Melody Johnson

Having performed from her hometown of Brantford, Ontario to Singapore, Melody has enjoyed moving from dramatic to comedic roles for over the last twenty years. Soon after graduating with a BFA from York University’s Theatre Performance program she began work with now Artistic Director of the Tarragon Theatre, Richard Rose on the Manitoba Theatre Centres’ The Glass Menagerie. Melody then became one of a core group of actors with Necessary Angel Theatre Company. The group dedicated themselves to bringing new Canadian plays to life, (It’s All True, Swollen Tongues, and The Piper). Having worked with many of Canada’s most respected theatre companies, Melody has originated many memorable theatre roles such as Sugar in Claudia Dey’s Trout Stanley for Factory Theatre, Olive/Eva in Jason Sherman’s It’s All True for Tarragon Theatre and a Dora win for the titular role of Mercy in Little Mercy’s First Murder/Tarragon-Shaw Festival. Other favourites include: Assassins for Talk is Free/Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, 7 Stories/ Theatre Calgary/CanStage (Betty Mitchell award nomination), In the Next Room Tarragon/MTC, Florence Gibson’s I Think I Can YPT/National Arts Centre, Our Town/Two Planks and a Passion (Merrit Award nomination), Blithe Spirit/Soulpepper. Logging 8 Dora nominations for acting over the years Melody also co created the musical Mimi with Rick Roberts and Allen Cole for the Tarragon Theatre in 2009.

www.melodyjohnson.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Melody-Johnson-214058295823079/
Tickets to Person of Interest: http://www.tarragontheatre.com/show/person-of-interest/

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Transcript

Welcome to episode 115 of Stageworthy. I am your host, Phil Rickaby. Stageworthy is a podcast about people in Canadian theatre featuring conversations with actors, directors, playwrights, and more.

You know, if you haven’t subscribed to the podcast, I’d like to remind you that subscribing is the best way to make sure you never miss an episode of Stageworthy. And there are some great episodes coming up. Trust me when I say you don’t want to miss them.

So make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Music, or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to get every new episode of Stageworthy delivered right to your device. And if you want to drop me a line, you can find Stageworthy on Facebook and Twitter at StageworthyPod, and you can find the website at stageworthypodcast.com. If you want to drop me a line, you can find me on Instagram and Twitter at Phil Rickaby, and my website is philrickaby.com. My guest this week is actor Melody Johnson. Melody is premiering her new solo show, Person of Interest, at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre, March 1st to 4th.

Could you tell me about Person of Interest? What is Person of Interest about? So Person of Interest is the mostly true story of me. I’m an actor who, during this point in my career, I was not working a lot. I had a commercial on the air, and I was living off some residuals.

And I was, my husband, who’s a musician, composer, musical director, had just head off to another town to work. And I was alone in the house. And I was with this crazy, pathologically skittish rescue dachshund we had adopted, our young son, and some really, really bad neighbours.

So it’s the mostly true story of an actor driven to the brink by bad neighbours. Okay. That’s it, in a nutshell.

And this is something that actually happened to you? Yes, it actually happened. And what is it that made you decide that you were going to turn this experience with bad neighbours into a show? Well, I think it’s, you know, I’ve talked to a lot of people about it, and it seems to be a pretty universal thing. At one point or another, a lot of us have had them.

And I logged a lot of the challenges with them. And my mother, at this point, was kind of a sounding board through this entire ordeal. And it was a strange thing, but the community, our neighbourhood kind of came together because they as well were being, were having difficulties with these, this particular set of neighbours.

And, and, and I just thought my, my, also my, my relationship with the police, I thought was, was interesting as well. We, I came to know the same police officer who would come around and, and so there’s that whole thing that I thought was kind of interesting. In addition to this, and a person of interest, I don’t know if you know what that is.

Do you know what that is? Isn’t that somebody who’s, I mean, it’s not somebody who’s the police think is involved in a crime, but they’re interested to find out more information. Is that right? That’s right. Yeah.

And on a, this all came to be, the genesis of this whole thing was that my son asked me to volunteer for pizza lunch at school. And so what you have to do, you probably know this is fill out a police background check. But the thing is, when my background check came back, I was found to be a person of interest.

