#371 – The Élan Collective
The Élan Collective is a tenacious band of newly-minted theatre artists figuring out how to make art in a post-pandemic world, where the wobbly uncertainties of isolation and virtual distancing now have direct impact on their identities as artists in a live-performance medium. The collective lives to create theatre with momentum. Art that drives change and affects hearts and minds. Élan is the going, launch, setting in motion, or momentum. It’s that moment when you finally DO launch yourself off the dock and into the cold lake.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey has directed for theatres across Canada and the United States, from the Stratford Festival (8 seasons), to the Virginia Stage Company (twice); including such theatres as The Citadel (Edmonton), The Great Canadian Theatre Company (Ottawa), Atlantic Theatre Festival (Nova Scotia), Manitoba Theatre Centre (Winnipeg), Festival Players (Prince Edward County), Theatre Aquarius (Hamilton), the Thousand Islands Playhouse (Gananoque), Talk is Free Theatre and Theatre by the Bay (Barrie), Theatre on the Ridge (Port Perry), the New World Theatre Project/Perchance Theatre (St. John’s, NFLD), YES Theatre (Sudbury); and Toronto area theatres, Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage, Harbourfront Centre, The Guild Festival Theatre, and The Toronto International Fringe Festival, etc.
She has worked extensively in college and university theatre programs as a director and instructor. Jeannette was Artistic Director of the New World Theatre Project in Newfoundland 2012/13 and served as Executive Director of the Shakespeare Globe Centre of Canada from 1999 to 2015.
As a director/dramaturge, Jeannette has developed a number of works by up-and-coming Canadian and American writers in various stages of development — most recently The Beloved by Wesley Colford, at the Highland Arts Theatre in Cape Breton.
Jeannette is currently Artistic & Managing Director of Xchange Theatre Works in St. John’s, NL.
Michael Manning is a Toronto based actor, director, choreographer, and writer who is incredibly excited to debut his first play in the Toronto Fringe! He is currently studying Theatre Performance at the George Brown Theatre School located out of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts and will be returning in September for his third year. Prior to George Brown, Michael attended the University of Toronto and contributed to multiple award-winning student productions.
Misha Sharivker is a Toronto-based actor and producer who is currently training at the renowned George Brown Theatre School. At any given moment, Misha can be found scrolling through an extremely niche TikTok feed or complaining that he’s hungry.
Instagram: @the.elan.collective
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Transcript
Transcript auto generated.
Phil Rickaby
I’m Phil Rickaby and I’ve been a writer and performer for almost 30 years. But I’ve realised that I don’t really know as much as I should about the theatre scene outside of my particular Toronto bubble. Now, I’m on a quest to learn as much as I can about the theatre scene across Canada. So join me as I talk with mainstream theatre creators, you may have heard of an indie artist you really should know, as we find out just what it takes to be Stageworthy.
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In this episode, I’m joined by members of the Elan collective actor Misha Sharivker Michael Manning and director Jeannette Lambert and more to talk about their Toronto friend production of of a blank canvas or the distance between the bridge and the water on now with the Toronto fringe until July 16. In this conversation, we talked about the origins of the play, how the collective came together, and much more. Here’s our conversation
the show is of a blank canvas. So who wants to give me the elevator pitch about what of a blank canvas is, is that you should
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
go for it. So it’s have a blank canvas, or the distance between the bridge and the water. That’s part of the title as well. And this is an investigation into the dilemma that an artist and artistic creative being has when they bump up against a block, creative block, a mental block, and the resulting mental health challenges that come with that. And it’s really relevant right now because of course, coming out of the pandemic, we all share a bit of that ceiling. So this character goes on a journey to figure out what’s wrong, how to balance things for themselves again, and on the way encounter some gods and some creatures and pigeon, and various fun characters. At the end, it ends happily.
Phil Rickaby
Well, that’s that’s good than happy endings are good. Um, no, this is a the way you’ve described it. There’s there’s a cast of 1000s yet. But, uh, but actually a cast of three, I believe, is that the two out of three, three? So how do you go about with this cast of 1000s, of being portrayed by just a couple of people?
Michael Manning
Well, I mean, like, at a technical level, I just sort of set out to write a bunch of three handers. It was I always believe that like restrictions breed creativity in a way. So that’s actually like something I asked myself, if I start writing on this, I’m like, no more than three people is and how we’ve been sort of weaving that together. somatically is looking at different aspects of the artists person. And for myself, I think that like who you are, is influenced by so many things. It’s influenced by your family, it’s influenced by your relationships, the people you’ve met, the things you’ve experienced. And so it’s sort of looking at how you break that down into like fractions of the site.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Yeah, the the three characters are three distinct parts of our artists. So there’s the the artists, the artistic being, there is the social citizen, the part of that human who’s tried to interact with the rest of the world to be a productive and responsible member of society. And there’s the child, the child that has had traumatic experience of some sort, and has to somehow reconcile that in an adult in adult life as him
Phil Rickaby
it’s interesting the, the, all of the the limitations that you speak of and how that does breed creativity. Um, you know, you’ve got all these situations where people have like infinite money for to create a massive set with lights and projections and all this sort of stuff. And yet, sometimes when you pare that down, you just put like two people on a stage, it can be more moving and more special than then having all the money in the world. So in terms of of creating something that had the limitations, how, how did these limitations serve you in the writing process?
