Carlyn Rhamey is an actor, writer and co-founder of Squirrel Suit Productions, a theatre collective passionate about creating new work and making a positive impact on their community. Through Squirrel Suit, Carlyn wrote and performed her very first one-woman show “SAOR (Free)” on the 2016 CAFF Fringe Tour.
Carlyn is a Fanshawe College Theatre Arts graduate. Her theatre credits include “Lavinia Andronicus” in Titus Andronicus (Funeral Pyre Theatre),”Ophelia” in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Passionfool Theatre), “Abigail Williams“ in The Crucible (Passionfool Theatre), performer/playwright of In Their Shoes (Squirrel Suit), “Bridget” in Moonshine (Toronto Irish Players), Shakespeare on a Subway (Spur of the Moment Shakespeare Collective). “Ophelia” in Hamlet (Fanshawe Theatre), “Sissy” in Unity (1918) (Fanshawe Theatre).
Web: http://squirrelsuitproductions.emyspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/squirrelsuitproductions
Twitter: @SquirrelSuitT
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Transcript
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Phil Rickaby
Welcome to Episode 38 of Stageworthy, I’m your host, Phil Rickaby. Stageworthy is a podcast about people in Canadian Theatre on stage where they might talk one on one with an actor, director, playwright or producer, or it might get a group of people together to talk about a specific aspect of theatre in Canada. If you’d like to be a guest on stage worthy or just want to drop me a line, you could find stage or the on Facebook and Twitter at stage or the pod and you can find the website at stageworthypodcast.com Carlin Raimi is a playwright and actor who just finished a five Fringe Festival tour with her solo play SAOR free. If you enjoyed the podcast, I hope you’ll subscribe on iTunes or Google music or whatever podcast app you use and consider leaving a comment or rating.
I would actually love to start with what was it that that sort of drove you to create the show that you took on tour this summer?
Carlyn Rhamey
Yeah, um, for like, why I took that one to tour.
Phil Rickaby
Well, let’s start with what like what drove you to write?
Carlyn Rhamey
Well, there’s the show is about. It’s a storytelling show about how I went to why and how I went to Scotland and Ireland and travelled on my own for the first time. And, and if you’ve seen the show, there’s a man involved in all of that, of course. So because it’s storytelling, and because it’s true, it was really fresh. It all just happened, right at the end of last year. So right before I went on this trip, I applied for the calf tour. Because I really, I knew I needed something this year to artistically to kind of hold on to and put my energy into after I came back from this, this adventure. And then I found out I got it right before I left. So it was kind of okay, I’ll go and I’ll do this. And I’ll come back and then hopefully, I’ll have something to say and tell. And then it ended up being this whole story of me revealing a lot about my life in the last couple of years, not just the trip. So yeah, that’s kind of where it all came from.
Phil Rickaby
So you you entered the lottery before you had a show. Before you even knew if you had a thing to write out. Yes. Oh, that takes? That’s something.
Carlyn Rhamey
Yeah, I think as most artists do, like we struggle with deadlines, like you, I’ve seen you talk about that feel like it’s really hard to finish something and I had been trying to finish something for three years I’ve been I’ve been trying to write a one woman show. And then finally, I saw a few storytelling shows at the fringe. And I was like, Oh, they’re just getting up there and they’re just talking and they’re just sharing their own experiences. I can do that. I that that I can I can finish so I set my deadline and then that was that.
Phil Rickaby
Was there something that you thought a one woman show or a solo show had to be before you saw those?
Carlyn Rhamey
I had never seen a storytelling show. So I I’d seen some that were a little bit more theatrical that mine kind of ended up being anyway, but I’d never seen someone just get up and tell a story. I didn’t even know that kind of thing existed. Yeah, I know it’s so crazy. It’s such a huge part of theatre and fringe and and I hadn’t really seen it I mean all theatres storytelling, but not someone just get up with a water bottle just be themselves and just and just talk and and I loved it and I was gripped on every single word. So I wanted to try just connecting with the audience just being on stage.
Phil Rickaby
Do you remember what it was? It was?
Carlyn Rhamey
It was Sam Mullins the Untitled Tim Mullins project I think it was called that
Phil Rickaby
Sam Wallace
Carlyn Rhamey
yeah and then that and then of course I saw two shows by Jeff Laird and his energy every year requires me to like want to get on stage and just explode so those two I was like wow, I want to blend that in and create something
Phil Rickaby
so and this was really your first not just your first one woman show but like your your first um, I
Carlyn Rhamey
did. I’ve done London fringe twice. One of those was a show I co created with two other people are So it was an ensemble show that we read, written and put on. But this was my first go at, on my own writing and creating.