And on, on the background checks at this time, there was, there, what’s listed is, there’s accused, apprehended, other, and person of interest. And I was cited as being a person of interest twice on this check for two separate crimes. And so, yeah, there’s somebody, you’re somebody that the police watches.

And, you know, this is a form, this, this form was something I had to give to the principal to sling pizza on Wednesday mornings. And, and so I didn’t know what to do because I could no longer volunteer if I’m this person. Right.

So I found out through the police that what I needed to do was at that point, you had to write what’s called a letter of suppression. So you have to suppress this whole, what you’re suspected of doing. Crazy thing is, is that I, I didn’t do all of the things that they’re listed, that’s listed there that I said I didn’t do.

So anyway, that’s the kind of, that’s what, that’s what a person of interest is. You’re, you’re right. It’s somebody who’s, you know, they’re keeping an eye on.

Were you surprised to see that status on that form? I was shocked. And I think this is one of the things that might be interesting for an audience is that you could we could all be persons of interest, but it’s not until you apply for the background check that you know. Right.

So this was like, and I refer to it in the show as a stealthy little missile that was delivered to me after the neighbors had moved on. So you could, you could, you could go through your life and not know that the police consider you somebody of interest to them. That’s right.

If I hadn’t, hadn’t applied to be a volunteer, I would never know. Yeah. Yeah.

It’s, it’s pretty scary. I think, you know, we live in a free country and, you know, but that’s there, that’s there. And I, I actually went to headquarters today at 40 College Street here in Toronto to just ask a few more questions just about my current status, because a number of years have passed now, about seven, eight years have passed since this incident.

And I wanted to ask, like, you know, there was the time when I had to write the letter of suppression and I no longer have to do that. But does that mean that everything is erased out of their system? And it’s not, it’s, it’s, it’s there. It will always be there.

Although I no longer have to write a letter of suppression. And now, you know, civil rights activists and, you know, people who are champions of mental health and all of that, you know, fought us and said, it’s not fair. If one person at one point in their life did something, it doesn’t mean that it should always be on a record.

And so therefore a barrier to applying for jobs or volunteering or whatever. So they’re working on this new bill called Bill 113. It’s not all the way through yet.

But that will not allow just any employer to see, you know, any one offs that you may have been suspected of committing. And until that goes through, as far as the police are concerned, you will always be a person of interest for these, these incidents? If I were to rob a bank tomorrow, attempt to rob a bank tomorrow, they would look into my file. And yes, this would be here.

We would be there. Yeah. That’s so weird.

But the thing is, if I applied to, let’s say, teach at a school tomorrow or sling some more pizza or help some seniors, you know, in the near future, it, with a vulnerable sector check, it most likely wouldn’t turn up. It’s just if I did commit a crime. Okay.

Well, that’s what I understand from the police today. Okay. Yeah.

I don’t know, Phil, you might want to get a, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a check, but I don’t think I have, but you know, maybe, maybe I should, maybe I should learn something about myself. That’s right. That’s right.

Um, Melody, when did you start creating your own work? I’ve looked, I’ve looked at your resume. You’ve done a lot of work. You’ve done TV theatre.

You’ve had a commercial that you have commercials, like you said, at what point did you start making your own theatre? Uh, I guess it was around 2007. I started to write this show called Miss Caledonia. Um, the story of my mother’s journey as a pageant queen in Southern Ontario.

Um, I started to write it around then, uh, with her. And then we, um, entered that into the 2010 Summer Works Festival and performed it there. So I guess around 2007.

And what was it that, I mean, not everybody, I mean, it’s more common now, but not everybody, um, start just ups and starts to start creating their own work. Uh, was there anything in particular that drove you, uh, to, to do this? Um, well, I had always dabbled in writing and creation. I worked at the second city for many years.

And so we’re always improvising, telling our own stories there. And, um, and I, I guess my last show there was in 2000, in the year 2000. And then I started to work there as a director, but I missed writing and creating and improvising.

