#18 – Tim Turnell
Tim Turnell is a multiple-award winning artist who has called Saint John home for over ten years. His one-person performance company (and art moniker) Theatre Narcissus Twelve was created to provide unique theatre experiences while using non-traditional theatre spaces. This facilitates artistic exercise and challenges both performer and audience with new works.
Tim has contributed to theatre, radio, television, and film across Canada. His acting workshops have been invited into all levels of schools, theatre groups, and even correctional facilities. Nominated as Best Actor at the 2011 Acting Irish International Theatre Festival (Calgary, AB) and the New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievement in Performing Arts in 2014. Winner of the Best Actor in a Drama Award at the Silverwave Film Festival (Fredericton, NB) and Best Theatre Performance at The Originals Arts Awards in 2014 (Saint John, NB).
He is recognized as an actor, producer, short filmmaker, and illustrator. Tim’s long-awaited web-series DULSE on a BENCH debts in 2016 as well as his third season hosting the radio program “In Bed with Tim Turnell” – a limited radio series on Local 107.3 FM (www.localfm.ca) supporting the Fundy Fringe Festival. Tim is considerably more modest than his bio leads one to believe.
www.facebook.com/TheatreNarcissusTwelve
www.facebook.com/FringePower
www.facebook.com/DulseonaBench
@timturnell
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Transcript
Transcript auto generated.
Phil Rickaby
Welcome to Stageworthy. I’m your host Phil Rickaby, On Stageworthy I interview people who make theatre: actors, directors, playwrights and more and talk to them about everything from why they chose the theatre to their work process and anything in between. This is episode 18. And my guest is St. John New Brunswick based actor producer, Tim Turnell. Tim is a one person performance company Theatre nurses, his 12 was created to provide unique theatre experiences while using non traditional theatre spaces. You can find stage ready on Facebook and Twitter at stage relay pod. And you can find the website at stage with a podcast.com. If you like what you hear, I hope you’ll subscribe on iTunes or Google music or whatever podcast app you use, and consider leaving a comment or rating.
You and I’ve just been sort of reading up on a little bit of what you do you or would you? How would you like I say that you have directed and you’ve acted and various things? How do you describe yourself as far as
Tim Turnell
I tried to I tried to describe myself as modestly as possible, because I know I’m not an expert by any means. I constantly am aware that I need to be learning and the the the medium is evolving, especially as it translates to different platforms, such as the Internet and stuff, but I guess, I guess I just consider myself a content creator now. Be better be it social media, or, you know, just short films in itself. I don’t know if that even answered. I can’t remember the question.
Phil Rickaby
Was just it’s just like
Tim Turnell
I used to go by actor a lot. But then the term actor seems to bring such a negative action, immediate suspicion from people in social circles, they and so I stopped using the term actor and I just I call myself a performer or an entertainer at times, but I do I do act. In a sense, I mean, I’m I’m I’m a theatrical performer. I’ve been studying theatre since I was since I was very young. And I’ve kind of slowly moved myself across the country performing in Theatre, Television, feature films, as well as some online content animation voiceovers. So I, I’ve worked in practically almost every medium that’s available to me from from wherever I’ve been. And I’m just still pushing myself to participate and contribute wherever I can. From from the location that I’m at, which is, of course, St. John, New Brunswick. Where you
Phil Rickaby
curious about what you were saying about the term actor brings a little bit of of suspicion. Do you think that that comes from I’d actually know that a
Tim Turnell
it’s, it’s actually, I mean, ever since I was, like, in my preteens pursuing theatre studies at the levels that I could in the small communities where I lived in BC I started encountering kind of disdain or prejudice towards people toward people whom we’re interested in this art form to this this form of storytelling that is still vibrant and alive and necessary. But I think we overlook how important theatre is for our community. Because we’re so involved with like I said, social media, we’re in Facebook and Twitter, and why go see a play when, you know, you can wait a year later and and see the movie version of it right with you know,
Phil Rickaby
it’s, it’s actually one of the things I’ve noticed is it’s so hard to get people
Tim Turnell
vary. Because,
Phil Rickaby
you know, you can entertain yourself with YouTube and Netflix and every other option that you have available in your home where you can watch movies and now you can watch you know, sometimes they’re like there are some channels to be able to watch you know, plays online as well. times they believe sometimes not. And, you know, it’s so hard to get people, I think it’s hard to get people out of their house because people take for granted the, the theatre experience they don’t. They don’t realise in some cases, how different watching a live performance is. Over
Tim Turnell