Phil Rickaby
And so you instead of like, just going to one you, you went whole hog and went into the four, five.
Carlyn Rhamey
Yeah. Go go all the way or nothing at all, I guess. Well,
Phil Rickaby
I mean, that’s very true. That’s very true. It’s also I mean, you were very lucky. Because I mean, yeah, the caf lottery is is. I mean, the competition is pretty, pretty
Carlyn Rhamey
sure. I don’t think. Yeah, I forget kind of who told me about it. And, and, or what my thought process was, I don’t think I realised how big of a thing it was until, yeah, until I applied and then they they tell you pretty, like a week later, it’s it’s very short. And then it kind of it kind of blew up. And, and I was like, What did I just do? But, uh, but it was, it was wonderful. It was a great experience. I loved it.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s one of those things. It’s like, you know, it’s like yesterday tour, instead of having to go to individually to a bunch of Fringe Festivals. You’re like, you know, as soon as that that happens that you’re doing that.
Carlyn Rhamey
And I think I didn’t realise that. I mean, I the people I spoke to said that it takes years and years and years to get it. And so I really wasn’t expecting it right off the way I was like, Oh, I better start applying now. So when 10 years, I’ll finally get it.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, yeah. Oh, you know, I mean, just just like trying to get into the same infringer example. These can take years and years. But you never know. Because of that, that lottery nature. I mean, there are people who do apply for years and years. And there’s people who apply the first Yeah.
Carlyn Rhamey
And some people I’ve got, I’ve got it like three or four times, which I didn’t realise until I met them. Okay. You know, it does happen.
Phil Rickaby
It does, it does. Know, you were saying that you’d created shows yourself, have you always been somebody who writes your stories, or is something
Carlyn Rhamey
I do try and write what I know. So whether it’s my experiences or experience of people closest to me, when I was trying to write a show, over the past few years, it was always the stories of friends or stories of me, but I’m kind of underneath a character that I would create. So yeah, this was the first time of just really, it’s, you know, sharing my own my own stories while still being me on stage. The vols for sure. And I mean, this type of show, this was an experience. That was extremely embarrassing. I mean, it’s about a breakup and what I thought was gonna happen, it didn’t happen. And the show is not about that, but it’s a small part. And a lot of people didn’t really realise that that’s what happened, like, kind of keeping that hidden. So it was I had a couple of moments where I would call my director and be like, I can’t do this. I can’t tell everyone what actually happened. This is too embarrassing, like, mortified. But then we’d have the conversation of, but that’s good theatre. I mean, that’s, that’s what people want to see. They, they, that’s, that’s truth. And that’s what happened. So pushed me for it, luckily.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s the, that that, at Fringe for solo shows, there’s, there’s kind of two kinds of shows that you can see. And that one is sort of fiction. And one is the very confessional style of storytelling, where the story comes comes from inside you and and quite honestly, in some cases, like that’s, there’s something really terrifying about, you know, I mean, as actors we’re often used to having, you know, the character between, you know, between us and the audience. And if you’re just telling the story about you, you’re there’s nothing it’s just you know, yeah,
Carlyn Rhamey
it is it is like an extra level of, of stakes that are just personal because you’re really opening yourself up and baring it all. I kept feeling so close to everyone who had seen the show because I just felt like they’re my best friend. They knew everything that happened.
Phil Rickaby
Well, you just you just told them like you’re in a relatively recent embarrassing Oh
Carlyn Rhamey
my made it harder myself to by making it something that I was literally still going through.
Phil Rickaby
Well, that’s I mean, there’s a certain I have to give you kudos for bravery on that because, you know, it took me eight years to write my show. And it’s you know, fictionalised there’s a lot of fiction in there, as well as some truth. But it took me a long time before I was ready to face what I’d read. So there’s a lot of bravery and like going through a thing, and then just really just a few months later, just getting up and telling people about thanks.
Carlyn Rhamey
Yeah, well, when you apply for the cash, no show.
Phil Rickaby
You better be ready to do it. Yeah. Because you kind of have no choice. Talk about your deadline. Have you? Have you always been?
Carlyn Rhamey
Pretty much yes. I’ve always known that I wanted to be an actor. Storytelling is a new thing for me. But I’ve always loved theatre since I was 12 or younger.
