APN Member Profile: Michelle Kennedy

Michelle is director, writer, and producer from Edmonton. Recent writing credits include Apocalypse: A Period Piece (with Chris Craddock); The Tornado!: A Musical Prairie Tragicomedy (Edmonton International Fringe Festival, Mischief and Mayhem Theatre); The Flood: A Disaster Story (Edmonton International Fringe Festival, Mischief and Mayhem Theatre). Recent directing credits include: Apocalypse: A Period Piece (Edmonton Fringe); PornStar.USA (Sterling Award Nomination, Outstanding Fringe Production), The Tornado!: A Musical Prairie Tragicomedy, The Flood: A Disaster Story (Edmonton International Fringe Festival, Mischief and Mayhem Theatre); Shhhh! (Swallow-A-Bicycle) Coffee Dad, Chicken Mom and the Fabulous Buddha Boi (Guys Undisguised/Mischief and Mayhem Theatre, Sterling award for Best New Fringe Play) in both Edmonton and New York City; Willkommen in Spreepark (Mischief and Mayhem Theatre); and UBU ROI: A Grotesque Burlesque (Mischief and Mayhem Theatre). Michelle is in her fourth season at One Yellow Rabbit and had the pleasure to work with the OYR ensemble on: People You May Know, SMASH CUT FREEZE, Kawasaki Exit, Gilgamesh La-Z-Boy, Doing Leonard Cohen, and Sylvia Plath Must Not Die. Michelle holds a BA (Honours) Degree in Drama from the University of Alberta and a certificate in Arts and Cultural Management from MacEwan College. Most days she is the Programmer at Theatre Alberta. 

Who are you?

I'm Michelle Kennedy. Always have been, always will be. I think... 

(is this funny? should i say that?)  

What are you working on?

A lot. I write every day and am writing a ton of non-fiction and working on my "essayist" muscle. I am working occasionally on a one-woman show about John Cusack and I frequently go back to to an even older play called "The Golden Record". It feels really nice not to be stressing about starting a fringe show right now...  

What inspires you?

People I meet, books I read, coffee I drink, kissing, fighting, falling in and out of love, cooking, and working with collaborators who are GREAT writers. 

What is your favourite play?

I have a few: Val Paraiso by Don DeLillo, Drama by Karen Hines and Trout Stanley by Claudia Dey

Who is your favourite playwright?

Blake Brooker, MacIvor, Chris Craddock and Karen Hines. All equally and all for entirely different reasons. 

Mac or PC?

Mac. Only. Mac.  

Do you have any writing rituals?

I write by hand. When I am working on a play or a piece of fiction I find a pen and a notebook and I write. It keeps my thoughts flowing in a less stunted way, notebooks don't have the internet and when I do type it out I am writing a second draft. I write poorly on the computer. 

What made you want to become a playwright?

I sort of always did it. Even as a kid writing weird little stories I was moved to dialogue and all the things that were left unsaid. And I loved writing stage directions that were impossible and it made the whole process so much fun that I never really stopped. 

What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever gotten?

The best piece of writing advice ever given to me was the best piece of advice about being an artist... "This life is a pursuit not an industry." I guess that isn't advice per say but the notion that we are working with passion and poetry rather than the goals and expectations of industry made me feel like anything is possible! 

Interested in being profiled? Don't hesitate to email us and let us know! We want to get to know you.

APN Member Profile: Andrea Beca

BIO:  Andrea Beça has a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Alberta and an MLitt in Playwriting and Dramaturgy from the University of Glasgow. She founded Cowardly Kiss Theatre in 2006 in order to produce her work at the Edmonton Fringe; since then, it has expanded to include independent production, and she is thrilled to be producing her first full season this year. When she is not enveloped in Cowardly Kiss Theatre, Andrea works as a freelance writer with her new company, Comma Dot Dash.  Her writing has previously been nominated for both Writers’ Guild of Alberta awards and for the national Journey Prize. In the midst of everything, Andrea spends 200% of her time with her two puppies, Oscar Wilde Beça and Lucille Ball Beça. 

