#65 – Rosemary Doyle

Rosemary Doyle is the founding Artistic Director of the Red Sandcastle Theatre and the Wilde Festival Foundation for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Ontario Canada. An actor, since the tender age of 8 years, she prefers to think of herself as a Theatre Person, because she acts, directs, writes plays,sings, hangs lights and builds sets or costumes on regular basis. She is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC and is the mother of two teenaged boys.

http://redsandcastletheatre.com/
@rosemaryedoyle

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Transcript

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Phil Rickaby
Welcome to Episode 66 of Stageworthy. I’m your host Phil Rickaby Stageworthy. As a podcast featuring conversations in Canadian Theatre on Stageworthy. I sit down with actors, directors, playwrights and more and talk to them about their life in the theatre. If you like what you hear, I hope you’ll subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Google music or whatever podcast app you use, and consider leaving a comment or rating. Those really helps spread the word about the podcast. If you want to drop me a line, you can find Stageworthy on Facebook and Twitter at stageworthypod. And you can find the website at Stageworthy podcast.com. My guest is actor playwright and director of rosemary Doyle. Rosemary is also the owner operator and artistic director of Toronto’s red sand castle theatre.

Rosemary Doyle
So one of the things that is fun for me is when you like, you sit there, and everybody’s just like, the thing I love about ageing actually, is that the world the population of the world is getting better and better looking. Like every time when I walked down the street, like I remember when I was 20, I thought the world was full of like, just ugly people. Right? And I find every year the passes, larger percentage of the world looks great. You know, it just looks amazing, right? It

just looks amazing. I’m like, oh,

everybody’s so attractive. Yeah, it’s it’s quite funny, it seems like directly in disproportion or the opposite proportion to what I think about architecture. You know, like, when I was young, I used to look at all these beautiful buildings. And I’m like, every building looks like it’s made with Lego blocks. Yes, bad Lego blocks like Darth Vader, Lego blocks. And I hate it all. But but people I think are getting gorgeous. And I think that’s just maybe my eyes are going maybe I don’t know, but also just I think youth in general. is gorgeous. And I think my what I believe because I believe I am young. My what I think is useful now goes up to about 75

Phil Rickaby
There you go. There’s there’s a certain blinder that the youth that when you’re younger than you have, where you only think like, oh, only my age and younger is can be beautiful. Yeah. And as you get older, those blinders sort of Oh, my age, my age and younger

is. Yeah, more of that. And

Rosemary Doyle
there’s a lot more of that. And you’ll see Yeah, right. Like for me, you would think I’ve always thought that people about, you know, 30 years older than me, I’ve always been very interesting and attractive. Right? Like when I was 10. I thought people who were like 40 was were amazing. And now I think people who are like 80 are amazing. Like, yeah,

Phil Rickaby
like there’s the when you were when I was a kid, looking at people who were older, there was always that you must know

Rosemary Doyle
so much, ya

Phil Rickaby
know that I’m one of those people. I’m like, what do I get to know all that stuff?

Rosemary Doyle
Well, you do actually, though, because every day you learn something. So it’s not because they’re smart. It’s just that every day you learn something like my son today, I have a 19 year old and my son today he he turned to me and in conversation. We were talking about eye colour because I have an unusual eye colour. But my two sons both have my eye colour. So they don’t think there’s anything unusual about this kind of orange eye that we possess. And he’s like, Oh, that’s why that girl was staring at me. That’s what he said. I’m like, Yes, that is why because you look like a freak. Anyway. But I was telling him this. And then we were talking about more unusual eye colours. And I was saying, well, there’s this thing called lavender purple is that which Elizabeth Taylor was supposed to have had? And he I’m like, and that’s a very small percentage of the population. And he goes, really? And he goes, who’s Elizabeth Taylor? Yeah. Yeah. Which made me want to die. Of course. Yeah. I’m like,

Phil Rickaby
I work with people were born in the 80s. And so yeah, we’re 90s. Yeah. And a lot of, I’ll be like, Oh, it’s like this. And they’ll be like, I don’t even know what that is.

Rosemary Doyle
Exactly. But why can we blame them? That was last century it was last century, right? Like, it’s almost like

Phil Rickaby
second nature to think that way. And for them, their references are gone. But every time I do it, I’m like, Oh, yeah. I’m the old guy.

Rosemary Doyle
Right how that happened. And this is the other thing that I find funny is that, like, when I was a youth and my whole life, I’ve been obsessed with the 20s like 1920s Paris, particularly, like all those writers, all those life stories. I spent my my late teens early 20s right through to my 20s Reading basically everything that was available to me From that time period, if it was in that time period, I read it. So I kind of have my own unofficial doctorate in that sort of thing. You know, like, never went to school for it, but that’s what I did. So what I found was really interesting is just six months ago, it occurred to me that it’s almost the 20s again,

like, well, I’m going to be alive. Knock on wood in the 20s.

Phil Rickaby
How do we make this flapper era era thing come back?

Rosemary Doyle
Well, the right now we’re almost trying to start the war again, are we? Hey, let’s have a war.

Phil Rickaby
We’re almost on schedule. Exactly. For the 100th anniversary.

Rosemary Doyle
Exactly. You know, that’s because seems to be what’s going on. Right. Like, it’s a little scary. I mean, we’ve got our own little personal, you know, for lack of a better word, dictator, coming in, right, trying to do his thing. And, you know, to replace the word Jew with Muslim and you’ve got it all going on. I mean,

Phil Rickaby
that’s, I mean, that is a fact. And that is one of those, those frightening things we’re living right now.

Rosemary Doyle
Is it’s so obvious. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
The other interesting thing about I saw this quote from Henry Rollins, just the other the other day, that was like, everybody’s freaking out, this is the end of the world. And, and but you know what? It’s not. This is punk rock time. Yeah. You know, this is like the same kind of thing that the birth the Sex Pistols in the, in England. If we can just harness the rage, and keep it go and

Rosemary Doyle
turn it into art. Yeah, that is the thing. Well, I’ve always believed that every play. And part of the reason that theatre is so alive and dynamic is that every play is not just that play, you’re never just putting on that play. You’re putting on that play with these people at this particular moment in time. So all the references of every play that you do need. It’s not you’re not in a vacuum, when you walk into the theatre, although yes, we painted all black, we turn the lights down, we bring the lights up. You’re never in a vacuum outside of your society, you’re always watching with the baggage that you’ve brought into the theatre with you. And I think anyone who thinks that that’s not going on, is missing the point of having a live experience.

Phil Rickaby
I also think that sometimes I mean, some young companies don’t think about the why. Yeah, oh, they’re doing it. They sometimes think I’m doing this play, because I like this play.

Rosemary Doyle
Although I think that’s a good lie.

