Sarah Lynn Strange

Sarah Lynn Strange is stoked to be Phil’s 100th podcast! 2017 marks a banner year, with 8 of 12 months working on stage, classics like Singin’ In The Rain and My Fair Lady, to a Disney dream role in Beauty & The Beast, and capping off the year with A Christmas Story… which pssst she has never even seen the movie of, don’t tell anyone!! A Sheridan Graduate, previous credits include evil queen’s and lots of mothers, not a character actress in any way https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/z4c/1/16/1f642.png” alt=”🙂” /> She can be heard as series lead Dilys Price on the animated show “Fireman Sam”, as well as on new Nickelodeon show “Worry Eaters” as Berta the big Chicken.

http://www.sarahlynstrange.com
Twitter: @srsloaf

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Transcript

I’m Phil Rickaby, the host of Stageworthy, and this is the podcast’s 100th episode. Stageworthy is a podcast about Canadian theatre makers, featuring conversations with actors, directors, playwrights, and more. And since 100 is a major milestone in the life of any podcast, I’m celebrating this week with some audio excerpts from some of my favourite conversations from the past 100 episodes.

I’ll be posting these all week on Facebook and Twitter, where you can find Stageworthy at StageWorthyPod. My guest for this 100th episode is my friend, actor and singer Sarah Lynn Strange. Sarah spent this past summer working in three shows, starting at Waterloo, performing in Singing in the Rain with Drayton Entertainment, and then in Port Hope, performing in My Fair Lady and Beauty and the Beast with Port Hope Festival Theatre.

And you’ll be able to see her again in December in A Christmas Story at the Sudbury Theatre Centre. So this summer, you spent the whole summer in Port Hope? No. So I started my summer in March, question mark.

Yes, because it was April, May, June, July, August, September. So first I did Singing in the Rain with Drayton. So that was in Waterloo.

Okay. Okay. Okay.

Yeah. St. Jacob’s. Can’t you believe this? Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wasn’t sure if they were both Drayton theatres, but… No, Drayton was only for Singing in the Rain, and then I went to Port Hope Capital Theatre to do My Fair Lady and Beauty and the Beast. Nice.

Yeah. Like a full seven months of work. That’s pretty impressive.

Yeah. This is your second season doing something with Drayton? Yeah, I did the panto a couple of years ago. I didn’t do anything last season with Drayton.

And then this season, Singing in the Rain, which was glorious. And who were you in Singing in the Rain? I had Dora Bailey. Oh, of course you were Dora Bailey.

Oh, out there. This is Dora Bailey talking to you in front of crowds. In Hollywood.

Yeah, she’s a nut bar. When we tried on the costumes, they gave me this beautiful floor length, like crushed velvet floral 1920s. It was spectacular.

And I looked and the name tag, they had borrowed it from Stratford Festival. I said to the costume leader, I was like, well, this is about as close as I’m ever going to get to Stratford. They’ve been doing lots of musicals.

Yeah, they have. They like Younger Dancers? Like, unless you’re an established name, and I’m not established. I’m working on it.

Yeah, well, you know, you gotta work at it, slog away. Yeah, like a Murphys show would help. Only Murphys were producing more shows than they were touring in.

Like, you know, Come From Away would have been nice. Yeah, it would have been nice. Yeah, just a little show.

Just a casual year-long contract in my own city. Like, no big deal. No big deal.

90 minutes, no intermish. Just casual. Just a little thing.

I’m going to bed by 10. Totally. Just a little show.

Just a tiny. So anybody cares about it or anything. Just casual.

Just a casual musical. Yeah, I think that’s the only one they’re producing this year. Oh, sadly.

They’re doing a co-pro of Fun Home with Musical Stage Company, which is going to be amazing. Cynthia Dale’s playing Helen. Nice.

And that’s going to be amazing. Nice. Yeah.

No, I totally want to see that because Fun Home was on the list before Hamilton obliterated my desire to see anything else. It’s a beautiful show. Yeah.

Did you see it? No, but I’m obsessed with it. I listened to it nonstop. Hmm.

Yeah. Added Helen to my dream role list, which I don’t know if I’m aging past, question mark? Well, whatever. Doesn’t matter.

Yeah. Doesn’t matter if you age past it as long as people believe you can play it. Truth.

You know, there’s still, like, really old people playing, like, Romeo and Juliet. Well, Shakespeare’s adept. Shakespeare’s a little, you know, like, it’s hard to believe, like, when the geriatrics are coming out and, like, trying to pretend they’re 13, it’s a little… Yeah.

But, you know, there’s been people playing those roles to the 60s. So, you know. True.

Yeah. So. So I was also Miscellaneous Wardrobe Lady.

Okay. Yes. I can’t remember what I named her.

Miscellaneous Wardrobe Lady in Singing in the Rain? Yeah. So I, like, I can’t remember what character name I gave her. Okay.

But was she, did she, what does Miscellaneous Wardrobe Lady do? Miscellaneous Wardrobe Lady basically just fixes and fawns after… What’s-her-but? Because it was three contracts ago and now I can’t remember their names because I’m a terrible, terrible human. What’s-her-fucking-name? I love the movie. You’d think I could remember.

Dawn and Kathy and the other… Am I fantastic? Lena Lamont. Lena Lamont. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. Jamie Armstrong played it and she was brilliant. Yeah.

Very, very funny. So I basically just fawned after her, but I was also on the bitter bus. Like, I made strong acting choices.

She just hated her life. Okay. Well.

She was from New Jersey and hated her life. Well, technically, if your job was to fawn after Lena Lamont, you probably would hate your life. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And so you did that show? Yeah.

