The competition was at the Remai Arts Centre, home to Persephone Theatre, a theatre I have fond memories of because I was in the very first production to grace its stage, Beauty and the Beast, in 2007, just before it officially opened (and before it was quite finished, actually, but that’s another story). While I was there I ran into Del Surjik, artistic director of Persephone, a couple of times, and confirmed to my chagrin that (as I had suspected) the profile I wrote of him for Fine Lifestyles Saskatoon back in the fall of 2010 had never run in the magazine. (Right after I wrote it, I quit being editor and so had no say in whether it ran or not.)

So here it is. Better late than never!

(References to “last season” or “this season” obviously refer to the time period when the interview was conducted.)

***

Persephone rising

Artistic director Del Surjik has presided over unprecedented growth in this jewel of Canadian theatre

By Edward Willett

Autumn, 2010

When Del Surjik, artistic director of Persephone Theatre, left Saskatoon two decades ago, “a young man seeking his fortune,” he didn’t really expect to be back.

The recipient of the first BFA in theatre awarded by the University of Saskatchewan, the North Battleford native, raised in Yorkton, had been one of the co-founders of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan (and associate director for its first five years) and also helped found the Saskatoon Soaps.

“It was a very vibrant, golden-age time in Saskatoon’s theatre history,” Surjik says, but nonetheless, he moved to Vancouver in 1989, freelancing a national career or seven years, then spending the next decade as artistic director of Pi Theatre. “It was the indie theatre scene,” he says. “Cutting-edge experimentation. That community in Vancouver expected to see some of the most provocative and urgent thought in theatre coming from me and my theatre. It was exciting work.”

Dogbarked

About five years ago, the late Tibor Feheregyhazi, Persephone’s long-time artistic director, asked Surjik to direct James O’Shea’s play Dogbarked. It was the first time Surjik had been back to work in Saskatoon and, he said, he “had a hell of a good time.”

Audiences had a good time, too. The show was a hit, and Surjik got to refresh his relationship with Feheregyhazi. The two stayed in touch over the next few years, during which time “he was regaling me with the tales of trying to get this building (the new Remai Arts Centre) built.”

After Fehergyhazi’s death in 2007, Surjik received a message from theatre staff asking him if he would be interested in applying to take over as artistic director. In the end he was one of 35 applicants, five of whom were brought to Saskatoon for intensive, day-long interviews.

In the end, Surjik was the committee’s unanimous choice.

“My wife and I sat down and had a hard talk,” he recalls. His wife, Johnna Wright, was then artistic director of another Vancouver theatre, Solo Collective. “It would mean her resigning and setting a succession plan in her theatre company as well as the one I was at. We were very integrated in the community, we sat on a lot of boards.

“What are all the things you can change in your life?” he muses. “New city, new life, new job.” Not only that, his wife was pregnant “with our first and only family member,” son Sascha. But in a way, that made the choice easier. “The notion of being able to raise my son as a prairie boy was a un-thought of until that time,” Surjik says. “It was hugely appealing.”

And so, 18 years after he left, Surjik returned to Saskatoon, his life “circling around  like I was the character in an epic novel.”

“A fantastic opportunity”

“For me, what a fantastic opportunity to take the helm of a regional theatre and come at it with the vigour of a mid-career theatre artist,” Surjik says.

He says one of the great artistic pleasures he finds in his job is the “alchemy” of figuring out a season, “choosing those plays that continue a conversation with the audience.”

Surjik says there are several such conversations going on at once, since you are communicating, not just with those who come to everything, but people who are brand-new to Persephone or even the city as a whole.

“I stay with a demonstration of the great breadth of styles and genres there are in the world of theatre. I think that’s a responsibility as a regional theatre. There’ll be musicals, there’ll be comedies, there’ll be period drama. There’ll be new work. There’s 2,000 years of amazing variety to tap into. All these writers out there writing new work as well. We’ll keep mixing it up!”

Another consideration, Surjik says, is “finding good vehicles for the artists to bring their best work to the stage.”

“We want to nurture the local acting pool,” he says, not only people who live in Saskatchewan, but those who trained or lived here and then went elsewhere. “You have to give hope to the artists who live here that their regional theatre is a an avenue of employment. Otherwise they’re going to have to go elsewhere or withdraw from the art form.”

Co-productions, such as last season’s Thunderstick, a co-production with Theatre Network in Edmonton, and this season’s opening show, Great Expectations, with Blackbird Theatre of Vancouver, gives local artists exposure in other cities: the shows open here, then travel to the other centre.

