Toronto Fringe Extra 4

This week on Stageworthy, host Phil Rickaby brings you a fourth and final Toronto Fringe Extra episode, featuring interviews with 4 Toronto Fringe Artists, in advance of the Toronto Fringe Festival, running July 2-13 at various locations around Toronto.

In this episode:
Ronit Rubenstein, creator and performer of Things My Dad Kept
SHOW INFO AND TICKETS: https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/things-my-dad-kept 

Alice Lundy, director and producer of The Adding Machine
SHOW INFO AND TICKETS: https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/adding-machine 

Nam Nguyen one of the writers and performers of Q_uiz Icarus_
SHOW INFO AND TICKETS: https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/quiz-icarus

Sara Mayfield, writer and performer of Who Drinks Mocktails on the Beach?!
SHOW INFO AND TICKETS: https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/who-drinks-mocktails-beach

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Transcript

[Phil Rickaby]
Hello, welcome to Stageworthy. I’m Phil Rickaby, the host and producer of this podcast. This is the last of my four Toronto Fringe Extras.

So this will be the last time there’s an episode on Thursday for a while. If you haven’t decided what shows you’re going to see at the Toronto Fringe, you should absolutely do that. Whether it’s one of the shows that you’ve seen or heard about on the Fringe Extras, one that you’ve seen in the program, or just one that you take a chance on or stumble about or hear about, absolutely make sure that you see the shows, get your tickets early.

You should always get your tickets early. You don’t know, nobody knows what show is going to blow up at the Toronto Fringe. And if you sleep on a show that you’re interested in, you could miss it.

So don’t do that. I will get to the shows that we’re going to be talking about in a second. But first, I want to say that if you’re watching this podcast on YouTube, which you know, I want to make sure you know that you can watch this podcast on YouTube for the most part.

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I can’t do this show without the patrons who’ve chosen to back me on Patreon. They help to make sure that I’m able to pay for the things that need to be paid for. Now we are just at subsistence level, we’re just covering some costs right now.

Because although I give you this podcast for free, it does cost me money to make it. Whether that’s editing software, that’s hosting of both the the podcast files and having a website that all costs money. And we are just covering the cost of that.

And that doesn’t include any compensation for the time it takes me to make this podcast or to do the interviews, or all the other work that goes into this. So if you are able to, I would love it if you could join the Patreon. It only costs $7 Canadian a month.

And if you are a patron, you’ll get early access to episodes, you will get to be part of decisions that are made about the show. Whenever I have an issue that I want to discuss, I will go to the brain trust to the Patreon to discuss it. And the more people who join the Patreon, the more I’ll be able to offer to the patrons.

So if you are interested, if you want to back this podcast, if you want to support me go to patreon.com slash stage worthy, there will not be an episode on Tuesday next week. Just a quick note about that there won’t be an episode, I will either be seeing shows or I also need to take a break. I have been going nonstop with interviews and assembling shows.

And so I need a quick break to reset and get ready for the new episodes that we’re going to be seeing once the Toronto Fringe is over. So there won’t be an episode next week. But after that, we’ll be back on the regular Tuesday schedule.

Let’s get into the shows. First playwright and storyteller Ronit Rubenstein talks about her very moving and irreverent and hilarious, but moving show, Things My Dad Kept. Next, Alice Lundy, the director and producer of The Adding Machine, tells me about that show, which is a bold and electrifying adaptation of Elmer Rice’s 1923 expressionist play.

Then Nam Nguyen takes us along on his journey to compete and win on Jeopardy! and gives us the opportunity to win cash money in a trivia challenge in Quiz Icarus. And finally, performer, playwright, producer, arts administrator, singer-songwriter, pottery teacher, party princess, and D&D podcaster Sarah Mayfield tells us about her award-winning solo show, Who Drinks Mocktails on the Beach.

Let’s get started with the interviews, and I will see you after Fringe is over. Ronit Rubenstein, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you giving me some of your evening today.

Let’s start by talking about your show at the Toronto Fringe, Things My Dad Kept. Tell me, what is the show? What’s the pitch for that show?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Sure, yeah. So, 12 years after my dad passed away, my mom decided to sell our family home, which meant I could no longer put off the task of emptying my dad’s file cabinet. He had a drawer labeled with each family member’s name, and when I opened it, I found that he had archived pretty much every moment of my life from infancy through to my mid-20s, often in multiple copies, and there’s all kinds of treasures found in there.

So, it’s a show about that experience, the things I found, and I intercut it with stories about our relationship and also an incredible story about his family’s survival that I think contextualizes his tendency to hold onto things.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now, grief is a funny thing. You waited 12 years to delve into this trove of documentation, things that your father had kept. Were you dreading something about it, or what kept you from doing it?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
I think in the immediate aftermath of his death, I kind of had to be a support to my mom, and so I did something that I think a lot of people do when they grieve, which is not actually grieving, just kind of like put the grief on hold until later when it’ll be a more convenient time, and that more convenient time never really rolled around. I had an inkling of what might be in there when elsewhere in my dad’s office, I found a monthly newsletter from my elementary school that had poems that students in my class had written and all these cute things, but I wasn’t featured in it at all. And I was like, why did my dad keep this?

It doesn’t even mention me anywhere. And so I kind of had this understanding that he might have been like hoarding memories. And so I think I just wasn’t ready to fully feel the grief until life circumstances kind of made me.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. I mean, grief is the kind of thing where you can only defer it for so long because it will make itself known, and it will intrude on your life in ways that you don’t expect. When you were going through this cabinet of memories, did you find that?

Did you find unexpected grief coming in?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Well, for sure. At one point, I found a scrap of paper with my dad’s handwriting on it, and it hit me so much harder than I would have ever expected. If someone say, oh, you’ll find that, I wouldn’t expect that to be a big deal.

But it was really just kind of the sheer volume and thoroughness, which I think really spoke to his love. But there were also so many hilarious and embarrassing things I found. I found a first draft of a secret admirer note I wrote to my crush.

I have no idea how my dad found that. I am mortified that he read it, even though now I’m an adult. So there were all sorts of things like, you know, there’s things you’d expect, like, you know, report cards.

But there was stuff he found that it felt almost like going through a diary. So it was pretty intense.

[Phil Rickaby]
I can imagine. Also, that diary was kind of yours in a lot of ways, too, it sounds like.

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he had a drawer for each of my brothers and for me and for my mom. And so I only went through mine.