what Yeah, I love cat videos as much as anyone else. But I and I admit that I’m probably just as guilty as some potential members out there that I’ve, in totally alone the last month, I’ve probably watched enough cat videos to fill up the timeframe of seeing Waiting for Godot, for instance, right, but, but no one wants to be uncomfortable anymore. Not that we ever did. But when you went to the theatre, you had this idea that you’re going to be entertained. And there’s a certain level of separation, where I think that’s why people still enjoy movies, in the theatre, or partly in the cinema, to a certain extent, you know, as we combat downloading and whatnot, and the demise of that industry, but when you’re in front of your computer, you’re in your environment, you know, you’re safe, you can have that luxury of comfort knowing that if it’s healthy or not, I mean, it’s what you know, and therefore, it provides some sense of security and happiness or sense of happiness. But when you if there were not nowadays, people, I find, are hesitant to go to a theatre production if they if they have gone to a theatre production in their life at all. I over the last couple of years since I’ve been doing a lot of my own on the street, performance arts and public theatre projects over the last couple of years, I’ve met a lot of people who have not set foot inside a theatre venue much less seen a play. And I think it realises that there. There is a sense of vulnerability that the audience has as well. When you are presented, or you are present during a live theatre production. You can’t you can’t be anonymous, you know, you’re you know, you’re somewhat somewhat in the ways of like, if you’re, if you’re in the cinema, you know, you find yourself tearing up or you don’t want to start crying in front of everybody. You don’t want to start gasping and in moments it’s going to make you look like you’re an unseasoned personality or weak, but we back with a theatre play. It’s someone actually they’re talking to you laying out the story in front of you. And it’s so it’s, I think it scares a lot of people. Which is a good scare, you should scare yourself at least once a day, at least that’s what I’ve been told. And I think that works, you know, to get that risk, but I don’t think a lot of people are very comfortable with the idea of being present during a live performance because it’s not just the performance that are being vulnerable to get that good performance out. But also the audience’s they’re exposed to this is kind of like you’re at your best friend’s house and their parents are greasing them out and you’re kind of there cringing, you know, you don’t know what to do. But I think it is very hard it is it’s very difficult to get people out of their house. And it’s even more so for theatre project. It’s it’s not it’s not very sellable. To the mass populace. There’s some of the options. I think so many options to go out.
Phil Rickaby
There. Well, there are. There are so many options. And also, I mean, if you stay at home, I mean, there’s a couple of things that are going on, I think with people as far as theatre goes and you can part of it is you know what, if you’re at home and you don’t like a video that you’re watching, you turn it off. If you don’t like the webpage on you close it, you go away, you can stop if you’re in a theatre and you don’t like what you’re seeing, you’re kind of you’re either trapped or you make a statement standing.
Tim Turnell
I’ve been forced myself out of respect for whatever I’ve justified to respect at the time that I’ve stayed in the theatre house to watch bad performances or bad shows or poorly written poorly directed but you’ve already paid for it. I mean, it’s it’s for someone who is casual theatre goer or even seasoned, you know, theatre vets. It’s it’s it’s hard. It’s but I think there’s a lot of like I said potential audience members out there. That still I don’t understand the concept of what goes into producing a theatre show, be it good or bad. And therefore they’re, they’re not willing to part with their money as easily as they would for, you know, Mall Cop three or you know, it’s it’s untested.
Phil Rickaby
i Oh, yeah. And I also think that there’s, there’s something about people have taught themselves a narrative of, you know, if their first exposure if their first exposure to theatre was Shakespeare Theatre, because they hate Shakespeare that a theatre as well. You know, they’ve taught themselves or heard that it’s really expensive to go to theatre, and so they won’t be able to afford it. And even if they can’t afford it,
Tim Turnell
they’re gonna understand it. It’s a waste of money. Oh, yeah, I’ve heard that. I’ve heard that debate before response.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, and we all I think we all have, we’ve all heard it comes
Tim Turnell
back to that first point. I think it kind of slightly first point that we were trying to make about an actor being regarded as something less than human or socially justified to, to, to know or hanging out with in public. When I was, as I was mentioning, at a young age, I started experiencing people kind of having a bit of a disdain towards my desires to pursue theatre. Up until now, at the ripe old age of the age, I am at the moment, it’s, it’s people see you, as the profession of acting, as noble as it’s supposed to be a storytelling, the essence of you know, how we educate, you know, our tribe, you know, our immediate community we we in we enhance the community, we educate we, we warn them, we teach them religion, or it’s, it’s always been there, and it’s always been important. It’s just the live theatre aspect is not our main sense of storytelling anymore now that we have so many other avenues to send messages across. But we’re, we’re looked at is, and you must, you must if you’ve spent a day if not an hour with theatre people you’ve you’ve