Cora Matheson, Kararina Hatzinakos, and Mark Kreder from The Spur-Of-The-Moment Shakespeare Collective’s Shakespeare in Hospitals

The Spur-Of-The-Moment Shakespeare Collective (SOTMSC) was founded in 2010 by Victoria Urquhart and Sean Horbatiuk, to cultivate a community of emerging artists with a shared interest in Shakespeare and community engagement.

Annually the SOTMSC performs “Shakespeare in Hospitals”. A project that is exactly what it sounds like: we create new shows, using Shakespeare’s words, designed specifically to bring to patients in hospitals across the GTA, like Mount Sinai, Sunnybrook and CAMH and more, at no charge to the hospitals or the patients.

The SOTMSC continues to grow and develop projects in 2018 under the mandate of: Establishing and cultivating community engagement in areas in and around Toronto experiencing isolation based on economic, social, and physical barriers. Our mission statement is to marry classical text, contemporary performance, and audience interaction to invite and encourage people to engage with their community.

https://www.spurofthemomentshakespeare.com/
Instagram: @shakespur
Twitter: @shakespur

Transcript

Welcome to episode 153 of Stageworthy. I’m your host, Phil Rickaby. Stageworthy is a podcast about people in Canadian theatre featuring conversations with actors, directors, playwrights, and more.

This week on the podcast, I’m talking with three cast members from the Spur of the Moment Shakespeare Collective’s Shakespeare in Hospitals program, Cora Matheson, Katerina Hatzinakos, and Mark Kreder. Spur of the Moment just launched this year’s program, so you will find them performing excerpts of Shakespeare in Hospitals around the Toronto area for the next little while. If you feel like dropping me a line to say hi, remember that you can find Stageworthy on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at stageworthypod, and you can find the website at stageworthypodcast.com. If you want to drop me a line, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at philrickaby, and my website is philrickaby.com. If you like the podcast, I hope that you’ll leave a comment or rating on Apple Podcasts, Google Music, or Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Your ratings and comments help new people find this show, or even better, if you know somebody that you think will like the show, just tell them about it. Some of my favorite podcasts became my favorite because somebody I knew told me about them. Let’s get to the show.

Oh, well, before we get started, let’s just go around everybody, say your name, and you’re all performing in the show, right? We’ll start right here. I’m Cora Matheson. Katerina Hatsanakos, but I go by Kat usually, so yeah.

And I am Mark Kreder. Mark, I feel like we’ve met before. We met Shakespeare Translated.

Yeah, you were there for the Romeo and Juliet, I think. Yes. Yes, I was.

Cool. So you guys are getting ready to do Shakespeare in Hospitals. So how’s that going? You guys had a big rehearsal today.

Yeah. Yeah, stumble through. Yeah, I think it’s finding… Well, this year, it’s an amalgamation of different Shakespeare scenes and plays and monologues and soliloquies, and so right now, I think we’re trying to just kind of go, okay, here’s our track, and here’s our story, and here is what contextually makes sense, and this being here is logical and all that stuff.

So it’s just kind of putting a puzzle together, and we’re almost there. We’re in the process of… Well, yeah, because, I mean, the whole thing is a created narrative. So we’re taking Shakespeare text, but we’re creating our whole story with it.

So literally, the script is like any sort of dramaturgical element. It’s still being processed and created. And we’re also working with three different directors.

So today, it was kind of like… So for example, I only do kind of my group rehearsals with Cora and Mark, but otherwise, I’m on a different team than them with a different director. So it was my first time seeing a lot of their stuff, and their first time seeing a lot of my stuff. And when you’re working with three different people, a lot of times, especially with scenes that are going back to back, you don’t know how they’re going to fit together and how the styles are going to work and create one narrative.

So it was interesting to see. But that being said, I think it’s going to work. Oh, yeah.

It’s totally going to work. It’s interesting because you’re not doing like a Shakespeare… Shakespeare in a hospital is not a Shakespeare play presented in a hospital. It’s like bits and pieces put together, or maybe performed on their own, depending on the setting.

Well, yeah. Well, I mean, you go into private rooms, and a patient can be like, I want to see the balcony scene. Yeah.

From Romeo and Juliet. Or like, I just want two back to back monologues. Yeah.

Or like to even add to the really the work that we do, it’s like each scene or monologue that we do, essentially, is going to have to have two contexts. You take it and do it this way for larger audiences, or you take it this way that you’ve rehearsed and do it for a private setting. So we’re doing everything almost twice on this.

