roxy theatre ( edmonton )
edmonton’s theatre community is rallying to ensure the show will go on after edmonton’s iconic roxy theatre burned to the ground tuesday .
theatre network ~ live at the roxy 8529 gateway blvd. edmonton, ab t6e 6p3
nearly two months after edmonton' s roxy theatre was gutted by a massive fire, theatre network is still struggling to recoup its losses and find venues for its shows .
investigators are now on scene at edmonton’s roxy theatre, where an early morning fire tore through the building, leaving only a couple walls standing .
firefighters put out hotspots on jan. 13, 2015, during the fire that destroyed the historic roxy theatre at 124th street and 107th avenue in edmonton .
but edmonton’s theatre community is reaching out to offer support and the theatre network, a registered charity, continues to take donations at urltoken .
bradley moss, artistic director of theatre network, takes us through the burnt remains of the roxy theatre after it burned down on jan. 13, 2015. video by ryan jackson, edmonton journal .
a statement from adam kuss, artistic director of the walterdale theatre, called the roxy an institution .
after a fire destroyed the roxy theatre on 124 street in edmonton, theatre network has moved into a temporary venue located beside the yardbird suite which is owned and operated by the edmonton jazz society (ejs). a former home to catalyst theatre – theatre network has renamed the venue the roxy on gateway with the support of the ejs. we serve the city of edmonton, and we also serve the communities of st. albert, stony plain, sherwood park, leduc, and millwoods .
we are deeply saddened — this is a loss for the edmonton theatre community that is beyond words .
the roxy first opened in 1938 as a movie theatre. it was converted to a live performance facility in 1989 .
live theatre in edmonton. theatre network ~ live at the roxy presents live performances out of the newly named roxy on gateway after a fire that destroyed the company’s beloved roxy on 124 street in edmonton. lead by artistic director bradley moss, theatre network produces contemporary canadian theatre from a diverse range of artists. with the mainstage season, you will see the best of canada’s playwrights, actors, set & production designers in an amazing collection of the best live theatre that edmonton has to offer. with the roxy performance series, bradley moss programs a schedule of artists and performers from a variety of performance disciplines, including comedy, variety shows, dance, puppetry, clowning, and musical shows. with a focus on canadian playwrights, edmonton plays, and local artists, theatre network provides the city of edmonton and its communities with accessible and thought provoking performances that enrich our minds and improve our quality of life. theatre network also hosts the emerging artist festival, nextfest and presents live performances from established and burgeoning theatre companies from around alberta. the dedication to artists and risk - taking performances have helped theatre network become a vital hub in the edmonton arts community for over 40 years .
the historic roxy theatre was gutted by an early - morning fire on jan. 13. (dave bajer / cbc )
only one day after the fire, theatre network, which owned and operate the roxy, announced it planned to rebuild .
the roxy, home of theatre network since 1989, was built in 1938 and first operated as a neighbourhood movie house .
theatre network is slowly starting to make headway on its plans to rebuild the roxy in the same spot at 10708 124th st .
on behalf of the walterdale theatre, our hearts go out to the theatre network family and all the artists that have ever graced the stage at the roxy ,
he wrote .
it' s a tough old fire ,
said deputy fire chief barry lamb of the roxy theatre blaze. (cbc )
maggie baird, associate producer of the theatre network, which operates out of the roxy, says everyone associated with the venue is grieving .
in 2003, theatre network presented metis mutt at the roxy. it was the first time some of my immediate family had seen it .
“on behalf of the walterdale theatre, our hearts go out to the theatre network family and all the artists that have ever graced the stage at the roxy. an institution in our city has been lost, ” said adam kuss, walterdale theatre’s artistic director .
the iconic roxy theater is an edmonton gem. unique plays at a reasonable price. staff is always friendly. loved when it was on 124th street - hope it returns there !
several peopled posted thoughts and memories about the roxy theatre and what it meant to them on twitter and facebook wednesday. here are some of them .
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members of edmonton' s theatre community have been mourning the loss of the space, which had become an integral part of the city' s performing arts scene .
flora and fawna' s field trip: edmonton' s darrin hagen and trevor schmidt ...
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lamb said he felt a
twinge
when he realized edmonton was likely losing one of its landmark buildings .
edmonton oilers situation with milan lucic is
almost untenable
and he must be moved
whatever ...