I left everyone else to do theirs. But I imagine he was equally thorough with everybody.

[Phil Rickaby]
Wow. Wow. So what point after taking on this task and going through this, the drawer, did you think this needs to be a show?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
I think. I started finding all sorts of things, and I think it was around the time I found that secret admirer note that I thought this is something that other people might really get a kick out of, too. And, you know, the experience of of emptying a house that a family has lived in for so many decades is it’s quite intense.

I’m sure, you know, lots of people have had to go through aging parents. And and in the moment, it was so hectic, you know, just trying to empty and get rid of things. And there’s a lot of stuff I threw out and have no record of.

And at a certain point when it started dawning on me, OK, I’m going to need to process this, even if I don’t make any art about it, I’m going to need to process this later. I started taking photos and keeping things. But I do regret now that some of that early stuff just got thrown, you know, shredded, thrown in the recycling bin.

[Phil Rickaby]
And well, you don’t know what’s you really don’t know what’s of value yet, right? You’re just thinking, I have to empty this thing.

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Yeah. And I have to do it by a very specific deadline. We have to be out of the house.

So, yeah, yeah. It was an interesting way to receive inspiration. I’ve never quite had it like that before.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. And what was the process of writing this show like? How how do you go about taking this process and writing it as a as a play?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Yeah. Well, so some of the kind of memory stories that are in the show, I perform regularly as a storyteller. Most regularly, I can often be caught on the replay storytelling stage.

And I had for years only really performed stories about my mom because I worried that if I told a story about my dad, I would cry and I was nervous to cry on stage. And then right before I emptied the file cabinet, we’d already started emptying the house. I did tell a story about my dad on a replay show and I did cry and I and I got through it.

OK. And and that story actually ended up in in things my dad kept in a kind of a different form, but it ended up there. And then I performed another story about his family’s survival and that ended up being part of the show.

And it kind of took me a while to realize all these little stories were really just one big story. And then I was lucky enough to be part of the Nightwood Creatrix playwriting unit this fall. And so it kind of forced me to sit down and write every week.

And I booked a workshop of the show in February. So that really forced me to write it.

[Phil Rickaby]
I always love talking about workshops because that’s where you really find out, you know, does this work? You learn a lot. How did what you’d written change after your workshop?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Yeah, something I hadn’t thought much about until I was on stage during the workshop is that for the past decade or so, I’ve been mostly performing as a storyteller and I haven’t acted in a really long time. And as a storyteller, you’re just standing at a mic. And I started to realize, like, oh, for The Fringe, I probably just don’t want to be standing still at a mic for 60 minutes.

I might want to turn this into more of a performance. And and that a little bit put some fear into me because it’s been a while since I’ve moved around the stage. And so that was one of the biggest things.

And I’m thankfully working with a wonderful director, Janelle Hanna, who’s helped me a lot in that capacity. I also realized there were some stories that were kind of too long, taking up too much real estate within the show. And so I found ways to split them, which I think really helps so that nothing gets kind of too important by virtue of it’s just a really long story.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. How did you come to work with Janelle? I know Janelle has been on the podcast before.

How did how did how did you how did the partnership with Janelle come about?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
So it’s actually a reunion, which is really thrilling. When Janelle was fresh out of acting school, I actually cast her in her first ever Fringe show. Way back in 2008 was the last time I won the Fringe lottery.

And that was for a play I wrote called Sitting in a Tree. And she was so wonderful and so talented. And we became really good friends and have stayed close over all these years.

And now, you know, it’s going to be her ninth Fringe, but her first one as a director. So I’m excited I got to be involved in her first performance in a Fringe and first directing of a Fringe show. And I just really knew because the material is so personal and sensitive, I just wanted to work with someone I would trust and someone I knew would, you know, take care of me through the process.

So it’s been.

[Phil Rickaby]
How does having this history with Janelle as a director influence or or or benefit the show?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Yeah, that’s a that’s a really good question. I think that, you know, she knows me as a person. She knows me as an artist.

And so knowing both sides when the show is so personal, I think is really super helpful for her because she kind of understands what my goals are. And she just, you know, she’s able to push back where I need pushing back, I think in part because we have this long established friendship. You know, I don’t take it personally.

And I think if we’re kind of hashing things out, I think we both know that it’s coming from a place where we can say what we really think. So I think the show is all the better for it. That’s not to say you can’t have an amazing collaboration with someone you’re meeting for the first time.

But for me to really let my guard down, it helps that I’ve known her for all these years.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, I mean, also like that kind of like relationship lends itself to having a shared language, which can really benefit a working together as a writer, performer and director.

[Ronit Rubenstein]
For sure, for sure. And also because we’ve been friends, you know, I was such a huge fan of her solo show, Bad Baby. And so, you know, she’ll reference things there.

And I have such trust in her vision because I know what she’s capable of.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Now, you mentioned you got into the got through the Fringe Lottery in 2008. It’s a number of years later and you’re back in the Fringe.

A lot has changed about the Fringe. But of course, you know, some things remain the same. What are you most looking forward to with this show in the Toronto Fringe?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
I mean, I’m a person who is producing because that’s kind of what you have to do in the Fringe. But my natural inclination is towards the artistic side of things. So I’m excited about the festival because most of my producing duties will be hopefully behind me at that point.

I can focus on the artistic side of things, which I think will be immensely liberating because that’s the part I really love. I’m just excited to get the show in front of audiences. I think grief is such a universal human experience.

Everybody suffers loss at some point. And so I’m really hoping it’s a show that builds in a lot of room for the audience to engage with me and talk to me. And I invite people to find me after the show and tell me their stories of loss.

I’m really looking forward to making those connections and to, yeah, hopefully providing some catharsis for people, which will be really, you know, obviously meaningful for me. I also, I’m a member of one of the Fringe producer pods, which I’m so grateful for. And I love all my new friends that I’ve made.

So I’m really excited about just going to see their shows too and getting, you know, when you hear so much about a show week to week, getting to see the finished product is going to be so thrilling.

[Phil Rickaby]
I think the producer pods are a really great addition for the performers at the Fringe to be able to walk into the festival knowing people.

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Yes. Yes. Especially for out of towners, right?

I’m sure. Oh yeah. But also just, you know, I remember the last time I did the Fringe, it felt super, I felt so isolated because I would be like, I have to fill this thing out.

