germany marches into Austria the Captain is ordered to report to the German navy but because of his opposition to the Nazis he and Maria devise a plan to flee Austria with the children.

In the Rosebud Theatre production, Cassia Schmidt as Maria and Ian Farthing as Captain von Trapp lead a talented cast that captures the joyful spirit of the show in a terrific production that will have you humming along to all your favourite tunes.

Production still of Cassia Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
Cassia Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES HUTCHISON

The Sound of Music was a huge hit when it came out and it has remained a much beloved musical and I was wondering what you think are the qualities that make it so popular.

CASSIA SCHMIDT

It’s a love story. Two love stories actually. It’s a story about someone that doesn’t belong, which is always good fun for a musical. And she finds a place where she belongs. And then the story is set in World War II which is such a dramatic time in our history, and it’s based on a true story. And I think at the heart of it we love Maria, and we’re rooting for her, and we want this family to win. At the core, I think we want people to find each other and find a place where they belong.

JAMES

You say we want people to find each other and in the story, Maria falls in love with the Captain and he her. Why do you think they fall in love?

CASSIA

I think it’s the same reason anyone falls in love. It just works for them for some reason. They shouldn’t fall in love because they’re from different classes and there’s an age difference between them and they’ve lived completely different lives. But for them, it just worked. There’s a kind of magic to falling in love. And it’s so personal, too, right? This is the big question, James. How do people fall in love?

Katelyn Morishita and Cassia Schmidt in The Sound of Music at Rosebud Theatre
Katelyn Morishita and Cassia Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

I read in an interview you gave to Louis Hobson in the Herald that there are parallels between your own story and Maria’s story. Maria is uncertain about whether or not she should devote her life to God or follow a different path. And you said you’d had a similar struggle. What was that journey like for you and how did you go about choosing a life of music and family and performance?

CASSIA

My biggest kind of discerning time was in my teenage years. I really felt a call and I was really attracted to the cloister. It’s a really romantic kind of idea to be contemplative and to be in community and to be separate from the world and married to God. But all these orders that I looked at never quite felt like the right place for me and I never quite got as far down the road as Maria does as actually entering a convent. I have stayed in some convents through travel and through friends and I loved staying with the sisters and there’s just something magic about a holy place. And I was really attracted to that.

And then I just thought I don’t think that’s quite where I’m called so where do I go now? And that’s when I ended up coming to Rosebud. I came here as a student. I did the program here. And the first mainstage show I did was Man of La Mancha. And we did something like ninety shows that summer. Ninety performances. And I remember about twenty shows in thinking this is awesome. If we close tomorrow, I would feel like I had a good experience. And then in my next thought, I realized that there are seventy more shows and I felt this calling because I realized this show isn’t about me it’s about what I get to offer to each new audience that comes to see it whether I feel like it or not on that particular day.

And I think there’s something about the self-sacrifice that the theatre asks for, as well as we’re in community together doing this show hoping to change hearts and hoping to inspire people. And, you know, a theatre does feel like a holy place a lot of the time. So, it was coming here that really affirmed for me that the theatre is the church I’m called to. And then I found someone that I love, and we have a family, and it didn’t feel like a big “Aha!” decision. Instead, it felt like I pieced it together and I followed a thread until it became so clear that this is where I belong.

  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
    Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
    Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Ian Farthing and Glenda Warkentin in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music. Directed by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
    Lacey Cornelsen and Cassia Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Lacey Cornelsen and Travis Edwards in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
    Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
    Lacey Cornelsen and Travis Edwards in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
    Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Cassia Schmidt and Logan Hope in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.
  • Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music.
    Cassia Schmidt and Ian Farthing in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

The play has several young performers playing the von Trapp children, and so it provides an opportunity to pass on musical knowledge and mentor up-and-coming theatre artists. In what ways do you think mentorship is important for helping young people navigate their own professional development and life’s journey?

CASSIA

I’ve benefited from it. It’s such an integral part of what we do here in Rosebud. We call our training the Mentorship Program. So, we really believe in it. It’s like the good old 4-H club I was in when I was a kid. The 4-H model is – learn to do by doing.

You can go to a lot of classes, and you can read a lot about how to be an actor but standing on stage with an audience who will never lie to you because the audience is very clear about what they like and what they don’t like is indispensable. And you have a group of actors to support you and to be with you. And I think theatre can offer you a sense that you have value, and it builds confidence and it builds a sense of body and voice. And you don’t have to be the Gretel from the movie, you yourself are the perfect Gretel, and you yourself have so much to offer.

JAMES

Tell me what audiences can look forward to experiencing when they see the show.

CASSIA

I think this show is so beautifully cast and everybody is so well suited to their role. And what I’ve been seeing from our audience is a nostalgia in a way that no other show I’ve done before has had. I’ve done Anne of Green Gables – I’ve done Oliver! – and I’ve done some other musicals where people know them pretty well. But because The Sound of Music movie is so embedded in our culture people know this story and they remember watching it with their grandmother and they love this story in a way that’s physical and whatever their connection is to the story we can feel it in the show.

From the very first performance, we felt it as soon as we started the music because some people sing a little bit, or they repeat a line, and you hear them sighing or crying or laughing. And I was like, “Wow, people love this show.” And isn’t that wonderful that they get to come to see a show that they love and I’m happy to share it with them because I love the story too. It’s part of my childhood.

Cassia Schmidt and Ian Farthing in The Sound of Music at Rosebud Theatre
Cassia Schmidt and Ian Farthing in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Directed by Morris Eartman. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

I know you also produce original music with your most recent release called The Lullaby Project: Songs for the Sleep Deprived. Tell me a little bit about that project and how that came about.

CASSIA

It was my COVID project. I actually just wanted to do a writing project around parenthood and lullabies and to collaborate with people. And I’m a mom. We have three kids. We have a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and a four-month-old. And before I was a mom, I always thought what a romantic idea to rock your kids to sleep but instead it’s often frustrating and you’re tired and it’s not working. And so that’s why I call it songs for the sleep deprived. It’s more about songs for parents rather than songs that might put your baby to sleep.

And my favourite song I co-wrote with Lauren Hamm and Paul Zacharias we called “Time Go Easy”. We sat together and just talked about being parents and how there’s a saying that being a parent is saying goodbye to a child over and over again because the baby is gone now. You’ll never see that baby again, but now you’re saying hello to a toddler. And then you’ll never see that toddler again because now there’s this child, and now all of a sudden there’s this teenager, and then there’s this adult before me, right? So, we all had a good cry, and then we went off and we wrote this song that’s our pride and joy from the album.

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

JAMES

What do you think it is about music that makes it such an important part of people’s lives?

