A little creative push leads to mounting of artist’s first musical
Emily Dallas refuses to pinch herself because she doesn’t want to wake up from the incredible dream she’s living.
Dallas finished starring in Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre’s production of Once just in time to get back to Calgary to attend the premiere of her musical Brave Girl at Lunchbox Theatre on Monday.
It’s an incredible double whammy for a young artist barely beginning her professional career.
After Dallas graduated from Bishop O’Byrne High School, she completed the two-year theatre program at Mount Royal University and then it was off to Pace University in New York for four years of musical theatre studies.
Though she was studying acting, singing and dance, she did not qualify for the theatre writing program
and she desperately wanted to learn to write songs, plays and musicals.
“They allowed me to write lyrics, but they said I didn’t qualify to write music so I locked myself in the practice rooms for hours on end. Those rooms don’t have windows so they were like mini-prisons, but I endured happily because they were prisons of my own doing,” says Dallas.
Eventually, her hard work paid off and she was encouraged to write, not only lyrics, but the melodies to accompany them.
After completing her studies at Pace University, Dallas returned to Calgary and auditioned for Theatre Calgary’s Shakespeare by the Bow production of As You Like It. As part of her audition, Dallas sang one of her original songs for guest director Samantha MacDonald, who is the artistic director of Lunchbox Theatre.
“Samantha gave me the wonderful gift of asking me if I would consider writing an original musical for Lunchbox Theatre. I would never have had the courage to try to do that on my own. I needed that push Samantha gave me.”
MacDonald attached three conditions to the request she gave Dallas: There had to be three characters in a play that ran under 60 minutes and the musical had to have a Remembrance Day theme.
“I immediately began to do research about women in the Armed Forces, especially Sandra Perron, who was Canada’s first female infantry officer, ” says Dallas, who created a story of two sisters whose father is killed in Afghanistan. To preserve his legacy, Sam and Amy enlist in the Canadian Armed Forces.
“I named my characters after two of my most important mentors. As I have written them, Sam and Amy are two halves of me but they are also two halves of a lot of people.”
Although sisters, Sam and Amy end up having totally different experiences in the male-dominated military.
“One of them is embraced by her colleagues and her being a woman is never an issue. The other sister meets numerous roadblocks, resistance and even harassment.”
In Lunchbox Theatre’s production of Brave Girl, under the direction of Valmai Goggin, the sisters are played by Jessica Eckstadt and Tara Jackson. Elinor Holt completes the cast, playing a trio of characters.
Brave Girl is a co-production between Lunchbox Theatre and Forte Musical Theatre Guild, whose artistic director, Joe Slabe, is the show’s musical director.
“Joe is saving my life right, left and centre,” admits Dallas, who wrote nine songs for her musical. “He knows what the songs need to do. I can’t believe my good fortune working with so many incredible people for my first show.”