I finished that. I actually had a really neat moment while doing that show. You know, you’re moving a set piece and you’re like, I went to theatre school and I’m moving a set piece.

I just got a little like, oh God. And it was during tech and we were sitting backstage and cue rain and it rained on stage. And as it was starting to rain and you could hear the rain on the stage, like the beginning of the pitter patter and the orchestra started.

And then Tim, who was playing Don started in on the doodle, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. And I was like, it was like magic. And I stood in the wing and just sort of wept.

And I was like, oh, theatre magic. Like it filled my heart. I went to the, I was like, oh, this is great.

This is exactly what I needed. I needed a little bit of theatre magic to get my heart in the right place. You know? Yeah.

Yeah. It was really neat. Yeah.

Yeah. It was really neat. That’s cool.

I mean, that’s the thing is like, people don’t expect rain in a theatre. Yes. And so when you can do it, it’s like, yeah.

Like, and you know, you can’t really do that particular song if you can’t make it rain. Yes. I think a lot of audiences are expecting like, oh, sound effect.

And that’ll like, they’ll pretend it’s raining. They’ll do the lights with the thunder, lightning and all that. But if you can’t make it rain, like.

And it was actual rain. Yeah. It was brilliant.

That’s nice. Yeah. It was brilliant.

So I needed that. I needed a little bit of that. Like eight-year-old me being like, oh, theatre magic.

Did you have a relationship with singing in the rain before this show? I actually saw it for the first time in a movie theatre. You know, every now and then Cineplex Odeon does that. Yeah.

We’re going to play a classic. Yeah. It’s going to be ten bucks.

So I saw it in a movie theatre with Katie and Ben, I think, and Esther. Yeah. And Arthur, I believe.

Oh, God. A few years ago. And that was the very first time I had ever seen it.

I know. I know. I know.

I’m fired. It’s like the perfect movie musical. It is the perfect movie musical.

Right. Yes. Yes.

And then hearing all of the backstage drama, how he didn’t want Debbie Reynolds. Yeah. It was awful to her throughout the filming and how they filmed that entire scene in one take.

Yeah. The Broadway Rhythm or which one? No, the one with the couch. Oh, Good Morning.

Good Morning. Yeah. Yeah.

I know. Well, I mean, it was like a stickler for that sort of thing. So, you know, they didn’t have any way to blend the film the way that we do now.

So you could like fake not doing a single take. And Cosmos. Oh, God.

Make Them Laugh. Make Them Laugh was all one take. Yeah.

That’s crazy. And I even know how he did that because actually, no, I do, because he went to the hospital after. Legend has it.

He was like, well, he’s throwing himself. I mean, that was like a concrete floor that he’s throwing himself onto. There’s not a sprung floor in that studio.

So he was like throwing himself around and then they did it. And I made him do it again. And he was like, you made him do it again.

And he was like, I think we’re done. I need to go away. Yeah.

And I think he spent a couple of days in the hospital because of that one. Oh, you know, that’s brilliant. So I had never seen it before.

And then that was my first time. And then I got the offer and I was like, yes, it’s gonna be fun. Yeah.

Yeah. And you went from there. I went from there.

I had a couple weeks off in between. And then I started rehearsals for My Fair Lady with Port Hope Capital Theatre. I was playing Mrs. Einsford Hill.

So I got to be very, very British. Yes. I was on stage for 17 minutes, 21 seconds and 34 minutes.

It is a three hour, 15 minute musical. I know the exact timing because I actually had one of the stagehands stopwatch it for me, which was very funny to me. I held a contest with the artistic directors.

OK, I held a contest. Five dollars bought you a guess as to exact time that I was physically on the stage. And it was 50-50.

So the winner got half the pot and the other half I donated to the Actors Fund of Canada. And Kyle Gilemba got it right. I think he guessed 19, 21, 19 minutes, 21 seconds.

Brilliant. And two of my lines were about being sick. I mean, the Einsford Hills are very concerned about influenza and pneumonia, which are very fun words to say.

It’s three hours long. Yeah. In the 60s.

Yeah. But fabulous. Well, I mean, it’s it is a great it is a great musical.

Yes. And it’s I mean, like a little Stockholm Syndrome. Well, I mean, that’s what the Bernard Shaw play was.

So, like, very much. And Alan Denny, who played Eliza, was beautiful. Her choices.

So she played it strong enough that it wasn’t like when she finally when she finally sings that song at the end. Yeah. She’s like.

It was easier to see his hurt. Right, right, right. David Lation played Higgins and he he he was beautiful with his choices because he made some really neat hurt choices.

Yeah. And so it was easier to like him because you hate him. Well, he’s easy to hate.

He’s really easy. And it’s hard in that musical to feel the sympathy that you kind of need to feel for him at a certain point. And why she goes back.

Because it’s really I mean, at a certain point, because I think that it’s about her. Yeah. But because it’s like written by dudes, I think they focus a lot more on him.

And it’s not about the romance. There is no romance. No, exactly.

It’s about a partnership and a mutual respect. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Did you know that when they were doing that, Rex Harrison, when in rehearsal, refused to read like the lines from their script and would only read like the Bernard Shaw script lines? Oh, my God. Like he didn’t want to do a musical.

That’s it was like, well, like Dick move shit right there. But, you know, you know, well, you know, he got to do whatever he wanted. He played that role for forever.

It was the definitive non singing singer. Be more like a man. I know.

I have such difficulty because, you know, when I was when I was a kid listening to movie soundtracks or musical soundtracks like his delivery of all of those numbers is burned into my mind like I cannot picture. And their actual notes are written on the pitch. Right.