At the time I was so new to theatre and I just had no idea what to do or how or when or why. And now to have both, you know, the members of the group, plus the mentors who are obviously really knowledgeable, just to be able to bounce ideas off them and be like, what do you think about this for the poster? What do you think about this for the blurb?

It just makes it feel so much less alone, which I’m, I’ve been so grateful for. It’s reduced my stress I think by a significant margin.

[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. And it is, you mentioned like sort of front loading the producer duties, which is probably the Fringe might be the only time you can really manage to do that because so many things get, have deadlines that you can take care of and then you can sort of sit back and all you have to worry about is like how you’re going to promote the show or your flyering lines or whatever is happening this year. So it’s really a great opportunity.

Probably the only time we do get to front load those duties. Yeah. And is there, I mean, we all have the things that we dislike the most about the producing part.

Mine was flyering lines. My least favorite thing ever was to walk up to people and say, let me tell you about my show. What’s, what’s, what’s your least favorite part of, of the producing process for Fringe?

[Ronit Rubenstein]
I actually don’t mind. I’m pretty good at like talking to strangers. So I don’t mind that sort of thing.

I’m actually kind of looking forward to like hanging out at the Fringe tent and chatting people up hopefully. But I think it’s just all the, what’s really tough is, you know, being the only producer and being the decision maker and, you know, weighing options of should we do this? Should we do that?

What’s going to ultimately set us up more for success and not always having someone else to just make the decision for me has been tough. I think it’s just the volume of like decisions that have to be made. I would, I would love to only be focusing on the artistic decisions.

But at the end of the day, I am a control freak. So if it were different, I might also hate that if someone else were making my decisions for me. Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
That balance is the price that we all pay for, for Fringe. But it also is such a great experience to really sort of like know what a producer does. And so in a producer safe environment where there’s a lot of safety nets to help you.

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Yeah. And, you know, in a dream world, I’d love to tour the show in the future. I’ve heard from some people from out of town that the Toronto Fringe really gives you a lot more support and a lot more guidance than a lot of other Fringes.

So I feel like now I at least know what all the steps, all the boxes I have to check and all the steps I have to go through. So if I have to do it again, it’ll be a little bit less overwhelming.

[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. Well, Rooney, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you telling me about your show.

And I look forward to seeing you around the Fringe.

[Ronit Rubenstein]
Thank you so much. And thanks for having me. And thanks for featuring Fringe Artists.

I know I’m not the only one who is like super, super appreciative of what you do.

[Phil Rickaby]
Well, thank you. Alice Lundy, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate you giving me some of your time tonight.

As we jump in, could you please tell me about the show that you’re presenting at the Toronto Fringe, The Adding Machine?

[Alice Lundy]
Yes. Thank you, Phil, for having me. We are doing The Adding Machine as a site-specific production.

It’s in the Burroughs Building and in the Puppysphere Yoga Studio specifically. So I’m directing the show. I also adapted it with Guillermo Verdicchia, who acted as my dramaturg on this, and I’m very grateful for that.

Yeah, it’s a great show. I don’t think that it’s probably what you typically would expect to see at the Fringe, just because the world is quite extensive. So I’m excited to get in front of people.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now, The Adding Machine is a play that I think was originally 1923, which puts it about 100 years ago. What is it about The Adding Machine that speaks to you as a person living in 2025?

[Alice Lundy]
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I interacted with this play or was introduced to this play over a decade ago when I was still in university. I saw it as a scene study.

And even at that time, I was like, wow, these are questions, the questions that are in the play. I am having conversations about that with my friends right now. And I’m always fascinated by art and theatre, where even though it’s old, 100 years old, we’re still asking the same questions now.

I think there’s something in the passage of time where we feel like humans are evolving and changing, but it’s really interesting when you find a play where you’re like, oh, we’re still examining this, we’re still trying to figure this out. And now, especially with the rise of chatGTP and AI in general, and how quickly that has been changing, this whole play is about what happens when a man who has been working the same job as an accountant for 25 years is replaced by a machine. And so it feels really relevant to right now.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely. Considering that being replaced by AI is one of the leading causes of people being laid off from their jobs now.

[Alice Lundy]
Totally, totally. And, you know, I think a lot of artists felt like, okay, maybe our job is protected because AI can’t be creative. But if you’ve seen recently the videos that have been created by AI, you can barely tell that they’re not humans.

So these questions of what is the value of our life if we’re not working? How do we identify ourselves beyond the cyclical nature, the grind of day-to-day life of having a job? If we lose that to a machine, what does that make us?

And what is the value of our life? And how do we view ourselves and how do we view the world?

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, those are really big questions. And it’s interesting to think that similar questions were being asked over 100 years ago.

[Alice Lundy]
Yeah, exactly.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now, it’s an Expressionist piece. They’re originally, I don’t know about the adaptation, but Expressionism has a very particular, I mean, it’s a very particular style. Does that style appeal to you?

Is that something that spoke to you? And does that find its way into this new adaptation?

[Alice Lundy]
Yeah, I mean, I think something that I really appreciate about the original script is how theatrical it is. It’s not trying to be realistic. We go into the afterlife, several layers of the afterlife.

And there’s this whole world. It explores the idea of religion and afterlife and the cyclical nature of life in a really interesting way. So I think the Expressionist nature is sort of just built into the play, into the structure of it.

But I think what appeals to me about that is just like leaning into the theatricality of it, and leaning into the art form. So yeah, we’ve definitely been exploring that, you know, especially the idea of clown, of like physical, how do we physicalize these things? And then, you know, Tim Walker, who’s playing Mr. Zero, the main character, is the only actor that plays one role. All of the other actors, Jen, Danny, Jamar, Brianna, they all play like three characters each. So yeah, it lends itself to this kind of dream-like sort of world we’re creating. So it’s definitely still there.

It’s something that both Guillermo and I really loved about the play, and something that I think that is intact.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Speaking of Guillermo, you know, he worked with you, you guys worked together in adapting this play. What did that look like?

How did you guys work together? And what were you looking at as you adapted this old play for the now?

[Alice Lundy]
Yeah, so I was an apprentice director for Guillermo, and I think we really connected on sort of cedar with a political message. I wouldn’t say like political cedar, if that makes, I don’t know if that difference resonates with people. But the, you know, the ideas of hierarchy and people being replaced and devalued and all that kind of thing, I think spoke to both of us.

And so when we were looking at the play, it was really about strengthening the through line of the play and the story. So how we did that was like, I made two rough cuts of the play. One that was very just, you know, minimal characters as possible, because in the original play, there are 24 characters.

