Sharon Pollock, Verbatim
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 8:19PM  |
sharon pollock
Pollock’s stage plays, over 20 in number, are produced throughout Canada and abroad. She writes for radio and television, has directorial credits at numerous theatres across the country, and has led playwriting and theatre workshops within and outside Canada. Her awards include, among others, a Canada Australia Literary Award for her body of work, a Nellie Award for National Radio Drama, a Golden Sheaf Television Award, and a Japan Foundation Award. She is the recipient of two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Drama (1981 Blood Relations; 1985 Doc), was short-listed for the same award in 1986 (Whiskey Six Cadenza), and is a three time winner of the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Drama Award, most recently in 2008 for Kabloona Talk.
During her 45+ years in professional theatre Pollock has held numerous positions with various companies and organizations, including, among others, service as Head of the Playwrights Colony at The Banff Centre of Fine Arts; the Associate Artistic Director of the Manitoba Theatre Centre, the Stratford Festival Theatre, and Theatre Calgary. She was the Playwright in Residence at the National Arts Centre; Alberta Theatre Projects; Theatre Calgary; and at Theatre Junction; Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary, Theatre New Brunswick, and of Calgary’s inner city storefront theatre, The Garry.
Since 2006 she has served as Dramaturge and artistic consultant with the Atlantic Ballet Company of Canada. Time spent in Kosovo in 2008 resulted in Pollock and Jeton Neziraj, artistic director of the Kosovo National Theatre, initiating a project of collaboration, creation and exchange for theatre artists and productions. The project continues to develop in 2010 with Neziraj’s recent visit to Calgary.
1. What’s on your mind these days (in 10 syllables or less)?Working with Jeton Neziraj from Kosovo.
2. You are the President of Downstage’s Board of Directors. You’ve also acted, directed, and written for the company. How do you see Downstage’s role in the community?I see the company’s role as one offering a unique challenge, choice, and opportunity for audiences and artists by:
- its mandate to produce “new and established Canadian plays and performances that explore socially or politically-charged themes” in an entertaining and engaging manner stimulating discussion beyond particulars of production and performance;
- its support of small artist-generated creations through co-sponsorship via the Motel, and Birds and Stone venues;
- its integration of Dog and the Machine, an annual ensemble creation, into every season playbill.
3. How would you describe the Calgary theatre scene?Rather insular, but accompanied by vigor and vitality in a quantity and range of production, in many cases underwritten by the city’s younger and emerging artists. Where human and financial resources exist, I too often see text and character sacrificed or devalued by technology and production effects that impress audiences with the spectacle, at the expense of a play’s substance.
4. Do you recognize something essentially “Canadian” in your writing?I can’t define what’s essentially Canadian, so I don’t recognize it in my writing. Without knowing what it is I nevertheless hope there is nothing in my writing that could be recognized as such. I know too much Canadian history. The country’s motto of “Peace, Order, and Good Government” has covered a multitude of sins. Of course a life has context but I think of it as humanistic and experiential, not nationalistic. I hope that for an audience my plays, regardless of my place of birth or the setting of any particular play, transcend national borders. Of course that’s just my hope, I don’t say it’s my achievement.
5. When in your career were you disappointed? Elated?I’m elated every month when I’m able to feed my dogs, my cats, myself, and pay my mortgage. Disappointed? I think of “disappointed” as a rather small, accepting reaction. I’m always interested in the “why” of things so in a situation, production, relationship, whatever, that might be disappointing, curiosity supplants disappointment as in “how come that happened?” and “why?” I don’t get disappointed when things don’t turn out the way I thought they would or should. I find it an opportunity to discover, learn something, move forward. Sounds kind of hokey but it’s true. Maybe it’s a form of denial. Maybe I’m emotionally stunted in this regard. “Disappointed” is not an action verb. I like action verbs.
6. Tragedy struck last year when your house burned in a terrible fire, and yet you still performed that very evening in Downstage’s production of Habitat. What brought you to the theatre that evening?First, the play, the actors, and the audience. I was responsible to them and they expected me to be there. Second, it was a pleasure to step into another character’s shoes for several hours and simply forget. My thinking was when Blackout signals Fini, I’ll deal with the no-house/home then.
7. How can we attract new audience members to the theatre?If that were an easy question I guess we’d be doing it. First problem is the supply of theatre outstrips the demand, even of those who are “old” audience members. Maybe the question is too generic. What can be done depends on the resources and mandate of the specific theatre company and the demographics of the potential new audience members one hopes to entice. I also believe that answering the why of your particular theatre company, without resorting to motherhood statements, tells you something of who you’d like that new audience to be or who they might be. “New audience members” may mean more of the same people that make up your old audience, or poaching audience from the Opera. Or it can mean attracting people who do not attend theatre in numbers proportionate to their number in our population, or never attend theatre for socio-economic or cultural reasons. I’m interested in the latter kind of new audience members. In any case one begins from the premise that the new audience member is probably going to be a one timer. In other words you’re looking for a new audience member for a specific production for a specific reason. That new audience member may turn into an on-going patron, but first you have to get him or her there for the first time. That takes legwork and personal contact with organizations and communities for whom a particular production may hold a particular interest. Social networking sites are insufficient. Price, programming, presentation and venue can be seen as barriers by the potential new audience member. I’d like to see
- small productions taken to where people are within the city, as opposed to making people come to where the traditional theatre venues are - given the diversity of our population, a greater diversity in who we see on stage
- given the wealth of translated plays from around the world, at least occasional production of a European, African, or Asian playwright
- greater sensitivity and openness to the contribution, talent, and commitment of individuals whose background or interest in theatre creation does not reflect the more formal theatre training and BFA’s, MFA’s, of most engaged in theatre today.
I won’t go on except to say I wish the public visibility of theatre artists was not so often viewed as one of self-interest, and that more members of the public saw that we shared their societal, political, and international concerns, and were as diverse in our opinions as they are. I believe even that would attract new audience members. Stephen Hair’s “Toonies for Turkeys” is a fine thing.
8. What are three plays we should all read?God knows. I say we should all read as many plays (including from an international and historical canon) as we can lay our hands on, always remembering that play scripts are blueprints for performance and live in performance. Reading plays is better than nothing, but seeing plays is best of all.
9. What’s a great Calgary theatre memory?The production of “The Overcoat” in 2007; John Murrell’s ”Farther West” TC 1982 directed by Robin Phillips.
10. What’s your dream gig?It changes from day to day, time to time. Today it would be the opportunity to direct John Arden’s “Sergeant Musgrave’s Dance” with adequate time and a multi-racial cast.
Downstage, Sharon Pollock in Verbatim
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