heard the term professional liar. Right, which or you know, or good Faker, which I think is respect for disrespectful to the process that goes into telling a convincing story and to have an observer an audience member actually emote or not emote, but, you know, go along with the story with you and share those emotions. I think you can’t, you can’t express emotion, you can’t make someone people are gonna be able to tell if you’re lying. You know, you can’t. Yeah, you can’t move someone through lies. I mean, it’s, yeah, it’s so for me, it’s it. The meta concept of moving people emotionally through lives, I think, is not as strong as the idea of moving people emotionally, with honesty. You know, and I think really the power of the good actors versus the bad actors, or performances, or is that honesty and if it’s there or not, and then you get into the idea of all the method acting and and like, it boils down to the general populace believes that they can do this work. So like, like, when you approach it, how do you like a good example is when when an audience member comes up, because how do you memorise all those lines, as in comparing the idea that they could do the same thing? Therefore, there’s this concept that, well, we’re lying, we can do the same thing you can do, and which is fine. I mean, every you know, it’s great to have participation. It’s great to, you know, increase the numbers, but it’s, I don’t believe myself to be a liar. And when I being sincere in public, to my loved ones, to my family, to my co workers, in front of the judge, I don’t want someone throwing back at me that I’m not capable of sincerity due to the fact that this is my profession. You know, I don’t I’m tired of I’m tired of being looked at as someone who is incapable of honesty in public from their day to day life because their profession is faking or lying all the time. So I guess that’s, that’s my point then it when, when I when I say that it’s very difficult to kind of move through certain social circles when you have that stigma about you as being a paid Faker or professional liar. And and it goes back to I don’t, the audience recoils later not knowing exactly what the process is to go into building a solid production that they can enjoy, and that they will feel justified in contributing money for and a long, long, long, detailed, convoluted. Sorry. But, I mean, have you experienced that you must have experienced that in apparently for that role? Exactly the full details of what you do day to day, but you must have overheard? Yeah, someone in passing or even yourself being called, you know, someone that you can’t know, they’re, they’re just, they’re just acting, you know, I mean, I had I had I had a lady the other day. apologise to me about some, you know, public so poor that, you know, they, they, they were responsible for and I was affected by it. And I wasn’t holding a grudge or anything, but they they kept going on and on and on about how they wouldn’t accept my acceptance of the apology because they kept thinking I was being insincere. Because Are you acting, or you’re acting right now? Well, no, I’m not actually I’m listening to you babble on and on, like, you are with me. Sorry. If I didn’t get the chance before, Phil, I really appreciate you allowing me the opportunity to ramble on here with you. Absolutely, absolutely.
Phil Rickaby
I actually actually enjoy listening to other people’s stories and things like that, which is one of the reasons why I do this. You were sort of asking if I’ve, if I’ve encountered that. And it’s been I’ve been pretty fortunate that it’s been it’s been pretty rare for me to encounter people who are like, I can’t trust you because you’re an actor. You’re probably acting right now.
Tim Turnell
It’s even in jest, even in Job bind, you know, aggravates me, because it’s, it’s still being said, you know, and I guess I’m just most sensitive to sensitive to know, after all my experiences that I’ve had so far, I noticed how damaging it is, and how it really just doesn’t it takes away the legitimacy of theatre finding you know, as well as the performer but it’s I’m a it’s something that I’ve kind of been aiming to correct in the audience’s eyes that I have for my shows I had a I did a show about three years ago called I get naked were one of the one of the main subjects was about actors, performers, being strong contributors to the moral conscious of the immediate community, if not worldwide community, depending on the scope of of the production and how important we still are today as educators as entertainers, like I said, you know, the the storyteller and but we’re constantly beaten down with this idea that we’re not we’re we’re we’re sexual deviants. We’re pathological liars. I even heard I even heard a psychologists say that most actors are the perfect psychopaths that was the term and I thought oh my god i all i want to do is just get up there you know, perform move some people some dance have some fun. Why am I labelled such a demon for doing this you know, and it constantly eats away you know at at me it’s i I’m
Phil Rickaby
curious. You kind of mentioned that you you you started your life in in BC practically on the other side of of the country. What What was it that took you from from one side to the other? Was it was it all professional? Like what was your story? What’s your story? Yeah,
Tim Turnell
