Creative Director Matt Marshal (BA 2010) gives us an update on what he’s been up to since graduation, and shares his thoughts on life at York.
Life has been a little on the crazy side. Towards the end of my time at York I founded Theatre Bassaris and directed Closer by Patrick Marber for the company. After that I moved to Vancouver to pursue a Master’s in Digital Media. During that time I worked with Hybridity Media in Vancouver as a Design Lead for interactive art installations and projection mappings for Nuit Blanche Toronto, Transmission Global Summit in Victoria, and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
Recently, I have settled into independent game development, which is where I wanted to be when I moved to Vancouver. I am presently the Creative Director and Co-Founder of Wayward, a small independent studio, and I am the Game Director of “The Veil“, an interactive story episodic that we are developing in partnership with Microsoft and Nokia.
In which ways has your education at York, and in Theatre in particular, helped you in work and life?
Theatre training and study over several years develops a lot of “soft skills” that are hard to see until you go out into other industries. Being able to tell stories and having a “sixth sense” for quality storytelling is a huge one because it is a skill used for selling yourself and your ideas. Being comfortable talking in front of people, being able to collaborate on creative work, being on time, and being able to work under pressure are all skills that are not abundant elsewhere. Add this to the wide range of personalities you deal with in the theatre, and you actually have a solid foundation toolset for creative leadership.
In my final year, year and a half at York I turned away from acting to focus exclusively on directing. Even with just a short amount of time learning the craft, I definitely found ideas, tools, and methodologies that were global to all kinds of creative direction. It’s actually one of the few places you can learn about leadership for creative work at an undergraduate level.
What is your fondest memory of studying Theatre at York?
Jamie Maczko, Matt Marshall, and Jim Schmidt
in CoEd: Table Talk, directed by Ross Manson.
I have two. The first was Assistant Directing TableTalk under Volcano artistic director Ross Manson. I learned a tremendous amount about the craft, but I also got the experience of a lifetime when a rogue poisonous spider bite downed one of the cast members. And guess who was first in line to understudy? It was a whirlwind 24 hours where I learned all the lines, the blocking, and the fight choreography, and sure enough I went on for the second preview. I got my two days in the acting conservatory.
The second memory was assembling Theatre Bassaris to put on Closer in the Eleanor Winters Art Gallery. I had never directed a full play before and it was a doozy. Lots of mistakes were made, but the show went up, sold out, and helped start a small theatre company in Toronto. We all worked incredibly hard, learned a lot, and I gained a lot of confidence as a director.
If you had the chance to go back and visit your younger self as you were beginning at York, what advice would you give yourself?
Streaming doesn’t matter. You don’t need to be in the conservatory to be an actor, and don’t start sizing up all your peers on day one.
Allow yourself to gravitate to what you are good at, and start making things as soon as possible—even if they aren’t good right away. Don’t wait for school to present you with the opportunity to direct, produce or perform. Get together with smart people, apply what you are learning and just do it.
Do you have any advice or tips for York students just entering the dept.?
I’m going to say something a little specific to what I am doing now, but: take up computer programming. You don’t need to become a software engineer, but knowing the basics of programming is about to become a hugely desired skill over the next few years with a huge (1 million+) shortfall of computer science graduates on the horizon.
Some light programming experience opens up all kinds of fun possibilities for theatre artists like motion-tracking and projection-mapping. It also might just get you a well-paying job while you explore and experiment with theatre arts without worrying about starving.
You don’t need to know as much about “math” as you might think.
Ian Garrett is a designer, producer, teacher and administrator whose main focus is on sustainability in the arts. I recently caught up with Garrett and he told me a bit about sustainability in design and theatre production, while he brought me up to date on his recent activities with Festivals Edinburgh,World Stage Design,and his organization called The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts.
Ian Garrett
Ian Garrett grew up in Southern California, where environmental sustainability was embedded within the culture. He began his education within sustainable architecture and design, and eventually found his way to designing for performance with an emphasis on sustainability.
How would you describe sustainability in design and theatre production?
IG: It’s about being smart about the way we make things. It’s partially about resources: using resources that are available, with materials that are appropriate and healthy; how one manages energy, how one manages toxicity; and then what you end up doing with it—how you communicate the sustainability of those objects with your audience and connect to the community in which the work is being created. That concept that you’re trying to achieve, and that message that you’re trying to achieve about sustainability, needs to be balanced on the material side as well. Which is what shifts it out of architectural design or industrial design. There is a communicative element that doesn’t exist in other fields.
What have you been up to in 2013?