Wow. Yeah. And how is wrapping your heads around this? Because it’s different from the way that you necessarily approach Shakespeare normally.

What? Yes. I think it’s kind of freeing in a sense. Because I think with when you have a Shakespeare play, it has its context.

And it’s like, this is the context, this is the story you have to tell. And you have to make the monologue or the scene you’re doing fit into that context, where because we kind of have created a narrative, we’re kind of shifting the context of what certain lines and words can relate to. So you’re creating a whole new separate world, which is liberating as an actor, because you’re free to make new choices and say, oh, I’m going to relate, you know, this word to something that I would never even imagine relating into if I was doing this in the actual play.

Right. Yeah. I got a monologue, like semi recently, that wasn’t in the original first draft, that I saw in rehearsal.

And it was like an amalgamation, like a short monologue that was pieced together from like four different plays. And I read it, and I was like, wow, this works so well. This works, but it’s like Romeo and Juliet, as you like it, like one of the Henrys, one of the Richards.

And I was like, I don’t, and even the director was like, I mean, this is like impeccably done. And I was like, isn’t that, I think it’s so interesting to go home. And even like, in terms of like understanding the language to go home and look at the original source material and be like, oh, well, they’re talking about this, but then they’re talking about this.

Yeah. And it’s four completely different scenarios, but it works so well in one piece. And I think that’s like, that’s kind of what the whole play does is it’s like, I don’t know how many plays are, but the materials taken from like upwards of five or six, plus some stuff that’s not Shakespeare and some poetry and stuff like that.

And like, it works. It’s at the end of the day, like you follow it as if it’s a play that’s already been written, which it is, but it also kind of isn’t. I’ve been, and I’ve just been pretty fascinated actually, from just an actor’s perspective of, you can, you know, you can take the text that you have in front of you and look up the context of the original source and do your regular defining of the words.

But I’ve actually, I’ve learned so much more about really parsing down the text and learning definitions of words, because when you don’t just have that whole original text to kind of fall back on, you’re forced to just dig a little more. I’ve been forced to like actually be like, okay, that word doesn’t really make sense how I usually know it. So really looking into what else does it mean? What can it mean? And I’ve just, yeah, like, I just feel like I’ve just been working my Shakespeare brain to like this up to level that I think is gonna really kind of help me in the future.

Um, so you’ve, you’ve done it before, Cora. Long time ago. Long time ago.

Yeah, you keep, you keep this busy. Way, way back when. I want to age myself.

But, but the, in terms like, and, and the two of you have not, Kat and Mark, you, you’re like completely new to this. Newbies, yeah. What scares you the most about doing this? And what fright, what, what excites you the most about doing? I guess I think for me, it’s what makes me nervous or terrifies me is also what excites me most.

And for me, I love, I love intimate theater. I love audience interaction. I think this setup just promotes that happening and it promotes the unexpected.

And I think that allows such joy and such spontaneity to occur when you’re like, yeah, you have someone who, who might be, who might be giving you something from the audience and you have to, you have to take it, you have to roll with it. Or if you’re in the private room, and again, that adds a whole new context to, to assume, to a monologue. And how, how you incorporate that person into the story you’re telling and make them a part of it and make them feel connected to what you’re doing is, is something that, that is nerve wracking and terrifying, but it’s also super exciting and super like, what, let’s see what, what jazz we can, we can make with this.

What excited me most about the process, I’m going to say is, well, like I said earlier, we were working with three different directors. And so every rehearsal is like a little bit different and it’s something, it’s always a little bit unexpected, but I also feel like there’s three different sets of eyes, including also our own, like we work pretty much as an ensemble. There’s a lot of trust and, but also there’s a lot of eyes on everything.

So there’s a lot of freedom, like you said, to like work with the text and make choices and have them work or have them not, and experiment with how we’re doing things and where we’re doing things because so much of that is unknown and not, it can’t really be said. And so it’s really exciting to be able to work within a space that like, you’re never really unsure about, like, even if you take a chance, people are like, okay, that worked. I like that.

I didn’t, let’s try something else. Whereas I feel like that’s something that like causes me a lot of stress in, in other work that I’ve done is, Ooh, I’m going to walk in here and I’m going to have made a choice and maybe they’re going to hate it. But it’s like, we’re all working as an ensemble and it’s great.

So that’s really exciting. I think the stuff that’s scary is like, you don’t know exactly where and how you’re going to perform every time. But I also feel like that’s one of those things where it’s, um, it’s a fear I have that I don’t even know if it’s a real fear yet.

