#81 – Chantal Forde
Chantal is an artist and educator with a diploma in musical theatre from the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts. She has been behind the annual Oakville Holiday Pantomime for the past four years as co-writer, director, and choreographer. As a writer, director and producer, her work has been seen in several festivals including the Toronto and Vancouver Fringe Festivals as well as The Short Short Play Festival. The 2017 Toronto Fringe will be her third as writer/producer for “GREY”, previous years were her plays “Perceptions of Love in the Pursuit of Happiness” and “Quarterlife”. Selected acting credits include TV’s “About A Girl”, “Blood Ties”, and “Psych” as well as performing on stage in cabarets, musicals, and plays both in Toronto and Vancouver. Chantal works with drama students aged 12-95 through Sheridan College, Centre Stage Theatre School, and Shadowpath Theatre Productions, who honoured her with their Artist of the Year Award in 2015.
Grey:
Twleve years ago Richard Buttle killed Jayden Alexander. Today is the day of his parole hearing where he must not only face his own history, but also the father of the boy he killed.
Jumping through time, the circumstances that lead to the crime begin to unravel. Who was really to blame?
In this new drama it becomes very clear that not everything in life is as black and white as one would like to perceive.
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace
16 Ryerson Ave., Toronto, ON
Friday, July 7 – 8:00pm
Saturday, July 8 – 4:00pm
Monday, July 10 – 3:15pm
Wednesday, July 12 – 5:45pm
Thursday, July 13 – 12:00pm
Saturday, July 15 – 11:00pm
Sunday, July 16 – 2:45pm
https://www.facebook.com/perceptionplay
Transcript
Transcript auto generated.
Phil Rickaby
Welcome to Episode 81 of Stageworthy. I’m your host Phil Rickaby Stageworthy features conversations in Canadian theatre with artists of all stripes from actor to director to playwright and more. If you want to drop me a line, I would love to hear from you. You can find Stageworthy on Facebook and Twitter at stageworthypod. And you can find the website at Stageworthy podcast.com. If you are in Toronto on June 25 2017, I would love for you to come out to something I’m doing called Shakespeare retranslated. It’s a reading of Romeo and Juliet. And Shakespeare retranslated is something I’ve been working on. It’s going to be a fundraiser for us. So I’m going to be doing in November. But for this, what happens is I’m going to take Romeo and Juliet, I’m going to run it through Google Translate and translate it into another language and then translate it back into English. And then I’m going to make a very talented and brave group of actors read it. You can find this on Facebook, you can search for Shakespeare retranslated you’ll find it there. You can find it on brown paper tickets as well. And tickets in advance $25.30 at the door, I would love to hear you. I’d love to see you there. So hopefully you can come out. My guest this week is actor, choreographer, producer, writer and director Sean talfourd. Santos played grey premieres at the 2017 edition of the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Your show is great. Yes. Is the title. You’ve written? Yes. No, I was looking. There are little pins of what you sent to me in the description of this show. That made me think that it’s based on true story. So I’ve done some Googling, just try to find if there are some familiar names. And so I’ve come to the the assumption that grey is not based on it is not
Chantal Forde
based on it is very loosely inspired, very loosely inspired by a newspaper article I read a decade ago.
Phil Rickaby
Okay. Can you describe grey for me?
Chantal Forde
Yes. Well, we’ve just been working on our tagline for the programme. So I’ll read it to you. Just tossing it back and forth. I was like, because it’s a good concept for three sentences.
Phil Rickaby
Are you just for the programme for the programme? That’s like, I was just saying to somebody just this week, like, isn’t that the hardest thing? So like, sum up the whole thing? And like, yeah,
Chantal Forde
in a catchy way?
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. That makes people say, Oh, yeah.
Chantal Forde
So this is this is the one that we’ve settled on so far. 12 years after the murder of his son, Charlie Alexander is face to face with the killer on the day of his parole hearing, jumping through time to explore the events surrounding the murderer and the circumstances that brought them to that place, we discover that not everything is as black and white as one would like to perceive. It’s like, it’s like it’s a little wordy for two or three sentence. A little bit wordy. Maybe for the bigger one. Yeah, it’ll work. But I think for the
Phil Rickaby
two three sentences trimmed a little bit, yeah. Just to throw that out there. But yeah, it’s good. It’s good.
Chantal Forde
That’s that’s the basic idea.
Phil Rickaby
So this article, you saw this article, like 10 years ago? Yeah. And it must have stuck with you for a while.
Chantal Forde
It did. It did a lot. It really it. So the article was a man it was like his picking. And it was a man who had his son had been killed at a house party. And with an axe, yeah, like brutally brutal. So he had been it was his friend’s house and some unwanted guests came, he decided to stand up for them. One of the monitor guests got grabbed an asset it was in the garage, they grabbed an axe off the wall and killed them. And so in this article, it was an interview with the Father, like mini mini interview, and he’d also just lost his wife, oh, four months prior to cancer. And it just like, was devastating. I was just like, that’s this. He was the only child they had. It would that was his whole life gone in four months. And and so that it just stuck with me. I was like, I don’t know when and I don’t know what the show will be. But in there somewhere. That’s a crazy story that needs to be told. Yeah. So yeah. So that’s where that and it sat with me and throughout, like over the last four years, I guess. It’s sort of come in and out of out of my head and I was like, oh, maybe it’s a story about this. Maybe it’s a story about antidepressants and how we deal with grief. Maybe it’s a story but this and then it was last summer, who sort of was like oh, no, what happens if you take people you take Somebody who’s in a neighbourhood that’s known for gang violence, and known for these things, but it’s a culture that they love. You take them out of the neighbourhood, and they still get killed.
