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(Lonely Cowboy)
Chip Chuipka: The Play’s the Thing
by Barbara Ford
(production photos courtesy of Sidemart Theatrical Grocery)
Thirty seconds into my interview with Chip Chuipka, sipping tea in ASM’s bay window overlooking a blustery afternoon on Stanley Street, it was obvious that we weren’t going to spend much time talking about Chip. He dove right into quotation-worthy theories and thoughts, injecting hilarious, touching and deliciously devious episodes to discuss his overwhelming passion: truly inspired theatre. What is that exactly? For Chuipka, it is a well-written story that surprises an audience, disturbs them, provokes them, moves them, and the director, actors and designers are the conduits through which that story is told.
Chuipka grew up in Capreol, Ontario, a small community that is now part of Greater Sudbury. A mining town, it was also an important railway channel, where the east and west systems converged. Most summers were spent working the rails in some capacity: digging cable, up north with the real toughs, as the manual swing bridge operator or a train order operator communicating, by hand, with both engineer and caboose as the trains roared by.
The railroad supported Chuipka through to the end of his stint at the University of Toronto where, similar to many artists I’ve interviewed, he studied science- specifically parasites and viruses. Once a month, to take a walk on the right side of his brain, he splurged to see whatever was playing at the Adelaide Court Theatre. That world intrigued him, called out to him, but seemed too distant and remote to penetrate.
