Dr. Janet McMordie is Mixing Medicine and Acting with Vitals

About This Episode:

What happens when a sports medicine physician rediscovers her inner theatre kid during a global pandemic? In this episode, Phil sits down with Dr. Janet McMordie, a physician, actor, podcast host, and Team Canada Paralympics doctor, for a genuinely surprising conversation about what it means to pursue two very different callings at once.

Janet shares how Second City’s free online improv classes for healthcare workers during COVID cracked open a creative life she’d tucked away during years of medical training. From community theatre up north to landing an agent at a showcase, her path back to the stage has been anything but conventional — and she’s leaning into every messy, joyful step of it.

Now Janet is producing and starring in a remount of Rosamund Small’s acclaimed play Vitals at Factory Theatre (May 2 – 10), directed by Alaine Hutton. She opens up about what it’s like to hire yourself when the industry won’t, the humbling surprise of discovering that the script is only 10–20% of the show, and why she believes theatre – real humans breathing the same air – is exactly what the world needs right now.

This episode explores:

• How pandemic improv classes reignited Janet’s lifelong love of performance
• What it’s like to navigate the identity of being both Dr. McMordie and an actor
• Producing Vitals at Factory Theatre — finding funding through small businesses when grants fall short
• Being a Team Canada physician at the 2024 Paris Paralympics
• The politics of sport, the politics of theatre, and why artists can’t just ‘stay in their lane’
• And much more!

Guest: 🩺 Dr. Janet McMordie

Dr. Janet McMordie is a Sport & Exercise Medicine Physician with specialty training in Women’s Sexual Health. She completed medical school, family medicine residency, and sport medicine fellowship at McMaster University. She holds a diploma in Sports Medicine from the Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine (CASEM) and is a member of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH).

Dr. McMordie is an Associate Medical Director with Odyssey Medical Inc. She also provides medical consulting and surgical/medical device hand doubling services to the film industry.

She has extensive theatrical credits including the upcoming remount of VITALS at Factory Theatre, Theatre by The Bay, Mariposa Arts Theatre, The Second City and Antic Theatre. Select film/tv credits include Doc (Fox), Ginny & Georgia (Netflix), and Two Brothers (OutTV). Through her independent podcast Second Act Actors, recently nominated for a Canadian Podcast Award, she has facilitated over 200 in-depth interviews exploring identity, resilience, and transformation.

Connect with Dr. Janet McMordie:

🌐 Website: http://www.janetmcmordie.com

📸 Instagram: @janetmcmordie

🎙️ Podcast: Second Act Actors

Get tickets to Vitals at Factory Theatre (May 2 – 10): https://purchase.factorytheatre.ca/EventAvailability?EventId=52402

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Transcript

[Phil Rickaby]
Hello, welcome to Stageworthy. I’m Phil Rickaby, the host and producer of this podcast. Stageworthy is Canada’s theatre podcast.

And on this show, I talk to people who make theatre in Canada, from actors to directors, to playwrights, to producers, if they make theatre in Canada, I talk to them. Some of the people I talk to are household names and the rest are people that I really think you should get to know. I’m going to tell you about who my guest is in just one second.

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My guest this week is Dr. Janet McMordie and Janet is a sport and exercise medicine physician, but she’s also an actor. And she is going to be acting in a remount of Rosamund Smalls Vitals at Factory Theatre. And this is a great conversation.

We can talk about what, what made a doctor get into acting and so much more. So here’s my conversation with Dr. Janet McMordie. Dr. Janet McMordie. Thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate you coming on the program. Before I get into anything else, astute listeners will notice that your title is doctor.

You were a doctor who became an actor. What, how did that transfer? I mean, I know that it happened during the pandemic, but how did that transformation, that transition take place?

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah. Well, I should say I still practice medicine. Absolutely.

Because I don’t know if you’ve heard, it’s actually really hard to make a living as an actor. Did you know that?

[Phil Rickaby]
I don’t know. Nobody knows that. Nobody’s heard of that.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Especially in Canada. So I have this lovely backup career as a doctor. It’s great.

My side hustle. But yeah, it was during the pandemic. I should back up and say, I’ve always been a creative person.

I was a theatre kid. I was in the high school musical. I did lots of community theatre.

I was really artistic growing up. My parents are musicians, artists, and my such a very creative upbringing. And, but I also really, really loved science and I loved how the body moves.

I practice sports medicine. I love athletes. I love the sports culture and stuff like that.

And again, that’s why sports medicine is what I gravitated to when I was in my medical training. Anyway, during the pandemic, a lot of things happened. It was not a great time to be a human on the planet.

It was not a great time to be a doctor. All the sports closed down and as a sports medicine physician, along with a lot of my colleagues, we were redeployed all over the place doing parts of medicine we hadn’t done for a long time, but, you know, happy to help obviously the war effort it felt like, but it was really hard. It was really hard.

And the second city in Toronto started doing online improv classes, which sounds hilarious, but they are fantastic. And I took one because it was like, they were doing them for free for healthcare workers, because they said, y’all seem like you need to laugh these days. I said, yes, please.

I would really very much like to laugh again. I forget what that feels like. And did these online improv classes and it, I just kept doing it.

I was like, oh my God, this is what it is. I remember feeling this as a kid. This is great.

But I tunnel vision focused myself into medicine as you have to and forgot about that side of me. And then it just bloomed from there. And agent reached out to me at a showcase.

I have a new agent now, but that was the kind of kickstart of it all. And here we are. And this is the year of me trying to blend the two doctor and actor trying to blend it.

We’ll see how it goes.

[Phil Rickaby]
I’m curious because, you know, most people, they have that moment when they’re young. They they enjoy theatre or the arts and somebody convinces them or something happens and they have that choice of either taking it or not taking it. And I’ve known people, they were mathematicians and then they did that.

And then they became actors and things like that. What was the turning point for you that made you say, oh, this arts thing? No, thank you.

I’m going to go. I’m going to become a doctor.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah, I don’t I can’t remember a day there was never a person. I always tell people that my dad will be the first to say, like, I we were always so supportive of whatever Janet wanted to do. And yes, absolutely.

I had amazing parents growing up. There wasn’t a specific moment in time. But I do remember a class in high school.

It was my first ever just pure biology class. And that, interestingly enough, was so fascinating to me. And then I’d also the next class I had was PE.

And I was never really like a sports PE person. I didn’t like basketball. I didn’t like that.

But we had the choice when we got older in high school to do PE sports or PE fitness, like learning about how to work out and nutrition and exercise. And it was in kinesiology and basically sports medicine, my career now. And I remember just loving that class so much.