I get that question. And because it’s usually the other way around. People from New Brunswick usually go west, rather than what I’ve done. I was I’ve been I was born and raised in BC, all my life and the last seven years in BC, took place in Vancouver where I was studying theatre. I was also studying animation, but I realised I wasn’t NHL quality, an animator. So I got my phone if I was going to study anymore, I was gonna go back into one of my first interests. And that was theatre and I studied theatre privately with a private school and privately with some one on one with some professionals from Los Angeles and New York for a number of years there. And I was just starting to kind of develop a bit of an avenue into and I hate I hate the term but you know, when else these call it but the industry and I just needed a break, I had some small successes, and I found an opportunity to spend a year in travelling around the East Coast of the maritime around the Maritimes, East Canada, which I’ve always wanted to do. Since University, I’d met two Newfoundlanders that just kind of I was amazed. I was amazed. I just thought if these two people are the example of what the Maritimes have to offer, for personalities, I really want to visit this place. Sorry, I took a year off to come to spend a little bit of time in New Brunswick and then Nova Scotia, then Pei and the Newfoundland then I was gonna go back and I came to St. John, New Brunswick was my first stop. I’ve been here 13 years now. And I just finally got to Pei the other year, it’s kind of been a slow process. But what kept me here was, first of all, I was either too broke to leave. Or I was too busy to leave, because I started getting all these offers to do theatrical roles and film and television roles that I wasn’t being offered in Vancouver since. In Vancouver, there’s literally 100,000 actors in there, if not more. Everyone’s an actor. It’s I had a friend of mine who lived in California for a while in Hollywood, and he came up to Vancouver to kind of get kicked in on the boom that they were having for film and television production. And we left he went back to New York City, he said Vancouver has gotten worse, more, more worse, pardon the grammar than than Hollywood. And he left he went back to New York City. And so I had no real rush to get back to Vancouver knowing that I was doing some really good well, at least I was growing I thought as a performer from my activities here in New Brunswick, which I know I wouldn’t, wouldn’t be offered being one of 1000s in Vancouver. So I’ve stayed and I’ve, I’ve benefited quite quite well. Why, while that time existed for opportunity here, which, unfortunately is in its downswing quite a quite a low downswing right now due to there’s not much Film and Television Production coming through and we still don’t have many union kind of opportunities in this province. It’s almost like you have to leave the province and live in Toronto in order to be able to hired for what few union shows there are in New Brunswick like if you are New Brunswick actor and you’re, you’re pretty much overlooked. So knowing that I just started out loving this, this the city as I do and its people it’s really holy. If you haven’t been to St. John, New Brunswick, I highly recommend you come visit. But you know, make sure make sure you you have your bus ticket back to wherever you came from. Because it’s just we’re all struggling i I’ve said it time and time again, this is a city of artists, we just haven’t been able to quit our day jobs yet and, and we’re all in it together. Struggling or you see it on the streets, you seen the people that you talk to everyone’s having a hard time here. And that’s why I went off and I started doing a lot of creating my own opportunities by making my own theatre by any means necessary with as little money as possible, just you know, to to enforce creativity rather than throwing money at it. So I learned once again another long, convoluted over detailed answer to your question.
Phil Rickaby
When you’re making theatre, you know by any means necessary in that way. How, where are your performance? What are you? How are you my theatre
Tim Turnell
project is basically me, it’s a one person Theatre Company, that, like I said, we, we have the royal we, we go out and just try and create theatre that’s as accessible to everyone, as many people as possible, I’m going to be performing towards CEOs, literally, you know, some of the leaders of the community, as well as some people who can barely afford a bus pass to, to anywhere in the city, I want to be able to showcase both, you know, those, those high those, those, those high ends of the spectrum. And I will, I’ll do it in parks, I’ve done it in parking lots, I’ve done it, I’ve done shows, in restaurants, in bars, in regular traditional theatre venues as well, but I really thrive. myself, personally, I feel like grow and I exercise the best I get the best results when I’m testing new new venues or new spaces as venues. So I’m, I kind of have a code and when I do that, it has to be a new work. To me to myself as a performer, that that will challenge me in some way that I believe I need work in. And it’s got to be something that’s also beneficial to the audience as well as spend the least amount of money possible because I don’t want I don’t want to be censored. Not that I need to be censored, you know, a lot of material is, is very public friendly, all ages. But I don’t want to be censored because of lack of money. Because I think that’s that’s this is one of the hardest things to accept is that you can’t and that’s, well, I’ll get to that later. But I anywhere I can if I can, if I can put if I can put a stage up in the middle of a shopping mall, I guess I have done that too, actually. But like in the middle of the produce line at the supermarket, I’ll do it there if it means that I’m enhancing my, my immediate people in any way.