Their actual songs. It’s not just like little X’s. No, like.

But I’ve never heard it sung because I’ve only ever like in my mind, I only know him speaking it. And I think people are expecting the speak. Yeah.

Yeah. Expecting notes. No.

Right. No. Well, that’s because we all that’s like anybody who knows that show.

That’s really all we know. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Fascinating. And then you went from that into Beauty and the Beast and you were playing Madame de la Grande Bouche, a former opera singer turned wardrobe.

She was I was waiting all summer for her. She was an amalgamation of she was a little bit door Bailey, but she was mostly Sister Mary Patrick. Okay.

From Sister Act. Like she’s the champagne bubbles and Oh, yeah. Yeah.

There’s a lot of ridiculousness. And I got to be I got to be pretty sassy in my five foot wide costume. So that’s quite the that’s quite the costume.

You got five feet wide, five feet wide, big weight about, I think, 30, 35 pounds, metal and wood cage and my panniers opened. So when I’m when I say, you know, no. Would you like to put one of my gowns? Let’s see what I’ve got in my drawer.

And then I would open, you know, my pannier and she would pull out the underwear. No, no, no, no. Yeah, there’s like, it was kind of ridiculous.

Yeah. Carrie Gage choreographed it and was fantastic. And during our, you know, be our guest, she had me come out and do paddle turns.

Like a five foot wide wardrobe coming out and doing paddle turns like for days. She was kind of brilliant. Told my mom I had a dance solo.

That theatre in Port Hope has struck me as beautiful. I haven’t seen the inside, but it’s got one. It’s got that just from the outside.

You can tell us like this is one of those old vaudeville roadhouse type places. It used to be a movie theatre. Yeah.

It is haunted. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Two ghosts.

Yeah. A male and a female. They only know that based on the sounds of the of the footsteps when they walk.

The woman is wearing high heels. Okay. But there’s a lot of great ghost stories that we heard this summer, which is nice.

I’m obsessed. Well, I mean, so obsessed. We always hear about the theatre ghost, right? And so like to be in a theatre where there’s like.

And there is no ghost light. The Capitol doesn’t put up a ghost light. What? I know.

Fascinating. I guess they’re just trying not to encourage them or something. But they also have a whole bunch of twinkle lights on the ceiling.

The ceiling is painted like a sky and those twinkle lights that are actual constellations. Yeah. The inside of the is like a castle.

It’s really beautiful. And they brought in an actual castle to use as the set with stairs and everything and platforms. And it was pretty, pretty great.

I find like I’ve been in a bunch of different small towns around Ontario and other places, and there’s always like this one old beautiful theatre, whether it was a movie theatre or a the vaudeville circuits that gave us like these gorgeous theatres are still there. Like you just like walk into this little town, but there’s this gorgeous theatre. Yeah.

Yeah. And the Capitol is, it’s beautiful. Did you see it? Have you seen it? I haven’t seen it yet.

No, no. I was filmed in Purdue and the Capitol is really nicely featured. Oh, nice.

Yeah. It’s pretty good. It’s easy to not be as afraid when you’re like, oh, that’s where I buy my pastries.

It’s hard to be afraid of the, of the movie when you’re like, I know where that is. Exactly. Yeah.

I mean, you, did you, you did a couple of seasons in Calgary? Winnipeg. Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Winnipeg. Right.

So I did Sister Act, which was, I think to date one of my favorite characters I’ve ever played. And I didn’t get enough time with her. Like, you know, when you have to say goodbye to a character, I still mourn her.

Was it a short run? A fairly short run, like three and a half weeks. Oh, that’s hardly, hardly enough time. Yeah.

I mean, the theatre is ginormous. It’s like a 2,300 seat theatre. Is that outdoor theatre? Ish.

There’s sort of a dome lid and then it’s like open on the side. So the sound is challenging because it’s a dome, but also the outside is open. So the sound is going out.

So relearning sort of how to enunciate, because with Rainbow, you have to do shadow vowels, which goes against everything you’ve ever learned. So in, say, for example, like, like Sister Act, right? Like, raise your voice, raise your voice. With Rainbow, it would be, raise your voice.

Let your freak flag fly, or whatever, from Shrek, which is the other show I did. Yeah. Let’s just amalgamate two songs.

Yeah. Did you have to be miked for that too? Yeah. Miked.

Yeah. Which is, of course, another challenge for the sound person. It’s a huge sound challenge, but a very fulfilling show because it’s, you start the show in the daytime.

Basically, it’s eight o’clock. Right. You can see the audience.

Oh, shit. But think of the challenge for the lighting tech, because they, during tech week, they don’t just tech for nighttime, dark. They also tech for daytime, and they have to switch it depending on when the sun goes down.

So these amazing light techs are able to make it look like it’s nighttime on stage when it’s light out, which is fascinating. But you can see all of the faces when you start the show, and then they’ve got the passerello, which is, which goes out into the audience, which is glorious. Wow.

Yeah. Wow. So sister act.

And then the following summer, I got invited back to go to Shrek. Nice. Yeah.

Nice. Yeah. Did you play a couple of roles in Shrek? I did.

Mama Ogre. So I was Shrek’s mom at the top of the show when she sends him away on his seventh birthday to go and be an ogre in the world. Yeah.

And then I had three and a half minutes to change into pig number one, which was like, I think the quickest quick change, like three and a half minutes. Yeah. It’s like a lifetime considering that.

Oh God, Kelly O’Hara did her change in King and I, I think it was like 85 seconds or something. Like her quick change was super fast in King and I. Yeah. Three and a half minutes sounds like a long time, but I was full green.