Surjik also believes in supporting other local theatres. Last season, for example, there was a co-production with Saskatchewan Native Theatre Co. on the second stage. “The health of the entire theatre ecology is what’s important,” he insists. “We don’t live in the ecology on our own.”

That philosophy encompasses the whole province. “Ruth Smillie (artistic director of Regina’s Globe Theatre) and I have a great relationship. We made history last year by having a Globe show at Persephone: we brought in Elephant Wake. Ruth and I are hoping that with two really great strong regional theatres in the province, we can spin the momentum that’s going on.”

Under Surjik, Persephone is also helping to develop Saskatchewan playwrights. This year’s Deep End Series will premiere three new Saskatchewan plays, for example.

“They are there because they need to get done. I read them and I had no choice,” Surjis says. “I love writer, I love scripts. We don’t begin without any of these words. If we have a good script, we have the bedrock upon which we can build a really great show.”

An “extraordinary” facility

Surjik is enthusiastic about everything about Persephone, but particularly the Remai Arts Centre. “It’s extraordinary. There’s no theatre that’s the equivalent of this in Vancouver.”

Rawlco Radio Hall, the main auditorium, is “phenomenal,” he says; extraordinarily intimate. “The back wall of that theatre is 12 feet closer to the stage than the back wall of the old theatre,” he notes, and yet there are more seats, 421 in all. “And we’ve got the second stage. And a lobby that actually holds the people in the theatre. We can have two shows running at once, in the BackStage Stage and the Rawlco Radio Hall, and those audiences get to mix, which is a really cool thing.”

Even more extraordinary: the theatre was built on budget and without a mortgage, “at Tibor’s unequivocal insistence. I can’t name another project where that has happened.”

The community has embraced the facility wholeheartedly. “The community use blew us away,” Surjik says. “There’s something like 500 days of combined use in a 365-day year. It’s a very busy place!”

And Persephone’s own success has been “incredible,” he adds. “Typically after the first year of a new building you’re supposed to have a spike and then it’s supposed to dip down, and then a nice slow rise up to a new plateau. That hasn’t been the case. It’s just been growing and growing and growing.”

And so, brand-new though it is, the Remai Arts Centre will soon be expanding, taking advantage of the impending arrival of a new neighbor: the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, formerly the Mendel Art Gallery, which will be built on Persephone’s current parking lot.

“This is going to become a cultural block,” Surjik says, and since the new building is going to wrap around the theatre, Persephone plans to take advantage of it to enlarge the second stage, add additional dressing rooms and stage-management office space, and expand the shop area.

And don’t mourn the lost parking lot: it’s going underground, which should literally warm the hearts (and other body parts) of January theatre-goers.

A heritage of culture

Persephone’s amazing growth is a testament to this province, Surjik thinks. “This province’s people care about their lives having a cultural component. We have a heritage of it.

“It’s part of a questing life. If you are living a full life, you’re asking questions, you’re testing your beliefs and opinions against others’, you are in contact with your community. These are all important things to having an agile, healthy and forward-thinking society.”

And that, he thinks, is the kind of society blossoming in Saskatoon. “There’s a cycle in the arts where a city is hot,” Surjik says. “Toronto was hot. Edmonton was hot for a while.” Now, he believes, “the eyes of the nation are going to turn and look at Saskatoon.

“It’s coming, and we’re going to be ready for them. There’s going to be a lot going on. There already is a lot going on. It’s time for them to discover what a wonderful place this is for artistic endeavour.”

The review begins:

I confess that I went into the opening night performance of Marion Bridge at Globe Theatre feeling skeptical.

The premise, after all, sounds like the set-up to a joke: “A nun, an actress and a soap-opera addict walk into a kitchen …”

Not only that, the fact the three are sisters home together — in Cape Breton, no less — for the first time in years because their mother is dying made me fear I faced a turgid evening of stereotypical CanLit dysfunctional-family angst.

But thanks to Daniel MacIvor’s sharp writing, unexpected story twists, and above all top-notch performances, Marion Bridge won me over.

The 18th-century French poet Jacques Delille famously noted that while we can choose our friends, “Fate chooses our relatives.”

More than one family has fractured because siblings discover they have nothing in common with each other … which is exactly what has happened to the family in Marion Bridge, Globe Theatre’s next mainstage production, running Jan. 20 to Feb. 6.