So it’s a large, large world that Elmer Rice has created. So I really stripped it back as much as I could. And then I made another cut that was involved some of these outside characters.

And then we workshopped it with a group of actors, read both versions, a group of really amazing actors. And the first version that was just super minimal, no sort of like, less expressionistic, less outside world was really depressing. And like, almost too depressing.

Everyone left the day being like, what is the meaning of my life? Which I think, you know, the play is asking you to look at, but we decided to add in some of the quirkier characters back in just because it adds to this absurdist nature of the play. And originally, we were, you know, talking about bringing in modern day technology, like, or it’s very New York 1920s, that there’s a strong dialect in it.

So originally, we were playing with like, what if we bring in modern technology and break the world in that way? And then when we heard it out loud, there, it just worked so well, it just flowed. And there is something about watching a play that is not in your era that we’re in right now, where the audience has enough distance, that they can look at it objectively, and then relate it back to their life.

And so we actually changed less in the end than we planned on doing. It was really just about finding what is the core storyline? What characters out of the 24 do we really need to have in this play to tell the story and create this world that’s exciting and wacky and weird?

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, those are, I’m sure, very difficult questions, like how, what to keep, what to what to what to what to take out? How do you ultimately make that decision? What do you what do you do to choose?

When there’s, I’m sure there’s characters that you loved that, that had to that had to go? Ultimately, what do you how do you make the decision?

[Alice Lundy]
Well, I mean, that’s really why I asked Guillermo to be a part of it. Because I was like, I’m, I’m confident in my ability to cut. But having another person to have those conversations with, and, and sort of go back and forth on things was really important.

And Guillermo really challenged me of like, what is this? What are the central questions that you want to ask? And how can we cut it in a way that that, you know, supports that?

So, I mean, you know, what we came back to is like, what, what is the value of your life? Which is a huge question, but it did help solidify like, what characters do we need? What characters are asking those questions or answering those questions in their own way?

And also, Guillermo is just so talented, and also just has so much experience as a playwright, as a dramaturg. So it was really valuable to have him and just his knowledge is like theatre history knowledge and structural knowledge to come in and, and help me with those final decisions.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now this, this play is, is being presented at the Toronto Fringe in a, in a, what are they calling it now? Non, non-traditional venues?

[Alice Lundy]
Yeah, I keep saying site-specific.

[Phil Rickaby]
I know, I know.

[Alice Lundy]
The old, I think that’s the old term.

[Phil Rickaby]
It is the old term. And they keep, they keep, you know, we change it, change it up to keep everybody on their toes. But it is part of the Toronto Fringe.

What is your personal history with Fringe?

[Alice Lundy]
Yeah, so I started at Fringe in 2013 as a front-of-house manager, and I was a front-of-house manager for maybe four or five seasons. So I really got that side of the, the experience of Fringe. It, I adore Fringe volunteers, you know, it really made me appreciate all of the work that goes into supporting these plays and making theatre come alive for the city.

And the last Toronto Fringe play that I did was Electra in 2016, I believe, which was also site-specific or whatever they’re calling it. But really, what Fringe is, is just an affordable platform to show theatre. And producing independent theatre has always been more expensive.

But since the pandemic has become even more expensive, we’ve lost a lot of spaces. You know, the price of lumber, even is just, you know, can stop you from being able to do a production. So Fringe is really special in that it’s still affordable to produce theatre that way.

And you have the support of the front-of-house team and marketing team and box office team. And then you also, it’s, you’re part of this exciting time in the city where people want to see things. They, they’re, they’re hungry to see things, and they’re ready to see things.

And I think that’s really special. So, you know, I’ve been thinking about this play for a long time. And I just, I, we needed a way to just get it in front of people in a way that wasn’t going to bankrupt me, to be quite honest.

And Fringe is a great, a great way to do that. Like it’s, it’s still an affordable platform for artists.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. It’s one of the interesting things about, or one of the sad things maybe about producing theatre independently, is that Fringe is a time when all the attention, you have all of these people looking for things to see, which you don’t find in the rest of the year when you have to go out and find people to come and see it instead of them being looking for something to see. And that makes it kind of, it’s a little easier to bring in an audience because of the fact that all of these people are currently looking for something to see.

And that makes it so exciting and electric.

[Alice Lundy]
Totally. And there’s that joke in independent theatre where you just have, you know, the $20 that’s being passed around by everyone. Like I pay $20 to see your show, you pay $20 to see my show, which is great.

You know, I, I don’t want to put down indie theatre in any way, but there is a huge value. There’s huge value in having people who wouldn’t normally come and see your work, who didn’t know that about your work, or didn’t know about your company coming. And you get to connect with a new audience, which is so valuable.

[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it is one of my favourite times of year, the 14 days of Fringemist, or whatever we are going to, we want to call it. Now, is there, the venue that you’ve chosen, the yoga studio, the Puppy Yoga Studio, is there, is there something about that space that, that spoke to you, that is the reason why you chose it?

[Alice Lundy]
Yeah, so I mean, one, Puppy Sphere is my joe job. And they very kindly have been our venue sponsor, which I’m so grateful for. Again, makes it more accessible to create this piece.

But also the Burroughs building is, I think it was built in 1917, old factory in Toronto. So it really still has that feeling that I wanted of industrial 1920s. So that’s, that’s why I chose it, is it has the bones of a 1920s factory.

[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Alice. I really appreciate you giving me some of your time tonight.

And I look forward to seeing the Adding Machine at the Toronto Fringe.

[Alice Lundy]
Thank you, Phil. And thank you for giving our fringe artists a platform to talk about their shows.

[Phil Rickaby]
Nam Nguyen, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate you giving me some time tonight Um, as we jump into this short conversation, please give me the pitch. Tell me about your show Quiz Icarus.

[Nam Nguyen]
Right. So Quiz Icarus, if you’ve heard of this show called Jeopardy, very small time, like, you know, probably smaller than a fringe show, honestly, my friend Aaron and I both went on the show back in 2024, which was a great time, we helped each other prepare. And eventually, we both lost as everyone who goes on Jeopardy does.

And so we just came back to talk about the experience, you know, really striving for trivia glory in this way. And then also, we’re going to play trivia with you in the in the, in the show itself. And if you if you beat us, you win money.

That’s the that’s the whole show.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now, as you said, eventually, everyone does lose, everyone eventually loses. Did you lose in your first episode? Did you how far did you get?