Yeah. But when I, when it actually comes down to it, maybe that’ll be my favorite part of it. So we’ll see.

I’ll be like, like being totally honest. I’m scared of the private room settings. Um, like Mark said, though, like scared and excited, but they’re vulnerable.

They’re going to be very vulnerable settings. And for very many different reasons, we may have situations where to us, it seems like we’re not being listened to. We may have situations where maybe something touched a little too closely.

Um, we just don’t, yeah, we don’t know. And those are going to be just very intimate moments. And it’s dependent on how that person’s, how they’re doing, they see how that interaction goes.

So I’m nervous for those, but I’m also really excited because no matter what happens, I think it’s going to be a very special experience for everyone involved. Um, and I’m just, I’m really excited for just having what we do be different every time. Like, that’s what I think we all love about live theater in, even in a set show, it’s always somewhat different every show, but here I think it’s, it’s really going to be different each time, like depending on our setting, who we’re doing it for, what actual scenes we’re doing.

Like, I think we, as actors are being given a gift that we’re going to be able to actually really come in each day and play. And I’m excited for that. Kat, one of the things that you were saying about, um, the freedom to make mistakes that you certainly, sometimes it felt like you haven’t had, I was just having this conversation with somebody yesterday about how, um, so often we’re afraid to make mistakes and it’s so magical when you have a setting where the, the, when people say, oh, there’s no right, and there’s no wrong, it’s actually true.

And nobody’s going to say, no, that’s wrong. Do it like this or something like that. Is that, is it like, this is, this is completely new.

This is, you haven’t really had this kind of burden before? I mean, I have to an extent, but I think what, um, actually I didn’t mention this earlier, but I will. One of my biggest fears also was that I don’t have that much experience with Shakespeare. So I was like, oh man, I’m going to walk in and everyone’s going to know every play.

And I’m not, I’m not like, I don’t know all of the Henry’s and all of the Richards and whatever. And I think there was one rehearsal where I even asked my director, I was like, what is this abbreviated abbreviation of? And he was like, oh, King James. And I was like, I didn’t know that was a play.

I’m not going to lie. Um, but the way things are set up and the way the material is actually written, it matters, but it almost doesn’t because we’re all, we’re all looking at a really fresh text where kind of like what Cora was saying, um, you might know the context and be really familiar with it. And it almost might not even matter because in the context of the scene that you’re doing, we’re all kind of on a, I just feel like it puts us all on like a level playing field, um, and allows us to like, ask a lot of questions, which, uh, I have found before.

I mean, I’ve done stuff where, um, and I’ve done even like little Shakespeare scenes in theater school where I’m like, oh, I’m really not like, I could even read the play now and not feel super comfortable with it yet. So, um, I’m afraid to even ask this question because, you know, but I’m not, not afraid to ask questions, which is such a great thing. Um, and yeah, that’s really carried over to like our physical work and rehearsals too.

That’s so good. Yeah. So good.

I’ve, I’ve been in rehearsal rooms doing, doing Shakespeare and we’re doing that first read. And so we get through it and then we start being like, so does anybody know what this word means? Anybody? Anybody? Okay. Let’s try to figure out what this word means.

And so it’s like, everybody has that, that thing. Like this is an archaic language. You have to figure out what it means.

There’s always, you know, they always come across as a few people were like, oh yes. The answer to that is this, but those people are few and far between. Um, let’s leave Shakespeare in Hospitals for a second.

I want to talk about, uh, your theater origin stories. Why do you do this? Like what is, what is, what made you want to do this? And, and, and, uh, and, and yeah, let’s start with that. All right.

Awesome. Uh, well I, I grew up, uh, as a dancer, really primarily, uh, ever since I was very, very little, I’ve loved to dance and sing. So I was more in the musical elements of things.

I just love to perform all my life. So that’s been with me my entire life. Were you one of those kids, just to jump in, were you one of those kids who was like, like even before you knew what performing was you were performing? I think so.

I, I, uh, I’m like one of my very first gifts when I was like tiny was homemade tutus. And so I’d wear body suits and like, I think I was a bit of a drama queen when I was little. I’m just going to go and assume that.

But then, so as I got older and I actually started seeing shows, like I saw Anne of Green Gables in PEI and like that moment on, I was like, I am going to be Anne of Green Gables. And that’s, that’s what I’m going to do. So anyways, uh, I went to Randolph Academy originally, um, as a dancer, so musical theater again.