Phil Rickaby
Do you? Did you have you been like writing it on and off with different, different ways of looking at it or where you’re just thinking about how it might be?
Chantal Forde
I wrote outlines, outlines for the different sort of ideas that were there. And this one, this one stuck with me, especially so I work at a restaurant. And I was chatting with a regular that comes in who do usually doesn’t talk on Monday, he came in, and he didn’t stop talking. It was totally bizarre. I didn’t know what was going on. And we started chatting. And he found out that I grown up in Oakville, and he just started asking questions about it. And it turns out that he and his wife had been having a lot of conversations about if they want it to move. And so he had thought, you know, maybe Mississauga, so it’s still close to work and whatnot. And his wife was very, not about it. Because she because they were black family. And she was just like, I don’t think that seeing the culture is gonna be the same. I don’t I want our kids to grow up in an area where they can see themselves everywhere, and their culture is reflected. And so he’d been asking you about that and that sort of nail in the coffin, so to speak, where I was just like, that’s, that’s what it is. That’s how the story works and, and how the father wanted one thing did something for the good of his son and then lost his son anyway. Yeah. And,
Phil Rickaby
huh. Is working in a restaurant. Do you get a chance to watch people and like, people? Oh, yeah. Oh,
Chantal Forde
absolutely. Yeah, that’s half the fun of it. Yeah. Constantly. I’m just in the back reading now. So I’m like, just overheard this, like, remind myself
Phil Rickaby
of that lady ever watch, like people just like, without even having to listen to them like and make
Chantal Forde
up their entire story? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it’s ridiculous. But most of the time, yeah, I mean,
Phil Rickaby
even if it’s, like, relationships over dinner, and people don’t tend to pay attention to the staff.
Chantal Forde
No, not at all. Like, sometimes you’ll stand there for 60 seconds. And they’re just finishing the conversation before they’ll take a break to look up at us. They’re like, yeah, I could interrupt or I could just. Yeah, it’s amazing. Have you always been a writer? No, no, no, I started as an actor. Okay. Well, in my childhood, I started as a dancer. I decided I was gonna go to university for science for forensic psychology, actually was was it what I was interested in. But then my mother pointed out that I was basing my university choice on which had the best extracurricular feeder. She was like, maybe you want to consider auditioning for theatre schools, like all good parents say,
Phil Rickaby
I have to I have to talk about that particular thing, because that’s not a thing that a parent normally
Chantal Forde
said no, and she instantly regretted it. She, ya know that, quite literally, I was like, I’ve been accepted to Guelph, Queens and I can’t remember the other place was and and it was like, well, and got a scholarship here and got this like, monitor scholarship here. And this one’s for science, my friends going here. But Queens has the best theatre programme, so I can still do that. And I just kept talking about it. Yeah, so she, she actually found two theatre programmes that were three programmes that were auditioning. And I was like, I don’t know, she’s like, just go just so your options are there. And I went, and I accepted. And then she started questioning.
Phil Rickaby
Demmick track until you started looking for universities like and even like when you were in, in high school, if you were like, What do you want to do after high school?
Chantal Forde
It never crossed my mind to go into the arts. I loved it. I mean, when I was a kid, of course, I was like, I’m gonna be a star. I’m gonna dance I’m gonna go on Broadway. I’m gonna do this and that, but in high school, no, like, I always danced and all the way through I did all of this extra like the after school, theatre programmes and to drama class. But no, I’d never actually considered. I’d never crossed my mind to audition for a theatre school. Just I guess I didn’t know anybody who had done it. All of my friends, all of my family. Nobody had done it. And it just didn’t really occur that it was actually an option. Hmm,
Phil Rickaby
yeah. If you don’t if you don’t know it’s not an option. You can make it an option.
Chantal Forde
Yeah. So I think my mother, she may regret that. Now.
Phil Rickaby
You came to act in through dance. Yes. So do we were you one of those children that was dancing from the time that you were, like walkable
Chantal Forde
um, I started dancing When I was three, but I didn’t start taking classes at like our respectable ballet school until I was 788. So that was Yeah, so it was always sort of in and out. And then when I realised this is the one thing that I really want to do, like forget gymnastics and figure skating, dancing is what I want to do so that I started dancing at a ballet is what I started with. For probably the first five years, I only did ballet, and then we added in Matar, and then we added in jazz and we added in tap,
Phil Rickaby
was there anything that made you decide that that ballet dance was not the thing that you were going to do with your life? Oh,
Chantal Forde
I wasn’t good enough. My body was all wrong, like my feet don’t hurt. My arches aren’t good enough for point. So it got to a point where I could I couldn’t do the ballet exams anymore when point was a big section of them. So I knew I would never be a ballet dancer. And yeah, my turnout wasn’t good enough. I was didn’t have enough flexibility. So while I was very good on stage, that’s normally Why would pass the exams was performance. But physically, my body wasn’t cut out for dancing
Phil Rickaby
just at all. Or just ballet dance, like, Did you jazz was this the same sort of thing? I
Chantal Forde
know, I probably could have followed up in jazz, but I think my basis was so strong in ballet that it didn’t actually seem possible to go forward in a professional way and dance without a strong ballet basis, which is probably incorrect. But again, I made the decision when I was 17.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. make these choices. So you went and when you were doing theatre at the same time? Yeah. What kind of shows were you doing when you’re doing musicals were you doing?