“at this point it’s hard for us to find the words to describe how we feel. we are thankful for all the support, ” reads a tweet from roxy theatre .
you can find out more about our neighbours at the edmonton jazz society by visiting the website for the yardbird suite. urltoken
several fundraisers have been held by other theatre groups over the past several weeks .
the show will be the first held at the backstage theatre, a new venue the varscona is creating inside the arts barns in collaboration with fringe theatre ventures .
made their way to the theatre as soon as they heard about the fire .
three hours after arriving on scene, fire crews continued to douse the roxy theatre in water. officials say the building to the south will likely sustain some water damage. (lydia neufeld / cbc )
morgan smith, cheerleader’s producer, said when she heard the fire call to the roxy, her “heart just stopped. ”
an edmonton actors theatre production burning bluebeard by jay torrence inspired by a true story, burning bluebeard tells the tale of six singed clowns who emerge from the burnt remains of a theatre to perform their spectacular christmas pantomime. this time, they hope to finally reach the true happy ending of their second act and …
a new show — cheerleader from human loser theatre — was set to open tuesday. ​
matwichuk said buildings to the north and south of the roxy theatre have some smoke and water damage, but crews were able to stop the fire from spreading. there are no estimates yet for the total cost of the damage .
“the roxy is a home for many artists and community members. everyone who touched that building lost something today. we are speechless. ”
many people have already taken to social media to start planning efforts to rebuild the historic theatre .
deputy fire chief lamb was among the first to speak out about the theatre’s history and importance tuesday morning .
it has since relocated to the former c103 space on gateway boulevard, which has been renovated and renamed the roxy on gateway. its 41st season is underway .
* feb. 2013 — shops and cafes in edmonton’s trendy 124 street area are closed for business as owners struggle to repair flood damage after a massive water - main break .
street around 4 a. m. after getting a call that the theatre' s smoke detector was going off .
in the past few seasons leona has designed costumes for theatre network’s productions of excavations, perfect pie and all clear. other recent credits include honour, the odd couple, the beginning of august, the glace bay miners’ museum and the last train, all for shadow theatre, the citadel theatre’s homeward bound; the margin of the sky, skirts …
power was also shut off to homes and businesses within two or three blocks of the roxy for several hours, but has now been restored to all but the immediately neighbouring buildings .
theatre network recognizes that we have the dual responsibility of our commitment to our mainstage season, a performance series made up of local independent theatre companies, the nextfest arts company and as well, to create a hub of artistic activity in our neighbourhood .
the theatre network’s annual spring fling gala will also help with fundraising efforts. it takes place april 29 at the chateau lacombe .
by 6: 30 a. m. , the theatre' s roof, front and some of its walls had collapsed .
firefighters were called out to the 124th street theatre early on the morning of jan. 13 but were unable to save the building .
that project is being bolstered by funding from three levels of government, a fundraising campaign and an infusion of cash from a crowdfunding campaign launched by former edmonton actor nathan fillion, who stars in the television show castle .
in the past few seasons leona has designed costumes for theatre network’s productions of excavations, perfect pie and all clear. other recent credits include honour, the odd couple, the beginning of august, the glace bay miners’ museum and the last train, all for shadow theatre, the citadel theatre’s homeward bound; the margin of the sky, skirts on fire, the vile governess and pith for teatro la quindicina; leona recently returned from performing in winnipeg and new york in pith and she will design and perform in that companies upcoming production of feverland. leona is a regular cast member of edmonton’s on - going weekly soap opera die - nasty .
when they arrived on scene just four minutes later, they found heavy smoke pouring out of the back of the theatre and called a second alarm .
despite losing the former cinema built in 1938 and the challenges that came with it, the contemporary theatre company has persevered and has much to celebrate .
theatre network’s artistic director of 15 years woke up a year ago wednesday to learn the company’s historic building on 124th street had gone up in flames overnight .
metis mutt began as a 7min monologue for a vocal masque project while i was attending grant macewan college’s theatre arts program in 2001. i performed it at the roxy in summer of 2001 at nextfest. my drama instructor and mentor, kenneth brown, asked me if i would be willing to turn it into a full one man show. after graduating from the theatre arts program in 2002, ken and i spent the summer writing the show together and presented it at nextfest. it went really well and launched us into a sold out edmonton fringe run that same summer, winning 2 sterling awards for best new fringe work, and best fringe performance by an actor. the show toured ottawa for the magnetic north theatre festival’s inaugural launch. it then went on to tour new zealand, and all over canada. it was later adapted for a high school tour with azimuth theatre that toured rural alberta. the play then went on to become more of a motivational speaking tool. it toured to many reserves, and settlements in its simplest form with only me, a chair, and a guitar, followed by a drama, self - empowerment workshop, helping students build confidence through telling their own stories .
