By Our Side
An entertaining true story about organ donation
Locals Andrea Conway and Wayne Doba, who form the Vaudeville Comedy Tap Dance Duo “Dik and Mitzi”, will take the stage at the Montreal Fringe Festival this summer to perform “By Our Side”, a romantic docu-drama, tap dance comedy about kidney failure and transplant, drawn from Conway’s experience as a transplant recipient.
But before heading to the big city, Conway and Doba will perform a reading of the new project at the Sutton Community Centre on April 12,13 and 14.
The show follows a real-life die-hard husband and wife and Vaudeville Duo on a 7-year emotional roller coaster ride, Conway explains in a statement about the new project.
The medical journey is filled with love, heartache, humour, loss, and unexpected new beginnings. The experience enriches their lives in ways they never could have imagined. The presentation style, Conway says, revives classic Vaudeville comedy tap-dance skills the couple have been honing for years while embracing visual and audio digital technology to support the story.
“Most people have no idea what it is like to live with the part of another human being inside their body and the preciousness of this gift. I am so very grateful to have experienced this phenomenon and would like to celebrate my donor, all donors, their family, friends, and the whole Canadian / Quebec transplant system,” Conway says. “The performing arts is the best way for me to share this feeling of gratitude. Even though 90 per cent of Canadians believe in organ donation only 32 per cent register.”
As of 2023, Transplant Quebec points out the province of Quebec is trailing behind other Canadian provinces regarding the number of organ donations, Conway says. “My ultimate goal is to present accessible art entertainment that can help improve these statistics.”
Andrea Conway is originally from Pointe-claire, Quebec and graduated from John Abbott college with a high honour degree in Creative Arts. An accomplished athlete, she was a member WIM GYM (West Island Montreals) gymnastic club trained by coaches Hana and Josef Hulka and took ballet classes at Stewart Hall. For years she represented Quebec at the National Championships eventually earning her a spot on Canada’s national gymnastics team for 1987 Pan-american Games winning a bronze medal for team Canada. In 1991 she was accepted into the graphic design program at L’UQAM.
After being offered a role in the Cirques du Soleil’s “Saltimbanco”, Conway spent eight years touring with Cirque du Soleil throughout Asia, Europe and North America performing the Chinese poles and was the only woman to solo jump 35 feet in the air off the Russian swing at the time.
Conway has performed with Peter Gabriel at the Grammy Awards, for the Queen Majesty in London, and featured on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 2001 she was cast into the role of the dishwasher, a clown character, for the renown Speigletent Cabaret “Teatro Zinzanni” in San Francisco. Andrea has performed in 18 different productions with Teatro Zinzanni, she co-wrote and co-directed “Be Italian” and “Hollywood and Vine”.
Wayne Doba has performed professionally for over four decades. He has created five one-man shows and has shared the stage with tap dance legends such as the Nicholas Brothers and Honi Coles. His stage and screen credits reflect the diversity of his talent and experience; and include the role of ‘The Creature’ in the classic Toby Hooper horror flick, “The Funhouse”, ‘Octavio the Clown’ in Brian De Palma’s gangbuster hit, “Scarface”, and appeared as ‘Tex the Barker’ in Prague, for “The Freak Show,” an opera by the enigmatic rockers, The Residents. Wayne was also (believe it not) the original Crazy Crab, anti-mascot for the San Francisco Giants. He was recently featured in ESPN’S, 30 for 30 Shorts: “The Anti Mascot” directed by Colin Hanks. He is an original cast member of “Teatro Zinzanni” since its inception in 1998, and has performed in over 20 different productions, also acting as choreographer in several productions.
In 2001, after meeting at Teatro Zinzanni, Conway and Doba created the Vaudeville Comedy Tap Dance Duo “Dik and Mitzi”. Their first appearance was at the “Wintergarten” in Berlin, Germany. Dik and Mitzi went on to be featured in the European Palazzo Spiegletents 2003-06. In 2002 they built a studio for creation in Sutton, Quebec. In 2003 they created a comedy aerial chandelier act which premiered in Vienna.
In 2007 they began to create full length two-person vaudeville comedy tap dance shows. “The Dik and Mitzi Anniversary Show,” “Top Hats and Tales,” and “Tap and Tell” have been performed across Canada and the U.S. from 2007-2017.
Both performers have been on a hiatus due to Andrea’s kidney failure and Transplant. In 2023, thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts, they are in a development phase of creating “By our Side - An Entertaining Transplant Story.”
This will be Conway and Doba’s first return to the stage since Andrea’s kidney transplant in December of 2018.
They are excited to test present the first incarnation of “By Our Side- an Entertaining Transplant Story” at the Montreal Fringe.
“We are so happy to finally be back up on the stage. This is the first time we will be incorporating such a personal experience into our performance,” explains Conway. “We are dealing with the very sensitive hard to talk about subject of organ donation and mixing it with comedy, it is important we get it right,” she says.
“Wayne and I have so much to be grateful for, and we really feel that if we can help others by sharing our story, doing what we love with the person we love, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Conway says.
Anyone interested in attending a reading/presentation of By Our Side locally will have the chance on Friday, April 12 at 8 p.m., Saturday April 13 at 8 p.m. and Sunday April 14 at 3 p.m. The reading will take place at the Sutton Community Center at 128 Chem. du Mont-écho, Sutton, QC J0E 2K0.
Admission is pay what you can, and seating is limited. To reserve a spot email dikandmitzi@gmail.com or call (450) 538-1816.
The Sunday, April 14 reading will take into account people who experience Electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Guests in attendance will be asked to turn off any cell phones/devices before entering the performance space.