Chantal Forde
We did the first the first play ever did was an Agatha Christie murder mystery. I cannot remember the name of it. I was in grade seven. But I had to do a really bad cockney accent. My cousin was in the audience and yelled out in the middle of it. No, no, that sounds like Thanks for ruining it. Yeah. Because they didn’t know. And then in high school, it was across we did. Shakespeare we did Midsummer Night’s Dream. We did the miser Mollier we did some in schools with the guys and dolls. We did leader of the pack? Yeah. So it was a big Friday. Yeah. It was a lot of writing. Um,
Phil Rickaby
so you were going to go and you’re going to do this forensic psychology. Yeah. And then
Chantal Forde
you totally got diverted, saved you. Yes.
Phil Rickaby
From and To her regret. What were the schools that she found for you to audition for
Chantal Forde
American Academy of Dramatic Arts? Randolph and Sheridan.
Phil Rickaby
And where did you end up going?
Chantal Forde
Randolph? Okay. Yeah, I wanted to do American Academy, but it was really expensive. I didn’t want to do Sheridan because I grew up in Oakville, and I didn’t want to live at home anymore. Right.
Phil Rickaby
That’s, that’s the gist. Yeah. Because, you know, if you’re gonna go to college, you should not live at home.
Chantal Forde
You know, I’m almost like, it’s so great. You can just walk to school. It’s like, whoa, I’m not even auditioning. I don’t care how good the school is. I’m not auditioning because I don’t want to live in here anymore. Time for me to go. Yeah. So so random. So random. Randolph was.
Phil Rickaby
And you so you’re at Randolph and is it a two year three year course?
Chantal Forde
Two years? It’s two year round. Oh, so it’s still six. It’s six semesters, but done in two full years.
Phil Rickaby
That’s a pretty intense Yeah, it’s pretty intense. Yeah. And it’s a conservatory programme. Yeah. And how were you? Like, I’m so certain like finding this like this writing thread where you’re writing in school, there is like a really recent.
Chantal Forde
I always loved writing. I have my first poem that I ever wrote when I was seven. And I wrote it on my grandmother’s like floral notepad. It was all about like, how war is bad. And it was it started with poetry. Definitely. I had like all the little books of like Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Shakespeare poetry and, and then then short stories. And I had never crossed my mind to write a play. Until I was in theatre school, we had the choice once of writing, writing a monologue for ourselves. Or we could take one and change it and adapt it right. So I wrote my own and that was the first time I ever wrote anything to do with theatre. How did that go? That’s great. Great. Yeah, it was it was so freeing. I was like, Oh, I can create a whole world here like I don’t have to. It still didn’t enter my mind that I was interested in doing it. It was just really fun. I also did organise some of our classroom projects. So take the monologues and piece them together to make a show. When we graduated, we a few friends of mine wanted to put together a cabaret to try to get agents. So they all chose their sort of top five songs. And then I created a script around it so we can create a show. So that’s but again, didn’t think about being a writer. I just did it because I was like, Oh, sure, I can do that. And then I’ll act.
Phil Rickaby
So when When did writing for theatre start? Like, like, considering that you were writing for theatre? start being a thing.
Chantal Forde
Um, my, a good friend of mine, told me that I was a writer. Not even joking. We had moved to Vancouver with my friend and her husband, and we, yeah, they moved out there. They’re like, we think you should come. It’s great out here. There’s lots of business like you can get an agent. So I went out and we were sitting and I, we just been taught he was into writing. And I don’t know what we were talking about. But one day, he was just like, You’re not an actor. You’re a writer. He was like, No, I’m not. He’s like, Yes, you are. And I refused it. And then he gave me he’s like, you wrote this, you’ve done this. You’ve done this, you think like this. You’re a writer. And I fought it for a couple of years. And then I saw a musical that was being workshopped. And I had a tonne of ideas for it. And my friend ended up putting me in touch with the Creator. And we started talking and I started doing amateur doing, and then I ended up writing the book for it. And that that was what actually got me in. I was just like, here’s how we can do this.
Phil Rickaby
Do you know what it was? You’re fighting against? A Raider?
Chantal Forde
I don’t, I don’t know. I think it was probably the idea of giving up something that I had studied and worked for and had set my mind like, I was like, there’s no Plan B, I’m going to be an actor, I’m going to be successful. This is it. And I think I just determined that so much in my head that I didn’t really see outside of it. Also, I’d never studied it. I didn’t know like, I’ve never taken any courses in writing. So there is also that fear of, okay, so this one person said that I’m good. And like a couple of people have said that they like what I do, but that doesn’t. That doesn’t mean anything I’ve been told that I can perform for my whole life. I haven’t been told anything about writing. So it was yeah, I can guess fear of failure was the biggest thing.