Phil Rickaby
When you’re doing that, are you are you advertising that a performance is happening? Or do people just sort of like stumble across a performance in progress? And are they Yeah, he’s started and people
Tim Turnell
get closer, which project I’m doing at the time, some, some of my shows in the last couple of years that I’ve that I’ve created, are more enjoyable, just in passing. You know, it’s it’s like, you know, you have kind of like, you’ve got public sculptures, you’ve got Public Chamber Music, you’ve got public murals in this public theatre. And sometimes it’s more appreciative if you’re just if it’s something you enjoy as you pass, right. And sometimes it’s an actual story, your sit down, beginning, middle and end being being presented. And, like, be it performance art or traditional kind of theatre piece. It’s, it’s, it’s I guess I’m just exercising as much as I can. And there’s, there’s a little bit that I mean, I’ve done a lot of social media stuff to kind of prepare, whatever audience could be out there that I’m going to be doing such and such on such a day in such a place. If they come they come if they don’t, they don’t. But one of my biggest questions was, is theatre still art if there’s no audience present to receive it? And I thought, well, that’s if there is an answer to that question, if it’s the if the question is valid, or at least I’ll get an exercise, you know, at least I’ll be, you know, flexing some muscle that needs to be flexed. So, I get I get the opportunity to perform and the people who pass by and some do sit down and enjoy the whole thing. I haven’t been chased off yet. I’ve had people Yeah. I mean, that’s good. That’s good. i I just want to be able to contribute. And this is what I’ve always done. I mean, I’ve done regular jobs, just like everyone else. And I still do you know, a regular job when I can. That this is where I feel that I’m being the most effective. And I’ve had a lot Have people young and old come up to me and express the gratitude for the productions that I’ve put on. It’s be it, it’s, it will be around whatever level that resonated with them. But I’ve, I’ve been rewarded in more than money, I guess that’s my point, I feel a real sense of duty now that this is kind of something that should be done. So I, I go out as much as possible, I try to go out at least once a month, and do something creative. And that’s where the whole one person theatre project started in the beginning is because I was I mean, I was in, I was in such incredible debt for my education. And I was swamped with the day to day routines of the nine to five, and my Neil family, right, my girlfriend and their kids. So it was, I was never, I was never being creative in, in the art that I was trained in, but I still need more training in that. And it was frustrating me to the point that I was having a hard time, you know, walking, you know, I don’t know, if you’ve ever felt that way. You just, you’re so overwhelmed. And so I just got up and I forced myself publicly to create a new piece of theatre every month for a year. And it doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re juggling the day job and the kids and, and trying to do a show, a brand new show on your own. When it’s it is, it was quite a lot. It was quite a lot of work. And I almost didn’t get through it. But I’m glad I did. And I and, and I continued to do it to this day, and the money that doesn’t go into these shows proved another point to me that I don’t need to rely on art grants. I you know, I it’s it’s there’s so much art doesn’t get created. Because I know so many egos out there in the arts world, so many jerks, if I can be that strong, that won’t create unless they’re paid. And I understand I’ve got kids, I’ve got kids of my own somewhere else that bills need to be paid. I understand that, believe me, I understand that. And I just can’t rant and rally enough about how equally important it is to provide that art to your community. It’s it’s a responsibility. And if, if, well, I’m not going to do it, I’m not getting paid. Well, where does that art go? And how much does your community suffer because that art is not being put out there. And it it came to the point where it wasn’t so much about bills getting paid and, and respecting the artist and all that that diatribe and rhetoric it was it was all about No, you’re just being a jerk. You just want to get paid. And I understand don’t get me wrong, I got to reiterate, I have to restate that I know the importance of eating and by that the art has to get out there. And I was shocked by that the amount of art that I donated to my to my community was it I it was like a tie is it was like I was reciprocated with monetary opportunities almost immediately tenfold by businesses by individuals by groups and organisations by theatre companies by anyone that had an idea for a theatre piece and there I was I was being consulted and paid and sent off to another city to do what I’m already doing for free which was great and so it was really a good investment with with no money down. So I’m I’m going on and on stopped me i I’m Sandy I made something
Phil Rickaby
good. Heaven forbid something this is this is I mean the the last talking I do the more the more it’s about my my guest which is really what this should be as much about me as anybody else.
Tim Turnell
Have you been doing this? This type of podcast
Phil Rickaby
This is worth one a week I’m about I started in January. So 1415 episodes at the time that we’re recording this, and actually almost 16. And, yeah, so it’s just, you know, trying to get, obviously, when I’m talking to people, it’s something that I talk to people, I tend to talk to people in my own network. But I don’t want it to be something that’s like just about, you know, my local theatre, I don’t want it to be about Toronto people and people that I know, I wanted it to be.
Tim Turnell
Because, you know, like, of course, your your travel landscape is much, much different than, say, Vancouver, even or Fredericton. I mean, we had some, we had some Toronto folks have, from what it was revealed to me later on, they were quite the upper echelon of theatre, people from Toronto had come to one of our fringes, or maybe two years ago, so. And it’s, it’s interesting to see the culture shock, you know, with with Torontonians, coming down to Lower Canada, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s really neat. And because we’ve had to do so much here on our own, that, that it’s kind of developed its own sense of, we have our own channels, now we have our own way of doing things almost still in order to get the job done. So it’s, it’s quite, it’s quite different. It’s quick, like I said, if
Phil Rickaby
it’s what’s what I think is kind of interesting is the fact that it’s a you know, I mean, maybe people who haven’t left Toronto very much can get a bit of culture shock going to another place like like St. John, I know, I did a bit of fringe touring a couple of years ago, and you don’t have time for culture shock. And so you spend like your first two days. You just rolling with everything. Okay? Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yes. Oh, this time we do things here. Okay. Yes. And you’ve very quickly learned just, this is how it’s done here, your role and you, you you move on. But I mean, it that’s the nature of a fringe tour is just, you don’t have time to get bogged down in anything, you just have to you figure it out, everywhere you go, in terms of the people that the culture shock that you that you think that people had when they came there, was it because just because of how different things are there was it because they they, you know, they didn’t get attention because of who they were was it? What do you think it was?