Phil Rickaby
I mean, it’s like it’s like all those, you know, new blush comes along with the programme. You’re like, what is this going to be? Yeah, I have to reach with a line of the arts grants. Oh, my God is really just translated into I thought it would be cool to put a thing on a thing. Yeah. But you can’t say that. No. And it is good to say I want to do this. But I think sometimes it’s also important to say, I want to do this and now is

Rosemary Doyle
now is the right time for dignity. Yeah. Well, I find the wildest thing is going to the AGM like I’m a member. It’s the one thing that I, from the time when I used to have money to now it’s the one thing I didn’t give up. Right? I kept that you know, haircuts have gone the way of the dodo. My age, your membership is in good standing. And one of the things I love doing is going and walking around and looking at the art. Oh, my God, my phone’s on. I’m so sorry. We’ll just let it we’ll just let it chime go in the background. So it’s one of the things I love doing is, Yeah, hello, red sand castle theatre. May I help you? That’s my life. Like at three o’clock in the morning? I’m like, of course you can get tickets? Oh, yeah. I answer it 24 hours, seven days a week. Because when you

Phil Rickaby
you have the responsibility of this. This building? Yeah, three o’clock in the morning, who

Rosemary Doyle
knows what it’s for? It’ll be all take. I often it’s drunk people wanting tickets, like, and I’m like, Sure. And they’re like, Oh, I didn’t know you’d be open. I’m like, no problem. So they just think I have this like robot sitting in a little box office all the time. You know, and they often think that they’re going to call it an answer machine, so they don’t really mind. Anyway. But what I was saying about the agio is that you’ve got the little things, and sometimes I just love looking at the painting, and then reading the description. And the real art is in the description. It’s just so beautiful. Like, what they thought they were going to do is so gorgeous.

Phil Rickaby
It’s always interesting to think of how things change over time. What the The writer or the original artist created or great to create until what it’s become over time,

Rosemary Doyle
and how precious people want to make it which was sometimes just not the point. Like Yoko Ono. I went to see Yoko Ono’s exhibit a couple a bunch of years ago, and one of her ones is you would walk up onto a ladder and look in in a little box, and it would say sky or something like that. I’m not exactly sure. Don’t quote me on this. But there was some, the experience was to walk up the ladder and look at this word, right? So of course, at the exhibit, you’re not allowed to walk on that ladder. You’re not allowed to go look at that word. Of course, you’re just allowed to read the description of what happened back in the 60s, when they were groovy. She had another one where you were supposed to take a nail and, and hammer it into this piece of wood.

Phil Rickaby
But now, of course, now, you

Rosemary Doyle
can’t do that. No.

Phil Rickaby
Is it? Was it just like the piece of work that they had hammered into? Yes, okay. Yes.

Rosemary Doyle
Now you can’t go and participate in the art anymore, because she’s too important. You are You have become less, because she has become more to the point where she has become untouchable. And I think that’s the thing with our society is that we have created this thing called fame, which makes people untouchable. And as artists. That is what we are, we are in art to be touched. We are in art, to make a difference, to speak to people to create, to share stories, to create stories, to be part of that society. And then we get to a certain level where we’re respected. But that respect almost makes it impossible to do our thing anymore. It’s

Phil Rickaby
like the idea that that, you know, limitation is good for

Unknown Speaker
you. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
And then when you get to a certain point, and there are no limits. It’s like, you know,

Rosemary Doyle
the limit is now going to the grocery store.

Phil Rickaby
Somebody like Danielle de paz, who was given, like, their role, their role. And you know, the Cirque du Soleil was like, you know, we’ve got this, they’ll build the theatre to do whatever you want. Right? And to build to direct the show, you’re going to direct no limits, because the casino doesn’t have any limits. Yeah. So then there’s like, there’s no limitation on that and limitation. So much can happen when you’re limited when you give yourself a limitation. Yeah.

Rosemary Doyle
So then he asked almost artificially imposed them on himself, right? Yes. To say I am going to do a thought experiment and stick myself within these parameters. Right. Whereas at like the theatre at the here at the red sandcastle you can do things like say, your budget is zero. See where you go from there. I’m expecting you to go over budget. Like yeah, let’s see what you can do. Yeah, right, sitting

Phil Rickaby
in a room right now where they have like this whole kitchen, they utilised this substance here to build the whole kitchen, bedroom, living room dining room like this

Rosemary Doyle
is a this is a home. They even have a piano with a four day.

Phil Rickaby
They do. Yes, they do. Yeah. Which is pretty amazing. Yeah.

Rosemary Doyle
And this light goes on and off. The dining room chandelier goes on and off. it dims it does the whole thing. No, just to it’s a great show, by the way, a rabbit hole. It’s amazing. Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m

Phil Rickaby
going till the 11th. I was one of the cast. And it’s a great Oh,

Rosemary Doyle
they’re amazing. Really beautiful. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
We’ve been sort of rambling for a bit, I have a chance to ask you some of the things that I really want to get to, I’m sure. But I actually wanted to ask you about to start with before we start talking about red sandcast. Okay, about when you first started wanting wanting to be involved in theatre,

Rosemary Doyle
Oh, interesting. Eight. I’ve been actually before that, because I’ve been doing it since I was eight. So, before that, I used to take ballet lessons. And I did like little school plays and stuff. But I used to do these ballet lessons. And I there was a really thin coffee table. Probably every house had it, you know, the fake ticked off coffee table, which was about a foot off and had the two little fake drawer handles on this edge of it. And it was big and long, about maybe a foot and a half wide and about five feet long. And I used to get up on there and I used to do my ballet dancing on there. Which would make my dad’s friend patio Brian apoplectic. Because the couch was such in such a way that this coffee table was like, if I went to the one end I would if it had flipped over I would have gone through the giant picture window. But I guess I never killed myself. And because I’m still like to tell the tale but yeah, I’ve been doing that sort of thing. And I I had a very well I had the voice that I have now when I was little so like, oh, okay, you know, I’ve been a singer since I was little. And I had a very grown up voice. So when I was eight years old. I went and I there was a talent show. And my mother had been making me sing when I was little at parties and stuff ever since I was little And nice had started to take a few singing lessons and I was taking ballet and stuff like that. And I went and I did this. Like, I tried out for the talent show. And so there I am eight years old and I one second for my category. That’s really cool dancer one first. Anyway, but I saying memories from cats. Okay, you know, so that’s the botto terms. You know, I’d saying that yeah, at eight years old. And I sang Danny boy at eight years old. And I’m like, now in retrospect, I’m thinking, why did I sing such depressing songs as an eight year old? But you know, I’m Irish. Maybe that’s just part of my culture. So yeah, so I’ve been doing that. And then when I was 12, I auditioned for Annie at the grand. And I got the part of Annie and I, but I’ve been doing some like, different shows at school and stuff. But that was the first big one at the grant. And I got the part of Annie. And it was really funny because I went for it because I brown here. I went to rehearsals for two weeks, assuming that girl was Annie was going to show up at any moment, and that I was just filling in for her. And nobody told me this. This is just what I thought I was like, there was no I was in denial. It was like there was no way that I’ve actually gotten this part. Right. So it took me two weeks to figure out that the part was actually mine and that I was actually going to be doing it. And somebody just recently, actually just a couple of days ago. Margie she, Margie boys, she just posted a whole bunch of pictures from Annie on my Facebook. And I was like,

Unknown Speaker
oh my god, I

Rosemary Doyle
was so little. I still look like me. It’s really weird. Just to check it out. It’s me just smaller. Yeah. Do you

Phil Rickaby
remember when you were eight? So before you were a member? Was there any kind of catalysts or any kind of particular thing that you remember that made you want to do it? Or was it just something that you did?