Phil Rickaby
Well, I mean, there’s also, I don’t know, Alaska, we’re gonna ask you a couple of questions with Randolph programme. Did they talk about self producing at all? are they preparing you for the the, the the traditional acting track for you ambition, get the job or just to get the job and so on, and so on and so on. The
Chantal Forde
the basis of it is in traditional feeling for sure. They do encourage it more now than ever, now that they’ve moved to the NOC. Now, I went to school a million years ago when I was over on young. But the bathroom street theatre and their involvement with fringe that sort of introduced people to it to the idea of creating your own work. And with the festival circuit is they we definitely did a few workshops that were in different sort of areas, like the business areas, and and so what well, it wasn’t a it was there wasn’t a big push for it. They definitely introduced the idea to us.
Phil Rickaby
When I was in theatre school, so many, many years ago, the the idea of being anything other than an actor was like there were, we got the sense that there was no such thing as an actor slash anything. If you were going to be an actor slash anything, then you had failed at being an actor, sort of like the idea that was the unspoken idea that was sort of like in our heads. Yeah, I think at the time, it certainly wasn’t mine. And I think that a lot of us were like, if people see you as anything other than an actor, they’re going to make you want to, they’re going to make you do that, right. So the idea of like, Oh, I’m also a writer. Well, that will make you think you’re gonna make you do they are. The unknown will make you do things. Yeah. Yeah. So is grey, your first play? Like?
Chantal Forde
No, it is it isn’t. I did one in the fringe in 2015. And that was my first full length play. I’d written a bunch of short plays before that. That was perceptions of love and the pursuit of happiness. So that was yet that was the first that was a 90 Minute. That was the first full one and then before that, I’d written 1020 and 30 minute plays for festivals and events.
Phil Rickaby
How what was it like seeing your first full length play performed in front of a fringe audience for the first I was, like,
Chantal Forde
terrifying. Absolutely, absolutely terrifying. Like, there were three days leading up to it where I was sure I was gonna throw up every five minutes. I was terrified. 100% terrified.
Phil Rickaby
But when it was happening, how long did you go from? I want to farm it to whatever you felt afterwards.
Chantal Forde
At the end of the first run, yeah, the end of the first run was like, Okay. Maybe you test
Phil Rickaby
that want to vomit feeling I think is a pretty common one. For a new project. Yeah, I had that last summer, I was performing my own thing. And I spent the whole day before like, the full day before performative filming, I was getting worse. We just have to, like, grab a bag. Okay, well, so did was gritty, written before you got into the Fringe Festival this year. Was it like in progress? It was in progress. Yeah. And then yeah, I imagine getting into the fringe sort of,
Chantal Forde
Oh, yeah. Like, oh, we’re actually doing this. Okay. Back to the computer. Let’s go.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. And, and so you’re working? You’re not acting in it. You’re just writing,
Chantal Forde
writing and CO directing? Okay.
Phil Rickaby
And has it been difficult finding all the people that you need to fill the roles of the player?
Chantal Forde
We just finished casting? yesterday? Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, we had our final actor in place yesterday. And yeah, there was, um, there was a few challenges in it. Particularly the one character that’s the father character, because he has to span from age 20 to age 52. So finding somebody that could play all ends of the spectrum.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Have you found and I imagine without any time for Megan, for one thing? Oh, yeah.
Chantal Forde
No, they’re going to most likely be on stage for the entire time. So it’ll just be a matter of glasses or a jacket or, yeah, hair up versus down. That’s, that’s the only switches that there will be. Yeah, it was it was very difficult, and especially that that particular character is black. So finding a black man that can play 28 to 52. And pretty, like a reasonably challenging role, like emotionally challenging role was yeah, that was
Phil Rickaby
just find it hard to like, I mean, so there was, there’s a lot of, you know, there’s the whole like, we need to make have more diverse theatre, things like that. People are often told people who run theatres, I’ve heard it said, you know, you have to seek out the community, get the community to come to you with that. And I mean, I agree with that. But did you have trouble like reaching out to find the people to audition for this role? Did you have trouble like, now know where to where do you even go?
Chantal Forde
I you know, for the most part, I went to the regular sources, ie, Dr. Tampa. I reached out to obsidian theatre. And the other one, there was one other theatre, but I reached out to them to pass the casting notice long to anything, anybody think that might be appropriate? And how was it? That that was all there was a huge amount of people came out? That’s great. Yeah, it was really, it was really nice. It was I mean, except for the older man. The other the other roles were yet there was so many people and people, we actually had one person come out, and he was great. After the audition, we wanted to call him back. When he came back, we were looking at his resume, he’d only done film and TV and quite a lot and regularly. So I sort of asked him why, like, why now why do you want to do theatre, and he’d only ever seen one play before. Okay, which was mind blowing. And, and he said, and it was Raisin in the Sun was the only other play he’d seen any size. He said that he saw the breakdown, and just the content. That the that was the appeal. He said, it sounded interesting. And I never it didn’t really occur to me, other than the fact that I knew I was going to have a hard time casting the Father. It didn’t occur to me that that would be part of it, that people would say, Oh, that’s a role that specifically for me, not just any ethnicity. This is specifically for me. And, and I’ve always you know, I’ve heard people say that, like you want to see yourself reflected on stage and see all the things and, and but it didn’t occur to me. And then when somebody said that I was like that’s it’s true. This role is actually for you, right, not for anybody.