I was full green and like combat boots. And I had to, so, you know, you have technique, right? Don’t worry. It was my dancer.

And you, as I’m coming off stage, I am like taking off my gloves and stepping out of my boots and she’s unzipping my dress and I’m taking off the wig and then I’m getting the green. So it was the same eye makeup and the same lipstick from pig to, or from mama ogre into pig. And I just had to base, base, base, and then pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, which I was doing.

And then wig as Donna was like putting on my hoofs and zipping me up into what I lovingly call the foam line snowsuit. Yeah. Yeah.

Which was the pig. It’s they’re, they’re ginormous. And German.

Right. Yeah. Like super, it’s just like, it’s one of those, like the whole quick change thing is like one of those like theatre, like when it, when you see it the way that it works, but they had a, the Tony awards, when that quick change happened for the King and I, they had like a backstage camera.

You could like see that change glorious. And it like those kinds of things. Also there’s a couple of opera companies that will, will let you watch the chorus do complete changes.

And it’s just like the science of it and the mechanics of it are just fascinating. Thousand Island Playhouse just did a backstage camera for a quick change, um, for a show that they just did. Oh, I can’t remember the name of the show.

Um, where he’s changing from a man into a woman, like pearls and stockings and the whole deal as like, and it was, it’s like a minute or something. Like, it’s so crazy. Can you just make me invigorated and stress me out? They should.

Cause they’re like, that’s a, it’s a tight rope where everything, and you have to practice that shit so much. Like I remember working, um, years ago as an usher at the Royal Alexander during, during the Ms. And you know, you would, the more you watch the show, the more you sort of see the seams of it. And so as an usher watching, like that person goes off and, and then they come back on as a completely different character in a different makeup and a different costume.

And you realize how quickly they went off and came back and just like, well, and Shrek is the queen of the queen, the master of changes because of Fiona, because she is going from full ogre into princess in seconds. One of the changes for that show was, um, was particularly glorious to watch because they built a shed that was completely open concept. So, uh, do you, do you remember Shrek the musical? I don’t sort of it.

You watched it. I haven’t watched it. No.

Oh, you need to watch it. Is it on Netflix? Yes. Okay.

And it’s so great. Okay. Um, Shrek the musical, everybody needs to watch it.

It’s brilliant. Uh, cause Sutton Foster is oh shit. Yeah.

Glorious. Yeah. Um, so it’s like, I think it’s the second night where the, where they camp in the cave where she’s no, she’s in the house where Shrek overhears her talking about like who could ever love an ogre.

And he assumes that she’s talking about him when she’s talking to donkey. Um, but that shed that they built was completely open concept and it was on a revolve. So they had sort of from the time that she went into the shed, had the conversation with donkey and then it would turn and it was all open for her to change from full into princess Fiona.

And it was like seconds. Glorious. Glorious.

That kind of stuff is really exhilarating to watch. Like, yeah. It’s like, um, I remember the first time I watched into the woods and the witch transformation, which innovated the film version.

You kind of see the background cause there’s like somebody going out and going across the screen and you’re like, Oh, it’s the double. But like, but like, like on stage, it just would have been like so quick and you wouldn’t have even seen it. My favorite quick change also to watch.

Um, during Shrek, there was like the, she does this like flute solo, high Piper rat situation. And all the tap dancers have rats on their tap shoes and they’re tapping and the curtain is up about, well, I don’t know, like, like a, I don’t know. How many feet is that? So that it’s all just the rats tapping and then the curtain comes down and then goes back up and they’re full rats.

So they’re all like in full tuxedos. So they had to take off, they had to all rip off all of their rat shoes and throw them. And there was four dressers running from one side of the stage to the other side of the stage with laundry hampers, picking up the rats and catching the rats.

It was my favorite. And every, every night watching on my side of the stage, it was Allie and Leslie. Leslie every night would be like, and Allie every night was like, like, it was like, it was my favorite.

I like, I used to get into the wing specifically to watch all the rats being thrown askew because it was my favorite. I love it. I love it.

See that’s theatre magic. It’s like, um, in the book of Mormon, when they suddenly appear in their, their pink, uh, vests. Yes.

And the first time you see it, you’re like, what the fuck? And then you later on, if you see it again, you might, you might catch it. But like the first time when it just happened, it just blows your mind that it was like, those lights were out for just a second. Yes.

Yeah. I’m not going to lie. I have a little bit of an obsession with going on YouTube and watching quick change fails.

Um, my current favorite is I can’t, I don’t even know what production it is of frozen that’s happening right now. And there’s a girl singing, let it go. And the lights go down and then come up too soon.

And then her thing gets stuck and she’s literally like, it’s like, is that the, the, the, like the previews that are happening in DC right now? I think those, that quick change is beautiful. Have you watched that? I haven’t watched that yet. She sort of steps back and the, the, the curtain comes up and then it’s her ice palace.

And then just as she gets to the part of the song where her dress would have changed, her other dress literally just goes and goes into some sort of pocket of the stage. It’s pretty amazing. I’ve watched it a few times.

No, this is like from something. Yeah. Maybe Tokyo Disney.

I don’t even know, but it’s like, it’s a, it’s a hardcore fan. It’s like, it’s been my new favorite one. It’s like watching somebody introduced me to the Peter Pan flying fails.

Oh, geez. Oh my God, Phil. I can’t like, I’m crying.

I’m laughing. So hard. It hurts.

Like some of them, like, Oh, I can’t, I can’t like flying into the wall. Oh God. Anyway.