Rosemary Doyle
Oh, I guess the first duction I ever did, I had a as my teacher, Mr. Fair, like it gets a little confusing, because I’m fairly young at this point. And I remember it. I remember in kindergarten, I guess that would be earlier than that. So in kindergarten at a different school, my teacher had been an extra in The Little Rascals when she was a kid. And I used to watch the little rascals a lot. And I think she kind of piqued my thought process, that this is something that you actually could do for a living like that the people on TV, were pretending to be people on TV. You know what I mean? So I kind of piqued my interest that way, mind you, I didn’t like her at all. We didn’t get along. Because she had this bad these things where you could be like the cutouts. They had cutouts of the animals from from Sesame Street, and you could pretend to be Big Bird and you could pretend to be whatever. And she had me on the water table for like three days in a row. She had the system where you were supposed to rotate. And I guess I guess her system was a little faulty. And I ended up on the water table for three days. So then I was like, I just left the water table. And I went to go and play with the with the cutouts. And she’s like, No, you’re on the water table. I’m like, I’ve been on it for three days. I’m just going home. And so I went left to go home. I lived very close. We shared a fence with the school. So it wasn’t like impossible. Anyway, I left to go home and she’s like, You can’t do that. And she made me sit next to the heater in my snowsuit for the rest of the day. So then I went home and I told them that I quit school so I quit school and kindergarten. She just made me go to a different school. But yeah, so I but I think I guess that was like I was acting right from the get go.

Phil Rickaby
And then when you were after Annie was that you’re you’re doing that at the grant. Was that like your first? You do? What was that? Like? Now I need to do more?

Rosemary Doyle
Or you know what? It was never an it was just I did like from the time I did Annie I was doing five shows a year. Wow. Right from that was just like one after the other after the other after that. I was like, this is something I do. I’m good. That’s this is what I am. Right. So I did HMS Pinafore, I did the Mikado. My teacher in grade seven and eight was really, really amazing. She she put on these big musicals, and so we did a lot of that and then Gord love was my acting teacher in high school. Although he never gave me any parts. I think he was a little miffed at me. I don’t know. But I was also doing a lot of community stuff at that point. So, so I didn’t do a lot of stuff. In the actual school, but but he was a really good acting teacher. Yeah, I just didn’t. You know, I don’t know when you

Phil Rickaby
when you finished high school?

Rosemary Doyle
Yes. Which I didn’t do what you

Phil Rickaby
didn’t do? Yeah. Did you? Did you pack it in? Did you drive? Oh,

Rosemary Doyle
no, no, what I did was a year before in grade 12. Cuz at the time it went to 13. Right? I actually had 38 credits, which was enough to graduate. I just didn’t have the right credits, right. I needed two more credits, because it was the whole OAC thing like, and you couldn’t get your grade 12 anymore. Like I was in this stupid little pocket of idiocy. Yeah, I was in the pocket of idiocy. And also I didn’t have an I was also an honour student. So it was kind of funny because I, I didn’t graduate, but I got a whole bunch of awards the next year, because I was on the list for them. Anyway. So what happened was I auditioned for AMDA a year early just to try it out. Right. Like just to try out auditioning. And then I got this letter, saying that I had been accepted to lambda, which is the American musical and dramatic Academy in New York City that had been accepted to AMDA. With a scholarship. Oh, with like a full scholarship, except for except for housing. Right. So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna stick around to get your two lousy credits and lose the scholarship? No, you go to New York, because they thought I had graduated because in the States, they only went to grade 12. So when I had sent them my grade 12 transcripts, they thought you were doing that I was done. Did you think I never got busted? Yeah, yeah, so I’ve got a college degree, but I do not have a high school diploma. So which is the problem because I always was very academic. So I’ve never gone to university. Because there’s always been this you have to do a year of Adult Learning Centre, you know, or your first year you have to like, whatever. So I just, it’s always been this small barrier to entry. Like, like, even when I came back to Canada, I went to be like, I tried to go to seed and get my two carat, two credits. So I was taking an art and in English at seed, and then I got shot the Shaw festival. So I didn’t get to finish those kinds of things there. And then I tried to at the Shaw festival to do it by correspondence, and I was just too busy and, and then I got married and I had babies, you know, it’s like, yeah, they just never did. So you did all of these things. Yeah. And

Phil Rickaby
then when you got married, did you think that you would continue to act? I was always acting. Yeah. Okay. So you got married, had babies but continued. And I

Rosemary Doyle
made it very political. I brought my kid to all my auditions, baby and arm with baby. Did that. Yeah, yeah. It made me go from working to not working. Basically. Yeah, no, it was very, I actually got phone calls from people, which is very illegal, saying, Hi, we’d love to hire you. But you have a baby. But you have a baby. Yeah, but what are you going to do about the baby? And do you really want this job? And I’m like, well, that’s why I auditioned because I wanted the job. And you know, there are things called nannies and babysitters. Right? So, yeah, no, it was it was very, like, I’m right now I’m wearing the pussy hat that Lynn Griffith gave me two days ago. I wear it with my ears tucked in because I didn’t actually go to the process. So I feel ashamed. These are my ashamed years. But one of the things about it is, is that I feel like as a woman, I have been actively protesting my whole life. So in a in a good way, like in a positive. I’m just going to do it anyway. I don’t care about your ceiling. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
Um, did interesting that you would get these calls that they’re not allowed to make, but they made them anyway. Yeah. Do you feel like that was something that happened to other people as to

Rosemary Doyle
other women, other women, other women hide their babies.

Phil Rickaby
So they didn’t want the people that they’re auditioning for to know that they have babies? Yeah, I think that they’re not gonna get hired because of the baby. Yep. This is primarily theatre.