Phil Rickaby
You had a moment when you were saying that you don’t ever see one play To where you could it’s almost like you you in this as you were describing it, you couldn’t believe that anybody could only have ever seen like one play. Oh, yeah,
Chantal Forde
it blew my mind. And yet, have you ever been talking to
Phil Rickaby
somebody and they say about what you do, or I don’t like the theatre? I saw play once. I’ve never Yes. Becoming like that. People like, huh, do that. Like, you don’t do that when you see that movie?
Chantal Forde
No, you don’t do that you don’t go out for food and go to a restaurant and say, well, that food was terrible. I’ve never gone to a restaurant. Never. Never Exactly.
Phil Rickaby
Oh, TV show went bad, I guess. Yeah. Oh, and yet fear is this thing where people just I think I think that people have a perception that it’s for elite, that they can’t afford it or it’s not for Yeah. Which is sometimes not helped by certain theatre prac prices? For sure. And the scarcity of tickets, and it can be intimidating to go to a big theatre. And you’re like, all you’ve got is like, these massive, gorgeous theatres. And that’s what you’re thinking theatre is? Yeah, that’s right.
Chantal Forde
Yeah. Oh, for sure. It is. And that’s kind of that’s part of why I love fringe because it’s so accessible. And people that maybe are unsure like, oh, well, it’s only $12. Yeah. Okay. All of a sudden, it’s like, well, I’ll give it a shot. Yeah. And then you also only spent $12.60 or 90 minutes of your time. So if you didn’t love it, it doesn’t feel like it was a huge investment. A lot of
Phil Rickaby
times like the stakes are so low for fringe. Yes. Most of the shows are 60 management, like, What $12 And an hour model. Yeah.
Chantal Forde
Okay. All right. I’ll try one out. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
There’s, I love I love the chaotic nature of fringe that you don’t know. Because it can be anything because anybody can answer that lottery. And I love that regardless of what city I’m in for a friend it’s like, the most it’s it’s it is I call it and it’s a crapshoot because you don’t know, especially if you go that first weekend, if you’re one of the brave ones who doesn’t wait for the review. Yeah. Which I highly recommend. Yes. It’s like go to and you don’t know. And maybe it’s crap. Or maybe it’s not even it’s great. It might be amazing. I can think to myself, imagine a person who was in I don’t know, the first performance at Toronto, friends of Kim’s convenience, and didn’t know how amazing that was. I mean, we’re spread, but like was there that first night and there’s this amazing thing? Totally. How awesome was that?
Chantal Forde
Yeah. You got in on it before? Yeah. Before it was a big hit.
Phil Rickaby
When did you discover fringe?
Chantal Forde
I think it was just after, just after I finished school. I’m pretty sure so I guess around maybe 2000 to 2003 was the one of the first times that I went just as a as an audience member. The first time that I participated in fringe was actually the Vancouver Fringe Festival. I directed a director to show him that. And then yeah, then ever since I’ve done directed a couple of shows been in a couple
Phil Rickaby
of shows other than Vancouver, Toronto. Have you done any other Fringe Festivals now? Have you ever ever thought about doing other French I have thought about doing? What’s on your list?
Chantal Forde
Oh, well, I wouldn’t. I would kind of like to do like across Canada. One of those ones just travel across. I’ve heard that the one in in Manitoba. The Winnipeg one I’ve heard is amazing.
Phil Rickaby
It is. It is. And if you only know Toronto or Vancouver you are in for a surprise. Yeah. Vancouver or sorry. Winnipeg. Edmonds. Everybody knows. Yeah. Like, you know how we can walk up to somebody in Toronto who come see my friendship. Most people are like, Catherine. Yeah. Winnipeg. Edmonton used to come see my fringe show people be like, Oh, watch theatre. Everybody knows it’s happening. That’s amazing. It’s like, it’s the focus on saying yeah, yeah, a fringe tour across this country is it would be pretty, it’s pretty incredible. It’d be pretty mixing the only downside is that once you get to the end of the summer, you have to make a choice as to which direction you go. Yeah, whether you go west or they go to the Maritimes because the Maritimes they’re not far in the fall, like end of August into September. Just like Victoria and Vancouver.
Chantal Forde
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It’d be amazing. I think the key would be either have a lot of money, or a really tiny show.
Phil Rickaby
Well, They go hand in hand. Both can cushion, your your your tread, because of course everything costs money. And one of the things that I know that when I was thinking about my own flames tours that I didn’t think about it first was the fact that your budget should include food.
Chantal Forde
Oh, right. People like to eat.
Phil Rickaby
As you’re as you’re putting money together, because most times you’re thinking about, you know, props, what he was, What’s it cost to run the show?
Chantal Forde
Transportation? Well, you’re not thinking about food? No, no, you totally wouldn’t write at all.
