Paper Shines

I love going to theatre. That's the amazing thing about the career I'm pursuing. I can work on my own shows, and enjoy them, and I can support friends, colleagues, and theatre companies. Even if I go to a show where I don't know anyone who worked on it, or am not familiar with the theatre company, I'm supporting the arts. I'm a contributing member of the society I want to live in: A society that cares about the arts.

These past two weekends, I have seen a lot of theatre. This might seem backwards, but I'm going to start with the show that I saw most recently.

This past Saturday, I went to the closing night of paper SERIES, written by David Yee and directed by Nina Lee Aquino. 

I'm familiar with both of these artists, as Nina directed my favourite play, Banana Boys, which David Yee acted in. That was five and a half years ago. I was in first year, and it was the first time I ever saw theatre and realized how different and challenging it could be. I was hooked.

But I'm talking about paper SERIES now. It was performed in the Tank House Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. It's a black box type of theatre. The set was extremely minimal, which suits black box very well. There was a desk at centre stage, with a two foot tall stack of paper on the [audience] left side of it. The stack of paper was lit in such a way it looked as though it was lit from within. There were two chairs on stage as well, and these were moved by the actors frequently throughout the performance. Off to one side, there was a record player sitting on two large stacks of paper. There was no real record on it, rather, there was a circular piece of paper. During the scene shifts, an actor would put a new, differently shaped piece of paper on the record player that related to the scene you were about to see. 

paper SERIES is just that. It's a series of six short plays, all connected by paper. There were six performers; each had a scene where they were the main character.

First was PAPER burns, starring Marjorie Chan. It was the story of a woman who goes into the family business of counterfeiting money. As a child, her father taught her that reputation is the most important thing. He built his reputation on being the best counterfeiter. He claims his money is able to pass "the burn test." When their warehouse is raided by cops, he sets everything on fire and goes out the front door, where he is shot down. The Russians, who were paying for this job, are not pleased and want Baht (Chan) to complete the job. She tries to make money that won't burn, and in the process realizes that her father built his reputation on a lie. It simply can't be done. In the end, she comes up with a cunning way to deal with the Russians and maintain her reputation. When they come to pick up the money, she makes them wear masks because the ink fumes are potentially dangerous. What she is really hiding is the smell of gasoline, as she has soaked the place in it. As the Russians are realizing they're unhappy with the money, she walks out the front door and sets the place on fire with the Russians still inside. She has the six pieces of paper needed to start a new life — a driver's license, a birth certificate, a SIN card, a health card, a passport, and a credit card — and on she goes.

The second play was PAPER cuts, with Rosa Laborde as Hope. This one was possibly the funniest as Hope tries to write a break-up letter to her boyfriend, John. "Dear John, It's not me, it's you. That's a lie, it's you. Love, Hope." She writes letter after letter, as John sleeps. She tries different tactics. Brutal honesty, gentle lies, and most hilarious of all, she re-adopts her Russian accent from PAPER burns, and writes "Dear John, We are international group of terrorists. We have kidnapped your girlfriend. If you ever want to see her again, bring $500,000 to locker... 19 at the bus station. But actually, that probably won't work, so just assume that you will never see her again. Love, ... nameless group of international terrorists..." In the end, she uses a metaphor to convey the truth honestly. She writes that she has a papercut, so small you can't even see it, but it hurts.

Next was PAPER dolls, starring Rebecca Applebaum as Mutt. She is a young girl, who has been shunted about from foster home to foster home. She makes paper dolls, and imagines them to be her Scottish father and Chinese mother. The dolls tell her the story of how they lived in the Annex and were happy, how they died in a car crash, went to heaven and made a deal with god, who prefers the name Angus ("God is Scottish!?"), to watch over and protect their daughter until she's 20. It was a very funny piece, with paper cut outs of cars, a dog, a house. When the cars collide in the crash, a handful of shredded paper gets thrown in the air. It also touched on issues of racism, with Mutt talking about how the nun at the orphanage says Mutt is unwanted because she's a half breed. Also, the character has no other name besides "Mutt." I found this aspect interesting, as I know the playwright, David Yee, is of Scottish and Chinese descent. 