IG: I spent 7 weeks in the UK over the summer, on two different projects; one is an on-going project – now in its fourth year. We’ve been doing it through a partnership with a couple of organizations: Creative Carbon Scotland and Festivals Edinburgh—which is an organization that connects a number of the Edinburgh festivals, including the Fringe. We’ve come together to present an award for sustainable production on the fringe. It’s a bit of a Trojan horse, in that it is a way to engage artists who are bringing work to the Fringe and allows us to ask various leading questions about how they’re considering sustainability in their production, from a holistic approach, essentially. Such as: How did you get here? What is it made out of? and, What are you talking about? Over the last few years we have been working closely together to expand that, while also building out resources for venues and producers for more sustainable production and less environmental impact. The engagement with the individual artist happens through this awards project that we’ve been working on together. This past summer was the first year in four years with an actual ceremony, and we gathered everyone together and had a small reception as well. We’ve been working with a media sponsor to help promote it, and to add in value to the participating companies, which have to apply, but that’s how we gather the information. Our media sponsor reviews everybody that gets shortlisted. We also do a number of workshops where artists coming to present work at the festivals, can learn how they could integrate sustainability in what they are doing. Along with that, The Edinburgh Art Festival, which happens around the same time, did a project called CO2 Spirit in the Air – which set up carbon dioxide sensors in cultural facilities throughout the city of Edinburgh; two that were mobile, on popular footpaths for festival goers, that fed information to an installation at a gallery at the Edinburgh College of Art. Then, there were a series of talks and conversations that also happened within that space—so it became about becoming aware of what it means when someone is talking about ‘parts per million of carbon’. There was also a map and information of facts, along with live information about the current carbon dioxide concentration in cultural facilities around the cultural activities in the city. We supported this by participating in a number of the talks that happened around the context of having this data turned into an art installation. One of the hallmarks of what we’ve done with the CSPA is that we tend to make art about data about art. We collect data and do generative projects around that.
Spirit in the Air
Tell me about Cardiff!
IG: In Cardiff, Wales, we presented 24 different sessions as part of World Stage Design, a 10-day quadrennial festival of Global design which started in Toronto in 2005 and the last one was in Seoul, Korea, in 2009. The impact of cultural activity on the environment and sustainability is a growing concern within Wales, and is tied to some funding through the Arts Council in the UK, who is starting to tie environmental reporting to their funding for arts organizations. Through these factors and having organized talks through these gatherings, we did a large sustainability project contained within World Stage Design through performances, film screenings, panel presentations, workshops, lectures, etc., participating in at least two activities a day. Bringing together global design and sustainability theatre communities, we also built a temporary sustainable 150-seat theatre, made entirely out of reusable materials. We built this as an international design competition. The skeleton was all scaffolding and then the primary skin for the inside and outside walls was agricultural fleece, a thinly woven material used in agricultural settings to prevent freezing and to keep pests out. It’s called The Willow—because of the free-hanging portions that were to be activated by the wind. After the theatre was taken down, the fleece was reused in the community gardens on campus. The original design had to be modified using a layer of vinyl on the outside – in order to do a black out more often than originally intended for—a part of the general performance program which works in conjunction with the festival. Design-wise, it was less than ideal, but we worked with a local company that creates vinyl signs and the vinyl was used in the least adulterated form possible, and then sent back to the manufacturer to be immediately reused for signage, recycled or kept in storage – we just diverted it from its original use. Down the line it will likely turn into waste. We also did a very large tracking project. We collected data on which city/location everyone who attended came from, so that we can estimate travel impact. We know: the electrical usage and the difference from previous years, how much electricity is consumed by the event itself, the amount of waste generated, the amount of raw material that went into it, the density of participation, and through other factors we’ll be able to estimate the environmental impact on Cardiff. We’ll put all of this data together and create a report of the event.
Our current research is centered on what the actual impact of creating a light is? If you were talking about replacing a light bulb at home, it might have lasted you 2 – 5 years depending on the use or type, so it makes sense to switch the light bulb out with a newer one. But when you are talking about a theatrical lighting instrument you are talking about swapping out the entire fixture, not just the lamp that goes inside of it. You are replacing the device, not only the implement that goes into the device. A number of theatre lights haven’t changed in design in about 20 years—so you can have a 20 year-old light fixture that works just fine, but there is the energy consumption—so where do those graphs meet? And then that scales out to every aspect – because yes, we throw out a lot of things, we use a lot of energy intensive fixtures, but we don’t use them all the time. So what is the actual consumption of energy? What is the actual impact of the waste that is being created? This is where our current research is, and we research with a number of partners as we try to figure out what the actual numbers are. What we have been seeing so far is suggesting this idea, that we are now trying to verify, which is cultural offsetting. In 2009, in working with a couple of theatres, we found that the amount of electricity that they were using before, during, and after a show—was about 15% less electricity on average than the audience would be using at home during the same time. If the theatre house is full, just going to the theatre is a more sustainable choice than not going to the theatre. About a year ago we started to get the first real usage data, from a theatre whose entire season we tracked. And their energy consumption is about 80% less than what their audience would have been using at home, on average.
That’s incredible!
IG: We are trying to see if there are any legs to this idea of cultural offsetting. By congregating people together, you can combine their consumption in a way that cultural production is actually in and of itself an eco-positive act. We should be considering how attending a cultural activity, and that could be theatre, live music, sporting events—anything that involves bringing people together as a community—is a more sustainable act, than not to. Even before you try to make it sustainable, it already is. This focus on the Edinburgh Festivals is useful because it is the largest arts festival in the world, where you can get everyone together attending a cultural event. So if we can get our heads wrapped around that then we can get our heads wrapped around any festival. It will test all of those methodologies. With World Stage Design we have a large festival, an international audience to discuss issues, where we can act on the issues, and then also collect data on the large cultural gathering—which is then pulling in an international audience. So the question for us is, what does it mean for people to be travelling for such a festival? Is flying to this festival the worst thing that people could be doing for the environment? By pulling these people together into one place to have this communal experience, we have to consider the different aspects—the environmental, the social, the economic, and put all those together. I think that you can make a case that cultural activity should be something that we should focus on, rather than staying at home because a festival of any kind is too wasteful. This is where policy issues come into play. Why should we fund this? Why should we fund sustainability issues within the arts? We are trying to make the case that the two are related? The arts in the United States move with funders, as apposed to moving with policy.