[Nam Nguyen]
I lost in my second episode. So I did win one.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now, were you and were you and Aaron on the same episode or separate episodes?

[Nam Nguyen]
Separate episodes. And there’s actually a very specific like legal clause. It’s like the two contestants up like the three contestants up there cannot know each other ahead of time.

And so he went to tape in September, aired in October, I was I taped in March and aired in April. So we were about six months apart.

[Phil Rickaby]
I didn’t know they were such sticklers, but I can understand if your friends might try to let each other win, or conversely, might become hugely competitive.

[Nam Nguyen]
Yeah, I mean, I think the big thing there is that the most important thing to remember on Jeopardy is that, you know, real money is at stake. Every one of those little panels is like, you know, you forget it while you’re watching the show and while you’re in the game of it, but it’s like, oh, yeah, the easiest clue in this game is $200, which is $200 I did not have before if I win the game. Right.

And then that that is the thing. Having won that one game, it’s enough that I don’t have a student loan anymore, which is like a big thing for like a 20 something, you know, especially when we went to theatre school, because, you know, we’re not we’re not making it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Yeah. Also in American dollars, which is always a bonus when you are in Canada, there was that beautiful moment.

[Nam Nguyen]
I mean, less beautiful for other reasons. But, you know, the Canadian dollar suddenly not worth a lot compared to the American one for a stretch of about like eight weeks in there between certain events in November and then, you know, the U.S. shooting itself in the foot in other ways. So, yeah, but I did exchange that.

So it was beautiful.

[Phil Rickaby]
So now this this show is essentially about your journey to Jeopardy and also just some also some live trivia, how obviously not everybody gets to go on Jeopardy and some people do and embarrass themselves. But I think they try to, you know, even even some really smart people have embarrassed themselves on Jeopardy. Um, but when you when you came back, how long did it take before you were like, you decided this we can make this into a show?

[Nam Nguyen]
This for me was from a very distinct time of like having won the one episode. There’s this whole new like postseason structure of Jeopardy from like the new executive producer who’s like a big like English football head and loves like this promotion relegation system. So I was expecting to go back for this postseason tournament for the longest time.

Eventually, they announced they like changed the structures that I was not getting involved. And pretty much like that weekend in like October or November, I I messaged Aaron and I was just like, we should we should do a show just as a way to, you know, as an outlet for a lot of the feelings we have about, you know, success and failure on the show and what not getting called back for it feels like. And so it was it was yeah, it was I think I was in a very good place about not coming back about like losing my second episode until like the this great abrupt shift happened in my life, like about six months later.

And so, you know, it’s really nice to be a Jeopardy champion. And it’s very not nice when you’re expecting to go back to having cut off from you very suddenly. Yeah, sure.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, what is what does it feel like to win an episode of Jeopardy? I say this as someone who very well knows I’m not over. I’m never going to be on Jeopardy, nor am I going to win one.

So what is that? What does that feel like?

[Nam Nguyen]
I think what’s true for every person who goes on Jeopardy is that it’s something they’ve had in the back of their mind since they were a little kid, you know, being a weird nerdy kid and having just sort of being an odd one out for the things, you know, in the environments are in in school. And then for them, usually, if you’ve been dreaming about it since you’re a child, it takes at least 20 years to get to that point. And certainly was for me between me, like knowing Pluto for the very first time watching a Jeopardy episode when I was seven to like eventually making on the show when I was 26.

Right. It’s such like a long term goal. And then, you know, but, you know, all the years in between, obviously, you’re right about, you know, teenager stuff and then, you know, university stuff and adult stuff.

And then when it does happen, this show that’s sort of like been in the background, this sort of highlight this peak of nerd culture, almost. It’s like it’s kind of unthinkable to think that, you know, you just won this amazing thing that’s watched by like nine million people. I know when I won, it was certainly just like, like, I can’t believe this has happened to me.

I looked in the audience and my mom was there with me and she was crying. And it’s like, that’s a crazy thing to have, like like Jeopardy is so visible and to be. Not shame for your intelligence, I think is the case in many aspects of society, but like rather celebrated for it in like a pop cultural mainstay is like it’s such a gratifying feeling.

Like it’s I don’t know that there’s anything really comparable in my life.

[Phil Rickaby]
You know, when when you win Jeopardy, do you have images or did you have images of having a run like a Ken Jennings or something like that, like a long run? Or are you just happy to have won one?

[Nam Nguyen]
I think the thing that repeat champions. So, you know, I’m not speaking from experience that repeat champions say is that nothing feels like the first one after that. It’s just, you know, it’s another day at work.

You’re slaughtering these slightly lower tier nerds who are just have their dreams absolutely crushed. And for you, it’s just like another twenty thousand dollars, which is, you know, nothing to sneeze at.

[Phil Rickaby]
But, you know, that’s the And when when you when you do lose, how does that hurt? Or are you able to say, I won twenty thousand dollars. I’m OK.

[Nam Nguyen]
I think it’s very dependent on the circumstances. I felt like, you know, I just I missed a question at the end, which, you know, will happen. And other people will be like, oh, well, the writing of this question was wonky in whatever reason.

And so that feels very like B.S. And so the people who I think feel like they had their win stolen from them feel a very different way about it than I do. But like the thing to remember is that on the Jeopardy set, like they’re from the the morning you get there, you’re just like they tell you it’s like, all right, your phone is off now. No study notes, no nothing.

You’re there with just like, you know, 13 other nerds, you know, who have like a very similar the intellectual repartee is very high. It’s very much like I went to a gifted high school and it was very much just like being at the lunch table and gifted high school, except that they’re all just, you know, varying ages, some senior citizens, some like professional careers and me, a little artsy baby. But I think, you know, that that sort of crucible, just not having your phones out and you really have no choice but to socialize and be like, oh, you love musicals, too.

You love theatre, too. And you’ve seen this movie. You know, it’s hardly too much about the Roman Empire like that’s when you spend the entire morning getting to know these people in the end, like you’re not like, yeah, you’re a little disappointed like that you was, but there’s nothing but like you’re happy for the other person.

There’s no antipathy there. You know, right?

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Now, speaking of turning this experience into a show, how do you go about writing that? How do you and Aaron write this show together?

[Nam Nguyen]
So an interesting thing about is that like Aaron is for the most part a trivia host. He’s like the boss of like the company that I also host trivia for. And so he’s a piece of shit capitalist who like gives my paycheck and garnishes the wages.

