Tamlynn Bryson
Tamlynn is an actor, writer, occasional director, infrequent musician, and constant avid cheese lover (despite her lactose intolerance.) She completed her BFA in Acting with a Certificate in Arts Management at the University of Windsor in 2015. Recent credits include: Writer/Performer for Bedwetter (Drawing Board Productions); Lisa Fulvi in Evidence to the Contrary (Tree of Life Theatre); Bassianus in Titus Andronicus (Seven Siblings Theatre); Writer/Performer for #staystrong (Drawing Board Productions); Candy in Make Love Not War (Small But Mighty Productions); Performer/Producer/Co-‐Creator for (in)decision (Drawing Board Productions). Tamlynn is also a member of the sketch comedy group Cookie Biscuits, who can be found on YouTube or at cookie-biscuits.com. She hopes to also eventually pursue stand-up, but feels she must first conquer her intense fear of failure. So…stay tuned.
www.tamlynnbryson.com
@tamlynnbryson
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Transcript
Welcome to episode 91 of Stageworthy, I am your host, Phil Rickaby. As always, Stageworthy features conversations with Canadian theatre makers, from actor to director to playwright and more. My guest this week is performer-creator Tamlynn Bryson.
Last summer, I had the pleasure of seeing her show Indecision at the Hamilton Fringe Festival, and this year, her new show Bedwetter has played at the London and Windsor Fringe Festivals, and I’m sure you’ll be seeing that next year as well. If you like what you hear, I hope that you’ll consider going to your favourite podcast app and leaving a comment or rating, those things really help people find the show, and 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 stageworthypodcast.com. And here’s my conversation with Tamlynn Bryson.
Your last show, Indecision, the last show that I saw was Indecision, I loved the premise of it. Thank you. As far as, like, that idea that it’s like this moment in time that takes place really over like three to five seconds, but we’re, well, why don’t you describe what Indecision is? Yeah, sure.
My flyering pitch at Fringe Festivals is it takes place inside of a woman’s brain right after she’s been proposed to, and it’s the ten seconds when she decides if she’s going to say yes or no. It’s an interactive show where I talk to the audience. The audience kind of plays the different parts of my brain, and I ask their advice, which is always a risky thing when promoting it, because some people really hate audience interaction, which is totally fair, but then some people, when you’re flyering, will be like, you should say no.
You should say no to marriage. I’ll be like, oh, then you should come see the show, and you should tell her that. She might listen to you.
Yeah, so that was Indecision, so it was a fictional show that my creative partner Kyle Kimmerly and I wrote, but like kind of loose elements of the character, I would say, were loosely based on me, whereas in Bedwetter, I’m just me. Okay, well, let’s talk about Bedwetter. So, after Indecision, which is a fictional moment that is loosely based on you, what brought you to Bedwetter? It was actually when I was touring last year during the French festivals, and I was seeing all these really amazing storytelling shows, and I left this one, and I felt like, man, that’s so cool.
I really wish I could do something like that, but I don’t have any interesting stories to tell. Nothing that cool has really happened to me, or nothing that hard or whatever, because there are people doing these really brave shows about their struggles with cancer or really hard family relationships. I was like, I guess there was that thing where I went to bed until I was 14, but who cares? But then I was like, oh, that might be cool, and then I got a Fringe slot.
I got into the London Fringe before I knew which show I was going to do. I knew I wanted to take a little break from Indecision just to create something new, and I went to Kyle, my partner, with a few ideas. I don’t actually remember this, but the way he tells the story is that I said these four ideas I was excited about and then said, oh, yeah, and then there’s also this idea I could talk about how I went to bed until I was 14, and he thought that was the most interesting one.
Okay. Yeah. How do you go about writing that show? It started with a lot of just telling the stories to Kyle, and a lot of this was stuff that I hadn’t thought about in years.
And yeah, it was my first storytelling show, my first thing based on my life, so there’s a lot of trying to navigate, one, what’s the style of storytelling we’re telling, and trying to figure out maybe this is interesting to me, but no one really cares, or maybe this part I don’t think is interesting is actually interesting. So a lot of it just started with me talking to Kyle about it. Kyle and I really like to devise on our feet.
A lot of our work is we’ll kind of improvise something and then come back and talk about it and then improvise again, and through that, create a script. Yeah, so a lot of it came out of just storytelling, and then we also like to think, okay, well, how can we fuck with this moment? We like changing up our styles, kind of similarly to Indecision, how there were kind of cutaways, kind of vignettes of like, now we’re in an 80s sitcom or whatever. That kind of like, okay, well, can this moment be, like the show starts with a Law and Order style segment of me interrogating my bladder, asking why I’ve done this to me.
Yeah, so it kind of goes, it’s interesting. I was worried it would be too similar to Indecision, but a lot of the feedback was, you can tell it’s the same creative team, but it’s not the same show, which is cool. Did that feedback come from like workshops, or was that like just like you went in and you performed it and that’s the feedback you got? Pretty much the second one.
We had a mini, so we did two Fringe Festivals. We did the London Fringe, and then about a month later did the Windsor Rockerville Fringe Festival. So we had a one-night preview in Toronto at the Social Capital right before we went to London, and then a few weeks before that, we had kind of a living room open dress rehearsal where we opened it up to feedback.
So that was kind of our little workshop. And that actually was the first time someone was like, don’t worry, it’s not the same show as Indecision. It’s kind of the feedback that you want with a second show.
I mean, because it’s the same team, there’s certain similarities that are going to come in. So you really want, even if it’s just like that one voice to say, don’t worry, it’s not the same. It’s not exactly the same.
But I do like that people could see a similar style, because that’s also kind of a cool like, oh, we’re kind of creating a brand. I really respect Sextyrex’s work, and I’ve only seen a couple of their shows, and they’ve been very different shows, but you can see a similar style. And so I know, oh, I want to go see a Sextyrex show, because I like what they’ve done, but I want to see what they’re going to do next.
Yeah. I mean, you always know with a Sextyrex show, there’s going to be something, there’s going to be an action sequence, there’s going to be something in it, and it’s going to be some kind of genre that you’re going to take the genre, and they’re going to turn it on its head. It’s always going to be dynamic.
Yeah. You know, it’s going to be funny. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. So how did, how were those two fringes for you? They went really well.
Yeah, it was very, kind of scary. Definitely when we began writing the show, it was super scary, because this was kind of personal stuff that I hadn’t talked about in years. And then there’s also worries of like, is this just therapy on stage, you know, and does anyone care? Like, is this a worthwhile play and story, or is this just Tamlin wants to talk? But then going through like almost a year or whatever it was, eight months of a rehearsal process, I got less scared of telling people that I used to wet the bed.
So I wasn’t nervous in that respect, premiering it at London. London was a new festival for us. Have you never done a London festival before? I’ve never done London before.
I’ve never done London either, so I don’t know much about how it is as a festival. I really enjoyed it. It’s kind of a similar feel to Hamilton.
I would say maybe a little bigger, a little bit more of a beer tent nightlife, but kind of a similar size, and I just said it was bigger and it’s a similar size, but that kind of feel where you’ll pretty much meet everyone as long as people are out and about, which is a really nice feel. Do people go out? Yeah. For the Hamilton fringe, I kind of felt like for the most part, most people didn’t go out.
That’s how I felt as well, or I would go out every night and then be like, there’s two people here. I got that a lot. Like I’d be like, okay, so I’m going to go, I’ve done my show, let’s go hang out.
And then I’d be like, oh, there’s you and there’s, okay, all right, I guess I’m going home. Yeah. London was, there were definitely some nights that were bigger than others, but I think Kyle and I went to their designated bar pretty much every night and there were always some people there.
So they have a designated bar as well, like Hamilton did? Yes. Yeah. Similar to that.
It’s hard to do a tent thing. I mean, everybody does, every fringe does its own thing, but it’s hard to have an area that’s yours. Not everyone can do that.
Yeah. It’s definitely tricky and it was something, I think they were doing it at a bar that they hadn’t done that before. So like I felt the servers were working so hard.
