World Theatre Day Blog

Vancouver Public Library & the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance Present: Backstage with Bernard – Sunday, March 22, 2009

Host: Bernard Cuffling – Local Theatre Actor

The 2pm Panel.

2pm Panel

Karin Konoval – Actress & Artist

Kris Allen – Stage Manager

Helen Jarvis – Designer/Props Maker

Joel Ballard – Contestant on Triple Sensation  (CBC TV) & Studio 58 grad

Max Reimer – Artistic Producer Vancouver Playhouse

Question to Karin Konoval: How do you deal with depression? Or stay happy in this business?

“There is an art to staying positive – in continually showing up and going to auditions – one of the things I’ve learned over the years is Go in there, do the thing, and drop it – just let it take care of itself…I think it’s mental discipline more than anything”

Bernard on not getting a role you are perfect for: “I get devastated for about half an hour and then I just say they made a fucking mistake”

Question to Max Reimer – How do you balance your desire to be on stage with running a theatre?

“A lot of the producers are reluctant producers – they don’t really want to do it – they do it to put on the show or make sure the company survives. I love producing…I used to think my job was to introduce audiences and artists. Something almost as important is that is making sure the audience is introduced to the audience…theatre is very social by nature…Conversations took place because of that event, and I was the one who played a hand in making that event come to fruition”

Do you think the government gives enough to the arts?

“No…..What we need more than anything is not so much large dollars as it is same dollars” – Max Reimer

Question to Kris Allen who stage managed Cats in London: “Five of your cats aren’t coming that night because they’re injured…How do you deal? Who makes the decision? What do you do?”

“The thing is, I did Cats for 2.5 years and we never had the entire cast once because of so many injuries…Once someone broke their back on stage”

Bernard: “But the show stopped?”

Kris: “No, they just told me after”

“When I saw cats, first of all I thought it was the worst thing I’d ever seen in my life…People always wonder how I could do it for 2.5 years, but that’s what happens – it was always different.”

Audience Question: How do you deal with difficult people within the company?

Max Reimer “You may be able to foul up a couple of shows but that’s about it – it’s a very small country…Eventually you just say ‘You’re dead to me: I’ll put up with you for the rest of the show, but luckily in this business the bad die young’”

The 3pm Backstage With Bernard Panel

3:00pm Panel:

Ellie O’Day – Publicist

Wayne Specht – Director, Axis Theatre

Ian Forsyth – Director of Cultural Affairs for North Vancouver

Anna Cummer – Actress

Crissy – UBC Student

Question to Anna: How do you deal with being an actress: you see a role, you want it, you don’t get it, or you do get it?

“It’s one of the most competitive industries, I think, and yes, every single time I audition for anything and don’t get it, a little piece of me dies, because that’s just the way that it is. But you make the choice to be in this industry and that’s just part of how it works…[but] you start to befriend your competition and it stops being competition and you can start celebrating whenever anybody gets a part – and you know that next time it could be you! No one can do Anna Cummer like me. Trust me. They can’t.”

Question to Anna: How do you deal with bad reviews?

“I don’t read them. I’ve started ignoring critics until I’m finished. I collect all the reviews and read them after closing.”

At this point the audience asked one of my favourite questions of the afternoon. A gentleman stood up and asked what the panel thought about YouTube and it’s potential to capture the magic of theatre so that more people could experience it. Of course, at this point my computer froze and I lost everything that people had said, but here is the basics of it:

Theatre is like lightening in a bottle and only happens once. And it doesn’t transfer well onto film. What is magical on stage is boring when captured on film. What YouTube is good for is promotional videos and videos that have been filmed with the intention of being cinematic, not just a direct capture of what is on stage.

“The more technological we become, the more we need live theatre” – Bernard Cuffling

The 4pm Backstage with Bernard Panel

4pm Panel

Erin & Mike– Cap U students

Christopher Gaze – Artistic Director, Bard on the Beach

Gabrielle Rose – Actress

Charlie Gallant –Actor

What part have you always wanted to play?
Erin: Dot in Sunday in the Park with George

Mike: Judas Iscariot in anything

Chris: Sir in the Dresser

Gabrielle rose: Martha in Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe

Charlie: Romeo in Romeo & Julie

Bernard: Guyev in the Cherry Orchard (has played it)

What is a good audition?

Christopher Gaze – “When I’ve seen many thousands of actors audition for me, but from my side of it, it’s when you see someone totally…um…commit themselves and they’re in a zone, in a special place, uncluttered, not pushing, just allowing it to sort of flow through them, and umm…it’s uh, you can’t lay a format down. You have to be yourself, but try to leave the foolish and whimsical side of you outside. Come in, do your business, know exactly what you want to do, do it, and get out. More often than not you’ll impress people that way.”

Charlie “A good audition is a prepared audition. It’s exhausting the options so that when you go in you feel like you could do anything.”

On Audiences:

Mike: “Prior to this I was a professional wrestler, and let me tell you that you don’t know bad audiences. Bad audiences are when they are throwing you things at you and chanting ‘Boring! Boring! Boring!’”

Closing comment:

“Theatre is alive and well in this city and we have some amazing talent” – Bernard Cuffling