CASSIA

I think it’s something Morris Ertman our director said at the end of rehearsals about the show. “This show is about music changing people’s hearts and wouldn’t that be amazing if that’s what we get to do all summer for audiences.” It’s like a softening of the heart and I think it’s a physical experience for us. Music has rhythm – like our heartbeat. Like our mom’s heartbeat. Like our family’s heartbeat. And I think when we’re listening to music, we’re part of the music. There’s something physical about it that goes into our spine and into our memory and into our feelings in a way that nothing else really can. So, just like falling in love – it’s magic. (Laughs) Everything’s magic.

***

Catch The Sound of Music at Rosebud Theatre until September 2nd. Tickets are available through the Rosebud Theatre Website or by calling the Box Office at 1-800-267-7553.

Link to interview with Judith Buchan about The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote.
Link to interview with Nathan Schmidt and Griffin Cork - Stones in His Pockets at Rosebud Theatre.

The Trip to Bountiful at Rosebud Theatre – Interview with Judith Buchan

Posted on by James Hutchison

Rosebud Theatre’s production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote is a rich and rewarding story about love, family, regrets, and hope all brought to life in a wonderful production that provides audiences with a memorable and highly entertaining night at the theatre.

Bringing the play to life is a terrific cast including Judith Buchan as Carrie Watts, Nathan Schmidt as Ludie, Heather Pattengale as Jessie Mae, Rebbekah Ogden as Thelma, and Caleb Gordon and Christopher Allan each playing multiple roles. The production is expertly directed by Morris Ertman who also designed the sets.

Judith Buchan as Carrie Watts in the Rosebud Theatre production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote. Photo by Morris Ertman.

All Carrie Watts wants to do is return to her childhood home of Bountiful but without money and being an old woman living with her son Ludie and his wife Jessie Mae her dream of returning home isn’t going to be an easy task to accomplish. She’s tried it before and failed but this time she’s secretly been making plans and preparations, and no one is going to stop her.

But she’s not the only one dealing with life’s difficulties. Ludie and Jessie Mae have had their own regrets because sometimes careers stall and stumble or our hopes for a family don’t work out the way we planned. In the end, all three characters have to figure out how to come to terms with life’s regrets and move forward.

After seeing the show on opening weekend, I arranged an interview with Judith Buchan to talk with her about the play and her portrayal of the feisty and determined Carrie Watts.

JAMES HUTCHISON

So, I saw the play and you know, we talk about the magic of theatre but the true magic of being deeply moved and at times getting lost in a play doesn’t happen very often. It’s a rare experience. But your production had that magic. And I wonder how much of that magic do you sense on the stage and what’s it like to be in a production that has the power to move an audience.

JUDITH BUCHAN

It’s beautiful to hear that actually. I am not sure how much I can sense that. I mean obviously we’re hoping to do justice to the material. Trying to connect and trying to find the truth and the honesty in these people the best we can. And with Horton Foote’s writing nothing is wasted. I go through the whole script every day before I perform it because it is so beautifully written that you do not want to stray from it in any way. And the more I study it, the more I realize nothing is wasted and everything comes back to a payoff at the end, and everything does connect in some way.

In some ways, it’s a little story. My daughter, Rachel, has a great description of this play. She says it’s about an inch wide and about a mile deep. And that really touched me because it’s not as if big things happen yet huge things are happening between the characters. Relationships are being altered in big ways and their eyes are being opened in deeper and more meaningful ways about themselves and each other. I had seen The Trip to Bountiful myself on Broadway with Cicely Tyson playing Mrs. Watts and I was deeply moved by it.

Production still - Heather Pattengale as Jessie Mae and Nathan Schmidt as Ludie in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote.
Heather Pattengale as Jessie Mae and Nathan Schmidt as Ludie in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote. Photo by Morris Eartman.

JAMES

It’s a play filled with ghosts because the people in it are mature characters. And I personally like plays about older characters and characters that have known each other for a long time. I just usually find those more interesting. There’s history there that includes tragedy and happiness, and that informs the relationships in the present. Tell me about your character and her journey, and why do you think all the characters in this play are so compelling?

JUDITH

Horton Foote just has the gift of writing simply but just so deeply. I had a lot of great aunts that were very powerful women and very resilient and strong and opinionated and who lived really complicated lives. And I’ve kind of been thinking about them while doing the play. My own mother loved this story, and she did say to me once you could play that part. I hadn’t actually thought of that before she said it, and she died last November so it’s been very poignant for me to be in a play and playing a character that I know she loved.

I think my character and the other characters in the play remind us of people we know. And Carrie loves her son even though his life has been a mess because of an illness. And she adores him so much and he adores both his mother and his wife Jessie Mae. And what would you call her? Well, she’s a strong flavour – Jesse Mae. Just a powerhouse of a person and loving her husband so much and she’s living in a time when she can’t really be more than what she is. And my daughter who really loves this play said Jessie Mae would’ve been a lawyer if she lived now. She’s smart but she’s kind of trapped looking after her mother-in-law and so what can she do?

I think you see the frustrations of the characters really, really well, the things they’re fighting against. And I just think there’s so much truth in the play about how we treat our elders. And I think it’s kind of unusual to have this senior lady being the one taking the journey and I love that.

Judtih Buchan as Carrie Watts and Nathan Schmidt as Ludie in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote.
Judith Buchan as Carrie Watts and Nathan Schmidt as Ludie in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote. Photo by Morris Eartman.

JAMES

Let’s talk a little bit about the production itself. I’d love to hear what it’s like to work with Nathan and Heather and bring this story to life.

JUDITH

I’m so fortunate. I’ve worked with Heather a few times before and so we already start at a place where we know each other and are comfortable with each other and love each other. So, it’s just fantastic. And Nathan and I haven’t really worked with each other but thirty years ago I taught a few courses here and I would come in from Olds and teach and he was a young student then. And you know its so good to see him mature and become such a fine actor and stay in Rosebud and put his roots down and contribute here and teach. So, it’s really been fun to be on stage with him.

And Rebecca was a student from here and she’s doing all kinds of things and she is just darling. And for her to be the stranger I meet on a bus…I mean how blessed am I to meet Rebecca on the bus every night and have to tell her my life story? And Caleb and Christopher they’re just great having to play several different roles and having to move all the backstage stuff so that things roll in smoothly and roll out smoothly. I agree with Morris our director that on this small stage not having a blackout and instead having everything moved around so smoothly works better and I just love the way that’s done. And I just find the music so beautiful that it almost makes me cry sometimes.

Production still of the Rosebud Theatre production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote. Phot features Judith Buchan as Carrie Watts and Rebbekah Ogden as Thelma.
Judith Buchan as Carrie Watts and Rebbekah Ogden as Thelma in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote. Photo by Morris Eartman.

JAMES

Yeah, there’s not a production element that doesn’t work. From an audience point of view, the transitions between scenes are seamless. They dovetail beautifully. It’s like a dissolve on stage.

So, the main character is Carrie Watts. She’s older. She’s looking back at her life, and so, I’m curious about you and your thoughts about growing older and reflecting back. What’s that like?