Phil Rickaby
One thing that I just I just sort of noticed that you you’re it sounds like you, you’re making a bit of a distinction between storytelling and acting,
Carlyn Rhamey
I guess. I shouldn’t be I just I just started going to Toronto, to do some of their storytelling nights. So I guess that’s kind of stuck in my head right now of like, getting up with a mic and, and sharing a story and then doing it writing a show and doing it. Yeah. But yeah, it really isn’t. It really is so so fluid in each other there, there really isn’t that much of a distinction.
Phil Rickaby
No, because I was about to I was want to say because what you were doing? I mean, there there isn’t, I don’t I wouldn’t want to make that kind of distinction. Because there you’re on a stage doing a thing. And if you’re doing a well you’re you’re kind of not separating yourself from the emotion behind the story. So it still it is definitely still acting. Well, what How old were you when you knew that that theatre was something you wanted to do?
Carlyn Rhamey
Well, if you look in like my grade eight grad book, it says, future profession, actor or special education teacher and now I, I work with people with special needs. And I’m an actor, so pretty, pretty young. I’m one of those very, very lucky people that have always kind of always known what they wanted to do.
Phil Rickaby
I think a lot of us who who go into theatre, I think I’ve only spoken to a couple of people who came to it very early in life
Carlyn Rhamey
either early or late.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Do you remember what it was that made you want to do that? Do theatre?
Carlyn Rhamey
I think? Um, well, I’ve I’ve ADHD and I one of the things that I loved was that that rush that you get that’s kind of the first memory of of it before, right before you get up in front of all those people. You just get this surge of adrenaline and and I’m being the kind of kid that I was. That was just the the greatest feeling I’ve ever felt. So go after that.
Phil Rickaby
Do you remember? Do you remember what your first that your first experience with that was when
Carlyn Rhamey
we had created masks out of some some sort of hard paper mache material or something. And we did a Snow White and I was Dhobi. Words, I don’t know why it was so hyped up about it. But
Phil Rickaby
you know, the first time that you get up in front of people, it doesn’t really matter if you’re speaking or not, it can still be a terrifying and exciting thing. When did you realise that? When did you know that? It was a thing that you could do? Like?
Carlyn Rhamey
Well, I had, I mean, in high school, I known that there were theatre programmes sorry. So I had applied to a few and I went to Fanshawe College for theatre art. So, I guess sometime through throughout my high school years, I figured that people people are doing it. And then it’s only recently that I realised that this whole concept of independent theatre, which is amazing theatre of people creating their own work is a thing. So I’m kind of going in that direction now rather than auditioning for for professional companies in
Phil Rickaby
what’s kind of interesting is I had this realisation. Last night I was in, I was talking to somebody else. And I came to this realisation if I wasn’t creating my own stuff, I would probably not be doing theatre. Yeah,
Carlyn Rhamey
I think everyone has to and that was a big thing that they that they told us in school too is you you have you can’t just, you know, survive off of other people, you need to make your own work.
Phil Rickaby
That’s kind of a recent thing. Because when I was in theatre school a long time ago, nobody talked about that. It was all you know, you’ll go to the audition, you’ll get the job, you’ll audition for the next thing, you’ll get that job and so on and so on and so on. And that was all that they talked about. And we’ve had to learn since then about you know, making your own work and the importance I’m sure
Carlyn Rhamey
as much as my I mean, even my programme, you know, told us we had to make our own work. We never learned how to, you know, apply to fringe or you know, find a dramaturge or any of that. So it’s a lot of you’re done school, you’re out and figure it out.
Phil Rickaby
Well, is there is there is there’s a lot of that. Yeah, I was lucky because I went to George Brown Theatre School, and we had a business of acting course, which was super rare. It was the only school at the time that I knew of that had like any course that talked about this is how the business of acting works. Now, am I correct that you’ve, you’ve done some work with Victoria Urquhart.
Carlyn Rhamey
I did. They were my. They’re one of their first shows Shakespeare on a subway in Toronto was my first show out of out of school, seven years ago.
Phil Rickaby
And, I mean, I’ve talked to Victoria about this, but what was it like? Performing Shakespeare in front of people who many of whom may just have wanted? Yeah.
