Andre Sills
Andre is a Toronto-based Actor, Director, Producer and Writer.
He has spent most of his career working in the Theatre across the country. This is his 7th season at Stratford where he is playing Bottom in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, opening the new Tom Patterson Theatre Parking Lot under a tent. He also played the title character in the 2018 Stratford hit Coriolanus directed by the World Renowned Robert Lepage, and was in the top 10 shows of 2018 in the Washington Post and The Globe & Mail and more.
In addition, he spent four seasons at The Shaw Festival where he played Tom in The Glass Menagerie and received a My Entertainment World Best Actor Award for his work in An Octoroon and a Dora Award & Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actor for his work in Master Harold and the Boys.
He has also worked at Soulpepper Theatre where he toured with Kim’s Convenience across the country, and also played Othello at The St. Louis Black Rep, and many other companies across the country. He is a Resident Artist with The Actors Repertory Company (ARC). Online: Check out his new web series on YouTube called Private Idiots.
Instagram: @dre373
Twitter: @andresills373
Private Idiots
Instagram: @privateidiotsseries
Twitter: @Privateidiots
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Transcript
Hello, everyone. My name is Patrick. I’m one half of Historia Canadiana, a podcast where two grad students discuss and debate parts of Canadian history as it’s expressed through cultural items like literature.
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I’ll see you there. Welcome to episode 293 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. Thank you for listening. If you’ve enjoyed listening to Stageworthy and you listen on Apple Podcasts, please consider rating the podcast with five stars.
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Some of my favourite podcasts became my favourites because someone I know told me about them. And remember, you can find and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere you get podcasts. You can find Stageworthy on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at StageworthyPod, and you can find the website with the archive of all 293 episodes at StageworthyPodcast.com. And if you want to drop me a line, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at PhilRickaby, and my website is PhilRickaby.com. My guest this week is Andre Sills.
Andre is a Toronto-based actor, director, producer, and writer. He joined me to talk about his web series Private Idiots, acting at the Stratford Festival in the time of COVID, and so much more. I mean, you just moved to Stratford.
Yeah. What’s what’s I mean, this is like, was were you even in Stratford last year? Yes, I was. I was at the I was at the beginning of my sixth season last year.
So I was set to do Much Ado About Nothing, which we were in rehearsals for, and Hamlet, which we were also in rehearsals for. And then the late opener that I was supposed to do was Wolf Hall as Henry VIII. And we never got to that one.
Well, I never got to any of them. But that’s a shame. But, you know, it was it was a weird year as soon as that first lockdown kind of came into place.
And yeah, it was an interesting year, to say the least. Yeah. I really think about how naive I was, for one, at the beginning of that.
I thought to myself, when we were locked down, I thought, you know what? We’re going to lock down two weeks, maybe a month tops. We’re going to be fine. We’re going to beat this thing.
No problem. Exactly. I thought the same thing, too.
I thought the festival was being very what was the word? I guess generous with their with their with their layoffs at the time. It’s like, you know, by June, I think we should be back. And I was like, yeah, that sounds good.
That sounds good. June is a good amount of time. I mean, I mean, the break, the break that we had is just like, oh, this is going to be hard.
And it was. But, you know, as we got closer and closer to June, like this is not going to happen. But I think at that time they had already said that they’re postponing.
And even when they did that announcement, I was like, what does postpone mean? That’s a great question. Like that just means we don’t want to cancel it, but we just don’t know when we’re going to be able to do it. Exactly.
So, yeah, so there was like a weird sort of like, you know, you’re asking somebody out and you’re just like, you know, maybe in the future. Yeah. No, no, that’s exactly what I was like.
Wait a second. Are you actually saying maybe in the future or are you just letting me down nicely? So it felt like I was being let down nicely a little bit. I think, you know, in a lot of ways at that point, we were all being let down nicely.
Yeah. But a lot of things. Yeah.
Yeah. God. Yeah.
Just sort of think back to the to the beginning of of the whole thing last year. And, you know, being in a rehearsal on Friday and then coming in on Saturday morning and like, hey, no, everybody’s going back home and we’ve cancelled rehearsals for the day. And then a few days later, we all got the news that, you know, we’re, you know, postponing or not postponing.