But he’s like not a professional theatre person at all. He is brothers with like Keith Brown, who’s like, you know, a little fringe magician, a local Toronto celebrity. But for the most part, like his experience with public presentation is just hosting trivia.

Me, I’ve got a little more of a theatre background and I see like the sort of format of a storytelling show, a sort of like, you know, I got to hit this emotional being this one and this one and this one to have an audience go along with me for 60 minutes. I think a lot of what distinguishes the sort of process of telling a show about telling a story about Jeopardy is really that, you know, it’s something that it’s like familiar, but very unfamiliar to most people. Right.

It’s like, oh, here’s the inner workings of the show. Like we take five episodes a day. This is not the and there’s certain elements that are much less glamorous than, you know, you think, like you would just watching it at a seven thirty every night.

Right. And to receive it as an audience is very different from the people who are nerds staring at like this pinnacle of nerddom for like 20 years of their life and striving and then failing. You know, and I think that’s ultimately what it is, is like telling the story of like when you’re in it that deep and you love this culture so much as opposed to everyone else is just one of the nine million watching at any given night.

It’s. The the hope that goes into it and then the despair, if you feel like you’ve fallen out of this, this little golden circle in some way, you know, I think, yeah, everyone who finds out you want on Jeopardy is just like if you just go on Jeopardy, they’re super thrilled for you. And on the inside, it’s like just telling the story of like, ah, this fucking crushes you sometimes, you know, especially like I think if you have a like particularly brutal loss, if you like go negative and like don’t get to play final or whatever, like like some people take it real hard.

And I think like Aaron and I had a relatively good experience, all things considered. Right. And that’s why we get to tell the story.

But yeah, I think that’s really taking you inside the to want it that bad. And then ultimately, as everybody does, you have to lose.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, I’m sure that people are are largely really interested in the inner workings of Jeopardy. Like I’m sure once people get the after, you know, they find that you were on Jeopardy and they’re impressed by Jeopardy, I’m sure that a lot of people want to know what it’s really like to be on the show. Obviously, you’re not tired of telling talking about that.

But does that get tedious at parties?

[Nam Nguyen]
It is often the first thing that will be brought up about me when I like to say a friend’s birthday and I’ll be like, hey, this is Nam. He won on Jeopardy like a lot of my it’s like it’s always like the very first thing when when you’re getting introduced by someone else. It’s not what I say about me.

I’m a playwright first. But I think there’s there’s certain things that are sort of and we’ll talk about this in the show that like are the questions that come up every time. It’s like, oh, so it’s like, was that like Jeopardy, Jeopardy or Canadian Jeopardy?

And we’re like, there’s no Canadian Jeopardy. What are you talking about? We’re like, what was the study guide like?

It’s like there’s no study guide. We just we just know these things because we’re very smart. Do people actually think there’s a study guide?

It has come up several times. It’s just like a friend of a friend will just be like, oh, yeah, yeah. So they must have given you like the topics ahead of time.

It’s like, no, I just I know those capitals. I know that little fact about the Battle of Hastings or whatever, you know, it’s just like when you’re in this sphere of trivia, you’ll very much be like, how do you not know that? And it’s like it’s such a like a pretentious thing.

But like.

[Phil Rickaby]
Right.

[Nam Nguyen]
In the same way that you like you doing theatre stuff like know so much more about Shakespeare and like various Canadian playwrights and the average human. Yes. Like I think there’s a sort of trivia canon that is just like, oh, yeah, you do have to know like these state capitals and like some elements of Shakespeare, but not like productions.

It’s more like the characters and like I and this historical fact like 1912 is always the Titanic. And it’s just like if you are in the hobby in the same way that someone can be in, like knowing all these theatre things, if you’re in the hobby of trivia, you you just get to know all those things. They become Pavlovian to you.

Sure.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now, one aspect of the show that you’ve mentioned is is people will be able to join you if they’re brave enough to to do trivia, to to put some cash on the line, to to to play some trivia for money. Was that something that was like from the beginning you sort of thought, well, of course, we’re going to have people come up and do this with us, or is that something that they came later on?

[Nam Nguyen]
I think it was something that we sort of conceived of relatively early was that the feeling of not getting called back to to do these like sort of reunion tournaments and still having like remain firm, like doing like various practice things and feeling like, hey, I’m I’m still pretty good at this. I think I can pistol whip like 90 percent of people who would walk up. We’ll even like give you a couple of points like as a head start, like we still feel like we can win most games.

It came from that feeling of like, you know, there’s a story there of like, you know, wanting this thing and going for it and failing. But, you know, you’re not there to see Lionel Messi talk about how he feels. Well, I think it is important how he feels.

And there’s the whole story there. But also you’re there to watch him play soccer. So that’s what we wanted to show.

And then it’s if someone does win, that’s like, hell yeah, dude, go go audition for Jeopardy. Like that’s that’s amazing. Like I think that’s what we wanted to see.

It’s like the entertainment you watch, you gain from like watching any trivia game or, you know, you know, Jeopardy just happens to be those from an example. Whatever enjoyment you derive from that, I think you should be able to derive from this game as well. And then in our case, it’s like, well, you might be a normie and not really know anything about trivia, but you know, like if you’re willing to go up, you know just enough to like, I think I can do this.

And if you can beat us, then I think that’s like, that’s your sign. You just got to go for it.

[Phil Rickaby]
I can imagine that if you because the way that the way that you were talking about your knowledge and how confident you were, I know people who would hear you talk like that and go like, well, obviously, I need to challenge this person. They’re so confident that I need to challenge them. Is that kind of part of the game to like talk about, you know, you’re confident in your knowledge and to put that out there so that maybe some people are like, well, I got to show this guy.

[Nam Nguyen]
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I think it’s the worst of a human I am on stage, the more awesome it’ll be when you win. Which is why you should come to Quiz Icarus and challenge us.

We’ll give you $100 if you Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
Just as we’re sort of like coming to a close here, I do want to talk about Fringe in general here. You’re you’re doing this show at the Toronto Fringe. Tell me about your history with Fringe.

[Nam Nguyen]
Oh yeah, we actually have the sign poster from 2022 here. So that was my first show at Fringe, A Perfect Bowl of Pho, a Vietnamese soup musical that I mean, granted, it was 2022. It was like the first live Fringe back in person from the whatever that situation was before that.

