Profiles & Interviews

I’ve known Carey Nicholson for over ten years. As an actor, director, adjudicator and teacher of the arts, she has been engaged in performing arts for over thirty-five years. Carey began her love affair of the arts with community theatre in St. Catharines, Ontario. She moved to Toronto to pursue professional dance studies with Lois Smith, O.C. at George Brown College and becoming a faculty member at the School of the Toronto Dance Theatre for fifteen years before moving to Durham Region.

Carey has been involved with community and professional theatre companies ranging from work as producer, director, choreographer, set and costume designer in Durham and York Regions.

Carey is Artistic Director of ‘Theatre on the Ridge’, a not for profit, professional, collaborative company in which committed artists can produce high quality work in a broader scope of theatre and storytelling in Durham Region, just outside of Toronto. Theatre on the Ridge is unique to the Durham Region in that it uses theatre as a tool to engage, to shift complacency and to provide growth to its participants into the world and human nature whether they be from the professional or non-professional/amateur circle.

This summer 2020’s season by Theatre on the Ridge includes Drew Hayden Taylor’s ‘Cottagers and Indians’, Edmond Rostand’s ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’, a remount of TOTR’s successful production of Yasmina Reza’s ‘God of Carnage’ and Beverley Cooper’s ‘Innocence Lost: A Play About Steven Truscott’ all staged in Port Perry, Ontario (50 kilometers east of Toronto).

Recently, I had a chance to interview Carey via telephone:

How are you and your family doing during this time of worldwide upheaval? Have your lives been changed or transformed on account of Covid?

Our lives haven’t changed dramatically on the outside with no real shifts. Like everyone, we’re shifting inwardly. My husband, Andy, and I live in a rural area so social distancing has not been a problem. My family unit (which also includes my mother) has been involved in a regular routine. We’re doing more walks, eating healthier and we are more mindful of what we practice daily. We’re being reminded that we don’t need as much as we thought. I’m also baking more which, while being personally stress reducing, makes everyone happy.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this tumultuous time?

I run the company (Theatre on the Ridge) from my home. I am an optimist and keep working at a moderated level. With too many unknowns during this tumultuous time, it is a perfect opportunity for me to complete ongoing and needed maintenance and planning for the company compared to the active stage of rehearsals and performances. I’ve also been doing a lot of ‘webinaring’ to stay connected to the cultural and tourism sectors. This current crisis will pass at some point, and I’m trying to keep myself ahead of that curve when it does.

In your estimation/opinion, will the value and place of the performing arts in the professional and non-professional communities change as a result of COVID-19?

I can only hope. As much as one doesn’t want this crisis to last long as it takes time to instill new habits, it will. It has been said that new habits can become installed in three weeks, so maybe performing arts will become a new habit for more people.

Even though the performing arts is considered a ‘non-essential’ industry, it’s amazing how essential we have become to the communities. In our world, it appears that value is often measured quantitatively, not qualitatively, in tangible numbers and dollars. The success and value of the arts cannot be measured simply in finite dollars or numerical data. We do need to make some money along the way, but there’s also an intrinsic value of the arts in a community and other more experiential rewards for active participation within theatre.

I’m hopeful that the sheer volume of arts activities during this crisis will weigh past any emergency response funding and influence future funding and support.

Once life returns to its normalcy or a sense of a ‘new’ normal, explain how and why you think it’s important for audiences to venture out to see these four productions this summer in Port Perry.
My first thought is that people should get out to see any theatre this summer. We’re going to need that after being shut inside for this length of time we are now experiencing.

We’re going to need that live experience connection because, as humans, we need to share something together. Even the internet, Skype and Zoom are having trouble keeping up as we try to provide ourselves that human connection. We need to be in the same place, sharing the same experience and breathing the same air at the same time.

Forward is the only direction we can go. Let’s just keep going forward as much as we can.

Your upcoming 2020 summer season looks exciting. You have selected four plays that will offer opportunities for actors and audiences to learn more about the world and human nature. At this time, in your role as Artistic Director, are you planning to go ahead as scheduled? Have you been preparing in the event modifications may have to be made?

We’re prepared for anything that could happen, but realistically some things are out of our control. I’ve had informal conversations with some of the artists involved this summer. We‘ve had structured brainstorming sessions regarding what a ‘reimagined’ summer season could look like, should that occur.
There are a number of possible doors and it’s difficult to decide which unlocked door to open as we do have limitations. It’s not the performance dates that pose the challenge; instead, it’s the fact we don’t own and control our own space as the theatre is in a municipal building.

As we also know, the current provincial law states that we are not allowed to get more than five people together to rehearse.

Moving forward is the only way to go and, yes, we are holding our breath as we do so. We’re continually focusing on many ideas of how to deliver as much as we can regarding our performance and educational goals for the company while serving our emerging artists’ goals and our audience. As Dory, the fish, says, “Just keep swimming.”

Many artists and some companies have been switching to online and/or live streaming their work in order to share it with audiences during this time of COVID-19. Given how our world is changing daily, has Theatre on the Ridge given any thought to live streaming any of its summer productions if necessary?

We’ve looked at and considered live streaming if the need arises; however, there are technical logistics involved. For example, how would the performance rights be affected if the production was streamed.
I’m also carefully watching how the other professional companies are handling this idea. Thankfully, the technology is there should the need arise. We wouldn’t have had this opportunity to stream our productions online twenty years ago.

Theatre on the Ridge wants to keep connecting to our audiences and communities for growth and development, so online performance or live streaming is an important opportunity to discover how we can continue to serve and expand our audiences.

Why do you and your artists love to perform?

Tony Nappo says it well in his profile. I like his distinction between acting and performing. Our artists act and we love to create and communicate. It’s comparable to building a machine, piece by piece, where we plug it in at the end once it’s constructed and assembled for the live performance, and the light goes on for everyone.

As a nod to ‘Inside the Actors’ Studio’ and the late James Lipton, here are ten questions he asked his guests at the conclusion of his interviews:

What is your favourite word?

Is it alright if I use a phrase instead? Under ‘normal’ circumstances I would have used the word ‘curiosity’. For the time being under this pandemic, I’m now using ‘tenacity with grace’ as I have to trust the universe ultimately knows what it’s doing.

What is your least favourite word?

Can’t (Note: Carey said this word with uproarious laughter)

What turns you on? New ideas and possibilities from a theatrical sense and on a lot of levels.

What turns you off?

Working from pre-determined outcomes. I’m very processed driven. I like to stay open that I might arrive somewhere different from where I thought I would be.

What sound or noise do you love?

Words hanging in the air on stage which develop weight and shape. These hanging words are those wonderful rare moments that become a hologram in space.

What sound or noise bothers you?

Sound for sound’s sake. I dislike extraneous noise. Don’t clutter with sounds that aren’t needed. I compare this to skilled painters who don’t waste their brushstrokes on a canvas.

What is your favourite curse word?

Fuck – it is extremely effective when used appropriately and accordingly. I love the consonant sounds in the word.

Other than your own at this time, what other profession would you have liked to have attempted?

I’ve been a dancer and choreographer, basketry artist, B and B operator and gallery owner. I’ve done what I’ve wanted to do. With theatre, I am home.

What profession would you not like to attempt?

Anything where you rely on numbers or tangible outcomes to let you know you’ve succeeded. I like to measure value and success on how you’ve been of use to the community and to others. Helping others on their own journey through theatre is something that touches me.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear as you approach the Pearly Gates?

“Well done. If you’re not too busy, we’ve a rehearsal down the hall if you care to join us.”

To learn more about Theatre on the Ridge, visit www.theatreontheridge.ca.

Carolyn Fe was quite a dynamic and vibrant personality during our Zoom call today. At one point during our conversation, she used the Quebec French term ‘On clique ici’ meaning we’re clicking together, we’re making connections with each other.

Listening not only to Carolyn’s voice but to the 150 plus voices I’ve compiled over this last year, I like to think that I’ve also clicked not only with Carolyn but with these other performers who continue to add their voices to the discussion of the live theatre industry in a post Covid world.

Born in the Philippines, her family moved to Montreal in the early 1970s. Fluently trilingual in English, French and Tagalog, she started her performing career as a classically trained dancer, quickly moving to contemporary styles. Carolyn Fe eventually became a commissioned choreographer for local & international dance companies, TV and music video productions with her dance company, Phi-X 174 Inc.

An entrepreneur at heart, she left the stage to take a 25-year hiatus from performing to join the corporate ranks as an owner/operator of a human resources firm. This was a good decision as the years in corporate life gave her business skills that she utilises in her artistic life.

Carolyn came back to the stage in full force in 2005 at Montreal’s Teesri Duniya Theatre’s ensemble production of Miss Orient(ed) by Nina Aquino and Nadine Villasin-Feldman, where she jumped into three very different characters as mother to three different stage-daughters.

2014 brought her to Toronto’s stage as an invited guest singer in Raoul Bhanja’s “Life, Death and The Blues” (Theatre Passe Muraille) but it was in 2018 that confirmed her love of Toronto; when she appeared in Dora Award Winner Audrey Dwyer’s play called “Calpurnia” to sold out shows and thrilling reviews on Carolyn Fe’s performance. She won the 2018 Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award for Best Supporting Actress Award her role as Precy, in ‘Calpurnia’. Other awards and accolades include 2017 Balangay Award Nomination for Best Filipino-Canadian Entertainer and 2015 Filipino-Canadian Artist Award recipient for the North American Filipino Star Newspaper.

Carolyn is also an award winning and Juno long-listed nominee as a Blues singer/songwriter with four albums under her belt with many more in the works: collaborating with musicians from around the world with her songs charting top 10 if not, #1 on Blues charts. Her band, Carolyn Fe Blues Collective, had a long-standing 8-year residency at Montreal’s iconic House of Jazz. Sadly it ended when Covid-19 took place. Her self-produced music video, Jerusalem’s Thorns: a song from her 4th album, where she appears as the matriarch won the 2019 Fete du Clip Montreal Award for Best Video and was screened in the Luxembourg edition to compete with other videos from all over the world, while still running the festival circuit and gaining recognition.

Thank you for participating in the discussion, Carolyn:

It’s a harsh reality that the worldwide pandemic of Covid 19 has changed all of us. Describe how your understanding of the world you know and how your perception and experience have changed on a personal level.

Okay, now that I can see you at least on screen, Joe, I can comfortably say that I am of another generation and also of another generational mindset.

This pandemic has brought me back to my younger years when I was back in the Philippines. I was born there and I, lack of a better word, ‘woke up’, I became aware when, towards the end of the Vietnam War I was still in primary school. I was going to school with the children of the American GIs who were based in the Philippines and then deployed to wherever.

The pandemic brought me back to that timeframe and mind frame where there is a new normal that we have to adapt to. That people, places and things are temporary. It’s always evolving. With the pandemic, I was in Tarragon Theatre’s tech week when they announced the lock down. I was still living in Montreal. I was renting an apartment.

During tech week, the nerves were bubbling, we’re going on next week, and then the shut down. One by one, theatres started announcing they were postponing their production to three months ahead until finally we went into the theatre and Tarragon management announced they too were postponing.

I come home, my husband says don’t take the VIA train or the plane back. This is bad stuff. He drove from Montreal to pick me up, and the next day we went back home to Montreal and that was it. It’s weird that theatres are shut down, but film sets and tv studios are still working (with strict Covid protocols in place). During the year, I did return to Toronto by train. I was masked, put on gloves and wore a shield for the five-hour ride. I still wasn’t feeling comfortable with all that.

Will we ever feel comfortable again? Even when all of this is under control, but that’s a later question to answer.

Today, with this first question, it brings me back to the major shifts that I lived back in the Philippines at the tail end of the Vietnam War where things were going to be different from then on and will continue to be different. So, from a very young age, I got used to a bunch of new normals happening again and again and again.

Another image that flashed, my brother and I stuck among the American children since we were allowed and privileged to attend the American school, but what I do remember my friends crying. The soldiers would get weekend leaves. But when the parents would leave after, the heartbreak and crying my friends would have that was powerful.

With live indoor theatre shut for one year plus, with it appearing it may not re-open any time soon, how has your understanding and perception as a professional artist of the live theatre industry been altered and changed?

You know that saying ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’? This is where theatre artists and theatre creatives thrive.

I believe, in my humble opinion, all of a sudden, a big chunk of what we are used to seeing and having in the theatre world is taken away. As an artist, what do we do? What are we left to do? We continue to create.

In my formative years, I was heavily, heavily influenced by the surrealist movement. It was born around World War 1 and continued on. During these wars, what did they have? Nothing!! And from nothing everything came out.

I think someone in the Toronto theatre world coined this phrase ‘This Grand Intermission’ we’re living through. It’s a beautiful time for creatives to flourish. It’s a perfect time to sit back, and it’s okay if you don’t want to do anything. Everyone digests this new reality in their own way. But if the urge is there to create, it’s a perfect time.

That big chunk of ‘We have to produce’ is taken off our shoulders, that stress, and we can just sit back and let it flow. This is how I see this moment. There are good, bad and okay moments, yes, but these moments are full of creative opportunities. And rightfully so.

Look how Tarragon switched from live to the old-style radio plays. Factory Theatre did this thing with video. It was like television in the 50s, or even earlier as it had a ‘theatre feel’. I enjoyed that.

I agree with Kelli Fox’s statement that digital theatre is now a part of the industry along with the live element. Also, the day we can get back into the theatre and see the mish mash of technology and live at the same time, it’s exciting. Yes, it might appear frightening and unnerving, but I like being frightened, I like being unnerved. That means something will come out, so in the moment I get scared or worried, the ‘what ifs’, and then all of sudden we take that step forward, and the ‘what ifs’ dissipate.

As a professional artist, what are you missing the most about the live theatre industry?

The most…. it’s the ‘communion’ of people. Not the gathering, the immediate reaction of the audience while the artist on stage is performing. The communion between the two.

The audience witnessing what is unfolding on stage and me, as an artist and still in character but the depths within Carolyn are saying, “Oh, my God, they’re reacting; that’s their reaction to this.” That’s what I miss, that communion.

And I’m going to cheat here as well, Joe, as I want to add something else. After the five minute call, there’s that last second of the five minutes where Carolyn disappears and whatever character comes on, that one second for that character is born and says that first line. I miss that.

As a professional artist, what is the one thing you will never take for granted again in the live theatre industry when you return to it?

It brings me back to my upbringing, to my life experiences of great, great, great losses and great, great, great wins to the extremes of my life.

I’ve learned never to take anything for granted.

As a professional artist, you get a gig today, and it ends. I’ve learned to live in the moment. I’ve learned that these moments are never to be taken for granted. Joe, thank goodness you sent me these questions earlier for me to think about them before our conversation today. Gosh, you’re bringing me way back.
I had a friend in the Philippines. She was Vietnamese. She was from a privileged family. I don’t know how she was able to attend the American school I was in. I remember the day when her family had to take her out of school. We all know now why.

I remember the morning. We were bunk mates. She said, “I’m going now. Never forget this moment, okay.” And we were kids, 7 maybe 8 years of age. She held my hand, and put her nose to my nose and said, “Never forget this moment. We will be friends forever even if we never see each other again.” I never saw her again. It never occurred to me what she was talking about.

Moments like that as I grew up when I would have great losses – friends, family, things, finances, ups and downs – I would always remember her saying ‘Never forget this.” This pain strengthens.
That moment taught me never to take anything for granted.

Describe one element you hope has changed concerning the live theatre industry as a result of the pandemic.

I’m gonna cheat again, Joe.

One is the pushing of limits and boundaries. The pandemic pushed theatre companies and artists already, but there’s more room to push the envelope, more room for growth.

Another thing is the normalization of the underrepresented profiles that we have out there. It’s not’s just about the BIPOC/IBPOC and Asians. It’s also about people, and stories about special abilities, about older people, ageism. We too have stories. We too have lives that I believe is interesting.

I understand that the theatre community, and a lot of its players and managers and producers are of the younger generation; therefore, a lot of the stories are written by the younger generation.

I would love to see the young look at the old. I would love to see the perception of the elders. I think it’s too easy to write about ‘me’, the young ‘me’. I’d be curious to see who they would write about ‘us’.
Explain what specifically you believe you must still accomplish within the industry.

I’m writing for the first time in my life as I approach my sixties. I’ve learned so much already about it, about the technical stuff, but I’m told also to write from my experience, my selfish point of view. I’m thinking, “What about me? My elders have stories that need to be told.” So, I’m pushing it that way.

I would like to do, to be involved, to be part of the normalization of the ‘marginalized’ in all senses of the word, whether it be as an actor taking on the roles of a marginalized character, whether it be writing stories thereof; whether it be joining committees in Equity.

There’s a lot of normalization to be done within our industry.

Some artists are saying that audiences must be prepared for a tsunami of Covid themed stories in the return to live theatre. Would you elaborate on this statement both as an artist in the theatre, and as an audience member observing the theatre.

As an artist and audience observer, I say to both, “Why not have a tsunami of Covid themed plays?”

As an artist because it was during Covid times that a lot of people who are not used to radical changes or not used to new normals, they came out. Their social media feeds were full of how painful and how lonely Covid was to them. The human stories of Covid came out even more intense. So, why not write about it and have that ‘communion’ on stage when we will be allowed back or allowed ‘on screen’. That communion and connection are so important.

One story of being lonely might ease an audience member’s story because they might be able to connect.
As an audience member, I look forward to seeing Covid themed plays. I’m looking forward to this tsunami of Covid themed plays because everyone’s experience is a variation on the theme. We come to a certain point in life, and we look at the ‘young ins’ and say, “I remember when…” But for the young people, they may say it’s the end of the world for them on account of Covid, but for us older folks, we can say, “It’ll be okay.”

As an audience member to see all of this unfurl on stage and to see the chaos that is going to be written, and then us sitting there saying, “We’ll be fine. We’ll be okay.”

What better way to put communion into action then to participate in, to see and to listen to Covid themed plays and stories.

As a professional artist, what specifically is it about your work that you want future audiences to remember about you?

That I ‘communed’ with them, and that they ‘communed’ with me.

One day when we will meet in person and, hopefully, in the theatre environment, I’m very introverted and shy person before and after the show. I will say hi. I’m open with you right now, Joe, because I’m protected by the fourth wall of the screen. But I’m not performing, I want to clarify that point.

I want audiences to remember that I ‘communed’ with them while I was on stage telling whatever story I was offered whether it’s my story I wrote or another one.

To learn more about Carolyn Fe, visit the following social media links:

Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/carolynfe

Albums: https://carolynfe.bandcamp.com/

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @TheCarolynFe

Website: http://www.carolyn-fe.com/

In early December, I had the chance to profile mother and daughter Deborah Drakeford and Charlotte Dennis who are part of quite an impressive ensemble of cast and crew of ARC’s first production of 2023: MARTYR by Marius von Mayenburg (translated by Maja Zade) which is the North American premiere of the play to be directed by Rob Kempson, his first production with ARC.

I first learned of ARC in early 2020 just before March of that year when the world changed as we know it and wanted to learn more about this company. On its website, ARC bills itself as: “an ensemble-based company that produces contemporary international theatre in a multinational city. We take a rigorous, bold, socially active, and highly collaborative approach to producing thought-provoking international works in their Canadian premiere. By collaborating with community stakeholders, non-governmental organizations, and our audience, we create this work to engage with relevant global conversations. Community engagement and social justice are at the core of who we are as theatre-makers.”

Deborah and Charlotte’s evident enthusiasm for MARTYR certainly led me to engage with what they were telling me about the production.

Both Deborah and Charlotte are still feeling somewhat nervous about returning to the theatre but are grateful for the implementation of ARC’s solid Covid policy. Everyone has been wearing masks during the entire rehearsal process and they won’t be without their masks until the tech/dress, and Deborah smiled saying that’s when they will all get a chance to see everyone’s faces again. Charlotte echoed Deborah’s sentiments by telling me: “It feels safer as this is my first show back after Covid.”

I found it interesting that Deborah has performed in two faith-based plays back-to-back. In November, I saw her wonderful performance as Sister Aloysius in BNE’s riveting production of John Patrick Shanley’s ‘Doubt: A Parable’. Drakeford jokingly stated she has performed in one-word titles in the last few shows: GLORIA (another terrific production), DOUBT and now MARTYR.

Although MARTYR might be considered a tale of religious extremism, Deborah states it’s “much more than that”:

“It’s about loneliness. It’s about seeking community. It’s about a young man trying to find his identity and his way in the world. He latches on to religion which in turn affects his schooling, his friendships, and his family relationships. In his desire to seek community, he actually further isolates himself.”

MARTYR is an exciting piece for Drakeford as it goes to crazy places and she’s looking forward to seeing how that sense of ‘craziness’ is going to be achieved on stage.

