Shaw Festival artistic director Tim Carroll does not shy from challenging audiences in a strong 2018 season
Allowing the fourth wall to disappear sometimes is just the TC way
The thing audiences have noticed about Tim Carroll’s Shaw Festival tenure as artistic director is that he likes audience members to feel engaged. He wants them to be an integral part of the theatre they watch, not just voyeurs sitting in the dark.
Carroll invites us to come in. And to make sure we do, he brings the backstage world of a production onstage and into the light. People we normally never see come out from the wings to talk. They tell us about building a set, hanging stage lights, or hemming someone’s dress.
It’s designed to give the audience an investment in the show they’re about to watch. Some people like it. Some people don’t. And some folks actually love it.
They enjoy the connection. They don’t just want to sit in the dark and let the play wash over them. But I think you could make a case for both points of view.
For me, being asked to bounce a ball, or pet a stuffed cat by an actor takes me out of the play, not help me inside. I don’t really like actors coming into the seating area and asking me to take part.
Call it a preference. Or call it my problem. We’re all different.
Carroll, who likes everyone to call him “TC,” says audience feedback for his participation gimmick is good.
“Some people who objected at first now tell me they love it,” Carroll says.
That means we can expect more of it this 2018 season.
Carroll says, “My second season is a chance to put into practice what I learned in my first.
“I want new people sitting in the seats, along with the old guard. And I want new, young theatregoers that will be the audience of the future.”
To this end he has programmed an eclectic season.
“There’s something that will engage everyone,” Carroll says.
“Audiences come here for a whole range of things. And I’m a confirmed populist. I want to offer things they’ll like. For me, theatre is about remembering we’re in the same room together. We’re part of what we are watching. This isn’t television. I want to draw people in and say, ‘Let’s play together.’
“On the other hand, I never want to give the impression an audience interacts with a play by shouting out input.”
Carroll says, he thinks, “Audiences at Shaw have a good sense of humour. They get me,” he laughs.
“They know, with me, it’s all about being engaged. That doesn’t mean dragging people onto the stage, of course.”
No, it means more about priming the imagination.
In the very best of Carroll’s productions and last year’s stunning “Saint Joan” was a fine example, the play did the work. That coupled with strong theatrical staging and a striking visual look helped the audience appreciate the power of Shaw’s sometimes misunderstood play.
This year Carroll directs “The Magician’s Nephew” by C.S. Lewis.
Adapted for the stage by Michael O’Brien, this is a world première of a family show. It takes us into the world of Narnia and promises an impact of visual treats. (Now through Oct. 13, Festival Theatre.) And in typical Carroll fashion, there will be pre-show workshops for those who would like them.
“Our musical this time is ‘Grand Hotel,’ Carroll says. “It’s a clever piece set in a lavish hotel during the Roaring Twenties. It’s about passion and it has stunning music. (Now to Oct. 14, Festival Theatre)
“Doing musicals here, we have to make sure we aren’t just doing the same few everyone else does. You can’t just do musicals to help sell your season and then hope people won’t notice. That’s really so cynical. And it doesn’t work. I’m cheerfully guilty of liking musicals, but we aren’t being opportunistic with them here. We need to be doing them for the right reasons. ‘Grand Hotel’ is such a good show and you aren’t likely to see it anywhere else.”
Carroll’s aware some people are surprised that Shaw is doing Shakespeare this season.
“Stratford does Shaw,” he bristles. “So why shouldn’t we do Shakespeare? And then, too, ‘Henry V’ fits right in with our look this year at the 100th anniversary of the First World War.”
The Shakespeare drama plays Shaw Festival, co-directed by Carroll and Kevin Bennett, in the Jackie Maxwell Studio. (July 22 to Oct. 28)
Burlington-born actor Jay Turvey is a Shaw veteran. He grew up in Dundas and was active with Dundas Little Theatre and The Players’ Guild of Hamilton. He was in “The Lion King” and “Les Misérables” in Toronto. He did a couple of shows at Stratford and joined the Shaw troupe in 1999, appearing in “Easy Virtue.”
He’s been there ever since. And he likes Carroll’s way of looking at things.
This season he’s Herr Preysing, the tough businessman in “Grand Hotel,” and he appears in the ensemble of “The Magician’s Nephew.”
“I like the fact this is a repertory company,” he says.
“It’s an ensemble of actors. People who work together a long time, as we do here, have such a need to get things right. Sometimes it’s your turn for a lead role, sometimes it’s not. But you’re always part of something bigger than just a star part.”
“This season is a reference to the anniversary of World War I. There’s something about its influence in all the shows. ‘Oh What A Lovely War,’ for instance, has all the iconic World War I songs, and it’s both jingoistic and dark.” (July 14 to Oct. 13, The Royal George)
Hamilton’s Emily Lukasik hasn’t been acting at Shaw as long as Turvey, but she praises the same things he does.
“There’s a real feeling of family here. I feel I’m in my comfort zone. It’s a community of actors. And there is ongoing training that I find important. And friendship, too; you go to the bar with your cast after a show and you just feel that you belong.”
Lukasik did “Rent” and “Chess” with Lou Zamprogna’s summer school at Aquarius in Hamilton. As a child, she always wanted to be a performer, but wondered if she could make it as a grown-up.
This season, Lukasik is in “The Magician’s Nephew” and is part of the workshop that prepares both children and adults for the show. She’s also a singing-dancing telephone operator in “Grand Hotel.”
This season, the Shaw has a star presence. Carroll is thrilled that British actor Stephen Fry is appearing in his own three plays called “Mythos.”
“It’s a series of three one-man shows, a trilogy of storytelling that will have you in the company of Greek gods, heroes and goodness knows what else,” Carroll says. “When Stephen Fry calls you out of the blue and says I’d like to do a one man show at Shaw you don’t say no.” (May 24 to July 15 at the Festival Theatre. Special pricing is in effect.)
The rest of the Shaw season features “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” a Sherlock Holmes mystery (Aug. 1 to Oct. 27, Festival Theatre); “Stage Kiss,” by Sarah Ruhl, a comedy about two actors who have split up but must play lovers and kiss onstage (now to Sept. 1, Royal George); “Of Marriage and Men: A comedy Double Bill” (May 13 to Sept. 2, Royal George); “O’Flaherty V.C.” (May 31 to Oct. 6, also at The George); “The Baroness and the Pig” (June 10 to Oct. 6, Jackie Maxwell Studio); and “The Orchard — After Chekhov” (June 7 to Sept. 1, Jackie Maxwell Studio).
And yes, do expect to be told backstage tidbits before the show and perhaps watch the fourth wall of the theatre disappear now and then. It’s the “TC” way and, as long as he’s head honcho at Shaw, we better get used to it.