the company has received 70 per cent of its $ 3. 8 - million insurance coverage, but won’t get the remaining money until they break ground, moss said. to rebuild the 188 - seat theatre, it will likely cost closer to the $ 7. 5 - million price tag of the varscona theatre, which was rebuilt at 10329 83rd ave .
it managed to carry on with the remainder of its 40th season at a temporary space, after receiving an outpouring of support from the local theatre community, audience members and many others, moss said .
a sterling award winning actress and an artistic associate of teatro la quindicina davina spent this past august in new york performing in stewart lemoine’s award winning production of pith! and directing silly soup for the edmonton fringe festival. among her other favourite roles have been hedda in hedda gabler, agnes in dancing at lughnasa, …
hey ladies! is not your average info - tainment, game / variety / talk show. then what is it? it’s tattoos, homemaking tips, booze, prize and even get some culture all in one spectacular evening! each show features local edmonton businesses, celebrities, bands, cocktail - of - the - night, baddies and troublemakers .
lewis cardinal is a board member with theatre network and has spent most of his professional life in the field of education and public service. his long track record of public service includes his involvement with many human rights and social advocacy boards .
a series of five unique cabarets by actress / singer patricia zentilli, each with a different theme and special guests. piano accompanist: liz han september 30, 2017, october 28, december 2, 2017 february 3, may 12, 2018 showtime: 8pm details on the saturday may 12 performance pattyzee @ theroxy returns to the roxy on gateway for her 5th and final cabaret …
noel has been very active in the theatre community over the past many years. a trained teacher noel is currently teaching high school drama, advanced acting and social studies. a long time improviser noel has been with hey ladies since the first episode. in the past few seasons noel has been a guest for the …
and a great title it is. do you identify yourself as an indigenous artist? i do identify as an indigenous artist. i think i was always defined as one whether i wanted to be or not. i think that it has opened many doors and provided me opportunities that many of my other theatre colleagues would never have .
noel has been very active in the theatre community over the past many years. a trained teacher noel is currently teaching high school drama, advanced acting and social studies. a long time improviser noel has been with hey ladies since the first episode. in the past few seasons noel has been a guest for the live improvised soap opera die nasty .
i had a terrible experience with the box office at this theatre. i could not receive my ticket purchased online, paid again for a second ticket and then was asked to sit on the stairs next to the audience after paying double. staff are inexperienced, did not know who their management team was, and did not have the necessary cognitive skills to solve a simple problem .
what inspired the story of infinity? on some level, ross manson, who commissioned it for volcano theatre, did. he set me the task of writing about time. because it was such an opaque topic, such an intangible one, so structural and so impenetrable, i wrote personally about time: the relationship between time and ambition, time and love, and time and death .
in 2017, former artistic director, ryan cunningham of native earth performing arts, asked if i would be interested in doing the show again, but in toronto at their theatre. i told him that i had never done it in toronto, and that if i was going to do it again, i would want to make some changes and breathe some new life into it. he agreed. with the help of the amazing stage manager and designer, tessa stamp, media designer, erin t. gruber, sound designer, aaron macri, and under the new direction of ron jenkins, the play came back to life. i knew that with this amazing team, the piece would become a theatre play again and embrace some more of its technical elements while keeping the integrity of the original work .
a sterling award winning actress and an artistic associate of teatro la quindicina davina spent this past august in new york performing in stewart lemoine’s award winning production of pith! and directing silly soup for the edmonton fringe festival. among her other favourite roles have been hedda in hedda gabler, agnes in dancing at lughnasa, cecily pigeon in the odd couple, pam in cocktail at pam’s, nina in evelyn strange, and theresa in marion bridge. davina is also a core company member of the improvised soap opera die - nasty which was recently honored with a canadian comedy award. she recently finished work on peter wunstorf’s short film, patiences. upcoming projects include cathleen rootsaert’s new play house of cats and the remount of the guys in disguise production of bitchslap! davina’s love of gourmet food grew out of her first job as a clerk on woodward’s food floor .
“it’s been really overwhelmingly busy” he said. “i think a lot of people think we’re back up and we’re happening and stuff. but it’s still a struggle to find venues. there’s a lack of venue space in the city. ”
“we really are starting from scratch. we lost everything. it’s all gone. we do have insurance, but that’s all in process now as we start to build ourselves back up. ”
anniversary show. summer of amazing luck willl run march 6 and march 7, and will feature an array of local talent .
