Backstage

 

Check out this arts feature, printed in the May 7 Kourier-Standard: www.yourkanata.com.

Well written piece, really gives you a taste of what community theatre is all about.

By: Cheryl Brink

KOURIER-STANDARD

The curtain is lifted as Kanata Theatre offers a behind-the-scenes glance at what it took to put their current production, Scotland Road, on the stage.

IT’S TWO WEEKS before opening night, and all the actors except one can deliver their lines with no prompting.

But Stavros Sakiadis, who plays John, also has the most to memorize. He stumbles over a sentence several times, as director Dorothy Gardner yells the correct wording from a seat in the back of the Ron Maslin Playhouse.

Stavros laughs at his mistake, then takes a deep breath, returning to character. He says the line properly, and the rehearsal of Scotland Road continues.

After the 80-minute run-through, the cast gathers on stage for the director’s review of each scene.

Dorothy offers the actors both encouragement and criticism.

“Tim, don’t leave the stage so fast,” she says. “If you’re going to order a pizza, do it for after the show, not during.”

Tim Finnigan is playing Dr. Halbrech, originally a woman’s role. Dorothy received permission from the playwright to make the change so Tim could play the part.

“It adds more scope to everyone else,” she explains.

As she provides tips to improve the performance, she switches between calling the actors by their real names and their characters’ names.

Kristy Allen sways back and forth as she listens to the debriefing, her long costume skirt swishing against the wooden stage. The leading lady laughs as her stomach growls. The actors have been at the theatre for a couple of hours, after an already full day of work at their jobs.

Diane Côté’s daughter crawls into her lap, possibly tired from chasing Tim around the stage earlier. The 41-year-old plays Miss Kittle, and is the only one who has previously graced the Kanata Theatre stage.

The others are appearing in their first local production, though they all have plenty of acting experience on their resumes.

All of the actors and crew members are amateurs who work full-time jobs, but love the theatre enough to devote their evening hours to preparation and performances. The Kanata Theatre produces six plays each season, with every role filled by volunteers of diverse backgrounds.

Scotland Road, the final production of the theatre’s 40th season, is a story based on the sinking of the Titanic.

“I’m thrilled to be in this cast,” says Stavros, 27, who teaches drama at Holy Trinity Catholic High School. “We’ve all become really close friends.”

“I fall in love with my cast members,” says Dorothy of the productions she’s directed.

The camaraderie isn’t surprising considering all the time the group spends together.

Auditions for Scotland Road began in January, with rehearsals starting soon after for the 12-day production run.

It’s a long process, but even on opening night their job won’t be done.

Kristy says the script won’t allow a completely finished product, and the cast expects everyone to leave the theatre with a different interpretation of what they saw on stage.

“It’s quite a different attempt than Kanata Theatre has ever done before,” says Dorothy. “The audience is going to have to work a little.”

But she is confident it will be worth it.

When she first read Scotland Road – the name of the hallway connecting first class to steerage on the Titanic – she loved it. She gave the script to Wendy Wagner, who was also captivated by the story and signed on as assistant director.

Both are devoted to the production’s success; during rehearsals, Dorothy eats, sleeps and breathes the play.

Well, minus the sleep.

The director says she catches only a couple of hours of shut-eye the night before rehearsals and shows, so she often schedules practices for several evenings in a row so she can relax the rest of the week. Her brain simply doesn’t take a break.

She gets ideas at midnight, reads reviews at 5 a.m. and is constantly going over the play in her mind.

The actors also find inspiration at inconvenient times.

“Sometimes I’m just in the shower and the light bulb goes on,” says Stavros.

Kristy woke up late one night and suddenly realized a key component of her character.

“An actor’s life is never boring,” says the 27-year-old.

Kristy grew up in Kanata, taking drama and dance classes as a child before going to Vancouver for acting school. She appeared in some short films on the west coast before returning to Ottawa. She is now a dance teacher and has performed in a few musicals with Orpheus Theatre, but wanted a new acting challenge when she heard about Scotland Road. After three auditions, she was finally told she landed the role of the Woman.

The actress says she works hard to connect with each role she is given, even if it means being vulnerable and discovering more about herself.

“I like being able to go on an emotional journey I might not get to in life,” she says. “It’s like therapy, except you don’t have to pay for it.”

Diane says the support from fellow actors and the director is crucial as they get comfortable in a new character’s personality.

“You get to be who you’re not,” she says. “It’s like being a kid all over again.”

Diane, an office administrator and mother of three, says she tends to get bossy roles: she has played royalty, Mother Wolf in the Jungle Book musical and is now cast as a senior for the second time. She jokes that her goal is to keep auditioning until she gets a part in her own age demographic.