Rosemary Doyle
I think it’s all all all Performing Arts. Lots of people hide the fact that they have children, or they’ll talk about their children, but it’s like this like, thing. They never

Phil Rickaby
actually see the children’s Yeah. Or

Rosemary Doyle
they’ll they’ll, you’ll like, you never talk about your children in an audition. Right? Like, like all actresses are supposed to be barren or something. But if a man talks about his children, they he’s more likely to get a job. Of course. Yeah. It’s really funny if an at all the actors I know that are men. Once they’ve had children, they get more jobs, because people are like, Oh, we should give them a job. He has a family to support. And it’s like, oh, we shouldn’t give her a job. She’s busy with a family. Yeah, right. It’s this really weird thing. I don’t know if it’s as prevalent and Now as it was when I was like, with me, I was having my babies in the 90s. Right. So I don’t know, the late 90s, early 2000s. So I think a lot of things may have have switched a bit. But I I was very in your face with I’m a mom. Well, somebody

Phil Rickaby
has to be. Yeah, right. I mean, if people are hiding fences, they have children. So they get the work. Somebody’s got to be the one to say, to bring them in to sort of say it’s not. Yeah, it’s not right.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah, we have babies. Yeah. Well, what I think is so wild is I’d be at these auditions with my baby. And they think that that was scandalous. But the guy would be sitting there at the audition with his dog. Right? Like,

oh, you’re allowed to bring your lab? Dog. Yeah, like bring your baby. Yeah,

it was a little interesting. But yeah, so it’s whatever. I’m sure it didn’t do my career, any favours. But then again, I think it did my life a lot of favours in that I at least, when I did, it was working. I was working with people who I was simpatico thought wise with, right. So. So I feel like in this world, we’re always we’re always balancing that like, sure you can be ambitious, you can get that dream job. But if it’s a dream job with a bunch of people you hate and it’s not a dream job, right.

Phil Rickaby
people you work with is a have a huge impact on everything about your day.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s very, very important and you want, like what I discovered with opening this place, this is like, great. I’ve been wanting what was interesting talking about God love my theatre teacher. I opened this place for a while. And I got to get this message from him on Facebook, saying congratulations, Rose me on getting your theatre, because I had wanted to have a theatre. Since I was in like, I’ve been talking about since grade nine. Like Heck, I’ve been talking about it since I started theatre. The thing that I really loved was the actual building and, like just the place, you know, it’s the canvas of, of the Performing Arts, and one of my favourite people in the world. Well, two of my favourite people in the world are Nancy Hellwig and Jim Girard. And they’re really been mentors to me my whole life. And Nancy Hellwig knew me from when I was eight years old, she often says she saw the big and I kind of grew up at the Grand Theatre, like I’ve done 33 shows at the Grand Theatre in Kingston. And she knew me from I was little, and I’ve always been just as fascinated with her, like, I’d come by and she’d be like scrubbing the bathroom, I’d be like, in there, you know, thinking and all of that stuff that making sure that the seats are all set that all the lights are set, the box office is doing its thing, like my first job actually, paying job was when I was 15 years old, Nancy Hellwig gave me a job stuffing envelopes for the Grand Theatre. And I believe that doing that is part of theatre. It’s just so amazing. Like, right now I’m doing the accounting for my friend Jackie English. She’s making a movie and I’m doing her like I’m a bookkeeper, right? Not an accountant but her bookkeeper. And so I’m sitting there in my on my bed because that’s kind of where I work. Turns out feng shui wise, it’s in the career section of my house. I always wondered why I liked working there. Anyway, but sorry, I just found that out today I thought interesting. Anyway, so I’m sitting there on my bed with all the cupboard with receipts and like the book and the stapler and my little Excel spreadsheet and I’m filling fool around and and Adam Barney see at the end of the bed, just kind of reading a book and I turned to Miko isn’t making movies glamorous. Like putting in the little addition to making sure all the cells add up, right. It’s like it’s so glamorous making I’m making movies right now. Well,

Phil Rickaby
I mean, one of the things that are there is a glamorous Yeah, aspect. But here we are, we’re in in your theatre. And you’re saying you’ve always wanted to have a theatre always. So what was the catalyst for this?

Rosemary Doyle
For this thread sandcastles? Well, I’ve always wanted one. This, this theatre had many opportunities to exist far earlier than it did. Okay. But I was married at the time and I had a husband who said no, all the time. I’d be like, how about this little place? Like so? Just in this neighbourhood alone? I’ll tell you the buildings which I almost got, okay. Okay. Where you know what, here now the clothing store? That was a place I wanted to turn into a theatre that was back in 1996. Okay. The, you know, the three buildings there are now three buildings that used to be one it used to be called 700 Queen Street East. It’s right next to Chili’s. Yeah, that was a building. I wanted to turn into a theatre back in 1995. And I could have bought that whole building for $150,000. I still said no, you’d even had three for like pool tables. And at the time, after hours clubs or you know, speakeasies or whatever they were called. Were really in vogue. And I could have like, run an illegal but not that I would have no, of course, nothing illegal ever happens. But I could have done that. But I didn’t. And I was younger than it would have been hilarious and even had three pool tables. I could have paid that place off in a year. Anyway, so that I was going to there was a place on Degrassi, which has now been knocked down. And it was an old metallurgy shop, but it had parking. And it was, it’s now been knocked down and turned into townhouses. So it’s building on there I wanted. So I even looked at the place where the place that is now the flying centre of gravity, right, I’ll place the the centre of gravity. I looked at that when it was up for sale years ago. Okay. Yeah. And it was the reason I didn’t go for that. A is because Michael said no, but be because it was just so bloody large. And I was thinking that’s, that’s

Phil Rickaby
more like the like, the theatre was the whole

Rosemary Doyle
buildings. The buildings mass, the buildings, massive. But I almost had Michael convinced to that we could move upstairs and yeah, the whole bit like, yeah. But he was he was very, very risk averse. And also always, you didn’t have a lot of faith in me as a human. But that’s the you know, things like that are the reasons that we’re not together anymore. And and then what happened was, he and I finally split after 10 years of not good. We finally split in February of 2011. And then this place, came up for rent in April of 2011. And I got this place, because nobody could say no to me. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
And what was the like? So you moved into this is a storefront theatre.

Rosemary Doyle
This was a pottery studio, which I had to renovate into a storefront theatre with the Hey, thanks have many, many, many, many friends who came in lended their support and they’re just sweat equity.

Phil Rickaby
So went from, I guess at one point, it must have been a store.