Tim Turnell
We don’t really have we don’t really have a hierarchy like you would in Toronto, we’ve, we’ve we’re very good. Community players. I’ve seen some, I’ve seen some amateur work and and I and there’s another word I don’t I don’t like but I use because it’s it’s easy to communicate to some who used a lot. But I usually use, like union work versus community work rather than amateur versus professional. I mean, there’s the difference, right? But, you know, you use amateur and it’s almost like you’re degrading it and making it less than what it’s worth. But I’ve seen some productions and local community productions in St. John, New Brunswick, and in other places in New Brunswick, that rival if not surpass any union show I’ve seen in Vancouver. I mean, just some amazing work here. And, you know, we do it, we do it as a as a village, you know, everyone contributes, in a lot of ways. And, you know, we’ve st John, being the first incorporated city in Canada, I love I love St. John, but we’re also the last in a lot of things today. And if you were to if you were to come visit, you would notice that there were things that were slightly different it might resemble something from 1955 You know, it’s it’s the politics or the attitudes of the people there. They’re genuine. And that’s what I love about about it, they’re genuine you you get whiplash walking to blocks by you know, having to say hello to everybody. I feel like bow at the beginning of Beauty and the Beast Hello, bozo. Bozo, bozo Bozo, it’s it’s really a village here and everyone knows everyone and everyone’s there’s everyone’s supportive where you’ve got your politics to but you’ve you really feel a sense of that. What I’ve overused word. I’ve done so much already as community and I think you don’t get a lot of that in Toronto. You don’t get a lot of people that will stop and say hi, and look you in the eye. Yeah. Where you been? You know What you up to who you related to? And and on the business side of things. There’s also yeah, like I said, we have no hierarchy I what few casting directors we have in this province left, you can have a first name basis with them and just talk to the casting director for any project. There’s no talent agencies here. You know, you can have a producer, what few there are left in this province on your speed dial and you can literally talk to them, you can get work done. It changes once you get to the other provinces, but But New Brunswick has just been very accessible to the artist. And I think people have been able to produce more and sometimes, that’s a bad thing. Some sometimes people can produce more. But, but it’s it’s it’s not Toronto. It’s not Vancouver either. And I think we’re getting comfortable with that. The way we get things done
Phil Rickaby
I think it has to, I mean, you can’t you can’t feel sorry for you regret the year now when I lived in
Tim Turnell
Vancouver. I’ve kind of been the underdog when I lived in Vancouver in the 90s and we’re probably the most it’s a city that’s always been bashed, you know, well, that’s That’s cute. You’re doing The X Files. That’s nice. But you’re not Toronto, you know, or Oh, that’s cute. You have you have the you know, Sarah McLachlan. That’s great, but you’re not Toronto. I literally would hear it. You know those words. You’re not Toronto, you know, you’ll never be Toronto. And you know what? Vancouver has come to a point where they don’t care. It’s Vancouver for crying out loud, Vancouver’s like, the number two production of Film and Television in the world. Now, you know, they’ve got the Olympics. I don’t think they are Toronto anymore. But they live live. I overheard it I literally had experienced myself. You get bashed, you’re not Toronto. And then I come to St. John. And you’re like, Well, you’re not Halifax. You’re not Halifax. Nice. That’s cute, but you’re not Halifax. It’s like, oh my god, you got to be where you are. And I think that’s, that’s important, too. You’re young. That’s important. I mean, I can wait to do my theatre projects that I want to do once I get up off my feet, and I pay some bills and I go to Toronto. That could be five, eight years. I just, I could just do them. Yeah, no, no. No shows. And, and that has been very important. It’s not that I don’t do other you know, I do other you know, traditional shows as well with with other actors. But I’ve done so much of this now. Where all that matters is my performance. And the audience that I’m I really don’t play well with others anymore. I really don’t want any other actor in my way. And I know that sounds so ridiculous. And I erased I’ve I’ve lost some sleep about the realisation of this, but I don’t, I just don’t I just don’t care anymore. I guess I guess I am a perfect psychopath. I really want to learn and grow as a performer so I can provide that audience member or maybe more than one audience member something special, something that can live inside them as well. And not because of me, not because of that narcissist that I play up in my in my theatre company. But because that’s what the theatre has always been to me since I was growing up. That’s what attracted me to theatre in the beginning is that it gives you something that will live inside you for the rest of your life. And I just thought that was a wonderful gift, what a wonderful profession to be in to be able to provide that created and provided for another person, free of charge to a certain extent. But it’s been it’s been difficult and but I’ve I’ve gained from it. But you know, there’s, there’s there’s a there’s a whole there’s a whole different theatre community in in my area as well that does that type of work. And they’re doing well doing that. So I’ll just keep focusing on what I’m doing because I think I’m doing all right.