And, um, you know, when you’re an actor, you learn other people’s, you’re always learning other people’s stuff. And I think, uh, I just wanted to tell a new story and, uh, and yeah, I just wanted to keep acting when I was just auditioning. And, um, and I love working with Rick Roberts who’s, who I’ve worked with a few times on plays and Eric Wolf as well.

Um, who, uh, who helped work on this one and, um, yeah, to keep, to keep stretching my muscles as an actor and as a creator, that’s why I started to do it. Do you remember, I mean, uh, what it was that drove you to theatre? I mean, everybody has their own, their own sort of like origin story. Um, do you remember, do you remember yours? Uh, well, I guess I was always, uh, um, in the arts.

My mother loved the musical theatre. And so I was always enrolled in tap dancing and all kinds of dance and was not very good at it, but, but I also loved comedy and all of the oldies, red buttons and, and Lucille Ball. And, um, oh gosh, all through the sixties and seventies, I loved comedians like, um, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Burnett.

And, uh, so I started to improvise in my hometown, um, when I was in high school and joined a theatre sports team there. So I got to improvise as a teen and then we toured around and, and then I thought it might be fun to do some plays in high school. So I did shows in high school.

Um, so I think my mom was big influence and teachers that I had, um, coaches, improv coaches, you know, from a young age were, um, pretty instrumental. And then I, uh, went to York university and, uh, was in the theatre department there and, and got a fine arts degree in theatre honors. And, uh, yeah.

And then, and then just started auditioning and, um, I was pretty lucky out of the gate. I got to work with a lot of great people like Richard Rose, who runs the Terragon. So, um, he’s been a great, uh, mentor and, uh, encouraging force in my career.

There’s, there’s, I mean, there’s a bit of a stretch between, uh, doing, doing theatre in high school and deciding that you’re going to do it in university as, as your degree. Um, and you know, there’s a lot of people who do theatre in high school who don’t do that. So what did, what was it that made you decide that that that’s what you were going to do instead of, I don’t know, go get a BA in English or something? Well, yeah, I wasn’t sure.

And, you know, I’ve, I have a son in high school now. And, uh, so we’re talking about all this stuff, like preparing for the, for the future when you graduate and, and it’s, it’s hard to know when you’re, you know, uh, you’re a teenager, what you’re going to do, but, and so I wasn’t sure. I, um, I took a year off actually after high school and I, um, I went to France for a year with two other, um, teens from my hometown and we were au pairs, like nannies over in France.

And I thought I’m going to take this year because I really, I love language and, uh, see if I, how much I miss theatre. I’ll go to theatre over there as well and, and see if French is something that I want to, uh, you know, pursue in university or theatre. And, and I enjoyed it over there.

I, I had some kooky, stayed with some pretty kooky families and had a lot of great experiences, but I did miss theatre. And so, uh, when I came back, I, I auditioned and, uh, and, uh, and yeah, began to pursue that. And then when I was there, I, I really loved it.

And, and, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s, you know, been a challenge all these years, but um, I’ve just tried to learn as much as I could over the years, uh, uh, in terms of, you know, what else can I do besides act? You know, I can direct, maybe direct a little bit, write a little bit, um, you know, uh, do radio, a bit of radio, you know, voiceover stuff and branches from e-interacting, you know? So I guess, you know, I, I wasn’t sure I wasn’t, honestly, I wasn’t sure after high school. And so I took that time and then I, I became quite a bit more sure. Well, I think I, I, I mean, I think back and I, I sometimes wish that I had taken a year off, not that I would have made a different choice, but, um, in a year between high school and going to university or college, you can learn a lot about yourself.

Yeah. But you don’t necessarily know when you’re, you go just from high school straight into university or college. So I’ve sometimes, sometimes wondered if what, you know, but that would have, what that would have done for my, uh, theatre school experience.

Yeah. There’s a great, uh, I was just, uh, watching, uh, something online called Design for Life. A couple of professors over at Stanford talk about the fact that a lot of us will change, change what we do for a living over, over our lives, like maybe three times, because what you might want to do when you’re 18 might not be the same thing when you’re 50.

