Q+A with Valmai Goggin

Valmai Goggin

From inside the Lunchbox, the director emerges. After spending the year in deep at Lunchbox Theatre as its RBC Emerging Director, Valmai Goggin now gets the chance to take the reins of her own show. She has chosen to direct The Lover, Harold Pinter’s 1962 dark, comedic tale of the sexual adventures of a married couple. Goggin sat down with Jon Roe to talk about what she learned and why she picked The Lover.

What was the biggest lesson you took away from this year? Directors often work in a little bit of a bubble in that you don’t often get to collaborate with other directors on projects. There’s a sense of, what is everyone else doing? Getting to work on four shows with four very different directors with four very different processes—it was nice to see the things in common and it was nice to see the deviations people make based on their own process and based on the script.

Was directing always part of your plan? Yeah. Like many people, I started out as an actor and within a couple years really fell in love with directing. I’ve been pursuing that for a quite a few years now.

What made you want to pursue directing? Probably the fact that I’m better at directing than I am at acting. As a director, you get to have your hands in a lot of different pots, so to speak, in terms of being able to tell the story not only from an acting perspective, but also in terms of design and environment. The bird’s eye view of the storytelling process was really appealing to me.

Did you dabble in directing prior to your MFA in directing at the University of Calgary? I spent a couple of seasons at an outdoor Shakespeare company in Sackville, N.B. and did some work there. When I really became serious about directing, I was actually living in Iqaluit, NU. and doing quite a bit of community theatre up there, including their first-ever production of a Shakespeare play. It was working up there that really renewed my interest in directing and clarified for me that I really did want to go back and pursue a higher level of training and hone my craft.

Why were you up in Iqaluit? My boyfriend and I moved up there for pretty basic student financial reasons: to get rid of some loans and a change of scenery. We went up there with a very short-term plan of staying, and ended up staying there for two years. We fell in love with the town and the people. There really is a lovely little arts community up there. We literally did community theatre out of pockets and on our kitchen tables. It really was an incredible experience. I think everyone should live up north at some point, it’s so beautiful.

Were you going to school? No, I was a wildly unqualified business sales administrator for Northwestel, which is the telecom up there. My boyfriend worked as a graphic designer. We were doing theatre in our off hours and it became clearer and clearer to me that I wanted to pursue that as a full time profession.

Why’d you pick The Lover to direct? Harold Pinter has always been my favourite playwright. His experimentations and use of language are really fascinating. His ability to communicate so much with staccato or condensed dialogue is quite extraordinary and powerful. The Lover really spoke to me as a very challenging text, both for myself as a director and for the actors, for us to wade through and navigate the story. It’s also a really classic Pinter play in that it’s the darkest of dark comedies. You’re really trying to navigate a story where people are laughing at one moment and suddenly faced with something strange and disturbing in the next. It seemed a great fit in the Lunchbox space, in terms of being able to tell the story in the theatre. Also, I really wanted a script I could sink my teeth into with a team of talented professionals.

The play’s interpretation can swing between comedy or a bit more dramatic. Do you hit the middle of the road in that sense? I think so. As with all of Pinter’s plays, it does swing the pendulum between the comic and the dramatic. Navigating between the two is part of my task as a director. It’s sometimes more powerful when you can rocket people from one extreme to the other in a one act play. I think heading too far in one direction or the other can be a bit of a misdirection. As we work our way through the script and try to break down to play, we’re trying to negotiate what are those moments of comedy and what are those moments of drama. You do all that work in the rehearsal hall and you get up in front of an audience and who knows what they’re going to think is funny or what they think is sad. It’s part of the fun and terror of it all.

Is the play going to be set in the ’60s? The play was written and set in 1962. I’ve kept it there because I feel it is a bit of a period piece in terms of the characters and the world that they live in. We toyed with the idea of updating it, but I think it’s a stronger story when you keep it in that early ’60s time period.

The sexual nature of the story was quite shocking at the time for audiences. What can contemporary audiences take away from it? Pinter wrote it at a time when the Sexual Revolution was sort of starting to get underway. Second-wave Feminism was starting to pick up and the idea of people talking openly about their relationships and the emotional and sexual qualities of that was really starting to get some traction. It really would have shocked audiences in the day. It stands the test of time because it’s really an examination of the games that we play and the rules that we set up in our relationships and in our dealings with other people. And how tenuous and breakable that can be when a person decides not to adhere to the rules or not to follow the game that’s been set up.