And I don’t really know why, but it was just the thing being like, I wonder if this is a thing I could do. And then I learned that kinesiology was a thing you could do. And then when I got into medical school, I remember like my first week of medical school, somebody saying sports medicine is a thing.

And I was like, oh, my God, here we go. But when I look back at my God, I was in school for a long time. There were all these little artistic moments that kind of shone through like a little short film here and there, a little improv class, a little like community theatre or whatever.

And so it always was there. And again, it was never a turn off the switch as much as I thought it was. It was always there.

But yeah, it was the as it was for so many people. It was the pandemic that made the big, the great reevaluation of life in the universe and everything.

[Phil Rickaby]
The pandemic has done that for a lot of people. I know I’ve heard of people who their marriage didn’t last because they were suddenly around their partner 24 hours a day and realized they didn’t like that person and so many different things like that. But I think the discovery or the rediscovery of your creative self is an absolute positive.

I do have one question. And in the form that I send out to get information, you mentioned that being introduced that you need to be proud of the doctor. You do you have difficulty like getting that out, like saying like, I’m Dr. Janet McMordie. Do you have that?

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
My dad is very like, make sure just please make sure people know you’re a doctor. Yeah, there’s a hard balance, I find, because I want to be so proud of the hard work I did to become a trusted medical professional in this province. Yeah, I am Dr. Janet McMordie. I’m a medical doctor. I went to medical school. I went to residency, a fellowship.

I did all these tests. I went in mountains of debt. I’ve got really expensive degrees on the wall, really expensive wallpaper.

I’m so proud of that. And I’m so proud of being able to say it out loud and that patients have a trust in me as their doctor. That is an honor and a privilege.

And I have immense pride in saying that. However, there I could get on a soapbox for days about how like it’s a very, what is it, a hierarchy that’s naturally present when somebody says, you’re the doctor, I’m the patient. And I think we want to be not so much on a level playing field, but we want to also acknowledge that it’s not so much I’m the doctor, I’m going to tell you what to do.

It’s no like I’m the doctor and I want to listen to what is going on with you because it’s an honor and privilege to sit here and listen to your story as your doctor. Whenever I introduce myself to patients, I’m like, oh, hi, I’m Janet, Dr. McMordie. So I kind of I say Janet first and then Dr. McMordie. And I didn’t even do that actively. I did it, I think, just subconsciously. And I’ve got lots of patients who call me Janet, lots of patient patients who call me doc.

But yeah, I think it’s tough, but I think I’m settling into it more, especially as an actor, when some people are like, wait a second, you’re a real doctor. I’m like, yeah, I am. I worked real hard and I’m great at it.

[Phil Rickaby]
I do think just to compliment you, I think that starting with your first name does take that hierarchy off the thing, because if somebody goes in, this is I’m Dr. McMordie. And suddenly that you’re right about the hierarchy. But to start with the first name takes that away.

And because I know you’ve all been to doctors and you sit down and there is that hierarchy. It doesn’t really matter. There’s a nervousness depending on what you’re there for.

But even sometimes if you’re just there for a checkup, you’re still a little nervous. It’s a weird it’s a weird hierarchy, right?

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
It is. And I think there’s a I was funny. I was just talking to this with a couple of people.

I was on set last week and they were talking about cockiness in a doctor. And you want to you want your doctors to be a little cocky. You want them to be very not like it’s cocky to a point of like, I know what I’m doing, but I’m also open to hearing other suggestions.

And we talk about a lot in medicine. It’s a strong spine, open heart. Right.

I am strong in my convictions. I am proud. I have boundaries that I’m setting with you, the patient, you, my colleague, et cetera, et cetera.

But I’m constantly curious and open to other people giving suggestions. So, yeah, it’s an interesting balance. And again, balance is a pipe dream.

We’re never going to find it. There are days that I’m horrible at both of those things. But I think that’s where the curiosity scientist comes in where I’m like, OK, let’s it’s the impromptu background of me being like, OK, yes.

And everyone, you know what I mean? I’m very good at my job. I’ve studied really hard.

I’ve been a doctor for over a decade now. I know what I’m talking about to a point. Right.

You, the patient in front of me, also know your body better than everyone else.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, that’s I think that’s a tough one. That’s I mean, I think a lot of people will defer to their doctor in a lot of ways, sometimes to their detriment.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
I think it’s hard, right, I think also, again, we can talk about the patriarchy that’s been rampant in medical medicine and medical education. And I think we’re doing a pretty decent job at changing that scientific process, progress and process is really slow. But we are making strides.

And I think there’s there’s always going to be bad doctors, there’s going to be bad lawyers, really bad cops. Everyone’s always going to have a bad doctor story, just like they will for any profession on the planet. Bad teacher.

But hopefully, you know, it’s kind of like, you know, when people rate things online, like nobody goes online to say this doctor was so awesome. Five stars. They’re going to go and say this doctor was horrible.

Zero stars, just like any other profession. But hopefully there’s more and more of these quiet, confident, open, strong spined, open hearted doctors out there. To be honest, I think Gen Z’s really helping it.

They’re like feral. I love them.

[Phil Rickaby]
You know, the other thing is on the other side, and one thing that I’ve noticed, you know, I have a partner, we’ve been talking a lot about age, the two of us because we’re the same age. And so we’ve been talking about things like menopause and things like that and how she’s kind of mad because nobody ever told her.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Like. Do you want to know how much education I got in medical school about menopause? And I went to medical school, 30 minutes like, oh, yeah, 30 minutes.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And I went to medical school. Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Like not only did our past generations not talk about it, her aunt, her grandparents, her mother, nobody ever talked about what it was like. It’s a joke.

It’s in like pop culture. Well, the menopause, it’s always a joke. And yet it’s not.

And doctors get 30 minutes of education about it.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And I think what’s really great is that, again, this is where my the scientist in me is so like I get tingly and happy thinking about how much has changed since I started my medical training until now. And it wasn’t that long ago, like 15 years now. So not that long.

How much has changed, I would even say in the last two years when it comes to women’s health and menopause, because the generation above ours, above mine as an elder millennial, Gen X and boomer are demanding of the health care system something different, demanding it. And so it means that they have to be the guinea pigs. But they are demanding a better life for themselves and a longer life and a more and a life that is more different than their than generations above.

I want to play pickleball until I’m 99. I want to run the Boston Marathon when I’m 95. Great.

Awesome. They’re demanding of us of the system of that. And that means and they’re asking questions of scientists.

Why don’t we have this? And the scientists go, we didn’t have funding ever, ever, ever for women’s health. But now we might be getting it because the population is demanding it.