Carlyn Rhamey
It was, it was a very interesting experience. I’m glad I you know, I did. That was the first thing I did after school. It’s, it’s kind of exhilarating and hard at the same time, because some people are pleasantly surprised, and some people are pulling the alarm on. It was a lot of fun. Luckily, you’re with a group, not by yourself. So you’re able to kind of laugh about it afterwards. Definitely something that I think was important that that Tori created because I mean, it’s just things like Shakespeare, for example. It’s just not accessible for, for some everyday people, whether it’s too expensive, or they just haven’t had a good experience with it. So
Phil Rickaby
yeah, I think that there’s a lot of people who think they don’t like Shakespeare, because they only remember that they didn’t like it in high school, and they carry that with them. And they haven’t actually had the opportunity to see see a lot
Carlyn Rhamey
and see it done with, you know, a little bit of comedy and a little bit of more relatability that I think people are really starting to do now with.
Phil Rickaby
Hmm, yeah. I mean, there’s always I mean, I think that, that, that when you when you do Shakespeare, and sometimes if you if you adhere a little too much to the idea of oh, we have to do it period. So we have to have these elaborate costumes and things like that. You’re kind of putting a barrier between yourself and your audience is hard to identify with somebody who’s wearing a rough and pumpkin patch,
Carlyn Rhamey
especially especially for young people who are getting their first experience with it.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, absolutely. To go back to your your fringe tour. I, what was the learning curve like for you in terms of getting ready to
Carlyn Rhamey
huge um, luckily, I had a friend who’s in Republic Republic, John Patterson, who I’d met in the London fringe a few years ago. So after I got in the cafe, I called him and, and we had, like monthly chats, like leading up to fringe about all the things I would need to do Facebook ads, contacting media, learning how to use Twitter, which is so helpful for just just all those basic things, and then and then tonnes of different guerrilla theatre tactics and so learning all those producers sides of things while trying to write your show was absolutely safe to do all at once. Big big learning curve.
Phil Rickaby
After you know, talking with with with John and then starting your tour, were there things that that that worked better than others things that you sort of maybe went in starting to think that you would do but it just wasn’t working? And so you had to stop doing them and rely on something else to get your, your word out?
Carlyn Rhamey
There was ah, yeah, I mean, things even things as simple as it’s good to, like choose a certain a certain show that might be a bit more similar to your show to flyer. There are certain shows where there’s a big, you know, an emotional impact at the end. If, for example, your show so I mean, exit exiting flyering Max show, probably the best thing. And so you kind of learn just by trial and error. I mean, you might see a line and you’re like, Oh yeah, they’re all leaving, I’ll I’ll grab them, but I mean, sometimes it’s better to leave it and get To the next one.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, no, I often found when when I was on tour that I mean, I found it easier to fly or a line going in, told me that. Yeah, but but, you know, some fringes don’t like I found in Montreal that people don’t line up, they just sort of roll, they definitely show.
Carlyn Rhamey
And the tricky thing there too is I kind of had to realise that I wasn’t going to be a person that says a few things and gives a flyer and then walks away. I’m the type of person that kind of has to sit and talk with them for five minutes. So I’ll get less people. But in the end, I think it’s sometimes I mean, if that’s more your style, then you’re more effective that way. So I have to figure out what works for you in regards to that sort of thing. So which I did in London, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton, nice state Hall’s close to home.
Phil Rickaby
So you kind of went close to home for you sort of went? So London, and then all the way to Quebec, and then back and then back down closer to home?
Carlyn Rhamey
Yeah, big circle.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, what did you find? I mean, I know every fringe is different. What did you learn about about the fringes?