What’s next for you? I’m really delighted to stay on for a little bit more with Lunchbox as a festival assistant and director for this year’s Stage One Festival. I’m really excited to be working with new scripts and sitting in on some of those processes. I’m teaching for Artstrek 2013 this summer in Red Deer. I really love to teach and that’s always been a big part of my artistic career. And then in September I’m really delighted to be taking over the artistic producer role with Evergreen Theatre. It’s a theatre for young audiences company in Calgary. Their mandate involves environmentally or science-based arts education for children. We workshop and develop scripts with a curriculum component, usually something science or environment based. The shows are rehearsed and toured to schools around the province. Evergreen Theatre also runs a residency program where they send artists into schools for a week to create a show from scratch with the students. One of their newest mandates is the Big Green Puppet Bus. They’ve bought an old transit bus and converted it into a movable puppet theatre for children. I’m replacing Jacqueline Russell, who’s the outgoing artistic producer.

The Lover: RBC Emerging Director’s Showcase. Thursday, May 30 to Saturday, June 1 at Lunchbox Theatre, 160, 115 9th Ave. S.E. $10. 403-265-4292, lunchboxtheatre.com.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Lover+Lunchbox+Theatre+Emerging+Director+Presentation/8425057/story.html#ixzz2U9XBfVYg

Discovering Dad’s Other Life

Almost a Love story Explores a Son’s Encounter with his Deceased Dad’s Lover

By Janine Eva Trotta

Is it possible to truly love two people at the same time? What does it mean to a son to find his father has a male lover?

Almost a love story is not the typical play that shows at Lunchbox Theatre but it is a script which, once Artistic Director Pamela Halstead read through it, was clearly in need of the opportunity to be brought to stage.

“When Louis [B. Houston, the play’s writer] asked me to read the script he prefaced the request with the caveat that he knew that Lunchbox would not be able to produce it,” she recalls. “I read it and loved it but wondered about whether it was a good fit or not. I decided to workshop it in our annual Stage One Festival and see where we could get the script to and how the audience would respond. The response was so positive that I decided to program the show in the regular season.”

This is the story of a young man who, following his Father’s death, realizes that a close friend of his father was in actuality a lover. He decides to confront this man, and in trying to reconcile the identity of the father he thought he knew, finds his own sexual identity must endure redefining.

“I think the most important thing this show does is provide a different perspective,” Halstead says. “And the questions of sexual identity and choices that we make around how we conduct ourselves as sexual creatures; and the nature of relationships and honesty or betrayal.”

Halstead recounts a Stage One reading last June, for which an older patron had sat in by accident. That older woman came to her and said, though she had never been comfortable with homosexuality, she liked the play and felt that the two men had genuinely cared about one another.

“If the play can open up any discussion around human relationships it will have been successful,” Halstead says.

The play will have full opportunity to inspire just that type of dialogue and more. Almost a Love Story is part of Lunchbox Theatre’s Education Comes Alive Program, which is targeted to schools in the region.

“There is a study guide available and post-show talk backs scheduled for school groups that attend,” Halstead says. “In the play Daniel (the son) also wants to be an actor and is working on his Shakespearean monologues for auditioning for University, and Callum (the lover) assist him with that. This literary connection is also an excellent tool to connect the play to the student’s curriculum.”

This run of Almost of Love Story will be the play’s first professional showcase to the public, though amateur actors performed an earlier draft as part of a community theatre festival in which it received award.

The play will be performed Monday to Saturday at 12:10pm with “Happy Hour” performances Fridays at 6:10pm and “Date Night showings Saturdays at 7:30pm, from April 29 to May 18, 2013.

“We have not started rehearsals yet but I am looking very much forward to working on this beautiful and challenging script with such an amazing group of actors.” Halstead said at the time of writing, noticing that the biggest challenge of directing such a play is its non-linear timeline.

“The play jumps in seconds from the present to the past and between characters and through memory,” she says. “So keeping not only the actors but the audience clear about where we are in the non-linear storytelling and to do it in a way that flows is the challenge.”