This is how scientific process happens. And it makes me so happy. But it does mean that there have to be a couple of generations of guinea pigs to forge it, just as there was for every other thing that has happened in this world.

Right. Yeah. Women’s rights, everything.

There’s a generation of people who are going to be the guinea pigs. And that’s hard. But it does mean we’re thinking about the generations to come.

And that is a world that I like.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. It also means that no longer does somebody become considered invisible when they hit a certain age. Right.

Like and that’s kind of been demanded of women until now. It’s like, oh, it’s menopause time. You can go in the corner and nobody needs to whatever.

But that needs to change. That’s changing and it needs to change. And it’s changing because women are saying, I’m not going I’m not going to sit in the corner.

I’m not being quiet. This ends now.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And there’s definitely it’s funny because I remember making a joke one time about as aging in the entertainment industry, you start become becoming more invisible. Right. There’s once you turn 40, the statistics for auditions available to you goes down by 70 percent.

And that was a stat that was given to me on my own podcast. Shout out, Second Act Actors. This was about three years ago.

And we’re seeing a massive shift already in those three years for the number of roles that are now available for women over the age of 40. Because people in society are like, I would like to see those people on screen, please, because they are me. Yeah.

And so, again, it’s generations being like, excuse me, I’m sick and tired of this. I want to see that. I want this to happen.

Someone please do it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And it just takes people having the courage to be like, yeah, we’re going to we’re going to do it. We’re going to take a chance on women’s health.

[Phil Rickaby]
Oh, yeah. It’s funny because I remember I was thinking about the fact that, like, all of my actor friends who are women, as soon as they started to, they became into their like late 20s, early 30s. So I’m like, oh, now it’s all mom roles.

And they’re like. I’m not a mom, I’m not a mom. It’s like like I’ve never I’ve never even held a baby.

And now I’m playing mom roles. How does that happen? But I think that is changing.

I’m thinking about shows that I’m watching and there are more women that are, you know. Seasoned on television and in my media.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah, absolutely. And I think as somebody who auditioned for four moms on Monday. But I think you’re right, you know, I think it’s and it’s exciting because and I also think it it’s exciting and also it happened because a lot of these women who have great wiseness and maturity in this industry said, oh, I’m going to make my own stuff then.

And it wasn’t just little short films. It was like, no, Kate Winslet was like, I’m making my own show. And then that just everyone else said, what we could do.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
OK. And Nicole Kidman’s like, I will be in any indie film you want me to as long as it’s a female director and I will elevate this film. I mean, like that, like this is great.

And again, it’s that generation of guinea pigs is doing it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. And also just a matter of like frustration, like we are not going like this is it is ridiculous, right? It’s ridiculous.

When people hear you hear the stuff that like, oh, all of these medical conditions, we just don’t test that on women.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
No. When I was in grad school and that was in 2006, 2006 to 2008, my graduate study was not we were not allowed to have female participants because every 30 days some crazy stuff happens.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And you would just think of that. You’re like, yeah, makes sense. And now I look back, I’m like, why didn’t they say, wait a second?

No, that doesn’t make sense.

[Phil Rickaby]
No, it doesn’t make sense because it’s part of the biological process. We should be studying it because they’re just worried that it’s going to throw off their test. But like, but then we have to then the test is wrong, right?

The test money and funding, I know money and funding and it’s expensive, but also then the test is wrong.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yes.

[Phil Rickaby]
Speaking of all of this medical stuff, I want to talk about Vitals at Factory Theatre in May. You are going to be in the remount of Rosamund Smalls Vitals. Tell me about about that show and how that came about.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah, so it actually came about with an acting coach that I had. Her name is Vivian Endicott Douglas. She’s actually making her Stratford debut this year, which is super cool.

And we were chatting a lot about she’s like, what do you want your career to look like? I’m just curious. This doctor, this actor, a little weird.

I’ve done some film and TV and it’s great, but I’m not really getting hired in this industry. And that’s OK. I understand that I’m a logical, pragmatic human being.

I’m a white 40 year old female. But I really like to do theatre. I don’t know how to do theatre.

And I really want to see if I can blend, do something medical in theatre. Does that even exist? And I can’t remember how the conversation came up.

But I remember I think I’d found vitals on like Canadian Play Outlet or something like that. And I was talking about it with Vivian. And she goes, why not Rosamund?

I know her. You need to do this show. Why are you not doing this show?

And then so she connected me to Roz. And then Roz was like, oh, interesting. I just had somebody reach out, say they want to use this show as part of an academic class at the University of Toronto.

Like, well, I teach at University of Toronto. And then so she linked me up with this professor at U of T, Dr. Cassandra Hartley, who works in the Health and Humanities Department. And then it’s just been building like over a year.

We’ve been developing this. And yeah. And I remember.

I was introduced to Alaine Hutton, who is the director at a women in film and television WIFT Toronto event, a friend of mine said, you need to meet this person. She used to play basketball, U of T. She’s a coach.

She’s like an academic kind of weirdo like you are. I’m like, gosh, that’s cool. And then I went to see Alaine’s show at Factory.

Honey, I’m home with her creative partner, Lester Tripps is their group. And I, I have not stopped thinking about that show. It was insane.

It was crazy. It was so weird. This is what they’re doing theatre in Toronto.

I want to be a part of it. This is awesome. And so once we got the rights to Vitals, I said, I need Alaine to direct this.

I don’t know what it’s going to become because it’s Alaine is a lot about physicality in the body and Rosamund is a lot about beautiful words. And so, yeah, we’re doing it. That’s how it came about and we’re doing it no matter what Alaine keeps saying, you’re going to be on that stage, May 2nd opening night, you’re going to be there.

And I’m the first healthcare worker to perform it. And a lot has changed in the healthcare industry since they first did the show in 2014. And so we are kind of hoping to modernize it quite significantly because a lot has changed in the world of healthcare, a little global pandemic thrown in there.

But I think the core of what the show is about obviously is going to stay so, so, so central to the beautiful words that Ros has written. Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
Now you’ve kind of mentioned you’re like, you’ve done improv, you’ve done some television, that sort of thing. Not like you, it sounds like you’re a little nervous about being on stage.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah. Let’s find out together if I can act. Come on out.

[Phil Rickaby]
The thing is that to me, as somebody who’s been like innately a theatre actor for my entire life, to me, that’s easy. Television’s hard.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
It’s interesting because, so my, I guess you would, I wouldn’t say training. I don’t have a formal theatre. I didn’t go to theatre school at film school.

I went to medical school, which there’s a lot of performing and improv in medicine. Let me tell you that. But yeah, my, my deep, deep training, I guess would say my first start was in theatre and I, again, a lot of community theatre where I used to live up north, the further to Toronto.