We’re going to stop rehearsing until the thing rolls out. And, you know, and but. Yeah, so it was it was a weird time to.
To, I guess, embrace anything that the beginning of the pandemic brought. Yeah. And, you know, with with artists, you know, we’re all trying to find some sort of outlet of how to get any sort of artistic thing out there.
And, you know, the one thing that Stratford especially kept saying is like, hey, guys, just so you know, King Lear was written during during Shakespeare’s pandemic time. And I was like, well, that stresses me out now. Now I have to try and create King Lear.
I completely agree with that. I remember hearing people say things like that. And at first I was like, OK, I see.
I understand what you’re trying to say with that. But it’s not helpful. No, like you’re don’t you don’t know at what point in the pandemic, in his pandemic.
Yeah. He was like writing that. I know.
Like, did he have like a year of just weeping and hiding under a pillow while cooking, while trying to make a sourdough starter at the same time? Or was he like, oh, finally time to write. And he just like was productive all the way through, because I spent far too much time doom scrolling in those first couple of months just to be able to to accomplish anything. Yeah.
Yeah. And I was right there with you with the sourdough starter. Like I got a sourdough starter and I cook a couple of loaves of bread and I think I killed the sourdough starter.
Yeah. And, you know, I think that phase has has has run its course. But long since long since run its course.
At what point did you start getting the urge to to create something? At what point did you start like that? Whatever led to Private Idiots, your YouTube series. At what point did you start thinking, OK, I feel like I need to do something? Um, well, I guess let me try to think. No, it’s not really a short answer.
Well, I guess as the time started rolling out and, you know, doing little workshops here and there and and, you know, Stratford reached out about doing a Black Like Me chat, which I was a part of, which was which was amazing to do and, you know, helped to bring about a lot of change that, you know, a year later, as we’re just about to start rehearsals, we’re doing a good training session before we even get into rehearsal. But, you know, some of the conversations we had through that. I was trying to think of something.
And then a friend of mine who had worked with was first time we did. Well, before Private Idiots was called Private Idiots, we it was called Sensitivity Training and Sensitivity Training had two other incarnations of itself. So the first one was back in 2012 and 2012 or 2011.
And then the next one was, I guess, 2013. And then we kind of dropped it, not dropped it. But I guess we all kind of went our separate ways and in in the types of work we were doing.
And I think it was right after. Soon after George Floyd and right after we had done our black like me talk, my friend Oliver Ward and Dennis Nicholson reached out and said, hey, I think it’s time for the sensitivity guys, sensitivity training guys to get back together. And thinking back to to the type of comedy that these two private detectives had in the car.
It seemed like those types of conversations were the conversations that everybody right now was having a hard time having. So thinking about it, then I was just like, you know what? I think you’re right. I think this is the time, something that we’ve been sleeping on for about seven years and now.
You know, as as creators, as he is a creator, as I’m a creator and Dennis as well, we all came together or the idea dropped and then we figured out a time to start our Zoom writing room. And and we started bashing a rough outline of all the sorts of topics that we could address. And then it started going.
Hmm. Well, I mean, the concept, first off, like as far as as as the way it looks, it’s like kind of the perfect pandemic shooting situation. Yeah.
And it was very simple. Like, yeah, every for every episode that we did, there was only four people on set. So me, Oliver, me and Oliver Ward in the car.
Dennis Nicholson, who is also a sound guy, who’s he’s working on Prime’s The Boys right now. So he’s sound guy on that. So he had his own gear for that.
And then we had a DoP. So I think we had three or four different DoP who came in and out during the course of our run and four people. And that was it.
You know, so it was dialogue heavy for these two actors, myself and Oliver. But like, you know. It was it was about the conversations.
Yes. And the two of us talking to each other, even if we disagreed. And, you know.
I like looking back, the one thing I think we were successful in doing is like, you know, it doesn’t always have to be funny, but I want to see that these two guys are actually talking to each other and hearing each other. Well, to me, one of the things that makes that makes that situation work so well for what you’re doing is these guys are trapped in a car together. Yeah.
Pretty much all night, all the time. Yeah. And after a certain amount of time, you’ve exhausted all of the surface level stuff that you can talk about.