Right. So, so, uh, I, I, I, I’ve found that, I mean, I talked to more and more people who, um, are, would not describe themselves, uh, using a singular, uh, uh, descriptor. So I talked to very few people who describe themselves as an actor and most people are an actor writer or an actor fight director or an actor, something like there’s so many different things.

And, uh, I think that that’s something that is, people are a little more open about now. I mean, when I was going through theatre school, everybody would say, look, you never tell anybody that you do anything other than act. Don’t tell them that you can stage manage.

Don’t tell them that you can, that you can fight direct. Don’t tell them anything because they will think that you’re not serious as an actor. Oh, I see.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, the climate here in Canada is that you have to, you have to be creative in other ways and you know, they’ll just feed that.

It will just feed into the, the acting work that you do. Right. Yeah.

So you said that you, you’ve always sort of dabbled in writing. Um, was that something that you did in high school or is something that was sort of fostered in, in, in at York? It wasn’t really fostered that much at York. We worked with a lot of texts.

We had some kind of collective creation in our first year, but, um, that was more kind of on our feet with like devised theatre, I would call it. Um, but I guess in high school, yeah, I did write some short sketches and poetry and, um, stories. I loved writing stories and, and, uh, uh, yeah, I became a bit of a fan of writing in, in high school.

And so I, and, and now I, my favorite writers, um, like David Sedaris and, um, Mike Birbiglia, uh, who’s a standup slash storyteller. Um, who else? Patricia Highsmith. I’m looking at my table here.

Who else? Um, uh, yeah, those are, those are all just such great inspirations for me. Those folks. I’m looking at, at your, uh, your page for Miss Caledonia and you have performed this in a lot of places.

Yep. We’ve been around. We’ve been around.

Yeah. Um, I mean, wow. Yeah, no, I’m just, there’s a lot.

Um, when you’re taking it to, you take a show, especially one that you’ve done a lot to, to a new space. What is the thing that you’re, that you are, that you learn from performing it in so many different, different places? Um, well, there’s the technical stuff as an actor, there’s that side of it, which is, wow, this is a, this is an amazing, beautiful theatre. Like, I think we went to the Imperial Theatre in St. John New Brunswick, which is a jewel in the country.

It’s, it’s large and just a stunning, stunning space. Um, kind of like the winter garden type of type of space. Um, and then we might go to a village hall.

Like we went to a series of village halls in the, in the UK or, or an arena kind of space here. Like, uh, I mean, we went to Coronation, Alberta and, and, uh, we were in kind of a, oh, like a hall. Right.

Um, and they had like a, a buffet set up, set up at the back. And it was like a, you know, like a, um, I’m trying to think of like an Elks kind of Shriners kind of thing where people had tables on the floor and six people sitting around a table, they’d have their dinner and then they’d watch your show. So it, so technically it’s such a challenge as an actor because, uh, you know, you do your sound check and it’s always so different.

And, you know, in terms of projection, you know, there might not be any floor mics or, or might be, uh, a really kind of padded space with lots of upholstered furniture and blacks and all of that stuff. Um, or it might be kind of bare and echoey. Right.

So it’s a great challenge as an actor to try and figure out how am I going to work this space? Um, and then the people themselves, like, uh, and I have to just say, like, I don’t know that I’ve encountered, uh, any, any troubles with technicians over the years. There’ve been so many great people, especially across Canada, who’ve just embraced us and, um, welcomed us into their spaces. And, um, in the engagers to the people who are presenting us have been really warm and, uh, you know, they might, they might invite us out at the intermission to, uh, you know, do a draw or something, um, really unique kind of cool, uh, communities we’ve played for.

And I enjoy meeting those folks. And sometimes in some occasions we would do a question answer. And, uh, so it’s, it’s always nice getting to know the community through those as well.

And there’s some places like we performed at the NAC in Ottawa and, and I wasn’t sure, like Toronto, it’s a, you know, it’s fair size city. So will they, will this farm tale resonate with, you know, city folk and, uh, Ottawa was one of the most successful, I would say they, they really, um, craved it. And a lot of people are from the Ottawa Valley and in the area around to come into the NAC to see shows.