And I always have had, as every on-camera acting coach has told me, a personality for theatre, because everything is so big that I do. It’s a big expressive face. And every time on camera, they’re like, please tone it down.

And every community theatre show I’ve done, they’re like, we don’t even have to put a mic on her. My God, she’s loud. And so I’m so excited to get back to that.

I’m nervous about Toronto. I’m nervous about Toronto as a theatre town. This is the first time I’m doing theatre in Toronto and it’s intimidating because I’ve been finding it very intimidating to try and get my foot in the door.

And so I always make the joke, like I’ve, it’s, I haven’t been able to get hired as a theatre actor here in Toronto. So I’m hiring myself and to see if I can do it, to see if we can do it. And I think I’m going to be able to do it again.

There’s that cocky surgeon in me coming out. So let’s all find out together.

[Phil Rickaby]
Tickets are, I think it’s very interesting. The idea of like, you know, of like trying to break into theatre in Toronto, which is hard to do because there are very few theatres in this city. We’ve got, we’ve lost a few, but the theatre companies, they do small cast.

They do a certain number of shows a year. And we don’t have shows that run a long time. It’s hard because of the, the small number of theatres to break in.

But so many actors do have to hire themselves in some way to make that happen. And that’s the idea of self-producing is something that, you know, when I was at theatre school, nobody ever talked about self-producing. It was like not on anybody’s radar.

And people who did it were, that’s weird. We’re training you to go to Stratford and do the audition. You get the role, you get these roles through auditioning.

And I, but now it took a while, but now all of the, every theatre school, I think has a self-producing course because it’s a necessary part of your theatre life is learning how to do your own work.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah. Yeah. And I think also what has been interesting for me is that trying to figure out what is the definition of an actor, and I know there isn’t really one and it’s different for everyone and blah, blah, wooey, wooey.

But I think because there’s such a strict definition of a doctor, right? My career as a doctor, I know what I’m doing. But the career of actor is so ethereal in space.

And I think when people ask me like, well, what are you hoping to get out of this? Oh, you’re hoping to get cast in something. You’re hoping to break free into the acting world, blah, blah.

I’m like, oh yeah, sure. Well, great. But I think for me, it’s trying to find again, like you were saying, that actor inside and what does it feel like when I have the freedom to do what I want?

Cause I’m making my own work and there’s literally no way that this is going to be a, quote, failure in my mind because I’m going to, I’ve already grown so much from it as an actor and sure, as a doctor as well too, and as a producer and as just somebody who’s trying to learn about the theatre industry, it’s just been this huge gift I’ve given to myself, but I don’t really have words for it. It’s been like a fascinating process and we haven’t even, we barely even started rehearsing. It’s just been such an interesting kind of deep dive into what it means to be a theatre creator, a creator in general, an actor, just as a human being like, yeah, this is what I want to invest in these days.

It’s myself.

[Phil Rickaby]
In the end, the success is the fact that you will have done it, right? You will have not only performed, you will have done an entire run of a show and you’ve rehearsed it, you’ve done it, you’ve performed it. That’s the success.

That’s the thing that should be celebrated in all things, right? Once somebody does a show, we should be applauding them anyway. Like you did this show, you made this happen.

And that’s the thing. I know a lot of times around the Fringe Festival, when the Fringe Festival ends, there’s a lot of people who are like, everybody, whether you’ve got Best of Fringe or whatever, you should like, you should be happy. You did the thing.

And it’s the same when you’re self-producing outside of Fringe.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Totally. Yeah. And I think there’s the joke in film that any film that gets made is a miracle.

And theatre is the same as well, too, especially indie theatre. And I think we’ve been unsuccessful at getting grant funding. And I’m not saying that to disparage the grant funders.

I’m saying it because I fully recognize we’re getting slashed arts funding left and center. And I talked to the Ontario granting people, because I didn’t know this. They like, you can talk, once you get rejected, you can get feedback.

I was like, oh my God, I love it. They’re like, we went down from being able to grant money to 20% of projects to now 13% because it’s just getting slashed left, right, and center. So I think any project that gets put up is just, I’m just absolutely gobsmacked that it can happen.

And we’ve relied on some incredible small businesses to provide us with funding. And it blows my mind what goes into making theatre happen and film and TV, of course, but theatre, my God, I am so humbled and just so proud. And like any piece of theatre that goes up, and I’m no critic because I’m like so easily amused.

I go see anything and I’m like, you did it. Like you’re there. You’re doing a thing.

Oh, yes. I will, please. I will go to see any of your shows.

This is the best.

[Phil Rickaby]
It’s so fascinating though, the idea of, you know, the grants are getting slashed. And it’s to the point now where I think in a lot of cases we can’t rely on it. And I think in the past people have been like, if I don’t get a grant, I can’t do the show.

But if we do that, there’s so much that can’t happen. We have to pursue alternative venues for getting funding in some way. We have to find other ways to do it or the theatre is never going to happen because.

As we’ve seen, the money isn’t going to be there forever.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah. And again, like I we’ve I’ve reached out to our biggest sources of funding have been these small little Toronto businesses, Ontario businesses. Shout out to Grimsby Compounding Pharmacy, who is like one of our show sponsors, like one of the biggest sponsors.

They’re like, yes, I love this. This is hilarious. Dr. McMordie, what are you doing on stage?

I want to come. And they’re like sponsoring my show. And this is where I think it yes, everyone says theatre is dying.

I’m like, it is. But indie theatre is not because there are these like small little small businesses who are like, I will give you a little bit of money to put a show up and then we’re doing it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And it’s a lot of effing work to do it. But it’s been really joyful seeing where the support has come from, not just monetarily, it’s been and also it’s been very disappointing to see where the monetary support has not come from.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Corporations.

[Phil Rickaby]
A lot of the corporations, they slashed their funding. I remember when every time you turned around beer banks, they were all sponsoring all the arts events and now that’s all gone.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
But also, I will say you mentioned about the theatre dying, and I think there’s an opportunity right now, right? The opportunity, and I was just talking with Rebecca Northern. We were talking about how with the rise of AI and all of that sort of stuff, theatre is the only thing that you can be sure is real, right?