That’s amazing to me because I feel as though sustainability is related to everything we do.
IG: Yes, and you’ve got a lot of funders all over the place that have environmental or cultural initiatives, and they don’t ever think about how those two interact with each other. We are trying to make the case that we should be considering these two things together because they are intertwined. And they can positively impact each other in a way that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Which is what the research portfolio is trying to gather. I’m trying not to have too much of a confirmation bias around it – so it’s exciting! We get these first data sets, where it indicates 15% less electricity is used If people just go to the theatre, and then real data is telling us, no, it’s 80% less electricity than the household capacity of a theatre, just because people are in one place.
This is good news! This gives me hope!
IG: What ‘s been great about being part of this and why I still get jazzed about it is that when we communicate this—it just comes down to going and seeing more theatre! It’s the environmentalist thing to do. Just go see more theatre.
That’s going to be my new slogan. Go to the theatre! It’s better for the environment!
IG: It IS better for the environment. It is factually correct.
Homasote
What is your favourite sustainable material?
IG: Homasote. It’s an entirely recycled paper product. Something about it. . .
What would you be doing if circumstances had been different?
IG: I’d be an architect. I’d be planning. I have something for infrastructure.
Who is the person who has most influenced your work?
IG: There are a lot of people! As an academic, there is a woman named Theresa May, who has been at the forefront of this issue for a long time. Someone else who has been a mentor to me is Sixto Wagan, and a lot of my knowledge of the performance community comes from working with him in different capacities over the years. Also, Terence McFarland, who is the CEO of the Los Angeles Stage Alliance, he’s really smart about arts infrastructure, planning and vision.
Is this where you always thought you’d end up?
No. I’m actually surprised. I thought I’d end up in the non-profit-service-organization, in the progressive-arts-infrastructure, side of things. The York position ticked all of the boxes—bringing in sustainability, design, my artistic practice, new technology within performance, and I also end up having relationships with a lot of service organizations that serve the Toronto area, and they too are interested in sustainability. This all makes it really exciting to be here.
Jack Grinhaus (BA Hons Theatre – 1994-96,2005-06 / MFA Acting – 2007-09) took a long time to complete his first degree at York, and then returned and completed his MFA 15 years later. He's now Artistic Director of Bound to Create Theatre, as well as working successfully as an actor. He tells us about his York journey, and the sights he saw along the way.
After finally graduating York, following a 15 year odyssey that had me there as an undergrad, and then as a grad student, I’ve been working fairly steadily, surviving solely on work in this field. As an actor I have had some good opportunities, particularly on television, including a recurring role on the series Mayday and a principal role in the Lifetime Network MOW Who is Clark Rockefellerwith Eric McCormack.
Jack Grinhaus with Eric McCormack
I’ve also been able to begin establishing myself as an emerging director in theatre as well, one of my main goals of training towards when I returned to York for my MFA. Over the last four years since graduating in 2009 I’ve had the opportunity to assist and work with Sarah Stanley (City of Wine), Morris Panych (ART as well as Ghosts), Robert Lepage (Playing Cards Part 1) and with companies Canadian Stage, Soulpepper Theatre, Ex Machina and The Grand Theatre, where I was last season’s Associate/Apprentice Artistic Director under Susan Ferley, directing the HSP production of Taming of the Shrew as well as the Playwright Cabaret and assisting on the Mainstage production of Yankee Tavern staring Nicholas Campbell and directed by Stuart Hughes.
The company of dirty butterfly, directed by Jack Grinhaus
Some of the most exciting stuff I’ve done and am doing comes from the work with my Indie theatre company started with my wife and partner Lauren Brotman called Bound to Create Theatre in Toronto; utilizing many York Alumni I met while there over the years, and producing and directing show’s like my own play about Toronto called The Complex: A Toronto Tale, Edward Bond’s Saved, garnering a Dora nomination for Judith Thomspon’s Next Stage festival hit, The Grace Project: Sick, Phaedra’s Lust (with Tapestry New Opera) as well as Jamaican British Playwright Debbie Tucker Green’s intense and gritty drama about the collateral damage of domestic abuse, dirty butterfly, recently picked up by Obsidian Theatre as part of their 2013.14 Season Presentation Series, and running from Nov 1-17 at the new Aki Studio Theatre in the Daniels Spectrum building. (Tickets are available here; Yorkies get special rates through Surprise Surprise or with a York ID).
What was your favorite place at York, and why?
Though a closed space now, the underground tunnels at York were an exciting and adventurous place to be in. Most fun was spending time down there with all the pictures and writings on the walls, which covered what seemed like miles of endless cavernous space that was the gateway through much of the East side of the campus; each one of the walls’ images and writings representing the different ideologies of the faculty or building you would be under when in them. I read some profound thoughts from the philosophy students under Stedmans, inspired political doctrines under Vanier college, a host of intriguing concepts in various languages under Founders, murals, vast images and portraits, poems and quotes under Winters and pretty much everything else under the sun under Veri Hall. It was a marvelous little place that I frequented either on my own or with friends at the latest of hours at York to decompress and blow off steam within. It was like an unaccredited elective course. (A video of a York tunnel can be seen here.)