“there will be bricks for sale from the building. and we’re trying to have some tongue - and - cheek fun, like serving some baked alaska. that doesn’t mean you don’t have reverence for the building we were part of and caretakers of for 30 years. don’t misinterpret our humour — it’s part of the healing process. ”
the show will be a major event for the group, which still has a long way to go in their fundraising efforts .
“millions and millions... just to give you an idea ,
said moss .
if you think about the varscona project, they’re about a $ 9 - million or $ 10 - million project, so i can only imagine we would be somewhere in that area. we are a slow fix situation. ”
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about 50 firefighters responded to the live performance venue at 124 street and 107 avenue just before 4 a. m .
fire crews were able to contain the blaze to the building before the roof collapsed. no injuries were reported .
“seeing it come down right now is just devastating, ” said baird, as fire crews continued to put out hotspots just before lunch on tuesday .
“i was holding off tears all morning, and when i saw the back of the building, i had to stop my car and cry for a long time .
“when i turned the corner and saw the roof had collapsed, that was the end. watching it burn down is like watching my home burn down. ”
“it’s like watching a friend in pain, or a friend who is injured or sick and you can’t do anything to help them. it’s the worst. ”
power remained out along the trendy strip of galleries, shops and restaurants along 124 street for much of tuesday as fire crews remained on scene .
the 124th street gallery district has seen its share of recent emergency calls and been transformed over the decades. some highlight include :
* nov. 2012 — greasy and fat stained rags left in a laundry room dryer are the cause of an early morning blaze that tore through smokehouse bbq restaurant located at 10810 124 st. the fire was under control within 45 minutes. fire officials said the rags left inside a laundry room dryer self heated and ignited the restaurant. the blaze quickly spread to the roof of the building, causing significant fire and smoke damage. nobody was in the restaurant at the time of the blaze, which caused approximately $ 500, 000 in damage .
* june 2005 — goodbye edward. hello 124 street. the 124 street and area business association officially says goodbye to edward street and sheds the street’s original name. edward street was the name of 124 street at the turn of the century and when the city’s street numbering system was standardized in 1914, edward street was given the numerical moniker of 124 street .
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provided support. however, structural damage to the building and the intensity of the blaze prevented crews from entering the building to fight the fire .
for safety reasons, we had to fight the fire from outside ,
said deputy fire chief barry lamb on tuesday morning .
it' s a tough old fire .
said a team of 16 firefighters will remain on scene putting out hot spots through the afternoon while investigators begin sorting through the rubble .
avenue was diverted for hours tuesday morning while firefighters put out the flames. most have now been reopened
just in time to see the walls collapse and everything come down, ” said production manager scott peters .
a lot of things go through your head, you know, ” added marketing direct taylor chadwick. “we had a show (cheerleader !) that was set to start performances tonight, actually ,
he said .
long ago, one odd and lonely night, the otherwise kindly children’s book author lewis carroll was overtaken by a strange trance. his eyes rolled back gruesomely in their sockets, and his hand, as if possessed, scribbled out seemingly random combinations of letters – slowly, fiendish phrases emerged, forming some kind of dire incantation from the nether depths, written in some forgotten and diabolical language: the dread verses now known as jabberwocky .
the poem is nigh incomprehensible to us today. but tweed - clad and bewhiskered experts on mysterious and secret subjects have managed to eke out some scraps of meaning: it tells the tale of a monster and its slayer, a tale as old as or older than the telling of tales itself, a tale told even amongst our tongueless protozoan ancestors. it’s the story scrawled on einstein’s blackboard, the story that spurs atomic flickers, microbial battle - cries, even our sperm’s frantic race to be devoured by the egg; the same story is shrieked from pulpits, murmurs in the minds of maniacs, or whispers from the pages of sinister children’s books somehow meant to comfort us in the night. it’s the story that surges in our youthful muscles on summer days, but it’s also the resolute rhythm of the ticking of the clock, our imminent dwindling, our forlorn forecast: hast thou slain the jabberwock ?
so asks the poem. so too asks the show you are about to see, an attempt to adapt those ancient and esoteric stanzas for the stage. are you haunted by that same question, on odd and lonely nights, yearning for sleep ?