I felt so, I was like, I’m so sorry that we’re all here. I’m sure they weren’t because they were still getting tips. But yeah, really nice nightlife.
Lovely, lovely people. One of those festivals where you like get to know the volunteers pretty well, which is always really lovely. Yeah.
Yeah. And it went well. We didn’t make a ton of money, but we did come out ahead.
So that’s all that matters. That’s important. I always, you know, anytime you’re doing a theatre, if you can come out, if you can break even or come out ahead even a little bit, you’re doing okay.
Yeah, exactly. It’s definitely a festival I want to go back to. And it’s cool because we haven’t done Indecision there before.
Right. So you could. We could always go back next year.
We don’t need to write a whole new show for it. Yeah. And then Windsor was, Windsor was really nice because, especially because Kyle is from Windsor.
So we had very, really awesome, friendly audiences. Uh, there was one show that was a, um, it was like a two o’clock on a Wednesday or something like that. And we were like, oh, no one’s going to come to this show.
And Kyle’s grandmother was like, Kyle’s grandmother said, oh, okay, I’ll bring all my friends that day. And that was our biggest audience. Um, yeah.
Windsor was a fun time. It’s a pretty small festival. It’s 13 shows.
Okay. Which is cool. Cause we saw all of them.
Oh yeah. Yeah. And then there were even, there were days where like, we don’t even need to go today because we’ve seen all the shows that are playing today.
Which is weird. Cause usually at a fringe, I’m like, I need to see five each day and I’m going to miss half of them. It’s hard with some of the, like, you know, the Toronto fringes, uh, well, Winnipeg and Edmonton, they’re, they’re fringes that, um, like the show started like noon or one in the afternoon and go into the evening.
Whereas, uh, something like Hamilton, they start like maybe five or six, right. Some of the smaller fringes are like that. It’s sometimes hard to know how to fill your day.
Yes. When there’s those, like number one, when the show starts at five and also when you like, you’ve seen all the shows. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Uh, and you’re like, how, how much can I flyer today? How much, how much inner strength do I have in me? Do you, do you, do you find flyering difficult? Um, I go back and forth. It’s one of those things. I, I’ll always walk out and be like, ugh, I don’t want to do this.
And then once I start doing it, I’m like, oh, I actually don’t like, I like that. I like talking to people. I like talking to people on my show.
I do find it something that gets harder as the festival goes on, partially because you’re getting tired as a performer. And I think the audience is also getting frustrated with constantly being pitched too. They know what shows they’re going to see.
Yeah. I often think it’s, it’s hard at a smaller fringe cause you are kind of seeing the same people. Yeah.
You don’t want to flyer people more than once. You know, it’s hard to remember who you flyered. That’s when I do that.
Have I already talked to you about my show bed better as if like I kind of remember you and then it’s like, no, I’m like, oh great. And it’s like, yes, like I thought so. How are you doing today? I shouldn’t have told my secret on that.
That’s okay. They won’t. I’m sure they’re not listening.
They’re seeing shows at other fringes I’m sure. Have you, have you done other, like some of the larger fringes, like in Western Canada? I haven’t gone out West yet. I would really like to, uh, Toronto is the largest one I’ve done.
I’ve done Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Windsor, London. Okay. I feel like I’m forgetting one.
Um. Did you do Montreal? No, I’ve never done Montreal. You’d remember Montreal.
I would remember Montreal. Or maybe I wouldn’t. It all depends.
I’d remember some of the days. Maybe not many of the nights. Not many of the nights.
No. That’s, that’s a common theme. Yeah.
Montreal fringe. When did you start performing or what, when was it that you realized that performing was something that you wanted to do? Uh, yeah. It’s actually funny.
I was, uh, you had my sister on the podcast a few weeks ago, Christina Bryson. I didn’t. I wasn’t.
So here’s the thing. I sat down and I, I started talking to her and I heard her name and I almost said, are you Tamlynn’s sister? But I didn’t want to make an assumption. Right.
But I was like, I wonder if that’s Tamlynn’s sister. Yeah. That’s my big sister.
So it’s funny. I was listening to that, that episode and her story of getting involved in theatre is linked to my story. Okay.
But her account of it, um, as, as detailed on the podcast was my sister was this weird kid and our parents were like, what do we do with this thing? And put her in drama classes. And she was always talking to her hands. Like I was not always talking to my hands.
There was like a week where I named my hands and feet. Um, but which is true. Like, I think I was a kid with a lot of energy and my parents thought that that would be a good fit for me, but I remember it as, um, I was in a play in grade one, um, little red riding hood.
I was a little red riding hood. Yeah. Um, always the star.
No, no, not, not sure at all. Um, and I remember at the end of the play, I was supposed to spin around and say my last line and I spun and I tripped on my cape and I fell and all the parents laughed. And then I stood up and looked at the director and I said, should I do that again? And all the parents laughed again.
And that was when I learned that when you make a mistake on stage, you just keep going valuable lesson. But yeah, after that play, that was the first time I was in a play and I said something to my parents about like, I want to keep doing this. And they found summer camps and such.
An afterschool program at the Ottawa school of speech and drama is where I spent a lot of my life as a child and as a teenager. And then, yeah, it was kind of always in my mind what I wanted to do when I grew up. And then I had a mini, like when you get to grade 11, grade 12 and you have to start actually like, do I not take math this year? And if I don’t take math, I can’t apply for these 20 things in university.
It’s like that moment where suddenly you’re like, am I really going to do this? Yeah. Now they’re making me decide things. That I’m maybe not ready to decide.
So I had my little, my little doubts there. And I did apply to three universities for psychology as well as theatre schools. Um, but I actually, my in grade 11, uh, in my high school, they did a show called the neon Bible project the year ahead of me, the grade 12s that year as their graduating show.
And they took it to the Edinburgh fringe festival. Um, and I went with them as sound operator and just, that was my first, I guess my first fringe that wasn’t the Ottawa fringe. How old were you at that point? Uh, grade 11.
So 17, I would just, it was the summer after. You went to the Edinburgh fringe at 17? Yeah. Yeah.
That must’ve been intense. Yeah. But like amazing.
Just like, I mean, it’s just a beautiful place, like all these beautiful Hills. And then you’re walking the streets and like everyone, there’s just flyers everywhere. Everyone’s excited about theatre.
And I saw some of my favorite shows that I’ve ever seen there. And I think that was really the trip where I still went through and applied to the psychology schools. But I think that was a trip where I was like, that’s what I want to do.
And I was seeing plays that I was like, yes, that’s what I want to create. That’s the kind of thing that I want to experience and make other people experience. Um, so I think that was really one of the, which is cool that it’s a fringe.
And now that’s something I’m trying to do a little more. Did anybody fight you on the, doing this as a, as a, like a career thing? Uh, I don’t think anybody fought me on it. Um, my parents were very, were and are very supportive.
Um, kind of just random strangers or like acquaintance, like friends, mom’s friend, you know, like I remember when I was in, when I was in theatre school, having a conversation with one of my friends, mom’s friends and saying like, Oh yeah, I’m in theatre school. And she kind of gave me this speech about like, Oh, you know, that’s going to be hard. And I have this friend who’s an actor and he is always paycheck to paycheck and blah, blah, blah.
And I was like, what are you doing? Are you trying to get me to drop out of school? Like I’m already. And also as well, I was like, do you think I’m not aware that this is hard? Well, the parental people with that instinct are trying to save you from poor decisions or what they think are poor decisions. Yes.
And a life of disappointment. I have met people who are the disappointed actor in later life. Um, and you know, I, I’ve, I’ve met a couple like that and you know, I could see if that’s what you think the world is, then, you know, you might be better and things like that.
But I think a lot of us, I think most people that I’ve spoken to, we go into this with our eyes open. Oh yeah, absolutely. And theatre schools kind of make sure that you go into it with your eyes open.
There’s nobody who’s, who’s like giving you the illusion that you are going to live in a gorgeous apartment. Yeah. Pretty much like the first thing they tell you, one of the first things they told us at theatre school was they were like, okay, you’re all talented and you know that.
