What is your role in the show? I play “A Motorcycle Messenger” and am the only character not gifted with a name. Amanda Neufeld has suggested I go by Jermaine. So I guess I’m Jermaine? As Jermaine the Messenger, I have many Messengery duties to do including delivering packages, riding a motorcycle, cellular respiration, helping packages get delivered, having great hair, providing a visual contrast to the high society white collar bourgeoisie, facilitating package delivery, and wearing leather pants.
What drew you to this production? The pants.
OK, OK. I’m friends with most of the collective that performed this version of The Misanthrope at the Fringe Festival two years ago and heard a fair number of good stories about the experience, though I missed seeing the show myself. I’m a big fan of the way the text plays, not only with language and rhythm but with conventions of theatre and structure. Janine’s direction has a gift for nailing the physicality of a scene and teasing out moments as long as they possibly can be in order to drive the point home, and I respond well to approaching the show physically and with full body – a “what are you doing” mindset as opposed to “what are you thinking.” Not to mention the cast are a lovely group of people, individually and collectively.
But seriously, it’s all about the pants, man.
What is your background in theatre? BA Drama from the University of Alberta, Artistic Director of my own indie production company, Allspice Theatre. This is my sixth production with Walterdale (Kiss Within a Kiss, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Threepenny Opera, The Love of the Nightingale) assuming you count The Weir (which I assistant directed) but not the multitude of shows I was lighting crew for. Outside the firehouse walls, a short list of credits includes Spring Awakening (Scona Alumni Theatre), Chicago, Cabaret, and Little Shop of Horrors (Two One-Way Tickets to Broadway Productions), Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead (Rabid Marmot Theatre), No Choking Matter (Allspice), Dracula (Escape Route Productions) and I hold the unofficial title of the John Ratzenberger at Blue Sky Theatre Emporium. I’m a company member with Clown Cartel Murder Mysteries, a produced playwright, and a kickass juggler.
This show ends with a big party, if you were to hold a costume themed party, what kind of theme would you want it to have? I don’t see why I should be the only one who gets to wear an outfit entirely made of leather, if you get my drift.
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