Written by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor, Marion Bridge is set in Cape Breton, where the three MacKeigan sisters have come together to care for their dying mother.

Aside from their last names, they have nothing in common. Theresa (Laura Condlin) is a nun. Agnes (Liz Gilroy) is a struggling actor.

And then there’s the soap opera-obsessed youngest, Louise, played by Judy Wensel, a recent graduate of the University of Regina’s drama department.

“She’s the only sister who still lives in the home where they all grew up,” Wensel explains. “She feels a bit of frustration. They’re in her space. But over the course of the play they find some common ground and they become sisters again. They lost sight of how family is important, and by the end of it they discover that again.”

Read the rest.

For Ruth Smillie, artistic director of Globe Theatre, the key to Globe’s upcoming production of J.M. Barrie’s classic tale of Peter Pan is that children don’t differentiate between reality and make-believe the way adults to.

Smillie, who is directing the production, recalls that this past summer she overheard a group of boys walking up and down the street, “very engaged in what they were doing,” and overheard them say, “We have to save the president,” with “enormous concern and conviction.”

It’s that kind of immersion in the world of make-believe that Smillie hopes Globe’s Peter Pan will provide to people of all ages.

Including directing and being part of the cast of Tent Meeting, Regina Lyric Musical Theatre‘s fall show, which opens next Tuesday, November 3, and runs through November 8 at the Shumiatcher Theatre in the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

I’d tell you about it, but you can read all about it in today’s Regina LeaderPost. The story begins:

Regina Lyric Musical Theatre’s production of the gospel-flavoured musical Tent Meeting opens on Tuesday.

Edward Willett, who is directing and performing in the play, explained that it’s set in the 1930s in a small town in Alberta. The town is in danger of “drying up and blowing away” when a gospel quartet arrives in town to put on a tent meeting.

The leader of the quartet group, Rev. Elroy Phillips, played by Michael W. Hamann, has a history in the town. A local farmer, George Hoveland — played by Willett, who also plays quartet bass Bob Lefsrud — is “watching his fields blow away” and has become bitter. He used to sing gospel music, but lost his faith because of the drought. George’s wife, Dolly — played by Heather Ross, who is also the pianist — is worried about her husband. A bit of a love triangle is one factor involved. Back in the town, Phillips is trying to set everything right.

If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll come see it! Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for students, and are available at Bach & Beyond or online here (or at the door, if we’re not sold out). Show times are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday.

It’s a good show. It’d be a sin to miss it!

Before Angel Genereux became the producer of Regina Little Theatre’s programs of one-act plays in 2007, they were seen strictly as a venue for new talent on and backstage, and traditionally drew small audiences.

Genereux thought they could draw new audience members, too. She boosted publicity. The result: last spring’s one-acts drew record crowds and made money for the first time ever.

“It’s a chance to see what RLT is all about,” she says. “And it’s cheap: 10 bucks!”

Fast-forward to this fall. Genereux is no longer the producer of the one-acts (she’s moving up to producing the main-stage shows), but she’s still involved. She’s directing one of the three short comedies featured in RLT’s Comedy Cabaret on Friday and Saturday at the Regina Performing Arts Centre.

“I’m the only first-time director, and I picked a 50-minute play with seven characters and heavy on props and set!” she says.

An excerpt:

Mackey says one of the main reasons she created the show was to let veterans know that a lot of people really do appreciate the sacrifices they made.

Another was to educate children, and Jake’s Gift, Mackey says, elicits the same “amazing” response from 10-year-olds as it does their elders.

“Those young kids really get it, and it makes them interested in history. They come up to me afterwards and want to know more about the war and Remembrance Day. That’s such an incredible reward.”

Jeff Tonita and company sing “Live, Laugh, Love”

Eduardo and Monica Ventura dance "Bolero D'Amour"

…and then I can think about other things again. After a week of rehearsals and performances mixed in with other stuff, I was more tired after last night’s show than I think can remember ever being before. But a good night’s sleep took care of that, and now I’m looking forward to the final show tonight.

Marianne Woods as Stella Deems and Aubree Erickson as Young Stell, "Who's That Woman?"

Here are a couple more photos to whet your appetite to come! 8 p.m. tonight and 2 p.m. tomorrow at the University Theatre, Riddell Centre, University of Regina. You can buy your tickets at the door; online ticket sales for tonight will end shortly and for tomorrow will end this evening.