And like, that’s, it’s not a big deal anymore. Like. What school did you go to? I went to the University of Windsor.
Okay. Um, which was, uh, I really, really enjoyed my time there. But yeah, it was kind of like in high school, you’re maybe the one of a few people who kind of like maybe stand out a little bit.
Um, and then you get to theatre school and those were all the people who stood out a little bit in high school and, and yeah, they’re very, you know, I, I found Windsor still a very encouraging atmosphere, but yeah, they’re realistic about like your, it’s not just your talent that’s going to get you by. Having talent doesn’t make you special anymore. You need to do other things.
And, um, which is also when, when like people I barely knew would start lecturing me on how hard it is to act. I was like, yeah, like my teachers tell me that every day. Like my teachers who’ve lived this life.
Yeah. Um. It’s always important is I think that if you go to a theatre school to have teachers that, that do it and have.
Yeah. If you have somebody who’s like being at the university for 20 years, then they’re not necessarily in it. Yeah, for sure.
Uh, when I was auditioning for George Brown, we got the, no one wants you speech. Like they sat us in a room and the head of the, the head of acting at the time, Peter Wilde gave us, no one wants you. That was his first line.
Right. That’s the, you know, you’re a dime a dozen all this time. Of course we were all like 18, 19 years old going, fuck you man.
How dare you? How dare you? I will conquer all. You have no idea. No idea.
Of course we all learned. Fredrick and Cheyne. Yeah.
I mean, we all figured out what he really meant during the year. Yeah. You know, about what it’s like as, as an actor, but you know, I think even knowing that most of us, I think all of us would have like pursued the same thing.
Yeah. I mean, we were in our twenties. What did we know? I know a lot of people who stopped.
Yup. Um, cause you know, when you hit 30 ish, you start to think, huh, having stuff is kind of cool. Yeah.
You know, Be nice to own a house or just rent a nice one. Be able to have an apartment and not have roommates, you know? Yeah. But, um, when you were applying for school, did you apply for a bunch of schools? Yeah.
Um, yeah, I applied for five theatre schools. I applied for Windsor, Ryerson, George Brown, National Theatre School and Studio 58 in Vancouver. Um, I actually ended up not going to my Ryerson or George Brown auditions.
Uh, cause I was living in Ottawa at the time and I’d already gotten accepted to Windsor. Okay. And I, I like, I really respect both those programs, but I had kind of like toured them and I, I got the sense that I wouldn’t have been as good of a fit there.
I think they’re a little bit more, um, especially George Brown, a little bit more, yeah, nobody wants you to speech, like a little more like harsh reality, a little more tough love. And I don’t think my fragile 18 year old self could have quite. I mean, I, I think, you know, our, my fragile self retreated into a lot of stuff when I was, when I was there.
Yeah. But, um, you know, it’s just how we deal. Yeah.
And I mean, not that Windsor was all, you know, butterflies and roses either. I definitely had to face some hard truths about myself and all that. But yeah, I had already gotten into Windsor and I, I wasn’t living in Toronto.
So I was like, okay, I’m going to, we’re going to spend money to go Toronto and pay this audition fee and do this audition just to see if I can get in. And I was in rehearsal for another show at the time and I was like, oh, whatever, let’s just not go. But I kind of always, you know, I will always wonder if I, I always wonder if I would have gotten in.
But here’s the question. Here’s the important question is if you’d gotten in, do you think that you would have taken, you would have gone? No, no, no. I don’t think so.
Cause I think that’s why I was so. Then there’s no, there’s no reason to. Exactly.
Really no reason to wonder cause you wouldn’t have gone anywhere. I wouldn’t have gone. I was just, I’m just like, I wonder if I would have gotten in.
But then in my head I can just be like, I would have. It’s fine. Hypothetically.
You don’t even have to. Yeah. Um, when did you, so, I mean, you had this really early experience at the Edinburgh Fringe, seeing people who created shows and performing them.
Um, when did you figure out or decide that that’s what you wanted to do? Was it at, when you were at Edinburgh or did it take you a while to figure that out? I don’t really know. I think I, I think I’ve always been interested in creating work. Um, and in our, in our high school, I went to an arts high school in Ottawa called Canterbury.
Um, you know, you have no idea how many people I have run into who went to Canterbury. I, yeah, I’m not surprised. If I meet, I meet people and, and I almost know that one person in the group or at least one, two people are, if they say they’re Ottawa, I’m like Canterbury.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, we did a lot of kind of like devised stuff there, like collective work.
Um, and we did a lot of devised work at Windsor and that, that was, uh, really interesting to me and something that really interested me, like the, the shows that did, uh, really catch my attention when I went to the Edinburgh Fringe festivals. Um, and when I saw like shows at the Ottawa Fringe when I was younger, um, were those ones that were kind of different and like, to me were clearly written in a different way or conceived in a different way. Right.
Um, yeah. And then I guess I, in third year, I was just like, I want to write a one woman show. I want to, something that was really drilled into us at Windsor is that you need to create your own work.
Um, especially at the beginning, whether that’s… Do you have any idea how rare that is for people to say? Really? Well, I’m, well, here’s the question. Did they also teach you about how to produce it or did they just say you have to create your own work? Um, yes and no. Um, I, I took a certificate in arts management from the University of Windsor as well.
Um, so I had a bit of a leg up on how to produce. Um, but I think what I learned the most from, through that program was the internships was like actually doing it. Okay.
Um, yeah. And I think it’s something that they, they kind of tried to teach us, but I feel like, I feel like a lot of people are kind of like, well, we want to create stuff, but how, how do we do it? Um, or it was something, you know, our profs would help us with if we went to them, but wasn’t necessarily taught in classes. Yeah.
Um. I think that that’s the missing piece of the puzzle and I’m waiting for theatre schools to start doing that. Yeah.
Um, you know, more and more people are acknowledging that, that, you know, you have to create your own work. Yes. But nobody’s really saying, and this, these are the skills that you need to do that.
Yes. They’re kind of assuming that your career is still going to be, go to the audition, get the job, go to the audition, get the job. Without like the, create the work, perform, produce the work, perform the work, get in the audition.
Like it’s interspersed with that kind of stuff. Yeah. So how did you, how did you learn to produce? I’m still learning.
Yeah. Um, yeah, so a lot of the intros to it were from, from my arts administration courses. Like I learned how to write a press release from that and, um, which I still sometimes I’m not sure.
I’m like, is this still the format people use? I don’t know. Am I doing it right? It’s one of those things that for me is still like the mystery. Like, especially if you’re creating the show, like I can’t see.
It’s hard to be like, okay, I have all these things in my head. Yeah. How do I put this into a press release so that it sounds like something you want to see? And something you want to write about.
Something that’s interesting to like publish an article about. Um, Bad Weather has like a nice edge to it because, because it’s based on true story and like you can work stuff in in there about like bullying and coming to terms with who you are. Like Indecision I found tricky to write a press release for.
Um, yeah, so I guess I just, I learned some stuff from the University of Windsor and then some stuff from, uh, I did an internship with a company of fools, uh, which is an Ottawa Shakespeare meets clown theatre group. So I learned some stuff. Yeah.
Uh, they’re really lovely. I learned a lot from working with them. And then a lot of it, you kind of just figure out and make mistakes.
Uh, like one of our first, our first year Indecision was initially called Working Title Undecided because it was about making decisions. And we thought that was a clever title. But as a marketing, from marketing standpoint, people thought the show wasn’t finished.
People thought it was going to be unpolished because of that title. We were constantly explaining why we thought the title was funny. And we were like, well, maybe it’s not funny if we have to explain it.
Um, or last year when I did a French tour, I was like, I don’t have enough pictures. People are always asking me for pictures for media, for like newspapers and stuff. And I’m like, here’s my poster.
They’re like, okay, do you have anything else? I’m like, nope. Or like, here’s this one rehearsal shot that’s kind of not the best quality. So I’m still learning as I go.