The next piece was the most physically comedic, PAPER tears starring Nico Lorenzo Garcia, a waiter in a Chinese restaurant, named Wisdom, (his co-workers' names are King, Calm, and Love,) who decides to personalize the fortunes in the fortune cookies when he overhears a man who is on a date in the restaurant on the phone with his wife. His co-workers join in the fun, and the restaurant gets a reputation for having the most uncanny fortunes. This piece had hilarious sound effects, including the repeated sound of a wink. That was also the moment where my stage management sense started tingling, and I thought, "This would be difficult to call!" The climax comes about when Love writes a fortune to an attractive girl, whose boyfriend receives it instead. The boyfriend pulls a gun on Love, King comes out and pulls a gun on the boyfriend, a friend of the boyfriend comes in and pulls a gun on King, Calm pulls a gun on the friend, and the friend pulls out another gun on Calm. "It was a Mexican standoff in a Chinese restaurant!" Wisdom tells this whole story in response to an interviewer's question about whether or not he has any restaurant experience.

PAPER folds followed that piece, completely changing the pace. Byron Abalos delivers this monologue in response to his girlfriend who has just broken up with him. Interesting note: his girlfriend is played by Laborde, and Abalos played the sleeping boyfriend in PAPER cuts, so this piece is an alternative break up between the same actors. In PAPER folds Symbol's (Abalos) girlfriend is breaking up with him because he didn't kiss her one time, several months ago. Symbol reminds her of how when they met, he gave her his phone number inside an origami crane. He says that that one time he didn't kiss her was just one paper fold, and it takes so many more folds to build a relationship, or an origami crane. He makes her one last origami crane, and every fold he makes he labels as a part of their relationship, "our first kiss, the first night we slept together, meeting the parents..." and so on. In the end, he leaves her with the crane. PAPER folds might have been the weakest piece of the evening, but that doesn't mean it was bad. It was much slower paced, much less comedic. It was also the starting point for the entire series. In the playwright's note, Yee writes that he wrote Paper Folds for a fundraiser after becoming obsessed with a book on origami. From there, he became obsessed with paper, and wrote several short pieces, many of which didn't make it into paper SERIES. 

From the weakest, we went to the strongest for the final piece. PAPER route could be expanded to a full length play, and if it ever is, Kawa Ada should be cast in the role of Isaac again. Isaac is an immigrant to Canada from India, where he was a doctor. In Canada, he is a taxi driver. He tells his story to his fare, when she notices that his taxi driver license has been replaced with his medical credentials. He tells the story of how he met his closest friends, who are all taxi drivers in Canada who had been doctors in India. One day, they are driving along the DVP in two cars, a limo and Isaac's newly paid off, waxed taxi cab, on their way to pick up one of their friends from the airport. A truck jackknifes across all three lanes of traffic, and the friends narrowly escape being crushed. But then they notice that the man who had been driving behind them was thrown from his car and landed on the trunk of Isaac's cab. The man is a doctor in a Toronto hospital. His pulse is weak, and the ambulance won't be arriving anytime soon. Isaac performs a tracheotomy on the doctor to open his airway, but he has lost a lot of blood. The doctor's blood type is on his donor card, and one of them is a match. They find syringes in the doctor's car, and perform a transfusion. The police arrive and arrest the men; they are detained for a few hours and then released. The doctor doesn't press charges. He is, in fact, grateful to the men for saving his life. In celebration of their feat, all of the men replace their taxi licenses with their medical credentials. It was played mostly as a one man show, with Isaac impersonating his friends for his audience. It was a thought provoking piece. It was funny, poignant, sad, happy. It was a high note.

All six of the actors were commendable. They supported each other well, and owned their pieces in their own right. 

I seriously hope this play gets remounted or goes on tour. It deserves a longer life. It's definitely one for the books.

Omelets and Clocks

So, continuing on. 

After my blog post, rehearsals continued as scheduled. Then, at exactly the halfway point between first rehearsal and final performance, the stage manager had to step down from the production for health reasons.

That was stressful. It was especially difficult because I liked the stage manager so much, had been happy to be learning from her, and was worried about her. 

There were four rehearsal days where we didn't have an official stage manager, during which time I tried to be both stage manager and assistant stage manager. I continued to take blocking notes, set the space up for rehearsal, and prepare myself for when I'd be backstage during the production. I also wrote up the schedules, sent tons of emails, and started the rehearsal, called breaks, and started the rehearsal again. This is stuff I've done in the past, but it was the first time I'd been unexpectedly thrown into it. I was relieved when the new stage manager arrived at the beginning of tech week.

Kristin McCollum was the new SM, and she was wonderful too, in a very different way from the previous SM. In some ways, it's hard to know the exact differences between them because tech and show week are so different from standard rehearsals. It's also actually not uncommon to have a rehearsal stage manager and a production stage manager.