Rosemary Doyle
It was a pottery studio. And for 16 years 16 run by a woman named Ethel, okay, which is to her middle name was ETHEL. And which I thought it was funny because it turns out my middle like, well, it doesn’t turn out. It’s always been that my middle name is Ethel. But I found out that her name is Ethel because some postage came for her. And I was like This place has been run by a crazy person named Ethel now, for 22 years. Yeah, that’s all means noble by the way. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
So you and with all those people who came and helped turn this place from a pottery studio, into a theatre you brought in lights you hung? Yeah. Rods. Yay, Craigslist. Yeah. Yes. Got both. You got like your whole Yeah,

Rosemary Doyle
I didn’t have everything to start with. Right. Like, that’s the one thing I think part of the reason that I’m still here is that I am willing to wait until money, resources and opportunity, right? Knock on the door. So a couple of things came together. Like I had no idea what that what to do. I thought I gave him a year’s rent up front. It was really funny because he called the landlord called and said, so you want to rent the place because I had left him a message and he’s like, I go, Yeah, he goes, Okay, what do you want to do? I go, I want to put it in a theatre. He goes, theatre and I go, I’ll give you a whole year’s rent up front. He went, okay. So they came and saw it. And I looked at he said, so you said a whole year is right in the front. I’m like, Oh, yeah. So then we walked to the bank and I basically gave him all my money. Yeah, I just cleared out my my bank account, which I had been saving since I was eight years old. Okay, this was an account I always put money into and never took money out of it. Oh my god. I had been saving money in this account for years, years and years constantly. Just anytime I had a baby bonus check. I stuck it. So when I say I’m not government funded, I guess I’m slightly wrong a little bit. slightly wrong. Yeah, I stuck my baby bonus checks in there and anytime I made a little bit of money, I’d stick it in that account and just not touch it. I’m a very patient person, and I think it helps. Yeah. So I had this little nest egg and that’s what I threw at this project. So I had that money, threw it in here, then I had a little bit extra leftover to renovate and do that sort of thing. And I totally lucked out on Craigslist. What was happening was right at the time when I decided to do this, like the fate of the universe was on my side. Right when I decided to do it. I went on Craigslist, and believe it or not a church in the suburbs, some sort of evangelical church that just had like an office space in the suburbs. was going out of business. Okay. Like, how do you go out of business as a church in the suburbs? I don’t know. Okay, but I got the initial three risers from them. Right, I got that curtain that’s at the front and the curtain, right, not the curtain, but I got the curtain rod, with totally different curtains. In fact, you may have seen the curtains because I often use them in my pantomime. So it’s one with all the weird flowers on them. Yeah, the kind of 70s flower print nice was those curtains. So initially, I had those curtains up there. Anyway, I got the little sound system from them. Right, which gave me a basic sound system. I’m getting to the point of upgrading that and and I got the chairs. Right, right. So I got all this stuff that kind of set me up and then there was also a guy who on Craigslist as well, who gave me my initial lights, which was which were 3000 bucks. I got the setup that I have of the lights. It like basic lights since since then I’ve upgraded suitably, but I got the basic lights. I got my first pipes, the first pipes to put in he had all of that. And and also he was an electrician, so we set up my electricity to be able to do it. Right. i The the universe said yes, rosemary, you’re making a leap of faith. We have faith in you too. And it was amazing. Really amazing. Oh, what’s

Phil Rickaby
it like running a theatre like a storefront at that when you first opened? did was it where he wasn’t happy to have the space to

Rosemary Doyle
do Yeah, it was it people were enthusiastic and happy and lovely. I opened it in May. The first toy I had in here was my best beautiful friend of mine. She had just done her show on Susanna de Hamnet. She had just done her show nearly Lear on Broadway. And she travelled to Australia with it. And it was this one person show. And I was like Susanna, you have to open my theatre. I’ve opened this theatre. And actually she and her husband were here like taking down stuff, bringing down walls. He’s a cabinet tree maker you’d like help me out. He was like one of my, one of my angels. Steve sent me and one of my angels this guide George who It has beautiful artists. One of my angel like lots of these people came in helped. And she agreed and she did her beautiful show here and that launch it. So it was like from Broadway to the Red State Theatre. I was like so beautiful. And then that brought us through into the summer. And then what I was able to do was that fringe that first fringe that was on during the time that I just opened, I was able to go to the fringe and like just tuck up the theatre and and so a bunch of my first shows were actually hits from the fringe that I was able to bring in here. And then after about six months, people realised I was here and people started calling and and that kind of thing.

Phil Rickaby
Well, one of the barriers to production previously has always been

Unknown Speaker
somewhere to do it and where to do it. Yeah. And

Phil Rickaby
I remember a year, a lot years ago, like trying to find a spot to do a theatre, your options, you have basically have like three options for

Rosemary Doyle
really expensive. Yeah, well, this is part of the reason I opened this theatre as well. Like one of the things that made me actually do the leap of this needs to happen was a you know, the pitch splits at at pasma. So I go to the pits pitch Blitz, which I’ve never been able to say fact for the first couple of years, I was calling it the peach blips for some reason, which is wrong. Anyway, I go to that. And I go in with my play. I’ve written this play. I still haven’t put it on. I need to like this damn Jenny’s friends. I need to get it put on sometime. Anyway, I go in and I pitch Jenny’s friends and he turns to me, he goes, so you want to put this play on? And I’m like, yeah, he says, So you want us to put this play on here? I’m like, yeah, he goes, Oh, we’re fully booked for the next two and a half years. And I went, Oh, okay. So so that can’t happen. I’m like, Oh, okay. So considering they invited us to pitch Yeah. I then walked into the lobby. and also granted, I may have been a little more emotional than usual because my marriage was disintegrating. Right. So that’s, I will take that into consideration in telling the story. I walk into the lobby. And I look around, and there’s all these people sitting in the lobby. And two of the people are actually Lynn Griffith and Sean, who became really good friends. But I didn’t know them at the time, really, like I just knew them in passing. And I walk into the lobby, and I start to cry, just bawling my eyes out. And part of the reason I started to cry was not just for the disappointment of me. But the fact that everybody in this lobby was waiting for opportunity. And there was no opportunity, there was no real opportunity. So here we are wanting to do our art, with nowhere to do it, that won’t financially cripple us. And the number of people that would come up to me artists that I loved, like, and say they just did a show. And they’re like, it was a really great success. We only lost $6,000. And I would be like, what? Yeah, what? No, no, it struck me as so incredibly wrong. And so I opened this place. Because I needed to stop that or, or at least, you know, the whole idea of Be the change you want to see in the world. I had to be the change I wanted to see in the world. And I wanted there to be a canvas for us as as artists to be able to put on our thing. I mean, like I often say, Sure, as an art painter, I can take my rubber boots, I can paint my rubber boots. Yeah, yeah, fine, I can make that the art, I can paint a stick that I find I can paint it. But it’s so much easier with a canvas. You know, it’s so much easier to show other people what we’ve done, you take a canvas, just stick it on a wall and write gets to look at it. You want to do theatre, you have a place that setup that has lights and sound and chairs and risers and a way to get tickets and you know, a dressing room where you can change and a few things around where you can put the show on. It’s just easier. So we can actually get to the art. We’re not struggling with how to do it. We’re struggling with it. Well, that I mean,

Phil Rickaby
that is the thing is like I’ve been a part of those shows that were like, you’re finished. And you look at the books, you know, we had great turnout. I don’t have any money now. Yeah. Because all the money went to the rent on that. Yeah.