But, you know, we did sell the best there. It was a great time. After that, I did Caesars, which is like a Roman Empire rap show.

A lot of fun there. So yeah, generally, I think like in the past, I’ve done a lot of like music theatre work. And this time is really just like I was scheming and trivia side, the trivia side of things this whole time.

And I’m just going to talk to you instead of nobody’s going to sing in this one. But yeah, I think it’s like something I sort of realized like in the in the process of writing this show is that like, yeah, like I got into Jeopardy in the during the pandemic times and it was it became sort of like I realized these sort of like these two things I was doing at the same time were very like enmeshed in a way that I hadn’t really understood until I became like a trivia host as well as like, oh, I’m like a very loud theatrical speaker.

But when I think about the the works I put out at Fringe, for example, it’s like, like the insanity of writing a musical about Vietnamese soup is really just like an expression of like, oh, I was learning so many like historical facts about the Vietnamese diaspora and my undergrad and like portraying that through food is like a kind of trivia. So there’s trivia as presented through theatre. And then there’s theatricality and the present presenting of trivia as well.

When it comes to like hosting, it’s it’s very much like curiosity informs theatre. And, you know, being a bombastic, loud person very much informs this quiet, nerdy activity as well.

[Phil Rickaby]
Well, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate you coming on the podcast to talk about your show. And I look forward to seeing you around the festival.

Sarah Mayfield, thank you so much for joining me. It’s a pleasure to speak to you today. Could you just as we’re getting started, could you tell me about your show?

[Sara Mayfield]
I would absolutely love to. So it’s called Who Drinks Mocktails on the Beach? And it’s a pop punk fleabag inspired comedy about a girl named Candace who goes to Mexico for her best friend’s wedding.

And things don’t exactly go to plan.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, if you’re traveling for a wedding, when do they?

[Sara Mayfield]
True. Yeah. And it’s just about her struggles in the social situation, how friendships can drift apart, but you still get invited to their wedding and a lot of internalized feelings about her sense of self, but also her struggles with alcohol and party culture as a young woman.

[Phil Rickaby]
So I want to I want to get to that. But I’m curious what the what was the inspiration for this this show?

[Sara Mayfield]
Yeah. So after my last project, which was a full length rock musical, that was definitely a beast. I decided I wanted to do something a bit more accessible for me as an actor to get into because the last project I directed and I my good friend Andrew Wade, he does a lot of fringe touring and I picked his brain about that.

So I decided I wanted to do a one person show and tour that around and see a bit of Canada and North America in the process. And it came from the idea of I have I worked in the restaurant industry for eight years. So I worked alongside a lot of high functioning alcoholic alcoholics whose alcoholism wasn’t really taken seriously.

So I wanted to explore that and try to communicate that with audiences that, hey, maybe this is maybe the fun girl is just a facade and there’s more going on. And also, I just love unreliable narrators. So alcoholism is a great way to explore unreliable narrators.

And then where else? Where is an alcoholic given unlimited access to alcohol? A wedding with an endless bar.

And it just really fit together quite nicely when I was coming up with the plan.

[Phil Rickaby]
It is one of the interesting things about our society that the drug that’s acceptable is alcohol.

[Sara Mayfield]
Yeah. And caffeine. But caffeine, alcohol can be the most disruptive one.

[Phil Rickaby]
I think even more than caffeine, as somebody who doesn’t drink, I’ve had this experience where you’re the weird one. Yeah. For not drinking.

So it’s a strange the acceptance of that. And in fact, the encouragement of drinking is a strange societal feature. Now, the show is Who Drinks Mocktails on the Beach.

And what’s your familiarity with the whole mocktail scene?

[Sara Mayfield]
Honestly, not that much. I worked in a brewery and distillery for probably like four or five years. And then I visited my uncle who in Montreal and coming from Vancouver, there’s a lot of like craft beer and that kind of scene.

Visiting him in Montreal and the drugs that he’s on, he’s not able to drink. So he really went into all of those non-alcoholic gins, non-alcoholic vodkas. And I started to see that there’s a real craft beer, like non-alcoholic craft beer scene on the East Coast that hadn’t hit the West Coast yet.

And that’s when I started experimenting more with, can I create a good mocktail that is as complex and satisfying? Because I’m a bit of a bartender and a crafter myself.

[Phil Rickaby]
And how did you do?

[Sara Mayfield]
Mixed results. I think it’s really, I mean, I don’t know if you’ve ever had one of those like fake vodka sodas or the gin and tonics are a little rough, but yeah. With the Mojitos, which is a bit of a joke in my show, as a bartender, I hated making Mojitos because the mint is always gross.

So you have to get more from the back and there’s so many steps. But a Mojito is a really easy craft non-alcoholic cocktail to make because it’s basically just lime, mint and soda water.

[Phil Rickaby]
One of the things that I’m curious about, because your show, you mentioned where you wanted to see Canada. So this is not the first Fringe Festival that you’ve been to with this show. In fact, this show did win outstanding production and audience choice at the On the Edge Festival in 2024.

Where have you gone with this show prior to that, excluding the On the Edge Fringe?

[Sara Mayfield]
Yeah, so it started off in the workshop process with the Arts Club, which is a big professional theatre company in Vancouver. So I developed it as part of their Playwriting 102. And then immediately after that, I did a showcase with friends at Areata Art Gallery, which is a small art gallery in New West.

And then once that had happened, that’s when I took it on tour. So I started in Montreal and then I think it was, oh, Regina, Winnipeg. And then I flew from Winnipeg to North Bay, Ontario and then from North Bay, Ontario to Victoria, which was not an efficient use of money.

But definitely, definitely was super fun. And starting in Montreal, the Montreal Fringe scene is so fun. They have so many events.

It’s such a great community. And I’m so glad I started my Fringe experience there as a solo artist. I did Fringe shows when I was like 16 in Vancouver, but that’s not as a producer writer.

It’s a very different experience.

[Phil Rickaby]
The Montreal Fringe is one of those places where so many performers love to start. And it is such a warm Fringe that it is a great place to go for your first time doing this solo show.

[Sara Mayfield]
Oh, yeah. And I actually was at the Mainline Theatre, which is the bass hub. Unfortunately, they’ve lost that space since last year, but I was actually on site of where the offices were.

So it was great to meet everyone because everyone was coming in and out for their artist passes and for volunteer training and really getting that in. And I think that’s what I’m excited about this year. It’s not really the same, but I’m at the Terragon Theatre Extra Space.