For Dennis, in terms of the plot, she states: “We are at a very volatile time globally and MARTYR comes at the perfect moment because we know what isolation does to the human person since we’ve engaged in these many times these last two-plus years. We know what these feelings can do in the depths of depression and sometimes that kind of pain can lead to very hard-shelled anger. We’ve seen it around us…engines are hotter…tempers flare easily…there’s been a rise in violence [of all kinds] and religious extremism, and I believe this stems partly from the way we’ve been isolated from each other and our communities.”

Charlotte then made a comment which made me think further:
“MARTYR is very topical right now and it’s an important discussion to talk about the difference between religion and extremism because often in liberal media we place these two terms together.

She was also keen to speak about Rob as director. At an October workshop regarding the play, Charlotte was excited and a tad nervous because this was her first time back in the theatre with Covid’s embrace still felt. Because MARTYR is such a volatile play and being in the room with Kempson, Dennis ran the gamut of emotions, wondering how rehearsals might proceed under Rob’s direction. According to Charlotte, Rob led: “a beautifully collaborative very curious deeply kind room that I felt completely safe throughout all of our discussions. It is a room I’m very excited to return to, and I thank Deborah for leading ARC and Rob in leading the room so generously and collaboratively.”

What intrigues me the most about seeing MARTYR?

It’s an important conversation starter about the difference between religion and extremism that Charlotte alluded to earlier. The play is neither Christian nor Catholic bashing. Charlotte says throughout the play the young male protagonist of the story cherry-picks and pieces portions of Biblical text together to back up his arguments and his own agenda. For Charlotte, that’s not talking about religion anymore.

Because the play deals with issues that hit home to people of faith, those who may question elements of faith, will there be an opportunity for audiences to discuss, hear and listen to what other audience members are thinking?

Deborah says the production team has planned for a couple of discussions with the audience after a performance, and she is really looking forward to that. She elaborated further:

“We are all coming from such specific experiences and MARTYR just like DOUBT is going to hit people very particularly. So, to offer up a space where people can discuss and keep the conversation going is going to be really important. Plans have been put into place to allow for that feedback between actors and audience.”

Audiences who want to discuss the show more in-depth should consider attending a Thursday performance with a Post Show Talkback where the cast will be joined by Jad El Tal of the Canadian Arab Institute on January 19 and Stephen Drakeford, an Anglican minister, on January 26th. This is a continuation of ARC’s signature Open Room initiative, a process of investigation featuring company members alongside Community Collaborators who help place unique and challenging plays in Canadian context before rehearsals begin.

As our conversation concluded, I asked Deborah and Charlotte why audiences should see such a thought-provoking piece like MARTYR coming off the Christmas/holiday season.

Deborah pointed out how ARC has a good track record for producing and delivering excellent and interesting performance pieces so that is one prime reason to see the production.

I heartily concur on this account.

Drakeford went one step further about why we must go to see the play:

“That sense of isolation that we’ve all been feeling for so long. Now we are given an opportunity to be together in some kind of communion, to share an experience together and breathe together the vitality of theatre. But also to have this time and space to examine these potentially very tricky questions, and to have an opportunity to look around, to be curious and feel each other’s understanding and take on these questions and see things from another point of view. That’s vital, theatre is vital and that’s why I’m so glad she survived these last two plus years.”

What’s next for Deborah and Charlotte once MARTYR concludes its run?

Deborah considers herself to be a very fortunate actor. As soon as MARTYR opens, she will be in rehearsals for Amy-Lee Lavoie and Omari Newton’s ‘Redbone Coonhound’ which opens February 7 at Tarragon Theatre. In March 2023, Charlotte will appear in WHAT ROUGH BEAST with Théâtre Ouest End and Tantalus Theatre in Montréal. She considers this production an opportunity to visit ‘home’ as she studied in the city. The production is being staged by Theatre Ouest. Just like her mother, Charlotte is quite excited about this chance to go from one show to the next.

The MARTYR cast features ARC Co-Artistic Producer and Resident Artist Deborah Drakeford and ARC Resident Artists Aviva Armour-Ostroff, Ryan Hollyman, and Nabil Traboulsi, with Ryan Allen, Richard Lee, and Adriano Reis in their ARC debuts.

ARC Resident Artists Jackie Chau and Tamara Vuckovic will lead Set and Costume Design and Stage Management, respectively. The rest of the creative team includes Michelle Ramsay (Lighting Design), James Dallas Smith (Sound Design), Taija Shonée Chung (Assistant Director), Hannah MacMillan (Assistant Stage Manager), Za Hughes (Assistant Lighting Design), B.C. Batty (Technical Director), and Jack Rennie (Fight Director). Julia Dickson will be the Producer, with Patrick Lynn as Production Manager.

LISTING INFORMATION The Canadian Premiere of MARTYR, an ARC Production

Dates & Times: January 13 to 29, 2023. Opening night is January 14. 8:00 p.m. (Tuesday-Saturday) & 2:00 p.m. (Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday)

Venue: Aki Studio Theatre, 585 Dundas St E, Toronto, ON M5A 2B7
Ticket Prices: Tickets from $20 (early bird) to $35; discounted tickets are available for seniors, students, groups, arts workers, and on Tuesdays.

Ticket Link: https://www.nativeearth.ca/shows/martyr/
Website: Arcstage.com
Twitter: @arcstage | Instagram: @arcstage | Facebook: ARC

The first time I saw Charlotte Moore’s name was in the early 90s up at Town Hall 1873, Port Perry, Ontario. I saw her headshot on the wall, and someone had told me she had given a concert there sometime earlier.

It was in 1990 when I had travelled with the Borelians, a local theatre group from Port Perry, to see a live production of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’. I had seen it on film but never done live. I’ll always remember being told during a live performance of ‘Rocky’, the audience could shout whatever they wanted but not to throw things. It was in this production where I saw Charlotte play Janet. That year, Charlotte won the Dora Mavor Moore Award (named after her grandmother) for Janet.

And I missed seeing the extraordinary production of ‘Cabaret’ at London, Ontario’s Grand Theatre in which Charlotte appeared. Darn it all! This production was slated to tour the show, but who knows what will happen with the theatres closed. I really hope I get to see this particular production.

From one of her answers, you’ll see Charlotte has appeared at Drayton. I haven’t been there to review productions as of yet, but am hoping when it is safe to return to the theatre.

Charlotte answered the questions via email. Thank you so much for participating:

It has been an exceptionally long five months since we’ve all been in isolation, and now it appears we are slowly emerging to some new way of living. How have you been faring? How has your immediate family been doing during this time?

I was alone for all of lockdown and that was very challenging. About a month ago my daughter moved back in with me so now I have someone else to cook for, which is vastly preferable! My other daughter was in that 4th year class at Sheridan that got shut down on Friday the 13th. They were all pretty devastated by the way their last year was cut so short and their final productions cancelled.

I found in the beginning I was very skittish about going out, and when I did the number of people not observing protocols was maddening!

I did a lot of driving for the Sewing Army that Diana Coatsworth formed to make PPE for hospitals, Homes, Clinics, etc, and then I borrowed a sewing machine so I could make the masks and scrub caps in bulk myself (a typical order would be 25 scrub caps or 50 masks). This really gave me a sense of purpose and made me feel much better about things. Felt like I was contributing instead of just hiding.

As a performer, what has been the most difficult and challenging for you professionally and personally?

All the cancellations. The friends I won’t/don’t get to see, the stories we won’t get to share. Also, as a person who was living alone until very recently, the lack of the companionship you get at work was pretty devastating.

Were you in preparation, rehearsals, or any planning stages of productions before everything was shut down? What has become of those projects? Will they see the light of day anytime soon?

Oh, yes. I was supposed to do “42nd Street” for Drayton (one of my favourite places to work) – we were gonna play Cambridge and then July in Grand Bend (which is spectacular that time of year). With a director I adore. All these very large singin’ and dancin’ shows will be, I’m sure, the last things to come back. Don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for that. Probably a couple of years. Quite bummed about it.

And we were going to go back into rehearsal next month for the remarkable production of “Cabaret” we did at the Grand Theatre last year for a national tour! That’s been “postponed”, but I honestly don’t know how we can do our Show in the New Reality – it was VERY interactive. We were on top of and in the midst of the audience, so…

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time?

As I said – making and delivering the masks and scrub caps to all the various places that have requested them. I also am learning the script for an existing one-person show to keep my mind working. Going on weekly Distance Walks with various friends – that really helped with the isolation.

I also have done a great deal of Zoom Yoga! My favourite teacher works out of Charlottetown…

Any words of wisdom or advice you might /could give to fellow performers and colleagues? What message would you deliver to recent theatre school graduates who have now been set free into this unknown and uncertainty given the fact live theaters and studios might be closed for 1 ½ – 2 years?

I truly wish I had some advice to give! And the message I gave my daughter was: “This really sucks! What a way to have to start your journey – with everything on hold! It sucks!”

I will tell you that the same daughter has decided to devote this time to her Side Hustle – she’s going back to school for the next year to get a diploma in a practical field – she’s getting her Esthetician’s Licence! I think that’s genius!

So maybe that’s my advice – we all need to find another purpose. Maybe it’s just some way to make some money, but this being in Limbo thing is very bad for our mental health.

Do you see anything positive stemming from Covid 19?

All the revelations that are coming out about the systemic racism in our industry have been shocking and necessary. Very necessary. So we can’t go back to that.

And maybe we have all learned to be a little kinder to one another.

Do you think Covid 19 will have some lasting impact on the Canadian/North American performing arts scene?

Definitely. It’s a very scary time, with entire seasons of large Arts Organizations being cancelled. I think a lot of people may be forced to find other industries to work in, which makes me very sad.

But I do feel that this strange time has given everyone out there a stronger appreciation for the Arts in general. I really do.

Some artists have turned to You Tube and online streaming to showcase their work. What are your comments and thoughts about streaming? Is this something that the actor/theatre may have to utilize going forward into the unknown?

I was a huge watcher of livestreams when the whole thing started. They kept me company in a very lonely time. I’ve kind of started thinking of them as a separate art form, to be honest. They can’t replace live anything, but they are a platform for people to at least make some music!

That being said, I do worry about giving it all away for free…

Despite all this fraught tension and confusion, what is it about performing that Covid will never destroy for you?

All of it. It may have put all our lives and careers on “hold”, but it can never take away the shows we’ve already done, the music we have already made. I am grateful that I’m older and have so many great experiences to look back on.

I feel really badly for the young people – like my daughter – who were just starting out and have had to jam the brakes on.

Doesn’t seem fair at all.

Chalk one up for Durham Region. I had no idea performing artist Chick Reid lived and grew up in Ajax, Ontario, and knows many of the same spots that I do in Durham Region.

Chick completed her theatre training at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Other selected theatre credits for her include Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Matchmaker, Cymbeline, Grapes of Wrath, Little Years, Comedy of Errors, Ideal Husband, Noises Off, No Exit, Troilus and Cressida, Much Ado About Nothing, High Gravel Blind, Eternal Hydra, Merry Wives of Windsor, Country Wife among others); Theatre Plus Toronto (Abundance, Holiday, Hamlet, Burn This, Scapino, Marriage of Figaro, Crimes of the Heart, Dora nominee); Shaw Festival (The Woman, Cavalcade, Peter Pan, Marathon 33, War and Peace); Neptune Theatre (The Goat); MTC (Steel Magnolias, The Sisters Rosenzweig); Grand Theatre (Helen’s Necklace); Actors’ Theater of Louisville (Heartbreak House, Anton in Show Business); Broadway (Much Ado About Nothing). She is a recipient of the Tyrone Guthrie award.

What an extremely enjoyable and delightful chat I had with her via Zoom. Chick has been teaching at Queen’s University in the Drama Department for 16 years. She and her husband, Tom McCamus, live in Northumberland County where they raise Nova Scotia Duck tolling retrievers.

Thank you so much for being a part of the conversation about theatre in a post Covid world, Chick:

It has been an exceptionally long eight months since the pandemic began, and now the numbers are edging upward again. How are you feeling about this? Will we ever emerge to some new way of living in your opinion?

I’m feeling, in spite of everything, I’m feeling hopeful. I’m not getting anxious about it like I’m not hoping it’s going to happen in two weeks or even two months. But I’m feeling hopeful that there will be a vaccine and it will be effective. I’m really hopeful that the long-term effects of this on people’s home lives, finances, work situations, doesn’t go on for ages and ages and ages. I don’t have an end date in my brain, but I hope the long-term effects of this aren’t too horrible for so many people that stand to lose jobs, who have lost jobs, stand to lose homes.

If I think about all this too much, I get on the despair bus, but I’m hopeful it will get sorted. But I’m also really hopeful that people will do what they’re being asked to do to help. I don’t think the vaccine is the answer in the meantime. We have to look after ourselves and look after each other, right?

Emerging to some new way of living is further ahead in the distance to tell you the truth. I’m not so disappointed in some of the changes that have come about, that have had to come about because of Covid. It pleases me to see people really looking out for people. Maybe I’m more aware of it now because of this pickle that we’re all in together.

I like the enforced quiet time that I think we all, everybody, in every walk of society, creates and needs. We rarely can give ourselves that. When quiet time becomes a luxury, there’s something not very right. I would like that to continue for everybody. There are some people who don’t have quiet time right now because they’re scrambling at three jobs when they had one good one, and now they may have three part time jobs, especially in our profession and the ‘in between’ times.

I like planning when I go into town as it makes us all a little more mindful.

You mentioned about Lucie Arnaz and how she said that perhaps we may not be back until at least 2022. On many levels, I bet she’s right. There are a lot of things that won’t be back in the form that we know of them right now. It might be a new form but the way we knew them in our profession, I have hope for it, of course, because it’s so necessary for everybody that we can get back to listen and tell stories.

How have you been faring? How has your immediate family been doing during these last eight months?

I have to say that I think I’ve been faring pretty well, actually. I’m a lucky one that I share my life with Tom (McCamus) so I haven’t been alone. I feel so lucky to be at home. We have a little log cabin just north of here and we rarely get a chance to use it when we’re working so we’ve had a chance to have a good couple of meaningful lake time opportunities. That was great.

Emotionally, it sometimes hits me. What makes me upset (and it’s not what we’re going through now) is the thought when we get back into the rehearsal hall and a room full of people that we love. That makes me a bit weepy. I don’t pine for it but it’s going to be so momentous for everybody, don’t you think? I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s going to be like when we make that first entrance on to the stage when it’s safe to return to the theatre. It makes me tear up. It’s going to be overwhelming. Will we even get through that first performance? That’s okay, at least we’ll all be in the same damn room. (Chick laughs and so do I)

I miss my immediate family. That has been hard on me, I have to say. I have four siblings under me. They’re all married and have children and grand children and we’re a pretty tight family. So I miss that. This year, I was supposed to host Christmas, my whole family, and every other year is the in-law family celebration.

Christmas was meant to be here this year and I was supposed to have a house full of 30 people from toddlers to older people. Obviously, that won’t be happening this year, and I’m going to miss that.
My immediate family are all healthy and everyone is behaving. My siblings have children and grandchildren and that’s their bubble so they’re not losing contact with their family. We definitely miss each other as siblings but they’re all well. One sister moved back to Scotland a year ago and I was going to see her there after my semester, so that bothers me I can’t go and see her. Two of my other siblings are recently retired and they’re doing fine.

We’re lucky.

As an artist within the performing arts community, what has been the most difficult and challenging for you professionally and personally?

I think they’re tied for me. I’m sorry that we didn’t get to do the plays we were supposed to do this summer. We were all looking forward to it.

Personally, I miss my friends so much. I have dear friends at Stratford that I won’t be able to go see perform that I would have done had I been at Shaw. And I have dear friends at Shaw – these are people whom I love seeing every day and love spending time with them. We’ve had a couple of Zoom calls when them, cocktail Zoom calls which is lovely. Everybody gets so busy with nothing to do, isn’t that weird?

I miss going to work and seeing my people. When I was asked to teach my acting courses online at Queen’s University, I thought, “Uhhhh, okay, I’ll bite and put my hand up and see what I can do.” I asked for permission to go and teach from my studio so that I can go to work every Monday. And they gave it to me. So, all the protocols are in place at the Isabel Bader Performing Arts Centre.

I’m teaching live on Zoom from my studio. I drive to Kingston, so I really like that. It makes me feel as if I’m actually doing my job.

Were you in preparation, rehearsals, or any planning stages of productions before everything was shut down? What has become of those projects? Will they see the light of day anytime soon?

It was Monday March 16. Tom and I were in the same play, ‘The Devil’s Disciple’ at Shaw. It was our first day of rehearsal. We drove down to Niagara on Sunday, unpacked, left the dogs here for the week with our friend who looks after them. We just packed a week’s worth of clothing as we knew we would be back.
We went to rehearsal March 16 at 10:00 am, walked out of the theatre at 11:15 am, and we haven’t been back. So, I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to do those plays, but I have every hope we will get a chance to do them. The plan is to go ahead with these productions next summer. That’s hopeful given everything else that people are still moving forward. I think that’s fantastic and that makes me happy.

Although we were sent home that day and everything closed, we carried on because there was insurance through Shaw. We carried on rehearsing ‘Devil’s Disciple’ and Tom and I started rehearsals for the second show that we would have performed at Shaw just this past summer. Tom was to perform in ‘Desire Under the Elms’, and I was to perform in ‘Sherlock Holmes: The Raven’s Curse’. We continued in rehearsal for all four of these plays online until May 12.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time?

Tom and I have been raising puppies. They’re due to go to their new homes in the next week or so. I’ve been teaching at Queen’s University in the Drama Department and this is my 16th year. My semester was over in a couple of weeks.

But I go right into elf mode. As soon as those puppies are gone, and yes, I’ll shed a tear as I always do, but I’m right back and ripping open the boxes for those Christmas decorations.

I love reading murder mysteries and having a cup of tea if I’m looking for lovely entertainment.

But you know what, our deal when we get up here every morning. We deal with the dogs. Tom does his thing. I do my cryptic. And then both of us read for half an hour and then our day starts because we know we won’t be able to sit down again until the end of the day. I love reading. And that’s our routine around here.

But when I’m on contract and start rehearsals, I don’t read a book for the whole season. It’s as if my brain tells me that I’ve got too much else to fit in there and there’s no room for a book right now. I think I read two books throughout the entire pandemic. Isn’t that weird? It’s like I’m in a work mode and I can’t pick up a book in the morning.

Any words of wisdom or advice you might /could give to fellow performers and colleagues? What message would you deliver to recent theatre school graduates who have now been set free into this unknown and uncertainty?

To my students I just keep telling them to go forward because there is somewhere for them to go. They can go forward. It may be a glitch, but everyone is in the same boat. No one is going to be left behind. My students are worried about graduating because they’re meant to graduate this year. And I tell them, “And what if you don’t? It’s okay as others are also in the same boat as you. Literally, you’ve got your whole life in front of you.”

For younger actors, I tell them to just hang in. You’ve got it all in front of you. This isn’t going to disappear for you.

The older actors, I find, they’re in a real pickle because such maturity comes to you at this age as an actor. You’re so ready and you’ve just got to hang on to it. Find something in the interim that makes you happy.
I really do believe it will come back. You have to go forward as if there is somewhere to go.

Do you see anything positive stemming from Covid 19?
I think if people can hold on to those moments of quiet. Hold on to those moments of “I’m not going to look at the clock today.” I’m going to go through my day, hour by hour as it unfolds.

I think there’s something positive about this notion if they are in a position to do this. It’s easy to become unaware of a bigger picture when you’re in a rabbit hole of whatever your job is. It’s hard to easy lose sight of this bigger picture and become unaware, and I think for a lot of people this has reminded us that we are part of something really, really big.

And that’s a good thing. I hope we stay aware of the world that Covid has made us become.

Do you think Covid 19 will have some lasting impact on the Toronto/Canadian/North American performing arts scene?

It’s going to change the way we look at being in those big places with those numbers especially if you’re at the Festival in Stratford where it’s 18+, 11+ at the Avon, and 8+ at the Festival theatre in Shaw.

I don’t think it’s going to be once everyone gets the vaccine, okay now it’s time to cram together again. I don’t know what they are yet, but Covid will bring a lot of artistic opportunities that are going to crop up because we have to do it a different way. That will be an encouraging way to look at things that we haven’t looked at in the same way in the past.

It’s going to take a long time for it to be what it was, if it ever will be what it was.

Some artists have turned to You Tube and online streaming to showcase their work. What are your comments and thoughts about streaming? Is this something that the actor/theatre may have to utilize going forward into the unknown?

You know what, I think those artists that want to stay creative in their chosen field and have the technical skills to tell a story online, I think it’s fabulous for them. It’s not a route I would take because I probably wouldn’t be very good at it frankly.

I think these artists who are providing an opportunity for people who are hungry for a creative experience and be part of it are providing a great service. If they can find a way to be compensated for that service that’s even better. I don’t know how these online and YouTube projects and compensation work.
I think it was great Stratford aired those projects at the beginning of the pandemic. We were compensated for them at the time and that’s what we signed on to and that’s what was meant to be done. In the early days of the pandemic, Shaw provided online cabarets for their patrons and that was lots of fun.