Exactly. You’ve already talked about what sports team you like, your favourite song, all of that stuff. And eventually you either are going to sit in silence or you’re going to talk about some difficult shit because there’s nothing else to talk about.
Exactly. Exactly. And I think that was that was the whole aim.
And, you know, one thing that Oliver started doing because he was the one who initially wrote all of the episodes beforehand. And I guess after the George Floyd murder happened, he started to think to himself, he’s like, you know what? I’ve I’ve been writing this particular voice in my head, but I think I need to actually reach out to the person who will be speaking it to to get his input, because like, you know, it’s it’s interesting how, you know, after the Me Too movement happened, that conversation changed. And after George Floyd happened, a different sort of conversation changed.
And and so, you know, we’re trying to figure out how to navigate these issues and the way to do it is to, you know, ask a perspective of of of of somebody else who doesn’t, who can’t, who doesn’t want to speak words, words, words, you know, ask an opinion of somebody that you might not have have that you don’t know. Yeah. You know, so and I thought I thought for the three of us, it it brought up some interesting topics and some things that they didn’t know about.
I definitely was willing to to let them know. Like these are things like code-changing is things that that I do on a regular basis, of course, you know, and. Yeah, so it’s.
Oh, yeah, it’s it was it was an interesting sort of gateway for us to have have that creative discussion about the type of content we want to put out, but also what our intent is, like, sure, we might offend some people from time to time, but the intent is also to let us let the world know where we actually are right now. Yeah. You know, we still have a lot of ground to cover, to cover.
And, you know, we can make up some sort of perfect world where these two guys are living in harmony. But I don’t think that’s doing the world any sort of favours because we’re not there yet. No.
And it’s sort of a false narrative that I think sometimes a lot of films will try to portray that everybody’s living in harmony, nobody argues about anything. And it gets to the point where like. It would be great if that was the case, but we in the real world, there are difficult conversations, people say things and they don’t know that they are committing microaggressions, they don’t know what they don’t know.
And either one person lets it go or you have the difficult conversation. Yeah. I sometimes in watching the series, I wondered, now, how many times did did did he let that go? And this is like he’s done now letting that go.
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Like, well, there was there was another discussion was like, OK, when is when does Boise go too far? And like, I think he goes pretty far a lot of times.
And, you know, there is a certain discussion about, you know, as we’re writing some of these episodes is like, is that too far? Or is this if Boise says something, Steve has to address it? And I was like, I don’t know, you know, because I think he picks his moments. It’s like, is this is this something for me to address right now? Or is this a moment in in in time where, you know, not today? I just don’t have the time. And I think he tries to do that in our episode five, which is May the 25th of like, no, I don’t want to have these conversations.
And it still happens anyways. But, you know, just the. Picking your battles, sometimes you have to pick your battles and like, you know, I’ve I’ve had moments thinking back of, you know, moments of of, you know, being in a gym dressing room where somebody is like they post me to is, you know, seeing, seeing a woman.
And, you know, this is something that I’ve heard from another person say is like seeing another woman. You know, you can’t even say what nice breasts she has. It’s like in that moment, that was like, I don’t.
There’s like eight o’clock in the morning. Yeah, I’m going to let this one go. How do you explain to somebody at that point why those are some nice breasts you have is not the compliment you think it is.
Exactly. And like, I guess in my mind now, I’m just like, I should have said something. But at eight o’clock in the morning in the gym, when I was just in my underwear, I was like, I don’t I can’t.
Yeah. And it still bugs me. Right.
Of course, it bugs me because I probably should. I should have said something, but I I didn’t. Yeah, no.
And I think we’ve all been in a similar situation where you’re like, I don’t know that guy. Yeah. I’m in the gym.
I haven’t really even had coffee yet. I’m in my underwear. Is this the time for the conversation? Exactly.
And because you don’t know that guy, it’s like how what kind of impact is your like? Sure, you’re going to say it. That’s for you. Is he going to take any of that in there? That’s like, who knows? Yeah.
One of the things you were talking about, the black like me conversation I was following when when Stratford did the in the green room takeover. Yeah. And a number of the black artists who worked at Stratford were telling their stories.