JUDITH

It’s quite an experience to be able to play this woman and reflect back on my own life. I find certain things that she says really get to me like when she says she wants to know why her life has become so empty and so meaningless. That really gets to me every time because I think people feel that way quite often. And it’s just heartbreaking to have a lot of regrets and I think you can reach an older age and really be so full of regrets. And I can relate to her sometimes. I had one child, so my table isn’t full at Christmas or Easter, but I have great friends.

And in the play Carrie teaches me that you need to be thankful for what you have and whatever you have is enough and maybe we need to really be listening to that. So, I just think it’s really hopeful and helpful to see an older person take stock and admit she has regrets, and then manage to go past that and she sees that she gets her strength not from a house or from people but from the ocean and from the beauty around Bountiful.

Nathan Schmidt as Ludie, Heather Pattengale as Jessie Mae, and Judith Buchan as Carrie Watts in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote. Photo by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

So, I’m curious to know what you think theatre can offer a modern audience in this age of TikTok.

JUDITH

Well of course, it’s the shared community experience that we were deprived of for the years during Covid. Sitting together in a room and laughing together or crying together and watching something happen in real-time right in front of you. You know, it’s a shared thing that I think is ancient and powerful.

And at Rosebud walking home from a show under the stars and the northern lights and hearing the coyotes in the distance keeps you very grounded in the land and the earth. And having a theatre school here and a community of theatre artists here there’s a big commitment to honesty in the storytelling which you know, most theatres would go along with, but I think somehow because this is an earthy place, I buy more into the honesty. And somehow Rosebud manages to find the essence of the shows they produce and so I enjoy what happens at Rosebud very, very much, and I’m so privileged to be able to work here.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Rosebud Theatre – Interview with Anna Dalgleish and Caleb Gordon

Posted on by James Hutchison
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Production Still
Anna Dalgleish and Caleb Gordon in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Adapted for the stage by Ron Reed and Directed by Morris Ertman.

This holiday season Rosebud Theatre is taking audiences on a magical journey back to Narnia in a fun and family-friendly stage adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.

In the original story Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are four children who have been evacuated to the countryside from London during the early days of World War II. The children soon discover a wardrobe in their new home that leads them to the magical land of Narnia. Narnia is locked in a forever winter but never Christmas spell by the White Witch who rules over the land. The story revolves around the promise of spring and end of the Witch’s rule that is prophesized when two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve mark the return of Aslan the lion who is the rightful King of Narnia.

In Ron Reed’s stage adaptation Lucy and Peter return to the wardrobe as adults many years later and relive their adventures in the land of Narnia when they were children. The production is directed by Morris Ertman and stars Anna Dalgleish and Caleb Gordon who play Lucy and Peter as well as all the other characters in the story including Aslan, the White Witch, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, Father Christmas, and Mr. Tumnus.

I was lucky enough to catch the opening weekend of the play and experience a terrific production that reminds all of us about the joy and imagination of childhood while bringing a beloved story to life. I sat down with the talented stars of the show, Anna and Caleb, to talk with them about the production, their love of theatre, and what they want for Christmas.

ANNA DALGLEISH

For a long time, I’ve been seriously looking at adopting cats and I get an early Christmas gift this weekend. I get to adopt two little kittens and I’m very excited about that. So, Christmas comes early for me. It starts this week.

CALEB GORDON

The last time we did this show I was involved as an assistant stage manager and the gift shop sells Turkish Delight. I never thought I would like Turkish Delight, but I had a bag of their stuff, and I liked it so much that I bought them out. So, let me just hawk for the gift shop. Ten dollars a bag. It’s very tasty. Turkish Delight is my answer.

JAMES HUTCHISON

I’m curious, when did each of you discover your love of theatre and what was it about that experience or moment in time that stirred your soul?

ANNA

Well, I have a very special story that goes along with this because the very first time I saw a play, it was a two-hander version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Pacific Theater had put on a show very similar to this one, but it was a different adaptation. I had never seen a play before. I was a four-year-old, so it was all magic to me.

And then when I was six years old the second show I ever saw was also The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And that was when I fell in love with theatre because I have very strong memories of that. By this point I was an avid reader and already quite an imaginative kid and to see something playing out in real life embodied by people right in front of my very eyes who were profoundly affecting my emotions and whose story I was following along with captivated me. And so, my love of theatre is all tied to this story, and I was very keen to do the show when the chance came around.

Production Still The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Anna Dalgleish and Caleb Gordon in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Adapted for the stage by Ron Reed and Directed by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

What about you, Caleb?

CALEB

I went into theatre when I was in grade nine, and I was very good at it. And I say good at it because I could memorize things very well, but I had no idea about emotions or that maybe I should use them on stage.

And I remember when I had just turned eighteen sitting down and having a really big conversation with myself. I had gone to a summer drama camp, and they had talked about the presence of the fool in a lot of Shakespeare’s plays. And I hated being a fool. I hated not being in control was the real thing. And I remember thinking, maybe that’s not healthy and maybe I should look into that.

And so, I did. I decided, let’s do all the things I’ve never done before. Let’s be the fool. Let’s be okay with being a fool because what we had talked about in summer school was how fools are the only ones who are comfortable in chaos and limbo. Everything and everybody else gets turned upside down, but the fools are the ones who are suddenly the guides and the way keepers in those situations. And I thought, “Wow, that sounds infinitely better than been tossed around and lost at sea and not actually knowing where I’m going.” And so, I would say from that moment onwards is where my love of theatre was truly ignited.

JAMES

Your love of theatre brought you to the Rosebud School of the Arts. Both of you are graduates. So, tell me about your relationship with Rosebud and how you feel it has helped shape you as artists.

ANNA

There’s something so intense about forming an artistic voice in such an immersive education environment. Rosebud is basically a street that crosses another street and when you dip down into the valley it’s like you’re fully immersed in theatre and in your studies. And at times that was incredibly intense and sometimes even overwhelming. But at the end of the day, I think that the immersion into the world of theatre that exists at Rosebud is what has made me such a holistic theatre person and so willing to dive into the deep end every time I get a chance to do something theatrical.

CALEB

I know that when I came to Rosebud, I used to be quite a people pleaser and I would always defer to other people and their needs, but Rosebud was small enough that I couldn’t do that anymore. Instead, I had to actually take the stage and when the light was shone on me I had to step into it. Rosebud is where I started to listen to my own voice as opposed to the voices of others and that was very helpful for me in realizing who I was. Rosebud is a place where when you graduate you are your own artist with your own voice.

JAMES

Did you find the same Anna, that you discovered your individuality as an artist when you were in Rosebud?

ANNA

Absolutely. We were all so different from one another and that’s a comforting feeling when you’re at an audition because auditions are always nerve-wracking. They’re going to see sixty people today and how in the world am I going to stand out? But my training here taught me that it is not about outshining, it’s about bringing what only you have to offer to the audition.

