The Upstage Interview: McGill Drama Festival

...you realize that actors have their own ideas...

Upstage Contributor Gaspare Borsellino spoke with McGill Drama Festival (MDF) Coordinator Benjamin Hanff and two MDF Directors Martin Law and  Lerato Islam. Below is an abridged version edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE:   How long has MDF been running?

HANFF:  I can’t give you an exact year but MDF has existed in multiple forms over 20 years. It wasn’t always called MDF but there’s always been a student play festival mounted in the Spring at Players Theatre.

The process is in the Fall we have a reading committee which reads every play submitted and decides what will be offered this year.


UPSTAGE: What is the mandate of MDF?

HANFF: MDF’s mantra is all about opportunties, giving people opportunities which they’ve never had before, and a chance to display them at their best.

UPSTAGE: Are they all McGill students?

HANFF:  Yes.  Players Theatre hosts MDF and we’re part of the  Student Society of McGill University.

UPSTAGE: What is special about this year’s Festival, besides the plays we’re going to hear about from the two directors in studio?

HANFF: We have some phenomenal plays this year which I’m very proud of. The process is in the Fall we have a reading committee which reads every play submitted and decides what will be offered this year.

I understand a lot of the plays submitted this year were comedic content.


UPSTAGE: Did any of the problems with support staff at McGill last year have any effect?

HANFF: Well most of the work is done out of my apartment so we weren’t affected. 

UPSTAGE: Tell us about your play Martin.

LAW: It’s called The Plan, written by Daniel Carter. It’s a comedy. I understand a lot of the plays submitted this year were comedic content. This is about a lawyer and his wife whose sister comes over for the weekend and he hatches a plot to kill her for her money because they’re heavily in debt. Dark humour.

UPSTAGE: Loretta?

ISLAM: I’m directing two very different plays. One is called Indefinitely by Tabia Lau. It’s a play about a brother and sister. He comes out to his sister the day before he goes to University. The play is an examination of how they deal with it; how they work with these issues of sexuality and what it means to their relationship.

The second play is Little Zero by Doug Henry. I think it’s safe to say  it’s probably the most  unconventional play of the Festival. Two monologues running parallel; the theme is life so it takes a generic human being from birth to death.  There’s a lot of movement and clown work. A really interesting play.

Working with two plays that are so radically different  was an amazing experience.


UPSTAGE: Is there dialogue?

ISLAM:  No  dialogue.  The two monologues run parallel. They interweave and interact.

UPSTAGE: What was it like directing two plays at the same time?

ISLAM: Absolutely  fantastic. My first time directing so that was already exciting. Working with two plays that are so radically different  was an amazing experience.

I have two different teams; working with a variety of actors was great.  Especially considering Indefinitely is dialogue and Little Zero without dialogue.

The rehearsal process was very different for both in terms of creative process: how we put ideas together, how we warm up, and how we block scenes.It was an amazing experience to  see two completely different sides of rehearsal.

UPSTAGE:   It’ll probably be really something for you to see them come to life.

ISLAM: Can’t wait.

UPSTAGE:  Ben I understand that MDF presents a different play every night?

HANFF: They circulate. At the end on Saturday, we have a round-robin when we have all seven plays go on at once. We also invite all plays which have gone on this year in McGill theatre community to give a 5 or 10 minute example. 

It’s learning how to coordinate a lot of  people’s ideas into your own original ideas.


UPSTAGE: Are you guys involved in theatre?

LAW: I’ve been acting in theatre for the past 3 years but never directed. In MDF most people are doing things new for them.  So for me it’s a great experience as opposed to acting on stage to step back and see it in a different light; trying to look at the whole scene.

UPSTAGE: How did you find the experience of directing?

LAW: Much different than I thought it would be. Generally a lot more adaptation and listening than I expected. At first I thought I’d walk in and say I want the scene to look like this, you move over there – after a while you realize that actors  have their own ideas about what they want their characters to do and bring  3 or 4 times more creative energy in terms of introducing stuff. It’s learning how to coordinate a lot of  people’s ideas into your own original ideas.

UPSTAGE:  Lerato, do you have something to add?

ISLAM:  You do expect to boss people around but that’s not the way it works!

Especially with Little Zero, the actors had so many ideas  that I would never have thought of. It came together as a creative process where we all worked togeher. Everyone’s ideas are integrated. I’m supervising but I’m not the one in charge of the creative process.

That’s what’s so good. You realize directing is not telling people what to do but rather the coming together of minds, different ideas, different personalities  and different influences.

McGill Drama Festival 

March 24 – 31

Players Theatre