And, um, so that was great. And, um, and, uh, yeah. And then in smaller communities, um, like Coronation, Alberta, for example, um, they, uh, the story resonates with them.

They, they work the land. They, you know, have a family who pitches in, who gets up at 6am or 5am, you know, to milk cows. And so, so it’s been really great getting to know different communities.

And when, when you’re, when you’re getting up in front of an audience and, you know, it’s a different audience whenever, everywhere you go, um, and people react to different things, you never quite know what you’re going to get. And when you’re faced with an audience that’s just done like a buffet sort of thing, then there’s like, oh, and now there’s a show. Do you find it a challenge to win them over? Um, well, theatre in general can be a, uh, a kind of challenge because what happens is we’ll go to, some of us who do these types of shows will go to something called a contact, which is, it’s kind of like a convention for performers where you can show, show your wares, like 18, 20 minutes of a show to presenters across, across a certain area of the country.

And it’s up to those presenters to, you know, program you or not program you in, in their, their city or town. Um, and they know the community. Um, but quite often when you perform at these contact, these showcases, you’re after a Neil Young tribute band.

It’s a lot of music and a lot of these communities, if you look on their websites, um, you know, of, uh, smaller towns across the country, um, they’ll have tribute bands or, um, you know, some fiddlers, uh, you know, five fiddlers on this night or, you know, um, so theatre in general can be a very different experience for them. So, um, I’m a, I have to be aware of that going in, you know, I’ll look at their brochures of what just came through here and, and what I think maybe this community is used to. And, um, just keep that in mind.

And, um, uh, whatever that means, like, uh, you know, just, uh, be as clear as I can and, and, um, and tell the story and, um, hope that they hop on board and, uh, enjoy the tale, you know? Yeah. Because it’s not, it might not be something that, that they, they see much at all, you know? Well, I, I don’t, it’s hard to know, um, like when you’re going into a, a, a smaller town, what their experience of theatre is. Um, and maybe they have never seen something or maybe they are convinced they don’t like it.

Yeah. Um, and so, and here you are, for example, if they’re just had a, a buffet meal, um, and they’re having all their conversations about what’s going on in town and then the lights go down and somebody gets up and says a show. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It’s when I was at Second City, we, I used to, um, well, we had this book called The Almanac and it’s a really great book of memories put together by, uh, alumni from the Second City.

And I always said to our producer there, if, if we write a new book, if another almanac comes out, I want to write a chapter called Mr. and Mrs. Audience, because there’s a very different vibe depending on even the night that you’re playing for people. And so we’re talking about a buffet here kind of thing. And I remember at Second City that early show Saturday night crowd, um, you know, they, a lot of them wouldn’t have to maybe work the next day.

They didn’t work today. So they do have a big steak and some wine. And by the time eight 30 rolls around, you know, they’re kind of tired, be nice to lie down maybe after that big meal or have another glass of wine and not necessarily, you know, on their game up ready for a play or a show.

Right. Um, and then that second crowd, like at 11 o’clock, that second show, they may have had a lot to drink. So it’s very, it might be really hard to get some interesting, suggest some good suggestions to make a scene, to create a scene with.

Um, so, so yeah, it can have an impact what’s just come before, like a, you know, a draw, a couple of draws, an announcement. Um, in one venue we played, I remember, um, the, one of the men who ran the, the space, um, would come out and tell a few farm jokes just to get people in the mood, which of course is what I do in the show. So it was kind of like, okay, I’ll try and, you know, I’ll try and be as funny.

If I can be as funny and charming as that, then I’ll be all right. Um, so yeah. Um, and I’m trying to think if there’s any, um, my fiddler, one of my fiddlers was telling me once that they drew like these neat draws, like you could, I can’t remember where that was somewhere in Southern Ontario.

You could, I don’t know, win a side of beef if he was drawn like at the intermission and anyway, you never know. You never know. Is there anything in particular that aside from the, like, you know, the, what did they do right before they came to the theatre that you’ve learned about Mr. And Mrs. Audience? Hmm.