Tech week was crazy. I was in the theatre for sixty hours that week. I was tired, to be sure, but I also knew one thing that kept me going: I would rather work long hours in the theatre day after day, then spend one more hour working in a shoe store. It was long, to be sure, but it was a pretty smooth tech week all things considered. I did my part, taping out a props table, setting spike tape, labelling dressing rooms, and light walking. Then in the evenings, we had our various rehearsals.

In the first opera, Bizet's Le Docteur Miracle, there were four singers, two non-speaking extras (or "supers"), and three ballet dancers. There were probably upwards of twenty props, and about six or seven quick changes. During the overture alone, the set doors probably opened and closed twenty times. Backstage was a flurry of activity, that had to disappear every time a door was opened.

The set for both operas was a wall, approximately twelve feet high and thirty feet wide, with double doors in the centre, and another door on either side of the double doors. Sight lines were a bit of a nightmare. Especially during the first opera, when we had nine performers backstage and two ASMs. Not to mention the size of the costumes! The girls' skirts were very wide, as the design of Docteur was eighteenth century. The costumes were borrowed from Stratford, and they were beautiful. The singers all wore wigs, too. Our soprano lead wore a wig that was made to look like her own hair. Instead of having to style her hair every night, the wig and make up ladies (excuse me, the wonderful wig and make up ladies) could just stick the wig on her head, and voila! Hairstyle.

Allow me to summarize Le Docteur Miracle. Laurette is the daughter of the mayor, or Le Podestat, and she is in love with Captain Silvio. Le Podestat will absolutely not allow his daughter to marry a soldier, and he despises Silvio. Silvio, banished from Laurette's house, hatches a plan to win her hand. He poses as a servant in Le Podestat's household. He prepares an omelet for Le Podestat. When Le Podestat and his wife, Veronique, leave for an after breakfast walk, Silvio reveals himself to Laurette. Of course, Le Podestat discovers them and chases Silvio from the house once more. Veronique enters with a letter from Silvio, in which he claims to have poisoned the omelet so recently eaten by Le Podestat. Enter le Docteur. Early on in the opera, we are made aware of Docteur Miracle's presence as a traveling charlatan, selling remedies for what ails ya. He tells Le Podestat that his death is imminent, and demands a ridiculous amount of money for the cure. When Le Podestat is hesitant to pay, Miracle says that in lieu of pay, he will instead take the hand of Laurette in marriage. Le Podestat agrees, since Miracle isn't a soldier. Miracle gives the remedy, and exits quickly with Laurette. The remedy reads, "You are now cured by your son-in-law, Captain Silvio, who never poisoned you." Le Docteur, of course, was Silvio the whole time. Laurette and Silvio enter once more, and are forgiven and blessed by Laurette's parents.

So, if you can imagine the singer who played Silvio, changing to a servant, changing to le Docteur, changing back to Silvio, you can begin to imagine how busy it was backstage. Silvio had a coat and a hat, the servant had an apron, a vest, an eye patch and a hat. Le Docteur had a coat, a hat, and glasses. And he was wearing a pony tailed wig.

The second opera, Ravel's L'heure espagnole, was a complete breeze by comparison. For L'heure we had five singers and five or ten props. We had the same wall with three doors, but whereas for Docteur the doors were magical (people would exit stage left and immediately enter stage right), for L'heure they were set. Stage right was the entrance from the street, center stage went into the rest of the house, stage left went to the clockmaker's tool shop. The stage itself was the clockmaker's shop. There were three large clocks onstage. Two were upright and one was prone and was used as a seat. The design for L'heure was 1950s, and it was beautiful. The clocks, which in the original script were grandfather clocks, were gigantic alarm clocks.