There are questions that need to be addressed concerning compensation both from Equity and ACTRA standards. Tom and I were going to be a part of The Foster Festival in St. Catherines. I love Norm Foster’s work as it makes me howl. We were lucky enough to be chosen as part of 12 married couples and we were each going to be sent to different restaurants in parts of the city in the Niagara Region and read this play called ‘The Christmas Tree’. The play is hilariously funny and Tom and I can’t even get through it without losing it through laughter.

It was going to be safe in each of the restaurants as per protocol standards. Tickets were being sold for a dinner and show. It was an Equity contract since Shaw is an Equity company. We were going to rehearse online, show up, do the safe social distance dinner and play thing and leave. Two weeks ago the decision was made to cancel it, and rightly so since the numbers are up.

What they’re going to do now is we’re still going to rehearse online and it’s going to be recorded so people can buy tickets to see the recording. So now, it’s not really an Equity issue but an ACTRA issue since we’re being recorded. I’m just going to go do it since I’m a member of ACTRA.

If I’m told it’s allowable, I’m just going to go ahead and do it.

Despite all this drama, tension and confusion, what is it about the art of performance that Covid will never destroy for you?

My love of it. (I can see tears welling in Chick’s eyes on the screen as I truly believe her). I never get tired of being in the same room with a bunch of people who are all there for the same reason. They’re there to tell the story and together in that big, beautiful room and my love of performing in telling a story will never go away for me.

Chilina Kennedy certainly has a lot going on in her life right now as you will see from her answers below.

With a five-year-old son who is the pride and joy in her life right now, I am grateful she was able to take a few minutes from her schedule to check in with me as she moves forward into a new way of living.

Along with her work as one of the Co-Artistic producers of Eclipse Theatre, Chilina is a top-notch and dynamic performer. I’ve seen her work as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ, Superstar at The Stratford Festival. I hadn’t heard the music from ‘The Band’s Visit’ so when I attended the opening night performance through the Mirvish series I wasn’t sure what to expect. I did like the story, and one of the reasons why was her performance.

The one role I will always remember her was in ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Story’. I had taken m sister as my guest when I reviewed the opening night production. My sister, Kathy, even remarked how I put my pen down as I didn’t want to write any notes but simply enjoy what was presented before me.

It was glorious. Thank you again, Chilina, for taking the time from your schedule:

It appears that after five exceptionally long months we are slowly, very slowly, emerging to a pre-pandemic lifestyle. How has your daily life and routine along with your family’s life and routine been changed?

Well, it’s interesting that you asked me at this point because I’m in quarantine with my five-year-old son. I didn’t want to lose our green cards so we had to go back to the US for three nights just for the while we re-applied for the entry permits so we could stay in Canada for the next two years.

Once you come back, you have to quarantine and they’re very strict about it as they should be. It’s been very interesting. He still continues with at home learning. He had a drum lesson this morning and we’re about to go into a home school situation with three or four other kids. We’re going to take turns as each family is going to teach on a different day.

It’s been fascinating, but unfortunately for people in our business there has been virtually a 100% unemployment rate in the terms of performing artists at least. People are able to continue doing all other sorts of things which is great, but at least in terms of the performing arts film and tv are starting to come back and that’s been great as I’ve had lots of auditions for that kind of stuff. But everybody job that I had has been cancelled which is disappointing.

Were you involved or being considered for any projects before everything was shut down?

I was supposed to be playing Fantine in ‘Les Miserables’ right now. That’s a disappointment as I’ve always wanted to play that role, and I figured it was my opportunity to do that role now. I don’t know if I’ll get that chance to do it again. I just had a fitting for it when the pandemic hit.

A lot of things are now shooting in Canada so they’re looking to fill a lot of Canadian quotas, the American companies are, and there are a lot of Canadian companies that are too. That’s good news plus the online concerts.

What has been the most challenging element or moment of the isolation period for you.
Solitude is not something I’m afraid of even with my five-year-old son. I quite like it. I like the peace of mind it brings. It’s a positive thing really.

The hardest part for me initially was not seeing my parents for the first couple of months until we decided to bubble with them. It was tricky because we came from New York, so we were really worried that we were carriers of the virus. The last thing I wanted to do was to spread it to anybody, particularly my aging parents. That was hard with the panic of what to do.

And the panic of what to do with my apartment in New York. That still remains a challenge but at least I’ve got somebody in there right now. Life as we know has kind of died. It’s a bit tricky because I’m never going back to that apartment in New York as I’m going to let it go.

Everything has just changed. I don’t know if Broadway will ever be the same again. In some ways, that’s a good thing because we’re learning a lot of lessons in this time.

It’s challenging, that’s for sure.

I agree with the comment that Lucie Arnaz also made about Broadway not coming back until the fall of 2021. I think it will be at least that. People are very creative and there are lots of interesting ways of getting around things. As you know, I’m the Co-Artistic Producer of Eclipse Theatre here in Toronto along with a bunch of other people. The company is trying to follow suit and do some of the things we want to do at a distance, but it’s challenging. Our systems have not really been tested yet, so we don’t know yet what we’re doing.

What had you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time of lockdown?

To be honest with you, there has been a lot to do, running the household and keeping my five-year-old entertained. I want to make sure he’s stimulated so we have a lot of projects happening. I’ve been re-doing my basement, cooking a lot, and I’ve had tons of auditions which has been great for film and tv so that’s been helping me to get my chops back up.

We’ve been setting up an Education Department at Eclipse which has been great. There have been some online classes and I’ve been teaching a little bit.

Most importantly, I’ve been remembering how to relax, gardening and doing things like that.

I’ve also been trying to open my eyes and educate myself on what’s been going on in the world.

Any words of wisdom or sage advice you would give to other performing artists who are concerned about the impact of Covid-19? What advice would you give to new theatre graduates about this time?
Oh, that’s a very good question. In fact, I’ve just offered some words to artists at York University who are about to start school next week.

My advice, and you can take it with a grain of salt, “I hope that people don’t feel discouraged.” I know it’s a challenging time but theatre is going to survive, it’s never going to die. We’ve been through wars, through pandemics and all sorts of things and theatre has always survived. I think it’s going to look a little different on the other side, but I think we’re going to get through it so I hope the next generation of artists are training as hard as ever because they’ve got to be ready when we ARE ready to come back.

This is a pause button and an opportunity to reflect. It’s a time of great change so if we can learn something from this time and move forward with new voices and new stories and exciting material coming out of this time, we’ll be all the better for it and have a stronger arts community.

A lot of the great artists wrote their masterpieces during times of great suffering and trial – ‘King Lear’ was supposedly written during the Great Plague.

Do you see anything positive stemming from this pandemic?

If we take the bull by the horns, I see a lot of positive change. I also see a lot of possibilities to revert back to the way we were, and I don’t think that’s a very good solution. There’s a lot of push and pull – there are a lot of people who do want lasting change, and I think there are a lot of people who have a stake in the way things used to be and want things to go back to the way they were.

And I understand both as there is a comfort and familiarity in going back to the old ways. We’ve got to strive ahead in a much better fashion than we were before. I feel encouraged for the environment, for diversity in representation.

In your opinion, can you see Broadway, the Toronto, regional and North American professional performing arts scene somehow being changed on account of the coronavirus?

I sure hope there is diversity in representation with the BIPOC voices and communities. I hope there is a lot of change. I think there should be change. There should be more listening happening, much more diversity and inclusion in terms of stories that we’re telling, and who’s telling, and who’s creating them and the way we collaborate.

I think we have this great opportunity to enter a new phase of how we create art and how we tell it.

What are your thoughts about streaming of live productions? Will it become part of the performing arts scene in your opinion? Have you participated or will you participate in any online streaming soon?

Well, I’m probably going to misquote somebody. I’ve heard somebody say there is a name for acting on camera and it’s called film and tv. I don’t think live performance is meant to be Zoomed. It’s weird.

Frankly, I’m not a huge fan but if that’s all we have well I think we’ll find creative ways to present it in a fresh capacity.

To be honest, isn’t there a term – I think we’re all getting a bit Zoomed out? People are just aching to be back together again in the theatre. There’s something about gathering that is so unique to what we do for a living, breathing the same air, and the heart beating at the same time as we wait for the production to begin. Indeed, it’s a shared experience. It’s so important and those live emotions that are shared with each other do not exist through a screen. It’s only a percentage of the experience.

Obviously, artists have to be compensated appropriately if streaming is the only possible option if any kind of profit is made.

Despite all the change, the confusion and drama surrounding this time of re-emergence and recovery, what is about performing you still love?

I love creating new work as that is probably my greatest love. One of the things I have been continuing to work on is a new musical that I’ve written with Eric Holmes who’s one of the writers on ‘The Good Fight’. He was one of the writers on ‘Smash’. He’s a fantastic guy, very talented and he and I have been working on this new musical for a couple of years. We’ve been continuing to bash away at it.

It’s wonderful because I do have a piano in my house, guitars and ukuleles and all sorts of instruments around the house. My son and I make music together. I continue writing my show. There are ways to keep at it.

I was sitting in an outdoor gathering with a bunch of wonderful women, friends of mine and colleagues and we were all sitting at a distance around this fire. We were talking about singing, not for the pay cheque, but just for the fact we love to sing and that’s something I think so many of us have forgotten.

Now this chance, this quiet opportunity has made many of us so aware that we miss singing simply for the joy of it. We started singing in this circle with all of us getting involved not because we were getting paid or people were watching, no job at stake.

It was just for the simple fact we love it. We were just feeling that live vibration in that space and right in that particular moment, in that outdoor space. And I think that to me, “Oh, wow”, I think back to when I was a kid just starting out.

And it’s the whole reason why I do what I do. That’s why I love it.

PlayME, a unique show, offers anyone around the world the opportunity to experience some of the best theatre Canada has to offer. PlayME is a podcast that is the brainchild of Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley. They were looking for a way to expand the audience of some of Canada’s best theatrical productions.

PlayME has been a CBC podcast since 2018 and this year they have put together their most ambitious season to date in offering some of the greatest hits in theatre this year including shows such as ‘Prodigal’, ‘First Metis Man of Odesa’, and (the most talked about show of shows of 2023) ‘Uncle Vanya’. This season may seem more ambitious than previous ones. For anyone that has been listening over the years, that is by design.

A few weeks ago I got to chat with Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley about the show. Below is a little insight into PlayME.

We talked about starting the show, what makes a season, and how does a show come together. Getting some of this insight provided more appreciation for the podcast.

Each season Mullin and Tolley try to put together a season that gives a lot of insight into what is going on in the theatre scene across Canada. Once they have selected the show they would like to have included in the season, the work really starts. As you can probably imagine, taking something from stage to an audio format would require a different approach.

Mullin and Tolley will sit down with the playwright to help make a show more suited for an audio only audience. But it is vital to keep the integrity of the original production. This included, as best they could, getting the company members together to record the show in the studio. This helped to keep the vibe of the stage production.

PlayME is really a love letter to Canadian theatre. This is a way to experience shows that you may not be able to experience in the theatre because you cannot always travel to a show.

Experience all Canadian theatre has to offer vicariously through the CBC podcast, available where you get your podcasts. If you love theatre you’ll love what PlayME has to offer.

Artist Chris Tsujiuchi will appear this month (along with a slew of other Canadian artists) in the quirky musical ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre.

The production will be directed by Artistic Director Rob Kempson, with Music Direction by Jeff Newberry and Choreography by Genny Sermonia.

The plot is well-known among theatregoers and those who remember the two feature films in black and white and in colour. The hapless and orphan florist Seymour has been hired to work in Mr. Mushnik’s floral shop on Skid Row. Seymour has fallen in love with the store’s other assistant, Audrey. While this is happening, Seymour has managed to grow a strange new plant which he lovingly names Audrey II, which finally captures her attention and that of the community surrounding the shop on Skid Row.

Audrey II, however, holds some bizarre eating habits that set Seymour on the course of changing his life and all those involved in the story.

Chris Tsujiuchi (who goes by ‘Tsuj’ with a soft g sound) provides the voice of Audrey II. He will also play a few other roles in the show.

Tsujiuchi is a 2010 Sheridan College Musical Theatre program graduate who is excited about returning to live theatre, especially with ‘Little Shop.’ He added how grateful and relieved he is, and I’m sure other theatre artists have felt the same emotions. There wasn’t much for artists to do when everything was closed, and he’s excited to be doing work he loves to do again.

He was involved in some online and digital performances when the theatres were shut down for Covid. Tsuj is a self-produced cabaret performer and does a big Christmas cabaret in Toronto every December. He had to move to a digital Christmas cabaret during the shutdown. This meant he shot and edited a two-hour film which people watched from home. He further added:

“As great as it turned out, it was not live theatre. It lacked that live connection the performer has with the audience. The film was shot over six days and then I edited it on I Movie for 3 weeks straight. I’m not an editor, but if I were one with the proper skill and software, it would not have taken that long. It would have taken way less time.”

Chris was elated to share how rehearsals for ‘Little Shop’ have been going extremely well. He emphasized that point by slapping his knee twice on ‘so well’.

When I spoke with him last week, the company was only on its third day of rehearsals. He said they watched the opening number, which has already been choreographed and it looks, in his words:

“Ammaaazzziiinnggg! and that everyone needs to come to see the show.”

Tsuj glowingly spoke about working with Rob Kempson. He has always loved working with him and has done so many times and in many different capacities. When Rob was Associate Artistic Producer at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille, he created and programmed the Songbook Series. Tsuj has performed in the Songbook Series alone and as part of his vocal group ‘Asian Riffing Trio’. He was also Music Director when Rob directed ‘9 to 5’ at Randolph College.

I then put him on the spot and asked Tsuj how he would describe Rob in one sentence:

“Intelligent and sassy.”

Chris then sent me the link when I asked him to explain the latter term. The humour doesn’t come out in print as it did when I heard Rob say it. So, when you’re at the Capitol, ask Rob directly why he is sassy, according to Tsuj.

To be true to the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ script, it’s impossible not to be a little sassy because the story is out there, so Rob’s sassiness is on the mark.

Tsuj expresses great enthusiasm for finding and developing the voice of Audrey II. He’s having so much fun in the process.

He then relayed some information I found interesting.

For this production of ‘Little Shop,’ the actors honour the versions of the characters that have come before. If something that might have been used in the later film version (with Rick Moranis) is helpful for your character development, use it. If something is not working, then deviate away from it.

After speaking with Rob and Music Director Jeff Newberry, Tsuj wants to honour the voices of Audrey II that have come before while also finding the ‘Tsuj’ version of the plant’s uniquely distinct voice. Chris saw the Broadway revival of ‘Little Shop,’ which featured Broadway artist Hunter Foster. That production focused on Crystal, Chiffon, and Ronnette, who acted as a Greek chorus, narrating the story and occasionally serving as extensions of the plant.

Tsuj praises the cast of this upcoming production. He calls them all so talented and wishes he could tour this show with this cast. They were all surprised that everyone was available at this time to perform the show at the same time. The cast includes Amir Haidir as Seymour, Tahirih Vejdani as Audrey, Tyler Muree as Mr. Mushnik, Michael Derose as Orin (and others), Michelle Yu, Sierra Holder, and Taylor Lovelace as Crystal, Ronnette and Chiffon respectively, and Joel Cumber as the Audrey II puppeteer and the entire ensemble.

As we concluded our conversation, I asked Tsuj why audiences must make their way to the Capitol to see this production of ‘Little Shop’:

“The music will be on point. The choreography will be on point. The story is ridiculously hilarious. You will laugh, you will cry because you will laugh so hard. The production value is out of control. We’re giving you a man-eating plant from outer space realness on stage at the Capitol. That’s why audiences must come to the Capitol.”

Once ‘Little Shop’ has completed its run at the Capitol, what’s next for Chris?

He is Artistic Director of The Sing Toronto Vocal Arts Festival focused on the unaccompanied human voice. It is a week-long festival that happens every May in Toronto. To learn more about this festival, visit https://singtoronto.com/ to learn how to enter. He’ll work on getting contracts out for this festival for a couple of months before he heads to Nova Scotia to be the music director for a panto and then back to Toronto to do his Christmas Cabaret.

In December of this year, he will be the Music Director for “A Whole New World: The Story of Alan Menken” in which four actors and a three-piece band take the audience through Menken’s life and music. Tsuj will also reprise his role of Audrey II in this show.

‘Little Shop of Horrors’ opens August 11 and runs to September 3 at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre, 20 Queen Street, Port Hope. For tickets, call the Box Office (905) 885-1071 or visit https://capitoltheatre.com/events/little-shop-of-horrors.

As we slowly emerge from this worldwide pandemic, it has been fascinating to discover how many artists have found themselves on new paths moving forward and heading into a future unknown to all of us at this time.

Actor, storyteller, writer, creator and teacher Christel Bartelse’s profile shows she has prepared herself to head into this unknown future but she appears to be equipped with what the future might or can possibly bring to her.

Christel discovered theatrical clowning at the age of 21 and honed her skills with some of the top instructors, including Mike Kennard, John Turner (Mump and Smoot), Sue Morrison, Philippe Gaulier, Francing Cote, Andy Massingham, and Caroline Dreaming.

She got her start in comedy with the physical comedy duo, The Burnt Marshmallows (Canadian Comedy Award Nominees). She has also created and written six award-winning solo shows (Chaotica, ONEymoon, Significant Me, All KIDding Aside, The Surprise and Encore!), which have toured across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

Christel is currently promoting her online Comedy School called Comedy Coop (Home for Hilarious Chix). She is one of the co-founders and an instructor of Physical Comedy. Comedy Coop is a unique training ground for women (including female identifying/non-binary students) to explore their passion for comedy and get their comedic voices heard. This school is the first of its kind in Canada.

For more information, please visit www.comedycoop.ca.

We conducted our conversation via email. Thank you so much for the conversation, Christel:

Since we’ve just celebrated Thanksgiving, tell me about some of the teachers and mentors in your life for whom you are thankful and who brought you to this point in your life as a performing artist.

I’m very grateful for my early drama teachers – Dorothy Leitch in Kitchener at the Beckett School and Mrs. Catherine Carlson, my drama teacher, at Grand River Collegiate. Both these women were great teachers who believed in me and fueled my passion in acting. I’m also grateful to Andy Massingham, who is now a great friend and colleague. I looked up to him in my early days because he is a great physical theatre/comedy performer, teacher and it’s been a delight to work with him over the years on some shows. I believe everyone you me teaches you something in some way.

I’m trying to think positively that we have, fingers crossed, moved forward in our dealing with Covid. How have you been able to move forward from these last 18 eighteen months on a personal level? How have you been changed or transformed on a personal level?
Now that we’re moving towards all restrictions lifted, it really feels like we’re moving on. The one positive about Covid is that it really forced me to slow down and take some time to reflect.

As an artist, and educator, I was always on the go, always busy, so it was nice to just take a pause and reflect on it all. However, I have been teaching a lot over the last 18 months and it was a great challenge to figure out how to teach physical comedy and clowning over Zoom.

And I really made it work.

It taught me, when faced with a challenge, you find a solution. My husband and I also lived out in the country for a long time with my parents, and I am grateful for all that time I had with them when so many couldn’t see their loved ones. But we did miss the energy of the city.

Now that things are open, it has been exciting to go out again, see friends, go to restaurants, go to shows and perform again. We do love all the stuff the city has to offer and realized how much we missed it. The buzz of the city and people is wonderful. I did a lot of things during the pandemic because I hate being bored. I was actually very busy, so I’m taking more time to applaud what I did, rather than chronically beat myself up, which I’m very good at.

How have these last eighteen months of the pandemic changed or transformed you as an artist professionally?

Just before Covid hit, I was re-writing and re-working my solo show ONEymoon. I had performed it on and off for several years but wanted to give it a full revamp. I was headed to Brighton, and London, UK with the show in May of 2020. That was all cancelled when Covid hit and I lost my mojo for working on the show.
I felt so uninspired to work on something I didn’t know when I would get to do again. That was hard because I always had such a drive to create. But, at the same time, I continued my Storytelling Show online and the silver lining was that I met artists from all over the World I normally wouldn’t have had the chance to meet.

I also started my online comedy school for women, Comedy Coop, with my colleagues because we figured online classes in some capacities are here to stay. I want to help people and bring laughter and joy to those who I can, especially when the World feels so dark.

In your opinion, do you see the global landscape of the professional Canadian live theatre scene changing at all as a result of these last 18 months?

I think very slowly it’s starting to come back. You are able to go and see a play, and that’s exciting. But it for sure has changed.

Can we ever sit in a packed theatre again and feel fully relaxed? Who knows?

Also, I think theatre companies/productions had to get more creative with virtual shows, pre-filmed productions, and I think some of that will stay – I hope it does in a way since it expands the potential audience for a show beyond geographies. So many people lost work, and some moved on. I think it will be interesting to see the content that is created as well, after we’ve all been through this.

What excites/intrigues/fascinates/interests you post Covid?