And what’s nice about, what I really like about French festivals is that some of it, they help you with, you know, like they are providing you with a venue. They’re providing you with a technician. Um, they’re doing some marketing for you.
Um, but yeah, I’m still, or there’s still always something that I either forget about or I leave. You know, when you leave something until you still have enough time to do it, but now it’s stressful. Um, there’s a lot of that this year.
Like, oh, I still have time to get out my press release, but I need to do it like today. The funny thing, the thing that I find is that, you know, you, you in theory know the things that you have to get. And then, but then there’s also like all the other million things.
And so you’re trying to decide, you’re trying to prioritize, especially for friends where it’s like, uh, this is all me. You’re like, you know, who’s your team? Me? Yeah, me. Or it’s like me and Kyle.
And then there’s only so much that. And as producer, like I sometimes end up kind of being costume designer and props designer, or like, we’re kind of sharing that. But if, yeah, uh, yeah, it’s those weird little, or I did a play last year at the Ottawa Fringe Festival called Hashtag Stay Strong.
And that one, I wanted to do it on my own. I wanted to do it all by myself just to see if I could. So I was writing it, acting in it, directing it.
I had a stage manager, but she didn’t come on until kind of like right before we went to Fringe. Um, cause I was like, ah, I just need someone to like run the show, right? And I was like, no, stage managers do a lot of rehearsal processes that would have been useful. Um, to have someone up there.
And then it was also a multimedia show. So I was also doing all this sound design and like trying to create this like PowerPoint slideshow to go under the whole thing without really knowing what I was doing. And it was, and also producing it.
And it was too much. It was too much and it was not fun. And I think the, uh, the work suffered for it because I stopped enjoying it.
And I didn’t become an actor to go into a room by myself and talk to myself alone. Five times a week. That’s so fun.
Um, I’ve sort of, when I’m thinking about the self-producing stuff, I’m trying to see what I can front load. Like how early can I get pictures done? How early can I like, and you know, I ended up making my own poster. So how early, once I have a picture, how early can I at least get the basic poster done? And then like figure out where details are going to go.
And how much can I front load before I don’t have time anymore? Cause I’m rehearsing and trying to put the show together. That’s a really great way of looking at it. I’m always like, I don’t need to do pictures yet.
Right? And it’s hard when you haven’t written the show yet. That’s what I struggle with is like, I don’t know what the promotional pictures will be yet. Cause I don’t know exactly what, whatever.
In a way, I think you need to plan to do two sets of promotional pictures. There’s pictures that may be used for early publicity or maybe the post some imagery for the poster. When it’s all high concept.
And then once you have the show, you get a photographer to come in and like shoot in the space. Rehearsal or something like that. So you have like some actual show pictures, but it doesn’t matter really how accurate the poster pictures or the promo pictures are.
Cause they don’t matter quite as much as the production photos. Maybe I’m wrong about that. And like probably your show isn’t going to completely change.
Like, you know, Bedwetter is me standing in a diaper. Like it’s probably still, no matter what the show turns out to be, me standing in a diaper will probably be relevant if it’s still called Bedwetter. I often, like for me, I, if the, usually start with, with an image.
And if you’ve got a good image, then I say like, get that photograph done or get the photographs done. So you have that imagery. Cause that’s your initial sales image.
Cause it’s the first thing that occurred to you. And then like base stuff around that. And sure, maybe it’s not completely accurate, but it doesn’t need to be.
To get the phones in the seat. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. Producing is a weird one. It’s, it’s also, I’ve never produced when I’m not also acting in it and also like kind of writing and finishing up the show.
So it’s always this thing that, yeah, it gets this stressful point of, like you’re saying when you’re in knee deep in rehearsals and then you’re like, Oh, I forgot to do this. I need to buy buttons. We’re going to sell buttons and I don’t have buttons.
You sell buttons? Yeah. We sold buttons this, I give buttons away. We did them, we did them by donation, which is nice.
So like some, and some people, we just give them to like our, our technicians or whatever. And then some people give you like a dollar, but then some people will give you five or your dad will give you 20 and you’ll be like, all right. I won’t say no.
Or some people, yeah, they’ll just really love your show. And it’s just another on their way out. Like, Hey, grab a button.
It’s by donation. And then if they just take one, it’s still, you know, cost you whatever, 30, 40 cents. And it’s promotion.
But if they want to drop you five bucks, it’s pretty sweet. That helps to go towards the cost of the thing. Yeah.
The beer. Or the beer. Yeah.
Oh, and the show. And the show. I was thinking about the show.
I mean, usually at the end of the show, the beer is the more pressing concern. Yeah. It’s funny because the whole producing thing is you end up writing the press release when you’re like in the thick of rehearsal.
Cause that’s when you’re like, okay, now I need to know. Now I know what the show is and now I have to write a press release. And it’s like the worst time to write the press release.
Yeah. I don’t even know how to navigate that. Yeah.
Does the production stuff, not like the course, the certificate from the school, does that help at all with that? Or are you as lost as when it comes time to do that? I mean, it definitely helped again in the sense that I have a format to follow. But yeah, this year I was like in a Starbucks trying not to cry, being like, I need to get this done tonight. I also, one of the things I’m constantly reminding myself is that it’s okay to ask for help, especially like when I have Kyle there as my creative partner.
And we were kind of this year, I took on, we both wrote it, he directed it, I was acting and then he took on more of the stage manager responsibilities and I was taking on more of the producing responsibilities. Then there was one day we were rehearsing and I was like, I’m so stressed out. I need to get all these things done.
And he was like, do you need me to do anything? And I was like, yeah, if you could just get the posters printed, everything would be fine. Like I’ve already got them designed, they’re made. If you can just, it was this one tiny thing.
I mean, not tiny, it still took him time of course, but just like, right, I have a partner, I can ask for help. And even when I was doing Hashtag Stay Strong all by myself, like a lot of my friends were like, I would have helped put up posters for you. And some did and it was great.
It can be a hard thing to realize that asking for help is not a failure. Yeah, well, and I wanted, I don’t like asking for free help, especially from my artist friends. Cause that happens so much.
Yeah. And that’s a tough one for, for fringe. Yeah.
Because you’re thinking, you feel like, okay, people should get paid. I know I’m not getting paid, but people should get paid for doing what they’re doing. But I need the help.
And I know they’re willing, but they should be paid. You go back and forth. There’s no real great way to do it.
Exactly. But, but then knowing that, you know, some people are like, yeah, I’ll help you out with, with your publicity. And then next time we do something, maybe you can help us out.
Like maybe you can help us hang posters next year. Maybe you can volunteer at our fundraiser. Like remembering that, oh, right.
Other people need small free things too. And if we’re, if we’re trading, it’s not quite the same as, just asking someone to do free work. Yeah.
I think that that’s sort of like an important part of the indie community is that, is that we need to feel like we can do that kind of stuff. Like, I think we all bear our cross and we’re like, I’m, I’m, oh, it’s all me. I have to do all this stuff.
And, but you know, we can help each other. You help me and I help you. Yeah.
Which is one of those things that it’s good to remember that, you know, we’re all in it together. Yeah. High school musical.
Oh yeah. That’s got a barn. Let’s do a show.
I didn’t know where that came from. Yeah. Was there a barn in high school musical? No.
Like a, no. Cause I never saw high school musical. My, my thing, like they were all the, the old Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney movies.
Like I’m old, so I’m not even that old. Like not that old, but that’s sort of my brain line. So, yeah.
Do you remember what the first piece of theatre that you saw was? I don’t. My parents used to take me to the, one of the museums would have plays a lot. I can’t remember which one.
Probably the Museum of Civilization. Mm-hmm. We would do that a lot as kids.
Yeah. I don’t, I don’t know. It’s kind of always been something that.
Okay. Well, it sounds like your parents, I mean, you said you were mentioning going to the Ottawa Fringe when you were younger. Yeah.