And first off, to hand over the keys of the official Twitter and the official the official social media and say, have the difficult conversation, I thought, you know, as far as like organizations go, that was a that was very brave of them and very open of them. And so, you know, kudos to them for that. And stories were told and changes were promised, just like at most arts organizations, changes were promised.
Yeah. And. As things are starting to open up, I think some people are watching, I know I’m watching to see like, OK, so you made your black your Black Lives Matter statement in June a year ago.
And what are you doing? Like, are you just doing another production of Grease or something like like or are you doing are you going to stick to the promise that you made? Because we remember, you know, is as far I don’t know how much you can say, but does it feel like Stratford is is adhering to the promise that they made? Well, for like we had our first day today and. You know, the one thing that has changed is that like before we officially start rehearsals is we have these training days and the training days are to to basically open up the open up how to have a dialogue. About these particular issues, how to address these particular issues, the steps that they are, that they have put in place and that they’ve been working on over the past year with with a committee on a committee of artists and administrators to make the festival a better place to work.
And, you know, a lot of people have done a lot of hard work. So when I think right now we’re in the testing ground of seeing how that will roll out and, you know, I think. They’re taking it on themselves to do it.
Yeah, and I applaud them for doing it. And, you know, it’s going to be a learning curve. You know, we’re still figuring out how to have those conversations.
We’re still figuring out how to. You know, as I’m saying, we’re in day one, right? So I’m still trying to. I’m still noticing or or seeing how it will all roll out.
But I think the the hope of the the mentality shift is is moving, you know, and, you know, so I’m interested and excited to see how things will change. And, you know, for me, it’s especially with a place like this. I think the more you can work in the world of theatre and see it as a team sport, the better we will do.
Right. You know, and I think that even as I keep saying this, Michael Jordan even had to learn how to play as a team for the Chicago Bulls to really become a contender in the playoffs. Right.
Because he couldn’t do it all by himself. And right. And sometimes with our star, our star system, sometimes I feel that some people can think that they have to do it all by themselves.
And I don’t think that’s the case. I think we all. The or the one thing that my rugby coach used to say in high school is we move as fast as our slowest person.
And you move as fast as your slowest person. When you do that, you create like a fortress that is impenetrable. Right.
And if somebody runs ahead to try and be a hero, then the fortress is then vulnerable. Yeah. So the more you you work as a team, you try and figure out a shorthand between each other to to to have that sort of cohesive sort of nature of like, I know where you are at any given time.
Just because we work this thing out so nicely where I as number one playing the lead of this play still need the servant around the corner. You know, who’s who’s not doing too much because like you have something to offer that you might give me. And you never know.
You never know what each person has to offer in a play. And if you’re open to to all all of that sort of energy, I think all that it will do is help propel the show even further than than you expected. Yeah.
I think one of the things you mentioned how, you know, this is new and everybody’s sort of trying to feel out how this is going to work. I think in some ways that’s that’s a good thing. Yeah.
That organizations will show what they’re made of when they get it wrong. Yeah. Like if they get it wrong and they they sort of throw up their hands and go, well, it was never going to work anyway.
Then we know something about that organization. But if the organization is willing to say, yes, you’re right. We did get that wrong.
And thank you. Here’s how we’re going to fix it moving forward. Here’s what we’re going to change.
There’s a sensibility, I think, in in in in the conversation and the changes that need to be made and they will they’ll stumble. But the ones that get back up and keep running the race are the ones that will, I think, grow and be better places and be doing more interesting work. Exactly.
And I think like that’s that’s one thing that we do in rehearsal. We fail, we fail, we fail a whole lot until we get to that. It’s like, that’s a good choice.
I’m going to hang on to that one. Right. But we have to go through the failure in able to to be able to find that that success.
Mm hmm. So, yeah, it’s it’s I think it’s going to be a tough road. But I think if any particular industry should be able to take it on, it’s it should be the world of theatre where we are always, I think, trying to do work of social social justice and trying to to create change in the world to make it a better place, because I think that’s what theatre is about is is about building people up, about making people laugh, but also.
The hope of making the world a little bit of a better place day by day. Mm hmm. Yeah.