To summarize L'heure espagnole, it's about a woman whose husband, the clockmaker, is not particularly interested in sex. Every Thursday, he tends to the municipal clocks, and she has an hour to spend with her lover. However, this week a client, a muleteer, arrives at the clockmaker's shop before he leaves, and the muleteer stays to wait for the clockmaker. The clockmaker's wife, Concepcion, has to figure out a way to get rid of the muleteer, Ramiro, before her lover arrives. She asks him to take a clock up to her bedroom. He exits with the clock as the lover, Gonzalve, enters.  Concepcion realizes her plan is flawed, as Ramiro will return once he's done. She convinces Gonzalve to get into a clock, and when Ramiro returns she tells him she changed her mind, and she now wants this clock taken to her bedroom. While he goes to get the clock he just took out, Don Inigo Gomez, a banker, enters the shop. He hits on Concepcion and she rejects his advances. Ramiro re-enters with the first clock, and then takes the clock containing Gonzalve out, Concepcion follows. On his own in the clock shop, Don Inigo decides to get into a clock and wait for Concepcion to come back. Instead, Ramiro comes back to watch the shop. Soon after, Concepcion re-enters and claims that the clock is going backwards, and she simply can't have that. Ramiro exits to get the clock containing Gonzalve. The real reason Concepcion is trying to get rid of Gonzalve is because he keeps composing poetry, rather than getting on with it. Don Inigo reveals himself to Concepcion, and at first she thinks he's crazy for being in the clock, and just wishes he would go away. Then the things he says start to hit close to home for Concepcion, as Don Inigo says that young, poetical lovers are often inexperienced. Ramiro comes back with Gonzalve in the clock, and asks if he should bring the clock containing Don Inigo up to the room. Concepcion agrees, and Ramiro unwittingly takes Don Inigo to her room. Concepcion asks Gonzalve to leave, but he doesn't. She goes up to Don Inigo. Ramiro enters again, and shortly after Concepcion follows, again unhappy with the clock. Don Inigo was stuck in it. Ramiro fetches Don Inigo and the clock down again. Concepcion suddenly realizes how sexy Ramiro is, and she invites him up to her room, without any clock. The clockmaker returns to find two men in his shop, one of whom is stuck in a clock. The clockmaker sells his clocks to Don Inigo and Gonzalve, who don't want the clockmaker to realize their real reason for being there. Concepcion and Ramiro enter together, and the clockmaker apologizes to his wife since she doesn't have a clock for her room. Luckily, Ramiro passes by every day, regular as clockwork, so he will tell her the time. 

The challenge for this opera was obviously the clocks. They had to be light enough for one person to carry, and big and strong enough to enclose a person. They had false backs that went up against trap doors hidden in the walls, so that the singers could escape to backstage, and re-enter the clocks from backstage. The clocks had large doors on the sides for the singers to get in and out of onstage too, of course. There were also little circular doors where the number 12 was, so that while the singers were in the clocks, they could open this small door to see what was going on and to sing, of course. So, while L'heure espagnole was much easier than Le Docteur Miracle, I had to help singers get in and out of trap door/clocks, and move the clocks about backstage. 

So, that was it. My first apprenticeship credit, and my first time ever working on an opera. It was a really fantastic experience, with great people all around. 

It's been a week and a half since the final performance, and I think I finally have the music out of my head.

Eh bien, et maintenant, l'opéra!

It's been an extremely long time since I last posted. This is because, up until quite recently, I haven't been up to much. I was working a retail position, and making money, and feeling complacent. 

I was quite unhappy with the retail position for a few reasons, not the least significant of which was the fact that I wasn't doing something theatre related. Even worse, I was struggling to force myself to look for something theatre related. But finally, I did. I sent out resumé after resumé, cover letter after cover letter. Nothing much happened. And then, an acquaintance I met at TIFF suggested I apply for a position. And then, that acquaintance recommended me to her friend. And then, I got an interview... and after the interview came a job.

I am now working on my first official apprenticeship credit, assistant stage managing two operas. I'm working for the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The two operas are Bizet's "Le Docteur Miracle" and Ravel's "L'Heure Espagnole"... I get to use my French skills and my music skills!

We've been in rehearsal for about two weeks now. It is definitely challenging. Reading along with music is definitely easier when the performers are singing; easier compared to the extremely fast instrumental overture (in Bizet) and various other up tempo instrumentals throughout.

Also, I've done a lot more stage managing than assistant stage managing in my time. There are a lot of similarities, but there are some interesting differences as well. I suppose the differences are more noticeable when you have a clearly divided team. For example, in the past, when I've been a stage manager with an assistant stage manager, I wouldn't tell that person to set up the entire rehearsal space on their own. Now that I'm one of two ASMs under an SM, we have defined roles. The SM deals with the scheduling and booking of rooms, paperwork, blocking notes, and many other things I probably can't imagine on two operas of this scale. We ASMs prepare the room for rehearsal, reset the stage when we're starting over, and distribute and collect props. The tasks are appropriately divided, considering what our responsibilities will be during performances. 

As an ASM working on an opera, I will be backstage during performances. I will cue performers' entrances which will be marked in my score. I will ensure that performers have the correct props before going onstage, and keep track of the props backstage. I will assist in several quickchanges — I can't emphasize the word "quick" enough on this one.

I am so lucky to be working on this production. The performers are amazing. The singers are students of the Glenn Gould School vocal program, and we have dancers joining us from the Ryerson University ballet program. These young people, between the ages of twenty and thirty, are so immensely talented. They are dedicated and focused. I feel privileged to be helping them. 