The show promises a well-seasoned cast known to Calgary theatergoers.

Christopher Hunt, who plays David, the father living a dual life, is touted “one of the finest actors in the city having graced every stage in town” by Halstead, and is a past recipient of numerous Betty Mitchell awards for his performances.

Frank Zotter, based out of Edmonton, plays Callum, David’s lover. Lindsay Burns plays Ellie David’s unaware wife, who upon discovering the truth about her husband allows her maternal instinct to protect her son overpower her own feelings of hurt and betrayal.

David the son, is played by recent Mount Royal graduate Joe Perry, while Callum’s neighbor and confidant, Henry, is played by former Artistic Director of Shadow Productions, Hal Kerbes.

Halstead has worked across the country as a director, spending the last ten years working primarily on new play development both at Lunchbox Theatre and Ship’s Company Theatre in Nova Scotia.

“ …both companies with long historic of premiering new Canadian plays,” she says.  She was familiar with Almost a Love Story’s writer Louis B. Hobson as, in addition to writing plays, critiquing them for the Calgary Sun.

“I am thrilled to be working on the world premier of Almost a Love Story,” Halstead says.

Hal Kerbes as Henry, Frank Zotter as Callum, Christopher Hunt as David, Lindsay Burns as Ellie and Joe Perry as Daniel in Almost a Love Story by Louis B. Hobson. Photo courtesy Lunchbox Theatre
Almost a Love Story
Lunchbox Theatre till May 18
Director: Pamela Halstead
Starring: Lindsay Burns, Christopher Hunt, Hal Kerbes, Joe Perry and Frank Zotter.

This Story Truly Tugs on Heartstrings

By Neil Fleming, Calgary Sun | Wednesday, May 1, 2013

There is no question that Louis B. Hobson loves the theatre.

For over 30 years he has been a fixture in our local community, at times as a drama teacher, mainly as theatre critic, but sometimes as a playwright, a contributor.

Almost A Love Story, which opened this week at Lunchbox Theatre, is a love-letter from Hobson to the world of the theatre.

The characters are actors, or they want to be actors.

When their own words escape them, they turn to the words of Shakespeare to convey how they really feel.

They can distil any of life’s problems down to a lyric from some old Broadway show tune.

But this is just the backdrop to what Hobson really wanted to explore — love.

Love in all of its messed up, life-changing, unforgiving, and unexplainable glory.

The story follows Daniel (Joe Perry), a young man who is auditioning for the National Theatre School who recruits the aid of acting teacher Callum (Frank Zotter), a friend of his late father David (Christopher Hunt).

But Daniel knows that Callum and his father were more than just friends, and what he has really come for are answers.
Zotter is wonderfully understated and sympathetic as David’s secret tryst.

Hunt manages to get us to love him for all his faults, despite his infidelities, and newcomer Joe Perry shows us he can more than hold his own in such company.

Hobson has obviously drawn on his wide theatrical background to create a framework that is at the same time simple and straight-forward, but also intricate and clever.

The action steps seamlessly back and forth in time as the backstory echoes the discoveries being made by the current characters.

Kudos to the deft hand of director Pamela Halstead for choreographing this intricate dance.

The transitioning between past and present is aided in no small part by Scott Reid’s elegant design, and Dewi Wood’s subtle score.

The play itself is not entirely without fault.

There are a few bits of clunky backstory in the early scenes and the characters of jilted wife Ellie and flamboyant neighbour Henry seemed to lack the same depth that exists in the trio of father, son and lover. But for me, there were enough moments of pure emotion that I walked away moved by the story.

The dialogue sizzles when Lindsay Burns as Ellie stands her ground opposite Callum.

We see honest attraction when Zotter and Hunt trade lines of Shakespeare in a scene-study class.

Hal Kerbes hits the mark when larger-than-life Henry trills a touching little Broadway ditty to comfort his dear friend.

These are moments as a writer you hope you can provide to your actors.

Those moments when it’s easy for them to believe what they are saying, because then those of us watching will believe, too.