Now, one of the things that that I’m always curious about with with everybody who comes on is I’m a fan of asking people about their theatre origin story. What is it? What what made you want to get into this work? What what is the story that drew you to to being an actor? Well, I guess it started for me as a kid. I grew up in Markham and and growing up in Markham, my my whole family went to a church in Scarborough called Agincourt Pentecostal Church, and it’s a big church.
Like it’s its capacity, I think, holds like twenty two hundred people. So it’s it’s big. And as a kid, I recall there.
Well, not recall there was there was Christmas and Easter productions that they did every year. And, you know, in this big space, they would put on a production. And I think the first time I saw it was they were doing an Easter production and like, you know, Jesus was going through the crowds, healing the sick and all that sort of stuff.
And this little boy ran into the arms of Jesus. And I was like, I want to do that the next year. And, you know, I was I was a shy kid.
So I think that surprised my parents. And the next year that kid was me. And like from that I caught the bug and I wanted to do more.
And my mom keeps telling me this story about, you know, there was one of these years where you went and you auditioned for a bigger part and you didn’t get it and it crushed you. And and and my mom said just like, you know, you just got to try again. You never know what will happen next year.
You just got to keep at it. And and the next year I auditioned. I got that bigger part.
I was like, oh, yeah, I want to do more. And I kind of from there through like all throughout high school, I was doing these Christmas and Easter productions, doing a little bit of stuff at school while playing sports and playing rugby, basketball and all these sorts of things. And then coming to the end of high school, trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
And I was like, like thinking of going to college, university for business was just kind of like, oh, please, no. My brain, like I was I was always a kid who was like, if it didn’t interest me, I wouldn’t do it. So I needed to find something that I was really interested, really interested in that will propel me and keep me driven to to to work, to search and to do whatever it was.
And I decided on theatre. And I remember going back to my parents. It’s like, I think I want to act.
And then my mom sent me down is like, look, if you’re going to do this, you got to do it full out. You got to go to school. You got to get your training.
And, you know, for the young, the young black kid from Markham, that’s that’s big for your parents. But like, OK, if you do it, but you got to get your training. I want you just going out there and just trying to, you know, be a background person, you know, a lot of people do that.
But they wanted me to get a firm foundation in the craft to to build on it. And from there, you know, I went to George Brown and had three hard years there. And and and then after I graduated, I had a year in Toronto where I was doing the grind.
And then the year after that, I auditioned for the conservatory and was able to get in, which was amazing. And I think it was like maybe 22 at the time. But.
You know, I think that year in Toronto, before I got in, gave me an idea of who I was as an actor already. So by the time I got to Stratford, I was like, I can do this stuff. And, you know, I spent four consecutive years there trying to hustle and work my way up.
But it wasn’t happening. And after that fourth year, I was just like, you know what? I got to step away. I got to get back to Toronto and I got to hustle hard to to, you know, let everybody know what I could do.
And yeah, it was the right right decision for me because I see I see a lot of people who can be satisfied with with with the long contract at Stratford. And, you know, the money is pretty good and, you know, they can they can settle into that. And I I didn’t want to settle.
No, I wanted to to play these parts. And, you know, I think for me, one thing that was really that really kind of opened my mind to a lot of these guys and Shakespeare was playing rugby and seeing what adrenaline does to to a person and how to make you super human. And like thinking back to a couple of years ago when I did Coriolanus is like, that’s exactly it.
This is a guy who lives on adrenaline. And then you try and put him in an office and his he’s tapped into his adrenaline all the time. It’s like it’s not going to work.
Yeah. But yeah, so it was sports really opened the world of a lot of these warriors for me. And it was.
It was really cool. So, yeah, being in Stratford for those four years, like I know what I can do. I need to step away, need to come back to Toronto and make my way up and, you know, get to a place where it’s impossible for them to ignore me, for anybody to ignore me.
Yeah. And, you know, one one place that ended up being a champion for me, which I did not expect, was the Shaw Festival. Oh, yeah.
So it was nice to get in there and, you know, get some amazing parts like Master Harold… and the Boys and then An Octoroon where the two shows back to back where really, really got a sense of what the power of theatre can do. You know, and those are two plays who are based that are basically trying to do the exact same thing. But one is a little bit of a lighter touch to it.