What was the most challenging aspect or experience of training/studying at York?
Apparently not being allowed to leave until I was ready, which in my case took fifteen years to do!! Truthfully speaking it was about relinquishing control and trusting the system would work for me in the long run, even if I didn’t figure it all out at the time. This was one of my worst habits; trying to figure it all out.
If you had the chance to go back and visit your younger self as you were beginning at York, what advice would you give yourself?
Strive to fail. What I mean by that is that you should be willing to take huge risks while training that may have you falling on your face and feeling vulnerable. I tried too hard to retain control as an undergrad, not letting go enough and trying to do things ‘right’ and give the professors, what I thought ‘they wanted’ rather than grow from taking risks that could have taught me much more about myself and as an actor.
I like a quote I once saw read by playwright Samuel Beckett: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” (See Tom Phillips's portrait of Samuel Beckett, which features this quote.) That would be my best advice. Fail Better. We generally grow more through our failures rather than through our successes. And the conservatory environment is the safest place in this industry to take the time to do that in. Indulge!
What did you learn at York that has been of greatest value?
Patience and Perspective: When I was an undergraduate at York in my first year in the theatre program I was an usher at the Joe Green theatre (one of the genuine perks of York’s program, getting to work on all sides of the stage and gaining a deep respect for everyone’s contributions to the work), watching A Streetcar Named Desire directed and starring Janet Laine Green and my then first year acting teacher David Collins. At that age my dream was to be able to play a character like Stanley Kowalski in a big final show at York. At the end of each show I was left to mop the floors and close up the theatre. When everyone was gone I’d stay around and play on the set, doing scenes from the play and other monologues. On one particular night I gave an oath to myself that I would perform in that theatre, and at the time I assumed it would be as a fourth year conservatory actor. But I wasn’t asked into the conservatory at the end of the year. I instead went to New York City and studied with Uta Hagen and in another conservatory program. I began to work professionally and travelled the world, found myself in various intense relationships and surrounded by an abundance of… life. I forgot about my ‘oath’.
Jack Grinhaus Tiger in “The Bundle”
Yet fifteen years later, after returning to York as an MFA student, I completed my thesis in a role like the one I always dreamt of, playing Tiger in Edward Bond’s epic piece The Bundle, as one of the final shows of the York theatre season and in the theatre I swore I would do it in. I only remembered that ‘oath’ on opening night. What a beautiful moment in my life. What an incredible lesson on patience and perseverance. Goals sometimes take a great deal longer to achieve than expected. And while cliché sounding, they are truly more rich when they are achieved that way. Helps one get perspective on career and on life.
Performer, playwright and 2012 Bryden Award Winner (“Redefine the Possible”) Nina Arsenault (MFA Playwriting 2000, BFA 1996) speaks candidly about her experience at York, pre- and post- her gender transition, and the people from York who've had the strongest impact on her life as an artist.
Following my gender transition I was very isolated and alienated in culture. I was working alone inside my apartment as a sex worker and human rights were such that it didn't feel like there were many places that I felt safe as a transsexual—really only nightclubs, the strip club where I worked and Church Street. I had given up hope that I could work as a professional artist. Transphobia, overt and implied, was so intense—even in places where people said it didn't exist. Things have improved so much in only five years! (Still far to go, though.) When I got onto social networking (Facebook) in 2007 I had a relatively small voice in culture, and it gave me the opportunity to be creative. Also, for people to notice the things I was doing. I was a club hostess. I did photo shoots. I spent days putting together glamourous outfits. OMG, so many tricks to pay for all those glittery dresses! I never listened to any of the online haters who told me to be quiet. The virtual world was one of the only places I had for self-expression. Then, some artists and institutions, like Sky Gilbert and Buddies in Bad Times noticed me. They were interested in some of the things I was doing and my point of view. A conversation about working together began.
Currently, I am focusing on dance and video, but I also do visual art works, write poetry and make installations. No matter what I am going through I continue making work. For a few years, I took every opportunity that was offered to me. I have never had a career plan because I didn't think it was possible for me to have a career. Honestly, I thought I would be dead before forty because many of the transwomen I knew in the generation above me died or disappeared around that time. (Now I think I might actually live forever.)
photo by Robert Wallace
I suppose thinking that I only had a few years left meant it was possible for me to take greater personal risks in the artworks. I had a now-or-never mentality about that.
Working as an artist continues to be a way of survival to me. A way of being with my body. A way of living in a world that always feels potentially hostile. Also, a way of dealing with the existential pain of life.
It's the way I can search to see reality for what it is, to be seeking truth, to engage with the rigour of perceiving something immense, and also to be able to process the intensity of it.
Moreover, I don't differentiate between professional art work, amateur art works and art therapy. It is all the same thing to me. Often, the art-as-therapy creates the most powerful cathartic works.
The most valuable things I learned at York:
1.) Find your erotic landscape. What version of 'you' gives you the greatest charge?
(from Judith Rudakoff)
2.) Most people think they are taking artistic risks, but they are only paying lip service to the idea of risk.