I, um, and like, how’s your voice been since, cause you know, I mean, years ago we talked about your, uh, your, your thyroid cancer and, uh, you had that removed and you had your big, uh, farewell to my voice party and then found out cause you expected that you would never sing again. I was given an extraordinarily high percentage that I would never sing again ever. Yeah.

Um, it was devastated. You wouldn’t know what you were going to do. Maybe the scariest year of my life.

2012, um, August 24th was the date of my surgery. I was scary. It was a scary time.

I was 10 weeks post-surgery that I finally got my full voice back and it was like working. I wasn’t allowed to even hum a note for two weeks post-surgery, which that must’ve been like cause you just want to know, right? Well, you know me, right? How do you not, how do you not sing? I just randomly sing like random words. I’m going to the laundromat.

Yeah. Like it’s like, it’s ridiculous. So, um, it was two weeks of that, of like not even being allowed to really hum or barely even talk.

And then I started slow. I, okay. So did I tell you about the woman in Vegas? Did I tell you about this whole story? I don’t know.

Oh, so Katie, bless her. My best friend, um, was, um, really amazing. And she went on a quest online because I kept going online and typing in thyroid cancer, uh, singers and everything was coming back.

I never sang again. It was all nightmares. You’re going to die.

Like it like web MD, right? Yeah. My baby toe hurts. You have cancer.

Um, it was all devastating stuff. So she went on a quest for positive. Right.

And she found a woman in Vegas who was playing Christine who got diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was back on stage playing Christine two months post-surgery. So I wrote her an email and she wrote back. I still have it.

I saved. Um, cause her response was really, really amazing. Singing is not who we are.

Um, which is a hard thing to realize. It is such a huge part of who I am. It’s literally the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do with my life ever.

Um, how many people can say that about their passions? No, it’s true. Yeah. Um, and I was in a really bad place when I got diagnosed.

I was like, I’m going to have to shut down Facebook because looking at other people’s rehearsal pictures and opening night pictures and costume pictures is pretty much like a, I’m probably not going to survive. Like I’m probably going to sort of have to not be on this planet. Like it was, it was not a great place to be.

Um, and so for the first two weeks, no singing, no nothing, not even humming. And then I started slow using the, um, vocal warmups that this girl from Vegas told me about, she said, start, start easy. Hums only don’t use any vowels, like no open mouth stuff.

Um, and it was hard. I had one note, one note, and then I had three and then I had five, like it was a slow process. And then I had, I remember when I had a full octave, I was like, okay, I have eight notes.

I can do a lot with eight notes. Like we, this is great. I can do a lot with eight.

Um, and then it was, you know, 12 was two octaves. And then I was, then it was three and then I, it was stronger than it was before. And I, it was freer because I didn’t have a nine centimeter tumor around my vocal cords.

Like I knew that that would complicate it. Well, I mean, you don’t know what you don’t know. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, and it was stronger and clearer and better than it was before.

I can randomly belt to an F now, which I could never do before. Um, I lost a couple of notes in my upper register. Like I lost some of my Soprano.

I can’t really do much above a C sharp. Um, I’m not stressed out about it. Your voice is still like fucking powerful though.

Like, cause I, um, saw you in that in at fringe last year. And, uh, the alien musical and, um, opening number, everybody else has these little voices and then your voice. And I was like, well, there’s, they heard that one in the back.

Like your voice is so huge. And I’m so glad that you didn’t lose it. My voice got punchingly beautiful, which I think is the strangest compliment and maybe the best thing you’ve ever need to get that like on a t-shirt or something.

Like that’s the kind of quote that you need. Like that’s, that’s gotta go on all your posters. I’m surprised you don’t have it on your website.

Like probably you probably should like, there’s like create a little logo. It says her voice has got punchingly beautiful. Get that on there.

Cause yeah. Um, and, uh, and so like, it’s still, it’s still amazing. Yeah.

Yeah. And, uh, at one point you were talking about like maybe trying to do some kind of like one woman show about that time or you’re done or is that behind me now? I’ve gone back to it. I, I started writing the show, um, realized it was more of a narration than it was a play.

So I left it for a little bit and I have gone back to it. Um, with my therapist’s, um, encouragement, I have gone back to it. And it’s interesting to revisit a time that was so confusing and, um, blurry in my brain.

Like I remember a lot of things very clearly and I don’t remember a lot of things at all. Have you talked to other people about the things you don’t remember? I haven’t. I do have like the recordings.

He was really smart and she said like, when you go in for your appointments with the surgeon and everything, record everything because he’ll say things like you’re never going to sing again and that’s all you’re going to hear. Right. And you’re not going to hear everything else that he says.

So go back and re-listen. So I’ve gone back and re-listened to a couple of those recordings, which is interesting. Yeah.

Of course now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s very interesting to go back and listen to those recordings.

Um, yeah. And to re-read what I had written, which was when it was all very clear. Of course.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so some stuff has changed, some stuff hasn’t, it’s evolving.

Is it still something that you think you want to do? Cause I think at one point we talked and you were like, I don’t want to go through that again. I don’t want to relive that. Yeah.

I don’t know. I don’t know. Like I sort of, I, I have a moment every, every August, every August 24th, you have sort of a happy cancerversary, you know, five years.

Yeah. Um, a lot of people aren’t that lucky. No, that’s true.

Um, I mean, they say if you’re going to get cancer, thyroid cancer is the one to get because it’s the only one that uses the word cure. Um, but like my doctors can’t even use the term cancer-free. Right.

They haven’t even used the word remission. My numbers are still sort of where they are and that’s fine. I go in and I see my Aunt Jo every four months, question mark, which constantly doing blood work.

We’re constantly checking everything. And they, so they’re like, it’s still like, they’re not like cured in air like I am like air quote cured. Yeah.

