Sunday Feature: Interview - Simon Brault, CEO National Theatre School

(photo by Maxime Côté)

Shaping the Future of Theatre
I believe NTS will be powerful as long as it will stay absolutely connected to the pulse of professional theatre.
by David Sklar 

Simon Brault was named the National Theatre School’s CEO in 2008 and has held several key administrative positions with the NTS since 1981. In 1997, he initiated Journées de la culture, a Quebec‐wide cultural event; in 2002, he led a 20‐member delegation at the Sommet de Montréal and founded Culture Montréal. Since 2007, he heads the steering committee of the RV07 – Montreal, Cultural Metropolis. He is Vice‐Chair of the Canada Council, an Officer of the Order of Canada, an Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec, a Fellow of the CGA, and a recipient of the Keith Kelly Award for Cultural Leadership. On September 23, 2009, Mr. Brault launched his first book of essays on the rise of arts and culture on global public agendas. Titled Le FACTEUR C ‐ L'Avenir passe par la culture, it was published by La Presse / Éditions Voix parallèles and was released in English, in May 2010, by Cormorant Books (translation Jonathan Kaplansky) under the title No Culture, No Future. In 2011, the Presses de l'Université du Québec and the Chaire de leadership Pierre‐Péladeau published a monograph about Simon Brault: Prendre fait et cause pour la culture. It is a scholarly thesis on his personal and professional journey in the arts.

CHARPO: How did it begin for you in theatre?

BRAULT: I came to it when I was 26 years old; a long time ago. I was really looking for a job. I studied two years in law but I didn’t finish. I had just had a son and needed a job so I came to NTS (National Theatre School) with the firm intention of staying for ten weeks or so. I really just needed employment insurance. My plan was simple.  

Obviously what happened was when I came here, I immediately discovered a fascinating world. We were teaching theatre here so all of a sudden actors, dancers, musicians, and visual artists surrounded me. It was also a place where people spoke French and English, and having a lot of political debates. I was doing a modest job and wandering around. For me, this became a place to learn and live and make connections. 

Jean-Louis Roux, who recently passed away, was the director general and I had the chance to decode what he was doing. I was lucky because I realized that I could play a role in this institution on the administrative side because the school was facing financial problems. It was a vibrant place from an artistic point of view but they needed a helping hand. My law background didn’t help so I began to study accounting; I never imagined I would end up doing that. But I thought, 'That could be useful'. 

I went to university four nights a week while still working.  I got the degree and was promoted to accounting, then administrative director, then co-director and eventually CEO. It took 15 years. Learning and trying and going through lots of projects.  

While my focus was the law, I came from a family of artists, mostly poets and visual artists. My father was a painter and sculptor so that was the world I grew up in.  

After 32 years, I have seen hundreds of plays, rehearsals and writing projects but I don’t consider myself a theatre person. My passion was to organize and lead this institution. Re-framing and re-positioning the role of the arts in Canadian society.  That is why I decided to also play a role in the Canada Council for the Arts. For me the future of this place and theatre schools are linked with the future of the art form itself. 

I believe NTS will be powerful as long as it will stay absolutely connected to the pulse of professional theatre. Every time I notice there is possibility that we will shape ourselves into an ivory tower, I see that as dangerous. If we isolate ourselves from society, we become irrelevant.      

Sunday Feature: Interview with Alison Darcy on Scapegoat Carnivale's Othello

(photo by Sabrina Reeves)

Creating her path, one step at a time.  