Michael Manning
How did they serve? Great? Well, I would say that, like, when I was getting in spirits, because of these limitations. And so I wanted to do about this, really didn’t try to do implemental stitching through at the start, I sort of was like, You know what, I’m going to start writing these things that are their own insert bubbles feel right to me, and feel like the voice in my head of like, these characters is like speaking to me and telling me something interesting to follow. And that I didn’t worry about how we stitch that together. It’s just like, this is an important moment. And I know this has to be in the story. And then trusting that the rest will come with time. And like, these fabulous players in the room and watching them work, be like, Oh, this connects to this now. And like, I see how this characters, Blue Line started. This one story connects like other story. So I think we’re still on blood, forcing me to trust that it would be there.
Phil Rickaby
So have you been editing as rumours are going on? Are you discovering these connections, just that they’re already there?
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Well, I want to jump in here, because I’m also dramaturg on this. And we’ve been working for a couple of months. Alright. So there definitely have been many iterations before rehearsal. This is just date three in the rehearsal hall. So we’re right at the beginning. But I think what you’re referring to Michael, is how we’re getting that real detail, exquisite detail that’s coming out of working with the actors. But the the kind of core journey we have laid out already. And so we’re working with a roadmap that we’ve all agreed on, and finessing with that in mind now.
Phil Rickaby
Nice. So I want to hear the story about how all of you came together to work on this this show.
Misha Sharivker
It was honestly all pure luck. Like everything that has happened for this production has just been luck. It all started when I think in the fall, one of our colleagues got us all to apply for the fridge. So all of our friends, our whole friend group at George Brown, all joined in the lottery. And we were all we all got together on the day that they announced the results. And we were all sitting in in one of our classmates room waiting to hear the results. And they announced that I won the slot under the name of day long collective, which was so exciting. But you know, I’m just a student in my second year of theatre school. And that’s like daunting task of producing a whole show in just a couple of months with nothing was terrifying. And so obviously I learned I leaned on my friends. And I got Makayla Maury to co produce with me. And we had a lot of options we thought about potentially devising, we thought about looking at some of our friend scripts, Michael’s script was always on the table could be, we’d all been reading it. We’d all been reading early drafts. And then Jeanette kind of approached us having read Michael script and said, Hey, this is really cool. I’d like to direct this. And then that’s kind of where it started. So started with I would say the forum. So Michael and myself, Janette, and Mikayla and then slowly our team just grew over time. And pretty much everyone involved up until I would say a month ago has been all people in the circle of Georgetown Theatre School. So just using our very humble connections and trying to make this show happen,
Phil Rickaby
I’m gonna jump in and challenge you there because the door drunk connections, your classmates, that is a very powerful group that is another let’s not refer to that as humble once you get a grip of theatre students together that is a powerful group of people. So there’s nothing humble about that. And it’s an pretty good accomplishment to to, to have a show that’s coming out of theatre school in your second year, because you will learn so much and I’m curious what have you learned so far? about producing a show that you didn’t know?
Michael Manning
Um, everything?
Misha Sharivker
It is, it is? A it is an absolutely not what I what I thought it would be. It is one of the biggest challenges I’ve taken on in the last few years I’ve I’ve sort of produced small community theatre productions in the past but this is not small. This is brynge. Toronto would be it is you would hypothetically be my Toronto debut. So there’s a lot of pressure there. Um, takes a lot of organisation. Oh boy, I wanna I don’t even know where to start, because it is such a daunting task.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, you just said that it was one of the most daunting things you’ve ever done. But did you do a period study this year?
Misha Sharivker
I know, I know. And I would say period study was so hard. We made it. So experience directed period study. And so it was easy because of that, in a way because of all the trust we have. But, but I would say producing is definitely slightly above periods day.
Michael Manning
Slightly above that, what
Phil Rickaby
I’ll ask what period did you do? We did the restoration era. Oh, shit. That’s that. That was the era that my class did in 1909. Whatever it was that I was at George Brown. So we also did the the restoration period.
Misha Sharivker
Oh, no, we will. We’ll play did you do?
Phil Rickaby
Wasn’t burn your ass? I’m an old man. It’s hard to remember. That music school for scandal? Maybe we did school for scandal
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
again? Well, this is slightly later.
Phil Rickaby
And no, it is I don’t, I don’t remember any of the plays that we did remember fly of flashes or moments from that thing. But let’s face it, it’s six to eight hours of performance. And after that, you just have to like erase as much of it from your brain as possible, because you’ve crammed too much in there. Oh,
Misha Sharivker
totally. I remember I remember I had my main part in periods that he was at the very top of the day. And I remember coming off stage and just collapsing. And praying, I got two hours of sleep before I had my next entry.
Phil Rickaby
That is the advantage of periods that is that you can have a little nap in between. So in terms of the things that you didn’t know, when you were like figuring out how to produce a show, at Fringe, did you learn from Jeanette from from the your classmates? Where did you Where were you turning to learn about how to produce a show at the fringe.
Misha Sharivker
Um, firstly, fringe has a really wonderful way of, I guess, sort of teaching you how to produce, they break every single aspect of it aspect of it down into about 10 or so forms that you have to fill out. So in a way that was kind of a training course of some sort. It really, it really gave me like the outline of what to follow. And then the two people I leaned on the absolute most at all times was of course, Jeanette with all her experience, and my partner Ganesh, who has produced before and he knows a lot. He’s been a part of the 10 programme as well as a bunch of producing sort of training programmes. So he knew a lot and with the combination of those two people I was able to grow this thing together.