(Ron Singer)
3.) You have to be able to embrace paradox, and get in touch with your dark side. This does not mean acting “naughty.” You very have anti-social thoughts. Thoughts.
(Ines Buchli)
4.) Take voice work. Even if you never have a career in theatre, the ability to breathe, to be in the moment –what it will do to your presence– will always make you more successful at whatever you are doing, and will make life better. It will make sex better. It will make you love more. Life will be more compelling. Even if you don't understand why, do it anyways. If you hate it, then just be a bad student of this work. Trust.
(Rae-Ellen Bodie)
5.) You can look at people and think “You are so goddamn beautiful” and you can find things to fall in love with about them. It doesn't have to be creepy. It can be safe.
(Geoffrey Hyland)
6.) If you're going to be provocative, be boldly provocative and you better believe it.
(Ines Buchli)
7.) Look to work with people who you ADMIRE.
(Judith Rudakoff)
8.) The only way out is through.
(Judith Rudakoff)
9.) You're allowed to have secrets.
(Geoffrey Hyland)
photo courtesty of The Ottawa Citizen
Did relationships you made at York help you afterwards?
My relationship with Judith Rudakoff has been one of the most rewarding of my life. We have known each other so long, been through so many changes, and we have always found new ways to connect—it's profound to have that. To know and see someone so deeply through different works. I believe it is the most intimate way of knowing someone. Even more intimate than sex which can be faked or manipulative. More intimate than a marriage because married life is often about not being in the moment together.
I occasionally keep in touch with Geoffrey Hyland, but we live in separate countries. I chase him down because he's an incredible human being and does the most exquisite plays.
J. Paul Halferty and I went through undergrad together, and we talk about performance all the time. He is a constant source of inspiration.
My dear friend John Grundy was a political science major, brilliant and very enthusiastic about his field of study. The conversations we have cross-pollinate. His work seeps into mine, mine into his in strange and unexpected ways, just through us knowing each other. It's never explicit, only implicit.
But other than these four wonderful people, I have not really kept in touch with anyone else. And, that is also a good learning experience. I like reminding myself that I don't have to seek anyone's approval or try to be in the in-crowd because all of it will dissolve in time anyways. I like knowing that I just have to do the work I am passionate about.
Tips for students about to graduate and enter the job market?
I'm interested in artists, not careerists. I'm interested in people who are looking for truth, who want to speak truth and who want to affect truth. Also, for me the work really didn't get going until I was thirty-five. Before that I did lots of school, study and workshops. I think performance is one of if not the most challenging field to be successful in.
Mel Hague (BA Theatre 2009, MFA New Play Dramaturgy 2011) tells us about her experience working in new play dramaturgy, and about what she carries with her from her time as a student at York.
What was the most valuable thing you learned while studying in Theatre at York?
I went through the Playwriting Stream with Prof. Judith Rudakoff. She introduced me to new play dramaturgy, so clearly that has been quite valuable to me as it’s pretty much what I do exclusively now. But what’s more, she encouraged me to find the companies and artists that I wanted to work with while still studying at York. So, while I was finishing my degrees (I have my BA in Theatre and my MFA in New Play Dramaturgy) I was networking heavily with companies downtown, meeting artists, getting to know who was doing what in the Toronto Theatre scene.
Her encouragement to do this in tandem with learning the skills I would need to work while at York is one of the main reasons I was able to know what to do when I graduated, because I knew who I was going to find work with.
What was one thing you enjoyed about York that was outside of the Theatre?
York has many fantastic departments outside of theatre, so when I was choosing my electives I opted to choose what was interesting to me, I took Caribbean History (which I failed miserably and had to drop, but I have the textbooks which I still go back to often today) African Literature and Drama, Post Modern Literature, Adaptations of Greek Mythology, all of these electives have had a wonderful impact on the breadth of my knowledge and have been very useful to me outside of York. So, basically, choose your electives wisely because they can come in handy if you pick good one.
Did connections, friendships, relationships you made at York help you afterward?
I am still very close to many of the friends that I made in Theatre at York, they are my core support, and a circle of people I can turn to for anything. But when I graduated I rarely worked on theatre with people that I went to York with. Sometimes I would meet other alumni in my professional travels, but I was rarely working with my fellow students. I think that this has helped me to develop professional relationships beyond my York connections. I believe that working with artists that have had different training to me has helped me to evolve and adapt my practice. Now, after a few years have passed and I have become more confident in who I am as a professional artist outside of York, I find myself returning to those classmates with whom I share a mutual artistic bond beyond friendship to work on projects.
It’s a difficult thing being a professional artist these days. But then again it always was difficult. Professional Theatre is a business just like any other business, so networking, putting yourself out there, all of the things that you should do when you are investigating any other field are paramount to becoming that theatre “professional” you may want to be. Sometimes it requires you to put your friendships aside and try “working up” ie. working with those who have more and different experiences than you.
Do you have any advice or tips for York students just entering the dept.?
Don’t let your degree define you. You are a unique individual amongst many, and your job at York is not to fit in the best to the mold, but to find what makes you, you. You are at the beginning of a long journey, and the things that you want will change and shift, so the best you can do is try and stay in touch with what will make you happy.