And that’s something that I think a lot of people don’t do with their kids. Yeah. I think, I feel like Fringe I started going to more like in high school times, but yeah, I feel like my, my parents definitely took us to like the National Arts Center occasionally.
And we’d see like musicals when they came through town. And, and like, my parents are still, you know, seasoned subscribers to a couple of theatres in Ottawa. Nice.
Which is nice because sometimes with your friends and family, you’re like, are you just going to plays because I’m in plays and you feel bad for us? You’re like, oh no, you just are doing this. It’s nice to know that they like, just like theatre. Yeah.
Yeah. But yeah, I don’t, I don’t remember. I was thinking about that with movies the other day.
Some, some people remember the first movie they ever saw in theatres. I’m like, I have no idea. See, now that you brought it up, I’m trying to remember.
Actually, actually, um, I know because I lived in Belleville and there was a, a drive-in in Belleville that opened every season with Dumbo. Right. So the first thing they would show every year is Disney’s Dumbo.
And that was the first movie I ever saw. First play, I couldn’t tell you. Yeah.
I have a couple of vague memories of a couple of Pantos or kids shows. Yeah. I don’t know what they were.
I have this memory of a play that was being performed in our elementary school. And they were doing this bit where one, one of the actors was kind of manipulating the other actor as if it was like a doll, as if it was kind of like a ventriloquist puppet. And I remember having this moment where I forgot that he was human for a second.
And I just believed he was a doll because they were doing it so well. And then I was like, whoa. That’s so awesome.
Yeah. I remember that moment so clearly. Um, and that must’ve been like grade like two or three.
Um, the magic of theatre. The important thing of like having plays that come into schools. Um, regardless of, of how big or small they are.
Yeah. You know, at a certain age, kids will go with anything. Yeah.
And once they hit like 10 or 11, they don’t think they won’t go with anything. Yeah. But they’ll also, young kids will also call you out.
I’m bored. It doesn’t make sense. They’re an honest audience.
They’re very honest. They will not sit quietly and clap politely. No.
That’s something we’re thinking about with Bedwetter is adapting it to be a school performance. It’s something a lot of people, um, when they see it, have said, you know, have you thought about bringing this to schools? And it’s definitely, we’re really interested with it. It’s just tricky.
It’s tricky because right now in my mind, it’s written for, it’s written for an adult audiences. And some subs, you know, like we can take out the swearing. That’s easy.
Um, like there’s a section where I talk about, um, in grade seven and eight, I got bullied, um, unrelated to the bedwetting. Yeah. Um, but it was a, you know, another layer of what would, how much worse would the bullying get if they knew that I was wetting the bed.
And, and I kind of am in that section talking about how like, grade seven is this terrible time and it’s, you don’t want to be the new kid. You don’t want to be the weird kid. You don’t want to be that kid who goes to musical theatre camp and sings to herself.
Um, which is kind of for adults to look back on that. It’s kind of, they can laugh at it, but if you’re, I don’t know, if you’re presenting to a grade six class and the next year they’re going to grade seven, you don’t want to just be like, it’s going to suck. But maybe there’s a way we can adapt that sec.
But also kids going through that are like, yeah, you’re right. So just things like that, that how can we adapt that to still, still keep the truth of what it is, but maybe be a little more delicate with it. Yeah.
Sometimes it’s hard to know whether you should or not. Like if you wrote something for an audience, a particular audience, does it lose something if you adapt it to something else? Right. And it’s hard to know.
Cause it might seem like, oh, this could work in schools if we make some changes. Right. But then is it still the same show? Right.
Hard to know. Yeah, it’s tricky. And like what, cause right now, just with like, you know, if we take out some fucks, we could do it at, um, high schools pretty easily.
Like I think it’d be that age group would be well suited to. Do you really have to take out the fucks for high school? I don’t know. I don’t know if you do.
Cause I have a friend who does a, who’s done a solo show at a couple of high schools and she, I think she kept the shits and fucks in. All right. Um, so maybe, I guess it depends on the school.
Maybe the school. Yeah. Maybe some of the schools are like, um, uh, yeah.
So like right now, the way the show is written, I think it could make sense for a high school audience. I’m like, but some of the messages might be better suited to like a grade six or seven audience, like where they’re kind of going through these changes and learning about like, maybe it’s more beneficial to hear about like bullying and stigmas and yeah, it’s a tricky one. I think we need to talk to like someone with teaching training or drama and education training a little more and like have them look at the script.
Actually see if you can find like a teacher or a principal who might book that kind of stuff. Yeah. Find out.
I’m sure that, I’m sure that in the community, there are people who could, who could let you know. Yeah. Absolutely.
And well Kyle’s mom works for a school board in Windsor. So there are probably some resources there that you can find out from. Because maybe it’s not, maybe you don’t have to change as much.
Yeah. And yeah, maybe some of it’s just in my head. I’m like this, I’m also just like, well, kids, will kids be interested in hearing me talk? For an hour.
But again, it is very like stylized in moments. And I don’t think it will ever be for a grade one, two, three audience. But yeah, that’s something we’re thinking about.
Can I go back to something that you mentioned early on when you were talking about creating all this? Absolutely not. Well, thanks for coming on. Okay.
Bye Phil. One of the things that I wanted to, you were talking earlier about when you were creating the show, wondering, was it, is this just therapy? Is it just, just Tamlynn wants to talk? What helped you to figure out that A, it wasn’t therapy and that it wasn’t just Tamlynn wanting to talk? I think a lot of that was having, having Kyle as a partner and seeing that he was like, I’m interested. Because I mean, that’s kind of the baseline of theatre, right? Because it should be interesting, whether it’s funny or sad or making you think or making you laugh.
It should, you should want to keep watching it. And then actually, what I really did learn from actually performing it, what Kyle and I both learned from London and Windsor, the reason I thought it was kind of a cool show was because it’s something people haven’t really heard about. Or the few friends I talked to about it before I even started writing it were like, that’s cool because I’ve never heard that story before.
But then what’s, the thing about bedwetting, we talk about this in show a lot, is it’s actually pretty common, but no one ever talks about it. It’s like one in, one in seven kids will struggle with going to bed at some point. So that was really cool performing it or even flyering it and having people say, I dealt with that until I was nine, until I was 14, until I was 12.
You know, having a, I had a gentleman come up to me after one of my shows and, you know, just commend me on how brave I was. I went through that, I’ve never told anyone. And it was kind of, I was like, oh man, our silly little show is actually helping people.
I think it’s always cool when somebody comes up to you after the show and says, I went through that. Yeah. And like you nailed this moment.
Yeah, yeah. I got a lot of older people telling me it will come back. I was like, thanks.
That’s the piece I don’t want to hear. Or some people who said, I went through that when I was younger and when I get drunk, it comes back. Which I’ve thankfully never dealt with, but it’s one of those, it’s one of those fears that once in a while when you’re like sharing a bed with someone and you’re like, am I? No, it hasn’t happened in like 10 years.
That’s gotta be, that’s actually gotta be kind of scary. That was one of my big fears when I started becoming a teenager. And again, we talk about this in the show is like getting to the age where I was interested in boys.
And I was, you know, not necessarily wanting to have sex yet, but like, oh, eventually in my life, I will be sharing beds with people. I will be sleeping with people. And I’m like, am I going to have to explain to them that I put on a diaper at the end of the night? And am I going to have to like sneak out and not sleep over? Like, it’s, yeah.
And you’re already going through the teen angst of like, am I even pretty? Like, will anyone even like me? Did, I mean, when people were coming up to you, did they, they share more of their stories? Or it was just like, I, you know, I used to, and then they’re gone. Or did anybody like tell you about how they dealt with it? Yeah. Some people.
Yeah. Some people definitely like told me a bit more of their stories. Or some people were like, I had a friend who went through it and they did this method.
Did you ever try this method? And if they hadn’t seen the show yet, I would say, well, I talk about all the methods I tried. But there were some things that I’d never even heard of until we started researching the show. And then, and then afterwards hearing people be like, oh, have you heard of like moisture alarms and this and that? And I’m like, yeah, I never tried those.