And it was in my years there where I had a Shakespeare teacher and I, so I come from a small town. I hadn’t done a lick of any sort of actual straight theater training. Like I, when I had to learn a monologue for school, I was like, oh my God, what is a monologue? Uh, but I had a Shakespeare teacher in, in Randolph who that was the first time I’d ever touched Shakespeare.

And he just, he brought movement into it. And he just, with the way he taught the words and the language, I just, I just fell in love with it. Um, something about it was the poetry that I just loved.

Um, I graduated and I got real burnt out from the industry and I left it for a good number of years. And I did a bunch of other stuff. I traveled, I went to university, I worked, I did not do acting for a while.

And then, you know, this passion of ours, I think just has this way of like coming back and finding you. And I just, you know, I wasn’t really happy. I wasn’t happy and I missed it.

And I realized I missed it. And so I moved back to Toronto from wherever I was and I just started up again. And it was just that amazing lesson of like, I was happy again, doing what I love.

And so ever since it’s, it’s been that, um, realization of, ah, this is what I love. This is my passion. This is what makes me happy.

And the new love that I found with my Shakespeare teacher, I brought that in. So now I know that that’s where I’m headlining. And so I went back to school for theater and here I am now, you know, I’m kind of late to the game now, but I’m, I took a lot of time to realize it’s what I want to do.

And so now I’m here. Where did you go back to school? George Brown. So I did the George Brown program.

Yeah. 93. Long time ago.

How long did you leave theater for? I left theater for a solid three years. It was five for me when I quit. Yeah.

Yeah. I left for five and then, like you said, something all of a sudden pulls you back in sometimes. And it’s usually a new little niche maybe, or something you didn’t think 10 years ago, you’d think you’d be that interested.

I had a friend who tricked me. She was, she was putting together. She said, she wanted to do As You Like It.

And she was like, I really want you to play Touchstone. Like she knew, but I said, I don’t do that anymore. She says, I know, but just this once.

That’s a good friend though. I mean, yes, absolutely. I’m very thankful to that friend, but that’s how, that’s how they got me.

And again, I was not happy when I left for the whole time. It’s crazy. It’s absolutely crazy how it can have that power.

You have to do it. And that’s, and you know, that’s the thing they always taught me when I was in, they, when I, at George Brown, they always said, if you could do something else, do that. Absolutely.

Yeah. Totally. And I stand by that.

And I tell people that. It’s true. If you could be happy doing something else, you should probably do that.

But if you’re not going to be happy doing something else, then you gotta just do it. Absolutely. Yeah.

Kat, what’s your origin story? Okay. So it’s actually kind of similar. We like hit a couple of the same marks.

So, um, I grew up in Toronto. I’ve always lived in, in Toronto. Um, and my mom at a very like young, I think I was three, um, put me in dance because she always wanted to do it when she was younger and, uh, could never afford it.

So she was like my daughters, my sister dances too. Like they will dance. So I did.

And I loved it right away. I definitely was a drama queen growing up, still am. Um, but she was like, uh, yeah, I kept asking to do it year after year.

So I did. And, um, I think I got to, I was in grade four at school and my, uh, my music teacher wrote a play. I think I say that because I haven’t been able to find it since I was in it.

So I think she wrote it. Um, yeah. Uh, but she wrote a play and, uh, instead of like the spring concert that year, um, she was like, I want to have all the kids that were in the choir, um, audition for this play.

And I was like, I don’t really want to do that. So, uh, but my friend was auditioning. I’m like nine years old, grade four.

My friend was auditioning for a role called Leah Ballerina. It was a, the musical was called clowns. So we were all clowns.

Um, yeah. And I was like, I was, she was like, oh, can you help me, um, run lines at recess? And I was like, this makes no sense. You don’t dance.

And she was like, but you don’t have to dance. That’s what acting is. And I was like, well, no, I, I actually dance.

And I was like, so I asked her for the paper and I made a photocopy of it. And I was like, well, no, I’m going to audition. So I took it home and my mom helped me run lines or whatever.

And I, um, got to the auditions. I think it was like the next day or the next couple of days and killed it. Um, and I like made sure I even told her, I was like, you know, I actually also dance.

And she was like, okay, great. Like, I don’t know if you’re going to really have to dance and whatever, but like, and I was like, okay, but I do. So and, uh, and yeah, and I, I did it.

And I remember like, it wasn’t even a big part, but I really, like, I really went for it. And, uh, like I made my own costume. I had a lot of old dance costumes, so I put them together and it was all great.

And I remember I was, um, it ended, had so much fun, walked out of the school and like this girl’s grandma came up to me, this other girl in the cast and, and was like, you know, my, uh, my granddaughter was in the show, but you were my favorite. And I was like, I was like, yes. And so then I was like, oh, maybe I really like doing this.