in lewis carroll’s through the looking - glass, and what alice found there, alice comes across a poem which makes no sense – or rather, as alice puts it: “somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only i don’t exactly know what they are! however, somebody killed something: that’s clear, at any rate. ”
it’s mentioned again briefly later on, but it’s not really important to the plot; truth be told it’s sort of hard to say what actually is important to the plot of that book, since almost everything that happens in it comes out of the blue and then goes right back there. there’s no jabberwock that alice defeats to win the day or anything, and alice doesn’t seem to be a character in the poem, either. apparently lewis carroll wrote it for his school newspaper many years before he even ever thought up any of the alice stuff, and maybe just stuck it in there because it pleased him, whether or not it made any sense, which is as good a reason as any to do something, really. point being: the poem really has nothing to do with alice, and in case you’re worried that you need to remember what happened to her to grock this show: you don’t. the poem is its own strange self - contained little universe .
but it does seem to have some strange resonance which has kept it skulking around in the back of our collective minds since it was first thought up. the resonance perhaps has something to do with taking the epic hero quest mode in one hand and then gobbledygook in the other and mashing them together, and that’s probably what attracted us to making this show – nonsense is a variety of nihilism with a sense of humour, which is a strange philosophical disposition for children’s book writing but seems to have been a sort of victorian obsession .
another victorian eccentricity that inspired this show was their enthusiasm for things called ‘toy theatres’; apparently in those days it was popular to have a miniature cardboard proscenium in your living room for entertaining guests, and publishers sold books with scripts and cut - out paper puppets and sets. we were also kind of fired up about scrolling panoramas, a wildly high - tech avant - garde theatrical contraption from the same era (we saw a version in the whaling museum in new bedford many years ago), which involved a narrator turning the crank on a long unspooling canvas scroll painted with scenes from the story (melville probably saw the same one we saw, which is hand - painted and 1300 feet long, for crying out loud) .
all of this adds up to a kind of proto - animation, created with great physical effort, which is of course a completely absurd way to tell a story now that actual animation has been invented. but we old trouts are attracted for some peculiar reason to the anachronistic, the primitive, the unnecessarily difficult; because to us there is some inkling of beauty in the pointless, a glimmer of truth in nonsense, that is kind of what puppetry is all about .
` twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe: all mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe. “beware the jabberwock, my son! the jaws that bite, the claws that catch! beware the jubjub bird, and shun the frumious bandersnatch! ” he took his vorpal sword in hand: long time the manxome foe he sought — so rested he by the tumtum tree, and stood awhile in thought. and, as in uffish thought he stood, the jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whiffling through the tulgey wood, and burbled as it came! one, two! one, two! and through and through the vorpal blade went snicker - snack! he left it dead, and with its head he went galumphing back. “and, has thou slain the jabberwock? come to my arms, my beamish boy! o frabjous day! callooh! callay! ’ he chortled in his joy. 'twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe; all mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe .
a one little indian production métis mutt written & performed by sheldon elter in sheldon elter’s hilarious and heartbreaking one - person show, we follow a young métis man on his journey out of a destructive cycle. in dynamic shifts between storytelling, stand - up comedy, and multi - character vignettes; this personal tale unfolds to expose the impact of family …
i have always hoped that people will walk away from this show questioning their use of racial stereotypes in everyday conversation, in jokes, stories, etc. in this day and age, anyone can film us, record us, and take our words out of context and twist our meaning. we must all educate ourselves on language and context so that we can truly take responsibility of our own words. in truth, it is getting harder for me to continue the use of the word, “indian”, in my everyday language. in the context of the show it may work, but in my daily conversations it will have to change. being bullied for being an “indian”, or being bullied for not being “indian” enough, has always made me feel that i have earned the right to use that word, despite its social and political inaccuracies. i have literally fought people about this word. times have changed. we are finding clearer language to use in the proper context. i will have to change too .
the main thing i hope people will understand is that through my own unique, indigenous experience – despite the harsh realities of history and oppression, loss of culture and identity, dysfunctional family life as a result of intergenerational trauma, and the present day society’s inherent need to define me through colonial measurements – at the very least i can take responsibility for my own actions and create positive change for myself one day at time to overcome all odds. hopefully, so can everyone else, whatever their story is .
i have been very lucky to have had time to develop this piece over some time now. it has given me the confidence to push forward, despite the fact that some audience members may even walk away completely missing my point. if my play can at least create discussion, then hopefully through active, fractious disagreement can we all hold each other accountable, including those we choose to lead us .
lewis and sheldon recently sat down to talk about métis mutt and the work sheldon has done to get to where he is .