Phil Rickaby
So you get, you know, suddenly you’re like, Oh, if you don’t do well. Yeah,
Chantal Forde
we’ll mine for grilled cheese
Phil Rickaby
sign that might work. I mean, there are there, some of the fringes have the buskers that go there fringes so the mine for granite, grilled cheese might work there too. In terms of in terms of grey, so you’ve got this display that was inspired by a true story. But it’s really your own invention. And you’ve just come up with with your you’re working on your blurb for the programme, and you’ve got all of your Promote, you’re getting together all the promotional material. What’s it like for you, preparing to hand this play to a bunch of actors when it’s lived in your in your head? First of all,
Chantal Forde
I’m so excited. I’m so excited. There has been other shows that I’m not excited as excited because there’s that little fear of like, you know, how all of the characters sound. And I don’t know, there’s something about this one, where I’m intrigued by the cast. First of all, like, I love the people that we’ve cast. And I can’t, I can’t wait to see where they take it. I think I haven’t lived with this one as long as other plays. Like I’m a pretty slow writer. And I tend to get several drafts out before anybody even sees it. Because this one was a little bit faster. For me. I think maybe it just hasn’t sat with me as long. So I’m done. Not, I don’t have as clear of an idea. I know that there are switches, it takes place in three time periods. So I know that in order to make it the most effective, there’s probably going to be some shuffling of where the scenes go. But I won’t know that until I see it on its feet. So I think this will be a little bit more of a I mean, the first month of rehearsal will be a lot more workshopping rather than pay, let’s get into rehearsal right away. So it’d be nice to sort of get that input and work with people to see how it actually can come together.
Phil Rickaby
When you say that you’re usually a slow writer, like how long does it usually take from like beginning of writing to? It’s, quote unquote, done?
Chantal Forde
I mean, a lot of it depends on if there’s a deadline. So I can be a fast writer. But um, yeah, it also I don’t know, I haven’t actually sat and tracked it out. I guess. I started writing this one in the fall. But then I had to take big breaks because it was in busy productions. Right. So there, I had never, I mean, when I sat down and wrote something straight. I did a short play. It was 30 minutes, I guess. And that took about three weeks to write. So in that case, it didn’t feel very long. But there was a
Phil Rickaby
deadline. Yes, yeah.
Chantal Forde
This one took me 10 years. And really, I mean, I read the article, I knew I wanted this to be a play, but I didn’t actually had the right idea. until the fall. So I guess it’s I guess, usually, for my, this being my third full length, I did a musical as well. On average, it’s a year from pen to paper to I feel comfortable putting this out in the world.
Phil Rickaby
Usually, when you’re going through that process, are you do you bring in people to read it at various points? Or does it just live in your head for most of the time,
Chantal Forde
mostly lives in my head? Yeah. Mostly. When I’ve come to a draft that I’m comfortable sharing, I share with my husband first. He’s also an artist and a writer. So he he’ll do it first, and then give me his feedback. And then I’ll shape it and then I’ll bring in usually a couple of close friends when it’s the second or third draft. To read it with them. And then based on that, I’ll revise it more and then maybe share it with an audience. So because it makes me want to vomit Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
That’s, that’s
Chantal Forde
terrifying every time I share any work the first draft, even with my husband, the first time, it’s just, I’m just panicked because it was like, what if it’s terrible? What if this
Phil Rickaby
is awful? I have I know what you mean, anytime I write something, and, you know, I’ll share with my girlfriend. But you know, people who aren’t in theatres have difficulty reading scripts. So she’s like, when you do reading I want to hear, because then it’ll make sense. Yeah. So then that’s great. But then I’ll get like some people together and the whole time that they’re getting ready to read it. I’m just like, My glasses are fogging up, because my body temperature is so high. I’m like, not sure that I’m sweating. I’m not throwing up, but it’s just like, I just like the tension is so Oh, I don’t even know this is working. Yeah. Yeah. Stressful the whole time. It’s incredible. Yeah. Like, why don’t we do this? It is,
Chantal Forde
how do we how why do we continue to pursue something that we’re clearly insecure about? And that is like, so nerve wracking? But, but then we’re not we can’t be that insecure. Because if we continue to
Phil Rickaby
do it, I think that we’re insecure. Because like that first time, you don’t know if it works, but when it does, oh. Yeah. And then you want to do it again. It’s true. Yeah. Yeah. And so it’s not just like, yes, there’s that little while, like, I’m so insecure, but then once it is working, you’re like, yeah, there’s, it’s true. It’s true. Um, you were mentioning some other productions that you had in the fall, what do you what have you been working on
Chantal Forde
in the in the fall, so my husband and I do a pantomime, out nightfall. And so that is, it’s, it’s a CO production. So it’s semi professional, and most of the professional part is on the technical side. And then we work with the community theatre group, to do the acting side with a couple of professional actors in it. And yeah, so that was our fourth year. Doing it there. Yeah, it’s the total opposite of grey.
Phil Rickaby
So you do that in Oakville, are you living in Oakville? No,
Chantal Forde
I’m from Oakville.
Phil Rickaby
Um, so you go back to Oakville to do this to do this thing is like a way of keeping in touch with home.
Chantal Forde
Um, it was actually it was actually four years ago, my or five years ago, I guess my mother, again, my mother. She was the one that put me in touch with this group that they had just gotten a grant to hire a director, and they wanted to do a family show. And they were thinking about a pantomime. And so she was the one that put me in touch with them. And, and yeah, so thanks, mom.