I graduated from York with my BFA in Theatre Production in 2011 with some interesting options. The first was to aim for policy writing related to the arts and culture and study law at another university in Ontario. The other was to go work in the Theatre Arts Department at The Banff Centre as an Assistant Production Manager out west. Ultimately, my Theatre heart won out and I headed West and got to work with tons of great artists and shows, like Sam Roberts Band, Dan Mangan, City & Colour, and LIVE! With Kelly Banff.
After The Banff Centre, I came back home to York as a staff member where I worked coordinating the Fine Arts Summer Intensive. It was a blast being back and it definitely diversified my work experience. It also had me start to think that the arts and business are two ideas that we cannot keep apart, despite what some business and arts people sometimes think!
Now I’m studying my MBA at Wilfrid Laurier University with the goal of working in Not-For-Profit Management for the arts. It’s an exciting program and my theatre training definitely places me in a good spot with my interpersonal, time management, and creative analysis skills. I’m sure everyone keeps saying it, but with a Fine Arts degree, you can do almost anything!
What was the most challenging aspect or experience of training/studying at York?
The workload because it’s not a walk-in-the-park. The faculty – they don’t chintzy out on the size and scope of the projects and the time and quality demands. It was a challenge and I can’t recall getting much sleep, but the return on investment based on the depth of my education was worth it.
What was one thing you enjoyed about York that was outside of the Theatre?
I was President of the Creative Arts Student Association (CASA), the Faculty of Fine Arts Student Government, in my 4th year and it was an amazing experience. I met a whole network of people outside my program and those connections have helped me get jobs: first at The Banff Centre, then again as a staff member at York. They say it’s all about who you know, but you only get to know those people if you put yourself in those positions of opportunity! CASA did that for me.
Do you have any advice or tips for York students just about to graduate? About to join the job market?
Anything is possible. I know that sounds like a Hallmark card that you would give someone on their first day of school, but it’s true. A degree in Theatre (and the Fine Arts, in general) provides you with soft skills you can’t buy: creativity, thinking-on-your-feet, and the confidence and ability to make the sometimes seemingly impossible projects possible. Our selling point is our innovation capacity, adaptability, and resourcefulness – something companies in almost every industry admits to needing more of!
In which ways has your education at York, and in Theatre in particular, helped you in work and life?
York provided me with confidence and self-awareness. They seem like they’re inherent traits, but they’re not. The Theatre production practicum area taught me the type of worker I am, how to handle conflict, and how to express abstract ideas succinctly and comprehensibly. If you can’t confidently relay your vision to others, it’s going to be mighty difficult getting projects up and running!
Litmus Theatre: Matt Walker, Claire Wynveen & Adriano Sobretodo Jr.
Litmus Theatre was formed in 2009 by York Acting MFA graduates Adriano Sobretodo Jr., Matt Walker and Claire Wynveen. Since its inception, LitmusTheatre has become known for engaging and innovative site specific theatre. In 2010 and 2011, Litmus staged Matchbox Macbeth: an eerie retelling of Macbeth in a backyard shed. The show sold out both of its runs and garnered critical acclaim.
Up next, Litmus Theatre is working on the premiere of a new work: Birth of Frankenstein, which runs Oct 22 – Nov 3, 2013.
Birth of Frankenstein is a site specific play that fuses Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking gothic novel with the dramatic personal circumstances that inspired her to write it. It will be staged in the Parlour Room of St. Luke's United Church. Litmus will breathe new life into the myths and monsters that haunt the pages of Frankenstein while exploring the tale of author Mary Shelley. The intimate gothic venue will offer viewers a fresh perspective on this chilling story of science and creation. Inches away from an audience of forty, actors will portray infamous characters from the novel and historical figures from Mary Shelley’s own life.
For more information about Litmus Theatre, or to buy tickets to Birth of Frankenstein, please visit www.litmustheatre.com (Student tickets are $20!)
Abbreviations in this article: MW – Matt Walker, CW – Claire Wynveen, AS – Adriano Sobretodo, Jr.
What is your fondest memory of studying Theatre at York?
MW – Oh, there's many fond memories. Usually what makes me fuzzy with nostalgia, though, is when I remember one of my classmates breaking down into tears of laughter during voice exercises with Smukler. He was remarkable at working with us in all states of ridiculousness and exhaustion.
Do you have any advice or tips for York students just about to graduate?
AS – This is a tough business, so figure out who you can turn to when the going gets rough. Who are the positive people in your life that will give you a boost of encouragement when you need it most? It sounds really basic, but you may find yourself wanting to cut yourself off from people when things aren’t going well. Do the opposite. Figure out who’s got your back and seek them out when you run in to turbulence.
Did connections, friendships, relationships you made at York help you afterward?
CW – The most lasting impact of the connections I made at York is this theatre company. Because the training is so intensive, you really feel like you've gone to war with a group of people. That collaborative mentality has served us so well as a company – we are able to share in many decisions, from the very small to the very large, and stay grounded in the fact that all of our voices matter. It was so special to find 2 other collaborators with the same kooky passionate vision as myself. And we all bring so much to the table: where one person lacks experience, another makes up for it tenfold. And to know that this incredibly difficult job that we all do (indie producing) is built on a foundation of trust and risk-taking is really special.
Can you tell us a story of a moment where your training at York was clearly useful?