Rosemary Doyle
Right. And it’s like, and it has to be that way to a certain extent because of the amount of money that they’re paying. But like people wonder why this place? I have no staff. Staff is expensive. I mean, like the amount I’d have to charge. Like, I don’t get paid basically anything. Yeah. You know, I just kind of skim through life. You know,

Phil Rickaby
when when you’re renting one of those spaces, you’re paying for box office staff, and yeah, maybe some washers

Rosemary Doyle
and you’re paying for the janitor and the

Phil Rickaby
technician and yeah, that stuff. So that’s what the price is there. But it makes it so that if you can’t get a grant, you can’t afford your budget.

Rosemary Doyle
I know. I know. It’s like, and so I am the stuff, which is why when I looked at the place that is now centre of gravity, I was like, No, that’s too big. Because I could not by myself handle that. You’d have to have staff and the Pressman going exactly. Like I couldn’t do it. The people that got it were the perfect people because their collective, they have the bodies to be able to run that it’s beautiful. I love them to death. They’re fantastic. But when I go into I see the aerials and everything in the circus camp that there I’m like, yeah, great use of space makes me so happy. But this place is the size that I can manage it. And because it’s interesting, like I opened this place when I wasn’t a housewife anymore. And I kind of feel like, all those skills that I had, as a housewife, translated very easily to being a theatre owner because I was used to working my ass off and making no money. Like, I’m used to that I’m not used to the trappings of like, I don’t sit there at the end of the week and go, Oh, I didn’t get a paycheck for this. I feel so useless. No, I had 18 years of I never got a paycheck for anything. So you might self esteem had to come from somewhere else, you know, and it’s true. My self esteem comes from the feeling that I’m doing something worthwhile. And raising a family is worthwhile. And supporting a theatre community is worthwhile, like these, this is, you know, if I can make some money, that’d be great, too. But you you know, one of the other things

Phil Rickaby
that you’ve done is you know, I look at your schedule that I noticed that you know, in the summer you have your your day camps with them. Yeah, I love that every day camps. You’ve you’ve really sort of integrated with the company. Unity so that people come to you for these sorts of things. Yes. Is that something you fell into? Or did you plan for that at some point

Rosemary Doyle
that Jen and Dave live around the corner when I was walking here the first month? I’m like walking here to go do it. They’re like, how’s that theatre coming along? I go great. They go, you should have a kid’s camp because I’ve got five kids. I’ve put it in the minute. I was like, okay, and that’s how that started. Yeah, and it worked out really well. And I love doing my kids camp because, well, you know, me I like that’s how we know each other from playwriting is that this writing really fast thing is something I do well, and I really enjoy. And so like, I got into playwriting, because I did a 24 hour playwriting contest. And I kept doing them, I won seven of them, like I won, the first one I ever did, and I kept winning them. And, and that’s just kind of, it just turned out to be that some hidden talent that I didn’t know I had. Right. So I’ve translated that to help me do this camp. Yeah. Because what I do is the kids come on the first day, I teach them theatre history in the morning, and this kind of very hands on way. Mostly, I’m spying on the children. Mostly I’m figuring out who they are. And like what type of their energy is what type of people they are, right, and how they what skills they’ve already come to the table with, and what things we’re going to work on and that kind of thing. And then in the afternoon, we decide kind of because they know a bit about theatre. Now, what type of play they want to put on what type of characters they want to be, like we ended up doing. Last year, was really funny. I had a really weird group, because I had all these boys who were like all these gifted boys, because they were from the gifted class. And I had all these girls as well like Smart Girls and stuff. But basically, the boys decided they wanted to do Beowulf, and the girls wanted to be foxes and unicorns. I did a retelling of Beowulf with foxes and unicorns in it. Right? Like, it was just so funny. Like, they just come up with this stuff. So so it’s always a challenge and fun. So I write the play on the Monday night, and then we spend the next week doing everything we do to put on a show. And for me, it’s really fun, because what I love about theatre is that it really is a company in a group doing it. And I don’t, I don’t like I don’t like it when you get to the real like I’ve done Shai, done Mirvish. I’ve done those things where you can’t even put up your own zipper on your own dress, you know, where you have nothing to do with the set where you have and that’s not it’s not my happy place, little paychecks my happy place. But the actual you know, but that’s not my my Happy Places when you get to make the sad and you get to do the thing, and you get to be really part of the creative process. So that’s what me and the kids do. We like build the set, we make our costumes, we like rehearse the part we like, do the whole thing. And then we put it on on the Friday. And so I think what’s been successful about the kids camp for me, is it gives me like, I think of it as putting on a show with a troop of shorter people. You know, like, like, it’s the same as I put on a show with with grownups. It’s just these guys happen to be young, like really young, sometimes five years old. Right. But like, but it’s the same process for me as putting up any show. Yeah. And I really, really enjoy it, especially. Especially because it’s so focused, you know, it’s nine till three every day and we go to the park when it’s summer, and we go and run our lines in the park. Like sometimes we play line tag, where you have to catch the person that has their next line. Right, right. And you have to, like, you have to like do all that and it’s, it’s really fun.

Phil Rickaby
We were mentioning earlier, we’re mentioning 24 hour playwriting cool. Yes,

Rosemary Doyle
the 1000 Monkeys monkeys. Thank you. And my favourite favourite favourite thing.

Phil Rickaby
It’s one of the things I look forward to the most in the summer. Thank you it this up because you know what, I think you said once that you do a 24 hour playwriting contest. And so you’re think I’m gonna be writing with all these people and then you’re by yourself in your home?

Rosemary Doyle
I know. Yeah. It’s awful.

Unknown Speaker
Yeah. It’s horrible. Like

Rosemary Doyle
so you have this vague recollection that other people are out there writing too, but you don’t see them. Ya know, the thing I love about the 1000 Monkeys is people arrive on the Friday night at six o’clock. And they write their name with chalk on the wall and then we go to my little dictionary, and we flip it three times and you get three different words. And then then at six o’clock or whatever, I guess people arrive a little earlier than six. At six o’clock. Jane calls from New York City with the theme. She’s my James Shields. She’s my best friend who’s a playwright in New York City, and she went to Tisch so she’s really good at coming up with themes and stuff. So she gives us the overarching theme And, and then we all spend 24 hours here writing the play. And it’s so much fun. You know, at first I was going to when I first had the idea, I thought I’d like, barricade us all in so nobody could leave. But I’m not good at enforcing rules. So I didn’t.