thanks for taking the time to chat with me, sheldon. i’d like to start at the beginning. what is the origin of the play’s title, métis mutt? while i was in college at grant macewan and my instructor, mentor, and co - creator of metis mutt, kenneth brown, was doing a lesson on vocal masque. we were asked to think of a theme that would represent ourselves. being a young procrastinator, and a pothead, i forgot and hadn’t put any thought into it. we were in class when he asked us to share our titles. i was sweating bullets and thinking hard, but had nothing. after hearing some of my classmate’s titles, i started formulating something. it was my turn, and i just blurted out, “metis mutt! ” everyone laughed. i secretly was relieved, and now had to figure out what that title meant .
while it opened up doors and opportunities, do you feel that title limits you or has emboldened you? i used to worry as a young, emerging artist that it would hinder me, or pigeonhole me, and that i would only ever play native roles. i am not sure why i thought that might be a bad thing, but i wanted to be able to have the opportunity to play all kinds of parts. my friend, shaun johnston, a wonderful artist and all around great guy, said he worried that he would always be type cast to play bad guys because that was all he ever seemed to be cast as. he said he got his first big break in film working with gordon pinsent, and asked him some advice about being type cast. he said mr. pinsent laughed for an uncomfortable amount of time before gathering himself to say, “young man, you don’t have to worry about being type cast. you have to worry about being cast! ” beautiful advice for any budding actor .
this story seems like it would be difficult for you to share. why do you keep revisiting it and sharing it? it is very difficult to share this story and every time i do it i ask myself this very question. it always takes me until my first performance in front of the audience to be reminded of why this piece of work still has value and should be told. after the show, people of all genders and ethnicities speak as if i was telling their story. each time i am reminded that if i can be brave enough to tell my truth as best i can, that the story becomes more human and relatable .
at the same time, truth can be difficult, painful, and yet so necessary to move forward and gain the necessary knowledge to grow. you look at a lot of negative stereotypes through off - colour “jokes” in the play. why do you think you were encouraged to tell those jokes when starting your comedy career? simply, because they got laughs. great laughs, in fact. sometimes, 1500 people laughing at my stuff. i was rewarded with laughter, but i was too young to fully comprehend the impact of what i was saying. this began at an early age as a class clown. i grew up in a small town where i experienced a lot of racism. i learned quickly that if i made negative, stereotypical jokes about natives, i could win over those who would likely make fun of me first. i will always carry the shame of unknowingly perpetuating these negative stereotypes of my own people .
shame can be such a teacher and a catalyst for change. do you encounter feelings of “responsibility” to the indigenous community to share this story? i often feel immense, overwhelming responsibility to the indigenous community. i have often been called a “leader, ” a “role model, ” and many other titles that scared the crap out of me. here i am sharing all my dark secrets about myself onstage, and i am still being called these things? i often feel that people expect i am not only speaking on behalf of the metis, but on behalf of all indigenous people. i can’t do that. i have for too much to learn. it puts a lot of pressure on me to feel that i should have all the answers. i don’t .
what are the main messages you hope the community can resonate with or learn from? i am constantly learning who i am, and slowly learning to take responsibility for my own actions. i hope my audiences know that they don’t have to have all the answers right now either. i hope they are inspired to create positive change for themselves .
often times storytelling is used as a way in which to make and inspire positive change. can you talk a bit about the importance of storytelling you had in your life and how that lead into a passion for the arts? i had some understanding of my own cultural importance of storytelling growing up. it was how we passed down knowledge. stories carry powerful medicine through teachings. but i think at the heart of it, i just wanted to truly be remembered. i seemed to have a knack for telling stories, and it seemed the more i told them, the better the stories got, and the more people remembered them. (because they had heard it a thousand times )
it’s easy to see this as your story, but there is a lot in it about your mother. how did that evolve as you developed the piece over the years? i am very lucky i have my mother’s blessing to tell these stories. the play in the past mainly focused on the relationship with my father. it still does, but as the play has grown and changed over the years, i started thinking about the great lengths my mother had gone through to protect me. it was my mother’s bravery to finally leave my father for good, breaking a cycle of family violence. i wanted to make that clearer in the piece. she is my hero .
i guess, in a way, storytelling can be an act of heroism and healing. pieces like metis mutt can bring up a lot of feelings and emotions in audiences. why is that an important part of healing? i think when we see and hear others sharing their stories, it can sometimes give us the confidence to share our own. i have gotten a lot of disclosures over the years doing this play. i think it helps audience members feel brave enough to begin their own healing by first voicing what is troubling them .