And then at the end of the day, if that’s a fit for the show, fantastic. If it’s not a fit for the show, it’s not because you’re a bad actor, it’s because you have shown them what you have to offer and they’re going with someone who has a different thing to offer. So, you never have to pretend to be someone you’re not. You just have to bring your unique gift. And I think that Rosebud grads are encouraged to have that sense of self and that sense of individuality and to put their own quirky stamp on who they are and what they bring.

Anna Dalgleish and Caleb Gordon in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Adapted for the stage by Ron Reed and Directed by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

There’s a famous quote by George Bernard Shaw. “We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.” And I think that’s an interesting idea when we look at this particular adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because Lucy and Peter are adults and they’re remembering their childhood adventures.

CALEB

One of my favourite parts of this show is when Aslan comes back and we just play tag for a few moments. The exuberance that I feel in that moment not only from myself but from the audience as well is so exciting. Who would’ve thought that watching two people run around on a stage playing tag was exciting? And yet it is. Even today, we just came out of a show and oh goodness, people were excited and chattering, and all I’m doing is running around on stage out of breath.

And I think I have a sense of play. I play a lot of video games and tabletop games and that sort of thing, but I’m realizing just how much a sense of play is actually something to be celebrated because it’s not that people don’t have a sense of play it’s that people can’t express it fully because they’ve been told that’s a thing that you leave as a child and now that you’re older you have responsibilities. You can have responsibility, but you can do it with a wink in the eye and a sense of play.

ANNA

This question makes me think of the dedication in the novel that C.S. Lewis wrote to his goddaughter who was named Lucy. And he says something like this, by the time I’m finished writing this book, you may have grown out of fairy tales but there will come a day – one day where you’re old enough to read fairy tales again, and I hope this book will find you then.

And I think that’s true of the characters in the story. I think Peter and Lucy are far enough away from their adventures as children and are far enough into their lives in England as adults where they need to remember how to read fairy tales and how to play again. And I think it is that sense of play and embracing that childhood belief and courage and adventure that brings a taste of that Narnian magic back to them in the present moment.

CALEB

And in this play, at one point I’m Peter playing Edmond watching Lucy play the Witch Queen and she levitates her wand. And the wand does levitate because a Narnian is holding it up for her. And there’s that moment where Peter’s thinking, “Did I just see that? Is that what’s really going on right now?” And those moments in our adulthood are just a trick of the light but as a child those moments are not a trick of the light they really happen.

ANNA

That’s another magical thing that is brought to life in this particular production because even though we have two primary storytellers we have two other actors Christopher Allen and Lacey Cornelsen involved in the process. We start out in this dusty old room and because of these two other actors the whole room bursts with magic and the involvement of these two Narnian characters makes you really believe that the magic has come back.

Production still The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Anna Dalgleish, Caleb Gordon, Christopher Allen and Lacey Cornelsen in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Adapted for the stage by Ron Reed and Directed by Morris Ertman.

JAMES

When Lucy and Peter first discovered Narnia, it’s a land of perpetual winter and never Christmas. In fact, the White Witch’s magic keeps Father Christmas from being able to visit Narnia. And the story is about the arrival of Aslan and the breaking of that spell. And the story takes place in England during World War II and it’s about living through tough times with a vision of better times in the future. What is it about Christmas do you think that renews our hopes for a more compassionate and better world?

ANNA

I think for one thing winter is a very desolate time and if it goes on for too long you begin to wonder if we are ever going to see tulips again or crocus again or all these beautiful springtime miracles. And I think that Christmas is representative of that miraculous life springing forth.

And I know that for C.S. Lewis a ton of his interest and passion was in the Christ story and of course that’s remembered at Christmas time where out of nowhere a miracle is born that turns the whole world upside down. And I think, in this story Father Christmas who comes in with this boisterous energy and gifts galore represents the turning point. And he comes with the good news that Aslan is in fact here and the balance of power is shifting, and the melt will come and you will have what you need to be prepared for the coming world.

CALEB

I remember being very young and thinking Christmas is about getting presents and it’s all about getting the Fisher-Price Knights and Castle set or whatever it was that I really wanted. And then of course you go through a little bit more and you realize, ok, maybe it’s actually more about getting socks and more about the people that I spend it with.

And I have always enjoyed the Christmases that I’ve experienced in Rosebud. I worked in the Mercantile for quite a few years while I was a student, and I remember having so many good memories of the place. Closing down and we’ve sent all the patrons home and it’s dark and there’s just a little bit of excitement because even though it’s cold outside and it’s freezing and Kevin’s car won’t start we know that we have a community out here in the middle of nowhere who gather and find warmth with each other’s kindness.

And I remember thinking in the early days of COVID that we might never have theatre again. I tried a few ZOOM readings where I read Shakespeare with a bunch of other players to an audience and it just does not feel the same. There’s no life through the digital ether, unfortunately. I think technology is great but realizing it’s never going to bridge that gap like real live theatre can was very worrisome.

So, it’s reassuring to come out of it now and I’m dealing with a cold but instead of saying sorry everybody I have a cold and you’re just going to have to deal with that I can say sorry everyone I’m going to be masked up for the next little while because I don’t want to spread that to everybody. COVID brought a lot of realities to the forefront. Theatre is a precarious career at times. It’s precarious and it’s a gift to be able to be in front of people and I should take care of myself and others while I do it.

Anna Dalgleish and Caleb Gordon in the Rosebud Theatre Production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Adapted for the stage by Ron Reed and Directed by Morris Ertman.

ANNA

Theatre artists have always been adaptive and the fact that it’s a live art means that at any moment anything can happen and you have to adapt to it. We’ve always been good at that. But I think COVID taught us on an industry scale, just how flexible we can be and how creative we can be about solutions.

And I think bringing all of that adaptation and creativity back into the theatre when audiences have been allowed to return, has made us care for each other better and has made us even more grateful for the gift that is being inches away from your scene partner and being just feet away from the audience.

There’s nothing like a full theatre of well-fed, excited individuals ready to watch a show and Rosebud does that unlike anyone else. It’s been a glorious and joy-filled homecoming, these returns to full audiences. And now I think none of us take it for granted. So, there’s extra magic in that for sure.

***

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis adapted for the stage by Ron Reed stars Anna Dalgleish as Lucy and Caleb Gordon as Peter along with Christopher Allan and Lacey Cornelsen as Narnians. Director Morris Ertman, Fight Director Nathan Schmidt, Scenic Designer Morris Ertman, Costume Designer Hanne Loosen, Lighting Designer Michael K. Hewitt, Sound Designer/Composer Luke Ertman, Stage Manager Samantha Showalter, Assistant Stage Manager Koayla Cormack.

This interview was conducted on Friday, November 11, 2022, and has been edited for length and clarity.
Last Revised on December 22, 2022.

