The Upstage Interview: Paul Van Dyck

Bumbling losers in their own way.

Upstage and Charlebois Post contributor Sarah Deshaies spoke wiith Paul Van Dyck, Director of Cornered. Below is an abridged version edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo editor-in-chief.

UPSTAGE

You always have lots of projects on the go. Your current presentation is Cornered, a dark comedy set in a gym. Give us a taste what Cornered is about. 

VAN DYCK

It’s an award winning script by Jim Burke, an ex-pat from England. He lives in Montreal now. He wrote this play about ten years ago and it did very well. Cornered won Best New Play award in Manchester. This is its Canadian premiere. 

It takes place in a boxing ring but it’s not about the boxers; it’s about the two guys who work the corners; basically they sponge the boxers down between fights. It’s their story. Bumbling losers in their own way.  

The Upstage Interview: Veronica Russell

“It is perfectly clear to me that life is not worth living, but it is also equally clear that life is worth talking about.” –E. Gertrude Beasley

Upstage and CharPo contributor Sarah Deshaies spoke with Veronica Russell about Texpatriate Productions presentation of A Different Woman as part of 2011 Fringe Festival. Below is an abridged version of the interview, edited by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.

UPSTAGE

Beasley wrote candidly about her childhood, strange upbringing and dysfunctional family. Her story was published, subsequently banned, eventually she was institutionalized. Incredible story. How did you discover Beasley?

RUSSELL

Really it was a fluke. A writer friend told me an essay of his was being covered in an anthology titled Lone Star Literature, produced by the University of Texas press. Basically  a survey of sexist literature throughout history, fiction and non-fiction, with excerpts and essays. My friend suggested  I pick  up a copy. I did and it  happens there was also an excerpt from Beasley’s autobiography.

The forward contained some background of her life.  I was hooked on this stunning story. 

The Upstage Interview: Vernice Miller on Scorched

The stories seem so far removed from them but once they take on the challenge of telling the stories of these people they begin to understand universality. 

The Upstage Interview, each Monday, is a result of CharPo's media partnership with Upstage: Theatre on Radio on CKUT.

Upstage and CharPo contributor Sarah Deshaies spoke with Director Vernice Miller  about Concordia presentation of Scorched, the English version of Incendies by Wajdi Mouad.  Below is an abridged version of the interview transcribed by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.

Miller was asked about the story of Scorched.

On the death of their mother, twin immigrants learn how much they don’t know about their past. Their mother left behind two letters; one to a father they didn’t know they had; another to a brother they didn’t know about. This takes them to the land of her birth which is a foreign country to them. There they uncover their own story.

As to what prompted Miller to get involved in this project, Miller replied.

The Artistic Director of Concordia Theatre Department proposed I take a look at this play when we were discussing my being on staff this semester as Guest Director. As soon as I read the play, I knew I had to do it.

The wonderful thing about Scorched is that it feels like an old Greek myth. I daresay the playwright borrowed from the Greek mythology of Oedipus. It reads like Oedipus but it’s our modern day mythology, our modern day epic. And the story that these twins go back to the Middle East with so much of our focus these days on the Middle East, it seemed very timely. 

The Upstage Interview: Larry Tremblay

The Dragonfly at Espace Go (photo: Danny Taillon)

Dragonfly is English; Chicoutimi is American, syntax is Franco; we have the three candies in the same box.

The Upstage Interview is a weekly feature at CharPo and is a result of The Charlebois Post's partnership with Upstage: Theatre on Radio on CKUT.

Upstage contributor Stephanie Breton spoke with playwright Larry Tremblay about The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi. Below is an abridged version of the interview transcribed by Estelle Rosen, CharPo Editor-in-Chief.

Playwright, actor, director, Larry Tremblay is one of Quebec’s most produced playwrights. Additionally, his work is recognized internationally.

The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi is about a purebred francophone man, Gaston Talbot from Chicoutimi, who experiences a trauma that leaves him capable of speaking only English, or rather French expressed in English words.