Phil Rickaby
Nice, nice. Um, no, I will I will turn to Michael for a second. Because Misha mentioned that this this this play has been floating around for a little while. What was where did this play come from? When did you write it? And and when did you first show it to Misha.
Michael Manning
So as far as why started writing it, it would have been about a year ago, I was finishing up first RAF. Sleep exactly during the fringe last summer, like had the finish on the last day Britain show I was like literally between like me that I had gone to sea. And then I hadn’t finished the last couple pages and was the first draft. Even before like the first draft was fully done, I probably show you some of the early stuff, right when it was just like the first couple of scenes and like opening monologues. I have a bit of an oversharer with my writing. I love to show people things in like the initial stages and start getting like fives and opinions and like just like those first gut reactions for people when they start to read stuff. So early versions of the script were completely drastically different than what we’ve been working on since. But some of the cores had been there for quite a while.
Phil Rickaby
Oh,
Misha Sharivker
I remember I remember, Jeanette mentioned the pigeon earlier, I remember the day, I read the pigeon. And I was absolutely blown away about how genius. This one was summer of last year. And I had already seen I think I’ve seen or read a couple of scenes. And this is an own and back then I had no idea. I was sort of like this mishmash of different things. What is this? But I know it’s amazing. Awesome. Oh, if
Michael Manning
I ever told you this story, where pitching came around is Yes,
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
I know this. Go ahead. Right? Tell them.
Michael Manning
So I was working on the script one day, I was just like sitting out at a bar with Fred and typing and you’re chatting. And she left me with some other stuff stuck around in work. And her plate was sitting there. And so I look up and there’s literally a pigeon perched on the table looking at me like can I have the plates? And it would not go away no matter how hard I shoot. And the thought of my brain I had was just like, Okay, you want to play hardball? Are you into my play? Last night? No, it were
Phil Rickaby
nice, nice. Dinner. Interesting. You speaking about about being an oversharer I don’t know if you’ve read any of Austin Klingons work Um, for example, the book share your work. And he talks about the importance of sharing work. And quite widely that, you know, we don’t necessarily need to hide it from from the world, we don’t need to hide it under a bushel, we can like, show it and share it. And, and we can learn so much. And I’m sure that in showing it to people, you were learning about what people were how people were reacting, as you did so. So. And I think also it comes, that feeling of like, wanting to share with a larger audience,
Michael Manning
I think also comes from my writing background. Now I really cut my teeth doing like sketch work in like big writing, or we would have like eight to 10, like big writers working on the show. So because of that, it’s always just sort of been like part of my process where I’m like, okay, just like this first draft, don’t really worry about the editing, don’t worry about polishing it, give it to someone and like, see what their opinions are. Because if you go in on your own, no way you’re going down a spiral, to writing isn’t actually any.
Phil Rickaby
There’s something about about writing, where you know, that is that there’s literally almost always to fear. And that’s why whenever I write something, I put it away for like two weeks to a month, distance, and then come back to it and try to look at it as if I wasn’t the person who wrote it. And suddenly at then I realised Oh, no, it’s not as good as I thought or, you know, here’s the things that actually work. It’s funny how distance will will allow you to do that. Jeannette, as as the dramaturg, and director of this show, what was it that first drew you to this particular script?
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Okay, so quite simply, the writing, it was a very early draft, it wasn’t yet in a full script form. It was as they described fragments, but there is something in Michael’s voice something in the way he crafts a word on the page that really attracted me and I knew this is good writing, this is worthy of us digging into and, you know, taking further. Also, of course, I did period study with these solos and the rest of the team as well, and got to know them as artists. And this piece is about, Well, Michael, you didn’t mention it, but it is autobiographical to some degree, and getting to know you during that intensive process. It illuminated what you were writing about me, and it became even more interesting as a result. And it sort of spring there.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, there’s, I will say, you know, you there’s nothing there’s nothing like the period study to teach you. About your classmates. Oh, yeah. Had yourself and, and, and really who you are, as performers, I think there’s, there’s something about that intensive weeks of rehearsal and, and immersion into a period and then like a six to eight hour performance of all of those things that you’ve worked worked on, to really show you who you are and who your classmates are. And everybody else who works on it gets to see that two.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
year study is like a festival, right? I mean, you’re saying six to eight hours I’ve had as long as 12 hours. Yeah, yeah. Because it depends on the size of the class, if everyone’s going to have a fair amount to work on. And it’s a huge class, it’s going to extend the length of it. But it is a festival atmosphere and festival approach to the period and to the era. And so we see a lot of faces, a lot of different sides of these actors.
Phil Rickaby
Agenda, you have a history of, of supporting playwrights and playwriting voices and new playwriting voices. And I that’s a passion of yours. So when did you How was that developed as as something that you that you focus on yourself that become?
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
We’ve lost you? Oh,
Phil Rickaby
we’re back. Hold on.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
We’re back.
Phil Rickaby
We’re back. Okay, limited, said. So it was just saying about I can fix this later. Just about how, just wondering about how this became a passion of yours, something that you that you wanted to focus on the supporting new playwriting voices?