I’m excited to get back to creating and performing again; in this new “normal” I hope to be able to tour and travel again, and excited to return to festivals from years past.

I’m excited to go and see shows and movies again in a theatre.

I’m also excited that so many huge Global issues were brought to the forefront and people are taking more care, paying attention, and listening. So, I’m interested to watch the type of work that will be created. The innovation that came from this time. But I’m intrigued to see what will happen. It still feels like everyday there is new information.

Can we get over to the other side?

What disappoints/unnerves/upsets you post Covid?

It’s still disappointing to see people who don’t take the pandemic seriously or are selfish in their views. They don’t care about others, only themselves.

That people are still so mean to others.

I’m still unnerved with the uncertainty of the future. It’s hard to plan anything when you don’t know what will happen in a month from now. Fingers crossed we continue to get through this, but no one knows, especially when you see places such as the UK going in the wrong direction again.

Where do you, the artist, see yourself going next?

For a long time, I’ve been wanting a big change. I still don’t know what that means, but the pandemic has taught us you can work from anywhere. Self tapes have allowed this. Classes online etc. So, I’m looking to maybe try out my craft in a new place?

I’m also excited to work on a new Solo show. It’s been a few years since I’ve created one and I’m itching to do this. I’m excited to continue building this online comedy school. I believe it has so much potential. And I’m excited to be back doing “live” storytelling and comedy shows again.

Where do you, the person, see yourself going next?

On a wild adventure. I just need to get over my fear and take a leap of faith. And also see what travel looks like, post pandemic.

RAPID ROUND
Try to answer these in a single sentence. If you need more than one sentence, that’s not a problem. I give credit to the late James Lipton and ‘Inside the Actors’ Studio’ for this format of questions.

If you could say one thing to one of your mentors or favourite teachers who encouraged you to get to this point as an artist, what would it be?

“Thank you. I appreciate you more than you know.”

As a teacher myself, I know how little teachers get thanked. So just a simple thank you for all you did, goes a long way.

If you could say something to any of the naysayers in your career who didn’t think you would make it as an artist, what would that be?

“I’m glad I didn’t listen to you. But thank you for pushing me harder.”

When someone thinks I can’t do something, I’ll go out of my way to prove that I can.

What’s your favourite swear word?

Fucking Fuck!

What is a word you love to hear yourself say?

Ridiculous.

What is a word you don’t like to hear yourself say?

Can’t.

What would you tell your younger personal self with the knowledge and wisdom life experience has now given you?

Slow down and trust it will all work out.

With the professional life experience you’ve gained over the years, what would you now tell the upcoming you from years ago who was just in the throes of beginning a career as a performing artist?

Keep going, work hard, believe in yourself and when a door slams in your face, it will only make you work harder. Oh, and also, don’t try to do 500 things all at once. Focus on one thing at a time. (even though I haven’t learned this as my older self yet, ha)

What is one thing you still wish to accomplish both personally and professionally?

Personally, there are so many places I’d still love to travel to. I’ve been grateful for my travels so far, but 2 years without it, I’m dying to get on a Plane. First stop would be Italy.

Professionally, although my first love is live theatre, storytelling and comedy, I really would love to do more film/tv. I’m hungry for this. And love being on set.

Name one moment in your professional career as an artist that you wish you could re-visit again for a short while.

I’d love to go back to my 20’s when I was doing a ton of improv and sketch comedy. I would want to revisit this because there were so many incredible people around who were all just starting out, and we were all having the best time. This was well before anyone had phones, or social media, so we were all just so present with each other, and it really was word of mouth to get people to come and see you.

Would you do it all again if given the same opportunities?
Being in the Arts, as unpredictable and wild as it is, I wouldn’t change it. I have amazing stories to tell, I have met so many incredibly talented people and I’ve been able to see and tour the World while doing what I love.

And wow, have I laughed which keeps you vibrant and young.

As far as teaching goes, I have loved watching myself evolve and learn, not only from myself but all my fabulous students.

I mentioned in earlier profiles there are some artists with whom I would like to sit down and have a beer.

I’m putting University of Southern California Graduate, Los Angeles and Toronto based artist Christopher Bautista on this list as well.

I saw Chris perform in ‘The Negroes are Congregating’ with friends at Theatre Passe Muraille just before the pandemic was declared and all the theatres were shut down. This performance was one that hit me right square in the face when it came to some of the societal issues presented. My friends and I wanted to speak with some of the actors after the talk back as the opportunity was made for audience members.

I approached him and remember asking my question which, I think, probably put him on the spot now that I think of it even more. But my question did not faze him. Instead, Chris was extremely patient with me, took the time to explain, and to help me re-examine the issue from another perspective which was extremely crucial to complete the review.

Thank you for remaining calm and patient, Chris. Before we began our interview, Chris did state for the record he’s had a lot of experience and practice in explaining and remaining levelheaded.

We conducted our interview via Zoom conference call:

It has been over the three-month mark since we’ve all been in isolation, and thankfully we’re starting to emerge slowly. How have you been faring? How has your immediate family been doing during this time?

We are, we’re like low crawling out of our caves, aren’t we? I’ve had a lot of time to focus on self-care. I’ve made my own moisturizer. I’ve done something I imagined I never would have done. (laughs) I ordered raw shea butter and raw jojoba oil and made this concoction. I looked it up on the internet. This is one of the satisfying things I’ve done all of COVID. I have this moisturizing routine. (laughs) I don’t know how many people are interested in hearing about it. (laughs) It’s pretty cool. Us guys, a lot of time, don’t take a lot of time to do that.

A lot of contemplation on this current state of global affairs. It’s given me an opportunity to focus on my physical, spiritual, economic, and mental well being, as well as the well being of people that look like me. It’s given me the opportunity to think about what we prioritize as a global community of brothers and sisters.

I would like to see Canadians and everyone, for that matter, as concerned about dismantling institutional racism as they are for solving and providing solutions for COVID. This includes police brutality, our health care system, housing, economic and political equity, infrastructure and community development and funding, as well as equity for the arts.

We’re talking tech and business sectors. This includes representation, pay, administrative roles that provide equity in terms of position and power. Coverage and representation in the media to include a maximum effort to remove 500 years of both unconscious bias as well as intentional misrepresentation based on colonial and white supremacist ideologies.

This is a lot to unravel, so I have a lot of time to think about these things. Who would have thought the thing that would have put 4000-7000 people on Bloor Street would have been anti-Black racism. It’s a beautiful thing. I’m super grateful for this time. I think we’re living in the best possible time ever in history. Isn’t that amazing? It means we have a responsibility which is huge for the next generation. What we do today is going to lay precedence for the new system that is going to emerge.

My immediate family is doing well. I’ve had some people affected by COVID. I’ve also had some people very unaffected by it. I’ll leave them unnamed but I’m very proud of them as they took a road trip to LA. They were safe when they arrived. For the most part, everybody is having their ups and downs but they’re trying to make the most out of this.

As a performer, what has been the most difficult and challenging for you professionally and personally?

Funny enough, professionally, the most difficult thing has nothing to do with my job. I feel very fortunate to be able to do what I love and what fulfills me spiritually, economically, and artistically. On the other hand, in the matter of a year, I’ve had several people carry out micro and major aggression in terms of race. This includes a show I was working on that was canceled five days away from opening because a very white director accidentally (if there were such a thing) using the ‘n’ bomb during conversation with his almost entirely black cast. This was one of the most difficult things I had to deal with in my professional career that had nothing to do with my job. It shouldn’t have happened.

It has inspired me to really be a champion for putting black people in positions of power within the artistic community which includes the theatre. I’m uninterested in these place holder positions that don’t have any power attached to them. Let’s put people in artistic director roles, on Boards of Directors so that when these situations happen, and they’re going to continue, when they do happen then we have people in positions of power that can handle them correctly to minimize the amount of collateral damage that is put on these performers. We need to learn the most from them without bias, without the sort of automatic denial or worse, suppression.

On a personal level, Joe, I like that you say challenge because that’s how I perceive it. It’s not something that I’m not able to get past because I’ve been able to get past those challenges, both personally as well as professionally. The things I’ve been able to implement in my life have really allowed me to refrain from those situations.

Personally, there are two things: the first, I feel being in my 30s, my entire adult life, I have been screaming what everyone has been listening to and hearing for the last month. This last month, I finally feel as if I’m being listened to and more than that, heard, acknowledged, and responded to. People are really taking this on for action. This has been one of the most challenging things.

The other has been my transition from my decade long stint in the military into the life of an artist. It wasn’t seamless. Although I don’t regret that decision, it’s one I do not have any intention of going back from. I’m happy with the lessons I’ve been able to learn from that time. Some of these lessons affect my professional and personal life – determination and focus on my goals.

Were you in preparation, rehearsals, or any planning stages of productions before everything was shut down? What has become of those projects? Will they see the light of day anytime soon?

I was in the prep process for my role as Prospero in Company of Fools production of ‘The Tempest’ in Ottawa. We were set to start rehearsals on June 1 and to go into production in July. I’ve been very impressed by the company’s handling of the situation. They were very communicative throughout the entire process and I look forward to next summer when we can begin the production of ‘Tempest’ again.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time?

Aside from my self-care routine? (laughs) I know you saw me on television last week on Bloor Street when I spoke to the CTV reporter on combatting black racism. I’ve been active in the Black Lives Matter movement, meditation. Exercise. I like playing basketball but a lot of creative projects of my own on the go, along with weekly play readings with my acting teacher and fellow students of The Lighthouse Actors’ Studio. Celebrating Black Lives and cultural contributions through the creation of my series of events called BLVCKFEST. We had our first event on June 7. – Instagram.com/blvckfest.

I’m working on some other exciting things with more details to come.

Any words of wisdom or advice you might /could give to fellow performers and colleagues? What message would you deliver to recent theatre school graduates who have now been set free into this unknown and uncertainty given the fact live theaters and studios might be closed for 1 ½ – 2 years?

Do what you can with what you have. I cannot stress this enough. Stop waiting for someone to hire you for that job. Paint that painting. Make that film. When you focus on resources you do have, the number of resources that you’re able to employ automatically increases. Keep moving, keep going. Momentum is the name of the game.

Build up your content. I’m working on two shows of my own and constantly writing on those as well as developing Blvckfest. Things can stop out there but they can still be going on in here (points to his brain/mind). Don’t get discouraged if that show isn’t going this summer. That show will come back. It always comes back.

Do you see anything positive stemming from COVID 19?

A re-set. The re-set. Who would have thought that COVID 19 would have awakened people to the 500 years of anti-black racism that has been woven into global systems, especially in North America? That’s huge. Now we have an opportunity to learn about that, to dismantle it. The one thing about all people – we’re really smart. We can do this if we really want to do this. That tells me one of two things: We didn’t know, or we didn’t care.

Now that we know, what are we going to do about it? Either we can or we don’t want to because it benefits too many people. At what cost does your comfort come at? At what cost does my comfort come at? Does it come at the cost of the livelihood of some people, at the oppression of some people? In my heart of hearts, I believe we are inherently not only good but great. When we level up in terms of our consciousness, we realize our well being doesn’t have to come at the cost of someone’s oppression. Our pain doesn’t have to be the ammunition for us to put that pain on someone else because that’s when we’re elevating. There is no separation as a global community. If my brother is suffering on another part of the planet, I’m suffering.

Once we begin to look at things like this, we can turn this bad boy around.

Do you think COVID 19 will have some lasting impact on the Canadian/North American performing arts scene?

Absolutely. You look at platforms at Ghostlight.ca, Monologue Slam, what they’ve done for Canada and globally. The Canadian Isolation Film Festival – the people at Mann Casting have put this badboy on. I’ve had the opportunity to do meaningful work with some incredible friends and colleagues.

The fortunate part of this is it is giving artists, theatre-makers and filmmakers the opportunity to innovate, not avoid what we’re dealing with. Zoom allows us to create while social distancing. What are the ways that will weave into the stories that we want to tell? There’s talk about relaunching of ‘The Negroes are Congregating’ that you saw at Passe Muraille virtually (and which was nominated for a Dora). This is long-lasting.

It’s like everything else. It’s a revolutionary time that we’re in and a reflection of the transitional period in which we’re now in. Streaming is an opportunity to increase viewership. Are we going to use traditional forms of storytelling and pretend we’re not in the world we’re in, or are we going to utilize the period in which we find ourselves and find ways to tell the stories?

Some artists have turned to YouTube and online streaming to showcase their work. What are your comments and thoughts about streaming? Is this something that the actor/theatre may have to utilize going forward into the unknown?

I think that depends. Are people paying for that streaming service, then yes, the artist should be paid. We need to re-investigate how we look at streaming across the board, and how artists are to be paid across the board which is one of the tenets of Black Fest. Black Fest is an opportunity to change all this and to put money into artists’ pockets. For 500 years, black people have been under-compensated, and Black Fest is an opportunity to change that. This should be a focus for everyone when we really think about it.

Who would have been able to get through COVID without art? Art provides value to our lives and we need to compensate the people who are giving value to our life.

Despite all this fraught tension and confusion, what is it about performing that COVID will never destroy for you?

The joy, the electricity that I feel when I’m on stage, on set, on a Zoom call with my scene partner. It doesn’t matter if we are inside, if we’re connected in some way, I’m feeling it. It’s been like that for me since the first time I was on stage as a child as Eeyore.

As a respectful acknowledgment to ‘Inside the Actors’ Studio’ and the late James Lipton here are the ten questions he used to ask his guests:

What is your favourite word?

Gratitude

What is your least favourite word?

Ooooo – I had an answer before but I’m not going to say that answer. Thanks, Nigel (Shawn Williams)…Ok, my least favourite word…’can’t’

What turns you on?

Compassion

What turns you off?

Apathy

What sound or noise do you love?

Djembe drumming – follow Blvckfest on Instagram

What sound or noise bothers you?

Police sirens

What is your favourite curse word?

Motherfucker – it’s a noun: person, place or thing.

What is your least favourite curse word?

Oooooo… the ‘n’ word

Other than your own, what other career profession could you see yourself doing?

Artist, activator, and activist, and that’s about it.

What career choice could you not see yourself doing?

The military. I always say that’s the best role I ever played.

If Heaven exists, what do you hope God will say to you as you approach the Pearly Gates?

“What took you so long? Hurry up! I’m tired of your Grandma Shirley kicking my ass at Scrabble and dominoes. She’s ready for you.” Yeah! That’s it.

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-negroes-are-congregating-zoom-reading-tickets-112565955804 Chris also wants audiences to be aware how artists are to be paid across the board which is one of the tenets of BLVCKFEST. BLVCKFEST is an opportunity to change all this and to put money into artists’ pockets.

Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Cliff Cardinal has been called controversially subversive and a cultural provocateur. He has studied playwriting at Montréal’s National Theatre School.

His website (cliffcardinal.com) also calls him a polarizing writer known for his black humour and compassionate poeticism.

He doesn’t seem bothered by these labels and calls them lovely. Cliff grew up as a punk rocker and played in punk bands. He loved George Carlin and Richard Pryor. Cliff doesn’t live in the mainstream of society. He says he still has this outsider perspective, and that happens whether he goes to the rez, the suburbs of the city or travelling. He’s always the outsider perspective, which is natural to him. Where Cliff comes from, this is what he talks about within his family. He doesn’t consider this controversial at all.

We chatted via Zoom recently just before his show ‘(Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them)’ opened at VideoCabaret on 10 Busy Street, Toronto—more about the show shortly.

Who encouraged and influenced Cliff to continue in the industry. He said candidly:

“Everyone who doubted and tried to stop me and withhold resources…and everyone who said I wasn’t good enough. I truly could not be here without all of you.”

I couldn’t help but burst into instantaneous laughter. Cliff had this sly grin and relished the opportunity for me to laugh with him.

He grew up the son of actress Tantoo Cardinal CM. When he dropped out of high school, he showed up at the back of a theatre company, just ‘shut up,’ and listened at this theatre for his Grade 10 year. He spoke fondly of his mentors Layne Coleman, Michael Hollingsworth and his partner, the late Deanne Taylor. The latter two co-founded Toronto’s VideoCabaret, integrating videotape, music, and theatre.

He also spoke dearly of his director of ‘A Terrible Fate’ Karin Randoja. Cliff smiled and said they had been co-parents of all these shows they’d done together. She’s taught him a lot already, has come through, and is sometimes one step ahead of him. For Cliff, Randoja understands the craft of theatre in a way he doesn’t.

I was first introduced to Cliff’s artistic work in his two one-person solo productions of ‘The Land Acknowledgement’ at Toronto’s Crow’s Theatre and later at Mirvish Productions. The former production created a wave of controversy within the theatre community. The latter was an entirely different iteration but still used the exact text.

I wanted to explore this understanding of controversy within the theatre industry further and asked how far an artist can push the envelope regarding being controversial.

Cliff resolutely stated theatre doesn’t work as propaganda. If this is the objective for the artist, then he/she/they has/have the wrong medium.

He elaborated further:

“A theatre artist’s job is to be entertaining, exciting, dazzling, and marvellous and to present both sides of the argument. The theatre is an industry where we have a lot of people in the seventies show up. These people have read a lot more than I have.”

The idea that Cliff will teach someone in their 70s something or bring them around to his politics is naïve.

How far can a theatre artist go for Cliff, then?

“It all depends on the artist’s relationship with the audience and how many times they have given the performance. You have to really try and listen as you have these ideas you fight for. Are they making the jump with me? Can they still suspend disbelief and project their imagination onto this moment, or have they checked out? Do they hate what’s happened to them?”

For Cliff, artists have the right to say what they want, but great artists take responsibility for what the audience hears.

I attended the opening night performance of ‘A Terrible Fate.’ When I asked him how he felt about opening night, Cliff said he had no idea what they all did. He knows opening night occurred but can barely remember it.

He calls ‘A Terrible Fate’ a compelling exploration of being the guy in this position and asking Robert to inhabit him in this solo piece. To go on this journey and explore it is an exhilarating opportunity. Cardinal has unending praise for VideoCabaret and Crow’s Theatre, the two companies that have produced ‘A Terrible Fate.’

He further adds:

“I’m just trying to soak up, be inquisitive and be curious about what is there. Maybe at the end of November, I’ll stop and ask, ‘What the fuck was that?”

And again, I’m laughing at his frankness.

Ironically, he and Jenn Stobart, the show’s Stage Manager, were in Perth and just started talking about how everyone they have loved who had a terrible fate befall them. Thus the genesis of ‘A Terrible Fate’ was conceived. Cliff writes daily and said, “As soon as I tell you I love you, watch out because you’ll get sick, get hit by a car, or an anvil will fall from the sky and land on you. Watch out.”

What Cardinal finds intriguing is the redundancy, the idea he is presenting himself as this traumatized guy. Yes, Robert’s trauma occurs quicker than others, but that is the story of all of us. Cliff calls ‘A Terrible Fate’ a satire and magical realism but also a redundancy. He’s hoping that he can use the comedy to step outside of ourselves and look back at how we’re dealing with the worst fundamental truth, which is that this will end for all of us.

I love the candidness in that last line because it’s true.

And again, I started laughing, and Cardinal was smiling. He said: “See, you and I are laughing, so it’s all going well.”

What messages is he hoping audiences will take away from the play:

“We should be holding onto each other. We should be coming together. We should be more honest. We’re not good at grieving about those we have loved and lost in this culture. Great stories shouldn’t silence the room. Great stories should provoke us to tell stories to others. If that doesn’t happen, I hope audiences will leave having enjoyed a few laughs and a good time and purchase some artwork in the lobby.”

In true artist style, Cliff also added:

“I hope people are offended, and those who want to be offended are. Those who need to be triggered, come on down and get triggered.”

It’s not Cliff’s way to conduct audience talkbacks, so don’t expect there will be one after the performance. There’s something about audience talkbacks that doesn’t feel right.

He’s hoping ‘A Terrible Fate’ will tour other Canadian cities after the VideoCabaret run. It depends on how the show will develop from its incubation at 10 Busy Street.

And what’s next once ‘A Terrible Fate’ concludes at VideoCabaret?

A movie adaptation will be made of his ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare. He’s a tad coy about sharing anything else regarding the film now, except that he is working on it with his friend, Daniel McIvor.

This film adaptation is one to keep an eye on in the future.

‘Everyone I Love Has’ A Terrible Fate (Befall Them),’ produced by VideoCabaret in association with Crow’s Theatre at the Deanne Taylor Theatre runs to November 12 at VideoCabaret, 10 Busy Street. I hear tickets are selling very quickly for the remaining shows. Visit crowstheatre.com for further information.

The first time I heard Colin Ainsworth sing was at the opera.

He has participated in this stunning art form for twenty-plus years. Opera is one of his passions. He never stops learning as there are more roles he wants to sing and more he wants to learn.

Now, I have no formal training or education in opera. I’ve attended several productions since I started reviewing. I have exited the theatre and sometimes have learned something about this dramatic art form. Sometimes I understand completely what’s going on. Other times, I think I might. There have been those rare moments where I didn’t understand a thing.