Phil Rickaby
There probably downsides to doing that.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah, exactly. fire codes and stuff. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
I mean, on the other side of that, you know, after that, that 24 hours of writing, yeah, is getting the chance to read all this

Rosemary Doyle
isn’t that amazing, which is, like, so much

Phil Rickaby
fun to be able to just sort of say, these things were written, these things didn’t exist. They,

Rosemary Doyle
they have, they have a tear. And the funniest part is when you’re reading a play, like we’re all reading the play, and we’ve been watching each other for the quarter of our eyes writing it, and you’re like, oh, that’s why she kept backing up and screaming. You’re like, oh, like, remember that one year ever? Park was like, Ah, geez. Oh, doll. And then when you read her play, and you’re like, Oh, that’s not what’s going on? Yeah, so funny. So

Phil Rickaby
like, and the thing that that is always that I find gratifying. From that is, at the end of that weekend, I have something that I’ve written, yes. Whether it is and it’s never gonna be as long as like, almost never gonna be long enough to like, do but you have, but you start just draft. Yeah, that you can then build on and you’ve heard it. Yeah. So you know, is there something here? Is there was this sleep deprivation? Or is there something Yeah. And then you can just start building

Rosemary Doyle
and the food’s amazing, right? Because it braze gives us food. And the ROI gives us food and rashers. Because this food and Leslieville Cheese Shop gives us food like it’s such a bringing together of the community. And I love it when people walk by and they think oh, what’s going on here? Like a terrorist cell or something? Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
As the bar, let’s have the drunk people.

Unknown Speaker
They’re like,

Rosemary Doyle
remember that time when the schizophrenic person came in, and we have to give her a loaf of bread to get her to go? Yeah, that was so strange. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
All kinds of weird people.

Rosemary Doyle
But it’s amazing. What I’m amazed at too is it never bothers the upstairs, neighbours because we’re quiet as mice.

Phil Rickaby
I think I think the first year you thought you were saying it’d be more talking? Yeah. But there isn’t. It’s like everybody comes in six o’clock. The only sound is the sound of Yeah.

Rosemary Doyle
And then around 11 People get up and start having smokes and stuff, just like an angsty conversations in the in the smoking line. Just all kinds

Phil Rickaby
of like, so. How’s it going? Yeah. Turn the whole thing off.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah, yeah. So crazy. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
Last year, I think I started writing. And I was like, two hours. And it was like, nope. Start again, start over. But it’s like, I love that it exists.

Rosemary Doyle
That play call that I wrote this year is going on at the New Ideas Festival. Amazing. Yeah, it got picked up by them. And they’re actually it’s going to be on my birthday. March 8 is opening night. So that’s what I’m doing for my birthday. That’s a great way to spend. So that’s kind of fun. And actually, I’ve got another play in the New Ideas Festival this year, too, quite by accident, play had to for some reason had to leave. Right. So that play left. And I got this call emergency call from Pat going. Rosemary. I know you can write quickly. We need a 10 minute play Here are your actors are the actors, because they’d already cast some actors to be in this way. So I ended up writing to spec about for these actors. And so I wrote it on Thursday and Friday. And I gave it to them on Saturday and they rehearsing on Saturday. So it’s going on on the 15th. Well, and that one’s called Why, why? Why. But the letter Y letter why? It’s just why. And then this one, the one that I wrote here at the 1000 Monkeys is called call. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
And the 1000 monkeys. I mean, this is something that I mean, there you do have repeat a number of repeat people.

Rosemary Doyle
Yes. I’ve made such great friendships from the 1000 monkeys, like like, these people are so before. Yeah, and they become really close friends. And I think because we’ve all had this amazing shared experience when you

Phil Rickaby
when you when you looked at somebody across the table at five in the morning after writing for so long, there’s this feeling of you and I we know this thing.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah. Right. Like it’s like going to battle together and you’re like, comrades, when you

Phil Rickaby
finish it, you’re like, you know, everybody’s like, together and

exactly. It’s a great thing. Yeah.

Rosemary Doyle
And the number of cross pollination, like friendships that have grown out of the 1000 Monkeys is really quite spectacular, I guess, because it’s a filter system to a certain extent, like people who are willing to do the 1000 monkeys are a certain type of person. Yes. Right. So I think it does bring you to simpatico, right. Do you have the opportunity

Phil Rickaby
to throw yourself up into a thing. Yes. Like if you’re a person who normally is like when you’re right, you’re cautious and you take a long time to get started. You don’t have that no to you have a finite period of time says your resume. Yeah, yeah. You can’t think you can’t judge you just right. Which is I think what why the

Rosemary Doyle
fast thing works for me because I think if anything, I’m a little bit. I’m distractible, and in the moment, so I think if I, not that I have ADHD, or I’m just realising I’m like, maybe, anyway, but it lets me focus and it and I think I learned this skill about focusing on my own stuff, being a young mom, because when you have little kids, you have no time to yourself. So, if you get that 15 minutes to do what you need to do, you have to do it them. And you do do it. So I think you do develop that kind of intensity of like, you have to distil everything. So it has to be like, like I remember once when I first had Michelson, he was like it was he was about a year and a half. And I finally had a night to go out by myself. Right, like without him. And so my friend Mike Paige took me dancing. And so we went to this club, and I’m dancing. And I guess I was dancing a bit hard and crazy. Because Mike had this feeling he had to keep turning to people going. She’s a new mother. This is her first time out in a year and a half, please. You know, like, but it was like, I’m having a good time now. Right? Yeah. Yeah. It was like really funny. But whatever.

Phil Rickaby
Yeah, no, it’s, there’s, there’s something about throwing yourself into it. Like I mean, I’m talking about like, cost. It took me eight years to write that play. I did this summer, right. Yeah, it was very go doing it. That I had to fit. That’s yeah. That’s a beautiful

Rosemary Doyle
play. By the way. I’m really great play.

Phil Rickaby
Yeah, I was still been writing that if I didn’t have

Rosemary Doyle
it didn’t have a deadline. Yeah. And having a

Phil Rickaby
deadline is so great. Yeah. And I think

Rosemary Doyle
in this world, you know what, it isn’t even a deadline? You know, what I think it is? I think what it is, is in this world, it’s validation, you know, you have a reason for it to exist, right. And I think in this world, like I when I walk around the going back to the agio, which is why it’s so important to me. When I go to those sections of the agio that has all the mediaeval religious art, you know, in the sculptures and stuff, and then you see a walnut, and in that walnut is the entire last supper carved into this bloody walnut. Right? And you go, that’s incredible. Like, how did that happen? People didn’t have TV or the internet. Yeah. People didn’t have hours and hours and hours of time. Where they weren’t doing much where they could do something else they could You could spend eight hours doing that, and nobody would feel like you were wasting your time. Because you were doing something which now we fill up with. Did you see every single episode of The Walking Dead? Yeah, yeah, I did. Back in. I think watching every episode of Netflix was working on the walnut back in the 30s. Oh, there’s old Bob stories working on the walnut. Yeah. Right.

Phil Rickaby
Well, are you working on

Unknown Speaker
your wall? Exactly.

Phil Rickaby
I actually think that there’s something about taking that time away, like people who say, Oh, I’d love to write a thing, but I just don’t have time and you just want to turn off for an hour. Yeah.