Carlyn Rhamey
Well, a big thing was I had no idea. I thought there was kind of a standard for, you know, all of them. But really, once they’ve got the name, they can kind of do what they they want. And so all of them have completely different guidelines and rules. And expectations. So that was definitely new. Especially going from like London, which is probably quite typical. London and Hamilton are quite similar. And then going to Montreal, where they’re like, so you’re good with letting people in half an hour late. And I was like, Okay, sure.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, yes, I found that I found that a huge surprise. When I was in Montreal, just the fact that they were like, Yeah, we’re wondering if we can let people in late and I’m just thinking like, I don’t, I don’t know,
Carlyn Rhamey
yeah, catches you off guard, especially when they’ve got those big signs. I mean, it especially in places like Toronto, it’s like, you know, no late comers know that. These are the fringe rules, and then you go somewhere, and it’s fringe, but it’s not actually the fringe rules. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, the fringe rules are pretty, I mean, the, the actual fringe rules are pretty simple. They, they kind of have to give all the money back to the artists and they have to do they have to select by a lottery, and everything else is, is subject to what they want to do. And and I don’t know, like that the late comer thing? I guess it’s okay. If you thinking about it, because even if they’re late, you’re still getting their their full ends on the shelf full $10. It doesn’t have been on the show with mine. I’d wonder if I like, can I take the time to make fun of them? If they come in late? I don’t. Like I don’t know. But it’s like, how do you handle that? Because it’s not like it’s a quiet? No, not at all. Like, if we were trying to be quiet, it’s
Carlyn Rhamey
definitely you, you definitely have to make that decision yourself and, and decide whether or not you’re, it’ll disrupt the show or add to the show? If Yeah, if you can kind of make a thing about it when they come on.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, I don’t know how I’d handle it yet. So that’s one of those. Like, I had people in Hamilton, I had people come in, like, late to my show, which shouldn’t have happened. But there was a whole thing going on outside. And I decided to make fun of them. Because I think that’s the only thing I could have done. But I don’t know if I’d want to invite that happened
Carlyn Rhamey
to each each time. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
I don’t, because you know, people will if you’re like, I think if you if you you know if people will come in late, if you make it available to them, they’re going to come in late. So, I don’t know.
Carlyn Rhamey
I mean, Montreal has the good thing where you can say five minutes, 10 minutes or 15 minutes. So you can yes, that’s kind of make it a little bit easier on yourself that way, but or you don’t have to at all. So I mean, just having that more options and other cities or other cities and restrictor. I mean, I had no idea that all the rules were were different. What did you think I did? Probably 10 minutes, 10 minutes for late comers? Because I kind of do like a 15 minute intro thing anyway, before we actually fly to Ireland and Scotland. Michelle. So that was that worked out for me and I and I do have the ability to kind of like make fun of them for being late as well. But I totally see where other shows where it made. It wouldn’t work at all. So
Phil Rickaby
yeah, absolutely. Were there other things that surprised you about the differences between
Carlyn Rhamey
the festival? Well, I mean, I mean, Montreal had a hole which London didn’t have and I only done London. They had a whole kind of community space. That was their office. Um, so
Phil Rickaby
that’s, that’s new when I was there, they didn’t have that and I wish they had because
Carlyn Rhamey
outside of the park, just having like, you know, couches, people can come in and take a nap or fix their flyers, and then they had like coffee and bagels. So, and every time you walked in, they were just so thrilled to see you. And they’d ask you about all your, like, how your show is doing, what you’re seeing and see shows a few so the, of the employees in Montreal, were very much in the festival with you, which was really nice.
Phil Rickaby
That’s one of the things that I find is unique about Montreal, is the fact that like, I’ve been to a bunch of fringes and with the exception of Hamilton where you know, I was able to meet all of the fringe staff and you know, to converse with them had Montreal previous previous to that was really the only time I’ve really had interactions with with French staff and they were always delightful and always always really, really they really
Carlyn Rhamey
are they want you to succeed and they want to see as much as they can to they love the festival
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, absolutely. Did going from from Montreal to Ottawa Did you find the difference between
Carlyn Rhamey
Yeah, cuz you know, Montreal all all kind of easy going then going to I mean, Ottawa was easy going to, it’s great. But still, they they’re a little bit closer to London, it was more typical way of doing things. So that it was kind of like, okay, get get back into it. But I had a great time in Ottawa, that was one of my, the, my favourite festivals, it just so much fun to the artists and the people like the community and the touring people kind of mesh a lot better, probably the best than in any city I went to. So it’s really great to kind of see that community all come together to support each other.
Phil Rickaby
That’s very cool. That’s very interesting. Because a lot of places there is a bit. I mean, I find it Ontario, mostly, um, there’s a bit of a difference, or a bit of a separation between the local and the touring
Carlyn Rhamey
in Toronto, especially.
Phil Rickaby
Oh, well, the Toronto fringe is, is is very much a unique animal in that it. It’s, I think that touring shows are at a detriment in Toronto, because Toronto tends to be so focused on itself. That and everybody who doesn’t live in Toronto right now is going to big surprise, Toronto has focus on itself. But it says, as far as fringe is concerned, Toronto is very interested in what’s going to be the next Drowsy Chaperone or Kim’s convenience or to kink in your hair. Whereas a lot of other fringes are very interested in what’s coming from other places
Carlyn Rhamey
and or interested in kind of inviting them into the city and enjoying the community. Yeah, so it was very different. Yeah. Then again, going from Ottawa to Toronto, like, well, night and day.