CW – Grant writing. The most amazing thing about the York MFA program is you get such a spectrum of experience. You can go from teaching an undergraduate acting class, to being in a movement class, to working on your 70-page thesis in one day! This holistic training has been so useful in grant writing: at York my artist muscle was trained, which helped me refine my artistic vision. But my writing muscle was also given tons of practice, which makes it so much easier to articulate our creative thoughts on our grant applications. Plus: when you teach you have to get really good at putting thought and impulse into words.
MW – A year or so after graduating I played a character that was mute through most of the first act, but never left the stage. At first glance I found this a bit daunting as I'd previously relied too heavily on text to uncover the life of my character. My York training gave me multiple ways to attack this, and ultimately served me greatly. The detailed study of character body in our movement classes and Mask work gave me a way to look at how to tell my characters story through rhythm and spatial relationships, while grounding it in authentic experience.
AS – I just finished doing a show at SummerWorks where I played 8 or 9 different characters including one of the Beach Boy, a Cuban ex-patriate, and a 17th Century foul-mouthed Dutch adjudicator. My York Theatre training in Mask and Character Body gives me a foundation and clear framework on how to approach character creation, step by step, from the ground up.
What did you learn at York that has been of greatest value?
CW – To take risks. To challenge yourself and your collaborators. With collective creation, you never know where you're going until you get there – so you have to remain open to the possibilities that may come your way. Whether it's a pop song you hear on the radio that radically transforms the way you think of the piece, or a movement workshop that opens up your own actor's instrument – you need to experiment and listen to what the world has in store for the piece. Don't be precious. Throw stuff in the garbage if it's isn't working. Have fun in the studio with people who make you laugh.
AS – The idea of oscillating back and forth between seemingly opposite ideas. At York it's often referred to as “a swing.” For example, I can be madly in love with someone one second, and then want to rip out her heart the next. It's interesting to see a person struggle with competing ideas. And there's a sense of uneasiness not knowing which direction someone is headed. I apply this idea of “a swing” to every audition I go out for, every monologue I recite, every movement piece I choreograph.
MW – Most valuable to our site-specific work with Litmus has been the Viewpoints exercises we did with Michael Greyeyes. From the moment Claire, Adriano and I walk into a space we have a very clear way of breaking down its creative potential, assessing what stories it is trying to tell us. It's how we begin every project.
Marketing/Communications Guru and Arts Planner extraordinaire Sue Edworthy (BA Theatre 1995) joins us to share her story of life behind the scenes and to answer our questions!
I’ve been working in the non-profit performing arts in Toronto ever since graduating in ’95. It’s led me to stints as a director, event coordinator and arts administrator with companies all over the city including Opera Atelier, Dance Umbrella of Ontario, Theatre Passe Muraille, Luminato and STAF.
Two years ago, after realizing no matter where I worked I always had a side gig, I opened my own company – Sue Edworthy Arts Planning and haven’t stopped. It’s given me the opportunity to work with some amazing indie and medium sized companies like Expect Theatre (two other York Alumni!), Theatre Rusticle, Bound to Create, Obsidian and more – you can see them at sueedworthy.ca
I’ve always been an active volunteer, and that hasn’t stopped either – I’m a former Board Member for the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts and am now a member of their Advocacy Committee. I’m also the Social Media Chair/Steering Committee member for Artsvote 2010, and co-chair for the continuation of Artsvote. I love the fact that I am a part of such an amazing community – I’m extremely proud of my Harold Award for outstanding contribution to the theatre community, and my 2012 CharPR Prize for best PR. That PR prize was for one of my most challenging and rewarding works to date – producing Michael Healey’s Proud in 2012 – we’re thrilled it’s opening the GCTC 2013 season in Ottawa!
I’ve been a proud Board member for the Toronto Fringe Festival for six years now – it delights me to contribute to such an amazing festival that gives such incredible opportunities to artists. I’ve never left the arts world, and feel pretty much ensconced in the theatre one.
Did connections, friendships, relationships you made at York help you afterward?
Someone once described the theatre community as “a very small town spread out over a very big country” and I absolutely agree. The relationships fostered in university can last for a lifetime – some of my dearest friends are people I met at York, and some of my favourite colleagues and clients were fellow students. Having people in your community who have known you that long can be a very good thing – I was at the Mayor’s Arts Awards this spring – I’d nominated a client (two people who I shared a directing class with) and was chatting with another friend who works at a major theatre. We insisted a photo be taken – we’d known each other for twenty years.
What was the most valuable thing you learned while studying in Theatre at York?
In two words – BALANCE and DECISIONS. And I don’t mean the over-used phrase “work life balance” that everyone quotes these days. Work and life are not necessarily two separate things. I mean balance in your whole life – because work is part of that. Figure out what matters to you. Do that thing well. Enjoy it. And if that thing happens to change from being an actor, or a technician or whatever – honour that change. Honour yourself and other with your decisions. I started at York wanting to be an actor, changing to director, hemming and hawing about stage management, and finally I’m now a producer and really good marketer. Do I have a marketing degree? No. My degree in in directing. Did I learn a ton of stuff that I can apply to what I do now? YES.
You’ll be happiest once you decide and honestly, so will everyone else.
What was your favourite place at York, and why?