Anything that they’ve, say that again? Anything that they’ve learned? Well, just like anything that you’ve learned about Mr. And Mrs. Audience and how to, how to deal with them? Well, uh, yeah, well, don’t make them wait too long. Like you hope it’s not, you know, uh, a venue where, and I did play one venue where it was raining outside and it was gust, gusty winds and all of that. And, but there wasn’t the foyer area wasn’t big enough to let them in.

So you don’t want them to be safe and warm and all that stuff. And I guess do the warmup sooner so that they can get into the space and nobody, nobody likes an angry audience, but, um, uh, yeah, I’m trying to, I, I’m not sure. No, I know that, like, I worked at, I worked at one of the larger theatres here as an usher for a while.

And if the start of the show was ever delayed, even for two minutes. Yeah. People were so pissed.

Yeah. And like you say, it is hard to win them back if they’re angry. Yeah.

It’s a bad note to start on. But like Tuesday, I remember at second city Tuesday, they were, um, kind of what’s the word kind of stayed like a bit crude or, you know, they wouldn’t drink much. They got to get up the next day and, and they’ll head right out.

They may not even stay for the improv. And then Thursday always seemed to be the best night of the week because the weekend was coming and, you know, they were up for anything kind of thing. They might have a drink or two and, um, but then Saturday was kind of sleepy.

And then the late one, they were wild. And so anyway, real personality. I always found that on Thursdays, because they all had to wake up the next morning, just as a, you know, they go out for dinner, but again, they didn’t have too much to drink because they have to get up the next morning.

So they’re not going too crazy. So they’re just happy enough. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They didn’t have the state get a couple of drinks and now they’re tired.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

They were always the best. Yeah. Thursday.

So with person of interest, um, uh, are you, you’re in rehearsal for that now? Well, we, um, I’ve, I’ve done it a few times. And so I have rehearsed this and worked on it, um, over the last, oh, I guess sporadically over the last couple of years. And so I formerly go back into rehearsal on Monday.

Um, and so we have, you know, just the two weeks, but I just did it in Hamilton, the show in Hamilton. Was it last weekend, the weekend before as a fundraiser for a shelter called neighbor to neighbor. Um, and the theme here is all about neighbors.

So it seemed kind of apt. Um, and, uh, before that it did a fundraiser in Waterford, Ontario. Um, and it was great just to get some feedback from people to see what’s working because this show is, um, it’s more comedic than, uh, Miss Caledonia.

And so I wanted to see how people respond to the jokes, you know, and what, what’s working and what the rhythm of it might be. And, um, so those were really informative in terms of, in terms of that writing. Um, and I’m treating it a bit as a second city show.

I’ve, um, I developed, developed a lot of the bits within it in front of an audience, a lot of, um, uh, female comics, uh, friends of mine invited me onto their stages in Toronto. So I could try like seven, eight minutes at a time. So I’ve got a lot of bits in there, which have already tried and, and feel worked pretty, pretty well.

And now it’s gluing it all together. So that’s where the fundraisers kind of came in handy. And, uh, and so I’ll work quietly over at the Terragon, uh, in the next couple of weeks with Eric and, uh, and Rick Roberts and, uh, and, you know, that’s more kind of looking at the big shape of it all, you know, it’s not, um, it’s not very scenic like a play.

It’s more a story being told. Um, and so there’s no set it’s, uh, me, a stool, some water, um, uh, telling a story. So it’s not like there’s a lot of blocking to be rehearsed or, um, that kind of thing.

Um, so, so yeah, so I’ll go back in and, uh, work with, uh, with those guys on Monday. Now, are you, are you reworking it after the fundraisers? Are you sort of, you’re still like tweaking it or you’ve revisited to, to see what’s working and what isn’t? Yep. Yep.

And, uh, uh, I had some trusty folks who I could depend on for some feedback at those fundraisers as well. Um, and just talk to them about any inconsistencies or things they liked or things they didn’t quite get. And so I’ve, um, altered some stuff according to those nights.

Did you, did you particularly learn any, I mean, without giving anything away, was there anything that surprised you about, uh, performing it at those fundraisers? Um, well, just from a technical aspect of seeing people, like I could see a couple of them were living room shows. Um, and I don’t know if you’ve ever done a living room show. Um, bands do them a lot or they used to.