And then from then on, I would do school plays and whatever. Um, fast forward to like grade 12. Um, and I started applying to universities and I’m like, oh, I’m not going to apply to any, um, theater programs, which my parents who are both professors totally supported.

They were like, yes, yes. Go get an actual degree. Um, and so I applied to U of T, got in, decided that’s where I was going to go, did my first year and hated it.

What were you, what were you studying? So you, at U of T, you don’t declare your major until second year, but I thought I was going to be an English major, but I was taking a bunch of different stuff like philosophy, art history, anthropology, um, like was not loving it and didn’t even realize I wasn’t loving it. Um, until my mom like was talking to me one day in the kitchen and was like, I don’t think you’re like happy. I was like, I don’t think I’m happy either really, but I don’t really know why.

Um, and then just randomly, I overheard someone on campus talking about their drama class. I was like, wait, where are you taking a drama class? And she was like, here I’m like in the drama program. I was like, wait, what? This school has a drama program? And she was like, yeah, yeah.

Like, so I looked it up and it turns out you can audition out of first year to the, um, U of T St. George program because it’s a three-year program. So I did and I got in and I was super excited, but I was like, I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know if I’m good enough.

I don’t know. I’ve never acted at this level before. The last thing I did was in high school and it changed my life.

I’ve never been so happy. I’m like, I have a, I have a degree at the end of just graduated in June, but, um, but I had the best three years. Like it was such a, um, a change.

Yeah. So, um, I continued to like dance up until, um, up until university at Randolph. So I left that part out, but this is kind of where I like merge.

Um, and like, yeah, I didn’t even realize that it was what I was missing until like, I wasn’t doing it anymore. And now like I just graduated, I’m pretty green. This is the first thing I’m doing out of theater school.

That’s a pretty, I mean, this is a pretty intense right out of theater school. I’m loving it. I’m loving it.

Um, killing it too. Thank you. Oh my God.

Um, but yeah, so that’s, that’s it so far. All right, Mark, your, uh, theater origin story. Um, I guess my theater origin story goes through, uh, musicals.

So I started doing musicals when I was about six. Um, so my parents, um, I have three older brothers and each of us had to do a sports, a musical instrument and a extra curricular activity. And so I couldn’t play a musical instrument for my life.

So singing was my musical instrument. And then for an extra curricular, I was like, plays, I like musicals and I like singing. So, uh, age, I think it was age six.

I was in the King and I, I was one of the, the, like the children of the King. Uh, and then I did a bunch more and there’s a one, there’s a play called, uh, Dracula spectacular, which is a phenomenal play. Um, it’s very funny.

Uh, sound of music when I was in elementary school and I did that all through school and then my voice dropped and I couldn’t really sing anymore because I was not a tenor anymore. Um, and so I just started to do straight plays and did community shows and stuff like that. And, um, you know, when it was that time to choose universities, it was like, Oh, okay.

Like I had never really thought of it as a career path. Um, like I was going to go into the culinary arts was like my, one of the things I was looking into because I love to cook. Um, and then I kind of went and I’d worked in a, uh, in a restaurant before grade 12 and realized, Oh, this is not a great lifestyle.

I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life. Um, yeah. So I went, I applied to a bunch of universities and I, and I got into the university of Windsor’s BFA program.

And so then I went, I went there for four years and I learned all about Shakespeare and, and I had never really, um, I think really thought of acting as a craft until university. I’d always just thought of it like, Oh, this is a fun thing where I can use my imagination and be a ham and goof off. And then, you know, I, I got, I got really serious about it and ended up just falling in love with the dedication and commitments that you have to have to improve every day and get better.

Uh, and so I learned a lot about Shakespeare. I learned a lot about classical theater and, and just physically what I had to do in order to, to, to be, uh, on a certain level. Um, and, you know, and going into university, I was a very intense person.

I know I’m not an intense person, but I was very, very tense all the time. And, you know, I got to second year and it just, I couldn’t do that anymore. So I had to chill out.

And so I tried to, I tried to learn how to, to be less anxious and to be, I was, I wanted to do so well, but I was like, um, and then, you know, I went to, um, Stratford has this, this summer Academy, they do. Uh, and I went there and I, and I worked with some just incredible teachers and it really just kind of changed my whole way of, of looking at theater. And then I, you know, I graduated and did a lot of children’s theater, like children’s theater is kind of my main thing.