Tim, the tallest and youngest member of the cast at age 23, has a long list of accomplishments. He owns Finnigan Productions with his brother, and together they have written, composed, starred in, produced and directed four films. Tim works at a Lee Valley warehouse when he’s not making movies.

“I love the performance arts,” he says.

 OPENING NIGHT IS TWO DAYS away, and everyone involved in Scotland Road is bustling around the theatre before dress rehearsal.

The director’s husband, Paul Gardner, constructed the set a couple of weeks earlier, and the simple platform and a couple of chairs are now on stage. Paul has worked on much more elaborate sets; he has helped build most of the walls, floors, doors and other set pieces that line the theatre workshop walls.

“I’ve always loved building stuff and making it look good,” he says. “The stuff you put a lot into, you keep.”

Scotland Road has a meager set, as lights, projections and sound will be used to create atmosphere instead.

Above the auditorium, the makeup and costume room is bustling with activity.

Under the bright lights, Stavros draws himself a bum chin and beauty mark, as Tim has his makeup done in the chair beside him. Kristy’s long red hair fills hot curlers and Diane is transformed from a middle-aged soccer mom to a wheelchair-bound senior citizen.

Dorothy bursts in, calling for the cast’s attention. There’s a minor change in the final scene; the actors take it in stride.

The director stays to chat with other crew members, raving over the latest script she has fallen in love with.

It’s about half an hour until dress rehearsal show time when Stavros runs a lint brush over his suit for the third time as Tim and Kristy go over some of their lines.

Though the actors banter back and forth as they prepare for the spotlight, they are also quieter, more focused on their performance.

Stavros says he enjoys the stage because there are no do-overs.

“It’s live: you have the audience there and you’re telling the story,” says Stavros. “You’re bringing them in and . . . being vulnerable.

“You got one shot, and one shot only.”

Dorothy also loves when the lights go up on the final product, but for a different reason.

“Then my job is done,” she says.

 IT’S TIME. Almost all of the 360 seats in the theatre are filled on opening night. The wall at the back of the stage lights up with an animation of a dark sea and sky full of stars. It’s the work of Kanata Theatre president Rob Fairbairn, who spent roughly 40 hours putting the projection together.

The audience is hushed as the image of an iceberg appears, drawing closer and growing larger. Then the theatre goes dark; the cast takes their places.

Lights up.

“Hotter,” Stavros, as John, says. Kristy is sitting in a white chair, absent-mindedly brushing her now-curly hair.

“It’s 72 degrees in here,” retorts Tim, as Dr. Halbrech.

“Hotter. I want her to melt,” replies Stavros, referring to the currently anonymous woman.

Scotland Road has begun.

In the next hour and a half, everyone’s identity is challenged and one of them ends up dead. As John tries to prove that Kristy’s character – supposedly a survivor from the Titanic – is a fake, Halbrech and the woman break down his facade to reveal he isn’t all he says either.

After the lights dim for the final time, the cast celebrate a successful show in the backstage rehearsal room with pizza, cake and beer. There were a few stumbles, but no disasters.

“We each had a moment where we messed up but we covered for each other,” says Kristy, adding that a preview for family and Kanata Theatre members the previous night helped. “It got all the jitters out,” she says.

The actors say they feed off the audience, discovering new things about the play each night depending on their spectators’ laughter and other reactions.

“Every show is different,” says Stavros.

Kristy says the crowd was great for opening night, responding to most of the jokes and even some unintentional comedy. After the show, she hears people in the lobby both praise the production yet wonder at its meaning.

It was the expected reaction; in response, the theatre members decide to hold a question and answer session after the play for the last week of the production.

Dorothy says it’s a Kanata Theatre first to make the cast and crew available to the audience, but she says there were quite a few curious people at the first session.

“The predominant question was: ‘What was this play about?’” she says. Her response is that there isn’t a satisfactory answer – everyone should leave with a different explanation.

“The play is simply to get the audience thinking,” she says. “It sits with you for a long time after, that’s what it’s supposed to do.”

Scotland Road runs until May 9 and finishes off Kanata Theatre’s 40th season.

Diane says there’s a sense of loss after a play like this ends, after forming lasting friendships with everyone involved. The adrenaline rush is over.

But all the hard work memorizing lines, rehearsing until late into the night, and doing other prep work is all worth it. All four cast members plan to continue participating in community theatre, as well as pursue film, television and script-writing opportunities.

“I can’t see myself doing anything else,” says Stavros about acting. “I do it because I love it.”