When you go to see theatre, you’re in the same room as those people. And so there’s an opportunity here when people get tired of slop and people get tired of not knowing what’s real, that they can come and see theatre and see something.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
There’s something so powerful that has gone on since the dawn of human beings sitting around a campfire of breathing the same air that’s so bad from a doctor who’s like COVID, but like breathing the same air as the audience and the performer. There’s something that you like, and I know I’m preaching to the converted, but like, you can’t explain it unless you’ve been in it. And I think this is where it’s so important to be, and I, again, I will get on my soapbox about how we need to, yes, student discounts need to happen, but I think there needs to be a discount for people under a certain age, not over a certain age in theatre, because there needs to be a way to introduce the younger generations who don’t have the disposable income anymore, where the older generations tend to. And I think that’s the problem I find where theatre is, especially community theatre, is going towards appeasing the people with the money bags.

Soon those people are all going to die off. Sorry, it’s the nature of the world. I’m a doctor.

And then there’s going to, we’re going to be left with people being like, oh, I’ve never been to the theatre. And this is where I’m finding Vitals is super interesting because we put tickets up for sale quite far in advance compared to normal theatre productions. And all, cause all my doctor friends were like, I need to know, I need to know a schedule, I need to know a schedule, I need to know a schedule, and my doctor friends have never been in the theatre.

They’re like, this is so cool. I think the last time I went to the theatre while I was in grade six, I went to Stratford. And so I think there needs to be a way to introduce, whether that’s cheaper tickets, whether that, I don’t know what the answer is, but there needs to be a way to introduce audiences that don’t traditionally come to the theatre back to the theatre.

Because we’re missing a huge part of that population.

[Phil Rickaby]
100%. And I think it’s, I think part of it is prices, but also I think a lot of times people look at like Mervis prices and they go, that’s what theatre costs, right? They look at the big shows and they don’t know that smaller theatres have more affordable tickets and things like that.

And there’s all kinds of discounts, but also we do a terrible job generally about talking about what makes theatre awesome, right? We want to talk, we talk about how important the show is. Sometimes we talk a little bit too much.

Like it’s taking your vitamins, go to the theatre. It’s good for you. And instead of like talking about why it’s exciting and why it’s an experience and people will pay for experiences.

And so we have to be able to, we have to learn how to think, how to communicate the experience to people to get them into the theatre and they will realize better than a movie in a lot of ways, a lot of ways, more exciting.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah. And I, I wonder what that is. I don’t know.

Do you have any, have you pondered that?

[Phil Rickaby]
I’ve been pondering this for so long because I don’t, I look at, I sort of like wanted to start launch a product, a project where I look at the way that shows are described and I think sometimes we need to, and some people will bristle at this, but like, we need to take some lessons from Hollywood about how they talk about shows and how they advertise shows because we have, especially in Canada, we don’t like to hype up a show.

We tend to be very polite and a little bit embarrassed about the fact that we have a show. It’s a weird thing. And I, I think it’s a long-term thing to figure it out, but we have to do it or, or else the theatre like goes away.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah. It’s interesting. I’d never really thought about that until we were putting up the description of our show and I have my producer saying one thing, the director saying the other, publicist saying something else and being like, we can’t say the pandemic because nobody wants to see a pandemic show.

I’m like, but it’s not a pandemic show. But that’s it, a lot of this happened since the pandemic. And it’s, I agree.

I think, I think we’re thinking too much about it. You know, I think we just need to be like, Hey, come see the show. It’s going to be epic.

You know, it’s going to be great. You’re going to go with your friends and you’re going to go out and breathe the same air as the performer and maybe she’ll forget a line in the next day. It’ll be completely different.

And isn’t that wild?

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And like, she’s on the stage right there, terrified. But yeah, it’s, it’s a wild thing. And I think, especially for people who don’t get introduced to it very much or go just cause they’re forced to, or have gone to just Mirvish, I think the, the indie theatres who just have some like weird stuff, I think, yeah.

I don’t, I don’t know. I agree. I don’t know what the answer is, but I keep thinking like, no, you got to get out and see some of the weird things that people are doing because yay weird stuff.

[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s such great stuff.

And also going back to the AI thing for a second, and people are like afraid of AI actors. Some of the, some of the studios are like, can’t wait to not pay people and use the AI actor. But I think, I think that’s a, I think that’s a backfire, right?

Because I think that audiences connect with real people. They want to know who’s off stage. They want to know the person who’s in the thing they see.

And the AIs can’t do that. AI can’t be a real person. It’s not a real person.

And you can’t aspire to be that person because they’re not real. I think that’s another thing that, that theatre has over all of that is you can use all the AI actors you want, though don’t, don’t, but in the theatre, you like, it has to be real. It has to be real people.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah, absolutely. And I think what also makes the theatre so great, and I know a lot of great films do this as well too, like Guillermo del Toro, will only, you can only use practical effects. Like, yeah.

And I think what is so great about theatre is like, there’s constantly new weird stuff that humans are coming up with to show on stage, to make it more, I’m thinking about Paddington Bear in the UK, and it’s just wild to see this like animatronic, but also there’s one time when he’s, there’s a human in there. Like, it’s just wild to see what people come up with to show on stage, to make it less theatre-y. But also that’s part of the art of it.

Because I think about something like the Lion King, which are like puppets, right? And you’re like, this is, I don’t want to see the Paddington Bear elephant version on, of the Lion King. Right.

But I think, I think there’s obviously room for both, but I think there’s room for just constant pushing the boundaries of practical effects and lighting and sets and, whoa, cool. And I think, yeah, there’s a, there’s a, I’m trying to think of the right word. I think audiences like to be like, wow, that looked so real, but I know it wasn’t.

You know what I mean? Like, I don’t mean AI practical effects events, like, whoa, that was so cool. I really believed it.

I know deep down it wasn’t, but that makes it really cool too.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. I also find that in the theatre, the magic of it is that, that people can, will suspend their disbelief in a way they won’t for a film. The past couple of days since the Oscars happened, and there was that brilliant recreation of the, I lied to you scene from, from Sinners on stage.

And people were talking about this could be a stage play. And then there are people who were like, yeah, well, how are you going to do the twins? And it’s like, you have to understand that we’ve been doing twins on stage since Shakespeare and before.

And it’s easy on stage. You dress them the same and you go, those are twins. And then magically they’re twins.

You don’t have to have like identical people. You don’t have to have this special effect. You just go, those guys are twins.

And everybody in the audience goes, got it. They’re twins. Yeah.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
It’s, it’s, it’s improv too, right? It’s that basis of, I am a tree. Yep.

You’re a tree. Yes. And I’m an apple on the tree, right?

It’s just, and I think that’s where I think, I think you have a nail on the head about why AI, why people will shift back, the pendulum has swung so far into the AI that it will naturally settle back into reality because people want exactly that, they want to be able to suspend disbelief because reality sucks. I want to be able to go to the theatre and just suspend disbelief. Like, please suspend it for me.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I actually want to talk a bit about your podcast.