Um, and so I could actually see the people that I’m telling the story to, which is kind of rare because in the theatre you can, you hardly ever get to see their faces. So that was kind of neat and, uh, and confronting, you know, at the same time, like, uh, you can actually see the, you know, furrowed brow, somebody listening hard, or, you know, you can put a voice to, or a face to the voice who’s laughing or, um, so that was kind of neat. Um, but sorry, I forgot your question.

No, just like, did anything surprise you about, about, about performing it for the, at those fundraisers? Well, I was pleased in, in Hamilton. That’s where we just came from. Um, that the, the story really resonated and we got a bit of a dialogue going.

Um, uh, afterwards, people, people are really up for telling you their stories. Um, and, uh, so, and I tried this little experiment there. I put some, um, I had some card stock and I made these kind of fake postcards and put them on some seats and asked, you know, uh, if you want to anonymously share, um, a neighbour from hell story in three lines or less, let us know.

And so some people filled those out and I read them out afterwards, which was kind of fun because that’s the next step is I want to try and figure out how to get a dialogue happening with the audience. Um, because they’re all, they’re very effusive once you, you know, ask has, has anything ever happened to you, you know, and, uh, they’re usually pretty up for talking about it. So that was, that was pretty neat.

You know, I, yeah, I, I’ve found that with, with a solo show, something about a solo show, because you are talking to the audience directly, um, they sort of feel like they have a bit of a relationship with you. So, um, I’ve found like just in my own experience that after a solo show, they really want to engage with you, like to share with their related story or things like that in a way that I don’t see in a show that has multiple cast members. Yeah.

Now the question is, you know, and why did the postcard kind of method is I’m not convinced that a person will stand up in the audience and say, this is what happened to me, you know, um, because they might be nervous that, I don’t know, somebody there might know them and might tell somebody, or I don’t know, I don’t know, especially. I mean, they might engage with you after this show one-on-one, but I think you’re right about, you know, what if the person is in the room and they don’t know if the person’s in the room, especially if it’s in like a small town. I’m not sure.

I’m not sure, but I want to, in a Carol Burnett kind of way. Do you remember when Carol Burnett, yeah, that’s what I’d like to kind of get happening at the, not she used to do at the beginning of the show, but we could get something like that happening at the end of the show. And when I was at, um, police headquarters today, there was a sign that said, um, you know, a fee sign that said, if you want, um, if you’ve had a lost or stolen passport, if you, if you want to, uh, get a letter written for whatever reason, if you want this, they charge all of this all for all of these things.

And one of the things on the list was to interview, to speak with a police officer for two hours, it would be $84. And I thought, does that just mean like, if you want to bring a police officer into your school or something, you pay them $84. Is that what that is? And, and I thought about it and I thought, well, what if I, what if I had a police officer come to the show, like in every area I go in, I contact like the Kitchener-Waterloo police or something.

And then at the end of the show, would I, would they engage with me and talk to me about some crazy neighbor disputes? I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe not because, you know, they’re not, not allowed to do, I don’t know, divulge anything from, I don’t know, but they must have stories.

Those are Oh, I’ll bet they have stories. I bet, I bet they have some great stories. Can you imagine if you were able to, to, because you, I mean, you got to know the police officer in, in, in your own story.

If you were to have them be present at one of your performances, would you ask them certain questions? Is there something you would want them to, to do? Or are you quite, you’re, you’ve quite had enough of them by now? What I, what I would want to know is, I know that, well, I’m pretty sure that this police officer that dealt with this situation knew that these people were trouble, but I would want to hear it from his, from, straight from his mouth, you know, because there’s a kind of, the policeman has a mask on, right? And he can’t just say, look, I know that you know that they’re whatever, right? Can’t do that. So there’s a part of me that just would want to talk to him as a person. Because I thought I was going crazy at the time, you know? Like I said, I wasn’t working a lot.

I was alone, you know, I had this five-year-old and a crazy dog and, you know, my husband was working, you know, we were having long distance, you know, chats and everything. But, but, so when the cop came over and we, I would see him every once in a while. And finally, I just wanted to say like, come on, you know that, you know that they’re torturing us all, right? Didn’t say anything, right? Anyway, maybe I would ask him that.