Phil Rickaby
That’s like a four year thing. Yeah.
Chantal Forde
Yeah, we’re just have confirmed dates for the fifth year. So it’s been it’s been incredible. It’s I guess there’s not a lot of there’s only really one feeder there. And there’s not a tonne of family stuff. There’s like stuff for kids. Yeah. And then there’s lots of adult stuff. And there’s a need for it. And we didn’t know the first year we did four shows because we have no idea how it was gonna go. And they sold out like crazy. And now we do seven shows, and most of them sell out. Yeah. And the kids are just so upset for a lot of them. It’s their first time seeing theatre. Yeah. And
Phil Rickaby
that’s definitely the reason why panto is so important is because for most kids in that have the opportunity to see it. It’s the first time they’re in a theatre, seeing a play. Yeah. Which is incredible to think about.
Chantal Forde
Yeah, that introduction. What a fun way to be introduced to theatre. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. And even writing these shows. Yes, yes. Where do the themes that you’re writing the pencils come from? Do they come to you and say, This is what we would like to do? Or do you just decide on on what it’s going
Chantal Forde
to be that year? We just decided, yeah, we decided on the show and then the sort of themes that we’re going to take the twist up with come after we’ve decided usually on a patio or one in the summer
Phil Rickaby
is the best time to think about a show for the Fall does it is it October November that you do that?
Chantal Forde
We actually do them as we we do them in December, the show’s run in December right over Christmas. But we usually we write them in the summer. Yeah. And then
Phil Rickaby
pentose are celebrating. I find that it’s amazing, but also a little bit tragic that the time when we think about theatre for children is a Christmas. And it’s great that we have this thing that kids are out of school, we have a thing for them to do. But it’s like the one time of year that we actually think we should do something for kids.
Chantal Forde
Yeah, it’s weird. Why like why why not? Yeah, more throughout throughout the year. Throw the summer.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, there are places for it. You’ve got young people’s theatre. Yeah, you’ve got solar stage in North York, but it’s just, it’s like, we do it for kids on a large scale. Because like those panels are often like, a big, big deals. We do it at that one time of year rather than, like, throwing anything for kids on that any other time of year.
Chantal Forde
Yeah. Yeah. It’s, uh, I mean, I guess they’re also thinking that that’s when it’ll sell. Right. From a production standpoint, it’s like you they’re specifically looking for, for something to do. So that’s offered in those times. But yeah, it is. It is unfortunate. And it’s hard to seek it out. Especially if you’re outside of the downtown core. It’s like, all of a sudden, you’re like, am I gonna make the trip? And
Phil Rickaby
yeah, yeah, see this thing? It’s also like, you desperately when you go and stuff like, I’ve got it like this two weeks, but this kid I gotta get something. Yeah, yeah. Is there anything that Hanzo has taught you? That you didn’t know before about writing?
Chantal Forde
It will change daily, depending on your actors. Supposed to be that way. But um, it’s, it’s improved my comedy skills a lot. And definitely, definitely that’s been a big thing is figuring out timing and figuring out when you need the breaks and and how to incorporate that. And so it’s definitely yeah, improved that aspect. That’s probably the biggest thing.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Do you do do you tend to write outside? Have you written grey, and that took you technically 10 years to write but really only like, a few months? Outside of like, things when you have an idea? Do you tend to write really, constantly? Or do you write specific for projects now?
Chantal Forde
I mainly I write for projects. But I mean, I still a journal, always. And I find that I write still poetry, that sort of something that’s just always there, you know, just based on something I saw or an emotion or so that’s probably the constant haven’t really written a short story in a long time. You think about it.
Phil Rickaby
I think about writing short stories, too. And then they turn into plays. Yeah. Right. Because it’s
Chantal Forde
sort of it’s that I mean, it’s that thing that I’m most comfortable with, is there. I do have I do have other projects on the go Good. Good. Just, they’re not theatre, but they are screenplays. Yeah. So it’s still in that world.
Phil Rickaby
I always find that writing something that is not for theatre. My, my instincts and way that I write tends to go so much towards the end, because I don’t have to fill in so many blanks, like this script is a collaboration that doesn’t become completely finished until the director and actors have done their thing. So you write the dialogue and some skeleton of a description. Yeah, then you pass it off to somebody else. Whereas a short story, you got all of it? It’s and it’s different. I find it a different way of looking at writing.
Chantal Forde
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I would be interested to try something like room where it’s in the first person from a specific point of view, right? That was an interesting way of exploring a world that wasn’t theatre,
Phil Rickaby
because then you can think of it like a monologue in a way that like a short story, or a novel is not usually but yeah, writing your writing in
Chantal Forde
person. Yeah. And then figuring out how you get the exposition?
Phil Rickaby
Yes, yes.
Chantal Forde
It would be. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
That’s a
Chantal Forde
cool exercise.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, it would challenge. Yeah, absolutely. Let’s get to this writing. The model of the Euro the first that first time. Do you remember what do you remember about that first model on the euro?