And we’ll tear at your heartstrings. The other one has a lot more frustration and anger. And.
But we want you to see the same thing. And I feel like from those two performances coming back to Private Idiots is just kind of like, yeah, our intent might be to offend you from time to time. But at the heart of it, we still have so much ground to make up because this is where we still are.
These stupid conversations that we’re having is where we still are. Mm hmm. Now, when you were at George Brown, which which building were you in? Because you River Street, where you were in the transition.
Oh, yeah. River Street and Soulpepper, the Young Centre, right? Yeah. So I well, I broke ground actually for the for the Young Centre.
So I was at River and King or and between River and King and the dentistry basement at George Brown. Yes. Up by Casa Loma.
Yes. So I found it very interesting that I was able to break ground for that theatre and then never work in it for a very long period of time. And I was like, hey, guys, you remember me? The guy who broke ground for you, that you have a picture of me in your office.
Can I can I work on the stage at some point? I mean, I would love that. Yeah. But yeah, so I was I was able to after a little while.
And, you know, I think Kim’s convenience was another thing that opened the doors to get back into that theatre. But yeah, it was a good old what was it? 540 King Street East, which is now a brand new condo. It is a condo.
It is a condo. There is a coffee shop that just closed. Their door is approximately where the front door of that warehouse was.
Oh, man. When we all went in there. And if somebody walked in there with a cold five minutes later, we all had it.
But yeah, when I was there, I don’t know what the makeup of your class was when I started. Our class was predominantly white and we had two to two black students. They were brothers who were in our class, but they did not last the first year.
Oh, wow. And so we were largely a a white class. And the class ahead of me was largely a white class.
And the class behind me was, again, predominantly white. They had one student of colour and they they did make it through the whole time. But the school had not had a great track record of graduating students of colour.
Yeah. Was what was what was your class like? I think pretty similar. I’m trying to think back to my class while the year ahead of me.
They had Ryan Field was, I guess, their token black guy. And in my class, it was myself. There was a. An Indian gentleman at the time who also didn’t make it through.
But I think what we started at 32 and then ended up at 17. Yeah. Of either people left or got kicked out.
And yeah, so by the time I graduated, I think I was. Yeah, I was all white class, except for me. So it was interesting going to to theatre school because theatre school was a bit of a culture shock for me.
Sure. We’re enough being in Markham. White people were the minority here.
So, you know, we had everything. So it was it was weird to to go from growing up in a neighbourhood that had everything to all of a sudden being the one singled out. And the one thing I I keep coming back to is that I’ve heard a lot more ABBA than I ever thought I ever would in those three years.
And I still don’t understand why people were so into so much any party. It was just like, oh, it is. It is an excellent question.
And one that I think will go down as one of those mysteries is is why do white people like so dear white people? Yes. What’s with ABBA? Please explain. Yeah, so it was that was strange.
But, you know, it gave me, if anything, it gave me an idea of of the world I was stepping into. And, you know, one thing that was interesting over that period of time is that every year we went to the Shaw Festival to see just to see shows. And it wasn’t until my third year that I actually took a list, a look at the list of artists in the festival lobby and saw that they were all white.
And this was in two. So this was September 2003. Right.
And. Then at that time, it was like making your lists of goals that you’re going to accomplish is like, yes, Stratford Shaw lead in a movie, lead in a TV series, all the big things. Right.
And then looking at that board and just being like, wait a second. Is this one goal actually possible? Yeah. And, you know, as I said, the one place that ended up being a champion for me was the Shaw Festival.
But that was what, six years ago now? Mm hmm. And even they themselves had a a learning curve over between 2003 to now. Um, you know, so everybody’s trying to figure out how to and figure out how to, I guess, reach the masses, but also, you know, with with these theatres like they’re Stratford is attached to Shakespeare.
The Shaw Festival is attached to George Bernard Shaw. So, you know, in my mind, where where these companies go is. Yes, they I think what they’re doing right now is opening their programming, but I think at the heart of it, Shakespeare is always going to be at the heart of Stratford, and I don’t expect that to change.