Phil Rickaby
Do you remember what it was that first started to draw you to theatre? Do you remember your first
Tim Turnell
programming to want to do it in a way? My you know, you know, there’s little books that I don’t know, apparently I’m not aware of your age, but I’m assuming that these are timeless, but there’s a little book that parents always got for their kids and you It was like each page was for a grade of their year, you know, and you could put a picture on one page. And then on the back of the about you, you wrote down what their, their best friends were at the time who their teacher was in Grade Two, what they wanted to be when they grow up, you know, and a sleeve to put in pictures that they coloured or ribbons that they want. So there was always that book, every friend of mine had one anyway, I, and they always went up to grade three or four. And that was it mom or dad just gave up on filling the rest of it out. But I always noticed when I was reading mine that like it from preschool, grade one, grade two, grade three, you know, like, what did Tim want to be when he grows up or at this stage, and it was like, you know, fireman, policeman, actor. And then in grade two or grade one the next the next year, subsequent year, it would be like, he wants to be a policeman still, he wants to be an astronaut. He wants to be an actor. And then the next year is like just actor, actor, actor. And I thought that was interesting, because at the time, that I was probably saying I wanted to be an actor, when so young, I had no concept of what they did really, how what what went into doing what they do, like I said that the the production of it all, I may have even been young enough to think that, you know, you could reach into the TV or behind them and pull little people out, you know, but and then my mother started enrolling me in this, I just thought it was the most bizarre daycare in the world, you know, we had when I but it was a theatre daycare. It was a it was a daycare that was designed to enrich the children that they were taking care of during that time with with theatre games. And just all these bizarre, you know, activities that you will make sense to me now. But I was kind of, I was kind of led into it, I guess to believe that this is what I was always supposed to do. And if I don’t know if I’m right or wrong, I guess fate will time will tell. But I like I said I think I was kind of slightly tricked into thinking I was born to be an actor.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, a lot of there’s, I’ve talked to two kinds of people, people who feel like they were always going to do this because whenever from their youngest time, they were putting on shows and people who can remember distinctly that first time that they saw some theatre production and change and that changed their life and that changed their focus. Do you remember which of the two that you might fall under? Do you remember your
Tim Turnell
first live theatre experience would have come to me in my late childhood, you know preteens combination of performing and I liked it I did. I liked it. I liked the storytelling aspect. Of course, I liked the play. The play is always fun, that the playing aspect to the enjoyment of being able to just, you know, be on stage and be as big as you can or as small as you can. But the my my first line like I don’t think I was really I wasn’t drawn by anything. I think a theatre production. I think my my first sit down theatre experience as an audience member. I saw a really crappy show. It was awful. Like even though the young age I knew this was bad. And still to this day, you know, I kind of equate everything I’m doing what I think I’m doing wrong in my current show. Am I as bad as that show that first show? Just everyone was sitting, everyone was sitting at a table. And I could go on and I could do a whole show about that. I think I just liked I liked I liked taking on physical characteristics and playing. I liked playing with my voice. I like playing with my movement. Ever since I was a child I liked conjuring in my head. I liked the play of it all really. And the storytelling. I was always doing something if I was as a child if I if I wasn’t writing I was doing I was creating something in my head to perform. But yeah, I don’t I don’t really remember an aha moment. I just remember slowly, slowly kind of bobbing up and down in the direction towards where I am today. You know, I’ve I’ve always been involved with some type of theatre thinking hmm or I’m just a phoney? Maybe I am. I don’t know, I just I it’s I mean, do you have an aha moment? Is it something that’s supposed to click and go? Okay, you are an actor? No, I don’t know. I don’t think I don’t think that.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, it’s like, there’s like I was saying there’s like two different two different narratives that I’ve heard. Yeah. And it’s the I was always performing, or I saw something. And because I know people, and I feel I feel like I’m in the I was always performing camp where? Yeah, no, I was just that, you know, whenever I was, whenever there were a group of adults, yes, I was like, because, you know, at some point, okay, I’m gonna do,
Tim Turnell
I’m really, actually, like, I have a hard time with new arenas, right? Like, it took me a long time to get, I think I have some mechanisms socially, where I can kind of weave in Okay, now, but I’m actually quite shy. And I’m actually, you know, I’m, I’m scared a lot, you know, and I think the more scared I am, to do something, the more I realise, okay, I have to do this. I’m daring myself. But I know that I know a lot of people who are great performers. And but they’ll never get up in front of people. They’re just
Phil Rickaby
it’s funny, because, you know, I’m thinking about, you know, when I was a kid, I had the guts to walk into a room and say, I’m going to put on a play for you now. But I could never do that. I said, No, you can’t walk in into a room and look people in the eyes and I’m going to perform for you right now. There’s something about you, cuz I’m I’m very much an introvert. I’m shy like you. I don’t enjoy walking up to new people, which is always a challenge in the on the frame.