I don’t have to have any more surgery or radiation, which is great. That’s amazing. That’s great.

I remember when you were, I remember, I remember your, uh, your radioactive pill. Oh, that was like the best. I mean, you were, you were the one, you were the quote that I have used consistently over the last five years.

Um, that said you were going to confuse every single medical professional that you come in contact with. Um, because I’m sarcastic. Um, like when I met my radiation doctor and there was an intern in the room and he was, I don’t even, I’m, this is awful to say he was very old and, um, uh, you know, he’s, you know, and you’re going to do this and it’s going to be this and you’re going to do this.

And I said, I said like, is it possible to get locked in a room like with an angry plant or like with a, with a horde of awful spiders or something? And the intern, I can see him sort of start to chuckle because he knows what I’m getting at. The radiation doctor is like, no, there’s no plants in the room. And then, you know, and then I get there, I get to this, you know, lead lined room that I had to be locked in for three days.

Um, the nurses don’t really understand my humor. Um, I get to the room and the, the woman, the woman that’s going to be handing me my radioactive pill, you know, she’s going through the thing and she’s saying, I’m going to bring you a canister and I’m going to open the canister and pull out a second canister. And then I’m going to open that second canister and then you’re going to reach in and you’re going to grab the third canister and you’re going to open it up and you’re going to take the pill.

Do not touch the pill. And I said, I’m not allowed to touch the pill that’s going into my mouth hole. And she said, you are not allowed to touch the pill that’s going in your mouth hole.

And I said, okay, don’t touch the pill. Great. And then I’m going to swallow the pill.

She said, I’m going to leave the room and you’re going to swallow the pill. And then I’m going to come back in five minutes with a, like, I don’t even know, like Geiger counter. She stood at the door and she was like, stand over there and I’m going to test your radiation levels.

I was like, amazing. So she went away and put on these big gloves and came back with the canister and she opens the canister. And I said, Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Did you bring the canister that said teleportation? And she paused and like, not even, not even a glance of like, not even a smirk. She said, you don’t get to choose your superpower. And I was like, I love that woman.

I love that woman. And then Katie was coming and taking pictures of me from across the hallway where I was holding up signs. I made signs that was like, I haven’t noticed anything yet.

I’m still waiting. And like one of the nurses kept coming in and she was like, anything, and I’m like, I’m not having croissant in Paris right now. So no, no teleportation skills.

Yeah. Nice. Yeah.

I think my superpower is finding good parking spots. Like, and I know that’s not like the best superpower to have ever, but it’s really not a good superpower. If you don’t have a car in Toronto.

Yes. Especially if you don’t have a car in Toronto. Um, yeah, but you know, I suppose if you’re with somebody who has a car and they need a parking spot, like then that works.

Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever watched Misfits? Uh, I watched some of Misfits and I already got through the whole, I got through most of it.

That’s like, some people have the most random of superpowers that I liked that because that’s how I felt. She’s like, I’ve got the lame superpower. I’ve got like the lamest superpower.

Yeah. Um, in the past few years, yes. You’ve been doing more professional theatre.

Yes. And so it was post cancer that I, um, when I could sing again and I was like, okay, this is obviously what I’m supposed to be doing in my life in a fate type. Um, if you believe in that sort of thing, uh, this is what I meant to be doing with my life.

Um, so I fought, I fought pretty hard. I got signed with, um, townhouse largest and best talent agency in all of North America. Um, and, um, having a full team behind you is completely different.

Um, the agent I was with before was amazing and delightful, but mostly based in film and television. Um, which is not where I want to be. I want to be singing.

Yeah. Um, so yeah, so I’ve been able to get seen by a lot more people than I, than I would have if I’d stayed. I think a lot of agents are thinking more of like, if you tell me you just want to do theatre, they’re that interested because they’re not going to make a lot of money from you.

Yeah. And I’ve been able to like do things that I didn’t even think were a possibility. I go, I’ve been doing that cartoon, like 10 seasons of Fireman Sam doing animation.

I got to tell you, like I want to do that. I want to go to a small room in my pajamas and make funny voices. You know, there are people who do that, like in like their living rooms, they have a little studio and they can like bang out their, their voiceover, like in their home.

That sounds terrible slash amazing. I want to do that. Both.

Like you still can do it in your pajamas. I want to do books on tape. That’s what I want to do.

How great would that be? That’d be pretty awesome. Right? As long as it’s a good book. Like a lot of, um, like, uh, what are they called? Places that, Oh God.

Publishing houses. Use your words. Publishing houses.

Um, like they hire the author or like famous people. Not always. There are people who do, who do like voiceover.

Like who just do like random. Cause not every author is going to be a good reader. Truth.

You know, not everybody can be as good a reader as Neil Gaiman is of his own stuff. Accurate. And many people who write just terrible readers.

I mean, fair, you know, and not everybody’s going to rate a celebrity voice as the voice of their book. So there’s plenty of work out there. All right.

I’m just telling you, I think that should be a thing. Yeah, absolutely. It should be a thing.

As long as there’s still a market for audio books, uh, audible still sponsoring podcasts. Not this one. Um, but you know, I mean, if they were audible, they’re going to offer me money.

I’d probably say, you know, I I’d say yes. By the way. Um, I don’t know if I mentioned this cause you’re like your episode, this is going to like milestone.

Um, this was your, you’re going to be the 100th episode. Yep. So, um, audible, um, but yeah, so, um, yeah.

Um, but back to the thing, like, uh, fireman Sam is like you’ve been doing it five years. Um, who, how long have I been doing fireman Sam? Um, I think I booked that in 2014. Hmm.