Phil Rickaby
So previously, you’ve only done the London fringe. And so now you’ve done five fringes, all of which are pretty close in, in proximity to where you’re from? Are there things that you learn from that about your show that you want to? I don’t know, make changes to the show or, or work on something new?
Carlyn Rhamey
For sure. I mean, doing it that many times in so many different places with so many different groups of people and audiences? You by the end of it, you for sure know what’s working and what doesn’t work. It’s hard right off the bat. I think when you create something you don’t really want to let anything go. So but after you know you’ve been through a good long run, you can kind of see where we’re you can use that blue pen and and make some edits. For my show, specifically, I met up with, you know, someone who who’d like to show and had some ideas for it. So I have a dramaturge. That’s going to work with me on it for next year, which will be
Phil Rickaby
nice. Did how quickly after performing it a few times, did you realise that there were things that maybe you might want to work on for the future or that that weren’t quite what you wanted them to be probably after?
Carlyn Rhamey
I mean, I knew that it’s an art. It’s an on like, this was my first attempt with it, and it’s a lot a lot of work to do. But you didn’t I didn’t really get the feel of some different ideas and be brave enough to start making changes until the Ottawa until the third festival.
Phil Rickaby
Will you make any changes as you performed it or were you just sort
Carlyn Rhamey
of making changes actually changed the ending after the first festival Just just a small, small cut that that changed the ending. I had another add on before that I died cut. And then yeah, and then I kind of started changing the intro a little bit as as I went along. So yeah, it wasn’t until I mean, I’m a bit always a bit tentative to make changes. But it wasn’t till the third festival that I was brave enough to, you know, write some things down and try a few different other things to
Phil Rickaby
me that can that can be really scary. I’m going to say right now that I mean, I would improvise a little bit around my piece, but the idea of writing some new stuff and trying to work that in while performing it that,
Carlyn Rhamey
that that would be terrible. I know. I know. I’ve heard of people who can do that. And I am props. But I always say that I’m not someone who’s who’s naturally talented. I have to like, you know, for everything that I do that that’s that’s done well, there’s there is like, weeks and months and hours and hours and hours that I have to put into to it. So yeah, I don’t think I could do that. Yeah, more like just little changes, like whether or not to be in the audience when people are coming in or not.
Phil Rickaby
Oh, did you I never
Carlyn Rhamey
did it until Hamilton actually, that was one that I wanted to try. And Toronto, I got the idea in Toronto. And then I tried it in a couple of different ways in Hamilton. And it and it Yeah, it worked. Okay. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
I don’t know. I have to say I don’t remember up. Yeah,
Carlyn Rhamey
I didn’t start trying it until the second half of Hamilton. Yeah. And then I Okay, you know,
Phil Rickaby
would you would you talk to people as they came in? Or would you
Carlyn Rhamey
just kind of not worry so much about, you know, hiding behind this, this curtain. And, you know, kind of just breaking that fourth wall a little earlier. So I just come out and say hi, I’m garland. Thanks for coming. Just little conversations like that. So I’m not, you know, back there. And then, you know, French people are going to the bathroom, and they can see you and you’re like, Oh, hi. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
I’m gonna ask you now that we’re talking about that, because I’m thinking about, because of what I performed this show in Hamilton, it’s the first time I ever performed my show. And the first performance and you know, I knew I was entering from the audience from the behind the audience. And so which meant that in the venue I was in, I had just be out there at the back in full view. So I had to come up with some ways to handle that. Because at first performance, I swear that if I looked at the audience, I was coming in I was going to vomit or something. How did you feel that because you know, a new performing this in London, which is kind of your your home fringe? How, how did you feel the first time
Carlyn Rhamey
in London?
