First-Person: Michaela di Cesare on the evolution of Eight Ways My Mother Was Conceived

From one-woman (in every sense of the word) FRINGE show to true team effort

How this remount changes everything

by Michaela di Cesare

I was asked how the input of a new director, Tamara Brown, has taken 8 Ways my Mother was Conceived from a FRINGE production to something “more mainstage.”

This is going to be a little metaphysical. I can’t help it. Everything to do with this show has come about through a series of drastic life-changing events that have unfolded over a two-year period from the fall of 2009 to the fall of 2011 (roughly) which could not have fallen into place in a more literary fashion if they were being written into a novel. I’m only going to list the uncanny events that have to do with Tamara (because I think people are tired of hearing the story about how I fell in love and got married). I’ll begin by saying that in some ways her influence has been there from the beginning.

Sunday Feature: Michaela di Cesare on remounting 8 Ways

Testing the Scripture 

Possible outcomes of a remount of 8 Ways my Mother was Conceived among its very subjects

by Michaela Di Cesare

Then Jesus told them, "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family." – Mark 6:4

When I was invited to a meeting with the National Congress of Italian Canadians at the gilded monument we call the Leonardo Da Vinci Center in St-Leonard, shortly before my run at FRINGE had begun, I thought only one of two things could happen:

• I’d walk through a large, ornate door that would shut mysteriously behind me, after which I’d find myself facing the back of a tall chair. Following my tentative hello, the chair would swivel slowly, revealing a fat gangster chewing on a cigar. With a subtle gesture he would then summon his goons, willing them to appear from where they had been lurking in the shadows. At which point they’d put a bag over my head, tell me I had dishonored my people and must be silenced. And before I knew it, I’d be swimming with the fishes… Or this more pleasant version:
• I’d walk through the door, swivel, yadda yadda—but then I’d be offered a bazillion dollars to make the play a propaganda piece for the Italian community and tour the world with it, accompanied by my very own pair of goons who I’d affectionately name Sal and Vinny-- following a soul-searching pondering of my artistic integrity, of course.

The Upstage Interview: Michaela di Cesare (Fringe 2011)

Miracles Happen!

Upstage Host Eric Sukhu spoke with Michaela di Cesare about MaryBeth Productions presentation of 8 Ways My Mother Was Conceived presented as part of 2011 Fringe Festival. Below is an abridged version of the interview, edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.

UPSTAGE

Tell us about 8 Ways My Mother Was Conceived

DI CESARE

Not an easy story to synthesize. My family truly believes my mother was conceived  by a virgin. This story gets told at all family gatherings  over and over again – a story my mother is very proud of.

Basically, when my grandparents were courting in Italy, my grandfather had to go to Switzerland to work. After he left it was discovered my grandmother was pregnant. Since they weren’t married and he wasn’t even in town, it was seen as a miracle. That is the pregnancy that resulted in my mother.