STAYING ‘GROUNDED’
Actress in first solo play
Kate Herriot likes to choose work that terrifies her.
“If a part feels like I’ve never been that person before or it feels like a part of the world that I don’t understand, then I’m more attracted to it,” she says.
She’s entering a scary — and all too real — world in Grounded. Herriot plays a fighter pilot who is grounded after getting pregnant and reassigned to fly drones. It’s chilling, dehumanizing work in a bizarre environment in the Nevada desert.
“You drive an hour and a half from your suburban home and you park in a parking spot and you put on your flight suit, you enter this trailer and you’re immediately at war. You work a 12-hour shift and then you leave the trailer and you drive home and help your kid with their homework.”
The emotional toll is severe. Rates of PTSD and suicidal ideation are so high that the military has trouble replacing all the drone pilots who quit, Herriot says.
For the pilot in the play, it’s a gut-wrenching journey.
“She’s got an incredibly strong sense of self and focus and purpose in life. The chance to walk around in her boots is a blessing. It teaches me a lot about how I can be more direct and purposeful as a person,” says Herriot.
“But also and probably more importantly, it’s about her human struggles of being a wife and a mother and a service person, dedicating your body and soul to your country at the same time as you’re trying to live a dedicated life to your family.”
Director Gordon Portman alerted Herriot to the play, telling her that he could hear her voice in it. Just this week, she won her first SAT-Award for outstanding supporting performance, playing the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. This is her first solo play. That scared her at first as well but she’s really not alone because the character speaks directly to the audience.
“She is so compelled to tell her story in her own words and tell her truth that it really necessitates an audience. It’s a perfect match of me desperately wanting to tell a story and a room full of people really hungry for one.”
Herriot also points out the cutting-edge projections and lighting in the play, praising Byron Hnatuk and Sarah Grummett.
“Byron and Sarah have stretched themselves so far to learn the new projection mapping technique that we’re using in the space. That’s going to be a really exciting thing for audiences to see. I think it’s a perfect pairing of what I’m doing as a performer and what the design is doing to support and underpin the story.”