Stones in His Pockets at Rosebud Theatre – Interview with Actors Nathan Schmidt & Griffin Cork

Posted on by James Hutchison
Nathan Schmidt and Griffin Cork in the Rosebud Theatre production of Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones. Director Morris Ertman, Scenic Designer Hanne Loosen, Costume Designer Amy Castro, Lighting Designer Becky Halterman, Sound Designer/Composer Luke Ertman.

Rosebud Theatre’s production of Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones is a highly entertaining and wonderfully crafted production. The play is designed so that two actors portray fifteen different characters. The story focuses on Jake Quinn and Charlie Conlon who have been hired as extras along with plenty of other town folk by a big Hollywood Studio that’s shooting on location in Ireland. Jake and Charlie are down on their luck, but Charlie has a screenplay that he feels could turn their fortunes around if he could get it into the hands of the right people.

The play stars Nathan Schmidt as Jake Quinn, Griffin Cork as Charlie Conlon, and is directed by Morris Ertman. Some of the other characters portrayed by Nathan and Griffin include Caroline Giovanni the American star of the film, Clem the film’s English director, Sean and Fin a couple of young lads from town, and Mickey a local in his seventies whose claim to fame is being one of the few surviving extras on the 1952 film The Quiet Man starring John Wayne.

Stones in His Pockets premiered at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast in 1996, and when it was produced at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1999 it became a huge hit. From the Fringe the play moved to the West End in London where in 2001 it won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy and the Olivier Award for Best Actor for Conleth Hill who many people may know better as Varys in the HBO Fantasy series Game of Thrones. From the West End the show travelled to New York for a successful Broadway run and since then has been performed by regional theatres throughout the world.

I was lucky enough to catch the opening night production of Stones in His Pockets and I had a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, and fun evening at the theatre. I sat down with the stars of the show Nathan Schmidt and Griffin Cork to talk with them about the play and we started our conversation by talking about the magic of the theatre and what that word means to them.

NATHAN SCHMIDT

I guess what people mean by magic is something unbelievable that happens right in front of them. And then coming to the theatre you experience the emotions of the story, and it all seems ethereal and magical, and all of a sudden you’re taken up in a story and carried along by the cast or a certain kind of music or the way the lighting cues hit, and it hooks everything up for you, and you become a part of this group of people as the audience experiencing the show. And it’s such a unique kind of experience that you don’t have very often. I think that’s part of what the magic is.

GRIFFIN CORK

I always relate it back to my grandmother a little bit. I always describe her as the ideal audience because she says her perfect show is one that makes her forget about her shopping list. And she likes to think that the story is being told for her only. That it’s her bedtime story is the way she puts it.

And to me, the magic of theatre is that it makes you believe the story. You start to care about that guy on stage and it’s the punch through of that suspension of disbelief. So, in this day and age, if you can make my grandmother forget about her shopping list, I think that’s pretty magical.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Well, I mentioned magic and we often see magic between actors, they have chemistry, they play well off each other. And I can definitely say after seeing the show last week that you guys have great chemistry. This is a two-person show where you’re playing multiple characters. So being in sync is absolutely essential. How much of that chemistry between the two of you was there naturally and how much of it is something that you work on through the process of rehearsal and the performance of the play?

GRIFFIN

I did my audition with Nate which gave our director Morris Ertman and us a pretty good idea about how well we naturally play off each other. And when we did the first read our set designer Hanne Loosen came up to me and said, “Have you read that with Nate before?” And I said, “No, not all the way through.” And she said, “Oh, yeah, you guys are just pinging off each other.” So, there was already bedrock there and I think our sensibilities and our senses of humour line up pretty well.

I don’t know that I ever actively worked on chemistry with Nate, but when you spend forty-five hours a week together you get to know somebody pretty well. And I think I also formed a rapport with our director Morris, and our stage manager Kalena, and our production stage manager Brad, but the audience doesn’t see that rapport because its not on stage. It’s kind of what rehearsal is for in a sense – to build chemistry with the people you haven’t worked with before.

Griffin Cork and Nathan Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre production of Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones. Director Morris Ertman, Scenic Designer Hanne Loosen, Costume Designer Amy Castro, Lighting Designer Becky Halterman, Sound Designer/Composer Luke Ertman.

NATHAN

I think it was a John Cusack quote that said one of the skills the actor has is to develop a shorthand for deep relationships. So, it’s actually part of the skill set to be able to speak to each other with a depth of understanding that you maybe don’t actually own but that is actually there because of the trust you have for each other and because of the type of work that we do. We put ourselves in the other person’s hands. And for sure, there are some people you connect with more quickly. Griffin’s quite a bit younger, but we have similar sensibilities. So, I think that chemistry while some of it’s about the people I also think part of it is the skill set to go deep with people quickly.

JAMES

The play takes place in County Kerry, Ireland and the local town is being used as the location for a big Hollywood movie, and the locals are being used as extras. Tell me a little bit about this world, and the world of the play.

NATHAN

It’s really a town that’s lost so much of what made it a town, and people are hanging on there and staying because it is their hometown. So, we have Mr. Harkin selling his land – selling off a lot of his son Sean’s birthright – just to make ends meet because of an economic downturn in the local economy. That’s pretty relatable. And people have that small-town feeling of there’s nothing here for me. There’s no future for me. I have nothing to hope for. The older people are upset by that. They’re hanging on because this is where they’re from and there’s pride in that. The young people don’t see a place to connect and find a life. And then this movie comes and injects all this money into the economy because of the scenery and the beauty of the land and the forty shades of green but it’s just a location to them nothing more.

GRIFFIN

The play is full of harsh dichotomies. There are the people in the town, and then people who have come to the town for the film, the film crew. And even in those groups, there are dichotomies. The townspeople either love the movie or hate the movie. And then in the film, there are people who love Kerry and people who hate Kerry. And then the way that they shoot films is terrible. They dig up the landscape, and they over-inflate the economy, and they work the people to death, and then they leave without any regard really. So, for me, the whole show is about seeing people teeter-totter between the two sides. And I would say the play is exploring the nature of success. Like, what is success? Is it to be famous? Or is it to make a living in the place that you love?

JAMES

The show’s being performed in Rosebud. A hamlet an hour or so drive east of Calgary, not far from Drumheller. And I was hoping each of you could speak a little bit about your unique relationship with Rosebud. Nathan, you’re not only an actor in the show, but you head up the Rosebud School of Theatre’s acting department and make your home in the community.

NATHAN

I grew up in rural Alberta farther north. There was no theatre. Nobody went to the theatre. My family never went to the theatre. It just wasn’t part of the culture that I was in. But our school went to the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton every year. We’d go to a play, and I just thought it was the coolest thing.

And I kind of came to the awareness that it was actually a job that people did. There was a moment where I was like, “Wait a minute, that’s a job. That’s work. They’re at work. That looks like pretty cool work to me.” Everybody was saying, “Oh, you go to a university, and you get your career.” And I’m like, “But those people are doing theatre for a job. That’s pretty great, right?”