by David Sklar

Alison Darcy is a  National Theatre School of Canada graduate and the Co- Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Scapegoat Carnivale Theatre. As well as directing, producing, teaching theatre, Ms Darcy has been acting professionally since childhood. Some of her directorial works include Faust and The Heretics of Bohemia (Segal/ Scapegoat), Hyena Subpoena (Catkidd/scapegoat), Medea and Life is a Dream (Centaur/Scapegoat), Things are bad-Ijumpile Lendaba (South Africa's Mopo Productions/Scapegoat), Last Call (scapegoat/NCTF/Uno festival), Real Estate (Centaur), Bash: Latterday plays (Muttertung), The Unknown Citizen (Project Porte Parole), and Burning Cage (Woman Alone). Selected acting credits include roles in Age of Arousal (Centaur), A Doll House (Saidye), Bye Bye Baby (Imago/Centaur), Brahm and the Angel (Geordie), Speak Easy (Sabooge), Bash: Latterday plays (Muttertung), Small Returns (Infinitheatre/November), girls!girls!girls! (Theatro Commanici/FTA), Taking Sides (Centaur), and various film and television productions. She has worked closely with Clyde Henry Productions, the Festival TransAmériques, Blue Metropolis, and South Africa's Mopo Productions. She is a multiple MECCA award winner, as well as recipient of awards from Montreal, Vancouver, and Seattle fringes.

CHARPO: How did your acting career begin?  

DARCY: I started when I was eight. I did a show at the Centaur because my dad (Maurice Podbrey) needed kids in a play and so a bunch of my friends and I took part. Some casting agents saw the show just by chance and wanted me to be in the movie, “The Hotel New Hampshire”. My brother got an actual part and I was a glorified extra. But that started me off and one day I was at school and another casting agent was looking for kids for this movie called, “The Peanut Butter Solution” and they just picked me based on my look, I think, to audition. I got the third lead: they didn’t know I had had any previous experience. They were doing a hunt across Canada. 

I did a few plays but mostly film until about CEGEP when I started getting more interested in theatre and then decided to apply and I got in to NTS (National Theatre School) in 1992. After graduating I took four years off to travel and ended up living in Europe, in London, and finally came back home to start directing. In 2003, I met Joseph Shragge (co-artistic and co-founder) and later Melanie St-Jacques and by 2006 we started Scapegoat Carnivale. In 2007, David Oppenheim and Andreas Apergis came on board and we became the company. Since graduating, I’ve also been teaching classes. I work with various organizations such as Blue Metropolis, Festival TransAmérique and NTS, while all the while promoting anglo-theatre in this city.  

Sunday Feature: Interview - Seana McKenna

You and Your Audience
Seana McKenna takes you on her journey
by David Sklar
(All photos courtesy of Stratford Festival, all production photos by David Hou except when noted)

Seana McKenna was raised in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke and in nearby Port Credit. She spent one year at the University of Toronto before attending the National Theatre School in Montreal until 1979. She made her professional acting debut the same year at the Blyth Festival, appearing in This Foreign Land, Child by James Nichol and The Death of the Donnellys. Her long and distinguished association with the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario began in 1982, when she joined Shakespeare 3 Company, as the Festival's Young Company was then called, appearing as Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream and as Diana in All's Well That Ends Well. Ms McKenna won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for her performance in the title role of Shaw's Saint Joan (Theatre Plus, 1991) and a second in 1998 for outstanding direction of Fugard's Valley Song. Her third Dora Award, in 2007, was for her performance as Lady Torrance in Orpheus Descending. She received a Jessie Award for Wit and a Genie Award for The Hanging Garden. In 2010 Seana McKenna was awarded an honorary Master of Fine Arts degree from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She served for six years on the Council of Canadian Equity, the actors' union, and for three years on its executive. Ms McKenna has received a Tyrone  Guthrie Award for mentorship. With impressive technique and a silky, flexible voice, Seana McKenna demonstrates passion, intensity and intelligence in every role. She is considered by many to be Canada's finest dramatic actress of her generation.

CHARPO: Where did it all begin for you in terms of acting?

McKENNA: I think Brian Bedford and I shared the same first role, which was the Virgin Mary. I was five. I had a next-door neighbour who was an actress.  Apparently, when I was about eight, I went with a bunch of neighbourhood kids and asked her if she would direct us in plays. I started at a very young age: in school plays. I had a fabulous theatre arts teacher in high school and I then went to Ontario Youth Theatre, the National Arts Centre and toured around with the Mad Woman of Chaillot. Then I went to Trinity College, they only had one drama course, and finally at the National Theatre School (NTS)  I told myself, “I’ll keep doing this as long as I get work”. I have been fortunate.  