Tim Turnell
Like a jerk. Come see my show. Give me money. Yeah, I feel like an onus. I’m like, Oh my God. If I can say this, I can say something. I can just be fruitful and just go asshole, but I don’t know. Sorry. But you just feel like, Oh, my God. Like I wasn’t I was I was I was at a dance, there was a big 1980s Retro party and I, I, I was surrounded by people I knew. And I’ve, I’ve, I’ve been naked on stage. I’ve dressed up in women’s clothing on stage. I’ve, I’ve done everything. And that doesn’t bother me. It bothers some other people. But I mean, I’ve, I’ve, I have a constitution where I can do things that a lot of people would probably be deathly afraid to do. But asked me to dance at an 80s party, like in front of people. I couldn’t do it. I I honestly was I was a wallflower. I couldn’t do it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s that vulnerability that makes us still good gauges of what is quality theatre? Or quality performances at least? But I mean, yeah. It’s funny, because there
Phil Rickaby
is that that stereotype that people who are not in theatre have have the extroverted
Unknown Speaker
always on always performing always, you know, always friendly, always wanted to talk to people.
Phil Rickaby
And I, but I, I know, I can actually think of one of people I know who are in theatre. Who is that who like is an extrovert, a genuine extrovert, and everybody else I know, is mortified at the thought of walking up to a stranger at fringe and trying to sell themselves or is like, is completely. Like not good is like, dance at that at dance.
Tim Turnell
I think you’re funny how? Yeah, you don’t have to, you have to keep something for the stage. Right? You gotta keep something ready for you just if you’re out on what I mean. And, you know, I guess like I said before, I’m not always acting, right? I’m not always performing. Someone Someone told me. No, that’s that’s a different anecdote. I won’t even but I mean, it’s it. I don’t think you you can you can be both right. You can you can be. I mean, I know some very reserved people that once they get on stage, like they’ll walk all over you in a good way. I mean, they’re just, they’re monsters. They’re, they’re great at what they do. Yeah. But you know, once they’re off, you know that Uh, well, you know, I think I’ve got to go to the bank and, you know, go check on my mortgage after checking on their mortgage, whatever. But yeah, I don’t I don’t think. Yeah, I mean, there was one time and this kind of harks back to, to something I mentioned earlier about the scepticism about actors walking amongst us, like vampires. I was I was I was dating someone. A couple years back whose ex husband? or soon to be ex husband? Well, that’s yeah, like, no. But anyway, they, they, the ex husband had heard that I was an actor. Oh, my ex wife stating an actor. Well, okay, so in the finding that out someone that said, yes, he’s very eccentric. So that equaled to this man that equaled that. I wasn’t safe to be around children. Which, which, which, of course, as you’re aware, just blew me through the roof. Right? Because I’m a performer. And I’m not safe around your family. Because I’m eccentric. That’s like, someone’s someone’s language has to change here. Someone’s perceptions have to change. Because I now. Yeah, labelled. And, and I went off, I went on to you. And that’s really what started that, that, that, that fringe show that I get naked when that I mentioned earlier, it was about, you know, smashing this idea of performers being hideous people, you know, the second was on the fringe of society, you know, it’s, it’s not, it’s not a noble profession, I guess, you’d like to think it is you can see the purpose of theatre serves to men person kind. But you’re treated like crap. You know, you’re absolutely treated like crap. At least one of the lovely experiences I’ve had, I mean, I’ve had some great experiences, too. But I guess, you know, some some way heavier on the on, on, on the on the soul and others. That
Phil Rickaby
and yet, and yet,
Tim Turnell
it’s like what you say it’s like driven to do that aha moment, you know, or maybe the lack of being able to identify that certain point in your timeline of where you, you’re, you know, you’re you’ve been born to do this or this or you’ve been turned on to do this. It’s like, I’m sure accountants as personality, less as they are, have that aha moment to is like, Yes, I am going to be an accountant. It’s, I’m sure I’ll have that too. One day about something else. Maybe like, Oh, yes, I’m going to be a baker. But it’s Theatre has been always something that I believe I can do. I might not do it well, but I know I can do it better than a call centre job. I know, I can do theatre better than landscaping? No, I mean, I’m not putting down those professions. Of course, I’m just I’ve always known that my energy, my happiness level, my, my sense of worth is better in the theatre setting, then it has been as a as a as a photocopy. tacker you know, it’s, it’s like if you if you can find happiness, digging ditches. God, I envy you. You know, I envy you because I haven’t been able to find happiness anywhere else. Except through doing my theatre work. And and sometimes, you know, it’s it’s a pain. I know I hate it. Sometimes. I hate that this is sometimes I wake up and I think this is all I can. This is all I’m going to do when I’m and you figure out that you’re not going to do it. Well, you’re going to end up with a gravestone that’s he did okay, theatre. And I think everyone just wants to participate. I think that’s more important than knowing that you’ve contributed something. Is that the least you know, Now that you have participated, I think everyone should be able to participate. I don’t know if that made any sense at all. But
Phil Rickaby
it did. Did. Unfortunately we
Tim Turnell
appreciate that we’re being on the show today. I feel like
Phil Rickaby
I could I could continue to talk to you about and maybe I actually you know it if
Tim Turnell
I help kind of get the community prepared for all the visiting and local performers that are at the Fundy Fringe Festival every year on with with the six part radio series.