Colleen De Neve, Calgary Herald Hal Kerbes, Frank Zotter and Joe Perry in Louis B Hobson’s Almost a Love Story, at Lunchbox Theatre
Photograph by: Colleen De Neve, Calgary Herald

Lunchbox serves up twisty, beguiling yarn with Almost a Love Story

Hal Kerbes as Henry, Frank Zotter as Callum, Christopher Hunt as David and Joe Perry as Daniel in Almost a Love Story by Louis B. Hobson. Photo by Benjamin Laird.

‘Almost a love story’ looks at the diversity of love

by JENNA SHUMMOOGUM · 0 COMMENTS, May 1 2013

Lunchbox Theatre’s Almost A Love Story by Calgary Sun theatre critic Louis B Hobson, opens up the conversation about the nature of love. How it falls between the lines of trust and betrayal, how it nurtures the roots of relationships, and why we love some people and not others. The issue that rears its head in the narrative that is most striking, is the idea of legitimate love: love in secret and love goes into the realm of adultery. Is that still love?

The play tells the story Daniel (Joe Perry) who is trying to find out answer about who his father, David, (Christopher Hunt) really was. He seeks out David’s old colleague Callum (Frank Zotter), as he knows that they were old friends. Callum winds up working with Daniel on his mologues to apply for the National Theatre School and it is revealed that David and Callum had a romantic relationship. Daniel’s mom Ellie, (Lindsay Burns) starts to ask questions when Daniel starts to spent a lot of time working with Callum on his audition. It’s all a bit of a twisted web that entangles each character, except for Callum’s friend Henry, gleefully played by Hal Kerbes, who watches it all and provides broadway song-commentary.

The play is told in a flashback style sometimes and works and sometimes doesn’t under Pamela Halstead’s direction. Callum will be telling Henry about how he ran into Daniel on campus and the scene will flashback to their conversation. Or Callum will be telling Daniel about how he met David, and the scene will play out on stage. Characters don’t really freeze if they aren’t a part of the flashback, they kind of watch it as it unfolds. This proves to be a bit awkward as characters walk up to the scene, instead of the narrative changing to that scene. This style works really well when both scenes overlap, as when Ellie is talking to Daniel about how much time he is spending in Calgary working on his monologues, and it’s the same conversation she had with her diseased husband, and we see David talking about taking his classes in Calgary, when he’s really spending time with Callum.

The play features some great performances, namely Burns as Ellie and Zotter playing the tortured Callum. Hunt is solid as David, but there is a missing spark and chemistry between Zotter and Hunt. It seems a little hard to believe that they were involved romantically. Kerbes clearly is having a grand time playing Henry, costumed in a silk bathrobe the whole time and gesturing flamboyantly, but the character himself is grating.

Almost A Love Story deals with the diversity of love and this is most illustrated in a poignant scene in the play. Ellie comes to speak to Callum about his involvement with her son and in this explosion of emotion she accuses him of being an intruder and only thinking that he loved David, but not actually loving him. ‘I shared my husband with you didn’t I?’ she asks. It’s the kicker scene in the play, backed by an outstanding performance by Burns, and it presents all sides of the equation, except for David’s, who in this case, should really be the one answering questions. We see how sharing her husband has hurt Ellie, but we also see how not having any closure has tortured Callum. It’s almost a love story, but not quite.

Almost A Love Story runs at Lunchbox Theatre until May 18th. Tickets and more information is available online.

Photo Credit: Hal Kerbes as Henry, Frank Zotter as Callum, Christopher Hunt as David and Joe Perry as Daniel in Almost a Love Story by Louis B. Hobson. Photo by Benjamin Laird.

Read More: http://www.getdown.ca/2013/05/01/almost-a-love-story-looks-at-the-diversity-of-love/

Marriage musical If I Weren’t With You playing at Lunchbox Theatre is full of frothy fun

FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, APRIL 02, 2013 11:21 PM MDT | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 03, 2013 08:49 AM MDT

Back in 1954, George Axelrod penned a little relationship comedy called The Seven Year Itch which postulated that in their seventh year marriages would hit an awkward speed bump.

Both men and women would feel the urge to break free.

In the film version, Marilyn Monroe moved into the apartment upstairs making it dreadfully difficult for the man to stay committed.