However, from my brief experience, I’ve learned there is something for everyone at the opera.

Co-Artistic Directors of Toronto’s Opera Atelier (OA) certainly espouse this thinking. Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg reached out over two years and encouraged me to attend. OA continues to look for audience members who want to learn more. It doesn’t matter if someone has no background or education in this field. Come, see, and hear unique stories told and sung with passion and intrigue.

Colin concurs wholeheartedly with this goal Marshall and Jeannette have set for OA:

“If we don’t encourage the next generation to come and see opera, there won’t be an audience in five, ten, or fifteen years. The art of opera must continue to cultivate emerging audience members.”

If he could look into a crystal ball and see where the art of opera is headed over the next five years, Colin adamantly states there has been a big shift in inclusiveness for everybody, not only for singers and performers and artists but also for the audience. For example, he was working in Pacific Opera and there is an initiative there to include the blind and the deaf, people whom one would think might not like opera. Opera Atelier has also begun initiatives to include audience members who are deaf and blind.

Colin’s parents are both deaf, so this initiative is very close to his heart. His parents love the opera because it’s very visual, everything from the theatrics right down to the lighting, the costumes, and the dancing. Some operas incorporate American Sign Language interpreters and they are placed at the side of the stage. The deaf students who attended that Pacific Opera performance were enthralled because the production was in their language.

Ainsworth works with various school groups across Canada as well. Every single time students come to the workshops and programmes offered either through OA or other companies, and then see the opera, the young people are enthralled with what they are watching.

“They love it!”

Most of the time, students say they want to come back to the opera.

How is Colin feeling about this return to the theatre even though we are still in Covid’s embrace?

He says it has been a long time coming but it is nice to be back in the theatre. Ainsworth recognizes audiences have been a bit apprehensive about returning. From his artistic perspective, he’s fine with that but he wants people to come back. What’s important is the fact confidence is re-building about sitting indoors again in crowds. Just take a look at Blue Jays’ games where people are sitting shoulder to shoulder, screaming and wearing no masks.

During the pandemic, Colin completed several digital projects with various groups, but he is quick to add:

“It’s not the same. You don’t get feedback from the audience. You don’t get the energy from the audience. You can’t play off that give and take there is in live theatre.”

‘The Resurrection’ will be staged just before Easter Sunday. I did see the digital production during the pandemic, and it was fine; however, I know it will be a completely different experience live. Colin even pointed out something of which I was unaware. He found the digital production challenging:

“You’re lip-syncing to a recorded production of your voice. You have to make sure your voice and your lips are moving at the exact same time. That takes a bit of practice in remembering where you sped up or slowed down, or perhaps sung differently.”

With a laugh, Colin added he has learned and enhanced a new skill.

What is it about opera that keeps Ainsworth focused and makes him still enjoy what he has chosen as his career?

Opera has so many layers that you never seem to stop discovering. There are operas he has performed four or five times, and Colin continues to discover layers and pieces of things whether it be in the orchestra, the story, or the character. With a return to a role he may have played or sung before, Colin always discovers something new he may not have understood or hadn’t heard the first time. He’s also interested in diving into new roles now that he is of a certain age:

“Endless discovery is wonderful. You never stop learning. That’s the joy for me. That’s so cool.”

Colin has participated in new operas of the day. He never seems to tire of the older ones. If he can’t sing Handel’s Messiah each year, he humorously states it’s just not the same for him.

(Note: I must make a concerted effort to hear him sing Messiah next year).

What is it about the biblical story of ‘The Resurrection’ that lends itself so well to opera?

“It’s dramatic”

He further adds:

“You go through the Bible from Noah to prophets and through Jesus Christ, these are very dramatic stories. Religious themes, the pathos from Jesus’s death and his mother, Mary, and Mary Magdalene. These are all dramatic stories that come together as a cohesive unit to make a beautiful story.”

When I asked what Biblical story he’d like to sing if there was an opera written, Ainsworth paused momentarily and then with an: “Ooooo, Samson.” There’s also a piece by Benjamin Britten called ‘Abraham and Isaac’ that calls for alto and tenor and that’s it.

And what’s next for Colin Ainsworth once ‘The Resurrection’ concludes its run just before Easter?:

“That is always the hard question (and he has a good laugh). I travel to Parry Sound for a summer festival up there. In the fall, I’m coming back to Opera Atelier. There are a few items that I cannot share at this time, but they’re wonderful upcoming things.”

‘The Resurrection’ runs April 6 and 8 at 7:30 pm and April 9 at 2:30 pm. The three performances will take place in person at Koerner Hall at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor Street West. To purchase tickets online and to learn more about Opera Atelier, visit www.operaatelier.com.

To learn more about Colin Ainsworth, visit his website: www.colinainsworth.ca.

To the 115 Canadian and American professional theatre artists whom I’ve profiled over the last six months: thank you so much for sharing your stories and your thoughts with all of us. On a personal note, it is the arts to which I have turned during these sometimes very trying six months of the pandemic to keep me focused and going in knowing the end will be in sight.

I passionately believe with all my heart and being the end of this pandemic is in sight. When is anyone’s guess?

Live theatre will be back, and it will be a pleasure to return and watch all professional artists grace the stage again with those roles, those ‘dream’ roles, you so very much want to play. Who knows what format theatre will take as we slowly emerge from all this? But that is the exciting part in anticipation of wondering how the theatres will tackle this new challenge.

When the decision was made in October to conclude the ‘Moving Forward’ series November 30, I struggled trying to decide who to ask as there were so many other artists out there with whom I so very much wanted to contact but time restraints didn’t allow me – at least for now.

But who?

I came upon a trailer of ‘Bon Cop, Bad Cop’ a few weeks ago online, and I just knew right then that I wanted to ask Donna and Colm Feore for an interview. I just sensed they as well were the right choice to conclude this series.

And so, I contacted the Stratford Festival to ask for a contact to get in touch with the Feores. And I was equally humbled and elated when Donna got in touch with me to say she and Colm would be delighted to participate and to conclude the series. Donna is an extraordinary director and choreographer of many shows at the Festival. I’ve seen Colm in many wonderful productions at the Festival as well along with many television and film roles.

Thank you/Merci, Donna and Colm for the interview via email. Until we all see each other again:

It has been an exceptionally long eight months since the pandemic began, and now the numbers are edging upward again. How are you feeling about this? Will we ever emerge to some new way of living in your opinion?

DONNA: It is very troubling to see the numbers climb so high again in November. It is a stark wake up call that Covid has gone nowhere and we are completely dependant on behaviours of our society to keep everyone safe. Hand washing, distancing and mask wearing continue to be the smartest action we can do at the moment. I am optimistic we will come out the other side of this pandemic. The recent news of vaccines is very encouraging!

COLM: I am feeling optimistic and defeated by turns. On the one hand, I believe we will be back when circumstances allow and that we can stay ready for that moment; on the other, the sum of what we’ve lost is huge and I am trying to reconcile that loss with the need to keep moving forward. When we emerge from this pandemic period I think we will keep what we have learned about best practices and have a new, and I hope, appreciation of the value of what we do, both our audiences and ourselves.

How have you been faring? How has your immediate family been doing during these last eight months?

DONNA: I think there are good days and there are fewer good days for me. I miss the social and physical contact with people. I have however been given a huge gift of time to see friends that I have lost contact with over these last years with busy schedules.

My immediate family is doing well. We had our daughter home for almost 6 months as she is a professional volleyball player, and her sport was shut down. Our son just graduated law school, so he was home for an extended period of time before he started articling. Our oldest son and his wife work form home in TO but we found we had more time with them. I believe we would have never had this time with our adult children without this pandemic and I will be profoundly grateful for it forever.

COLM: I began the shutdown committed to keep working on what I was doing when we stopped. When it became clear we were not coming back, I grieved for the work done but began to think about the new perspective the shutdown offered. Our business is precarious. If you are lucky enough to do it and keep doing it, you keep going, almost afraid to stop. When you are forced to stop you start to reflect. We had some of our family with us to share our time and even though it was weird we cherished it. These moments showed us what is really important.

As an artist within the performing arts community, what has been the most difficult and challenging for you professionally and personally?

COLM: Well, professionally this has been catastrophic. And, like my wife and I, many of our colleagues and friend are two artists households. The threat is existential. We’ve relied on each other to reach out and encourage, philosophize, laugh and cry about the situation. And it helps. I’ve got a lot of balanced advice from other artists about how to cope with the stresses of these days. Some offer wisdom, some books, some recipes, some exercise ideas. All useful, all welcome.

DONNA: I miss my creative teams most of all. I realize now that it has been taken away, just how much I love and cherish our time together. The laughter, the brilliant ideas, the collaboration.

It is a loss both professionally and personally because we are a close group and have worked together for a long time. It just always was so great to be together. I miss them all so much. We have stayed in touch a fair amount these last months. It is an important bond that a pandemic can’t destroy.

I worry for the artists, especially the artists that are alone. I feel terrible for the younger generation of artist that is just beginning, but I am especially sad for the actors and creative artists that are mid career and on the cusp of huge breakthroughs. It is painful to see them having to put everything on hold and rethink knowing how incredibly talented they all are.

Were you in preparation, rehearsals, or any planning stages of productions before everything was shut down? What has become of those projects? Will they see the light of day anytime soon?

DONNA: At the Stratford Festival I was directing and choreographing a version of “Chicago’ that I had been given the permission to completely reimagine. There are 15 production numbers in the show, and we were one day away from the sitzprobe for ‘Chicago’. The sitzprobe is the first time the company gets to hear our orchestra play the score, and the singers get to sing the songs with the orchestra. It is a magical day ALWAYS, no matter the show but this one felt incredibly special.

‘Chicago’ has a magnificent score and to hear our brilliant musicians play it was going to be off the charts! It was heartbreaking to have to stop dead and, when we went in to collect our belongings, the rehearsal room was set up for the sitzprobe. I will never forget that feeling of sadness when I walked in the room and saw that. I feel extremely optimistic that it will be produced in the future, so we just have to be patient.

I was also directing and choreographing a new musical of ‘Here’s What It Takes’ written by Steven Page and Daniel MacIvor. We had been developing the show for over 2 years and we were in production on week 3 when we stopped. It was another blow to not see the show produced and it was going to be in the beautiful new Tom Patterson Theatre. I am very hopeful that it too will have a life in the future.

I also have two shows that are in pre-Broadway tryout phase. Both of those shows are new works, and both have dates set for fall of 2021 and early 2022.

COLM: I was rehearsing ‘Richard III’ which was scheduled to open the new Tom Patterson Theatre as an echo of the production with Alec Guinness which opened the festival in 1953. We were well on our way and I had been preparing for many months before we started so when we stopped and then realized we weren’t coming back, it was a shock. I continue to work on the play, but I don’t see us returning to it until at least 2022.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time?

DONNA: Lots of hiking!!

I am the creative producer on a new project for the National Arts Centre Orchestra. It is a 4-part television show that features some of our most gifted artists both in the worlds of music and the visual arts in Canada. I am excited and look forward to an announcement of the project in the very near future.

I have been working on both shows being produced in the USA with the writers throughout the pandemic. They are both brand new musicals, so we have taken this time to continue working on the score and the script. It has been wonderful to have the time in a more relaxed environment to really dig in.

I have cleaned out my house and continue to do so. I cannot believe how much stuff we have accumulated and kept over the years! It feels good to purge and do the stuff around the house that I have said I would do for the last 10 years!

I have connected with friends that I have not seen or talked to in far too long. That has been such a positive part of Covid for me. We have some close friends in Stratford that have been in our bubble this whole time, so we feel lucky here. We also are extremely fortunate to have an amazing family that we are so grateful for.

COLM: Well, once the biggest question of our day became “what’s for dinner?”, I knew I’d have a purpose. I love cooking and having time to try stuff out has been great. I’ve had a chance to read more and more widely. We’ve also begun to just start fixing things up around the house that our work allowed us to ignore for so long. And perhaps the best thing is that we had a couple of our adult children isolated with us while they studied for various things. It was a great pleasure getting to know them better.

Any words of wisdom or advice you might /could give to fellow performers and colleagues? What message would you deliver to recent theatre school graduates who have now been set free into this unknown and uncertainty?

DONNA: To be honest, everyday is a new day of discovery of what interests me and how I enjoy spending my time. Live theatre will be back. It will be different, but it will be back. I guess I would say to keep trying to work on your skills. Keep exploring new skills and get curious about other things. These are opportunities that you might otherwise not have had without this enforced pause in our industry.

Colm has always been interested in so many other things other than acting and I admire his ability to allow curiosity to take him down some really exciting paths. I am trying to do that more and I highly recommend that a young actor and creative artist coming out of theatre school allow that curiosity into their being.
It is a scary time for so many artists. Our industry was uncertain enough financially, so this added stress is a lot for many to bear. I hope and wish that people are finding a way through it.

COLM: I am certain that public performance will return and that the lessons of the pandemic will change how it works. I think that the best way to ride out this crisis is to continue working on your craft. It’s about staying ready and being flexible. And no matter what you are doing to make a living, never stop the imaginative work of the actor.

I was taught that every class was an acting class, that there was always something to be learned from living. Nothing is wasted. That said, I know that for the perennially unemployed this has gone from a dry spell to a desert, but we must trust that what we offer the world is desperately needed and, as soon as we possibly can, we’ll be back.

Do you see anything positive stemming from Covid 19?

DONNA: That’s hard because there has been so much suffering and continues to be for so many. I do however feel that Covid has given time for all us to reflect on our choices, our actions, and our evaluation of the future.

I have talked a lot about family and friend time which has been such a positive. I have also seen so many artists create a new path for themselves that is so impressive! It is amazing to see the talent that has come out of these artists.

Our community in Stratford has been hit hard both in the theatre, the retail, restaurant and hospitality industry. I have watched a community get behind each other and support each other so much. People who are hard hit themselves reaching out and helping others. It has made me love this city of Stratford even more.

COLM: In the face of such global suffering I find it hard to see much positive though perhaps, the time for isolated reflection has been of use. We’ve had time to question our choices, and I know that moving forward our choices will reflect the experience of Covid.

Do you think Covid 19 will have some lasting impact on the Toronto/Canadian/North American performing arts scene?

COLM: No question that Covid will transform the performing arts locally, nationally, and globally. We are going to have to learn to live with it, or something like it, forever. The lessons of science will allow us to come back together, but I think it will take some time to figure out how. The one ray of hope I have is a fundamental belief in the deep desire humans have for community. We need to share our stories, our songs, ourselves, it’s part of what makes us human.

DONNA: Yes, it will. There is a hard reality for all the performing arts in North America. It will be a long climb for the arts to get back to a healthy financial position again.

I do think we have all taken for granted that we will always be able to do what we love in our industry. Our worries were our next jobs. When the anchor was thrown overboard in our speedboat, and our industry literally stopped around the entire world, it proved that it can all be taken away instantly. I know I will never take it for granted ever again.

Some artists have turned to You Tube and online streaming to showcase their work. What are your comments and thoughts about streaming? Is this something that the actor/theatre may have to utilize going forward into the unknown?

DONNA: I think it has been particularly good for some artists to be able to continue showcasing their work and teaching on You Tube and other platforms. I am interested in content that is developed strictly for a digital platform. I think it is something that can live alongside the live event in the future. We live in a huge country geographically and being able to digitally reach communities that do not have the means to come to a live event whether it be theatre, dance, opera or symphony is crucial to the future of the arts and their relevance.

COLM: I’m happy to see artists taking advantage of whatever medium is available to get their work out there. In a few short years there have been profound changes in how people get their entertainment. If an artist can connect with their audience via You Tube etc then why not? I will always love the live experience with both players and audience in the same space and if that space must be virtual, bring it on.

Despite all this fraught tension and confusion, what is it about performing that Covid will never destroy for you?

DONNA: Our creativity remains in us all. That won’t go anywhere. It is where it needs to be right now, whatever that looks like.

COLM: I have been incredibly lucky to have worked on a few projects while under Covid protocols and restrictions, and what it couldn’t kill was my gratitude for, and delight in, the work. Acting is a crazy business at the best of times but working under these peculiar conditions made me appreciate how much I enjoy it.

Not retiring just yet!! (Editor’s Note: and I’m pleased you’re not just yet)

When I saw Colton Curtis on stage a few years as the elder Billy Elliot at Ontario’s Stratford Festival, I knew the Canadian musical theatre world was in VERY GOOD HANDS. He is an extraordinary dancer and artist who stopped ‘Billy Elliot’ in an exciting solo dance piece that was captivating and mesmerizing to watch. Exquisitely performed.

Colton also appeared in Stratford’s production of ‘A Chorus Line’ with a string of other artists who commanded the Festival Stage with unabated enthusiasm. Incredible work to watch. Additional work in which he appeared at Stratford: ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, ‘The Music Man’ and ‘HMS Pinafore.” I asked him off the cuff how he will be at his first curtain call after the pandemic was lifted. His words:

“I’ll be all smiles and professional during the bows onstage, but I know backstage I will be a weeping, blubbering mess.” Thanks for your honesty, Colton, as I’m sure many audience members will experience the same emotions as you.

On top of his work as an artist, Colton is also a photographer and launched his business in July 2020. I’ve seen his extraordinary work in some headshots of other artists whom I’ve interviewed for this series.

From his website: “Colton began performing at an early age in his home province of New Brunswick. Upon graduation from high school, he moved to Ontario to attend his Bachelor of Musical Theatre in the Sheridan College program where he received the Brian Lineman triple threat award for each year he attended.

Between his years at Sheridan, he spent summers working for the Charlottetown Festival, as well as training with Florence Ballet Company in Florence, Italy, and performing with the Finger Lakes Music Theatre Festival in New York State.”

We conducted our conversation via Zoom. Thank you, Colton, for your time and for sharing your thoughts and adding to the discussion:

It’s a harsh reality that the worldwide pandemic of Covid 19 has changed all of us. Describe how your understanding of the world you know and how your perception and experience have changed on a personal level.

It goes without saying that it’s changed a lot. I’ve personally changed the province I live in. Currently, I’m now in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. I was in Stratford until October. I’ve done a re-shuffle of things to make the past year work.

My understanding of the world maybe hasn’t changed but has become a lot clearer because I’ve actually had time to think about things. I’ve spent a lot of time this year learning, on learning, thinking about the world I want to create and the world I want to work in, and the art I want to create.

Now that we’re into Year 2 of this pandemic, as a young adult I’ve just grown up a lot. With a lot of time that has passed, I do feel like a different person when I last stepped on stage in 2019.

With live indoor theatre shut for one year plus, with it appearing it may not re-open any time soon, how has your understanding and perception as a professional artist of the live theatre business been altered and changed?

My perception hasn’t changed a whole lot but the business itself has changed immensely which is incredible.

This year has given the time for people to step back and look what we’ve been working in, the environment we’ve been working in, and for people to use their voice. Let me preface by saying that I love the theatre community. I think this is great opportunity for a lot of those voices that have never been heard in a long time to get the platform to speak out about things that drastically needed to change within the entertainment industry.

I think we’re going to see theatre made differently which is exciting. I love big Broadway type and style of musicals that shine and sparkle. When we return after this pandemic, I think we’re going to see things pulled and pared back; smaller cast sizes at least for a bit until theatre companies get the means to create these big budget shows again.

As an ensemble dancer that is terrifying for me when I first came to that conclusion. My career for the past five years at Stratford was as an ensemble dancer. I was at The Shaw Festival understudying and dancing.

It’s something scary to think about as theatre companies no longer have the money to create these big shows. When Stratford announced their summer season with cast sizes of four or five people doing a cabaret in a tent, it was, “Oh yeah, right, this is what we’re going to do now.” In order to get back up and running.

That side of the business has changed, but it’s exciting that we’re slowly seeing people get the opportunities to voice their concern to see new people step into power positions in theatre companies, and for more people be given the opportunities to create art that we didn’t see before.

We see many theatre companies committing to anti-racist policies and turning around the people who are in these director positions, directors’ offices positions. I think this is all great, but we still have a long way to go. It’s the beginning. We’ve had the time for the call to action for the whole community to step things up.

As a professional artist, what are you missing the most about the live theatre industry?

I miss the people and the community, but I really miss working. I miss the first day when you crack open the score and start learning the music. I miss the discipline that it takes physically in order to get into shape to do a show, and the stamina required to do a two-hour musical.

I don’t think a lot of people understand that to be a musical theatre performer is akin to being like an Olympian athlete. I’m not tooting my own horn. Just imagine what it’s like for those who want to be in the Olympics. That same discipline is necessary and required.

I really miss that stamina of working so hard. And of course, we’re trying to keep that up in our own ways whether through dance classes, voice lessons.

As a professional artist, what is the one thing you will never take for granted again in the live theatre industry when you return to it?

Hmmm…I mean I’ll never take for granted again the feeling of being on stage with thirty other cast mates in front of an audience of 2000 people.

That is a feeling that I will hold on to dearly.