He’s in his plain clothes, you know? Do you think that this is, that your situation was memorable enough that he would still remember the details? Or would you, if you were to say, I was this person that he would be like, I have no idea? Oh, well, I think he would. And I don’t want to give away the ending, but a while after this entire awful thing happened with these neighbors, I was, I was coming home and the ride program was out, you know, the ride program. And I was in line, you know, my car was in the line lineup.

And then I was ushered, you know, the cop waved me forward and I rolled down the window and he shone the flashlight in my eyes. And it was him. And he said, Melody.

And so I don’t want to give away the ending, but that was quite a while after. And I think, you know, when they frequent the same places, I know it’s a big city and everything, but I don’t know. I kind of like to think he remembered our weird relationship.

You’re performing this at Tarragon over a weekend. March 2nd to 4th. And how did this brief run come about? Well, Richard Rose, who’s the artistic director there, he told me after Miss Caledonia, you know, keep writing, keep writing.

And so I remember this was a number of Christmases ago. I said, you know, why don’t we read a David Sedaris? He’s got a really great Christmas story in the extra space. And he said, no, you should write something, you know, because the Tarragon is the, you know, Canadian playwrights, you know.

Sure. Canadian playwrights there. So we don’t want to read an American writer’s story.

So I originally wrote this thinking, well, maybe we’ll do this in the extra space or something. And, you know, time moved on and I was busy on other projects. And then I finally got this together and I gave it to him and the dramaturge at the time there.

They gave me some notes and then I just continued to work on it. And then cut to earlier this year and he said, you know, we can’t put it in next year’s season, but there’s something there. We’ll offer you the workspace if you want to work on it further and get some audience feedback if that’s of value to you.

So I thought, yeah, I don’t know what the right space for this show is, whether it’s the comedy bar or whether it’s the Tarragon. I like to think, I hope that some comedians will come up, you know, I’m spreading the word in that community. But I also hope that if I do it at the comedy bar or some other venue, I did it at the Social Capital, which is over on the Danforth in July.

I did a pass there for a few nights. And, you know, some theatre people ventured down there, which is great. So I always have this modus operandi of bringing the communities together.

And because I think this is kind of a, it is a show of that, you know, it’s theatrical kind of comedy. And so that’s how I ended up at the workspace. It’s been a project that I’ve been working on and showing Richard and people at the Tarragon.

So, so yeah, and it’s a nice studio kind of space, small space. And I think it will suit our needs for this little run. So you, I mean, it sounds like you are still trying to figure out, but the show sounds like it’s a cross between theatre and standup.

Yeah, it is very much so. If you, I don’t know if you know, do you know Mike Birbiglia? He’s got a few really popular Netflix specials out now. And I went to see him, he was at the Sony Center earlier this year, this fall in 2017.

And he’s such a great inspiration. And I think he blends those worlds. And I think, you know, like a standup, like an improviser, it’s hard for me to just say, this is the script, you know? And so if somebody laughs at something or doesn’t react to something, I might want to alter it, you know? And so it’s also not like a play that way.

So the next night, it might be slightly different according, you know, just because of a, maybe because of a reaction I got or didn’t get, you know? Cool, that’s interesting. Yeah, so it’s an ongoing thing, which I hope to tour, you know, like, like the other show. Do you feel like this is the kind of thing where it’s constantly going to be in motion, that if you were to perform it, say, in, I don’t know, at the Imperial in St. John New Brunswick, and then come back like a year and a half later, the show, the things about it might change a bit? Yeah, I think so.

I think so. I mean, there’s, there’s the facts that happen in this story. But there are, you know, some little, you know, maybe new character nuances or, you know, like, I remember being at Second City, moments might be lengthened because of reaction or sped up because of non reaction or, you know, I don’t think like this, the story itself is there.

It happened. But there just might be some, you know, small adjustments to make it better. I don’t want to cement it all.

Well, Melody, thank you so much for talking with me today. This has been a lot of fun. Oh, great.

Thanks for having me. It has been fun.