The Question... Danielle Desormeaux, chorus director for If We Were Birds

I was terrified and so I had no other option but to say: “yes, I'll do it”
by Estelle Rosen

Born and raised in Northern Ontario, Danielle Desormeaux studied Music at Queen's University and graduated in 1984. She began her acting career in 1991 in Ottawa.  Film and television credits include: How the Gimquat Found Her Song (2007 Award of Excellence - Accolade Television Awards, 2008 Best Children's Program - Banff World Television Festival), the Oscar-winning Affliction (dir. Paul Schrader), Stardom (dir. Denis Arcand), The War of 1812, Big Sugar (dir. Brian McKenna).   Some of her favourite stage projects include: The Comedy of Errors (dir. Peter Hinton - NAC/Centaur), Umloüt, MöcShplat (dir. Alain Goulem - Clowns Gone Bad),  National Capital/e Nationale (dir. Robert Lepage – NAC), as well as her own bilingual adaptation of The Anger In Ernest and Ernestine (dir. Alain Goulem - Hudson Village Theatre).  Danielle has been a member of Platypus Theatre's touring company since 1998, performing theatre for young audiences with symphony orchestras across Canada, the U.S. and South-East Asia. 

CHARPO:  I understand If We Were Birds is an adaptation of Book 6 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, featuring a chorus of women, each a survivor of a 20th Century conflict. What's the most important aspect in general of being a chorus director, specifically in this play featuring only women in the chorus?

DESORMEAUX: When director Micheline Chevrier asked me in the Spring to work with the chorus,  I had to think long and hard about it.  This was new territory for me.  Could I actually do this?  Of course, I have always been musical.  Singing and playing instruments had always somehow found its way into my acting work in the past.  But this was a bit of a departure from the silly songs I'd written for the likes of Madame et Matante or learning to play the accordion and arranging songs for Umloüt or making kooky soundscapes with ukulele, xylophone and cardboard box.  This play is enormous in its theme and yet so deeply personal.  It describes the collective as well as the individual.  I was terrified and so I had no other option but to say: “yes, I'll do it”.