That’s not to say that I never did take that feeling for granted, as there’s no feeling like it that can replace it.

That is something I will hold on to dearly forever. It’s like a drug.

Describe one element you hope has changed concerning the live theatre industry.

One thing specifically that I really want to see changed when we get back to the industry is young adults stepping into leadership roles of positions and power within theatre companies, whether it be as Associate Artistic Directors. I feel like that is something that is missing a lot of the time in places where I’ve worked at least.

We constantly hear that theatre is a dying art all the time. Let me just say that I don’t think like that at all. Well, if people say this then get some young people who know what other young people are like and are attracted to do and put them in a leadership role to create something that will be irresistible to the next generation. This is something that I get so frustrated about a lot of the time.

This is something I want to see happen. Take a look at Jayme Armstrong and Kimberely Rampersad. Jayme received a Woman of Distinction award in the arts community and Kimberly is the Shaw Festival’s Associate Artistic Director. That is exciting. That is so awesome.

More of that, please.

Oh, I don’t want to sound ageist, (and Colton and I share a good laugh) but on the record I think those with experience in the industry have done a wonderful job, but we need to stop hearing theatre is a dying art form. There are so many young people who aspire to do this so it can’t be dying as there’s still a need for it.

Explain what specifically you believe you must still accomplish within the industry.

I love this question.

I feel like I have so much still to accomplish.

I love what my career has been so far but a lot of it has been dancing in the ensemble of musicals which I love, but it is never what I thought my dream in theatre was going to be. It’s never what I saw for myself.

I still have so much I want to accomplish. I want to create new things. I want to break the mould of what we think theatre can be a little bit and challenge audiences.

I’m creating this inter multi-disciplinary show with James Kudelka, a former Artistic Director of the National Ballet. I’ve always wanted to do something where I have created a hybrid between a play and ballet because I really think they are similar art forms actually. I’ve been working on this, so it’s been keeping me going.

It’s through ‘Talk is Free’ Theatre so I’ve been thankful for that opportunity with Artistic Director, Arkady Spivak. He is really shaking things up which is incredible in giving the permission to do exactly whatever they want so I feel really lucky that he has given me that opportunity. So, Stay Tuned for what’s in the works there.

Some artists are saying that audiences must be prepared for a tsunami of Covid themed stories in the return to live theatre. Would you elaborate on this statement both as an artist in the theatre, and as an audience member observing the theatre.

As an artist, there’s probably something interesting there in this possible tsunami of Covid themed plays. Artists have had a varied experience as to what this time has looked like.

I don’t think anybody wants to talk about this time of Covid right now. I don’t think anyone wants necessarily to spend a couple of hours per night what we just lived through because it’s not been lovely, it’s not been the best time.

I don’t think audiences want too either. Who knows, maybe in twenty years time or so, that’s something we can look back on and remember.

There has been some really cool art that has been made during this time that we’ll be able to look back on and appreciate.

Near future??? NO!!!!!, but in a few years, maybe.

As an artist, what specifically is it about your work that you want future audiences to remember about you?

Hmmmmm…..you know what, my hope for when people watch me perform is that they are transcended into a different realm. I think about that a lot.

As we move forward out of this pandemic, I also want people to be inspired by my creativity. I’ve thought about this a little bit.

I want to change the way people think, and I want to inspire them by my creativity in the ways I do that.

Theatre was made to entertain and to escape. When I perform, I want people to get sucked into whatever world I’m in, and for them to leave their seats even for a few seconds.

Who knows? That could change, but it’s funny, you know? Will people even remember? I don’t know.

To learn more about Colton, visit his personal web page: www.coltoncurtis.com.

Instagram: @coltonccurtis. To see Colton’s photography: @coltoncurtis.jpeg.

I’ve stated it earlier in other profiles from the Toronto company’s profiles of ‘Come from Away’. We need this show now more than ever once it’s safe to return. Hopefully the Toronto company will return again SOON.

Cory O’Brien is just one member of a tremendous ensemble of dynamite actors who make me want to see this production so much when it does finally return.

Cory holds a BFA Acting from the University of Windsor. While there he studied vocal performance (singing) with Jeannette Dagger. Once he moved to Toronto, he largely studied with David Dunbar.

He has completed seven seasons at the Stratford Festival; toured North America in ‘Mary Poppins’ and performed in theatres in Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick and extensively all over Ontario.

Cory was part of the original cast of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ with Mirvish. He appeared in ‘Cats’ at the Panasonic Theatre, performed in the Toronto Fringe Festival as well as the Next Stages Festival. Additional work with Toronto Operetta Theatre.

We conducted our conversation via email. Thank you so much for taking the time and to add to the conversation, Cory:

Many professional theatre artists I’ve profiled and interviewed have shared so much of themselves and how the pandemic has affected them from social implications from the Black Lives Matter and BIPOC movements to the staggering numbers of illnesses and deaths. Could you share with us and describe one element, either positive or negative, from this time that you believe will remain with you forever?

This is a tough one. There are so many implications to this time in our lives (point in history really). I think we will continue to feel the vibrations for years to come before anyone will be able to say with any certainty what has ‘happened’ during this time.

You mentioned Black Lives Matter and BIPOC movements… I would actually say that Black Lives Matter and BIPOC awareness has grown. And I hope that awareness never goes back to normal. The death of George Floyd happened early in the pandemic, at a point where most people’s lives were on hold. Where during normal times people could keep their heads in the sand and miss things that seem to be outside their daily experience, this happened while people were essentially holding their breath and watching events very closely. And what we witnessed was an undeniable case of racism, with horrifying consequences.

In the broader sense I think (and hope) we are moving towards a time where society shrugs off the apathy and self-centred views that allow systemic racism, fringe political extremists etc. We need to stop only seeing things in our personal spheres. Indeed, this time has shown us there is only 1 sphere we need to be concerned with – This planet… and we’re all in it (or on it) together.

I heard on the news yesterday that there was a police department in the GTA that has discovered, and been criticized for, systemic racism. The viewpoint seemed a little shocked. I think we need to switch that thinking up… we should be shocked if there WASN’T systemic racism. Accept it and let’s move forward making things better or everyone.

Post COVID will be and should be a new reality.

Have you learned anything about human nature from this time?

Ha! Learned about human nature? The above kind of covers that.

People have had a tendency to see the world through the lens of ‘what affects me?’ What a wake-up call to see ‘what affects the world affects me…. and what affects me affects the world’. I think people are generally good. And WANT to be good.

During the pandemic I’ve seen it time and time again… from people helping with basic needs when their neighbours are quarantined to people taking more time to say hello and check on their neighbours (in a responsible and socially distanced way!). However,… I’m sadly still shocked from when we were able to actually go in stores to see so many completely ignoring the protocols in place regarding distance and masks. I thought at the beginning of the lockdowns that after 4 weeks the spread should be entirely stopped…. or at least to the point where the origin of new infections should be easily traced and managed. 1 random international flight here or there etc… Obviously, that hasn’t happened ….

How has your immediate family been faring during this time? As a family, can you share with us how your lives have been changed and impacted by this time?

On a personal family note… we have fared better than many during the pandemic. We’ve been lucky to be able to spend this time together.

My wife and I have a daughter who just turned 2 yrs old. So this time is priceless.

The sad part is that our daughter isn’t able to play with other kids. We can see how badly she wants to interact with other kids if we take her to the park or see them out for a walk. How do you explain this to a 2 yr old? And what is that impact going to look like on kids at different ages moving forward??

But certainly blessed to be together as a family unit all the time!!

I know none of us can even begin to guess when professional theatre artists will be back to work. I’ve spoken with some who have said it might not be until 2022. Would you agree on this account? Have you ever though that you might have had to pivot and switch careers during this time?

I’m hoping for theatre to come back this fall… but time will tell.

As far as a pivot goes… I haven’t considered the type of pivot that would be everlasting. I still see myself in this business over the long haul. However – I have had to supplement with doing some construction work on the side. I’ve done lots of renovations over the years and this has merely made it a more regular part of weekly life.

I’m hoping to have our own house finished by late spring!! My wife has pivoted by creating a meal delivery company specifically targeting those looking for options on the Keto diet. Ketochickcreations.com. Website isn’t live yet but should be within a week or so.

How do you think your chosen career path and vocational calling will look once all of you return safely to the theatre? Do you feel confident that you can and will return safely?

Do I feel confident that I can and will return safely to my career? Yes. How will it look? Not sure entirely…. but I think on the other side of this there will be a collective longing embrace of the arts/theatre/live performance.

People are desperate for a sense of community right now, having felt so cut off from one another. It could be an exciting and ‘awakened’ time…. but there will also likely be some building back up through the rubble.

This time of the worldwide pandemic has shaken all of us to our very core and being. According to author Margaret Atwood, she believes that Canadians are survivors no matter what is thrown in their path. Could you share what has helped you survive this time of uncertainty?

In regard to Margaret Atwood’s comment…. I would imagine she has a much more worldly view as to how Canadians are different from others around the world than I have! I’ll take her word for it!

For myself personally… I would say family family family… the biological kind and the chosen kind. With so many forces pulling us apart (distancing etc)… the bonds of family and community are proving how strong and supportive they are, and can be.

Imagine in a perfect world that the professional theatre artist has been called back as it has been deemed safe for actors and audience members to return. The first show is complete and now you’re waiting backstage for your curtain call:

Describe how you believe you’re probably going to react at that curtain call.

JOY JOY JOY!!!!

I’m one of those actors who generally doesn’t enjoy a curtain call. I prefer to share the life of ‘the character’ with the audience. In that sense I share and help facilitate the communal experience of the story, whereas as a curtain call feels more like I’m presenting myself to the audience.

I had a director once say that the curtain call isn’t about you as an actor…. it’s about giving the audience the opportunity to show their appreciation for being a part of that communal experience I just mentioned. So, in that sense, the curtain call was about the audience and not me – that enabled me to be able to do curtain calls all these years without feeling awkward….

On the day we get back to theatre (and I strongly believe that I will be lucky enough to be back in ‘Come From Away’)…. the curtain call won’t be about the audience or me… it’ll be about all of us! And I’ll get to participate in that!!! For the first time ever … I can’t WAIT for the curtain call!!!!

There is a crowd of people waiting to see you and your castmates at the stage door to greet all of you. Tell me what’s the first thing you will probably say to the first audience member:

“Hi! Thanks for coming!” I’m tempted to insert a joke here such as “Yes I was in the show.” Or…”No I wasn’t in the band – you’re thinking of Jon Maharaj” but with ‘Come From Away’ I have been generally more recognized after the performance than previous shows I’ve done.

I think perhaps my personal energy just seems very different than what people see onstage. That first night back in the theatre I can see the stage door actually turning into a bit of a celebration – wouldn’t that be nice actually?!? We should make that happen…

When we all emerge from this pandemic, I would really like to have a glass of wine, beer or coffee with so many of the artists whom I’ve interviewed over the last several months. A good majority of the time I’m unable to place everything they’ve shared with me in this column because we sometimes veer off on different tangents if the subject warrants.

Although artist Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster and I chatted over email, you’ll see from her answers below she has whetted my appetite to find out more and I wish I could ask more. She and her husband are new parents, (congratulations and best wishes, by the way), plus she has also been able to continue in her work as Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon Theatre.

I’ve reviewed several of the terrific productions in which Courtney appeared: ‘Innocence Lost’, ‘Idomeneus’, ‘Spoon River’, ‘Of Human Bondage’, ‘The Crucible’ at Soulpepper.

She is a theatre maker from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and the current Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Courtney is also a founding member of The Howland Company. During Covid-19, she has directed radio play versions of Three Women of Swatow, 7 Stories, and upcoming productions of Shape of a Girl and Democracy (Expect Theatre for Tarragon Acoustic).

Her theatre direction includes The Wolves (Howland/Crows, Toronto Theatre Critics Best Ensemble 2018 and MyEntertainmentWorld Best Production 2018), Cannibal (Scrap Paper/Next Stage), 52 Pick-Up (Howland, Best of Fringe 2013), Gray (Inamorata) and Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon – delayed due to Covid-19).

Her acting credits include Cyrano de Bergerac and Man and Superman at the Shaw Festival, seven seasons with Soulpepper Theatre and credits with Public Recordings, Canadian Stage, Citadel Theatre, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, Cahoots Theatre, Native Earth, and Tarragon Theatre. She is a graduate of the UBC BFA Theatre program, the Banff Citadel Theatre Program and the Soulpepper Academy. Courtney has twice been named a ‘Top Ten Theatre Artist’ by NOW Magazine and is a grateful alumna of the Loran Award and a recipient of two Dora Awards for Best Ensemble.

Thank you for participating, Courtney:

It has been an exceptional and nearly eight long months since we’ve all been in isolation, and now it appears the numbers are edging upward again. How are you feeling about this? Will we ever emerge to some new way of living in your opinion?

People can get used to anything. It’s our worst trait.

Isn’t that terrifying?

Already, I’m used to endless zoom play readings. I’m almost starting to like it. I never have to put on real clothes.

In April, I was frantically washing my groceries. Now, the numbers are higher than ever, and yet I can’t seem to muster the same panic I felt in those early days, even as we hit numbers far beyond what we saw in the spring, and even as Toronto’s medical officer of health warns us to assume the virus is everywhere, right now.

I think back in August, September even, I was still in a mental state of emergency, but humans aren’t built to live like that. I’ve normalized this.

But I’m not sleeping well.

How have you been faring? How has your immediate family been doing during these last six months?

My family is mostly healthy, my family is safe, my family is not on the front lines of this pandemic. We are immensely privileged to have that kind of safety right now.

I was already prepared for 2020 to be a strange year: we had our first child in February. I went into parenthood with very little experience of children. I had changed one diaper, I had never babysat. I had never been ASKED to babysit, my aura of discomfort around children is so palpable! So 2020 already seemed like a gaping pit of unknown.

This reminds me of graduating from theatre school in 2008. All the business graduates around me were leaping into a depressed job market, a far cry from what they’d been promised. The theatre graduates were pretty sanguine in the face of limited opportunities and an uncertain future, we’d been preparing for that reality throughout our training. Artists are resilient.

I digress.

My husband is a musician, so much of his work performing and touring through the year was cancelled, but he has been able to access some of the government support and keep some work. I had taken on a learning position as Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon Theatre in the fall of 2019, and so I had a maternity leave which I wouldn’t otherwise have had access to as a freelance artist (hot tip, artist friends, if you’re expecting, try to accrue those 600 hours of employment somewhere). This fall, post mat leave, I returned to my position at Tarragon, but the company has given employees the option to work from home through the rest of the season, so that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s sometimes hard with the baby but mostly great.

So, while we’re anxious about the future, worried about our families, and a little sad that friends and family haven’t been able to share in this first year of our child’s life, we’re okay, more than okay. We’ve had much more concentrated family time than we would’ve had.

As an artist within the performing arts community, what has been the most difficult and challenging for you professionally and personally

I miss people. I miss the community of ‘hug-in-a-lobby’ theatre folks.

And there are big doubts, a career in the theatre, already so difficult, now seems even more daunting. Kristina Lemieux of Generator said in the Toronto Star “My advice for gig workers and artists is to expect that your ability to live off the gig economy in the arts will not return for seven to 10 years at best,”

This strikes me alternately as pessimistic and wise depending on the hour of the day.

Were you in preparation, rehearsals, or any planning stages of productions before everything was shut down? What has become of those projects? Will they see the light of day anytime soon?

In 2019, when I found out I was pregnant, I’d already signed on to direct the world premiere of Three Women of Swatow at Tarragon at the beginning of 2020. In a rather hubristic decision, I fudged my due date oh-just-a-wee-bit (both in my own mind and with my producers), consulted with many theatre parents who were wonderfully encouraging (but maybe a little wary about my timelines), enlisted my mother and husband’s support, and decided to go ahead with the job. Tarragon followed my lead and set up a sweet nursery for me (Richard Rose turned his office over to the cause, insisting the heat was better in there), I arranged shorter rehearsal days and longer breaks, and it was full steam ahead.

Despite best-laid plans, baby was late, quite late, and I started rehearsals 9 days after birth. Which I don’t exactly recommend to anyone. But we were very fortunate in all aspects – a healthy child who was a good eater and sleeper out of the gate, a fairly easy recovery for me, my husband and my mother game to hold down the fort, and a wonderful team of artists working on the show diligently and sometimes independently as I took extended breaks to nurse. I set out for work every day tired, but giddy because somehow, it was working out.

Of course, things started feeling wobbly that second week of March. The bottles of hand sanitizer appeared on every surface, hushed conversations between me and my SM bloomed into full cast dishes about what little information we had at that point. The producers checked in with me to ask if I had concerns about my safety or my baby’s safety, but I was much more concerned about my mother. By March 12th I knew enough to book her a flight home to Nova Scotia, and we put her on a plane the morning of March 14th, before I started my second day of tech. We got through teching the very last cue of the show right before lunch, and then my wonderful SM, who later told me he’d picked up the pace “because we were going to get to the end of the show, dammit”, took me aside and said we needed to go speak to the Managing Director.

And so we were shut down, “for a month”, and we all went to drink and drown our sorrows at the thought of having to delay our opening for a whole month which of course became six months, and then indefinitely. The set is still up, as far as I know. And until recently, I still felt quite stuck in the mourning of that show, and the baby-art shuffle which was the first six weeks of my child’s life.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time?

I’m working a lot, learning a lot. Many not-art type things, with a few pleasant art things thrown in like readings and workshops and radio plays. I’m parenting. I’m teaching, I’m questioning and planning with my colleagues at the Howland Company. Everything, save the parenting, happens on zoom. I’m agonizingly texting other new parents in the middle of the night. I’m very fortunate to not have to go out into the world much. I stare at screens a lot.

I’m examining a shift in my interests, and a gap in my training. I’ve been a freelance artist throughout my career, hustling for myself. Now, I feel that I haven’t done enough to strengthen my community. A new friend reminded me of this (https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1336891971503) project led by the late, great, Ker Wells, wherein he activated a whole community into a pageant around the River Clyde and the state of its waters. This moment calls out for that kind of community building, for neighbours and friends to check up on you, feed and fight and march with you, and know your humanity.

Any words of wisdom or advice you might /could give to fellow performers and colleagues? What message would you deliver to recent theatre school graduates who have now been set free into this unknown and uncertainty given the fact live theaters and studios might be closed for 1 ½ – 2 years?

Oof. I think the usual advice still applies – diversify your skillset. Do lots of things. Write, direct, design. Learn an instrument. Make videos, make virtual reality…stuff (and then teach me how), make plays. Going into the theatre was always going to be a hard row to hoe, but if you do lots of things, there are lots of ways in.

But honestly, the next few years are unknown to me too.

Also, honestly? I think about quitting all the time. ALL THE TIME. It’s an option, amongst many. When I was about 20, someone I looked up to quit the theatre to run a non-profit for youth, and I was so MAD about it. I was venting to another established artist who gently told me “Courtney, life is long” and I huffed and puffed and swore I’d never quit. The artist I admired was back a few years later, refreshed, refocused. But it would’ve been okay if they hadn’t returned, too.

Community theatre is theatre. School plays are theatre. Theatre as a hobby is no less valuable than theatre as a calling (this idea was anathema to me until embarrassingly recently). Theatre schools make great, smart, engaged, justice-seeking, art-loving PEOPLE, regardless of whether they stay in the industry. So, I would tell a new graduate, if you want to pursue other skills right now, that is not a failure. Life is long.

Do you see anything positive stemming from Covid 19?

Theatre people: can we really go back to a 6-day work week after this? I don’t think I can.

Do you think Covid 19 will have some lasting impact on the Toronto/Canadian/North American performing arts scene?

Smarter people than I have said and will say smarter things about this.

I think the zoom reading might be here to stay. In certain contexts, it’s wonderful to be able to read a play with artists from across the continent. Our artistic borders are more permeable than ever.

Though maybe we’ll need a zoom hiatus for a bit when this shit is over.

Some artists have turned to You Tube and online streaming to showcase their work. What are your comments and thoughts about streaming? Is this something that the actor/theatre may have to utilize going forward into the unknown?

I winge (wince and cringe) about this because it’s not the same and I don’t always or even often love it, and I’m confused about how to monetize it to adequately compensate artists in a country where the arts are chronically, majorly underfunded, but I recognize the doors that are being opened. The ACCESS is amazing, seeing things that would have been impossible due to geography, money, and other barriers.

Despite all this fraught tension and confusion, what is it about performing that Covid will never destroy for you?

We’ll get back to it. Tonight, as I write this at 4:37am (it’s not the baby keeping me awake, it’s anxiety and too much blue light from my screens) I miss the sweat. I miss the rented period costumes that can’t be washed, and only the alcohol-water spray to keep the odours at bay. I miss talkbacks even though I hate talkbacks. I miss nice lobbies and shitty greenrooms. I miss making weird eye contact with audience members at the bathroom sinks after the show. I miss the shiver of a scene going well. I miss whining about everything, the inadequate heating backstage, the injustice of matinees, the wigs, the shoes, the cellphone in the audience, the paycheques, the reviews. I swear when we get back to it, I won’t whine for at least a week.