So, Rosebud came right along on the heels of those realizations, and it ended up being a place where I could stay connected to theatre and the whole town’s economy is based around doing theatre. And I really enjoyed doing the acting, but I also get to teach, and when I teach I’m constantly redefining and re-articulating and reworking how I work and how I engage story, and so Rosebud became a place to put down roots.

GRIFFIN

I think Rosebud is fantastic. There will always be a city boy inside of me that I can’t shake. But Rosebud is kind of idyllic in the sense of what you would picture a small town should be. Bill Ham the music director here at Rosebud also fixes bikes, and he fixed my bike in his garage. He didn’t train for it or anything he just liked watching videos and figuring out how to fix bikes. And we sat in his garage, and he fixed my bike, and I said, “Great, what do I owe you?” And he goes, “No, no, no.” And I said, “You fixed my bike and if I was in the city, I would pay the bike fixer.” And he said, “No, don’t ruin this.” And I went, “Okay.” So, I had to ask his daughter, who is my landlord, what he likes, and she told me, and so I bought him a big bag of Chicago mix popcorn. It’s that kind of community.

Griffin Cork and Nathan Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre production of Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones. Director Morris Ertman, Scenic Designer Hanne Loosen, Costume Designer Amy Castro, Lighting Designer Becky Halterman, Sound Designer/Composer Luke Ertman.

JAMES

So, the play takes place in Ireland and there’s the phrase “the luck of the Irish.” And that can mean that the Irish are inherently lucky, or it can mean that even though the Irish have had some hard luck they’ve overcome those hardships and gone on. How do you think the idea of luck relates to the story of Stones in His Pockets and what happens in the play and then second looking back on your own lives and careers what role do you think luck plays in our lives – how much of an influence do you think luck has on our path through this world?

GRIFFIN

I like exploring the idea of luck – especially through Charlie’s story. Charlie’s not lacking in ambition or initiative, but something switched for him when he partners up with Jake and they start to talk about doing a film about cows. His outcome hope is different. Before his ambition and initiative were leading to something more superficial. Getting to be famous, not working too hard, and getting to be rich. The cow film they talk about making is something they honestly believe in and a story they believe needs to be told.

NATHAN

When Charlie gets an opportunity with his script, he’s so used to not having anything good happen he says, “I knew no one would look at it. I knew no one would ever read it.” I think luck comes when we’ve got eyes enough to see the opportunity and know that we should grab hold of it and do it. And in hindsight, we call it luck. Well, isn’t it lucky that showed up when it did. But it actually was, I had enough awareness to step into my own agency and follow that path.

GRIFFIN

And I think luck has quite a bit to do with our industry but there are also things that you can do to prepare for a lucky break, and I think luck and opportunity are wasted without initiative and ambition.

NATHAN

I don’t have a rabbit’s foot and I don’t rub anything for luck. I don’t pay much attention to luck. But I do think it’s lucky that I found this place from the question you asked before. I wouldn’t have known about Rosebud but somebody that I’d gone to school with came over and I never had friends over because I was a bit of a loner and they came over to visit and said, “Oh, I heard about this place Rosebud,…” and this is right at the time when I was thinking about theatre as a future. “Oh, it’s a little theatre town in southern Alberta where they teach theatre.” And I was like, “Okay, I’ll try that.” And that was it. You can say, “Well, isn’t that lucky she came for a visit.” Or was it lucky that I said, “I’ll try that.” I don’t know. But I do feel lucky, I guess.

Griffin cork and Nathan Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre production of Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones. Director Morris Ertman, Scenic Designer Hanne Loosen, Costume Designer Amy Castro, Lighting Designer Becky Halterman, Sound Designer/Composer Luke Ertman.

JAMES

Well, we’re coming out of COVID and it’s good to see live theatre up and running again and if people are looking at heading back to the theatre why should they head out to Rosebud to see this production of Stones in His Pockets?

NATHAN

We just had 170 people in the house today and they had a ball. This show is a good time and people are enjoying themselves. And I always think the drive out here is part of the whole experience. I think there’s something really connecting and nostalgic about the trip out here and then you get to see what we’ve been talking about. A really good play. It’s a good reason to come out. It’s just a delight to have a room full of people again. We just appreciate it and I find it so energizing and exciting.

GRIFFIN

And there is something very beautiful to me about watching a big show with a small cast. And theatre has something that other mediums like film will never have, and it’s that you get to do theatre in front of people that you know are there, and they know that you know they’re there. And you get to actually hear them laugh, or hear them cry, or hear them cough, or hear their phone go off.

NATHAN (Laughs)

Well, that’s the magic, isn’t it?

GRIFFIN (Laughs)

Yeah.

***

Stones in His Pockets by Marie Jones stars Griffin Cork as Charlie Conlon and Nathan Schmidt as Jake Quinn. Director Morris Ertman, Scenic Designer Hanne Loosen, Costume Designer Amy Castro, Lighting Designer Becky Halterman, Sound Designer/Composer Luke Ertman, Stage Manager Kalena Lewandowski, Stage Manager (Rehearsal) Brad G. Graham.

Interview with Aaron Krogman: Actor

Posted on by James Hutchison
Rebbekah Ogden and Aaron Krogman in the Rosebud Theatre Production of A Christmas Story based on the 1983 movie and the books by Jean Shepherd and adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian. Directed by Paul F. Muir. Photo credit Kelsey Krogman.

“The first show I ever went to see before I became a student here was a Christmas show and it was such a warm feeling of like showing up to someone’s house and the Christmas lights are on and there’s a warm fire and there’s laughter and good food and good drink in that house. That Christmas vibe is on offer here in a really particular and unique way. And, the show is the central point of that. We come together around this holiday and this moment of connection and I think the story is really connecting with people. It’s really a place where you come around and feel that warmth and that joy and the camaraderie and cheer of Christmas.”

Aaron Krogman, Actor

Rosebud Opera House – Christmas 2019 – Photo Credit Randall Wiebe

My son and I journeyed out to Rosebud a few weeks ago to see A Christmas Story. The play is based on the 1983 movie and the books by Jean Shepherd and has been adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian. It’s the classic tale of Ralphie Parker’s relentless campaign to get his parents to buy him, “an official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time,” for Christmas.

Surrounding this core story there are several other subplots and adventures where we meet a whole cast of characters including Ralphie’s friends, the neighbourhood bully, his little brother Randy, the mall Santa, and of course Ralphie’s mother, and his father “the old man.” The Rosebud production features a terrific cast and a versatile and stylized set that adapts easily from one location to the next all while keeping the action moving.

A Christmas Story is a fun and family-friendly production that not only includes a highly entertaining and memorable holiday classic but also features a delicious holiday buffet feast and live Christmas Carols to put you in the mood before you go and see the show. The production runs until December 22nd and tickets are available online at the Rosebud Theatre Website or by calling the box office at 1-800-267-7553.