I want to talk about Second Act Actors. How did that show? I mean, you said you’re in your second season.

I was looking, you have over 200 episodes.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yes. 203 is coming out on Friday.

[Phil Rickaby]
That’s awesome. How did you get started in podcasting?

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah, I started meeting a lot of people in these acting classes I was taking, also improv. You know, online acting classes, in-person acting classes. And it was rare, especially in the, I would say like the lower level, the intro levels of acting and improv and sketch and stuff like that, that I was doing, to meet an actor, to be like, yes, I am an actor and I’m taking acting class.

I was meeting lawyers who were like, I just wanted to take an improv class. Cops, nurses, accountants, teachers, people either doing both or just testing the waters or being like, I think I want to switch into full acting. And they’re just kind of testing it out.

And so I started chatting with these people because obviously I was one of them. And I said, well, everyone has a podcast these days. Why can’t I?

And so, pandemic. And so I started talking to these people and just kept chatting and more and more people kind of came in and fell into my lap. And then I started expanding out to not just people who were second act actors.

I started having people who were actors to begin with. Like those people blow my mind. I’m like, are you serious?

You’ve been an actor since you were like a kid? Like that’s crazy. And also people in the industry.

Like I talked to directors and producers and cinematographers. And I had a grip on hair and makeup. People, you know, theatre make dramaturge and stuff like that.

These words I didn’t even know existed. To teach all of us, because we didn’t go to film school or theatre school, to teach us how to make their jobs easier, what they do, and just about the other side of film, TV and theatre that we don’t really see. And that’s the technical aspect of it.

And I’ve done two live shows and the whole podcast supports a wonderful charity in Toronto called the Get Real Movement. And it’s just been so much fun. And I just love talking to people about their stories and their art.

And it’s, I know I’m sure you feel the same way. It’s such an honour to chat with people about the weird stuff they’re doing in their cool lives.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. I mean, it took a year long hiatus on this show. And one of the reasons I came back was I was missing the connection.

I was missing talking with people. And I really do love getting to meet and talk to people about their theatre lives and things like that. What is it that you have found?

What is the thing that gives you joy in podcasting?

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
I think it’s the whole feeling of when people come and talk to me and they say, Oh, I love your podcast. It’s like, I’m listening. It’s like, I’m sitting in the living room with you, just listening to somebody having a conversation.

I think that’s so unique to podcasting. And yeah, of course it does bring in some strange pair of social relationships. And people are like, we’re best friends.

I’m like, I’ve never met you before. But I know you listen to me and your headphones and yeah, but I think that’s what I, that’s what I love about it. And I, I love for the most part, I’d say 99% of the people I talked to on my show, it was their first time being interviewed, they’re new to the acting world and, and having them say, Oh, that was so much fun and I felt so comfortable and I felt like I could really open up and we kind of dive deep into really interesting conversations about life is again, I’ll keep waxing poetic about how much of an honor it is. It’s such a privilege to like make space and hear these stories.

And again, the doctor in me is the same, right? That’s what I love so much about my job as a doctor is hearing people’s stories and, and getting to sit with them. And then as a podcast host, it just like amplified it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. I mean, as a podcast host, if you can take somebody who’s nervous about going into the podcast and you make them feel comfortable enough that they open up and they just have a conversation and they forget it’s being recorded, that’s the mark of a good podcast host. That’s your job as the host, right?

Is to make that easy for people. And when people say that, that’s like the highest compliment.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. It makes you like, I just buzz for the rest of the day.

It just feels so good.

[Phil Rickaby]
You’re mentioning like a lot of times people are early in their careers and they’ve never had an interview. You would not, you would, you might be surprised that is not uncommon, even in people who’ve been doing this for years. It is, we have so little theatre media in our country that being interviewed and being heard, having your story told is so rare.

And I think that it’s great to have shows like yours that have people who are just coming in and just starting out to get the opportunity to tell their story and why they’re, they’re taking this step. I think it’s, I think it’s amazing.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yes. And right back at you, thank you for doing this show and getting all the incredible Canadian theatre that’s out there, like giving all of us a platform. It’s like you were saying, it’s such a powerful thing.

And what, how do we get the word out there? That really cool, weird Canadian theatre is happening. Like you are a massive, massive part of that.

So I appreciate it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Thank you. It is, is one of those things where I think, again, you, every theatre producer has to use every tool at their disposal to get the word out about their show. Whether it is short form video, if they can figure it out or podcasts or this kind of thing, it’s all, every tool has to go into the arsenal.

Cause you have to get the word out because people have to find out about the show.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think you got to get bums in seats, unfortunately for the capitalistic world that we live in.

But I think, yeah, and it’s hard. And I, but I think it’s such a necessity. And then also because as somebody who’s constantly, but wanting to have, wanting to be one of those bums in seats, I need to have a way to find your work.

And if my way of finding your work is in short form media, as it is these days, please let me find you because I’ll come to your show. Yeah. Yeah.

[Phil Rickaby]
There’s so much of that, right? Like that’s, that’s one of the things that we have to figure out. We were talking earlier about how do you get the word out?

Short form media, absolutely necessary. However it is that you can figure out how to do it. And this is my particular soapbox.

And thank you for having this, a website of your own. I will evangelize that till the cows come home. It’s a space that’s yours.

You’re fully in control of it. You get to decide what goes on there. You don’t have to rely on the algorithm or anything else.

It’s your thing. And I think it helps if you ever want to do a podcast or get seen, it gives the people who are going to interview you tools to find questions and talk to you and learn a little bit about you before the interview and just generally it gives you the opportunity to have fans. And in Canada, where fans don’t happen very often, we need everything we can get.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yes, absolutely.

[Phil Rickaby]
I want to mention that you had a life goal that you achieved in 2024. You were one of Team Canada’s doctors at the Paralympics in Paris. Tell me about that.

How did that happen? And how, I mean, honestly, it must feel great to be like a doctor for Team Canada, but tell me, tell me everything.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah. I get like emotional thinking about it. It was, I mean, I think for most, I shouldn’t say most sports medicine doctors, their goal is to, you know, be one of the Team Canada doctors.

This maybe not, but for me, it was. I remember Atlanta, 1996, summer Olympics. We got a fancy color TV for the first time growing up because my dad was like, we’re going to watch the Olympics on this fancy color, huge, one of those big square TVs.

I remember saying to my dad, I was like 11 or something like that. Being like, I’m going to be at the Olympics one day. And he was like, okay.

I said, I was like, no, not as an athlete. And I have no memory of this. My dad does.