CHARPO: And you worked with Joel Miller at NTS?

McKENNA: Yes. In my last two years. But I was brought in by Douglas Rain: he auditioned me. And those were heady days. The Parti Québécois has just been elected, and Montreal was a hopping city. There was one night, where I was asleep and it must have been around 3am and all of a sudden I heard car horns blaring in the street and the French side at school got the day off but we didn’t! Already there was a little bit of the two solitudes in the school. 

It was very exciting.  St-Denis was not the St-Denis that it is now. It was a great city to live and I think the sadness is that many English actors who went to the school couldn’t find enough work to stay.  You’d love to live there.  There just isn’t the same amount of work. 

Sunday Feature: Interview with Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director, Stratford Festival

Stratford: The Next Generation 
...ultimately, that’s why people come. It’s the work, the place. It’s the talent on the stage.
by David Sklar (photos courtesy of The Stratford Festival)

Senior contributor David Sklar spoke with Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director of Stratford Festival, about the challenging experience of taking over the reins this past year. 

CHARPO:  How did it all begin for you here at Stratford?

CIMOLINO:   I came here a number of times in high school but there was one time that changed everything. I was in a Catholic boys school at the time and the play is about four young men who decide not to drink, spend all their time studying and refuse to see any women and I knew that that wasn’t going to work out: things were going to happen. And sure enough four beautiful women show up but what was remarkable was that I saw my friends on stage. I saw the goofy guy; the one everyone makes fun of, the smart ass and the intelligent one: I saw my friends. I thought, “This is my gang. This play was written 300 years ago so how’s that possible?” 

It was a very strange moment. And the other thing was that I was in a room with 2000 people, almost all older than I was but we were all laughing together. We were all moved together. It was an epiphany. I recognized a connection to humanity. I saw how great humanity was, both back in time and in that moment. I felt a union. So I went home, told my dad that I wasn’t going to go to Law School and that I wanted to be an actor. So you could imagine the response from my first generation immigrant parents but they eventually supported me. It was that moment where I just realized I wanted to do something else that contributed to what we are all about.   

Sunday Feature: Interview - Anton Golikov on Lunduntown

GO GO GO!
Raising the Stakes on Montreal Theatre

by David Sklar  

Anton Golikov is from Vladikavkaz, Russia.  In 2012, he founded Raise The Stakes Theatre Company, and has gone on to perform in and design the production of True West at Theatre Ste-Catherine (TSC). Anton made his directing debut in August 2012 with Salt Water Moon by David French.  In March, he directed the company's latest project, Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer at Espace 4001. Anton has also acted on the Dome Stage in the roles of Antonio (Merchant of Venice), Colonel Vershinin (Three Sisters), and Clarence (Hay Fever). A regular performer at TSC's Sunday Night Improv, Anton is a proponent of improv as a life philosophy and is a regular performer with TSC's resident company, Le Nouveau International (Depflies, Grinders, Match Made in Hell.) This summer, he will be appearing in the epic tree-planting comedy Ogoki Nights, based on a trilogy by Alain Mercieca.

CHARPO:  What is Lunduntown about?

GOLIKOV: Lunduntown is a play about world citizens. It’s the Canadian experience in London, England, based on Alain Mercieca’s travels. The main story is about a man named Charlie Dibbles, an 'immigrant enabler' who shows people around, gives them jobs and helps them out in many ways: women, cars, money whatever they need.  Charlie’s been living in London for a long time and all of a sudden his nephew, Jordan, comes from Westmount, Montreal, to convince him to return home because Charlie’s mother is dying. The nephew is trying to change Charlie but he’s very set in his ways. 

There are loads of unique characters that cross paths such as an insecure brother who puts on a faux British accent and a psychopath that roams the night looking to kill Canadian tourists and cleanse the society of the bane of tourism.  We even have a live soccer match and a musical number.   