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Oh, wow. That’s a really good question. It’s really hard to say I think it’s it all springs from the same seeds as wanting to work with young actors. It’s, you know, young creators, and not necessarily young in yours, but in, in career. There’s a sort of joy and also the fear, but there’s also not knowing yet fully how, oh, evil and mean the world can be. And so there’s risk taking. And you know, what else? It keeps me young, or at least I like to think that it does. And I you know, yeah, I feel I feel it too, to stay sort of on the pulse of what is being what’s being bandied about. Now, what are the subjects that interest our new writers, our new actors, our new designers, our new creators, and I really see the older I get, the more I seek joy in the room. And forget this idea of some sort of impossible to achieve perfection. It’s about how we work together in the room, that’s going to be the product, that’s going to be what ends up on the stage. And if we have a shitty time to use my language, it whoops edited. Yeah, no, no, no, this
Phil Rickaby
is a podcast, we could swear all we want. I
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
think it’s so we have a shitty time in the room, there’s probably going to be some of that shit on state that we don’t want. So I’m quite, quite inspired.
Phil Rickaby
I think that theatre is one of the few industries where people of various ages work together regularly. And I’ve I’ve noticed that over the years, the more people that I know who were from different generations. The more the less I sort of calcify. As I get older, my Outlook doesn’t doesn’t calcify, continual growing and learning from different generations as we get to know each other. And I think that that theatre is really the one industry that brings people together. And actually makes them work as equals other industries might have the older people above and the younger people below but theatre doesn’t really do that.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Yeah, that’s really well said. In fact, I’ve often said that I feel like these young folks are mentoring me. So it’s not that image of, you know, you’re older, therefore, you’re the mentor. And they’re, you know, the one that has to learn everything works both ways. That absolutely works both ways.
Phil Rickaby
Now, Jeanette, you mentioned the joy in the rehearsal hall, which is so important, because I think that everybody who’s who’s ever rehearse something, and of course, this kind of thing is also famous in the media has had an experience in a rehearsal hall that was less than joyful, that might have been really bad. Is the pursuit of joy in the rehearsal halls, something that you have always pursued? Or is that something that you that you came to as you practised directing and dramaturgy?
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
That is another excellent question. Of course, if you ask the me of 20 or 30 years ago, I would have said oh, yeah, absolutely. Of course, I’m pursuing joy. But if I look back now, no, there was I was much more fixated on end product. And you know, getting it right and impressing the right people. And yep, product over process. Are we still? I feel like we’re breaking apart. Oh, no,
Phil Rickaby
you’re still good. You still good? Okay,
Misha Sharivker
this is sorry, this is my computer trying to open up Outlook in this moment.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Oh, okay. That’s what it was. Sorry. Interview now. Yeah, okay, I’ll go to edit all this out. But I’m going to pick up again from
you know, as you know, I spent a lot of years at Stratford Festival, wonderful years, I don’t regret a second of it, but there’s an enormous amount of pressure there to meet a sort certain standard, and to create something that looks like the machine made it right, the Stratford a quality control machine. So I didn’t know it at the time, but I was yearning to break free of that and make a mess. And, you know, try things that are not necessarily right. And in fact, what I’ve learned recently is, the less certainty I have that the product is going to be good, the more exciting the process is. I know that sounds backwards. But Misha and I just worked on a show actually recently where we had no I have no idea that show was going to work. No idea at all and it made the process so much more exciting and exhilarating. And a kind of freedom it released me from you know, this nonsense of I have to I have to be great in some way.
Phil Rickaby
I think the mess is healthy for the theatre. I think that that that when something is is too polished too. too clever to clean that that it feels it feels like an AI picture. Yeah, which looks great but there’s something something wrong you know, it’s like the hands have like six fingers or something it just like it looks on the surface great, but underneath it, it’s missing something and mess really gives us the opportunity to to really play in the muck to really find some real meaning I think
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz otherwise it’s polished otherwise with polished all the the edges off of it, right. We want we want prickles we want we want you know, muck and broken things broken. is fabulous to an oak For me, I hate to say it, but it is. That is what theatre it’s right. So yeah, yeah, we
Phil Rickaby
there are edges in life and when our theatre doesn’t have those edges, it feels something’s missing. Yep. Yep. All right, so I’m going to ask, I’ll start with the two George Brown students with my favourite question. And we will, we will move to Jeanette afterwards. But when my favourite question is always to find out what people’s theatres origin stories are, everybody has that thing. That was the moment where suddenly something awoke in them and said, this is, this is what I want to do. And so I’ll ask for each of you. What What was that
Michael Manning
for you? Gilbert’s Sure. It’s hard to like finger on exactly what that was. Because I think there was like a lot of little moments that should have given me the hints earlier in my life. And looking back now it all makes so much sense. Like, as a child, me and my cousin who is now a drama teacher, we would put on shows in the basement for our relatives, we’d make him come down and nickel. And we would sing and dance at like three and four. It’s like from the earliest age, we would be performing for them. And I love doing plays in school, I did musical in high school, I kept doing musicals to university. But somehow, in my brain, there was still a part of me that’s like, oh, I can do this on the side. This doesn’t need to be that thing I spent all of my time doing. And then eventually I realised, oh, wait, that’s that wrong? This is the thing I regret all have the time or I am miserable. I know what I couldn’t be doing.
Phil Rickaby
Were you were you about to pursue something else did you were you like going to be like, I’m going to study architecture or something like that was the Was there another thing that was going to be your study while you did theatre on the side?