There’s apparently research now that, cause I wore diapers every night. And apparently there’s some research now that that’s not what you’re supposed to do. Cause you’re so, you should feel uncomfortable.
Like it should wake you up. Right. Right, right, right.
I guess. We should, you know, look that up with like a real doctor. I only have to know what I’m talking about, but.
I mean, just to be clear that nobody in this room is a early childhood educator or a pediatrician or anything. So we don’t actually know. Don’t take our medical course.
Don’t yeah. Go Google it. No, no.
Don’t Google it. Like talk to an actual medical professor. Google what tells you that you have something terrible.
It’s just not a good idea. But yeah, so there were some interesting things about that. Or I remember on Dragons Den a few years ago, there was a, I think it was called the pee, the pee pad.
Okay. It was a product they were pitching. And basically it was, it’s like a blanket that you put out, but it’s pretty absorbent, but you can still feel the moisture.
So if the kid pees the bed, they wake up and they can just take off the blanket and go back to sleep. Like they don’t have to change their sheets in the middle of the night, but they still feel it and wake up and then they can wash it the next day. And I remember watching that at the time and being like, just wear diapers.
How’s this, how’s this easier than diapers? But I guess it’s cause there’s some research that you become too complacent in it. I guess it becomes too comfortable. Yeah, it’s a weird time.
Where would you recommend Bedwetter next? Or like, cause now you have two shows you could do at Fringes. Which one do you feel, is there one that you feel like this is the one that I want to do first in a city and then when I, if I come back, I’ll do this one? Or do you have a, do you have an idea? Not, not per se. Bedwetter is easier to tour just set wise.
Well, you do have the big chalkboard. Chalkboard’s the bane of my existence. I mean, this is a good idea, but that’s like one of those, like, okay, so we have the idea.
Now how do we tour? We have the idea, but we don’t have a van and we need to get a chalkboard from Ottawa to Windsor. So how did you get a chalkboard from place to place? Sometimes, a couple of times my parents drove it in their little SUV thing. One time a friend of mine was, was traveling anyway to like come back from school and brought it.
One time I basically just, uh, one of my friends, when I was taking it to Windsor, uh, one of my friends lived there and had a van. And so I just paid his gas and then you just use that as an excuse to go visit his parents for a couple of days. Um, my boyfriend at the time’s parents drove it once.
Like it was just like, it was just favors and, and every time I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. Um, so if you were to have to tour this show, if you were to have to have to tour Indecision, like say to like a Winnipeg or Edmonton, you’d have to take a van or something? I have no idea or build one there. Or did you build that chalkboard? Yeah, a friend of ours did.
Um, and it’s, what’s nice about it is that it does, it does come apart into a few pieces, but it’s still just that the pain, like the jock, the chalkboard surface, you can’t fold up. Or it’s like, or is there someone who maybe we could pay a little bit more who could make it more compact? But yeah, that’s the tricky thing with Indecision. That is really tough.
Cause sometimes there are shows that seem good in concept and then all of a sudden you’re like, oh yes, now we must move this thing. It’s such an easy set. It’s basically just a chalkboard.
You’re like, oh, it’s a big chalkboard. But it’s like, you can’t really do the show without it. Um, yeah, so Bedwetter is definitely easier to tour.
I think right now we’re more excited about Bedwetter just because it’s new and we’ve only done it a couple places. Even Indecision, I guess we only did it four festivals, but it was over a couple of years. And we did a couple of times at our school and then at just Windsor in a theatre.
So it kind of felt like one we were ready to take a little breather from. Whereas Bedwetter is like, no, we’ve only done two places. We only did one night of it in Toronto.
Most of our friends couldn’t come. It was the Monday after the long weekend. But, but it’s, so it’s not necessarily like we would need to take one to a city before the other.
But yeah, like London, like, oh, we haven’t done Indecision there and we have a show that’s pretty much ready to go. Boom. I had a question and I forgot.
Yeah, that’s an embarrassing moment. Yeah. And then of course, to like admit that I forgot it.
Yeah. It’s not as embarrassing as peeing yourself when you’re on your period. There you go.
Perfect. Not as embarrassing as. The question was really about.
I don’t remember. Forget it. I don’t know.
That’s it for me. I’m, I guess Tamlynn podcast is yours now. Okay.
Hi everyone. I’m your host Tamlynn Bryson. It’s funny.
I was on another podcast. Some friends of mine, the books are boring podcast. And they had a whole segment where they pretended I was the host for like 10 minutes.
People just hand them, keep handing podcasts to me guys. You have a collection. So, uh, nope.
Can’t even come up with an adjective. With, with, with these two shows. So Bedwetter is the one that’s sort of easier to tour.
Um, now that you’ve had a year off. Now I remember the question. You’ve certainly had like a season away from indecision.
Yes. Um, do you feel like you’ve had enough of a break from it that you can find that enthusiasm for it again? Or do you, do you kind of feel like I’m gonna need a little bit more time away from it? No, I definitely, uh, like I would definitely be excited to do it again. And I never fully lost the enthusiasm for it.
Whereas like stay strong. I did it once and I was like, I’m done. I’m taking a break maybe forever.
Maybe I’ll come back to it. Maybe not. Um, part of the thing with indecision too, is that we’d done it so many times, uh, that it was like a lot of our friends had already seen it.
It was getting harder and harder to get people out to shows. Um, but yeah, I’m definitely still excited about indecision. Yeah.
It’s nice having the year off. It’d be nice to return to it. And there was, it’d be nice to reexamine it a little bit.
Like I’m pretty happy with, uh, I’m very, I’m very proud of that show. And I’m pretty happy with its format, but there were some things doing it, uh, doing it at three festivals last year. There’d be these little moments that I was like, wait, why did we decide this? Like, I don’t, I know that there was a conversation, but I don’t remember why.
Or like teeny tiny, like plot holes is a strong word, but teeny tiny, like, oh, maybe this writing isn’t the strongest way to get this narrative across. I think like when you go back to something, it, it’s a good idea to revisit it. You can’t just, I mean, you could, but I think you can learn from the last time and reexamine it and see what could be improved.
There’s always that opportunity, I think. Or there were always some moments where there were, there were visions we had for the show that it, it didn’t, it never quite worked out that way. Like, um, uh, so part of, for those of you haven’t seen indecision, uh, chalk is a big motif.
Um, there’s a chalkboard and then other things become the chalkboard. And just something as simple as like the floor becoming a chalkboard happens in the show, but very briefly. Um, and there was one day I was like, oh, could I have used the floor more? But then it’s also hard when you’re touring spaces.
That’s the thing is you don’t know what kind of floor you’re going to have. You don’t know if they’re going to get pissed if you write on the floor. There was one, one festival, I forget which one, where I didn’t write on the floor at all.
It was just too complicated. Um. If you write on the floor, you then have to mop the floor.
And that takes up some of your time. Yeah. Um, I think it was Toronto.
I think Toronto, I didn’t write on the floor. Cause you saw me write on the floor. So I must’ve been Hamilton.
Yeah. I saw you in Hamilton. I didn’t see you in Toronto.
Toronto probably would not have wanted you to write on the floor. Yeah. I don’t think they let me write on the floor.
Um, yeah. I mean just little things like, oh, we always wanted to do this with it. And then you have to finish a play and there are these little, little moments we didn’t explore maybe as much as we could have.
And then, yeah. But yeah, there’s definitely still a lot of, a lot of love in my heart for Indecision. Uh, she’s such a fun character to play.
Um. I really liked, one of the things that I really liked about it is that as soon as you, the show starts, you know who you are as the audience. Right.
And which it can be sort of like an odd moment in a lot of solo shows, where it’s like, um, okay, so now you’re talking at me, but I don’t know why. And you, with Indecision, it was immediately so clear that I didn’t have to, there was never a wonder. It’s like, okay, now I understand.
I’m part of the brain. We’re going to make this decision. Excellent.
Right. And I kind of, I kind of appreciate knowing where I am or who I am. Why are you talking to me? Yeah.
