Stephen Massicotte, Verbatim
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 10:31AM  |
STEPHEN MASSICOTTE
Award-winning playwright Stephen Massicotte is one of our own, and Calgary certainly loves him right back. A graduate of the University of Calgary, Stephen has premiered many of his plays on Calgary stages. Mary's Wedding premiered at the ATP playRites Festival in 2002, and The Clockmaker premiered at the festival in 2009. Ground Zero Theatre has produced Stephen's Looking After Eden, Pervert, and The Boy's Own Jedi Handbook (also produced by ATP). He and his plays have won numerous awards, including the Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play (Mary's Wedding in 2002 and The Clockmaker in 2009), the 2003 Alberta Literacy Award for Drama, the Canadian Author's Association Carol Bold Award for the best English-language play, and the 2007 Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for best play.
Stephen currently resides in New York.
1. What’s on your mind these days (in 10 syllables or less)?Too much really. I think too much.
2. Last we spoke, you were writing the libretto for an operatic adaptation of Mary’s Wedding. Has this process affected the way you look at the original script?Well, it’s an interesting and odd process taking something that’s finished and has had an extensive life and then being asked to essentially rewrite it. For the most part writing the libretto is about boiling down the play to it’s bare essentials which like I said is tough, because isn’t a play already supposed to be boiled down to it’s bare essentials? The farther I get from the actual writing of the original Mary’s Wedding script I can see more and more how much of the play I wrote on raw emotion and just plain old nerve and instinct. I don’t think I knew enough to know I was way over my head.
3. How would you describe the Calgary theatre scene?It’s a great scene and close knit. For the size of the city it’s also pretty large and varied. It’s really quite a great place to learn your job while working as an actor, director, writer, designer or stage manager. There’s enough stuff going on that you can find the work and it’s small enough that your work likely won’t get lost in the shuffle. That said, it’s also just big and competitive enough that you still have to be good.
4. What’s the biggest difference between writing in Calgary and writing in New York?For me writing in New York can sometimes be intimidating. Just a five minute subway ride away are new plays by David Mamet, Neil Labutte, Martin MacDonough, Lynn Nottage, etc, etc. with the world’s best actors and directors working on them. I think in Calgary I could pretend I was the only playwright on earth. Here, you’re constantly reminded that you are not by advertising on taxi cabs, subways, posters, billboards and stars you walk by in the streets… it can get a little overwhelming.
5. When in your career were you disappointed?All the time. I hate to sound ungrateful because I’ve been relatively successful. Maybe I am too hard on myself or I aim to high or something but even my successes disappoint me. It’s a dangerous way of thinking (not that I chose it) because on the one hand the dissatisfaction can suck a lot of enjoyment out of things however, it can be (and usually always is) the thing that pushes me to be better, dig deeper, work harder, get back on the horse etc.
6. As an audience member, what kinds of shows do you see?I’ll see most anything but I mostly seek out serious plays and comedies. I’m not a huge fan of musicals but have liked them when I go but don’t usually seek them out. I like plays in the ballpark of my own tradition, I guess. I’m not too big a fan of experimental theatre or dance shows but have been blown away by these too. My favorite kind of play is what in the old days used to be called High Comedy which by today’s standards would be a funny drama.
7. How can we attract new audience members to the theatre?Get them into theatre at a younger age. Same as how they get people hooked on religion.
8. What are three plays we should all read?Emphysema; A Love Story by Janet Munsil, Blackbird by David Harrower, Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno. Tough to pick three.
9. What’s a great Calgary theatre memory?The Boy’s Own Jedi Handbook premier in the Studio Theatre at the U of C. It was a stellar night for me and everyone involved… the audience reaction was just tremendous. But what moved my life and career in a different and unforeseen direction, is that it kept on happening the next night and the next but with more and more people being turned away. I’d never had that kind reaction to my acting, or nearly anything else I’d done in my life, so it was the first time I thought, jeez, maybe I’m a writer, and maybe I’m good at it.
10. What’s your dream gig?Not sure how to answer this. I try to make whatever I’m writing the thing that I’ve been waiting and dreaming to work on. I guess a dream gig might be having the first choice in the world of actors to do a play of mine, like Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellan or something. Sometimes the dream gig is something simpler, but somehow nearly as unattainable, like writing a play for thirty actors or even a play that will have more than three productions. It’s a touch biz when even one or two productions of a play is considered pretty big success… that might be less than 5000 people seeing your show which works out to be about 500 dollars for the playwright. Compare that with audience and payday of the equivalent success in TV, music, film, or even fiction. So the dream gig sometimes is just getting the show seen in multiple theatres in multiple cities.
 A Scene from The Clockmaker, ATP |
Stephen Massicotte in Verbatim
Reader Comments (17)
We've seen the Clockmaker's preview last Friday nite (9/17/10). Superbly acted and directed! One of the best Tarragon plays I've seen in 3 years. A must see! Stephen's text and the characters are just purely mesmerizing. Bravo to all who participated in this production!
I loved the CLockmaker. Saw it on Saturday. I just can't fully understand the ending. Any explanation? Do they both go back to life as we know it? Are they about to start the same story over again just that he now remembers? Are they to start the same story again with a different ending this time? I would love to know the writer's answer to this question.
Hey Robyn,
My interpretation of the ending - based on the 2009 production, also directed by Bob White and starring Christian Goutsis - is that Heinrich chooses "the other place," the place where he can remember Frieda, despite the pain. The suggestion Stephen offers here, I think, is that the idea of a "heaven" is a kind of rational impossibility, since my idea of paradise and your idea of paradise are probably not mutually inclusive; so, if there was a heaven, it would likely be a solitary moment of peace (not the best, not the worst, just a moment of peace). For Frieda, who wants to forget, that is the best option. I think the ending suggests that Heinrich chooses "the other place", (ie. hell) where he can remember his time with Frieda, even the painful bits.
I think Stephen's trying to get a larger debate about the very concept of a heaven or hell (and how they've been created by organized religion). If ignorance is bliss, and heaven is blissful, really, what kind of heaven is defined by ignorance? Seems a little "imperfect." As Heinrich says, "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is."
I saw the Clockmaker a few weeks ago and I throughly enjoyed it. After leaving the theatre I felt like I just needed to think about everything that was said and done. A wonderful production! Bravo
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