Not only are these young students incredible, we have an amazing artistic and production team as well. Brent Krysa, the staging director, knows his operas backwards and forwards. He maps the whole thing out in his mind before stepping into the hall. The designers and musicians/music directors are sensitive to the performers' needs and the artistic vision.

I also consider myself incredibly lucky to be working on my first apprenticeship under the tutelage of Nan Shepherd. There aren't words to describe how incredible a stage manager and human being she is. She invites confidence. She is always willing to listen to her team. She recognizes the importance of her position as a person who will continue to influence her apprentices for the duration of their careers, and she is determined to have that be a positive, rather than negative, influence.
And that really is the best you could possibly ask for.

"Innocence Lost": read, summarized, reviewed

Innocence Lost by Beverley Cooper is a play I bought while I was in Vancouver earlier this year. It's a play about Steven Truscott, the man who was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder at the age of fourteen.
Steven Truscott's case has been of interest to me for several years. I remember learning about it at a young age and being appalled that the Canadian justice system would sentence a fourteen year old boy to death. Thankfully, his death sentence was commuted to life in prison, or else this case would be an even darker blemish on Canadian justice. As it is, the case was a serious miscarriage of justice.
This isn't a history lesson on the case, though. It's a review of the play.

Innocence Lost is told mostly from the point of view of Sarah, a fictional character. She is a young and carefree kid at the beginning of the play, whose world quickly gets turned upside down. At first, when Lynne Harper goes missing, Sarah believes that Lynne is okay, off having an adventure. Then, Lynne's body is found. Steven is the last person to have seen Lynne Harper, so he's repeatedly questioned. Then he's charged with rape and murder. Sarah believes in his innocence, defends him to her parents. Act one ends with the trial and the conviction. Throughout the trial, Sarah struggles with what she believes, until she is convinced that Steven is guilty.
During the second act, Isabel LeBourdais, the author of The Trial of Steven Truscott, is asking questions, advocating for Steven's innocence. She attempts an interview with Sarah, but Sarah remains convinced that Steven is guilty. Eventually the book is published, and becomes a national sensation. Everyone is now doubting Steven's guilt, whereas in the first act they doubted his innocence. During the second act, Sarah learns that Steven is out of jail, that he got married and had children. She too grows up and has children. Towards the end of the play, Sarah's fourteen year old son asks her if she thinks Steven is guilty. Her son is learning about the case in school, and he is convinced Steven is innocent. She doesn't answer her son's questions, but she tells the audience about the last time she saw Steven Truscott, as an adult.

Outside the door - there was a man standing. He looked like he was taking a little fresh air, trying to find a place for quiet. I said a quick hello and tried to get past him without disturbing him too much but he looked at me straight on and my heart stopped. Just like it did all those years ago in 1959 when I would steal looks at him through the cracks between my fingers. I paused for a moment and my eyes looked straight into his. And what I saw was innocence.
(Cooper, 2009)

The play ends with a slide displaying the information that Steven was acquitted in 2007, and the original trial was declared a miscarriage of justice.

This play was poorly written, it would be extremely difficult to stage. There are 47 characters, for 10 actors. It seems as though most of the actors are on stage for most of the play. Even if they weren't, costume changes would be difficult to coordinate for so many different characters. So, I get the feeling that it would be extremely difficult to tell who the characters are for the most part. The character names are used infrequently. Some are just called "woman" or "boy" ... and "woman" is meant to be played by the same actor who is playing Mrs. Harper. I find this to be problematic.
There is no action in the play either. It is all talking, speculating, reporting. The characters rarely interact, for the most part they talk to the audience.
I suppose it should be called narration. Even in the scenes where characters are talking to each other, they break the fourth wall to narrate, giving insight into what they are actually thinking.
I am not against breaking the fourth wall, but in this play, it just feels like lazy writing. It feels like Cooper was too lazy to give the characters subtext, so she put it in text. I think she should have had more faith in the actors. There was nothing for them to play with below the surface, because everything they're feeling, they're saying.
What the play does manage to invoke is the distrust that arises in a community affected by tragedy. The way the rumour mill churns. The way people lie for attention, for control. The fear that spreads until anyone can be suspect... even an innocent fourteen year old boy.
The innocence lost mentioned in the title is not Steven Truscott's innocence, but the innocence of a community that doesn't band together in the face of tragedy, but rather gets torn apart.