That’s, that’s really great to hear. Because that was definitely one of our, our goals in writing it. Um, and some of my favorite solo shows that I’d seen before created, I was like, I love the shows where I knew why they were talking.
Whether it was to me or not to me, I knew why they were talking. Yeah. I do think that’s an important thing in, in a solo show.
Yeah. To have that be clear. Like, why are you even talking to me? Yeah.
Yeah. Whereas Bedwetter, it’s very much like, hi, I’m Tamlynn Bryson and I’m going to tell you my story. Yeah.
And it’s like, not as, maybe not as cool of a excuse, but it’s still a like, this is why I’m talking. Yeah. It’s because I’m on a stage.
Yeah. And you paid to see me. Yeah.
Cool. Um. Which is still a decent, it’s still a reason.
Right. Because I mean, it’s not like you’re, you’re playing a character that’s yourself, but it’s like, you’re just like, it’s just you and it’s a storytelling show. Yeah.
Yeah. Um, so to me, Indecision is a play. Okay.
Yes. And just, you know, it’s, it’s a play. It feels like a character.
Bedwetter, which of course I haven’t seen because I didn’t get to London or Windsor. How dare you? It sounds like you’re seeing as a, as a storytelling show. Do you see them, do you see a distinct difference between them that way? Um.
Huh. Yeah. I don’t know.
like, I guess I would still define Bedwetter as a play, but just like a different, slightly different genre. Um. I just feel like maybe storytelling has its own, has its own quirks to it.
Um. But yeah, I would still think of all the storytelling shows that I’ve seen as plays. And we definitely tried to keep it, like I’ve discussed with, kind of, it’s, it’s almost kind of a, like sketch comedy in moments.
Or like, you know, loosely based on sketch comedy. Uh. Yeah, that’s an interesting question.
I think it’s one of those things that, you know, what is theatre? Where do plays end? And what’s performance art? And what’s. We can open this up because I guess that, I mean, that’s a big question. Yeah.
What makes something theatre? And you know what? Somebody like, you know, Sam Mullins? Yeah. Like, he’s stuff and he’ll say, it’s storytelling. Right.
But, it’s so good that the audience gets drawn in, which makes it theatre. Yeah. I don’t know, like if you can really, I don’t actually know if you can make a distinction between the two.
It’s interesting to think about. In one of our theatre, I forget if it was our theatre history classes or nature of theatre classes, one of our lecture classes in school. Um.
Someone had defined theatre as doers, watchers, and something done. Or maybe performance. Maybe performance, you know, is doers, watchers, something done.
But like, you know, that’s, that can cover dance and theatre. you know, and I do think there’s a, maybe a difference between performance art and a play. Not that they’re not both theatre, but you know, you watch them and they’re different.
Yeah. Things. And they should be respected for their own art form.
But it’s hard. Those lines are fuzzy to me. I kind of wonder, like, would Sam describe what he does? He describes it as storytelling.
It’s not like he has a set. It’s not like he really has a props. Right.
Maybe that’s why it’s more storytelling. It’s usually just him. Yeah.
I guess. Or I don’t even know. A play, a play.
When I hear the word play, I think what comes to mind is fiction and a clear narrative. Right. And people acting as people they are not.
Right. Okay. And so with a lot of storytelling shows, there’s still a narrative and you’re even still acting as other people sometimes.
But there’s that difference of, maybe it’s the fiction piece that makes it slightly different. Because often the storytelling show is like, this is my story or she just happened to me. Or like, but then your show that I saw at Hamilton Fringe last year was kind of a storytelling show, but it was a fictional character and a fictional story.
Hard to know, right? So I would describe that more as a play, but you’re definitely still using storytelling tactics. We’ve blurred the line in today. I guess I don’t know is the answer.
I think it’s a play and storytelling. Okay. Yeah.
But if a dramaturge or critic wants to come correct me on that by all means. I guess they don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Yeah.
Yeah. Cool. I don’t.
Yeah. Because, you know, as soon as I started asking the question, I was like, nope, this is going to be a tough one. I’m not going to be able to really figure that one out.
Yeah. I think that’s one of the cool things about theatre. And that’s what makes me excited about, newer forms of theatre is blurring those lines.
And a show, I’ve never seen it, but a show like Sleep No More in New York. Yeah. I haven’t seen it either, but it’s on my list.
Yeah. But this show where it’s, kind of a play, but it’s also kind of performance art and it’s kind of exploring a house. Have you had the opportunity to see the Hogtown show in Toronto? I haven’t, no.
It’s an immersive show at the Campbell House. Cool. I think it was for the month of July, they were doing it there.
And it’s one of those immersive, like all over Campbell House sort of thing. Awesome. Yeah.
I’d love to see that. But yeah, that’s the kind of thing that’s kind of interesting because I think as we, as people who make theatre are trying to combat and come to terms with the idea of how to get people to leave their video games on their Netflix and come out to the theatre. They’re not going to, we don’t think they’re going to, they’re not going to come for like another living room or another drawing room drama.
Yeah. They want an experience of some kind. Yeah.
And to convince them that they can’t get this experience any other way. Yeah. And that’s something like Kyle and I try to examine with our shows is like, why is it a play? Is this something that could be put on screen and it would be the same? Yeah.
And so in Decision, we were like, how can we make it live? How can we stress the live element? And so within Decision, it was with audience participation and there were moments that were clearly improvised because it would be based off of audiences like suggestion and reaction. And there are pros and cons to audience participation, for sure. And then, you know, with Bedwetter, it’s like that whole breaking the fourth wall storytelling.
You could still do it as a movie, but it’s not the same. Did you make eye contact with the audience for Bedwetter? Yes. Yes and no.
I guess the lights were down. So I was looking at them. Sometimes there were some people in the front row I could make eye contact with, but I wasn’t constantly making eye contact with people because house lights were down.
No, yeah, because I knew that actually when I was doing The Commandment, my director had told me like, you’re going to make, if you can see somebody, make eye contact. Yeah. And the first night I was unable to do that.
It was too busy trying not to vomit. Yeah. But because I cheated, I looked around everybody.
Right. But by the second night, I could see maybe three, four rows back. And so those people were like, I was like, I’m looking at you and I’m looking at you and I’m looking at you.
Which became easier as the thing went on because I think when you’re doing a solo show, that’s all you’ve got. Yeah. Is them.
Yep. Yeah, that’s interesting. I’ve never even thought about it, but I think I did when I could, but I couldn’t always or I would try to look at where I thought people’s eyes were.
It was funny. There was one show. The further back they are, the more you can approximate and it doesn’t even matter.
There was one show the last year in Windsor when I was doing Indecision. And it was Windsor’s first year as a festival. And it was a show we had already done in Windsor.
And so we had a bit of a hard time getting some audiences out. And there was one show that I had a one-person audience with an interactive show. And we warned her beforehand.
It was my stage manager friend. And she was like, this is really interactive. She’s going to be talking to you the entire time.
She’s going to be asking for volunteers. You’re the only one here. Are you okay with this? We can refund your money.
You can come another day. And she was like, if she’s game, I’m game, which was lovely. But then the hardest part about it was trying to figure out where to look the whole time.
So I looked around to the different groups of people. And I was like, there’s only one person, but I can’t just stare at you for 60 minutes. What did you do? I don’t know.
I don’t even remember. It was such a blur. I think I mostly talked to her, but then I would kind of look around, but kind of make it look more like I was thinking up versus talking to an empty seat that is clearly an empty seat because no one’s there.
And then halfway through the show, a bunch of the volunteers and stuff came and sat in too. So there were at least more places to look. But yeah, that was a rough one.
It was a rough day. She was great. She had a great laugh.
She had a great time. Well, that’s good. You kind of want the person with the great laugh to be like that voice in a big house.
Yeah. A lot of people know that it’s okay to laugh. Oh yeah.
You need a good laugher. Yeah. That’s actually an interesting thing with Bedwetter.
Because in my mind, it was so clearly a comedy. Like I said, it starts off with a law and order spoof. Yeah.