Um, so I, I toured around and with a show about mental illness and depression and suicide and teenagers. And, and then, yeah, and I kind of was like, I really want to do Shakespeare though. Like that’s what I went to school for, to do it.

Um, and so I tried to do a bunch of projects that revolved around Shakespeare and I want to see a lot of Shakespeare and, you know, uh, but still it was like, it was more, um, modern theater. I was doing a contemporary shows and then, yeah, then I did some work with spur of the moments. Um, we, there’s this, uh, festival called the dark crop festival and they had their opening year last year.

And so spur of the moment was producing a, uh, a show. Uh, and so it was like my, like one of my first Shakespeare shows and it was like outdoors and it was kind of like this by this campfire. It was great.

I loved it. Uh, and then, yeah, now, now I’m here doing this show. Can we back up to the beginning of your story? Absolutely.

Beginning of your story, you are already, you’re like, I’m good for my active, my extracurricular, I’m going to do plays. Yeah. I need to know how you knew what a play was.

What was your, what made you know the place was the thing that you wanted to do? I just, I, I loved attention. I think that’s what it comes down to. I loved attention.

Well, um, and yeah, I, I don’t, I don’t know exactly how I think it was probably my mom was like, well, here’s a thing where you can sing and dance. And I was like, great. Sign me up.

Yeah. Um, and you know, we, we found a bunch of programs that, you know, allowed me to have that outlet that I needed. Cause I, I’d been, I’d been like training, I’d been focusing on singing and then musicals were just a way to like further that focus.

And so I don’t even, I don’t even know how the, I think it was just like, my mom is like a superhuman, just like looking up things. Do you know, do you remember what the first musical, not that you were in, but that you heard or heard? Yes, I do. The first musical that I heard was probably, it was either Phantom or Les Mis because we, my family would go on long car rides and we had these cassettes and it was Les Mis and Phantom.

And so like, I love, I love Les Mis and Phantom. They’re like near and dear to my heart. Some people hate them.

Like some people are like, no, they’re, they’re terrible. I’m like, but they’re so good. Um, but yeah, so I think that’s probably how I knew.

And I remember like watching films and being like, I want to do that. I want to do that. I don’t think like as a family, we knew like what was the avenue to go to the screen.

One never quite does. Yeah. Right.

You still don’t. You just assume it’ll happen. For me, I remember my parents had, back when I was a child, we had an LP of several, cause that’s all we had back then, um, of, uh, Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews in the original cast of My Fair Lady.

And that was like my first musical also with the original cast of Godspell, which at the time was still playing in Toronto. Right. Um, and so I became obsessed with those and I never really saw them, but I knew I would like read this, like read, like to have the synopsis.

So I would imagine what it must’ve been like. Um, I still to this day have not seen Godspell. Um, but I have seen, uh, My Fair Lady.

But when you, when you saw My Fair Lady, did it, what did it meet your expectations? Because you had listened to it on. See, here’s the thing is that it was, that was my first exposure to the, the difference between the original broadcast recording and when somebody else performs it. Cause you know, when it’s like listening to the original cast of Wicked and you’re like, uh, uh, Dina Menzel, that’s how she sounds.

And somebody else interprets it slightly differently. And you have this time where you’re like, that’s not, you sort of have to, it was when I saw Hamilton, it was the same thing. That’s not.

And then you just have to sit back and be like, no, you have to let that go. And it can be an effort, especially with like My Fair Lady because Rex Harrison is so iconic in the way that he performs it because he speaks it. And then when you find somebody singing it, you’re like, what is going on? Yeah.

So it was, uh, it was really, yeah. So my entry to the world of theater was actually a musical theater. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, so what do you, do you guys remember what your, the first Shakespeare that you did was? No, before you did, what was your, the first Shakespeare that you read? Oh, we had to read Shakespeare in high school. I know.

Okay. Let’s, let’s take, let’s take high school off the, what’s the first one that you saw? Oh, okay. This is not, it’s not a play form, but I’m pretty sure it was, um, Romeo and Juliet.

Was it the Baz Luhrmann with Leonardo DiCaprio? Yeah. I think, I think it was that one. Okay.

Yeah. Mine was, there was like a touring, like children’s theater company, whatever that came to my school and did the Tempest. And I just remember I was sitting like on my gym floor and I was like, they were using these like giant big pieces of silk to make the water.

And they were like, um, actors were like waving them. You can’t see my hands, but they were waving like across the gym. And it was like, it was so beautiful for lack of a better word.