My single room in Winters res. second and third year. I had a double futon, a Crayola caddy, a boom box and two decks of cards. There was inevitably one game of euchre going on, someone drawing a picture (my room was covered in everyone’s artwork), someone waiting to join the game (I had a sign on my door labelled “looking for a 4th”. Someone else would be using my word processor (not computer – word processor and I had one of the few in res) to type a paper, and music was playing constantly. There were usually seven or eight people in there, working talking laughing. My door was generally open and I liked it that way. True sense of people, of community – a fun, odd, loud little one. An arts microcosm. A lot of work got done in that room, believe it or not.
Go back and visit your younger self as you were beginning at York, what advice would you give yourself?
Calm down. Take it seriously. Don’t take yourself so seriously. We’re all in the same boat – we’re all tired, hungry, working part time jobs, scheduled for NatSci and ensemble rehearsal at the same time. We were all the best at what we did in high school. Now there’s competition. Learn from each other. Listen to each other. Have fun sounds so cheesy, everyone says it – but do it. Have NON-theatre fun. Experience life outside. Some of the best things in my time at York were baseball games outside the fine arts “cafeteria”, building a rococo snowwoman (snococo), exploring Toronto outside of your York theatre comfort zone. The best things happen outside that zone. Yes downtown is far – get DOWN there. Go to things. Get to know each other – many of you will be in each others’ lives a lot longer than you think.
Anusree Roy (BA Playwriting/Theatre Studies 2006) is a Governor General’s Award nominated writer and actor whose work has toured nationally. Her plays include: Brothel # 9, Roshni, Letters to my Grandma and Pyaasa. Her Opera librettos include: The Golden Boy and Noor over Afghan. Her latest libretto Phoolan Devi will premiere at N.Y.C in the fall of 2014. She also holds an M.A from the University to Toronto. She is the Co-Artistic Director of Theatre Jones Roy and has been published by the Playwright’s Canada Press. Her plays and performances have won her three Dora Mavor Moore Awards along with multiple nominations. She is the recipient of the K.M.Hunter Award, RBC Emerging Artist Award, The Carol Bolt Award and The Siminovitch Protégé Prize
Do you have an advice or tips for York students just about to graduate? About to join the job market?
My advice would be two-fold:
WORK WORK WORK – Do any kind of work related to theatre. Anything. Even if all you ever wanted to do/be was an actor, a director or a producer and someone is hiring you to mop the floors of the theatre, do it. DO IT! You will learn so so so much and this is a VERY small community. You will get to know people and before you know it, one thing will lead to the next and many new doors will open. There is no room for ego and no job is a small job. Seriously. So, NEVER say no to work. Even if it doesn’t pay – just do it. I have worked for free on so many occasions and those very people who I volunteered for, ended up hiring me. No job is too little or too small.
APPLY TO EVERYTHING – Right after I graduated with my masters form UofT, my friend Tom, told me Anusree, Apply to everything and I did. I wrote to every artistic director, submitted my plays everywhere, call any and everyone I knew and asked them if they were hiring and if I could apply and so many opportunities opened up. Also, apply to as many grants as possible, you never know which one you will get.
What did you learn at York that has been of greatest value?
Peter McKinnon taught me the value of time and I am so deeply grateful to him for that. He was VERY strict about deadlines —deadlines with him were ABSOLUTELY non-negotiable. No matter what. The world could come to an end you would still have to hand in your assignment on the deadline date. Since I started to work professionally I realized that he taught me something invaluable. The professional world is all about deadlines and you have to meet them, or you’re fired! I am so grateful to him for forcing his students to be disciplined.
If you had the chance to go back and visit your younger self as you were beginning at York, what advice would you give yourself?
I would tell myself that I have to keep being fearless – that I have to trust the way the next four years will unfold and that I will be able to be a writer and an actor even though I wouldn’t get into acting at York. I would tell myself that I had to turn the disappointment into something active – into fuel – and to keep creating!
What did you do the first summer out of York?
I worked three different jobs to pay my bills, volunteered as an usher at Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage and TPM. And I volunteered on various summer shows around the city.
Please tell us about what you’re up to these days, and about some of the most exciting work that you’ve done since graduating.
I am currently working on a couple of things — mostly writing a lot. At the moment I am working as a Story Editor for a new Canadian TV Series called Remedy – it’ll premiere in February on Global TV. It’s been a challenging yet incredible learning experience. Along with that I have a couple of plays I am working on – Sultans of the Street is my very first TYA play that’s premiering in February at YPT, I am writing a play called Little Pretty and the Exceptional with Factory Theatre, on mental health issues in the Indian community in Toronto. I just finished a draft for the Blyth Festival – it’s a new play called No One We Know – It’s a play that explores loss of a loved one in a small town, and I just stated to write a play for Nightwood Theatre – no idea what the play will be called yet, but it’s a play inspired by the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. Also, I was commissioned to write an Opera last year – The opera is called Phoolan Devi – It’s inspired by the life of Bandit Queen Phoolan Devi. It’s premiering in NYC next year.
Matt Marshall
Jamie Maczko, Matt Marshall, and Jim Schmidt
Spirit in the Air
Jack Grinhaus
Jack Grinhaus with Eric McCormack
The company of dirty butterfly, directed by Jack Grinhaus
Nina Arsenault
Mel Hague
Albert Tam
Albert Tam in Banff, AB
Litmus Theatre: Matt Walker, Claire Wynveen & Adriano Sobretodo Jr.
Sue Edworthy
Anusree Roy