So I am in an established venue with other shows and other theatres in the space. So I’m very excited to hopefully find some community through that as well.

[Phil Rickaby]
The Terragon is such a great space. I mean, there are three venues there. So it’s a great little spot that’s sort of a hub that’s away from this year’s main hub at Salt Pepper in the distillery.

Are you just doing Toronto Fringe this year? Are you doing other Fringes as well?

[Sara Mayfield]
I’m doing others as well. So I kind of started my 2025 tour with a one night show in Abbotsford, which is where I’m living right now. And because I did a couple light script adjustments just to put in some more jokes and I went to a destination wedding this summer.

So to take in some of that experience that I learned. So I did the Abbotsford show about a month ago and then now I’m going to Toronto and then it’s Edmonton, which is a beast to tackle. So I put that off for last year and I’m finally doing it this year and then I get to finish off in Vancouver.

[Phil Rickaby]
Nice. So you’re sort of coming home for the last leg of the tour. That’s great.

[Sara Mayfield]
Yeah, I’m very excited because I tried to get my musical into Vancouver when I did it in 2021 and we didn’t get in. I think I tried in 2021 and 2022 and then we just ended up independently producing it. And then I tried last year for Vancouver and through meeting all the artists in this past summer, I met Jonathan Patterson, who runs a BYOV in Vancouver a bunch and Edmonton.

I’m doing one his BYOVs in Edmonton as well. So getting to use those connections that I made last year to finally do my show in Vancouver.

[Phil Rickaby]
And Edmonton is such a, I mean, it is the oldest of the fringe festivals in North America. So it has a history. It has, it is a bear, but it is probably one of the most rewarding fringes you’ll do, I think.

[Sara Mayfield]
Yeah, I’m really excited for it. I think last year, Winnipeg was so much more than I expected. I expected it to be a much smaller festival, but it was huge.

I was so in awe by just the amount of arts funding and engagement with the community that they have there. And I’m very excited because I’ve heard similar things about Edmonton and I, yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Most people, most people who have not done Winnipeg or Edmonton are unprepared for how different those festivals are from every other festival.

[Sara Mayfield]
Oh yeah. And I think one of the things I was lucky about is my director, Damon Bradley Jang, he also does some marketing work. So he collaborated or not collaborated.

He worked on the marketing for the show. So I was there feet on the ground. He was out sending press releases and emails.

So we actually were quite successful in Winnipeg to get people out and enjoying the show.

[Phil Rickaby]
That’s great. That’s great. But this is your first time in Toronto.

[Sara Mayfield]
It’s my first time in the Toronto fringe. I worked at Fourth Line Theatre in Millbrook, Ontario two summers ago and as their events and marketing coordinator. So I did spend some time in Toronto and I have family who live over there.

So I visited a couple of times, but this is my first time ever doing a show in Toronto.

[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, that’s super exciting. And for I don’t like there’s been a time when they haven’t been a venue. So it’s like one of the places that people just know to go if they’re just like, I’ll see what’s playing and I’ll go to Tarragon, which is a great venue to be in.

Yeah. And hopefully see my show. Yeah, absolutely.

Of course. As far as like creating this show, because you this was your first solo show. Yeah.

You’ve done your big musical and then you wanted to do a solo show. What’s the what is your process or what was your process of writing and creating this show?

[Sara Mayfield]
Yeah, I think for me, it all starts with a concept. And then once I get the concept, like I was saying, it’s where would this go the most wrong. So it’s manipulating it through that and then just beat by beating out the story.

And because I was able to do the Arts Club playwriting unit, I was able to talk it through with a lot of people who were much more experienced in both writing solo shows and plays in general. So that was super helpful. And then after that, it was really reaching out to my director, Damon, and just kind of playing with it and seeing where it went.

I did draw a lot of inspiration from other professional solo shows that I’ve seen. The obvious one that I quote in the blurb of my show being Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag. So I have seen the pro shot of that so many times and just taking what I like.

I love how she incorporates sound effects into her work and the relatively contained set and the strong character choices and the audience being so involved in the production. So I like to steal work from people whose work I like.

[Phil Rickaby]
I think that the connection with the audience is one of the most important and most overlooked aspects of a solo show is until you’ve done one or had some experience with one, I don’t think you realize how important the audience is as a scene partner. What did you discover performing the show about that relationship?

[Sara Mayfield]
Oh gosh. So I have my character makes a pretty sizable decision at the end of my show. And it’s really for me, I love when the audience talks to me during the show.

So I have a few moments where I ask for the audience to like cheer me on or to tell me to do or not do something. And then of course the character is going to do what they wanted anyways because they’ve already made their mind up. But there was this one moment where it’s at the end of the show, she’s making this big decision and very emotional moment on stage and this kid, I say kid, it was like probably a 20 year old, in the second row just yells, don’t do it.

I’m like crying on stage and I have to decide if I’m going to hear or not hear the audience in that part, right? Because you have this relationship with the audience, the entire show. So I think that was something that was a real learning experience of figuring out when to engage with the audience and when to set that boundary of the scene.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, because when is it too disruptive to the show to respond to what they say?

[Sara Mayfield]
Yeah, and you see that all the time in solo shows that are a bit more stand-up comedy. Mine’s pretty firmly in the stage play world, but I have so many friends that are doing stand-up comedy shows and every once in a while they’ll get that audience member that’s there to heckle and have fun in a way that’s a bit more disruptive than we’d like.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, one of the dangers of a solo show is if someone mistakes the solo show for stand-up comedy, you kind of have to be able to take control of that, right? Aside from this one moment, has that ever happened to you?

[Sara Mayfield]
No, actually I’ve been pretty lucky. I did do a tour with Shakespeare Canada, which is like a TYA tour doing modern language Shakespeare to schools, and we toured around BC and then to Edmonton and Calgary. So I learned pretty quickly how to shut a disruptive audience down and how to get kids in line, and I’ve definitely taken some of those tools into this show.

[Phil Rickaby]
These are super important tools, especially when you are, you know, alone on stage and you’re the only one that can do it.

[Sara Mayfield]
Oh yeah, and for that tour there was one of the guys in the show, he’d been doing it for 30 plus years, so I was really learning from the expert there.

[Phil Rickaby]
Well Sarah, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate you giving me some of your time today, and I look forward to seeing your show at the Toronto Free.

[Sara Mayfield]
Yeah, I’m very excited to come, and I look forward to seeing you around town.