Chantal Forde
I remember that it was a child. I can’t remember exactly. But I feel like it was somebody that was going into a memory of being a child. Because I remember specifically that I had to be very physical. The exercise itself was meant to be very physical. And so it was the it was a child in kindergarten. telling his teacher about a hamster. What about it? I don’t remember these are these are the tiny little things that I remember. Something about a hamster in his experience. In the classroom, maybe the hamster died. Maybe the child accidentally killed the hamster? I don’t remember. But yeah, so it was it was it there was there was a switch and age because that was the physical element that I was bringing in from from the adult into this five or six year old. Yeah, that’s about all I remember.
Phil Rickaby
Do you remember if the first time you were performing that was that you feel as vomitus as you did?
Chantal Forde
No best. Okay. I loved it. I loved it. Because there wasn’t, there wasn’t any expectation of filling somebody else’s words. Or if somebody else had known the monologue. Did you get it? Exactly right. Or other people’s perceptions of what that character should be? I was like, this is just my character. Right? So I make it what it should be. Yeah, no, I had fun during that.
Phil Rickaby
Is they’re like, we’re gonna delve into the psychology of like, so there’s that which was like, nobody knows this. Exhilarating. And then there’s somebody else performing your stuff, which makes you kind of want to vomit. Yeah. First time. Yeah. What can you think about some of these, like the difference between the two? It’s still your words?
Chantal Forde
Yeah. Well, I think part of it was probably an age thing and a comfort thing. It’s probably a bit more fearless. Because I wasn’t being judged on the writing. I was being judged on the acting. Okay. In which I had a bit more confidence at that point where so yeah, so it was more about the performance. And there was no level of expectation, okay. And the audience was my classroom. Right. So there was definitely a comfort level. Yeah, I think that’s that’s pretty much what it is. I think the idea it’s not so much other people speaking my words, because I think if I were to do a one woman show that was online, I would still be terrified now, because it’s not in a classroom and because it is being put out there into the world
Phil Rickaby
having having just done that. Yes. It is more terrifying than anything I’ve done. Yeah,
Chantal Forde
what was the what was the show you were doing?
Phil Rickaby
It was called the commandment. I did it the Hamilton France last year. I was just solo show. So it was like all my words. It’s all me. If they hate this, they like connects you meet through I have.
Chantal Forde
It’s not what I intended. No, it’s like,
Phil Rickaby
everyday, like, more fear. Yeah. than I’ve ever had.
Chantal Forde
Yeah. No. Stage. Right. And then after, after what I’m
Phil Rickaby
saying the first time it was just like, it was like, this railroad. It was just like, it went and it was exhilarating. But it was just like a sort of like, I’m almost done. Now. It’s done. I feel good. And that was fine. But the second time was exhilarating. Just after getting over that first time. But the performing of performance of the solo monologue is a probably one of the most terrifying things I’ve done. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I bet. But I kind of recommend like Now I’ve done it. I’m like, do want to do more. I can see
Chantal Forde
that. Yeah, I can see that. And because they’re great. Like Rick Miller.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Dennis Guyver. For me, like, yeah, like I read his stuff. And
Chantal Forde
this guy, yeah. Bigger than Jesus was one of my favourite shows. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the first one I ever did was from house.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, mine was wild abandoned was the first one. Like, just like I could, I could sort of like mark my life, my theatre life in various Daniel. Just like, ones that I was reading and obsessing over at the time. Would you ever think about doing a show solo yourself?
Chantal Forde
Yeah, I did. I have I have thought about it. I haven’t thought of a story. And I don’t know if I’ll actually have the courage to do it. But a friend of mine, who I met during a fringe show a couple of years ago, she was interested in doing one she actually is doing it. This fringe. I don’t know what it’s called, though. Who’s your friend out of balance? I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s turned out to be a lot of conversation about how she would approach to the subject matter and how she was going to write it. And it sort of inspired me I was like, This is so brief and so interesting. And, and I have some ideas, but I’m not exactly sure how I would go about it. Be Yeah, I think I would at some point.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, writing something like that is the question because it’s sort of a different animal than writing. Oh, like, it’s like So many different voices and dialogue and yeah, it’s like, it’s like, how do you approach this with one voice? Yeah.
Chantal Forde
Yeah. It’d be interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I think at some point, I would probably try because it’s still like performing and can still love that. Yeah. And don’t do it all that often, but
Phil Rickaby
it’s great way to do it. Yeah. Have have the agenda venue yet for
Chantal Forde
past summer. I mean, space. Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. That’s
Phil Rickaby
great. Yeah. I’m very excited. Yeah. And I, yeah, I mean, it’s a great such a great space. And I think it’s really close to the fringe type this year.
Chantal Forde
It is quite Oh, yeah. It’s really close. Yeah. It’s like it will be the venue. It’s just in Bathurst. Right. Is this thing? Yeah. So yeah, it’s just the street. Yeah. Oh, that’s convenient to bridge base. That’s convenient now. Oh, yeah. For your super close. It’s true. Because last year was Randolph that was right across the street. So it’s like, oh, there’s your show. Starting in 10 minutes. Let’s go. Yeah,
Phil Rickaby
now you’ve got I’ve got shows right over here, guys. This is a great way to Yeah.
Chantal Forde
Good. Thank you. Yeah, you got to be great.
Phil Rickaby
It was a great venue. Well, we’re pretty much out of time. But thank you so much for talking to me.