In his musical If I Weren’t With You currently running at Lunchbox Theatre, the prolific and talented Joe Slabe has a bit more faith in marriage.

He gives his couple two extra years of marital bliss before Pam (Katherine Fadum) sings the blues with Someone’s Always There and Allan (JP Thibodeau) goes into full musical theatre mode with In Your Shoes when he wonders what it would be like to be single again.

Good news for the couple. Bad news for the audience.

Slabe doesn’t toss in a Marilyn to complicate matters.

Instead Slabe tosses himself into the mix as Pam and Allan’s gay friend Steve to whom they keep running for relationship advice and a variety of drinks.

Slabe’s lyrics run the gamut from witty and insightful to truthful and poignant and his genius at manipulating words seems so effortless.

I would love to see Slabe turn If I Weren’t With You into a sung-through musical because he’s not nearly as skillful with dialogue as he is with lyrics and music.

With Steve, it’s as if Slabe is channelling Snoopy from You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Both Thibodeau and Fadum can belt a song and then turn around and caress lyrics for more intimacy.

These are voices you want to listen to and Thibodeau in particular knows how to pour on some real razzle dazzle when the number begs for it.

Director David Leyshon makes certain a great set from Deitra Kalyn is properly showcased, as are Slabe’s songs and the fragile relationship issues Pam and Allan deal with.

If any of this sounds heavy and downbeat, forget it.

If I Weren’t With You is the kind of frothy fun that makes for an ideal noontime escape.

Three and a half stars.

louis.hobson@sunmedia.ca

Read More: http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/04/03/marriage-musical-if-i-werent-with-you-playing-at-lunchbox-theatre-is-full-of-frothy-fun

Katherine Fadum, Joe Slabe and J.P. Thibodeau star in Slabe’s musical If I Weren’t With You, at Lunchbox.

Calgary composer Joe Slabe hard at work on relationships

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/theatre/Calgary+composer+Slabe+hard+work+relationships/8167094/story.html#ixzz2PK41lwez

Q: This is a musical in which a man and wife wonder about the “magnificent lives they would be leading if only that pesky matrimonial partner they currently have was not holding them back.” Tell me it has a happy ending.

A: It’s interesting. I was talking about this with (writer and composer) Joe Slabe the other day. Most musicals or, say, Shakespearean comedies end with a wedding. This one starts with one—it starts with the happy ending. So it’s really concerned with what comes after, with the hard work that goes into keeping a relationship goig. So the happy ending would be re-opening the lines of communication.

Q: I guess that’s a huge achievement in this day and age.

A: We’re all conditioned to think there’s something better right around the corner. You know, like “this phone is awesome, but I bet the next one will be amazing.” So the husband and wife in the show begin to wonder: “is this person is holding me back or keeping me in an old routine?”

Q: How does that kind of dark quality come across in a musical?

A: The show does have a light quality and humour, but there is an undercurrent to it. These are big issues that people are dealing with. It has an eerily familiar aspect to it. When we’re discussing a scene or a song, at least one person in the room will say, “Oh, God. I’ve had this conversation before.”

Q: You’re a familiar face on Calgary stages, but how did you land your first gig as a director?

A: I was at Lunchbox a few years ago doing a musical (This Could Be Love) and got talking with (artistic director) Pam Halstead about my eye. I was familiar with how it works from the inside, she asked if I thought I could bring that eye to it from the outside. She asked if a musical came around, would I be interested in directing.

Q And you jumped at the chance?

A: With a slight hint of terror, I said yes. So when she took a shine to this music and premise, she called me. I’m just lucky that she thought I’d be good for this one

Q: And were you lucky when it came time to casting the show?

A: Oh, for sure. As a first-time director, you need people who are not just good at their jobs but who are ready to jump in and play, who want to go for the ride. Katherine Fadum and JP Thibodeau have both been excellent. I’ve worked with Katherine as an actor, so I knew she was great. JP is a bit of a new face for me, but he has a lot of charm and a great voice.

Q: And just to keep you in line, Joe Slabe, who wrote the book and music is serving as the musical director and also acting in the show.

A: That’s been great, actually, to have Joe around. It’s great to have him as an actor, too, because it gives the show a different dynamic—he’s not behind the piano the whole time.