And I was like, Oh my God, this is crazy talent. This is so, and I, I’m going to be honest, like I barely understood. Well, I mean, it’s, it’s Shakespeare and it was not like dumbed down for children.

So I didn’t like, um, not that children are dumb, but you know, like I was like, this is literally a different language, but you got, and then I was also like, but I understand it. Like I get what’s happening. Um, yeah, it’s my favorite play still.

Mine was Romeo and Juliet as well. And I’m pretty sure it was in England. Oh, wow.

I know. I, I, yeah, I was very lucky. My parents took my family to England when I was like 10 or something and pretty sure that’s where we saw a production of Romeo and Juliet.

And I think that was my first time ever, ever stepping into Shakespeare world. I think I actually saw when I was younger, Shakespeare High Park, my, my, my mom would, would, would take us out and we would go, we would go to the Shakespeare and High Park. And there were also just other like touring Shakespeare companies.

Like, I think I saw a version of like All’s Well That Ends Well. Um, and like, uh, Twelfth Night was, was one that I saw. Wow, your mom was on it.

That’s awesome. I, like coming from like a small town, like I did not have any opportunities to see straight plays. Musicals we’d go into like, you know, Winnipeg, which a couple hours away to see, you know, the summer, summer musicals or whatever.

But I, I didn’t get, I didn’t have any chance to see straight plays. Well, it’s also crazy. Cause like, uh, when you’re a kid, I feel like it’s so much of what your parents know and like what they want.

Like my parents love the arts. They do. They’re not in them.

They don’t know anything about them really. But like the last thing they would have brought me to as a child was a play. Right.

Like I saw ballets, um, because they thought they’d be like, Oh, we have season’s passes. And yeah. I think you would like it given that you dance, but never, I don’t even think they would think to be like, Oh yeah, let’s take her to a play.

Well, they thought you were into dance. So they were thinking what’s an arts thing that we can take our daughter to. And until my clown debut.

Yeah. They didn’t know. Um, yeah.

The, the first Shakespeare that I ever saw was As You Like It. It was a CBC, CBC. I don’t even know if they still do, but they would go to the Stratford festival and film a live performance.

Yeah. They would then air it every now and then. And so you’d be watching it.

It’d be like the performance. They have the cameras on. They’d be like watching a performance.

And that’s the first Shakespeare I ever saw, which is of course why my friend was able to get me back. She didn’t know that, but that’s how she got me. Um, so now that we’ve talked about the first Shakespeare that you, that you saw, what was the first Shakespeare that you, that you did? Scene studies count.

Then mine is a redundant answer. Cause it was Juliet. Okay.

Yeah. Um, the first teacher who, the first time I ever did Shakespeare chose, um, okay, well two simultaneously, um, Juliet and, or Romeo and Juliet and Measure for Measure were my two scene studies. Was that in theater school or was that? Okay.

Okay. Yeah. So Measure for Measure is one that usually gets discussed in high schools for obvious reasons.

There’s a lot of stuff going on in that play that high schools are really uncomfortable with, especially right now. Um, my second year university, I like we read plays in high school, but we didn’t do them. Um, my second year university, the first Shakespeare I did was, uh, Viola and Twelfth Night.

And, uh, I’m not gonna lie. The scenes I was given at first, I was like, these are so boring. Like it was just Viola and Olivia like talking.

And I was like, this is so boring. Other people got like these like spicy, like really tense scenes. And I got like, I’m just like delivering a message.

And then the next year I took a Shakespeare class because at U of T that’s how you do it. It’s not like a full conservatory thing. Um, and that entire class was focused on Twelfth Night.

And I was like, oh, great. Like the worst, so boring. And it completely changed my mind.

I was like, Viola’s the best. Her journey, she has so much to deal with, but it’s true. And I stand by it and I’m like, wow, I could have gotten a, a much better mark on my scene study last year and be like, I just didn’t even, I was like, wow.

I looked at this as like, just these two women talking and not as like, this is a journey. Like this is a, a deeply hurt person that’s not. And I’m like, yeah.

But also, isn’t there like a whole lot of, uh, tension, sexual tension going on between Viola and Olivia? There is. And I think I was just, my initial thing was like, uh, this is the worst. This is a boring scene.

And, uh, and I like didn’t get past that, which, uh, goes to show the growth I went through because I was like, oh God. Um, and then, and then now I’m like 12th night, bring it on. Please let me do.

It’s like my, it’s like a good, there’s a lot of really good juicy stuff in that play that you don’t say about so many. On this outside, you can’t be, especially in comedies too. Yeah.