And for the Shaw Festival, Shaw is always going to be at the heart of the Shaw Festival. And, you know, as for myself, I decided not to be a part of the the committees of of pushing things forward because something was really ringing in my head that Philip Akin said as he was stepping down from Obsidian was, you know, I wish I had spent more time making Obsidian a a a Toronto or or a national superstar, as as I’m paraphrasing, but, you know, a bigger theatrical beast than it was. And, you know, he’s like, yeah, there needs to be white theatres, there needs to be black theatres, everybody has to have their their place.
And but, you know, we’re trying to right now find a way to tell each other’s stories. And I think right now is just a time where now on these stages, they’ve given us permission to tell their stories. Now the doors are opening for us to be able to tell our own.
And I think we’re making like, you know, we’re still trying to figure out how to do that. And and but at least we’re having that conversation now of the validity of. Our stories are just as important as Shakespeare as Shaw.
Yeah. And can be just as universal as we look back at Kim’s convenience and what that’s done across the country and the world and the world. Yeah.
So. Yeah, a voice that everybody needs to hear can come from anywhere. Right.
So I think we have to be open and, you know, you never know who you’re going to be surprised by. Yeah, I do think that, you know, the voice can come from anywhere. I think that that one of the problems is that for the longest time, the gatekeepers have only allowed specific voices through.
Yeah. But. All of the voices, like there’s so many voices that we have that haven’t been heard on those stages.
And like you say, like if we open the door, what work will come? Yeah. If if the gatekeepers stand back and stop. Favouring one group over another.
Right. Now, you mentioned Kim’s convenience, you mentioned Kim’s convenience, and you were in the original fringe cast of that, and I think you continued on through through Soulpepper and did the first tour. Yes.
So, yes, I was in the fringe and then their first stint at Soulpepper I wasn’t able to do. But I came back, I guess, the same year my son was born. So here we are now, 21.
So there’s 20 or 20, jeez, 13. Yeah. That year was when I was able to come back and, you know, take it across the country and end up doing close, like, I think, over 300 performances across the country, which was amazing.
But yeah, like people attaching themselves to that show and depending on what city we went to, people like, can you change the the references to the cities here? And it’s like, oh, it’s a Toronto story, you know. So somebody from Winnipeg or whatever can write something about here. Yeah.
And, you know, and that could be a new story. Right. So, you know, just also like encouraging young people coming up through theatre school or any sort of training that they’re doing right now is like if you want to create, if you want to act great, but also get in your mind now.
To think as a creator, to think as a person, to to start thinking that your voice is just as legitimate as anybody else’s because we haven’t heard your voice yet. Yeah. We’ve heard a lot of other voices, but we haven’t heard yours yet.
And that might be the one we need. I think it is important that the idea that like if you changed, honestly, if you changed anything like the location of Kim’s Convenience, it changes Kim’s Convenience. Yeah.
And I remember being in the audience at Fringe. And just the feeling that you were watching something incredible. Right.
And I don’t think I’ve ever. It was really one of the first times for me as the as the lights fade on that show. That I knew that I had no choice but to stand up and applaud.
Right. And, you know, in the theatre, a lot of times we see audiences where the curtain call happens and a couple of people stand up and then some other people sort of look at them and say, oh, we have to stand up. And so they stand up and sort of a slow thing.
But that’s one of the few shows that I’ve been out where the entire audience, just like everybody, stood. And that’s what it looks like, because it was there was some magic happening in that show. Right.
And it’s so very simple. It’s just a desk with a couple of items on it and a doorframe with a doorbell sound that our stage manager hit every time before anybody came in the door. So it was like it was amazing to see it go from that to the full to the full store look.
But, you know, remembering those very basic, humble beginnings was enough to, you know, as as we’re talking about the magic at the end from the fringe was enough to touch somebody’s life. Yeah. Yeah.
And just seeing how that show has has continued on, like on TV and how the show itself has touched so many people now that once it got on Netflix, especially and we’ve seen outside of Canada, people seeing these stories that that they hadn’t seen on TV before. Yeah. Yeah.
It’s been it was really special for them. Yeah. It was special for them.
And I’m glad the success that they were able to have. And yeah, we’re waiting for whatever Ins Choi has next. Mm hmm.
Now the you’re about to start or you today was like the first rehearsals for is it A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Yes. Yeah. And this is going to be like an outdoor production, is that correct? Yes.