Michael Manning
There wasn’t back. I had a full career as an engineer five years, why to make that work, was absolutely miserable during and felt like, I had a boss to be down for a performance review and basically say, Michael, you’ve been miserable this past year, what is going on? And I got about to admit to them that I’m like, like, truly, I don’t want to beat her up. And you know, had a very nice boss, who, you know, I had the kind of relationship with where I could tell them that straight up. Top, you worried about getting fired right away?
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So, when you made that, that discovery when you were like, Okay, so I’m miserable as an engineer? Was it difficult for you to, to, you know, come out to your family as an actor and say that I’m gonna go to theatre school and this sort of thing was was that what was that? Like?
Michael Manning
It’s definitely a little scary. I mean, it’s a weird sort of thing to have to sit down at like late in your 20s and be like, I’m full on switching my career path. And I’m going back to school and all that. They were very supportive. I was honestly a little concerned about because I have very strong memories about trying to go into more performance related fields coming out of high school, getting shot for card to the point where I was like, I want to audition for this programme at U of T. And I remember the response was, Well, you don’t? Sue. So that was a little rough. And I think, having talked to them, there was some debate about how exactly that conversation went. And I remember that exact phrase of No, you don’t. And they’re like, We never said that to you.
Phil Rickaby
Right, no, no, Michael, how old were you when you started at George Brown?
Misha Sharivker
Oh, geez. When he started when he was saying when he 21 or 2021? Yeah,
Michael Manning
so I was 20.
Phil Rickaby
Okay, I asked for a very specific reason, because when I started at George Brown, I was 18 1819. And I admit, most of my classmates were the same age, and I just have distinct memories of the late great Peter Wilds spending, like just expounding on how he wished that we were all 30. Like, if I wished you would come back to me when you’re 30. And we were all like, supple man. We know what we’re doing. And in some ways, in some ways, I wish that I was 32. Yeah, I wish that he in some ways he’s right. Did you do you feel like you’ve had because you had time, outside of of school time to get a little older, that you had a bit of a different experience than your classmates who may have been younger had.
Michael Manning
Certainly it’s hard though, because you would think being 30 It’s like, oh, you feel so stable in yourself and like know who you are before you come in at 30. And I’m realising just as much as everyone else. I am still discovering that. All of that is coming out. Now. I think what it did do for me was a certain sense and I really solidified in my brain that, like, I know why I’m here. And you know, no matter how bad it gets, I, I always have memory of like, remember what was like being an engineer for all those years like, you spent so many years of time working at the thing you didn’t want to do? So you hear? And I think it helps. You know, it helps keep me humble, keep me motivated.
Misha Sharivker
Washington’s there’s also that thing that I’ve heard multiple actors say, and I think I think is true, that if you can do anything else do that. Yeah, I think having that experience probably shows you that this really is it and there isn’t any doubts. I think if there is any sort of, like, oh, like, I could go learn psychology and psychotherapy, you might do a career switch. Might you might, you might really struggle in the industry, the industry that’s really more in an industry rather, that’s really, really tough. So,
Phil Rickaby
yeah, yeah. Misha, I would love to hear your theatre origin story. You know, it’s,
Misha Sharivker
it’s actually surprising. It’s not surprising, very similar to Michael. I also grew up, I remember, as probably as early as five, I would get up on my parents bed and pretend that was Apple Levine, and do a concert for my grandmother and my mom. And just had the most fun performing, I was always addicted to performing in some way, shape, or form. But my theatre journey sort of came in two waves, I would say. The first wave was, the first time I ever was put in a musical or a theatre show. I was in Willy Wonka Jr. in grade five. And I was cast as Mike TV was, it was my first time ever having lines playing a character. And I very distinctly remember walking on stage holding my little Nintendo DS, which was my prop glueing my eyes to it for fear of seeing the whole audience in front of me, and, and just doing it. And having the time of my life. And then afterwards, my parents coming up to me and being like, Oh, you, you can act. And they were shocked as well. I was shocked. And then shortly after that, I did a couple of art schools, I did an arts elementary school, on arts high school, did lots of community theatre. Then I went to university for neuroscience. And studied neuroscience for a while I have a couple of published papers actually out there. And it might so my second wave came at the end of my degree. It was in the middle of the pandemic, I was in an evolutionary psychology class. And I just remember sitting there and being like, I want to be acting right now. At the time I was directing a production of Into The Woods online. Let’s not talk about that. And, and I was I just all I wanted to do was be anywhere but there. And so I graduated and on a whim applied to George Brown and began my professional career on a whim.
Phil Rickaby
So how old were you when you started at George Brown?
Misha Sharivker
I was. I must have been 22. Okay, yeah. 22. Okay.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, so not quite, because, you know, it’s funny, because I think the reason why I think Peter was often right about, and I don’t know, if he knew this, he probably did. When we are 18 Going into starting in the theatre school, we are so damn stubborn. And so convinced that we know everything, that it’s hard to teach us. We’re also very malleable, so people get away with shit. But we have and when you get a little older, you don’t have the backbone, but you also know a little bit more about what you don’t know. So I think that, you know, it’s it’s, it’s it was probably important for us to go out and do a little something before we went to theatre school. But you know, we were young kids, and we knew better than that guy. Yeah, Jeanette, I’m so curious, because, you know, I know you but I don’t know the answer to this. What is your theatre origin story?