And that was originally a wealth, a Welsh. Yes. It’s apparently been on the air for a kajillion years.

It used to be claymation. Right. Um, and then they switched over to animation.

Um, but it’s in Wales and, um, it’s very famous over in the UK and then they tried to sell it. I believe what happened is they tried to sell it to America and the accents were pretty hard to understand as well. Like Welsh, they make a three act play out of every single word.

Um, uh, so we have been re-dubbing randomly came to Canada to, um, re-dub the animation from Wales to us. And so it’s on, uh, Amazon prime in the United States of America, but we’ve done 10 seasons. That’s incredible.

Dilla’s price. They’ve given me a lot of freedom with her, which I love. Uh, she’s sort of a scatterbrained and her son, Norman is a little bit of a nitwit.

He lights a lot of things on fire. I mean, the funny thing about, uh, the Pontypandy is the name of the town. Um, they don’t have an insurance adjuster and they use the entire town’s resources to fight, uh, like a small restaurant fire or helicopters come and well, you know, it’s like, you know, cartoons is, uh, yeah, he’s the man that saves the day.

He is amazing. You cartoons don’t have to worry about insurance adjusters and things like that. Bring in the whole, like the town could bankrupt itself this week.

Cause next week, last week didn’t happen, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Um, so Norman price is my son and he’s, uh, he’s a nitwit.

He, he lights a lot of things on fire. He’s constantly getting in trouble. So I spent a lot of time yelling at him and gasping, you know, clutching my pearls.

And they’ve given you the, you’re saying they give me a lot of freedom. Yes. We’ve made her a little sing songy, which is kind of fun, but the original, she was not, she’s not as sing songy as I am.

I definitely made her, I definitely gave her a little bit more craziness, which is amazing. That’s great. Um, you mentioned earlier, you mentioned the, speaking of sing songy, you mentioned, uh, the Panto that you did Snow White that you did with, with Drayton.

I got to be a villain for the first time in my life. Cause you were an incredible villain. Um, thank you.

And, uh, you made a real meal out of that character. I think that everybody, I think everybody in the audience that I was in was like loving the heck out of you. It wasn’t like, like, I think everybody’s like booing the villain, but it was so much fun.

Cause you know, it was really great. Um, David Connelly, the director, um, told me that I needed to find my villain laugh. So we workshopped a couple of different laughs before we came to that one.

Um, which people still ask me about people that came to see it or when they’re like, oh my God, you did that Panto. And I saw that Panto and that laugh. Oh, um, which is hysterical because it was such a, it was a journey to finding her laugh.

Were you doing that before you went into rehearsal or was it part of the rehearsal? It was part of the rehearsal to find your laugh. Yeah. I had, um, so with thyroid cancer, um, I don’t know if you know what your thyroid does.

Do you know what your thyroid is? I don’t actually. So your thyroid regulates your anxiety level. It regulates your metabolism and it regulates your fatigue level.

So I am on, um, synthetics that, um, helped me to regulate, but they’re not actual thyroid because actual thyroid is bad for people who have no thyroid random. Um, which is why I can’t take like weight loss supplements because they have a lot of powdered thyroid in them. Um, and it turns out if the level of pill that you’re on is too high, um, your anxiety level is through the roof.

So I have been experiencing panic attacks that I had never experienced before. Anxiety attacks at 40 is like a challenge if you’ve ever had to sort of deal with them before. And I had a debilitating, um, anxiety attack right before we opened.

And I, um, fascinating to me now looking back on it. But that whole rehearsal process, um, Drayton puts up entire musicals in 14 days, which is glorious, but it’s also extremely intensive. And, um, I had sort of, this was my first big massive show.

I was getting my equity card. Um, I had a lead. I, I was, I was being a villain, which I had never been before.

And I had sort of that, um, I’m not good enough. They made a mistake. They should cast me.

Um, like, like hiding, hiding and crying in the dressing room. And, um, the girl playing Snow White came into the dressing room and she was like, Oh my God, are you okay? And I was like, no, I’m not okay. And so she went to go get my friend, Eric bless who came into the dressing room and he was like, okay, I’m going to drive you home.

And then tomorrow morning, tomorrow’s rehearsal doesn’t start until noon. I’m going to come and get you at nine and we’re going to go somewhere and we’re going to sit and we’re just going to drill all of your scenes. We’re just going to go through them just slowly one by one.

We’re just going to do them all. And it was amazing. And I went home and called Katie, my best friend, and she sort of talked me through how to come down and how to like self care.

And so now when I have an anxiety attack, I know exactly what’s happening. I can feel it. Yeah.

Palpitations and sweat and the nausea and the hamster wheel of shit. That’s, that’s really difficult if, if like it’s never happened before. Yeah.

Yeah. I didn’t even know how to identify it, which is. Well, you know, when, when a lot of people, when they have an anxiety attack the first time, they think they’re having a heart attack or something like that.

People end up like in like going to the hospital. Well, it was an anxiety attack that brought me to the hospital in the first place, which was what led to me getting diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Oh really? Okay.

Yes. Well, cause I know that you’ve been putting it off. Like your doctor had been like, your thyroid’s a little enlarged.

You should go to the. I can actually physically see your thyroid. Maybe you should go get this thing.

And I was like, And that was for years you were. Two years. Two years ignoring what turned out to be a tumor.

Yeah. I was like, ah, it’s just a swollen lymph node. It’s not a big deal.

Now, because I take the synthetics, so ridiculous because I take the synthetics most days, my body’s like, cool. Yeah. Every now and then my body’s like, no, that was a fake pill.