The resumé

Meredith A.M. Henry

My employment objective is to build on my educational experience and continue developing my personal and organizational skills with the ultimate goal of becoming a successful stage manager in the theatre industry.

EDUCATION

Baccalaureate of Arts, Honours – Theatre Studies & English, 2009

University of Guelph – Guelph, Ontario

SKILLS

·         Bilingual – English, Français

·         Considerable familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite

·         Capable of taking direction, as well as stepping into a leadership role

·         Able to work independently or in a team setting

·         Strong attention to detail

·         Extremely well organized

RELEVANT THEATRE CREDITS

2010                Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto

                        Front of House Assistant – Scotiabank Theatre

·         Coordinated large lines of public and press & industry audiences

·         Gave instructions to volunteers, as well as patrons

2010                Fly By Night Theatre Productions, Toronto

                        Stage Manager – “The Selkie Wife”

                        Director: Tom Haxell

·         Solved problems as they arose, always with a positive attitude

·         Maintained order in rented rehearsal space and performance site

2010                The Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto

                        Site Coordinator – Waves Festival

·         Maintained the schedules for two sites and several performances

·         Provided audience members with directions to performance sites

2009                School of English and Theatre Studies, U of Guelph  

                        Stage Manager for Main Stage – “Unity (1918)” 

                        Director: Alan Filewod

·         Primary communicator between 80+ theatre students and staff

·         Kept rehearsals and production meetings running on schedule

2008 & 2009   Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto

                        Stage Manager – “The Shakespeare Experiment”

                        Directors: Sky Gilbert, Ed Roy, Moynan King

                        Mentor SMs: Kevin Bowers, Sandy Plunkett

·            Organized and scheduled three different groups of actors

·            Worked closely with professional stage manager mentors

2008                Curtain Call Productions, Guelph

                        Assistant Stage Manager – “Zombie Prom”

                        Director: Franny McCabe-Bennett

                        Stage Manager: Jessica Weryho

·            Supervised dance, voice and text rehearsals

·            Organized backstage operations during performances

2007                School of English and Theatre Studies, U of Guelph

                        SM for Festival of Student Directed One Act Plays

                        Fall 2007 –“The Man With the Flower In His Mouth"

                        Director: Devin Pihlainen       

                        Winter 2007 – “The Juiceman Cometh”

                        Director: Matt Rush

·            Operated sound and lighting boards while calling a show

·            Arranged rehearsals around several students’ schedules

VOLUNTEER and COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

·         Dream in High Park, Toronto – Volunteer, 2010

·         Compass Points Student and Emerging Artist Program, Magnetic North Theatre Festival – Participant, 2009; Member of National Planning Committee, 2010

·         Pi Theatre Productions, Vancouver – Office Assistant, 2010

·         School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph – Usher, Box Office Manager, 2006-2009

How I Got Here (Pt. 2 - since graduation)