Rosemary Doyle
You have time. Like I’ve haven’t had a TV like now I do because of the internet. Yeah, but I haven’t actually had TV in my life. Since I was 18. I never had a TV, right. Like, since I moved out of my house. I just didn’t have a TV. And I used to upholstered furniture and do all this stuff. And people would be like, rosemary, how do you get so much stuff done? And then my friend Jessica, she came and lived with me for like, a few months when she was between apartments. And she lived there. And she’s like, I now understand why you build all this stuff. You have so much time because you’re not watching TV. Yeah. Right. But now I’m watching TV because it’s it’s I when I check my email, it’s there as telling me I haven’t looked at it yet. Yeah, it’s the same like the scrolling the Facebook is the same thing. Although I think it was better when we used to just go down to pubs and hang out with each other. Well, you

Phil Rickaby
know that I mean, we would converse in in real ways. Yeah. Swimming in text.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah. And also you didn’t have like, you could have a conversation you didn’t. You didn’t have to feel like you were trolling someone if you talk too much to them on their page. Like if you went back and forth. Now if you go back and forth too many times, you’re like, oh, yeah, have I interfered with their life? If Yeah, you know, like before, if somebody was overhearing you talk in a pub. Well, it’s a conversation. Of course they’re talking. Yeah. But if you talk about stuff long ago, it’s like, Are you guys having an argument? Right? Like, oh, are you going to unfriend each other? Because you’ve talked too long? Like,

Phil Rickaby
right? Oh, it’s

one of those strange things about, about the way that we are now spending so much time with replaced? Well, sometimes people have two screens, they have their TV screen, they have the computer screen.

Rosemary Doyle
So sometimes it’s on the same bloody machine. Yeah,

Phil Rickaby
watching your things scrolling through a thing. So distracted texting somebody else. Yeah. So I mean, it’s hard. It’s that whole, like, how do we get people off their screens into the theatre? Which is that whole?

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah, yeah. But the other, but I think also, people who do make the leap and go and see a show. It’s, they start going to see more shows, because it’s so important. And I think the major thing that is important is about the shared experience of the human right, like part of the thing. The reason I think that we like Netflix, the part of the reason I think that we like watching these shows is that even in the privacy of our own home, we have the shared experience that we can then talk about. Yeah, right. Like we’ve all seen all the episodes, I think when it used to be just TV, if you weren’t there on that Saturday, you missed it. Right, you know, but now you didn’t miss it, you can go and be part of that collective conversation about that particular art form together. But I think there’s something about coming to see a show. That is beautiful. The one thing I that I would do differently with this place, if given the resources like this place couldn’t actually do it is have a lobby. That was a bar. Yeah. Because I think what is missing from from this particular space that I’d love is a place where everybody could go after and talk about the show. Now granted, we’re close enough to braised and we’re close enough to the ROI and various other places that I do encourage the audience as a mass to go to these places to chat about what they just saw. Because I think it’s about communication.

Phil Rickaby
It is about communication. And there is something about that. And having that slot, you know, most theatres after the show, they’d be like, Alright,

Unknown Speaker
get out. Yeah, go to have a spot.

Phil Rickaby
Have you been there’s the staircase Theatre in Hamilton? Yes. I was like that. They have their lobby, which is also a bar and a cafe. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker
it doesn’t work well. Like it’s amazing.

Rosemary Doyle
Amazing. Amazing. That’s perfect. Yeah,

Phil Rickaby
perfect.

I always think that if I was going to open a theatre, we’d have that. Yeah. During the day, we’d have the cafe. Yes. And then and that’s

Rosemary Doyle
what I want to do for when I open my wild festival. Like right now I’ve opened the wild festival justice shows to get the reputation going, but my next thing that I wish to do is actually have a space for the wild festival and part of that is having an active restaurant or that’s my upstairs neighbour, one of the great things about the indie theatre, you have

Phil Rickaby
somebody who lives upstairs, yes.

Which means that you are competing. Yes, like your show. You have some stipulations. But what can happen this theatre because you have people who Yeah,

Rosemary Doyle
it has to be quiet after 11 Oh, no, I have big musical here. They just have to be done by 1030. Just by 1030, please be quiet. And and yeah, they’re like we’ve had, you know, I feel bad because I’ve stepped on their toes a number of times. But sometimes they’ve been practising guitar and I’ve had to tell them, No, please don’t do that. You know, we try and be cognizant part of the issue is that a couple of years ago, the landlord did the redid the floor in the apartment and took out the insulation. That is proud. So that wasn’t that wasn’t a problem, not their fault. It’s not their fault. They just did that. They just live there. But yeah, you know, so if I ever was to buy the building, I would correct things like that. Right, like, so that would be amazing. You know, there’s lots of there’s lots of things that in the future given the money I will do things to you know, I’m always improving. Of course, you should see my the, what I’ve done to the dressing room.

Phil Rickaby
I haven’t seen it since since the eldritch theatre. Yeah, no,

Rosemary Doyle
no, no, no, no, I

I’ve done this whole big venues downstairs. Yeah, it looks really nice. I did it because they filmed Jackie Englishes Film, film downstairs. They wanted to look a certain way. So I just was like, that was one of the venues I was thinking of doing anyway, so I just did it.

Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Nice. So wild festival. Oh, talk about that.

Rosemary Doyle
Oh, yeah. The wild festival is a new thing that mice that I’ve started with, with Jen Watson and Dorian Hart and what basically what we’re doing is it’s a festival devoted to looking at the world through the lens of Oscar Wilde. So it’s anything he’s ever written on. or anything he would have liked. And also anything he thought was important. So then we get to discuss things which are important to me such as LGBT Q, whatever rights, the penal system, beauty, wit, bilingualism, all of those things because Oscar Wilde wrote in both languages, he had things to do with the penal system. And, of course, the whole you know, sex scale whole gay thing is very important. And I think that all those discussing those issues is a focal point for the wild festival and also I wanted to place that kind of like, like the shot festival, like the Stratford Festival, but more fun. So like the wild festival,

it’s got a great name to wild, right.

So I kind of want it to be like the Fire Island of theatre festivals, right? Like just you go you have a great time and the space I want I really want the original space like the headspace to have kind of a bar as attached to it because I think what we need to do is do really great, beautiful, witty, amazing shows and, and have a place for people to discuss after

Phil Rickaby
it’s like the fringe tent effect. Yeah, have a place.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah. I love the fringe tent. Where’s it going to be now? Oh, like what are they gonna do in court? Scouting court?

Phil Rickaby
So Dundas Bathurst Oh, which I don’t know. We’ll see how that works. Yeah, I’m sure to having it at honest Ed’s now sadly no longer with this. Yeah. Right by the subway and things like that. Yeah.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah. I really loved it when it was at the transact club. Remember that? I do. Oh, I guess so. Yeah.

Phil Rickaby
Never really liked having them there. But it got too big.

Rosemary Doyle
Yeah, I guess so. But I love that. That was so much fun. It was great. It was so great. I loved it when they were like everybody has to go inside. You’d be like, okay, cool. So much fun. Yeah. Great.

Unknown Speaker
Thank you so much for for talking to me. Oh, my pleasure.

Rosemary Doyle
My pleasure. Phil. Thank you.