And then again, going into sports medicine and just loving like the athlete experience and just loving working with athletes as a doctor. And I’d done some, a little bit of work on the para-sports side during my sports medicine fellowship and just loved it. Like para-sport athletes are in, are just the coolest.

And then it just kind of, as I was building my career, we kind of in sports medicine, we go up a bit of a ladder with the Olympics and Paralympics being at the top of the ladder, right? So I would go do things like the Canada Winter Games. I did the World University Games in Taiwan.

I did the World, like there’s lots of different like multi-sport games that we get to be a part of as members of Team Canada Sports Medicine, Canadian Academy of Sport and Exercise Medicine is so fun. And then we apply obviously for the games and I got selected for, to be a member of Team Canada, the Para-Pan Am Games in Chile. And that was in 2023.

And then a lot of that athlete pool was going to be going into the Olympic cycle that year. And so I was very, very, very lucky to be asked to be like, Hey, would you also want to join, to go to Paris in 2024 with the Paralympics? And it was awesome.

It was three weeks in Paris with the games. And then my dad flew out and we spent a week together in Paris afterwards. And that was so much fun.

He got to have the closing ceremonies and see me at the closing, it was just great. And then we just wandered Paris together.

[Phil Rickaby]
Amazing.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
It was amazing. It was, yeah. And again, I’m still, I mean, the Paralympic Winter Games just finished.

Much smaller, obviously the Paralympics aside and then the winter is very small. But seeing like one of my favourite athletes, I’m a little biased. He’s one of the cyclists.

He did a lot of the announcing on CBC for the Winter Paralympics. And it was just so cool. And I was like, ah, yeah, I was there.

Everybody wants silver. It’s just, it’s so cool to just feel like I had this teeny little part in these athletes journeys and a neat thing was there were a lot of athletes who I had worked with at a games in Lake Placid as members of Team Canada, and they were quite young at that time. And then now they’re in their Olympic cycle and they’re at the Olympics now.

And I’m like, oh my God, again, just a teeny little, teeny bit of impact on their journey just feels so special. And then to be there and support them. And it’s just a wild experience and it’s wild to be in the athletes village with all the countries of the world and just all coming together and coexisting in a space.

It’s pretty, that doesn’t happen. There’s nothing else that ever happens ever. We’re all countries and nations come together and we’re like, okay, I guess we’ll just get along here and play some sports.

It’s pretty awesome. It’s so political. It’s so political.

There’s so many things that happen that are so political, but like in the end, it’s pretty incredible.

[Phil Rickaby]
But politics, do you mean like political and like interpersonal and like this country, that country and this actor, this athlete, their experience with this athlete and all that sort of stuff?

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Yeah. And it, cause this is microcosm of the world, right? This athletes village and certain countries are not invited into the athletes village because of security concerns.

They put certain countries very far apart from each other, living quarters in the athletes village. And it’s, and they know they don’t put these countries together. It’s very interesting.

You sit different. It’s, it’s like a, it’s like high school. The different cliques to make it as simple as that.

But it is, and some teams have different security personnel and security risk and stuff. And yeah, it’s, it’s pretty fascinating. Also.

I mean, there’s a lot of politics when it comes to what countries can afford. Certain, there’s a lot of sports that certain nations will never be able to compete in because things like horses are really expensive. Sailboats are really expensive.

Some of these bikes are really expensive. So I think there’s a lot of like politics innate in that, in sport. And it’s funny, we were, I was just at our big sports medicine conference a couple of weeks ago.

And they were talking about politics in sports and activism in sports and how it’s like innately in sports and has been since the dawn of time. And so yes, athletes are activists and it’s, it’s, again, it’s, it’s a very fascinating, both positive and negative definition of the word fascinating. Thing to be a part of.

It was definitely a pinch me moment when you’re looking around at like, whoa, I’m part of this, this like mini world with mini conflict. It’s neat. And again, negative positive definition of the word neat.

[Phil Rickaby]
You mentioned the idea of athletes being activists, which is kind of like in some cases, you have actors who want to be activists or who must be activists. Yeah. You have other people who are like, shut up and dance, shut up and dance monkey and all that sort of stuff.

Like you’re just going to do your acting thing. And it’s like, you cannot separate. Like theatre is always political, regardless of what it is always political, just by its very nature.

Why is, why would we assume that athleticism and athletes are also not sport is also political.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And thank goodness, because I, I, I, and healthcare is so political. And I think, again, thank goodness. I remember in my med in medical training, we all, I went to McMaster, shout out to McMaster, such a great time at their medical school.

We had the opportunity to do an elective during our, we didn’t get a summer break, but it was a break that we had. And a lot of people went to a different developing nations and that’s not the correct term for it now, but like, we all came back from these experiences all over the world, kind of enraged. Right.

And I remember one of our mentors we were talking about, and I went to, I worked on a, in a clinic on a first nations reserve and they don’t even have fresh water and I was like, how is this happening in Canada? I don’t understand. I was ranting, ranting, ranting.

My friend went to Rwanda and was like, ranting, ranting, ranting about this. This is a female genitalia, all the horrible stuff. My friend went to India, ranting, ranting, what are we going to do about this?

I remember our mentor was like, good, good. Right. You’re good.

Feel the rage. But then also like, you can’t stand for more than like, you can’t say it for everything because then we just crumble as humans, she’s like, but you just got it made at least stand for one thing. Like, obviously you can, if you have the energy and the time to stand for lots of things, great, but she said, you have to, at least as doctors are, you have to stand for one thing in this medical world and find out what that is and stand really, really strong.

And I think that has always stayed in me when people were like, what are your stance on this? What are your stance on this? I’m like, oh my God.

You know, I’m just going to explode. It’s like, no, no, no. For me, like I have my one thing and I like to learn about other things, but like my one thing that I will always, always stand for is there.

And yeah, I think that’s where, like with theatre being political and artists being political and being told to stay in your lane, you’re like, I don’t understand when it’s like a lane that’s isn’t being human, the lane. And it’s like, I’m always in that lane. I don’t get it.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. I like to, I like to, to remind people, listen, I am, I am a man of a certain age. I’ve seen a lot of things.

I’ve been on the left and thinking about and fighting for justice my entire life. I have oceans of rage in me that I’m able to harness when necessary and the rest of the time they just flow. But when the time is right, I can take this ocean of rage and I can focus it, you know, and I think a lot of us have, have, have had that.