Since graduating from Guelph with my BA in theatre and English, I've been trying to build my resume, continue learning, and get involved with theatre. 
I would say that one of the most influential events actually happened the summer before I graduated. The Magnetic North Theatre Festival takes place every June. In odd-numbered years it takes place in Ottawa, in even-numbered years it travels around the country. So, in June of 2009 I set off for Ottawa, with plans to attend plays, explore the city, and crash at my brother's and/or my friend Christi's place. I didn't get to see every play in the festival. The festival runs for 10 days, but I was only able to be in Ottawa for 6 days. I saw some really great plays, some really different plays, from across Canada. I never imagined that I would enjoy staged puppetry until I saw The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan. Fear of Flight was a beautiful collection of monologues, with cool choral work from the cast. And Eternal Hydra... Woah. 
But I think that the best part of the festival for me might not have been the plays. It might have been the people. I was part of a program called Compass Points, which brings students and emerging artists to MagNorth from across the country. Every morning we would meet up for a seminar, a panel discussion, or a workshop. Every night after the play, we would go to Club Saw, the festival bar, have a few drinks and discuss theatre. It was amazing to be seeing plays and talking about them to people who cared. We were all in the same place in our lives. I'm not sure how the rest of them felt, but for me it was inspiring to meet people my age. All the mature festival goers frequently reminded us how important making these connections with each other would be. 
Peter Hinton, the artistic director of English theatre at the NAC, did something amazing for the Compass Points participants. He held a five hour workshop with us called the Peter Hinterview. There were 75 of us, so we split into three groups. For three days in a row he held the five hour workshop with a different group each day. I was in the first and smallest of the three groups. We sat in a room with Peter as he explained to us who he is and how he got there. Then he asked us to explain the same things about ourselves. We talked about our goals, our dreams, our ambitions, our obsessions. We talked about what we would do if we could have an all access pass to the person or place we would most like to visit or meet. Peter gave us advice. His three pieces of advice he loves to share are: learn to swim, go to the dentist, and pay your taxes. But he also told us to get involved; make a commitment to living your life as an artist; see theatre. He told us to call artistic directors and say, "I'm a struggling theatre artist. For my craft to grow, I need to see and experience theatre. I'm poor. Can I come to your show for free?" He said, "If you're ever back in Ottawa, give me a call, and you can come to a show at the NAC for free." It was five of the most incredible and uplifting hours of my life. I left that room jazzed, pumped, ready and roaring to go.
At the end of the festival I returned to Guelph and continued working and going to school (see pt. 1). Then, in December, I moved out of my apartment. I put all my stuff in storage. In January I flew out to Vancouver. Being in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics was something I decided I wanted to do in 2002. So, I decided to live with my sister and her family for two months, and see if I couldn't get involved in theatre out West. I didn't see much theatre while I was in Vancouver, even though the PuSh Festival was on at the time. For some reason I didn't want to go out to theatre by myself, and was unable to convince my sister to go with me. While my boyfriend, David, was visiting for his reading week, we went out and saw Robert Lepage's Blue Dragon. It was the first time either of us had seen a work by Lepage. I was blown away. It was innovative. It was a good story, well told. Every once in a while, I see a piece of theatre that leaves me feeling... hopeful. Blue Dragon was one such piece.
While I was in Vancouver I volunteered for a theatre company, Pi Theatre. They didn't have any productions during my stay, but I volunteered in the office. I frequently did things like walk to the bank, or walk to the post office. I balanced their cheque book. I coordinated the volunteers for their show that was being staged right after I left. At one point the artistic director had me sit down in front of the computer with a notepad, headphones, and the dvd from their previous production, after the quake. I watched the dvd to check for disruptions before the dvd was submitted to MagNorth. I really wish I had been able to see the play on stage, instead of on a computer, but I'm happy I got to see it at all. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Most of what I did was kind of boring, but I was helping artists! I also learned a lot about what goes into running a theatre company. 
In March I returned to Ontario, and prepared for the next adventure... I was going to hostel and train around Europe for the month of April. My plans were derailed, so to speak, when I landed in Paris, had a miserable time, and flew home after one week. Admitting that I was unhappy and making the decision to come home early was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I don't regret it, though. Europe is still there and I intend to return. Also, interesting sidenote, the Icelandic volcano that grounded flights happened the day after I flew home.
I spent the rest of April and all of May sending out resumes. For stage manager positions, for front of house positions, for usher positions, for volunteer positions. I was loath to take a part-time job that wasn't related to theatre.
In June, I attended the Magnetic North Theatre Festival again. This year, I was on the Compass Points national planning committee. We held phone conferences in advance to discuss the programming. We shared our opinions on the previous festival and program. We discussed what we, as emerging artists or students, hoped to gain from the festival and program. I was able to see nearly the entire festival in Kitchener-Waterloo. Highlights for me this year were Mump and Smoot: Cracked (I liked the play with clowns!?), Elephant Wake, and The Greatest Cities in the World. Compass Points also took a daytrip to Stratford and saw Christopher Plummer in The Tempest. 
Directly after the festival I returned to Toronto to work as a site manager for the Young Centre's Waves Festival. It was a neat experience, and paid work for once! I held a clipboard and wore a headset. Alas, Waves only lasted one weekend, and on Monday I returned to my life of unemployment and living on the couch of friends. 
I volunteered at Dream in High Park during the summer. It wasn't quite what I expected it to be. All the other volunteers were high school students trying to get their required forty hours of volunteer service. Some of them were interested in theatre, but not the majority. The play itself was alright. It was Romeo & Juliet this year. It had an interesting concept, that quickly got lost. A bunch of travellers were stranded at the train station in Verona, to pass the time they performed the play. Some of the acting was particularly good, specifically Mercutio and the Prince.
The majority of my summer was spent stage managing a play for a company named Fly By Night Theatre. FBN is a charity organization, with all proceeds going to the Royal Seed Needy Home in Ghana. So, it was a volunteer gig. I worked with a group of young artists in Toronto and Mississauga. The play was The Selkie Wife by Kelley Jo Burke. It was my first time getting a stage management position not from the school, a professor, or a peer. I had an interview and got hired and everything! ...Just without getting paid. The people I worked with were awesome, and we ended up with quite the play, after all kinds of weird setbacks. Such is theatre.
In September, I worked for tiff as a front of house assistant. It seemed almost all of us working at Scotiabank Theatre were out of work stage managers. I really enjoyed the festival, the people I met, and above all, getting paid.
Since tiff, I finally caved and got that part time job. I'm working retail. I'm trying to find a way to stay involved in theatre while having an income. I'm trying to keep my mind active. I'm open to volunteering. 
I want to do some creating.