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Well, it’s very vivid. For me. It’s a very early, there’s no Theatre in my family at all. But when I was just about to turn three, my birthday is New Year’s Eve. So I you know, it’s very easy to locate where we are in time. He was Christmas before I was turning three. And my parents took me to Christmas play in the church. We didn’t go to church regularly. But for Christmas, we did. And I remember every second of this performance, I was riveted and at the end, oh, in the there was an intermission in the middle and the baby Jesus had been put into a manger. And some of the other kids went down to peek into the manger. My mother wouldn’t let go. So I was going imagining Jesus in the manger. I wasn’t allowed to go look. What in the at the end, they walked up the centre aisle. And the woman playing Mary was carrying Jesus in her arms. So as she was passing, I’d go Get up. And this is how I know it’s gonna yodel got up on the pew and over her arm, so I could see baby Jesus. And she tipped her elbow so that I couldn’t see. And in that moment, it I had like a little lightning bolt realisation has no baby that better believe it’s a BLS trick, right, though in that moment, there’s a eureka of the magic that I had believed this, maybe it was there the whole time. And there’s no baby. There was no turning back. I went home, I made my brother play all the other parts we did, we acted this thing out, over and over. I did. I also did basement what I call basement theatre. But all my friends and neighbours and all had to come and pay money. And we did Cinderella and Rapunzel and all kinds of plays. And there was no looking back. But that it’s very, very clear in my memory that that event. Yeah. Do you remember?
Phil Rickaby
So that was an event that happened when you were three that sort of like, you became like this, this mind virus that kept you going? But at a certain point, you made a choice and said, I’m going to do this for a living? Yeah. Do you remember that moment? Because that there’s the child realisation then there’s something when you’re older, where you just keep going with it?
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Yeah, no, I always knew. I always knew it. Yeah, I did. I was doing dos drama things during public school. And then I went to university and study theatre, and my father was determined, I should be a lawyer. And he kept saying, You’re very smart. You should be a lawyer. And I said, No, no, no, no, no, the only thing was, they wouldn’t let me go to NTFS. I wouldn’t support because NTFS was not a universe. So I went to university. But But I always knew there was really no others. There was no other path. I’ve done other jobs with they’re always the side hustle, right? Royal Bank, and I was I waited tables for centuries and that sort of thing. But no, I’ve always I’ve always done it.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, my my day job is my side hustle. And I’m fortunate that my manager knows that. I have I have an office job. They know that that’s not the real job. You know? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, Jeanette, you you’re living you’re living in, in Nova in Newfoundland, Newfoundland, I was like going through the, through the all of the Maritime Provinces there for some reason. You’re living in Newfoundland, but you haven’t always lived in Newfoundland. What was your draw to Newfoundland,
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
I was really lucky that about 20. Well, in 2009, so more than 10 years ago, now, I was drawn out, but at that time, I was executive director of the Shakespeare globe centre of Canada, which does not exist anymore, but you may remember it. And in my capacity in that job, I was invited to come out to Newfoundland to give my opinion, they were building a kind of pretend Globe Theatre thing to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the first English colony in in Cupid’s this month. And I got to know the folks that were doing that fell in love with the location with the idea with the building, they invited me to come and do a text workshop the next year, which was fabulous and fun, filling and wonderful. And then the three lads who formed it all, went off in different directions to Stratford into various places, and asked me to step in temporarily as interim artistic director, while they were looking for a local person who could do it, and that was enough time for me to really dig my heels into the province. And understand that I loved it there. My husband came out to visit we did some holidays, he fell in love with it, too. And at one point, we bought a country property like way around the bay, and would come for a couple of months a year to spend time there. One day sitting out on the deck with a glass of wine, we looked at each other and said, Jesus, what we just moved. Like I love it so much. So we we bought a house in St. John’s move there and bang, the pandemic hit. Like within two months of moving there. So it was a very strange start, huh? But But anyway, we’ve emerged out of that. And, and we now we establish it’s wonderful. I
Phil Rickaby
love it. Yeah. Yeah. Now, now, Misha, and Michael, you guys would have started at George Brown during the pandemic. So what was we doing zoom classes at that time was were you in person? Was it a mix of the two? What was what was what was school like at that time?
Misha Sharivker
Yes. It was. It was a little bit of everything. Um, I think I think
Michael Manning
when we first came in it was first semester was mixed, right? Yeah. I
Misha Sharivker
think it was three days online and two days in person or it was Monday Wednesday. Oh, no. Achieve. Yes. So so two days you were you were in person and three days you’re online. No. was like that for the whole first semester. Always mass when you were in person. So you can imagine a sort of, in our like little rooms doing movement classes and
Michael Manning
and doing improv on Zoom. It was it was very, very strange, like wild classes we did contact improv without touching each other, which was an experience. Yeah,
Phil Rickaby
that is wild. Yeah, it is wild.