We all have our ocean of rage and then at a certain point you can focus it and make shit happen.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
I love that. I love that because I think we talk about burnout and moral injury so easily without even thinking about it, without even thinking that part of a massive part of contributing to that is like the doom scrolling that we’re doing and feeling overwhelmed. And when there’s so much to like be involved with that we get overwhelmed and then choose to be involved with nothing is not helpful or we, or, or what happens is we get so burnt out and then we just, we, the whole adage in medicine is you have to check your own pulse before checking the pulse of somebody else or put your own mask on before putting someone else on the airplane and stuff like that. I, I love that, that even that visual of the ocean, be like, yes, we’ll concentrate it and like a, I don’t know, I was about to say, I was like, what superhero does that?

But then I was like, oh, it’s Moses from the book. And this ocean, I will card it and I will slam it together.

[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. It’s one of those interesting things where, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re trying to, the doom scroll of it all is I’ve, I’ve, I went through a period, I guess, last year where I would wake up and I would start the doom scroll and then I would collapse into anxiety and it’s okay. So that gains me nothing.

And so now I have to figure out what’s my threshold. At what point do I have to stop? I’ve taken in enough because I need to know what’s going on, but I need to stop before I cross the threshold into full anxiety.

And at which point I can do nothing. So it’s like having to figure out how do we do that? How do we find that spot?

And I wish I had a concrete answer, but it’s like, everybody has to figure out their own thing.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
And everyone’s going to tell you that what you’re doing is wrong and you’re not doing enough from external. So I think it’s again, that, and everyone’s going to shame you and everyone’s going to say, but no, again, you have to find that in yourself and be like, proud of, of finding that. I think everyone’s going to tell you, you’re doing it wrong.

And be like, nope, this is what I found. It works for me.

[Phil Rickaby]
You can only do enough. What, what works for you? You, you know, again, the, you have to figure out when you can focus the ocean, focus the ocean of rage.

Right?

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
I love that. I’m going to write that down. That’s great.

[Phil Rickaby]
In closing, I want to talk a little bit more about Vitals. And I’m curious if there is anything that you’ve discovered or anything you’ve experienced as you’ve started to rehearse it, as you’ve been looking at the script, what has surprised you about this play?

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
I think it’s so interesting when I talk to people about Vitals and people who’ve read it or people who’ve seen it, because the original production was so powerful to people. I did not see it. I was in the thick of medical training.

I wasn’t even thinking about theatre. Sorry, Toronto Indie Theatre. But I hear from so many people about how powerful it was.

And they’re like, oh, I hope you’re going to do something similar. I’m like, oh God, no, no, it’s going to be completely different. But I think what has been so surprising has been my learning that reading the script is only about 10 to 20% of the actual show, the script itself.

And I did not know that until I met Alaine and Alaine was my director. And she was like, oh no, girl. She’s like, the words are beautiful.

Of course. Roz has a way with words that like makes me just so. And like I’ve seen other, her other works, performance reviews as well too.

And it was just like, but like Alaine was like, oh, that’s 10 to 20% of what the actual production is. It is, and Alaine is so good at this because she’s so physical in her theatrical works. There’s so much work that we’ve done on physicality and voice that I think is going to be really interesting, especially for my medical friends to see.

I don’t want to say they don’t understand theatre, but like, because there’s such, there’s so much compartmentalization in medicine that, and theatre requires you to be the opposite of that. So open. So I think it’s going to be really interesting because it’s been surprising for me to find where that compartmentalization is living in my body.

I think that’s what we want to show on stage. And so it’s that tension of compartmentalization as a doctor, openness as an actor. Again, the surprising thing has been finding where that tension lives.

And that’s actually what we want to show on stage because that’s what the audience is coming for. Right. It’s the doctors who are like, I hope they’ll be able to see themselves on stage and see where, what happens when moral injury in your body doesn’t have a place to go.

Right. Which is what happens to doctors and everyone in healthcare. I shouldn’t say, I keep saying doctors because that’s me.

The show’s about a paramedic and, you know, paramedics, nurses, anybody on the front lines. You know, what happens? That’s been the most surprising thing is again, that tension, how hard it is.

And again, a fear in myself is I’m worried people won’t see all the work that we’re doing. And again, Alaine’s just like, who cares? I thought your job was their job, but the audience’s job.

I was like, oh, right. Come on, we worked so hard on this. She’s like, who cares?

Oh my God. It’s just been, it’s been so surprising to have such theatre people and then me being like, teach me everything and the collaboration and the way that both my associate director, Chris and Alaine and my producer, Laura, the way that they see theatre is such a different way that I see theatre. And both are, both are good ways.

You know what I mean? So it’s been really, really interesting.

[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah. Fascinating. Well, Janet, thank you so much for joining me.

I really appreciate it. It’s been a great conversation.

[Dr. Janet McMordie]
Thank you so much. It was an Honour. Thank you so much.

[Phil Rickaby]
Thank you for listening to this episode of Stageworthy. I’m going to tell you about who my guest is next week, but first let me talk a little bit about Patreon because I, like I said earlier, I can’t make Stageworthy without the people who have chosen to back me on Patreon. It’s because of them that I can cover the cost of making this show.

And it does cost money to make the, to make a podcast. You can listen to it for free, but in order to make the podcast, there are tools that need to be paid for. I have to have a website.

I have to have a place to host the audio files so they can be distributed to all of the podcast listening places. I need editing software. The transcripts cost money, like quality transcripts.

You can do it for free, but the quality transcripts that I want to be able to put out for this podcast, those costs money. And so I am currently just covering the cost of all of those tools and I’m not being paid for the hours of work that it costs, that it takes to make this show. But I’m so grateful to the people who backed this podcast on Patreon.

Like I said, I couldn’t do this without them. And I love making this show. So if you want to help me to make this show, please go to patreon.com/What happens when a sports medicine physician rediscovers her inner theatre kid during a global pandemic? In this episode, Phil sits down with Dr. Janet McMordie — a physician, actor, podcast host, and Team Canada Paralympics doctor — for a wide-ranging, warm, and genuinely surprising conversation about what it means to pursue two very different callings at once.stagworthy and become a patron. Patrons get early access to episodes. They get, we have conversations about topics that are important in the theatre world, and also just generally, I want to hear about what your favorite thing is. I’m going to be posting this just this week.

What is your, the thing that you’ve seen on stage this week that you love that you loved, there’s so many things that we should be talking about that we’re not talking about, and I want to have those conversations on the Patreon. So if you want to join and help me to make this show, go to patreon.com/stagerworthy and become a patron. My guest next week is Lisa Marie DiLiberto.

And Lisa Marie is the artistic director of Theatre Direct, which is in its 50th year of creating theatre for young audiences. And we have a great conversation about the history of Theatre Direct and theatre for young audiences and why it’s so important and so much more. So tune in next week for that conversation on stageworthy.