How I Got Here (Pt. 1 - early childhood to graduation)

While I was growing up in small town Ontario, I was always quite the performer. As a kid, I took piano lessons and dance lessons. In high school I auditioned for the school plays. My school did not have a drama program, so these plays were my only chance to act. I decided that I wanted to be an actor, and looked into drama programs at various universities. 

I auditioned for Ryerson and York. I never got the results of my auditions. I was terrified of the possibility of rejection and cancelled my applications. Being one of the only students from my hometown who was serious about theatre, I had never been turned down for an audition before. I didn't think I could handle the rejection that I was sure was coming.

I landed at the University of Guelph, where my major was psychology for about a month before I switched to a major in theatre studies and a minor in English. 

During my second semester I auditioned for the student directed one act plays. My audition went really well, and I ended up with the role of Abby Nash in Norm Foster's The Long Weekend, directed by fourth year student Jon Nelson. The festival of plays was called "Famous Last Words" and the directors' projects were to direct the last 20 minutes of a full length play. My success at landing this role reignited my confidence.

However, over the course of my four and a half years at the University of Guelph, I made the transition from considering myself an acting student, to considering myself a technical student.

My first involvement in technical theatre was a required course during my second year, introduction to technical theatre, where I participated in building the set for Romeo and Juliet. This sparked my interest in the technical side of the theatre.

While I was involved with Romeo and Juliet, I was also stage managing for the first time on a student directed one act play.  I had auditioned for the one acts, but didn't get a role. I still really wanted to be involved. I ended up stage managing for Matt Rush, who I had acted alongside in my first year. I was not entirely certain what would be required of me, but learned the process as I went along. I found I had an easy rapport with Matt and the actors. I learned how influential the stage manager is to ensuring the cheerfulness of everyone involved, as well as maintaining the director’s vision and keeping everything running smoothly.

The very next semester, in my third year, I stage managed for the one acts once more. This time, I was stage managing for a director who was unsure of what my role entailed. Together, he and I came up with our own arrangement for how best to work harmoniously. I learned that I was capable of adapting to what the director required of me. 

I wanted to do more stage managing! But the following semester I was disappointed to learn that there would be no one acts. Instead I found Curtain Call Productions, a student run organization which independently stages a musical every year. Curtain Call gave me my first experience as an assistant stage manager. Although I enjoyed the experience, I knew that I preferred the full responsibility of being a stage manager.

That summer, I achieved my first paid position in the theatre by stage managing for Sky Gilbert’s The Shakespeare Experiment. Sky's experiment was to show a few scenes from a Shakespeare play done three different ways, what he called Elizabethan, contemporary and queer. The project would run for three summers, with different scenes each year. I worked with an experienced mentor, Kevin Bowers, who provided helpful tips, guidance and advice. My director was Moynan King, for the contemporary scene of As You Like It. I made connections with directors, actors and writers in the Toronto theatre community and it was around this time that I realized that I want to stage manage professionally. The following summer,  after fourth year, I stage managed The Shakespeare Experiment once more, with a different mentor, Sandy Plunkett, and director, Ed Roy.  That time around I got to do the Elizabethan scene of A Winter's Tale.

During my fourth year, I finally got to wear the director's hat for the student directed one act plays. I directed Rob Kraszewski and Megan Verhey in the play Organic Divide by Robin Fulford. It was a great experience and I truly loved doing it. I hope to direct more in the future.

Also in my fourth year I participated in the ensemble project, which was a new class required for theatre studies majors. Twenty-six of us came together five times a week to create an original piece. The end result was a play titled Surviving Fantomina, created by The Bedroom Ensemble.

Although I could have graduated in the Spring of my fourth year, I decided to return to school for one more semester in order to stage manage the main stage production of Unity (1918). The main stage production is directed and designed by professors, but all other responsibilities fall to the students. I was the primary communicator between over eighty people, professors and students alike. There was a department for each technical aspect: lights, costumes, sound, sets and props. I lead the production meetings, kept rehearsals running on schedule, and called the show. It was a fantastic experience. I learned a lot and met new people. 

Now I'm out here in the real world, trying to figure out what to do next.