Aaron Krogman portrays the grown-up Ralphie in a charming and nuanced performance where he guides us through this particular childhood Christmas memory and adds some humourous insights and observations from an adult point of view. I spoke with Aaron about the production, his time as a student in Rosebud, his five years playing Jesus in the Badlands Passion Play, and his love of music.

Aaron Krogman – Rosebud Centre of the Arts

JAMES HUTCHISON

You’re a graduate of the Rosebud School of the Arts from 2008. Tell me a little bit about your time here as a student and what that was like?

AARON KROGMAN

When I graduated high school, I had no idea what to do with my life. I had high levels of interest in multiple topics and zero confidence in any of them. And I remember one summer other friends of mine had been back in town for the summer on their college summer break. And one of my friends said to me, “Dude, if you don’t go to school and do something, I will be so disappointed in you.”

And, a week later I said to my dad, “Dad, if I don’t get a plan together and go to school this fall, I never will, but I don’t know what I should study.” And he thought about it for a little bit and said, “You know Aaron, I’ve always thought you could be an actor on a stage.”

So, on his suggestion, I called Rosebud School of the Arts. Making that phone call was probably the scariest part of the whole thing. Paul Muir, who is the education director at Rosebud, and who is now my boss, answered the phone. We had a conversation about my interests and why I was calling, and I think that first conversation just opened a door for me that has never closed since.

When I showed up that September to start school, it was just amazing. I didn’t think the world could be the way it was in Rosebud. I didn’t think there would be people in the world who cared about the kind of stuff that I cared about. People who spent their lives making space for storytelling with the human being as the prime subject of storytelling and about the possibilities of making the world a better place and making human culture a better place and enabling us to see the best in each other. My time as a student in Rosebud is one of the most amazing life-giving experiences I’ve ever had.

Aaron Krogman in the 2007 Rosebud School of the Arts Production of As You Like It

JAMES

Do you feel that you discovered your purpose in life by going to Rosebud?

AARON

I have memories of being very young and caring about the kinds of things that Rosebud’s about. I wouldn’t say that I discovered my purpose. I recovered it. It was something that was alive in me at a very young age and coming to Rosebud as a student and now being here as a member of the company and as an instructor I feel like I recovered my five-year-old self.

JAMES

Was there any particular instructor or mentor at the school that you remember any lesson learned or experience that still resonates with you today?

AARON

You know it’s funny, I’ve been thinking about what’s been so significant for me in the last month about opening A Christmas Story because it’s been a five-and-a-half-year break for me from interacting with the Rosebud audience. And now I’m back and this is my first time on stage and re-engaging with that audience. And I think it is the collective education that the audience has given me – the feedback and the support and the affirmation of what good, clear, generous storytelling is.

I think what’s particularly unique about Rosebud educationally is the chance to be in front of the audiences that come here. I think they are a powerful part of the training that takes place and I think there are many in the audience who deliberately come here because they want to see students grow. And so, I think, in the big-picture view of what has really made a difference for me has been exposure to and vulnerability with that audience. They are just as significant an educator as any of the faculty here.

And most of the direction that I’ve received as an actor has been with Morris Ertman the Artistic Director of Rosebud. I’ve done more shows with him than any other director and cumulatively his confidence in the ideal that we as storytellers have something vital to offer that matters has rubbed off on me in ways I’m still just discovering.

Aaron Krogman, Rebbekah Ogden, Glenda Warkentin, Silas Winters, and Nathan Schmidt in the Rosebud Theatre Production of A Christmas Story based on the 1983 movie and the books by Jean Shepherd and adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian. Directed by Paul F. Muir. Photo credit Morris Ertman

JAMES

Well, let’s talk a little bit about A Christmas Story. At the end of the night after the audience has seen the play what do you think they walk away with?

AARON

Well, I think it’s similar to what the play does for me. We end the story on Christmas morning. And I remember Christmas after Christmas my dad giving me a Christmas gift and being really excited about it. And in the play the dad is excited that his son’s going to open the gift that he’s been asking for – forever. And the father and boy open the present and the dad has all this additional information about the gift and I have so many memories of my dad saying things like, “Oh, I got you this little stereo for your room. And it has all these features and let me take you through all the features.” And that’s what happens in the play. And that’s so familiar to me. And it makes me so fond of my own father in that moment. And I love story that returns us to our own life in a way that makes us more able to live it somehow. Whether that’s remembering the best parts of it or whether that’s looking at it in a slightly more positive way.

JAMES

Tell me about the cast and what it’s like to work with them and how you guys worked on the play and brought it together?

AARON

It’s a ton of people who are all currently Rosebud School of the Arts students or grads. A lot of times we bring in guest artists which is awesome, but this is a rare thing where it’s a big cast that’s in house. And there are lots of opportunities for students in this show to take their first steps on the Opera House stage.

It’s one of the things I’m loving the most about this process right now. I’m watching students go through what I went through as a student. Which is having the opportunity to perform in front of an audience and how that changes your experience of the text and how important that is and to realize, “Oh, there’s an opportunity for a laugh in this line, which I didn’t see at all. And if I just say it clearly and communicate it, and offer it up, the audience will be ready for it. They know there’s a laugh line coming before I do as an actor. And if I just listen to them, they lead me to it.” So that’s one of the elements that’s happening in the play right now and I love to see that happen.

Back: Kalena Lewandowski, Anja Darien, Rebbekah Ogden, Holly Langmead. Front: Silas Winters, Keisha Wright in the Rosebud Theatre Production of A Christmas Story based on the 1983 movie and the books by Jean Shepherd and adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian. Directed by Paul F. Muir. Photo credit Kelsey Krogman.

JAMES

In Rosebud you do these main stage shows that run for two months. What as an actor is beneficial about having these longer runs where you get to spend time with this character in a story every week?

AARON

The educational opportunity is exponentially bigger. I think it’s amazing to experience the full range of what different audiences can be like in terms of their engagement. If you do a two-week run where you do ten shows, the greater part of your experience of that show is going to be rehearsal. Performance is the smaller part. And, I think that in most theatre programs you never get out of rehearsal.

You might do your student shows for a weekend or for a two-week run, but they’re all in house audiences. They are people who are coming that know you. There is value in an audience that is objective and indifferent and paying money to see a show. And there are those elements in a Rosebud audience and while they care about theatre they’re also paying money and they want it to be good. And I think that is part of the pressure cooker of what it means to be part of live theatre.

JAMES

When I was doing my research for this interview, I discovered that you released an album in 2012. I was just curious about music in your life and the importance of music and the creation of that album. How did that all come about?

AARON

I got into music long before I got into theatre. I was raised in the church and the primary involvement I had with the church was musical. So, I started playing drums and then played bass and then guitar and just did everything. I really loved music. It was one of the first things that really spoke to me.