Review: (Montreal) The Permanent Guest

He who would not leave
by David Sklar

We’ve all been there (and if you haven’t, count yourself lucky). We invite a friend to crash at our place, but they end up overstaying their welcome. And worse, they drink our booze! Welcome to The Permanent Guest. This brand new play premiered at the Freestanding Room. For anyone who’s been to the space before, you have to take into account what the weather’s like outside. Luckily, humidity hasn’t hit us yet. 

Interview: Paul Flicker, Segal Centre Artistic Producer

An Artistic Producer on Producing Art
by David Sklar 
(photos by Paul Ducharme)

CHARPO: Why do you have the title of Artistic Producer and not Artistic Director of the Segal Theatre?    

FLICKER: There are a few reasons why I wanted that. One is, I am not a director of plays. I also wanted to establish a distinction between my predecessor who had been so well known in her job here. But because of that, there are now two parts to my job.  First is the overall artistic direction of the theatres and then producing the other activities that take place here such as our dance, music and special events. So while I feel I have a more territorial role with the direction of the theatres, the actual producing role takes equal importance.

CHARPO: So run me through a typical day at the theatre. 

FLICKER : Well, the great thing is, there is no typical day here. There are weekly occurrences such as production, sales and marketing and manager meetings.  But most days are completely different. I am rarely at my desk. Almost never. And notoriously difficult to reach.  So if people need to get in touch with me for productions, they call my assistant.  

Interview: Centaur Theatre Artistic Director Roy Surette

(photo credit: Yannick MacDonald)

Beyond The Launch

After announcing his 2012-13 season, the Montreal AD talks candidly about Healey, Rose, Vancouver Playhouse and the challenge of here and beyond

by David Sklar

CHARPO: So you just had your season launch. How did it go?

SURETTE: It went well. It’s always a bit intense. I think I talked for about an hour about the season and all our upcoming activities. 

CHARPO:  What goes through your mind when picking a new season? How do you choose what shows to pick?

SURETTE: It’s a mystery.  As they say in Shakespeare In Love, my favorite theatre quote, “it’s a mystery how it ever works”.  There are so many factors that go into selecting a season. And there are many questions that I am always asking myself, still feeling relatively new to Montreal. I’ve been here for almost four and a half years now and as someone who programs a theatre in a unique city like Montreal I think, needless to say, it’s challenging. You need to know what’s evolving with the audience.  I’m always of the belief that you want to do a season that people want to come and see. There is no point in doing it for yourself and in fact when you get to the scale of operation like us, you have to sell a lot of tickets. We’re about 50 percent run by our box office.  We do a lot of fundraising as well as applying for government support. But we’re still white knuckling it in  terms of, are we going to make
our box office targets? And usually in a year, it’s a real rollercoaster ride. Some shows are quite a bit under, some are over so in terms of balancing a season, you've got to compromise. I wish I could say I have the magical formula but I don’t. I feel I've got a pretty good track record and the confidence of the Board and staff and the city but you never know. We don’t do the same thing over and over again. Every time we embark on a new production it’s a risk, especially if it’s a new play. Even if you are doing something that was very successful somewhere else, it doesn’t necessarily translate. Having the privilege of working across this country and outside of it as well, there is no guarantee.  You can’t go, “Oh ya this was a really big hit in Australia, it’s just going to rock in Montreal, or it did really well in Vancouver, it doesn’t mean anything for here.”

Review: (Montreal) En Français Comme en Anglais, It's Easy to Criticize

It’s easy to criticize; it’s harder to do something about it.

National Theatre School celebrates 50 by getting together  

by David Sklar

NTS’ (National Theatre School of Canada) 50th anniversary is coming to an end.  After a year of showcases and promoting itself and its students, the party will come to an end next week with the reunion and Homecoming Cabaret. This week however, the third year graduating class is presenting, En Francais Comme En Anglais, It’s Easy to Criticize. It is hard to believe that this show is the first time both the English and French departments are working together on the same piece. A collaborative effort molded together from three earlier works by Jacob Wren and updated for the 21st century. The piece is designed to explore the place of theatre in the future and what, if any. impact it can still have on us.