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, the first time you’re performing
Carlyn Rhamey
fine. I had I had my tech the day of and I Yeah. And I was really, I think I had to tech an hour before, like the tech finished and then I had an hour and then I was doing show. So and I had, you know, not really a whole lot of ideas of what I wanted the lighting to be. I had some sound ideas. So we kind of all figured it out together. I had me, my director, someone who’d gotten all the sound for me was there, someone else’s director from another show came. So it was kind of a lovely, a lovely, a friendly moment that everyone kind of came together and I had a wonderful tech and we and we kind of lighting design to show all those three hours before. So stressful, stressful.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. And then and then. So that’s how many hours between that voice performance? Yeah. Oh my god. Oh, my God, you can make anyone feel ill. And
Carlyn Rhamey
I was pretty horrifying. I mean, I got to warm up in this space for an hour, which was lovely because my tech was great. But um, but it was it was pretty scary because I had never done it for anyone else. I mean, I tried to make my family sit and be an audience member beforehand, week before and they refused because they thought they wouldn’t like it. And I’d see it on their faces. They’d never done it in my director. So it was really it was very nerve racking.
Phil Rickaby
That is nerve racking. I actually, I was advised by some friends who had performed solo shows before to try to do do it in front of people beforehand. So I got I roped in a few a few people to sit in a room which was again, terrifying because I couldn’t see their faces. And I wasn’t one person. It looks like they hated the show. I wasn’t sure if that was just them their neutral face, or I just sort of, I didn’t know what was happening. And so I ended up not being able to look at anybody, I could only look around them. Because I was in a rehearsal hall, there was no no lighting or anything. It was it was just like, very close proximity, it didn’t really feel like a performance so that when I got into the theatre, and with the lights and the sound and everything, I still felt like it was the first time I was doing it. What are your I mean, what are the plans for for this for this
Carlyn Rhamey
show now, so I would like to I have a dramaturge is going to work on it with me. I got it filmed on one of the days in Hamilton. So I’m actually going to see it for the first time, which is more horrifying than anything else.
Phil Rickaby
That is a nerve racking. Yeah,
Carlyn Rhamey
I debated not watching it, but then I, I need to obviously see it and take notes and kind of see what’s working and what isn’t. So I’ve got that plan this week. Yeah, I’d like to kind of take it all the way out Easter all the way out out west now. Because I still have a lot of fun with it. And I’d like to kind of just, it’s it’s probably like 60 or 70%, there, it needs to be a little bit more, more well rounded, and it’ll be ready to go.
Phil Rickaby
Cool, I think I think you will find some of the fringes a further west. While especially if you get to Winnipeg or Edmonton, they’re very different in some really amazing ways than the ones out in the East here. Um, so much bigger, and so much more than if we only know, like, if you only knew London, going to Montreal, that’s a bit of a shock. But then if we only know, the smaller ones here and going to the massive ones, in Winnipeg in Edmonton, that’s, that’s an entirely different again, it’s
Carlyn Rhamey
gonna be a whole nother learning curve. It’s gonna be like, from scratch. I’m kind of glad that I didn’t, you know, choose to do go that direction the first time around. Just because it was already such a huge learning curve for me. Yeah, I’m a little bit more prepared for next year, but I at least I know that it will be, you know, a whole nother range of things.
Phil Rickaby
The interesting thing about going to any, like, it doesn’t really matter how many fringes you’ve done. The first time you go to any fringe, there’s a learning curve, like figuring out, you know, what, what do the people here accept as a pitch? What do they? How does how to like? Do they line up? Do they not line up? How do you how do you pitch to people like,
Carlyn Rhamey
I know it’s a big thing too is because London, Montreal and Ottawa all overlap. Like getting to festivals late and missing kind of that Preview Night is also can be real, real hard for
Phil Rickaby
for the cities to do a preview night, it can be very a big deal to miss that, like it can really, really hurt you. Yeah, it’s it’s, yeah, it can be really huge to hit that. Now. Not every fringe does a Preview Night. But the ones that do really, it becomes a big deal and a big part of how the early audience decides what they’re going to see.
Carlyn Rhamey
Which is a whole nother thing of I mean, you know, how to learning how to pitch your show is different than just showing a piece of it too.
Phil Rickaby
Ya, pitching the show? That’s that’s the whole thing. Like how, like learning what trying to figure out what what it is that you’re going to say to people. And for me, I don’t know. I don’t know what you for me. That’s the most terrifying part of fringe is walking with people and talking about my show. Yeah, yeah. No, I just wonder like how, for me as as an introvert, like, I have to psych myself up to walk to a doctor.
Carlyn Rhamey
Sure. I don’t think I even started really flyering until the end of Ottawa until the end of the Ottawa festival. It just because I would do like maybe like three people, you know, a day if that in London and Montreal because I was so nervous. And there’s a good moment where I was talking to a touring artist that’s been doing this for years in Ottawa and we’re standing in line, and there was a break where people weren’t coming in and I just turned to him. When I said, you kind of had to sell a bit of your soul to do this a, like, a piece of me died a long time ago.