Q: So how are you enjoying directing?

A: It’s great but also intense. At the end of the day, my brain is kind of done.

Read More: http://swerveevents.com/2013/03/the-latest-from-lunchbox/

Lunchbox Theatre musical comedy explores single-life fantasy

Published on Monday, 25 March 2013 17:42 | WRITTEN BY JUSTIN WILSON

If I Weren’t With You shows how the grass isn’t always greener

To some, the theatrical exploration of a fragile marriage might seem too heavy a topic to come alive in a musical comedy.

But when If I Weren’t With You makes its April 1 premiere, that’s exactly what Lunchbox Theatre will stage.

The production examines the married life of Pam and Allen as they dream about the magnificent lives they would be leading had they not tied the knot some nine years ago.

David Leyshon makes his directorial debut with Lunchbox Theatre’s production of If I Weren’t With You. Leyshon says he hopes the musical might prompt some kind of conversation about communication and relationships.
Photo by Justin Wilson

Missed opportunities and unrealized dreams will be presented through song as the central couple imagines the fantastical ideas of what might have been.

Calgary native Joe Slabe, plays “Steve,” a friend to both Pam and Allen and a central character in the production. Steve inadvertently finds himself thrust into the role of confidant as the couple sings their way through a matrimonial rough patch.

Is the grass always greener on the other side?

“I think the play is really universal in that it speaks to something we all go through, but it approaches it with fun and with humour,” says Slabe, who also wrote the musical.

“But it doesn’t pull any punches. It’s very real, but in the end it leaves you in a hopeful and happy place.”

Slabe says that the common theme, “the grass is always greener,” is very present in If I Weren’t With You. His character, a gay man envious of the seemingly stable relationship of Pam and Allen, is caught in the middle while they express longing for the freedom he appears to have.

More than a comedic production

Director David Leyshon says the play is an examination of how we grow together as people and how we communicate with each other in a culture surrounded by the feeling that something better might be right around the corner. By looking at the topic from a lighter perspective, the musical searches for the positives in growing together as people.

“It’s a great, funny, sweet musical and I think what Joe has written has amazing depth,” says Leyshon. “There’s more to it than just some people singing. It’s got a complexity that examines how we are together.”

Leyshon says that the play looks at communication in a modern society. He points to how easy it is to simultaneously be texting, checking Facebook and engaging in a face-to-face conversation. He adds that we can never be totally present while trying to utilize all these tools at once.

“How does that effect how we communicate with our partners, or with our friends? How do we really talk to one another?” says Leyshon.

Slabe says that everyone who’s in a long-standing relationship deals with these issues at some point or another.

“Those feelings are totally normal. It’s about compromise and work and love. It’s about doing what’s best for you as a couple as opposed to what you individually need.”

Sparking conversation

Calgary psychologist Elicia Miller has been working with couples for the last two years and says that the musical’s premise taps into our cultural assumptions about what marriage should be.

“People sometimes have this attitude now that marriage is going to slow you down, or it’s going to stop you from achieving your dreams,” says Miller.

“It’s an unfortunate societal perspective, but I think with this type of play, it will stimulate conversation, and people really should talk about these issues instead of pretending they don’t exist.”

The big premiere

Writer David Slabe says If I Weren’t With You examines the give and take of relationships and how they’re worth fighting for. The musical comedy runs April 1-20 at Lunchbox Theatre.
Photo courtesy of Lunchbox Theatre

When the play opens, it will be a night of firsts for both Slabe and Leyshon. Not only will April 1 be the production’s premiere, both men are stepping into unfamiliar theatrical territory.

It will be the first major acting role for Slabe, the founder, artistic director and musical director of Calgary’s Forte Musical Theatre Guild. He’s also the 2010 Betty Mitchell award winner for outstanding musical direction in Theatre Calgary’s production of The 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

For Leyshon, whose acting resume boasts more than 50 productions — including the role of Rupert Cadell in Vertigo Theatre’s 2012 production of Rope— If I Weren’t With You marks his directorial debut.

The musical runs from April 1-20 and will be shown on Lunchbox Theatre’s TransCanada Stage.

For more information, visit Lunchbox Theatre.

jwilson@cjournal.ca