if the mature sheldon of today could talk and advise the growing teen artist sheldon, what would you give – what would you say? or, would you say anything? wow. umm…let’s see. “stay away from cocaine, crack, and meth. every time you think you are giving anything your all, if you dig deeper, you’ll find more. and don’t just be an actor. write more, sing more, paint, draw, dance, whatever. just keep creating. if you are just an actor, you will always be waiting for someone to give you a job. ” i don’t know if that would inspire my younger self, or if i would look at me and say, “who is this chubby, jaded old fart? and what does he know? ”
do you see yourself still doing this show in 10 years? maybe. but it will be a different show, because i will be different. if it continues, it needs to grow and change as me, the artist does as well .
how do we measure time? we have clocks and calendars and yet those have proven to be not as accurate or reliable as we would like them to be with our consistent realignment of our calendars throughout our history. we see the physical effects of time all around us, as we grow older with our kids growing up or losing our pets to old age. time passes in forward increments, out of an unknown future into a fading past. time reflects the pattern: now this / now this / now this / etc .
i believe that we measure time with our relationships, first with our parents and then with our peers, then with our own kids and then with old age. i think that time evolves us as we move through life and as well our perception of time changes .
i have more of my life in the rear view than in the forward view and as i pile up my experiences i begin to see more of the past, which i have learned from this play time is fixed and not only fixed but the past is also timeless and is etched in our memories for eternity .
it is that thought that haunts me, how our past experiences affect our future. when we look at our past we start to see the patterns in our lives and how our relationship with our parents resonates throughout our lives .
time is malleable but we experience it in a forward movement and we carry it with us in each present moment: the past, the present and the future, all of them moving along with us with each step we take .
love. love is the force that provides the impetus for us to change .
the love we all experience in our lives: love of a parent, love of a child, love of pet, love of a partner, love of nature, love of science, and love of art is where we find value in our lives. and like time, love exists for us on all three planes of our past, present and future. love is the true determining force in our existence as it looks back at us from the abyss of time .
in your opinion, what do artists and scientists have in common? my experience working on the show with our consulting theoretical physicist named lee smolin gave me some insight into what we have in common. we both had a strong desire to creatively understand the universe .
when you write characters is it difficult to not put some aspects of yourself into them? sometimes it’s easier not to than others. when i’ve used interviews with, say, our canadian soldiers returning from panjwaii, afghanistan as the source material for a play, i think there is less of me in it. sometimes i write confessional work, in which “hannah moscovitch” is a character in the piece, and the point is to put all aspects of myself into the work. infinity is somewhere in between i think .
have you ever let your passion for your work become more important than other aspects of your life? how do you find balance? when my son was born, i learned about work / life balance. before his birth, work / life balance was uninteresting to me – i loved my work and wanted to work all the time. that meant i saw friends less and had no hobbies, but i loved my non - work / life balance. now that i have a son, i can’t work flat out without the cost being his wellbeing. and i love him and want to be hanging out with him. so now i have work / life balance .
do you think canadian writers are forced into telling canadian stories? for you, what is a canadian story? hunh. i think canadian writers are forced into telling american stories. most of the canadian playwrights i know are tv writers living in la. in terms of a canadian story, i distinguish between sensibility and content. if i write it, it’s canadian in its sensibilities i think. implicitly canadian. if there’s canadian content in it as well, then it’s explicitly canadian. there are also degrees of explicit. in infinity, the backdrop is canadian but not the discussion. i name canadian cities. but the themes of infinity – broken love, time, death, ambition – don’t lend themselves to content about nationality for me. this is war, my project set during our war in afghanistan, lends itself to a more comprehensive discussion within the piece about “canadian - ness” .
a lot of plays explore the lives of intellectuals and artists – what have you seen from those stories in the past and what did you want to do differently when exploring the lives of artists and professors in infinity? a lot of projects about intellectuals and artists speak mostly about academics and art – the conversation is epistemological and existential. i was interested in the personal lives of my intellectual and artistic characters. i get criticized sometimes for that, for not being interested in the “big questions” and focusing on sexuality, gender politics and psychology. but for me, those are the big questions .
how important is love in your life? for family, friends, work and everything in between. how does that love keep your creating? love is everything. what else is there? (safety? money? health? i mean those things become more important than love when you don’t have any or enough of them. otherwise: love .) i do love my work, and i get to be guided in my work choices by desire rather than fear. so i’m unusual and i’m lucky .
what do you enjoy doing with your free time? what is your escape and how do you recharge? i spend time with my husband and son, in our garden, in halifax. we have grapes in our garden, and mint, and tomatoes, and tulips, and also, there’s a swing. (i’m making this sound amazing. it’s a tiny overgrown garden. )
so… in your opinion – is time actually a construct? no, time is real. like death is real. you are going to die, in real time .