From left to right, Donna Trainor, Jeff Tonita, Amanda Dancsok, Dianne Burrows, and me.

Today’s Regina LeaderPost has a preview of next week’s Lyric Musical Theatre production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, in which I play Buddy Plummer.

And no, I didn’t write it myself. Kelly-Anne Reiss did the honours; the photo is by Tony Fleece.

Here’s an excerpt:

Regina audiences are in for a rare treat as the Lyric Musical Theatre of Regina will be putting on a full stage production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies.

There has not been a staging of the entire musical in Canada for years, even though several of the songs, including “Broadway Baby,” have become standards.

Director Robert Ursan decided to revive the musical because Sondheim, who also wrote Sweeney Todd, is one of his favourite lyricists.

“And we’re lucky to have the talent here in Regina to do it,” Ursan said about his cast that has more than 40 people.

The production was just one more example of the incredible depth of talent we have here in Regina, demonstrated both by the young people who did the dancing and the adults who taught and guided them–in this case, Ana Maria Campos and Nathalia Barbara.

The two young leads, Marcelle Pieri as Lise and Wade McLean as Colas, were wonderful to watch. Marcelle in particular was delightful, lighting up the stage so that the audience fell instantly in love with her.

A personal highlight for me was the performance of Robert Ursan as Widow Simone. Little did I know, when Rob was best man at my wedding, that he would one day also make such an outstanding woman.

Many of the performances, as is often the case with supposedly amateur theatrical productions in Regina, were of professional calibre.

The same cannot be said, alas, for the performance of the audience members seated behind me. There, two ladies apparently shared the opinion that since this was ballet and no one on stage was talking, they were free to talk over the music and provide each other with an endless play-by-play analysis of the production.

Accompanying them were two small girls, who, following in their elders’ footsteps, not only provided their own commentary but also somehow between them managed to make a bag of potato chips last for the entire second act, first by slowly crunching each chip, then by (as near as I could tell without turning around) folding and refolding the bag in a vain attempt to turn it into a particular complex piece of origami. This was particular annoying since I had gulped down a large carbonated beverage prior to re-entering the theatre at the end of the first intermission in obedience to the sign stating “No food or drink in the theatre.”

Occasional annoyed looks behind me did nothing to elicit quiet, and I wasn’t quite prepared to turn around and say “Shhh!”, so I suffered in silence–and brooded.

What we need, I decided, is a national organization to set standards and provide accreditation for audience members across the country.

Called CLAP, for Canadian Live Audience Professionals, this organization would offer classes in audience behavior. Those who successfully completed the course of study, and passed a series of written and practical tests, would become fully accredited professional audience members, and would receive preferential treatment at theatres across Canada.

Eventually I foresee a day when only fully accredited CLAP members would even be allowed to attend live theatrical events or un-amplified musical concerts. (A subset of CLAP could be devoted to moviegoers.)

CLAPpers, as they would be called, would have a thorough grounding in the basics. They would know that one does not talk to one’s seat neighbor in a loud voice because it disturbs one’s fellow audience members and the performers on stage. (You can hear the actors talking, right? What makes you think they can’t hear you?)

They would know that one does not bring food items or mints wrapped in crinkly paper to the theatre, then spend several minutes opening them during quiet moments in the proceedings. (When I attended Sandra Shamas’s work in progress at Globe Theatre three weeks ago, a woman unfortunately did just that, earning a scathing comment from Shamas. Every actor who’s ever tried to play a scene while listening to crackling noises from the third row applauded her silently, though the audience seemed shocked. Had they all been members of CLAP, the issue would never have arisen.)

CLAPpers would know enough to turn off their cell phones, or at least set them to vibrate rather than ring, unlike the two individuals whose all-important communications punctuated two separate performances of Regina Little Theatre’s production of The Play’s The Thing a couple of weeks ago.

CLAPpers would know that while coughs and sneezes may not be entirely avoidable, they can be stifled to a certain extent, so that the rest of the audience does not miss important plot points and punchlines. They would know that if a child is brought to the theatre and that child starts to cry, that child should be taken outside immediately.

CLAPpers would know, in short, that a live performance is a one-time-only thing, that it cannot be rewound, replayed, or perfectly recreated. They would know that they are not watching TV in the privacy of their own living rooms, but are sharing with other human beings a unique artistic experience. They would know, therefore, to be attentive to the performers and considerate of other audience members.

We’re blessed in Regina with many fine professional performers. Isn’t it about time we developed some professional audiences?