You dig and you learn. And that’s, I think what we all love so much is that digging and learning and then you fall in love with it. It’s interesting because it’s similar to like, you were saying you were seeing like the Tempest as a child and you didn’t even understand what they were saying, but you understood what they were saying, which is like when it’s at, which is why we teach it so badly in high school, like making kids read it.

We should make them watch it. And then they will, cause you, when people say it, you understand it. I think it’s also like one of our directors, Susan, um, you know, she’s been getting us to do these, these gestures and, and one of her reasons for that is she says, you know, people, they can’t, they can’t like know what you’re thinking, but they can see it.

Right. And I think that’s when you do Shakespeare and you bring it off the page is that it’s no longer just ideas, but it’s, it’s, it’s physical action and you understand, okay, that guy doesn’t like that guy or that person’s in love with that person. And, you know, even the, the language, even if you don’t understand it, like rhythmically and melodically you go, oh, I get that.

I understand that physically. Um, yeah. What was your, your first Shakespeare? I think it was either Merchant of Venice or the, I think it’s the Gatekeeper in Mackers.

The, the, the, the, the Porter, the Porter. Thank you. Um, I, I, I did this, this, uh, we had an assignment in, in for English class and we had to film a Shakespeare monologue.

And so I chose the Porter and I was like in winter, went out to my backyard and like, like minus five, it was like, got my brother Michael to film me. And I was like, I’m going to do this monologue. You know, I got this costume in this cave.

I think that was my first. Wow. That’s awesome.

And that’s not an easy play to, that’s not an easy speech to make sense of. No. And I think it was grade 11 that I was just like, okay.

So with all of this, going back to, uh, Shakespeare in hospitals, um, we’ve talked about things that you’re afraid of, things that you’re, you’re excited about. Um, you, you did your first, your first run through. When does it launch by the way? When do you guys start performing in hospitals? Opening is right after the 19th.

We have our opener, um, fundraiser event on the 19th and it’s basically like that next October, the week, like the couple of days after that is our first hospital. Wow. Um, so what are you looking forward to about, about, uh, getting this on its feet in front of audiences in hospitals? I think it’s, it’s just for me anyway, it’s that like, for some people, this might be the first Shakespeare they’re seeing, right.

And I think that’s just, it’s a really special moment to have that with someone and, and share that experience with them and make it accessible to them so that they do understand and they, and they do feel connected to what’s happening on stage. Um, and yeah, just seeing how they, they take in what’s being given to them. Um, we, I don’t think we mentioned this yet, but kind of the theme of what we’re, of our show is home.

Okay. Um, and that was like, that was, uh, first said to me anyway, in my audition. And I just think this kind of goes back to what I was just, what we were just talking about.

Um, Shakespeare is like a place where there’s so much like humanity, even though sometimes it’s ridiculous. It’s so much intense emotion. Um, and so like, and it’s a lot of just like straight communication.

Um, which I think is like on its very, on its, at its basis, it’s super human. And a hospital is, I think also where it’s maybe the most human anyone ever the range of emotion is huge, but also it’s, it’s kind of a, it’s like a very, um, it’s simultaneously very, uh, tense, but also very open. I think people are just, um, they’re looking to smile.

Sometimes they’re, they’re just looking to, um, escape. Um, and I think I’m really excited to bring something that is thematically so connected to this notion of home into a place where a lot of the times, like, um, I mean, you, everyone’s story is different and the reason for being there is different, but a hospital is sometimes home to people or a makeshift home and sometimes, uh, the farthest away from home. So it’s really nice to bring something into that space that I think everybody can relate to in a way that’s like a really human, even just through, um, the range of emotion in our play.

Yeah. So connecting to people, I think is the gist of that. Yeah.

I’m really, I think mine goes along with that. Well, I’m just, I’m really excited for this notion of, if this makes sense, bringing theater down to a very level playing field. I mean, we’re not raised up on a stage.

We’re not, we don’t have wings and costumes, um, very much like improv. It’s going to be, it’s going to be different each time. And, and I’m just excited for that.

Just bringing theater into that world of, it doesn’t have to be up on a stage. It can be a meter away from someone. And it’s just a matter of where people coming in, telling stories for someone else.

And I’m just really excited for that to just be shared and that to be known. Like we’re, we’re just here, hopefully to entertain you and make you think or make you feel, but we’re just people like you, we’re all equal. And here we are on the same level, just doing our own thing, sharing something together.

I think that’s just, I’m just really excited for that, that feeling. Well, I think that’s as good a place as any. There you go.

Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you.

This has been a Homebody Productions production.