Like, so silly. And some audiences would laugh right away. But some audiences, it took them like 15 minutes to get their first vocal laughs out.
You never know. Yeah. And I think it’s because it’s kind of like a vulnerable subject.
And I think the show is clearly marked as a comedy, but still me being like, Hey, I’m going to talk about this thing that was kind of difficult for a long time. And some people, I’m not sure if know they can laugh. I think there’s that.
There’s also some audiences need to warm up before they’re comfortable laughing. For sure. Like they’re not going to laugh right off the top.
They need to know that it’s safe to laugh, that it’s okay to laugh, that they’re allowed to laugh. If people aren’t familiar with theatre, being in a room full of people where the actor is there can be really weird for people. Yeah.
Totally. Yeah. The actor who’s also the writer.
Yeah. One of the writers. I have to ask because that’s one of the things that terrified me, like performing solo, was the fact that I’m not just performing this, but I wrote this.
Yeah. That’s one of the reasons why at my first performance I wanted to vomit. Yep.
Because I, you know, this is like so much my work. Yeah. That if they don’t like it, there’s many parts of me that they are not liking.
Yeah. Did you struggle with that at all? Yeah. Yeah.
Especially with the first time we did Indecision, which was then Working Title Undecided. Yeah. Yeah.
It’s really, it’s scary. And it was the first time I was the only one on stage, which is great in a lot of ways. Like I love it.
Clearly I’ve chosen to do it again. But it’s scary. Like if they’re bored, they’re bored because you’re not keeping them interested.
Yeah. And you can’t blame something else. Like, you know, we’ve all been in maybe productions that we’re not as proud of.
And your friends can be like, oh, I didn’t like the script, but I liked you. Or I thought the direction was weird, but I liked you. Yeah.
When it’s all, at least elements of you. I mean, obviously I had Kyle as a partner, but when there’s so much of you in it, it’s definitely scarier to hear what people thought. And when reviews start coming out, and at first I was like, I’m not going to read the reviews.
But then you’re also the producer. But you have to. You have to read the reviews.
That’s the hardest thing about producing a show at Fringe. It’s like you’re told from the beginning as an actor, don’t read the reviews. And then you’re also the producer.
So in order to promote the show, you have to read the reviews. Yeah. It’s like just torn in so many directions.
You have to know like, okay, if they don’t like this, how do I convince myself to go on stage time? Yeah. Yeah, totally. There was one moment in a decision that a reviewer pointed out as like maybe not being as strong.
And then it was just every night when I did it, I was like, do we need to rewrite this? Do I need to act differently? But then trying to be like, that’s next week, Tamlynn’s problem. Yeah, that’s like, that’s when we revisit. Yeah.
Because you also don’t want one, reviews are tough, man. Because like, because sometimes they help. Because you’re like, you know what? You’re right.
I was thinking that that moment was weird. And now someone has validated it with agreeing with me. But then it’s also, it’s always going to be a person’s opinion.
That’s right. And you don’t want to change your show based on one review. Sometimes somebody would be like, no, I didn’t enjoy it.
It wasn’t funny. And you’re like, I know what show you were at. Everybody else was laughing.
Right. What’s your problem? Yeah. I performed a show in the Montreal Fringe.
And I remember the, it was a silent film style show. Okay. And the reviewer we spotted, we remembered them from the night, the next night.
Right. Because their review started, I don’t like mime. So I knew I wasn’t going to like this show.
And we were like, it’s not mime for one thing. But you obviously decided when you came in. That you were not going to like this show.
But that audience loved it. So. Fuck you.
Yeah. Or like, you know, thanks for your opinion, but it doesn’t mean I need to change my show over it. But that’s a hard part.
Knowing when to, or even just like your friend’s opinions. Knowing there was something, the first year we did Indecision, something that came back multiple times was that the ending was too abrupt. So somebody was like, okay, we’ve heard this 10 times.
So let’s look at it. Yeah. And we adapted it a little bit.
And still got that, a little bit of that the second year. But then it got to a point where Kyle and I were like, no, but we, we’ve chosen this ending for a reason. We like it.
We have our explanation behind it. Some people aren’t going to like it, I guess for some people it’s too abrupt. And that, you know, it was fair.
But for us, it was like, no, that’s, that’s the ending. But just knowing, okay, we’ve thought it through. Yeah.
Whereas there’s some things reviews are like, this part didn’t seem well thought out. And you’re like, you know what? Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe I should look at it.
Did you expect solo performing to be so addictive? Like, I thought I would do one and maybe if it went well, maybe I’d do another, but that would be like a thing that maybe I would do. But as soon as I finished doing the commandment, I was like, I need to do another one. Yeah.
Yeah. I guess I never really thought of it. Cause yeah, when I started wanting to do Indecision, it was kind of just like, I need something for when I graduate.
I need a project to hold onto. So I don’t completely sink. So I have something to at least apply to some festivals with.
yeah, I, I guess I, I don’t know if I ever, before I did it, if I thought about it any further than that. And I guess it was like a, let’s try it and see how it goes. But yeah, it is super addictive.
And it’s, it’s hard when the show goes poorly. Like it was hard when Stay Strong went poorly because it was like, there’s no one else to blame. Yeah.
But then when things go well, um, and it’s like, it’s just one or two of you that have created this thing. And, and you know, a lot of us, we became actors because we like attention. And it’s nice to get that attention for an hour.
I find it’s not just the attention. It’s the fact that like, I’m doing this, like you are following me. And it’s just me that you’re following.
There’s something, uh, I guess I would be a terrible politician because I wake up with megalomania really easily. Cause I just, they’re following. And there’s a feeling of power there, I think.
Yeah. But then on the other hand, I miss having a cast. Well, that’s the other side.
I miss having someone to act with. Well, see, that’s, that’s part of it for me, but also like, so you finished the show. And let’s say that you’re not in a city that you’re familiar with.
Let’s say that you’re, it’s just you in Edmonton, Alberta at the Edmonton Frames. So your show finishes. And so who do you go for a beer with? Like, you’re done.
You’re like, you can’t, you’re a high five minute technician. Maybe your stage manager who’s traveled with you. And then the two of you go out into the night and celebrate alone.
Yeah. It’s hard to know. Yeah.
I’ve always had someone on tour with me, either Kyle or a stage manager or both. but yeah, it’s like it’s one or two of you. Yeah.
And then you’re spending, you’re living with them, working with them, drinking with them, seeing plays with them. And, uh, but then that’s also the great thing about the fringe life is you will meet other people. It’s true.
And make new friends. You will make new friends and you’ll go drinking with them. Yeah.
But that first night is like, yeah. Uh, and Edmonton, at least there’s like, you know, if you, if, if anybody has prepared you, you know where everybody’s going, right? Which is this, the diviest of dive bars called steel wheels. And everybody will be there.
It’s home for everybody who does fringe. Cause no, they don’t go to the beer tents. Okay.
Everybody goes to steel wheels. Interesting. And that’s the late night hangout.
And that’s where everybody is. Right. But if, if you weren’t told that before, before you arrived, it would take you a few days for somebody to be at the beer tent.
Be where is everyone? Like what, what, where is everybody? There’s no performers here. Weird. Well, are you, do you, do you have a website? I do have a website.
Um, yeah. Tamlynn Bryson.com is my website. Um, I do have a Twitter that I only use during fringe and then forget exists.
Um, yeah. And then I’ll have to, uh, and then drawing board productions, which is my, um, my company with Kyle Kimmerly, um, uh, is on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and all that. And you can link to all that from my website.
I’m also in a sketch comedy group called cookie biscuits. You can check out on YouTube. We just released our first sketch of season two.
I’m so proud of it. It’s fun to do some film. I did mostly do theatre and it’s fun to get into the film world.
yeah, but Tamlynn Bryson.com. Check me out. I guess I should go, uh, make sure everything’s up to date before this releases. Well, thank you so much.
Tamlynn. Yeah. Good chats.
Thanks for having me.
