A STORY OF REINVENTION
New comedy hits the stage
Becky’s New Car Alberta Theatre Projects through April 25. Visit atplive.com
If life experience count, Alberta Theatre Projects couldn’t have found a better pair of artists to recruit for their new production of Becky’s New Car than Glenda Stirling and Val Planche.
Both are longtime members of the Calgary theatre scene and both are in the midst of the sort of mid- life reinvention that Becky, the title character of the Steven Dietz comedy, undergoes.
On stage, Becky ( played at ATP by Teresa Ferencz), married for 28 years to the same man, starts out to reinvent herself and finds herself in love with someone new.
Offstage, Becky’s director Stirling is back after a tumultuous year that saw her step down from her job as the artistic director of Lunchbox Theatre ( in her first year on the job), to spend time with her dad, who was dying.
While her mid- life transition differs from Becky’s, Stirling says her experiences probably helped her connect to the title character’s life quest that much easier.
“When I first read the script, I just found her so relatable,” Stirling says, “and maybe that was ( because of that) time ( in my life). It was winter. I’m sitting reading the script in Edmonton, working on a show there, my family’s away, and watching her ( Becky) make her choices. Is this all there is? Is there more for me? Can I have more, please? It’s a bit Oliver- like.
“I think it’s really relatable for humans in the middle of their life, and even younger ( to think): OK — I have a job, I have a family, I have a home. Is this it? Every single day, for the rest of my life, could be the same?”
Not if you’re Becky, Stirling says, who understands that the secret to life, like Madonna’s career, lies in constant, relentless, personal reinvention.
“If you’re honest with yourself,” Stirling says, “you have to reinvent yourself over and over again. That’s what Becky’s trying to do. I don’t think she’s trying to throw away her marriage. And I certainly don’t think she intends to embark on an affair. She just wants a moment outside her life, where she can try on being somebody else for a little while — or more of herself or a different version of herself — and because it’s a comedy, everything spirals out of control.”
Meanwhile Planche — who plays Ginger in Becky’s New Car — a popular theatre ( As You Like It and Liberation Days at Theatre Calgary), film ( Brokeback Mountain) and TV ( Blackstone, Heartland) actress — has been busy reinventing herself into an in- demand director.
Since kicking off the directing portion of her career more than 20 years ago, she’s directed everything from Macbeth for The Shakespeare Company, to Ruined with the Ellipsis Tree Collective to Meg Braem’s Governor General Award shortlisted Blood: A Scientific Romance. She’s also directing Bad Jews as part of Theatre Calgary’s 2015- 16 season.
And just a few weeks back, Planche was recognized by The Shaw Festival, which presented her with the Gina Wilkinson Prize, a $ 5,000 national award recognizing a theatre professional who makes a mid- career transition in theatre.
“That was pretty astonishing,” Planche says.
That capped a pretty great 12 months that included Planche receiving her MFA from the University of Alberta — which she helped pay for by starring in the Aboriginal People’s Television Network series Blackstone.
Not a bad 12 months in a profession that mostly shuns its middleaged women, rather than embracing — and nurturing — their reinvention.
“I knew Gina,” Planche says. “Not as well as some, but it was pretty emotional when I heard that ( I’d won the award) — because she was not far from my age when she died. She was a few years younger than me.
“So I think about that: our mortality as theatre artists and I feel like I’m just starting some things.”
One of those things Planche hopes to start is to help diversify Canadian main-stages.
“I love doing multi- ethnic work,” she says. “I love talking about marginalized people. Maybe I don’t identify as First Nations but that’s part of my heritage and maybe that’s why I just really think we have to change the way we’re telling our stories to reflect our communities.”
Sort of just like, in mid- career, Planche found a way to change her story.
“I’ve really found a love of directing,” she adds, “and I really hope that continues. I hope that’s what Gina’s spirit does for me.”