Phil Rickaby
It’s so it’s so true is that
Carlyn Rhamey
dignity to like, do it because
Phil Rickaby
you know, I’ve seen people who seem to thrive on it. And I don’t, I don’t know, I was talking, I was talking to TJ da like, a while ago, and he hated it. And this is a guy who, who, you know, people refer to him as a fringe God or a fringe legend. And he, you know, did not enjoy any of the promotional stuff like walking up to people and talking to them. So if this fringe God cannot enjoy it, I don’t know what how the rest of us do it. But yeah, it’s it’s one of those those things where I totally get the a piece of me dies, and you just never
Carlyn Rhamey
know how they’re gonna react. I mean, if it’s if people react positively, then I mean, it’s, it’s not so bad, because you’re able to kind of talk to them about about your show, and they ask questions, and you’re able to share it. But I mean, there are some people who will walk away without saying anything and your
Phil Rickaby
Oh, I know. And you know, and this happened to me in Hamilton, it hadn’t really happened, since I did was at the Calgary fringe walking up to somebody and saying, Hey, can I tell you about my show? No. Yeah.
Carlyn Rhamey
Well, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. And then you’re just standing there. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, you’re like, Oh, okay. So I guess I now have to move on from this awkward conversation. No.
Carlyn Rhamey
There’s always other people listening to so it’s not even just seeking like, find someone on their own, like everyone around you in this in a crowd here?
Phil Rickaby
No, and I guess you either go, Okay, so I’m going to skip over these five people here, or just turn to the person next to them. It’s so hard.
Carlyn Rhamey
But you definitely have to give a sense of humour or else it’s just it’s
Phil Rickaby
it can be soul crushing otherwise. So you want to take it to to other fringes? And like, if you were to, do you have more shows more solo shows. And you have you been? Have you caught the bug for Yeah, I
Carlyn Rhamey
definitely have. I’ve been thinking about writing a show more based around just my ADHD for a long time. And I’ve been talking to another actor who also has it. But I know we’ve talked about maybe doing like a two hander storytelling show, which is something that I don’t think I’ve ever seen. I’m sure it’s happened, but I don’t think I’ve seen it at Fringe before. Kind of sharing both of our stories and sharing our stories of of our conversations that we’ve had with it and going from there. So we’re talking about getting into a room and and trying some stuff out. Yeah,
Phil Rickaby
it’s really cool. So you were mentioning earlier that your
Carlyn Rhamey
Yes, girl squirrel suit? Theatre?
Phil Rickaby
Oh, so you’re on the company
Carlyn Rhamey
name. I’m debating getting one myself now too, because it’s just so helpful. I can’t believe how helpful Twitter is.
Phil Rickaby
It is so helpful. I actually. In a lot of ways I don’t I don’t know what we did.
Carlyn Rhamey
We don’t know how you guys survive. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
Bye. With without being able to both, like, talk like converse with people, talk to people and even get feedback from people. On Twitter, I don’t I really don’t know how
Carlyn Rhamey
you’re on Twitter. I definitely got some from Hamilton just because I tweeted at them. So I mean, just it’s crazy. How big of an effect it can really have.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, absolutely. What about it? What
Carlyn Rhamey
about? We do? Squirrel Suit? productions.ie. My spot.com Yeah, so that’s got kind of our because our company started a few years ago. So we also were very big on on collaborating with other companies and supporting other companies. So we’re all about trying to go see as much theatre as we can. We have different volunteer initiatives that we’re doing throughout the year as well. So lots of stuff.
Phil Rickaby
So when you say we, who who, who are the we have? Yeah,
Carlyn Rhamey
it’s me and my who’s my director for Sarah, free. Mel White, who resides in London. She’s paramedic. And yeah, we started a company a few years ago. It was born in Toronto when we were both living in Toronto and then it’s kind of moved around as we’ve moved
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Well, it’s good that you’re able to keep keep, like, you guys don’t live in the same place, but you’re able to keep working. Yeah,
Carlyn Rhamey
I mean, I bounce around a lot more. I mean, not too much going on in in Niagara. So it’s never been too much of an issue, luckily. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
Cool. Well, we’re about at the end of the time that I have. So I want to thank you for coming on. And yeah,
Carlyn Rhamey
thank you so much. Good chatting with you again.