And I was working on a play with Lucia Frangione, who’s a very successful award-winning Vancouver playwright who teaches a course here at Rosebud and she liked my writing and offered to collaborate with me on a project she was working on. And we started working on a piece about a songwriter who wrote songs and so I started writing songs for that play. We did some development and it was pretty exciting, but it didn’t really take off and so, in the end, I had these songs. And a friend of mine here in town Paul Zacharias was a music engineer and producer and he just made an offer to record them through his company doG House Studios. And I said, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

It’s funny that you asked about that because I’m actually scheduled to have another meeting with Paul and we’re going to record another album. And I’m excited about it because I’ve always loved music.

Aaron Krogman as Jesus in The Badlands Passion Play

JAMES

Let’s talk a little bit about the Badlands Passion Play. You’ve been in the play for seven years and five of those years you played Jesus. Tell me a little bit about the experience of being in that production and what that was like.

AARON

It’s theatre, but it’s different. It’s unique. It’s outdoors and it’s primarily community theatre. There are a few people who are there in a professional capacity and most of those contracts are behind the scenes in terms of stage management, design, and direction.

Almost all of the actors are volunteer or from community theatre and I think that is probably what makes it the most unique. There’s an amateur vibe to it, which is amazing. I’ve become a huge fan of the word amateur, as I’ve heard it defined by some of my favourite authors, as those who do something for the love of it. These are the real priests of culture. They’re the ones who are making an offering with the work of their hands.

JAMES

How did you find your interpretation of Jesus and that story change over the time of you performing it?

AARON

I think it charts some of my growth as an actor. I understudied the part for two years and so I watched it and I developed my opinions. My first-time playing Jesus was a reaction to what I had seen. I really wanted to play Jesus as understated and not as profound and to be motivated by the present moment. But in some ways, it didn’t serve the stage because that’s a particularly large stage and the size of the performance has to be a certain thing in order for it to reach the back of the house. People are watching with binoculars. They’re not seeing my authentic transparent thought.

JAMES

You were acting for the camera instead of the stage.

AARON

Totally. And, you know, the directors were all over me for that, and rightfully so. And I think we each have our imagined version of who Jesus is or was regardless of our faith and we also have this imagined version of Jesus that our culture offers us. Is he angry or is he warm and kind?

And I really wanted him to be like my version where he’s warm, thoughtful, and a little bit of a rebel. But the second year I got to do it I went really hard in the other direction. And the third year I did it, I sort of was like, I have no idea what I’m doing in any of this. And so, I just emptied myself of any preconceived ideas and based my performance very much in the moment and it’s not my strength as an actor.

I pre-plan. I know my text. I do my backstory. That’s been my habit, and that third year, I threw it all out. I just emptied myself of any preconceived notion of what I ought to do, and I just entered and reacted, and it was very much a roll of the dice in terms of who I was embodying. And I still did the right blocking. I didn’t surprise anybody really, but it was for me internally a hands-off kind of thing. And then the last two years I did the same thing and that’s kind of how I am as an actor now.

Rehearsals are about finding the boundaries, the thresholds, the gates to pass through. The ones that matter. And then after knowing those boundaries taking my hands off the wheel and having less control and the less control I have the more alive I am in the scene and the more people can enter into it. So, I flush the lines from my head. I empty myself of my awareness so I’m not conscious of what’s coming. I just let go and trust that the lines will be there and then I just react in the moment. Which is something I should have been doing in the first place.

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JAMES

But that’s the big challenge, right? It’s the ability to know the lines so well that you can forget them. So, the emotional energy of your interaction with the characters on stage is what you’re actually responding to.

AARON

Totally. And that’s what I’ve loved about acting alongside someone like Nathan Schmidt who plays my Dad in A Christmas Story. He’s just one of the most generous scene partners. He pays attention. And he just says yes to everything you do.

JAMES

I have one more question about the Passion Play just because I was reading that it’s becoming more musical. There’s been the addition of live music and rather than the lines always being spoken some of them are now being sung. Is that correct?

AARON

In 2018 they went on a big tangent down this musical road and then in 2019 they jumped in with both feet. I think I sang twelve songs in last summer’s version. And now for next year, they’re not going to be doing the music they’re going to go in a different direction.

JAMES

Oh, interesting.

AARON

That’s another unique thing about the Passion Play. They’re workshopping it every year. And sometimes there are big changes and sometimes there are smaller changes. The production, as a whole, is hungry to grow and always kind of morphs.

But there is something really cool about the musical theatre form because it’s larger than life. The size of the expression and the form of the expression reaches further, it’s more obvious and it demands more of your body. It demands more of your instrument. And I think it lends itself to the size of an outdoor stage. And in the Passion Play, you have to use your hands. You have to point at who you’re talking to. All those things which feels so manufactured, when you’re not used to them become the language of that stage. And musical theatre already lives a huge step further in that direction.

But it’s funny because in recent years I’ve spent much more time on the Passion Play stage than on a smaller stage like the Rosebud Opera House and I’ve had to shake off the habit of full arm extension every time I say a line to somebody. It’s been great to let that go and find a more subtle size of performance.

Rebbekah Ogden, Nathan Schmidt, Silas Winters, Glenda Warkentin, Geordie Cowan, Kalena Lewandowski, and Keisha Wright in the Rosebud Theatre Production of A Christmas Story based on the 1983 movie and the books by Jean Shepherd and adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian. Directed by Paul F. Muir. Photo credit Kelsey Krogman.

JAMES

So, why should people come out to Rosebud to see A Christmas Story?

AARON

Because it’s more than just the show. It’s coming to this town. There’s Christmas lights everywhere. There’s Turkey in the buffet. You get to hear Christmas music sung to you as you eat. You enter into the Christmas context in a way that is just so memorable.

The first show I ever went to see before I became a student here was a Christmas show and it was such a warm feeling of like showing up to someone’s house and the Christmas lights are on and there’s a warm fire and there’s laughter and good food and good drink in that house. That Christmas vibe is on offer here in a really particular and unique way. And, the show is the central point of that. We come together around this holiday and this moment of connection and I think the story is really connecting with people.

It’s really a place where you come around and feel that warmth and that joy and the camaraderie and cheer of Christmas.

A Christmas Story based on the 1983 movie and the books by Jean Shepherd and adapted for the stage by Philip Grecian runs until December 22nd at the Rosebud Opera House. The production stars Aaron Krogman, Rebbekah Ogden, Glenda Warkentin, Nathan Schmidt, and Silas Winters and is directed by Paul F. Muir. Tickets are just $84.00 for adults and $62.00 for youth and include a seasonal buffet with roast turkey and stuffing, plenty of side dishes and other main courses, plus a vast array of pies and cookies and puddings. Order tickets on-line at the Rosebud Theatre Website or by calling the box office at 1-800-267-7553.