Teen troupe brings Shakespeare noir to stage
Screw the gap ( year).
That’s not the mandate of the Hoodlum Theatre, a new Calgary theatre company run by teenagers doing shows that feature teenagers, but it might as well be, says Karen Johnson- Diamond, who should know.
Not only is Johnson- Diamond directing Forsooth, My Lovely the company’s first production, but her son is part of the company.
“He hired me,” she says. “He’s my boss.”
The company consists of Griffin Cork and a quartet of co- founders — John Tasker, Malik Elassal, Curtis Wilson, and Andrew Burniston — who range in age between 17 and 19.
It turns out that’s as tricky an age to be an actor as it to be a regular, everyday teenager.
The quintet know each other from Calgary Young People’s Theatre ( CYPT), but are now too old to be a part of that company.
At the same time, they haven’t yet entered university, and are thus ineligible to audition for things like Shakespeare in the Park.
And even when a casting call goes out — such as it did for The Circle, ATP’s up- and- coming drama about people their age, the parts ended up going to older actors ( in their early 20’ s!) who are more experienced.
They’re caught in what is sometimes called that gap year, says Johnson- Diamond, only instead of backpacking around Europe, they started a theatre company.
“It’s filling a gap,” she says, “that what they like to say is not so much filling a gap as leaping the gap, jumping the gap, ignoring the gap — screw the gap.
“There is no gap! Let’s keep going.”
For its initial production, the company are taking on Edmonton playwright David Belke’s Forsooth, My Lovely, which takes two of the most distinct literary genres and tosses them into the theatrical blender, Johnson- Diamond says.
“The structure,” she says, “is that there’s a film noir private dick named Birnham Wood and he solves mysteries that involve Shakespearean characters.”
( It helps if you imagine Humphrey Bogart lighting a smoke in a dark, neon- drenched office when Richard Burton walks in and launches into a sonnet.)
“That’s exactly it,” says JohnsonDiamond. “Petruchio shows up. There’s sword fights and trench coats and bright- red lipstick and dark lighting and ruffles around the collar.”
A cast of seven actors play 22 different parts in a show that references 14 different Shakespearean dramas — but, Johnson- Diamond adds, it’s still fun even for nonShakespearean scholars.
“If you are a surface Shakespeare expert,” she says, “meaning you studied a lot of it in high school, and remember drips and drabs, you will get as much equally out — because drips and drabs are driving the noir.”
As far as launching a new theatre company — not the easiest thing to do — Johnson- Diamond says that’s where the entire Calgary theatre community shows up, big time.
“Storybook with props,” she says. “Central Memorial ( high school) with props.
“Lunchbox with the rehearsal space.
“Downstage as well — sure, here borrow our projector.
“Like, the whole community went, ‘ oh! A new theatre company. A bunch of kids that want to start a new theatre company? Go for it!’”
“All these ( Calgary theatre) people go, ‘ what do you need?’” she adds. “Let us do it for you! “I have always loved that about this city,” she says, “and it has shown itself so highly with this production. It’s so amazing.”