newman mentalism presents mind games by jeff newman & hannah rudd jeff newman will mess with your head. in mind games, newman will influence your thoughts, makes impossible predictions, and even read your mind while revisiting some of his favourite childhood games as they get a mentalist twist. audiences will gasp, laugh, and cheer as they …
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a what it is productions presentation the aliens by annie baker original music & lyrics by michael chernus, patch darragh and eric gann two best friends in their early 30s hang out behind a vermont coffee house to play music and discuss bukowski when an impressionable young employee of the shop stumbles upon them. the …
roxy theatre ( also known as the roxy ) was a movie theatre in edmonton , alberta , canada , that was later converted into a live-action performance venue . it opened on october 13 , 1938 and was destroyed by fire on january 13 , 2015 . the theatre was designed by william g blakey and built by i.f.shacker of hanna . it was managed by bill wilson , the son of a famous players theatre manager . it was considered luxurious for its time as it had air conditioning , spring seating , and extra legroom . in 1941 , the theatre was leased to odeon theatres of canada ] ] . after odeon 's lease ran out , the cinema was operated as a part of inner city cinemas along with the avenue theatre and varscona theatre . inner city cinemas ran a calendar program that ran movies for three days first at one , then the next , then the next cinema . famous players leased all 3 theatres from inner city , which ended their unique venture . when famous gave up the lease , the roxy became the $ 2 roxy , operating as a discount theatre with all shows $ 2 . in 1989 , the building was taken over by the theatre network and converted to a live-theatre venue . a fire at the theatre was called in to the edmonton fire department just before 4 am on january 13 , 2015 . firefighters were unable to control the blaze and the building was destroyed . as of june 2015 , the cause of the fire remains unknown . the theatre network had planned to open a new show the night of the fire and had to find alternate venues for its shows . the theatre network plans to rebuild the theatre . 
roxy theatre (also known as the roxy) was a movie theatre in edmonton, alberta, canada, that was later converted into a live-action performance venue. it opened on october 13, 1938 and was destroyed by fire on january 13, 2015. the theatre was designed by william g blakey and built by i.f.shacker of hanna. it was managed by bill wilson, the son of a famous players theatre manager. it was considered luxurious for its time as it had air conditioning, spring seating, and extra legroom. in 1941, the theatre was leased to odeon theatres of canada ] ]. after odeon's lease ran out, the cinema was operated as a part of inner city cinemas along with the avenue theatre and varscona theatre. inner city cinemas ran a calendar program that ran movies for three days first at one, then the next, then the next cinema. famous players leased all 3 theatres from inner city, which ended their unique venture. when famous gave up the lease, the roxy became the $ 2 roxy, operating as a discount theatre with all shows $ 2. in 1989, the building was taken over by the theatre network and converted to a live-theatre venue. a fire at the theatre was called in to the edmonton fire department just before 4 am on january 13, 2015. firefighters were unable to control the blaze and the building was destroyed. as of june 2015, the cause of the fire remains unknown. the theatre network had planned to open a new show the night of the fire and had to find alternate venues for its shows. the theatre network plans to rebuild the theatre.
roxy theatre (also known as the roxy) was a movie theatre in edmonton, alberta, canada, that was later converted into a live-action performance venue. it opened on october 13, 1938 and was destroyed by fire on january 13, 2015. the theatre was designed by william g blakey and built by i.f.shacker of hanna. it was managed by bill wilson, the son of a famous players theatre manager. it was considered luxurious for its time as it had air conditioning, spring seating, and extra legroom. in 1941, the theatre was leased to odeon theatres of canada ] ]. after odeon's lease ran out, the cinema was operated as a part of inner city cinemas along with the avenue theatre and varscona theatre. inner city cinemas ran a calendar program that ran movies for three days first at one, then the next, then the next cinema. famous players leased all 3 theatres from inner city, which ended their unique venture. when famous gave up the lease, the roxy became the $ 2 roxy, operating as a discount theatre with all shows $ 2. in 1989, the building was taken over by the theatre network and converted to a live-theatre venue. a fire at the theatre was called in to the edmonton fire department just before 4 am on january 13, 2015. firefighters were unable to control the blaze and the building was destroyed. as of june 2015, the cause of the fire remains unknown. the theatre network had planned to open a new show the night of the fire and had to find alternate venues for its shows. the theatre network plans to rebuild the theatre.