Misha Sharivker
It really was improv was really interesting because we got to put on background and, and sort of immerse ourselves. Same thing with storytelling. We storytelling was really, really fun because we got to bring props and it was a bit more immersive. And then our second semester, there was a there was a spike at the beginning of it, right. So we weren’t completely online. And then and then we were in person, though, just the enrollment portion the rest of that semester. Yeah, but always masked. So that was very strange. We were watching the third year rap shows and they were they had these special masks. I think Jeanette director, yes. As you live costumes had masks, Ragnar in our Shakespeare scene study our contemporary scene study all mats. Yeah. With air in the room.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, the idea of doing improv while masses boat as bad as trying to sing Coralie while masked because, you know, if you’re on Zoom, there’s what is 0.5 millisecond delay, which is just enough to fuck everything up. Timing doesn’t work. I remember early on in the pandemic, or work whether there’ll be birthday and everybody was like, Alright, we’re gonna sing happy birthday to the person and it was such a mess that we never did it again, because it was the most dissonant, disgusting thing anybody have ever heard. So I can only imagine what what improv is like when the timing is off by milliseconds.
Misha Sharivker
Yeah, well, um, I mean, that was definitely think it’s funny that you mentioned music, because we did music online as well. And we were kind of sent recordings. And we would have to send videos of us practising these recordings. And then at the end of the year, we all recorded ourselves, singing just our parts, and then doing kind of a dance to Beyonce, Single Ladies. And then it was kind of thrown together in a giant su collage. And it was honestly kind of a disaster. But it was, it was fun. It was lots of fun dancing in my dancing in my house with my tights on it.
Phil Rickaby
Now, I’ve tried to remember because, you know, you know, when I was in theatre school, my eyes, you know, tiny room was what I lived in, because I didn’t need it. I can only imagine trying to do any kind of movement class in a tiny room. Oh, god, did you have to rearrange your rooms? Like, what did you have to do?
Michael Manning
There was a whole big thing with structures, sorry, you’re clearing up this much space over the computer. And holy, our teacher was very accommodating. She is lovely. She’s the most to another with accommodating people. I
Misha Sharivker
know Suzanne Suzanne Lee Scott. Oh, wonderful person. I didn’t get the opportunity. My room. I lived in a small apartment at the time with my parents and, and I I quite literally had like, I think 50 square, it was nothing. Half of it was taken up by my single bet. So I had about this much space. I like maybe a metre of space to do full on like, movement and all that stuff.
Michael Manning
There was things that Suzanne made us do you though like things with like, feeling like the objects around your room and moving them in like interesting ways. Yeah,
Misha Sharivker
I suppose. And there are cool, there are other cool accommodations like she would have this boat side for walking and sort of notice things on our walk. And then Pete electric reckoning based off that, yeah, something like that. Yeah, they made it work. They definitely.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, you have to get out you have to you know, you’ve got to keep it. You’ve got to keep people engaged. And it is hard to keep people engaged in like in a digital meeting for any length of time. Okay. I’m just returning to fringe you’re going to be bringing this show to the Terragen mainspace. Have you guys had your site tour yet? Is that coming up? Are you How do you feel about about moving into the space?
Michael Manning
You sign? Yeah. Or do you have the site tour? Honestly, I think we hit the lottery with getting the space like we were looking at the list of spaces when they were figuring out what when you would be in I’m pretty sure Terracon was when we were like fingers crossed like praying for a
Misha Sharivker
night like here originally we really wanted crow you really want it grows it mostly because we were all in deep debt all of us that live right and so we wanted to figure out our pros but if they’re not an option this year, and one was was such a joke,
Phil Rickaby
I didn’t know that Cruz was in was it in this year it’s it’s always hard when some of the venues like switch around
Misha Sharivker
not the not the big venue of these I don’t know if they’re smaller spaces is in a lot but we only were in the large venues, catalogues you only got Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
Um, as you as you prepare for the opening of fringing Just a couple of weeks as we record this, because this will be be going online in the middle of fringe. What is aside from performing this show? What are you most looking forward to? At fringe this year?
Michael Manning
Oh, God,
Misha Sharivker
good question. I’m really excited to see some of the other work. There’s some really, really exciting stuff going on. Frankenstein nest comes to mind. On the bad mitzvah looks really cool. Yeah, man with a golden heart or whatever. It’s
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
cool. Yeah, it is cool. Yeah, yeah.
Misha Sharivker
There’s some really, really cool shows going on. And I’m also really interested to see how the show lives on stage. Because we have no idea, right? We have no idea how people will react to it. We don’t, I mean, we’ve only blocked. Wow, like half a third of it even right. So it’s, I guess we’ll sort of be in the thick of it. So it’s gonna be really interesting to see how many people responding.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
But one of the things I love about fringe so much is the camaraderie between all the little companies, and you know, sharing space with other companies and being in line and encouraging each other to come to each other’s shows that that the whole, the large, extended family of it is just amazing and powerful part of all experience. Yeah,
Phil Rickaby
the fringe family is an amazing thing that you really start to experience over time. I remember years ago, doing a fringe tour starting in Montreal, and there was a little seminar about, about, about performing at Fringe in Montreal. And one of the artists, the artist that was running the thing said, right off the top, just remember, there is audience enough for everyone. And those words became because we see you’ll all occasionally see companies that are like, we’re competing for audience and it’s like, you know, you’re you’re not there is audience enough forever, when you just have to, the more you share, the more you get out of it. And the more audience you find, so it’s like one of those, the French family when it shares is a beautiful, beautiful thing.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
What a beautiful sentiment. I love that. I love the concept of that. Wow.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Yeah. Now, okay, so we’re back into TranzAct this year for the fringe tent fringe patio, which, to me is nostalgia, and for other people is strange.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
It’s nostalgic. Yeah, yeah, of course, of course.