Oh, I can’t wait to get back to it.

The first time I saw Craig Francis’ name was in the programme for performing artist Rick Miller’s productions of ‘Boom’ in Montreal and ‘Jungle Book’ at Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre. I was pleased to learn as well that Craig was also following reviews from On Stage and the ‘Self-Isolated Artist’ series.
Craig (he/him) is a writer, director, illustrator, and multidisciplinary creator. As a founding member of The 20K Collective, Craig co-created with Rick Miller the productions ‘Jungle Book’, ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea’, and ‘Game of Clones’, and he is adapting ‘Frankenstein’ with Rick Miller and Paul Van Dyck. He’s a producer, dramaturg, and Stage Manager for Miller’s solo works: the BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ trilogy (Kidoons/WYRD/Theatre Calgary).

He performs improv comedy, and theatre credits include ‘The Refugee Hotel’ (Teesri Duniya). Craig’s animated digital shorts for the Kidoons Network and Not-for-Profit Organizations are seen by millions of viewers and are installed in museums in four Provinces. Craig lives in Montréal, has illustrated several books, and voiced games and animated series.

How have you been keeping during this artist isolation period with no clear end in sight for the performer?

I just hit 120 days isolation! That’s a lot. Overall, though, I feel grateful and enormously fortunate. I had surgery for cancer in my leg in December and was pronounced all-clear before the pandemic hit, so I really feel for the people in the throes of other illnesses or suspended treatments during this time. The first shows I came back to in February 2020 were our Kidoons productions of Rick Miller’s BOOM Off-Broadway, and Jungle Book at Young People’s Theatre, which both had excellent theatres and audiences, and were well-received (including by yourself – thanks!).

What has been most challenging and difficult for you during this time? What have you all been doing to keep yourselves busy?

The most challenging thing has been moving my creative effort into new projects, and then finding their development also postponed. We had even cast our next project for rehearsal. I feel like I’ve gone through the Kübler-Ross “Five Stages Of Grief”… sometimes all in one day! There was the suspension of our Jungle Book run, then the remainder of the season, then the fall season for our 4 touring productions…. now we’re looking at a solid year dark. Sometimes 2020 feels like a dream where you’re standing on the side of a mountain and seeing a snowball rolling towards you, and it’s getting larger and larger, in slow motion. But it’s not snow, it’s shit. And the mountain is also made of shit.

The silver lining is getting to be off the road and back in Montreal with my husband, for the longest stretch in years. As well, all my biological family is in BC, and ironically, I’ve been seeing them more than ever before, as everyone learned video calling. I also recently upped my training with a terrific GhostLight directing class with Jillian Keiley. I will be creating the design of our third family production Frankenstein as a graphic novel. Most of my work is optimistically forward-looking, but some is deliberate distraction.

Yet somehow RuPaul managed to foresee that need for distraction, and give us three overlapping series of Drag Race.

Craig, I remember Rick saying one of the hardest things he had to do was to let the actors know from the touring company of ‘The Jungle Book’ that the production tour has been cancelled. In your estimation and opinion, do you foresee COVID 19 and its results leaving a lasting impact on the Canadian performing arts and theatre scene?

That was a bad moment; and we had to do it a second time for a different show, also cancelled.

“Decimated” is not too strong a word, as one in ten artists or companies may not come back from this. It’s not just us creators and performers who’re suspended, but also the designers and technicians and crew who would work on the runs and tours. Further, given that programming happens 16 or months out or more, when our industry reopens, AD’s will have to choose whether to run previously suspended shows or create new ones, but either way half the artists who might have expected to be in that season, won’t be.

Beyond that, how performers perform intimacy may well change; I think we’ve all had that pandemic experience of watching a TV show where someone is touching someone else’s face and you scream at the screen “DON’T TOUCH THAT PERSON! Oh, for the love of God, now DON’T TOUCH YOUR OWN FACE!”
We may well see a glut of COVID-isolation pieces and political tragedies, so I think my next script will be something maximalist, fun, and stupid. Meantime, online I’ll be pursuing our video collaborations with Not-for-Profit Organizations, to help them tell their stories online.

Do you have any words of wisdom to console or to build hope and faith in those performing artists who have been hit hard as a result of COVID 19? Any words of sage advice to the new graduates from Canada’s theatre schools regarding this fraught time of confusion?

I would say it’s a good time to practice self-care that is too often overlooked in the rush of this art form; to reconnect with the people who really matter, and to find your people.

I recently looked out an old quote by Armistead Maupin that I love, about chosen family: “Sooner or later, though, no matter where in the world we live, we must join the diaspora, venturing beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us.”

Do you foresee anything positive stemming from COVID 19 and its influence on the Canadian performing arts scene?

I do. The conversations I’ve been listening to in support of Back Lives Matter, and The Indigenous Circle, and the Queer community, might not previously have the opportunity to bloom, because under normal circumstances someone would go, “We don’t have time to think about this, we have to get a show up and open!” Now, everyone has time to think. From better social justice to better backstage hygiene, we may come out of this with some new best practices.

YouTube presentations, online streaming seems to be part of a ‘new normal’ at this time for artists to showcase their work. Nevertheless, I’ve spoken with some individuals who believe that online streaming or YouTube presentations destroy the impact of the moment of a group of people who have gathered with anticipation in one sitting to watch a particular production.

What are your thoughts and comments about the advantages and/or values of online streaming? Do you foresee this as part of the ‘new normal’ for Canadian theatre as we move forward from COVID 19?

With Kidoons productions, Rick Miller, and Irina Litvinenko, I already create digital shorts that help Not-for-Profit organizations deliver narrative content. That is not theatre, but it’s creative storytelling that’s very fulfilling to me, and also lets me pursue my visual art.

Thanks to the covid-response streaming of theatre, my family in the UK has been able to see our “Jungle Book” and “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea” productions on Broadway On Demand, and I have also watched pieces that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access. Of course, the best of these were filmed for cinemas, and so aren’t really theatre. Filming in front of a live audience helps, but there’s a shared energy in the room that can’t be duplicated.

Some theatre-makers have possibly been naïve, going “We’re going to figure out how performance could work on social media!” as if there weren’t an established ecosystem of performers doing that already. But one piece that I have enjoyed is using social to complement the production as outreach and behind-the-scenes process, generating interest in the art of theatre itself. I hope that continues.

I have participated in a few readings on Zoom, and as a playwright I hope this will remain as a viable, non-public way to hear text delivered by terrific actors, for accessible work-in-progress performances and feedback.

As far as “real live theatre” goes, I am optimistic people that will want to buy tickets and return as soon as possible.

What is it about the performing arts that COVID will never destroy?

The delight of a performer and audience in a room all suspending their disbelief at the same time, to create a shared reality.

With a respectful acknowledgement to ‘Inside the Actors’ Studio’ and the late James Lipton, here are ten questions he used to ask his guests:

1. What is your favourite word?

Kerfuffle

2. What is your least favourite word?

deadline

3. What turns you on?

A well-turned phrase well delivered. Failing that, Henry Cavill.

4. What turns you off?

Using “gifted” as a verb; what did the word “gave” ever do to you?

5. What sound or noise do you love?

Wind in leaves.

6. What sound or noise bothers you?

The squeak of Styrofoam® packaging makes every hair on my body stand on end.

7. What is your favourite curse word?

Fuckface

What is your least favourite curse word?

Homophobic slurs, anything demeaning because of gender or sexuality. Stick with fuckface. Or maybe asshole, everybody’s got one.

8. Other than your current profession now, what other profession would you have liked to attempt?

Muppeteer.

9. What profession could you not see yourself doing?

Anything involving driving, I let my license expire because I’m really… not great.

10. If Heaven exists, what do you hope God will say to you as you approach the Pearly Gates?

“Your friends are waiting for you downstairs.”

To learn more about Kidoons, visit: www.kidoons.com.

When I was teaching full time, Friday nights were always my time to unwind after a busy week at school. I looked forward to ‘The Royal Canadian Air Farce’ each week as I loved their lampooning of current events. It was the year that I was on recovery cancer sick leave from work that I really took an interest in ‘Air Farce’ and watched carefully many of the routines of the performers.

I admired Indigenous artist Craig Lauzon’s work on the show, especially in his impersonations of Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper. When I was preparing to review ‘Orlando’ at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre, I saw that Craig was to appear in the production and was most looking forward to seeing it for many reasons. Craig’s appearance was another reason I didn’t want to miss ‘Orlando’.

Craig and I spoke with each other over Zoom.

First, I must say that he is one helluva decent, down to earth guy and I really enjoyed our conversation.

Second, I was also pleased he gently corrected me (and also ribbed me) that I knew him from comedy and then discovered he was an artist with his work in Soulpepper. Craig corrected me by saying that comedy is a form of art, which it truly is, so thank you for that gentle correction and reminder, Craig.

To perform comedy takes a skilled artist as there is a beginning, a middle and a conclusion. Craig has had no formal training but has performed in The Second City Touring Company, taken a weekend workshop in 1992 with Sears & Switzer, and learns from some of the best in the business as you will see in his answers below:

It has been four-five months since we’ve all been in isolation. How have you been faring? How has your immediate family been doing during this time?

Well I’ll tell you, I grew a beard (and he has, by the way. Keep the beard, Craig). The first 7 weeks of isolation, I didn’t leave my apartment. I have asthma. Even though advice and information kept changing, word from the experts was if you have asthma you might be more susceptible to the virus. I have a balcony, thank goodness. I was going a bit stir crazy to be honest.

My wife and I decided to rent cars and start going on day trips and drive out somewhere, sometimes to Tweed, somewhere that had a brewery with curb side pick up. We’d buy some beer from a place that we’d never been, drive back, have a couple of beers and discuss the benefits of having a brewery in Perth.

My wife has been handling all of this a little bit better than myself. We both would go to the gym quite a bit, especially her, but when that all went away, I could not get into working out in the apartment. I couldn’t do it. My wife is a voice artist as well, so she had more auditions in the first chunk than she had in awhile which was interesting.

I’ve got the Covid 19, but all in my stomach. (Me too, Craig). My wife has been a blessing for me especially in those first seven weeks where I wasn’t going out. She would go out and do the groceries on her own, pretty much all the stuff on her own. She was my cave canary. I sent her out, she came back, and everything was good.

As a performer, what has been the most difficult and challenging for you professionally and personally?

I love acting, I love being in front of an audience, and I love feeling that reaction from the audience when you’ve got them right there in the palm of your hand. I ran into Nina Lee Aquino when I was getting a coffee the other day. She directed me in ‘The Drawer Boy’ at Passe Muraille where I played Angus. Even though there were some small houses, but at every performance, I could just feel the energy from the audience and they really connected with Angus. It’s that connection with people.

That connection is not the same through the computer screen. When people talk about how people are a little more are brave online, I think that translates into this as well. There’s a bit of a disconnect as you might say or do something that you wouldn’t normally do because people are not right there.

Early on I tried to do a series of monologues from Indigenous playwrights and put them on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. It’s not the same. I just love being in front of people and performing. That was tough. So, the professional challenge is keeping the chops up during this time.

Were you in preparation, rehearsals, or any planning stages of productions before everything was shut down? What has become of those projects? Will they see the light of day anytime soon?

I had some film and television stuff and some theatre things on the go. I was just about to go into rehearsals for another Video Cab show. We were going to do the Cold War and it hadn’t been done since its original presentation. Michael would be directing with Mac Fyfe as Assistant Director, so I was going to play Diefenbaker.

I know you’ve written a profile of Jani Lauzon. We’ve been in talks to doing ‘Where the Blood Mixes’ at Soulpepper. It might still happen, but I don’t know how much in advance they were planning. It would have been fun.

I would love to hope ‘Where the Blood Mixes’ especially with Weyni Mengesha (Artistic Director) at the helm. She’s looking to have strong pieces from playwrights of colour and with Jani directing is a real bonus for it to go ahead. She was on fire just before all of this happened and was directing all these hits before Covid hit.

It’s exciting and I hope ‘Where the Blood Mixes’ finds a place when Soulpepper gets back up and running.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time?

Well, I’m a dad. I have two boys. I share custody with their mom who was living in Barrie and now living in Thornhill so that’s been a bit easier. So, Parenting. And my wife’s family has a beautiful cottage in the Ottawa area, so we’ve gone there a couple of times. I’ve been watching a lot of Australian Rules football, rugby league we’ve a team here in Toronto. And spending time with my wife who is just starting back to work. She works in production so she’s going to start getting busy again. For the last 4-5 months we’ve spent every minute of the day together. It’s been great.

Any words of wisdom or advice you might /could give to fellow performers and colleagues? What message would you deliver to recent theatre school graduates who have now been set free into this unknown and uncertainty given the fact live theaters and studios might be closed for 1 ½ – 2 years?

Just hang in there. This is just now. Tomorrow is something different. It eventually will get back to some sense of normalcy. People keep talking about a new normal, but I don’t know what normal really is, but we’ll get back to a routine of being able to do what we do. And if you’re in my category, just give up and go into Accounting or whatever just so I can get all the gigs. And I’ve been writing. Eric Wolf and I are working on something, but I can’t share with you yet what we’ve been writing.

I’ve been thinking about two things here. Theatre, sometimes, is like church. If people are allowed to return to church, why can’t they return to certain sized theatre? It’s ironic for me to be giving advice to the theatre school graduates since I don’t have the training they have. For what it’s worth from a practical view – find a way to keep training. It’s what I would say to someone regardless. Just because you’ve finished theatre school doesn’t mean you know everything about acting. Keep reading those plays you’ve never had a chance to read. Rehearse monologues and scenes – keep flexing those muscles. Read and memorize as the first thing to go is memory. Keep your brain active – read and memorize.

My training has been practical in soaking things up everywhere and every opportunity I have from working with different people like Jani Lauzon, Lorne Cardinal and Nina Lee Aquino and learning from them as my teachers.

Do you see anything positive stemming from Covid 19?

Maybe not so much in what we’re doing in terms of career wise or in theatre. As a whole, people, planet, it has made people to quote Ringo Starr – “To stop and smell the roses.”

There was a collision course coming with our planet and what we’ve been doing to her. It’s slowed consumerism, packaging. To help ease in transition of cooking, my wife and I ordered from some of those ‘to your door’ meal prep services. It sounds great, but with all the packaging from the box to the plastic packaging, we stopped ordering because that’s defeating the purpose.

It’s slowing people down and making people take stock which is always a good thing.

Do you think Covid 19 will have some lasting impact on the Canadian/North American performing arts scene?

Some theatres might say, ‘We’ll play to a half house”, but I don’t know. Some places that normally jammed how many people aren’t going to be able to do that for the foreseeable future. Even when the Spanish flu hit, it’s amazing how far we haven’t come. The big task then was for people to wear masks. People wore masks for two years. Are we ahead of that? Maybe not depending on how strenuous the strain is. This is Covid 19 and there could be Covid 22. They could be coming in more frequently.

The worst thing for this planet is people. For so long people were pushing the planet to the brink. And now she has started to push back and say, “No”. Mother Earth is like ‘Hey, man. Slow down, bro.”

Some artists have turned to YouTube and online streaming to showcase their work. What are your comments and thoughts about streaming? Is this something that the actor/theatre may have to utilize going forward into the unknown?

Well, I’ve watched some and I’ve done some. For me, it’s not any kind of replacement for live theatre. If we’re doing that, then everyone should just move into television because essentially that’s what it is. I get it that people are looking at it as an opportunity to showcase themselves because people are looking for things to watch.

But I worry there’s that thing for Canadian artists and musicians that it’s great for the exposure, but if it’s going to be this way then there has to be something in place for the artist to monetize it. Right now, it’s being pumped out for free as free content and we keep talking with our unions about this to ensure artists are properly and appropriately paid.

Not to sound capitalist, but how can we be assured the artist will be paid appropriately for that online streaming/work because we have our bills to pay, families to feed, and we have to live just like everyone else. CERB ain’t gonna last forever.

Despite all this fraught tension and confusion, what is it about performing that Covid will never destroy for you?

It’s the desire, there’s a desire to have it, there’s a desire to do it. Theatre has been around the longest. Before cave painting people were re-enacting stuff out. Maybe they were both born from some kind of performative acting/dance. Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment, not the second oldest. (with a quiet laugh).

There’s a DNA deep desire for it, to want it, and to see it. And for some of us ridiculous folks, to do it. ‘Cause who wants to stand in front of people and do it? It’s ridiculous and yet we do.

As a respectful acknowledgment to ‘Inside the Actors’ Studio’ and the late James Lipton here are the ten questions he used to ask his guests:

What is your favourite word?

Dad. When I hear my boys call me, “Dad”, I love hearing them call me that all the time. I love being their dad. I get choked up even talking about it.

What is your least favourite word?

Ironically, it’s “Dad” because I didn’t have a great relationship with my father, so growing up that word was full of disdain for me. And “No” is also my least favourite knee-jerk word. So “Dad” and “No” are my two least favourite words.

What turns you on?

Time spent with loved ones. I’m loving this extra time spent with my wife and my kids.

What turns you off?

Prejudice and all that goes with it – negative vibes, racism, that sense of superiority that some people have over other people.

What sound or noise do you love?

Laughter, especially baby’s laughter.

What sound or noise bothers you?

Construction, it’s just nonstop right now.

What’s your favourite curse word? What is your least favourite curse word?

My favourite word because I can only use it sparingly is cunt. My mother’s British. There’s a lot of European people around my family so it doesn’t have the same connotation as it does over here. ‘Cunt’ has the most shock value.

The least favourite curse word: Fag or faggot when it’s used as a putdown.

Other than your own, what other career profession could you see yourself doing?

I’d love to be a chef. I love cooking.

What career choice could you not see yourself doing?

I have the utmost respect for the military and police, but I couldn’t see myself doing it

If Heaven exists, what do you hope God will say to you as you approach the Pearly Gates?

“They’re waiting for you. All your ancestors are there.”

Twitter: @TheCraigLauzon Instagram: craiglauzon

Let’s count ourselves lucky, Canada, that we have an eloquent and articulate Cynthia Dale who opened her compassionate heart and soul to me in our conversation about how she has been faring during this worldwide pandemic.

I remember watching her work on CBC’s ‘Street Legal’ during my undergraduate years, but I had no idea how diverse her stage performance resume was until I reviewed it myself. At the Stratford Festival, I saw her work in a poignant ‘Miracle Worker’ where Cynthia played the tenaciously resolved Annie Sullivan.

Ms. Dale was also touching in her portrayal of Maria Rainer in ‘The Sound of Music’. Most recently, I saw her work in an astonishing production of ‘Fun Home’ through the Mirvish series where I freely admitted that I wiped tears from my eyes at the end.

Cynthia and I conducted our conversation via Zoom. Thank you so much, Cynthia, for this opportunity and I hope to speak to you in person soon:

It has been an exceptionally long five months since we’ve all been in isolation, and now it appears we are slowly emerging to some new way of living. How have you been faring? How has your immediate family been doing during this time?

Actually, I don’t feel like we’re emerging at all. I beg to disagree on that. The numbers are horrendous in Ontario today (and Cynthia is correct on this account as the number have been rising the last few days). I feel like on pain of death people will feel like we’re emerging.

It’s been an interesting time. I have a low-level rung of anxiety all the time. It’s like a low-grade fever that’s there all the time because I think it’s just there in the world. There’s no doubt that in the beginning there was an overwhelming amount of sadness and fear, and I don’t have the same amount of that anxiety, fear and sadness as I had. I still have incredible caution.

I’m also not a fan of the term ‘new normal’. I don’t know what that means. We will never go back to the way life was, I don’t think. It will just be different. As far as the industry I’m in, I understand there are film and tv productions and things getting back and filming, but under such incredible circumstances. Theatre has not gone back and cannot go back, and it will be so long before that can happen, and this makes me incredibly sad.

The term ‘new normal’ is a sugar coating and fake. If this has taught us anything, it’s to be incredibly honest in every single situation with every single person at every moment because there’s no time left. For years, we’ve heard use the good china, burn the good candles…people, what are you waiting for? Do it now, honey, c’mon, enough already.

As a performer, what has been the most difficult and challenging for you professionally and personally?

Well, I guess they sort of bleed together because the most challenging thing for me was to sing again, in fact. I couldn’t sing. I lost my voice. My heart, I couldn’t sing. I was too sad. I was too in fear. I locked it all down and I didn’t sing for five, six months. I had no real desire to do it.

I don’t sing just for the sake of singing as there’s a goal in mind. I didn’t have a thing I was working towards because ‘towards’ was just a big question mark. Koerner Hall wasn’t going to happen so I didn’t have to work on those. And so, personally it was just all I could do to open my eyes every morning, thank God for the day, thank God for my health and go from there. That was it. It was a matter of putting one foot in front of the other, and all I could plan was what was for dinner, that’s all. That’s the only plan that could happen for thousands, millions of people. We couldn’t plan anything else.