You say that there’s a little bit of trepidation. And well, as you say, yes to that. Well, we started today on Zoom, right? So I think, well, you know, before the lockdown extension, we’re all like, yes.
Now, today we’re going to be in the rehearsal hall then with the extension of the lockdown. That’s why I’m like, yes, question mark. So right now our rehearsal hall is via Zoom.
So but they are committed to making sure that this show happens. Yeah, we have, I guess, a certain chunk of time that we have to do the show in. I don’t think they’re they’re able to push, push the performances past the days we’re supposed to close, but.
Whatever they’re they’re they’re committed to make it happen, to make it happen, so we’ll do it somehow. There is a certain flexibility that this pandemic has required from theatres that are not used to being that kind of flexible. Yeah.
By just scheduling. And how do we rehearse and how do we do a show? And out doing a play outdoors, is it is it an attempt or is it what it will kind of be like? It will be an attempt. I think there’s two tents, so there’s going to be one outside of the festival.
And I will have the lucky joy of breaking in the Tom Patterson parking lot. So there’ll be like a a sort of like a runway style stage, almost like a smaller version of the Patterson stage. And then on either side of it, 50 seats.
So a max of 100, 100 people with a tent cover. So I think as from from the designs that we’ve seen, the all four corners are open. So it isn’t enclosed, it’s just covered.
So, yeah, like it’ll be interesting to see how how how it is. But, you know, it will have the the energy of having audience members on either side of us. Once we get there.
Yes. So as I say, like I’m here in Stratford right now. I got here yesterday.
And, you know, the we’re looking at the possibility of rehearsal in person. But I guess maybe as soon as this lockdown is done and as far as I know, the Province/Ford government or phases of how we’re opening back up. I haven’t had a chance to look at that yet, which, you know, there’s always always new things, always new things, surprises, always surprises.
And then sometimes not the surprises you want. Exactly. There’s always surprises.
Yeah. So we’ll see what all that information has to do for us and how we move forward. But, you know, we’re figuring out how we do it either.
You know, on stage six feet apart or I’ve had my first shot already, so, you know, we’ll we’ll see how we move forward. I think everybody in a lot of people today raised their hands in regards to if they’ve been able to have their first shot. So we’ll see what that means.
As I say, there’s so many variables as we’re stepping into this new world of returning to theatre in Canada. And I think we’re all very anxious and excited and hopeful and frustrated all at the same time. It’s all of the feelings all at once.
And it’s and it’s it’s a lot, right? Yes, I think for everybody. And, you know, I’m grateful for the opportunity to to be back doing this play, back doing Shakespeare and back in the original sort of sense of Stratford being under a tent. But we’re just hoping that we can do it.
So, yeah, that’s kind of where we are. I’m crossing my fingers for that, too. Everything’s crossed, man.
Yeah. And just to bring things back to Private Idiots, what’s the best way for somebody to find Private Idiots online? We are on YouTube. So if you search Private Idiots, you can just Google Private Idiots.
We’ll come up. You’ll see a cartoon image of well, you’ll either see a cartoon image of myself and Oliver Ward, or you might see thumbnail images with a bright yellow outline of Private Idiots episodes one to nine, plus our trailer. If you have kids, watch it when they’re in bed.
For one thing I had to tell my very Christian mother is that just so you know, we use a lot of strong language. And for me, I think it was carrying a lot of the frustration from 2020. Sure.
And yeah, so like I’m a guy who generally doesn’t curse or swear, but I sure let some loose in that one. Sometimes you got to. Sometimes you got to.
Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, so yeah.
Google us Private Idiots. Watch us on YouTube. You can follow us on Instagram Private Idiots series.
And yeah, like and share and let everybody know that you’re watching, and hopefully we can get some money to do a fuller, bigger, better season two. Nice. That is the hope.
That would be that’d be fun to finally get out of the car. Exactly. That is the hope to see what happens when these two guys get out of the car.
But I think that’s our home base is sure is being in the car. And that’s where the most of the work happens. And that’s where the hard conversations happen to.
Yeah. Well, Andre, thank you so much for this conversation. It’s been wonderful.
Thank you. My pleasure.