Check us up. So those days are like low energy. Those days are not good days.

Well, there was a pair of like right after the surgery, did they put you on the, on the pills right after? No, I was on zero pills for two months because I couldn’t have any thyroid in my system at all. When I went into radiation. Oh shit.

Yeah. So like I was a blob. I think I was sleeping 23 hours a day.

Well, yeah. Looking at a salad and gaining eight pounds. It’s like, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool.

I don’t even need to eat the burger. I’ll just pretend I ate it. Yeah.

Yeah. But, but still like. And then they have to start you really low.

So I was on like, 0.25. Now at the time I was working at the Foggy Dew and they were brilliant about it. I was sort of, when I would get to the point of my shift where I was done and I mean like, I have to go now. Yeah.

They were like, okay, great. And they would, they had sort of a contingency plan. Somebody would stay in close.

They were scheduling me on early shifts instead of on closes. And I was just sort of easing back into it, which was really difficult. But everybody is really amazing.

That’s good. Which is great. That’s good.

Yeah. So, and I mean, not that I’ve been working consistently, but I finally got my equity card. But I mean, it rare is the actor that’s working consistently.

Accurate. And that’s one of the things. Industry in Toronto is really hard.

Well, I mean, when there’s one big producer in town and everybody else is indie, what are you supposed to do? Yeah. I mean, Drayton, they are the largest producer of musical theatre in Ontario. And their contracts, I think they go from like, I think it’s like February through December.

Like it’s quite a long, it’s all year round. Yeah. That’s pretty long.

Which is amazing. Like, what do they do? 15 shows a year, 16 shows a year. That’s amazing.

Yeah. But I mean, in Toronto itself, there’s just marvish. Really? Yes.

The acting ups. Oh God, it’s not acting upstage. Is it the musical stage? Musical stage camp? Yeah.

Yes. They, there, it looks like it’s going to be, it looks like it’s going to be great. That’s good.

Yeah. Yeah. Because we’re, like, as far as musicals go, there’s like not that many that are doing professional, professional musicals in the city.

And that’s a problem. Who’s producing Grease? I don’t know. Starbucks? Star Fox.

Okay. Maybe. Well, the three leads are Americans.

Oh, fuck. Maybe it’s Starbucks. Nothing against the Americans.

But it’s still like, you know, we, we have a dearth of, of theatre competition. And how many actors? 380,000? A million, a million actors in the city. Um, half of, probably three quarters of which are all wanting to do a musical.

Yes. So, you know, that’s why everybody’s doing indie and everybody’s hoping to, you know, they’re, it’s why Fringe is insane because everybody wants to have the next Kim’s Convenience or whatever, you know? Yeah. Or the next Drowsy.

Or the next Drowsy Chaperone. Yeah. Yeah, it’s crazy.

Yeah. The fact that, the fact that, like, I do, I do feel like Fringe in Toronto has an identity problem where that, because that’s our focus. Yeah.

So what’s going to be the next big show? Instead of like, let’s check out these, let’s let people experiment and like, things like that. You know? How much Fringe did you get to this year? Oh, almost none. Oh.

Almost none. I got to see maybe two shows this year. I was in the middle of a breakup and a move, so I didn’t, it was not, it was like, not the right timing.

Yeah. But, you know, usually I’ll like, I mean, I had a media pass that I didn’t use. Oh.

Because it was just like, I just couldn’t. Yeah. So.

I actually managed to get to five shows this year. Five shows? What? That’s pretty incredible. I mean, I’m not Derek Chua or anything, but.

Who is? Zero people. Just Derek Chua. He is.

I don’t know how he does it, because if I see more than three shows in a day, I can’t remember, like, if I go to four shows in a day, I can’t remember the fourth. I don’t know anything. He has a time machine.

He has to. Yes. He has to.

Yeah. Yeah. And then he goes over and sees shows at the Hamilton Fringe, because I remember he came to see mine.

Like, he’s like a machine, you know? He has a time machine. Yeah. I’m pretty convinced.

Yeah. Yeah. But.

And then still he makes time to go to Statler’s, like on Monday nights. Is he like a regular at Statler’s? Yeah, he comes pretty regularly, which is kind of great. He’s just a guy who likes theatre.

I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

We need more of those. Accurate. Yeah.

Accurate. Did you host Statler’s when you came back? I did, last week. You came into town, you came back and.

I literally finished my contract, had an audition Monday morning. So I finished my contract Sunday afternoon, had an audition Monday. And Jenny Walls asked me to host Statler’s on Monday night.

So I hosted Monday night. Crazy. What is hosting at Statler’s entail? And this is, this is Statler’s, like, come in and sing? It’s Monday night, musical theatre, open mic.

Yeah. So anybody can sing. There’s always a sign up sheet.

There’s a piano player, Donovan Lunabit. And Jamie Bird plays the drummy cajon, cajon thing. You know, the fun drum box? Yes, yes, yes.

What is that called? I don’t know, but. I think it’s called a cajon. Okay.

And so he plays that and then you host. So it’s usually like two or three songs. And then you open up the list and whoever signs up, signs up.

And yeah, there’s a little intermission. You know, you do a little, like, how was your summer? Cha-cha. What’s your name? Have you ever sung here before? You know, just toast.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Jenny’s like a pro at it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think five years now. Well, she, she hosted the Christmas concert for Confidential last year before.

Yes, she did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She’s great.

She’s a fantastic hostess. Yeah, yeah. Yes.

So, but I think that we are about out of time. But this is, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you so much for, for being my 100th guest.

Thanks for having me on as your 100th guest. High five 100. Oh, that was a much better.

That was a really good one.