It was just a matter of taking care of yourself, taking care of your family, and just getting through. That morphs and changes and you plant flowers, you help move your son into his own apartment and all those things, and life goes on.

And I started to sing again, thank God, in August. But it was an interesting process. People would send notes on Twitter, other singers would comment and say, “I tried to sing today and all I could do was sob.” And that’s what was happening. I sobbed every day for four months, like everybody in the world. People just cried, a lot. And it wasn’t about feeling sorry for myself, it was just a matter of this is all really hard what’s going on in the world.

And if you are at all an empath and feel what’s going on in the world, you are aware of it. I knew everybody was having the same problem I was having. So many other singers and people were having the same problem, so I didn’t feel weird or awed. I actually felt there was a great group of us around the globe feeling like this or that. And slowly, slowly, slowly, I listened to my body, I listened to my spirit, l listened to my heart, and I knew I would sing again at some point, but I didn’t push it. I didn’t have to because there was no gig coming up.

And when the possibility of something coming up, I started to sing again.

I wasn’t different from so many performers, really. I have friends who are on Broadway, friends who are in shows in Toronto, and they literally walked out of their dressing room one night, and their stuff is still sitting in their dressing room. It’s like everything is frozen in so many areas of the world. People who left their offices back in March, their desks are still exactly as they were, the coffee mug, the pictures of the family, the ‘to do’ pile. People didn’t know how long this was going to last or that this was going to happen.

I wasn’t different from everybody else. Everybody is still feeling this and I’m not ashamed to say it’s been really hard. The richness of my garden and family and cooking, (and thank God I love to cook), all of that, my goodness what would we do without it?

Were you in preparation, rehearsals, or any planning stages of productions before everything was shut down? What has become of those projects? Will they see the light of day anytime soon?

I wasn’t actually filming or rehearsing anything, but I was supposed to be doing a production of ‘Follies’ this fall in October at Koerner Hall, a concert version. That was in the world, in my psyche and in my body in thinking about it, rehearse, learn the music. That inevitably got stopped.

I had a few other music concerts and gigs to sing at but other than that, no.

What have you been doing to keep yourself busy during this time?

I walk a lot but Peter (Mansbridge, retired newscaster from CBC) and I don’t walk together. We walk in our own spaces, listen to our own audio books. I paint, I love to paint and that for sure got me through the first eight weeks. I painted a lot.

I’ve always been a big reader. I read a lot. Binge watcher of TV and goodness knows I’ve watched a lot more now than I have before.

We all sort of do what we do, to keep busy, happy and fulfilled. I’m loving singing right now and that’s a good thing. The singing is just for me right now.

It’s a funny time, isn’t it?

Any words of wisdom or advice you might /could give to fellow performers and colleagues? What message would you deliver to recent theatre school graduates who have now been set free into this unknown and uncertainty given the fact live theaters and studios might be closed for 1 ½ – 2 years?
Even before all this whenever I’ve mentored, taught, lectured, I’ve always said to theatre students, “Get a Business Degree”. You are a business! You are a business and you’re going to have to know how to pay your agent, pay your taxes, maybe start a theatre company, pay a publicist. Do all those things and you need to have that ability.

It’s great you can do a triple time step, that’s wonderful; it’s great that you can sing a high C and know five Shakespeare monologues, but you also need to know the nuts and bolts, and that has absolutely nothing to do with you may want to do something else in life, or you should have a back up plan. I don’t believe that it’s not about that, at all.

You, yourself, are the backup plan, and so you need to fill up yourself with knowledge and with stuff that gives you opportunities because you may turn 40 and get sick and tired of having $350 in the bank which is what a lot of actors and performers have. You don’t go into this industry for money. If you’re lucky and click on TV or film, you might make some money, but you need to know more.

And so, I would say to anyone even before Covid and the pandemic. Now, I say it even more. I have friends who are the leading players in some of the top shows in the city who are working now at the liquor store. They have to pay the bills. These people were making top dollar in the theatre, one of the most coveted jobs in the theatre scene, and they have to do something else now.

There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a noble thing to pay your bills. You need to be able to diversify.
In our parents’ generation, they did one thing – teachers, plumbers, accountants. They did one thing, hit retirement and that was it. Now, young people do this, and they do that. It’s not an either or. They can be incredible photographers and have a great career and take 8X10 photographs for headshots, and they’re kick ass dancers and singers and work all the time at the Stratford Festival. People do lots of things – they have a web design company during the day and work at night on Broadway. Younger people do more things and different careers. They don’t do one career for 30 years anymore like our parents did. It’s a different thing.

If you’re 21 and coming out of theatre school, I might say, “You may not want to do this in twenty years time, or ten years. You may, as it’s a calling and there’s no doubt about it, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to stop any passion you have for something else. It doesn’t lessen your ability to be an actor or a singer or a dancer. It enhances it. It fills you up more.”

I guess that’s what I would say.

Do you see anything positive stemming from this pandemic?

(with a slight laugh) Yes, sometimes, the question is, ‘Does it outweigh the negatives in my mind?’
Staycations instead of travelling. Lots of things, but the question to me is does it outweigh. I’m not a negative, downer type of person so I can’t live in the place of it’s all that. I have to believe the good that will come out of this will outweigh the bad. It’s really hard to think of that though with all of the people who have died, all the people who have lost someone.

It’s really hard to believe that the good could ever outweigh it. I’m a keener, a Pollyanna, but it’s really hard to believe in the face of the sadness.

Do you think Covid 19 will have some lasting impact on the Canadian/North American performing arts scene?

Devastating. Absolutely devastating. I can’t imagine how some of these larger theatres are going to continue.

Just North America alone…Think of the touring companies. How do you do that? How do you entice people back? I don’t see how you entice people back into a theatre until there’s a vaccine, and a safe vaccine at that.

I can’t imagine people wanting to sit beside someone. It’s one thing to get on an airplane and sit beside someone to travel across the pond. Yes, it’s longer than a two- or three-hour theatre show. I don’t want to sit in the theatre and wear a hazmat suit. I don’t want to sit in a theatre and think my two or three hours of potential enjoyment are at the cost of potentially getting sick or getting someone else sick. It’s the opposite of the enjoyment and the magic of theatre.

I don’t want to sing in fear. I can’t sing in fear. I can’t sing afraid. And singing is one of the worst things for transmitting it, right? And so, I don’t want to sing or be in an environment where someone could get sick or I could get sick or bring it home to my loved ones.

I think it’s going to be a long time. I think there will be shows that were up and running that won’t be running again be that in Toronto or definitely on Broadway. It’s almost a given in the West End. Just this week Andrew Lloyd Webber came out again and said some of his shows just won’t come back that were playing.

It’s going to be years and years before recovery.

I think of those school touring programs. They seem so small but they’re so important. How do you get them back? For some kids, that’s their first inkling of theatre. That spark, when they lie their head on their pillow and think, “My God, something changed in me today.” Or they sit at the dining room table over dinner and tell their parents, “Please, I want to take a dance class, or I want to learn to play the saxophone.” This ripple effect has stopped-there will be none of that.

My dearest friend is a Grade 8 teacher and all those extra things like band practices, choir, stuff related to the arts has just stopped. Those kinds of things are truly heartbreaking to me. That’s a black hole that’s going to be felt for so long, the missed opportunity of inspiring a kid to be in the arts. That’s gonna happen and we won’t feel it for 10 or 15 years. That breaks my heart.

I always felt the most important time at The Stratford Festival was the fall season when all the school groups arrived to watch a play. This is the audience of tomorrow. These are the ones who will keep coming to Stratford and keep the Stratford Festival alive when I’m long gone. They’ll be here, they’ll be bringing their kids here. Those audiences, those shows, gone. That breaks my heart.

Some artists have turned to You Tube and online streaming to showcase their work. What are your comments and thoughts about streaming? Is this something that the actor/theatre may have to utilize going forward into the unknown?

No, it’s not really my thing. In the beginning, the first six, eight weeks, I co-hosted a show with Tom Jackson called ‘Almighty Voices’ that was singers. Tom kept asking me to sing, and I said, “Tom, I can’t sing but I’ll co-host with you.”

Once, in honour of someone who had passed, a group of us sang ‘Amazing Grace’. But other than that, it’s not my thing. I don’t play an instrument. I can’t accompany myself. It’s too hard figuring out how to link me with the orchestra in Edmonton which were all options.

I’ve watched some live stream shows. I don’t count watching ‘Hamilton’ when it played. It wasn’t a live streamed show, it was a filmed version and I could watch that every single day for the rest of my life.
It’s not my favourite way to watch. It’s a different thing. It’s not theatre.

There’s nothing wrong with watching television or going to the cinema, but it’s not theatre.

(Cynthia then links her fingers together) Theatre is here (left fingers), the audience is here (right fingers) and the magic is in between the two. It’s what happens right there. It’s in the ether. It’s ‘that’ thing called ‘it’, and ‘it’ doesn’t come across on film or in television. It’s a different thing and thank God it is. You can’t describe it.

Despite all this fraught tension and confusion, what is it about performing that Covid will never destroy for you?

(pause) You’re going to make me cry…(pauses)…

It’s a funny thing, I turned 60 this year and I don’t have the same ambition as I’ve had for the last 45 years of my life. And I’m aware of that in my body. It’s changed, it’s morphed.

I don’t feel like I’m done yet, but I don’t feel like “It’s the be all or end all” or “I have to be performing.”
Believe me, I’ve asked myself this question many times as I sit up here in my little office. This is where I sing. I check in – what is it…it’s not about the vocal cords because singing for me is so much more than the vocal cords. Where is it in my body that I still love to perform or still feel like I want to?

I did a show called ‘Fun Home’ in Toronto (side note: I saw it and cried at the end). I found it interesting at that point in my life I was more nervous (almost sick) for the opening night of ‘Fun Home’ than I was the ten years of opening nights at the Stratford Festival. It didn’t matter.

I found it interesting and I think about it and why was it that particular opening night of ‘Fun Home’. That show cost a lot to do and to live, and all of us paid for it every night but happily to pay it.

I’m prepared to pay it still. I don’t have to pay it as often as I used to do. It’s not because I don’t want to as I’m still prepared to do that and give that. Thank God, that’s come to me because there aren’t a lot of parts for 60-year-old broads, that many that you really, really want to do. And so, if I was in a corner, crying because I wasn’t working that’s different but I’m not. I’m fine with it.

I just now know when I sing now there’s something that vibrates that still feels good. It’s like taking my B12s in the morning, another vitamin in my body, another something which still reminds me, “I’m not finished yet.”

We’re in the process of building a house in Scotland and I may be spending a lot of time over there in my life. If I’m desperate to sing, I’ll go sing in a pub, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll go sing in the Highlands somewhere because that vibration is something that I still need.

To learn more about Cynthia Dale, visit her website: www.cynthiadale.com.

Once again, Cyrus and I shared some good laughter during our 45-minute conversation. He was candid, frank and honest with me (and yes, we sometimes did dive into some ‘colourful’ language during our conversation.)

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I did see his work last year in ‘Oil’ at ARC Theatre, thankfully before the pandemic shut down all productions worldwide. Some of Cyrus’s credits include: ‘Bunny’ at the Tarragon. Scrooge in Ross Petty’s A Christmas Carol: The Family Musical with a Scrooge Loose at the Elgin Theatre. Selected shows from his 6 seasons at the Stratford Festival include The Changeling, Macbeth, As You Like It, Bunny (original production), The Taming of the Shrew, Possible Worlds, Cymbeline, Peter Pan, Titus Andronicus, Richard III and Wanderlust.

Happy moving between musicals and dramas, some favourite credits are Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper – Dora Award, Ensemble), Kiss of the Spider Woman (Talk is Free), Passion Play (Convergence/Outside the March/Sheep No Wool – Dora Award, Ensemble), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (YPT), The Tin Drum (UnSpun Theatre) and An Inconvenient Musical (Factory). After two seasons at the Shaw Festival, Cyrus acted in several shows for Canadian Stage including Rock N Roll, Habeas Corpus, and Take Me Out.

TV credits include Reign, The Border, The Summit, Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, and on the Murdoch Mysteries playing Roger Newsome, and now that Roger is dead, his identical twin brother, Rupert.

Cyrus trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He is married to comedian, podcast, and television writer, Joanne O’Sullivan. They have an 11-year-old daughter, Eliza.

We conducted our conversation via Zoom. Thanks again for your time, Cyrus:

It’s a harsh reality that the worldwide pandemic of Covid 19 has changed all of us. Describe how your understanding of the world you know and how your perception and experience have changed on a personal level.

(Cyrus laughs)…that’s like three massive questions you’ve asked…

Man, oh man, way to cut out the small talk, Joe…(he laughs again) I don’t want to give a glib answer because this is a big question…I think, for me, it’s just a hugely increased sense of precariousness and uncertainty. It’s been a period of great reflection and time to think and time to reconsider everything from relationships to politics to professional practice.

And now, in the spring of 2021, I wish I could say I had some calm, gathered insight but what I have is complete uncertainty about what the future will bring for my family and myself, specifically and especially for my kid. There’s a lot of fear, not just in me but in the majority of my colleagues I speak to. There’s a real sense of ‘What’s next?’

It’s not a hopeless feeling. There have been so many things in our profession, especially in the last year, that have been so meaningful and important. Most significantly, we’ve had time as a profession to question the racism and colonial roots of theatre in Canada, and the very nature and structure of power in our profession.

All of that is vital and exciting and important, but I wonder about the world those changes will be enacted in.

(Cyrus laughs again) That’s maybe a bit of a joyless answer but, to be honest, that’s kind of where I’m at now, where my wife is at and where many, many, many, many, many of my colleagues are at. It’s just a sense of ‘Geez, what are we gonna do?”

This pandemic will affect the kids in ways that I think are difficult to measure. I think of my daughter, Eliza. She’s in Grade 5 now. It can’t possibly be healthy for them to be sitting in front of a screen for eight hours a day. And who knows, kids are incredibly resilient, and I’ll know she’ll be back in her groups of friends soon for socializing, but it’s a habit forming thing, this time with a screen.

And kids today live with so much fear. Set aside they’re living through a pandemic, all the children my kid’s age are aware of the impending climate catastrophe which, at this point, is not if but when.

God, Joe, it appears all I’m saying is gloomy shit…it’s not a very encouraging time to be a parent and there’s not a lot of faith in our elected officials the majority of time that they will effect positive change that will last and be meaningful for their generation.

I’ve become much more politicized. I was protest oriented and political before all this stuff started. And this pandemic has only made me more so, on her behalf and people younger than me.

With live indoor theatre shut for one year plus, with it appearing it may not re-open any time soon, how has your understanding and perception as a professional artist of the live theatre industry been altered and changed?

Well, you know within the shutdown there’s been a great questioning for our profession. As someone who represents the dominant culture, I’ve done a lot of questioning about my own role in how things are.

Professionally, I’ve questioned a lot about what my role is now, and what I ought to be thinking about and doing has all been questioned. There’s not a lot of intellectual or emotional stability to be found in terms of ‘This is what I like’ or ‘This is what I want to do’ or ‘Here’s what I’m going to aim for”. I don’t know any of that anymore.

And I don’t necessarily think that’s an unhealthy thing. It’s just a precarious thing. My main feeling is ‘Can I actually call this a profession?’ When I think ‘profession’, I think of something that sustains you and while my love for it is unabated, I really question how many people the theatre is going to be able to sustain when it comes back because a theatre can’t run off a 20% Covid spaced house.

I’m not without hope. I think a lot of the thinking and the re-considering and the attempt to change the way theatre is structured and administered will be hugely positive in the end. It will be.

Right now, mostly it’s a profound sense of how we’re going to move forward.

I’m working with Talk Is Three Theatre in Barrie, and (Artistic Director) Arkady Spivak has created this amazing thing called the “Artist BIG” Program. He is really trying to re-configure the relationship between artists and institutions in a way that I think is incredibly important and powerful, and smart. And so, a lot of theatre companies talk about having a company; that company model is really more corporate, meaning company or family is what’s invoked when someone is being disciplined, but most of the time there’s no real loyalty and no real sense of continuity or home or artistic ownership.

Whereas Arkady is bringing artists on and saying [he] will guarantee a certain amount of work for three years in a row and giving the artists enormous agency around what work they’ll be doing, and that’s extraordinary. The feeling of having an artistic home is an incredible thing which I hope eventually more theatres will seek to emulate. Arkady didn’t invent this idea. Obviously there have been resident artists in most companies at some point, as there is at Soulpepper, for example. But the idea of having a basic guaranteed income is really innovative in Canada.

As a professional artist, what are you missing the most about the live theatre industry?

I miss nothing about the ‘industry’ part of that sentence. I miss everything about the community. I miss my colleagues. I miss the thrill of risk and closeness and exploration and vulnerability and humour and love and fun, and just adrenaline and audiences and that awesome roller coaster kind of fear.

I miss all of it.

No one in this business ever misses the business part. (Cyrus grinned and offered a good hearty laugh)

Whatever complaints you might have about Canadian theatre, the community is just gorgeous. People are fantastic, and I feel tremendous love for my community here and for my friends and colleagues. (I could see then in Cyrus’s eyes and his voice began to quiver a bit that he truly meant what he said.)

I miss the work, the work of acting. You don’t realize how much you’re wired for something until it’s gone.

As a professional artist, what is the one thing you will never take for granted again in the live theatre industry when you return to it?

Any of it.

The last show in Toronto I did was ‘Oil’. It was one of the last shows to close. I thought a lot back to how I felt doing that show. It was a great. I felt great love for the cast, the work, the production. Huge pride in it, but I was also hitting a wall of weariness with being precarious with the business side of things. A bit of a “meaning” wall – what does this mean, doing this? Who are we doing it for?

And it had nothing to do with the production. It was just where I was at professionally. There were younger people in the cast who were new to the business and so excited, and that made me aware that I had become a little jaded. Not about the work, but about the life that comes with it.

But now what I would not take for granted is ever doing it again. Because I don’t feel I’ll ever do it again in a regular way. Theatre will be something I do perhaps once or twice a year and that’ll be it.

Describe one element you hope has changed concerning live theatre.

Oh my God….This year has been a massive time for change and reflection. I mean, 2020 wasn’t the beginning of the conversation, but the BLM uprisings of 2020 and the time and space for reflection imposed by COVID on theatre forced us as a community to face the systemic racism built into our culture and our profession. I hope that the positive changes that happen in our theatre ecology as a result of that reflection extend into the power structures of our business and institutions and aren’t just gestural, performative, and superficial. That is my hope.

I am trying to figure out my own role in all that and figure out how my own voice will be useful in that conversation, if at all. I’m not sure.

Explain what specifically you believe you must still accomplish within the industry.

‘I don’t know’ is the answer to that question. If I did, I’d be a much less restless brain. I don’t know. I don’t know.

Honestly, the baseline answer is, “Make a fucking living.” That’s been the baseline for so long. That’s been the baseline for most actors. The idea of choice is available to maybe 5% of our business. Unless you’ve been hugely lucky in film and TV or your parents are rich or both, most of the time you’re just trying to survive.

Some artists are saying that audiences must be prepared for a tsunami of Covid themed stories in the return to live theatre. Would you elaborate on this statement both as an artist in the theatre, and as an audience member observing the theatre.

I think that is an unlikely prognostication.

From the beginning of this thing, there have been jokes about all of the Covid plays that are going to happen. But I think the better theatre artists will take this and run with it from a metaphorical standpoint rather than a literal one. Hopefully.

But because I need to survive, sign me up for your Covid plays, folks! But, I don’t even think that’s true. Everyone is so fucking bored with it. What playwright is going to say, ‘You know what I need more of in my life? You need what I need to dedicate two years of my life to? Writing about Covid.”

You know how long it takes to write a fucking play? It takes forever. And then after you finish it, nobody knows if it will be produced. Obviously, some playwrights know, but It’s a massive commitment.

If I were a real playwright, I wouldn’t suffer through two years of writing a Covid play because I want this out of my life. If you are sensible, you will avoid this theme and it’s pretty unlikely any theatre producer would pick or pay you or pay to mount that show unless it was MINDBLOWING!!!!

Seems unlikely.

As an artist, what specifically is it about your work that you want future audiences to remember about you?

(Cyrus begins to laugh again) As a theatre artist, I have very little hope that my work will be remembered. I mean, it’s written on water, it’s written on air.

I guess if I were to hope for anything if people have seen me work, it’s that I didn’t make safe choices. I like risk, but again everybody thinks they’re doing something risky, but who fucking knows?

I don’t know, man. If anyone remembers me at all, even if it was a negative memory, that would feel like a win at this point.

I’m being facetious. My kid doesn’t know any of the actors I adored when I was a kid. So, it doesn’t even matter if you’re massively famous, you will be forgotten. Eventually. (And Cyrus laughs again)

I think that’s a really healthy way to think as an artist, especially in theatre when you know this is not made to last.

Theatre is for right now. And it should be.