Phil Rickaby
There are shows that that you’re that you’re looking forward to seeing and, and things like that, are you because the thing about performing a show for the first time, and I found this is there’s a moment when you start and you’re like, especially for the first performance, where you might not be onstage, but you are holding your breath. Because you’re waiting for that moment. There’s whether it’s a laugh or a gasp, something that will tell you that it’s working. And that moment is like the most important moment of any show. And I’ve had that quite a few times. And we’re doing shows with with Keystone theatre with other other other device shows where you just waiting? If you get that laugh, you know, it’s working, because nobody’s seen it outside of you. And so it’s a mystery. Do you know what that moment is? For you? When when this happens? The you’ll know that it’s working? Or have you not discovered that yet? Corinne, my
Michael Manning
gut reaction is that it’s like the range for the audience. I want them to be laughing at the jokes, but also settling into the more serious ones. Because it might be worried that they’re gonna think it’s one type of thing or the other. And
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
I wouldn’t worry about that. I mean, it’s an interesting question, Rick. I’m sorry, Phil. What did I do have more
Phil Rickaby
of it happens? It happens all the time. It happens all the time. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Worry about it. That’s okay. Specifically or just any other Rick specifically really likes them. Rick specific volume. Yeah, I will have people reply to emails that say Hey, Rick, and my name is like right there. So anyway, please go.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Because I’m very well aware that what your name is we I don’t know yet. What that that that one moment is that you’re asking about because we don’t completely know what we have yet. And that’s sort of part of the Sun. This show that I was talking about earlier that Misha and I just did also had that the pendulum would swing very far between raucous farce and deep drama all contained in the same show and we had no idea if that was going to work and he did so I am no longer afraid of a show that has mixed mediums can it because I know that can work but what that moment will be I don’t know yet. I’ll let you know
Phil Rickaby
that please. Please I’ll be interested to hear when you after you’ve had your your first performance, what that moment was and how it felt when when you when you heard it happen. And
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Misha Sharivker
I mean, for me, I think the moment I mean, I have a few guesses what the moments? Yeah. But I won’t share comes through the why I think what what really what really, for me as an actor, what’s sort of the the thing for me is when I can not necessarily the laughs, but when I can really feel the audience sort of leaning in and listening and being with me. So I’m really curious when that is going to happen in the show, because I know, I know, for this specific run, it can really happen at any moment, depending on the audience member, and for that last show, lifted up Jenna MetroNet, and I just did. I remember that there’s a scene, a very, very dramatic, hard seat that comes right after a very comedic scene. And I remember coming off stage for the comedic scene, hearing all the laughter and knowing that I’m about to walk on stage, sobbing, and the audience is going to think, comedy still. And, and, and sort of, and you hear the laughs kind of at the beginning, that kind of trinkle in and out. And the really, really addictive thing for me in that run became the moment when I felt them clue in, and then lean in, and then listen. That dark feeling is the best.
Phil Rickaby
There’s nothing like pulling the rug out from an audience like that. Yeah, pretty cool. Yep.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
That very moment. I mean, I experienced this as much as the director to because I could feel the audience feel a little shamed that they had left, right there going, Oh, my God, a minute ago, I was laughing at this young man. And yeah, but this. This is the trauma that he was going through. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. For the audience. Yeah. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
I love I love it when an audience reacts to things, especially when it’s like, visceral like that you can really, for me, that’s when you’re like, and that’s why we do theatre. And that’s why this isn’t a movie or a TV show. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Misha Sharivker
I mean, the audience is a beast. The audience is like an entity in a cell. It’s like group, right? It’s, it’s so and they’re all different. It’s really, really interesting. Basing that every night on and hopefully conquering it, maybe not.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
I’m being very aware that every audience is different so that you’re not starting to build up expectations.
Phil Rickaby
Well, that is death. If you have that. That means that you do that once you have a show where you do that once, and then you never do it again. Because you know, you’re like, Oh, this is the funny part. And you’re like, nobody laughs You’re like me, You’re so fucked. Like, then you just have to like reevaluate everything and be like, we can’t have any expectations. We just have to do this and let them decide what they think is funny.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Right? Exactly, exactly.
Phil Rickaby
Well, Misha, Michael, Jeannette, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate your time, especially having joined me just after rehearsal. Thanks so much.
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey
Oh, it was fabulous. Thank you. Yeah.
Misha Sharivker
Thank you, Phil. Thank you for having this conversation with us. We really appreciate it.
Phil Rickaby
This has been an episode of Stageworthy Stageworthy is produced, hosted and edited by Phil Rickaby. That’s me. If you enjoyed this podcast and you listen on Apple podcasts or Spotify, you can leave a five star rating. And if you’re listening on Apple podcast, you can also leave a review those reviews and ratings helps new people find the show. If you want to keep up with what’s going on with Stageworthy end my other projects, you can subscribe to my newsletter by going to philrickaby.com/subscribe. And remember, if you want to leave a tip, you’ll find a link to the virtual tip jar in the show notes or on the website. You can find Stageworthy on Twitter and Instagram at stageworthypod. And you can find the website with the complete archive of all episodes at stageworthy.ca. If you want to find me, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at PhilRickaby. And as I mentioned, my website is philrickaby.com See you next week for another episode of Stageworthy