Who are you?

My name's Andrea Beça. I'm the Artistic Director of Cowardly Kiss Theatre, an indie company currently based in Edmonton. I'm a playwright, director, and dramaturg. I'm also a freelance writer (through my company Comma Dot Dash) to pay the bills, so I guess I'm fully enveloped in writing! I like words!

What are you working on?

At the moment, I'm in the pre-rehearsal research-and-note-making process for Cowardly Kiss' second production in its inaugural season, which is Jean Genet's The Maids. It's a brilliant, crazy, challenging play; I'm very excited to get started with the cast and dive into the text together. I'm also sorting out final details for three shows in the 2012 Edmonton Fringe (doesn't it feel like the last one just ended?). 

What inspires you?

This is a tough question. I feel like just about anything can inspire me, if it happens to me at the right time, whether it's a piece of art or a random person walking by me on the street. I'd say generally, I'm inspired by people and landscapes. Most of my work stems from a conversation I've either taken part in or overheard. But I'm also often inspired by the feeling I get when I walk into a place, even if it's a wide-open space. I ask a lot of "Why?" - why would she say that, or why would someone come/live here? 

What is your favourite play?

I'm the worst at picking favourites. I blame the fact that I'm a Libra. But The Importance of Being Earnest is one of my very favourites. No matter how many times I've read and seen it (and trust me, that number is staggering), I never, ever get tired of it. I think a lot of people think it's very simple and funny, but there's a lot going on in that play, a lot of subversion of genre and society. The fact that you can enjoy it just for a laugh or really dig into it and find all of the different layers in it is what makes it so well written, I think.

Who is your favourite playwright?

There's no way I'm only going to list one! So instead, a few of my favourites are Oscar Wilde, Caryl Churchill, Martin McDonagh, Enda Walsh, Daniel MacIvor, Tim Crouch...

Mac or PC?

I'm pretty devoted to my Mac. I can find my way (very slowly) around a PC after nearly a decade of not using them, though I've never had anything against them. 

Do you have any writing rituals?

I used to be very particular about how I went about writing anything. I find that as time goes on, I have particular ways of writing depending on what I'm writing. I prefer, for example, to do professional, technical writing during the day, whereas my creative writing juices flow in the evening and wee hours of the morning. Oddly enough, I've also found that I increasingly prefer to write plays by hand before I type them, or at least getting started that way. It's something I never used to do, but when I was in Glasgow writing my MA thesis play, I discovered I could write pages and pages in a notebook in the middle of an insanely loud coffee shop, while I'd go blank in my quiet flat, in front of my laptop. The Internet's become a big distraction over the last five years; maybe that's why. 

What's the best piece of writing advice you've ever gotten?

I'm sure that I have forgotten the best piece of writing advice I've ever gotten (oops). But there are a couple things that have always stuck with me. One of my creative writing professors in university always said that there was no such thing as writer's block, because as a writer, you should write every single day, and if you're doing that, it's impossible to be "blocked." You may have trouble figuring out where a certain piece of work is headed, but if you're always working on something, it'll eventually come to you, even if you're writing a magazine article and the thing you're struggling with is a play. I've found this to be very true in my career. In fact, when I'm feeling stuck with a play, I'll sometimes joke that I'm just going to start another one to find my way in the first. And then I usually do. And it usually works!

I was also recently in a brief workshop with Daniel MacIvor, in which he said that one of the reasons we as humans are so attracted to theatre is because it's one of the only forms of entertainment that is actually life size. At the cinema, people are blown up on a huge screen to unrealistic proportions, and on TV, they're way too small - we can't connect. But when you sit in a theatre, the people you're watching are the exact same size as you. They're present. They're real. They're confronting you, whether you like it or not. Now, I'm not sure that's writing advice, per se, but it certainly made an impact on me and has already had an effect on how I approach my work. So there you go - thanks, Daniel MacIvor! 

Interested in being profiled? Don't hesitate to email us and let us know! We want to get to know you. 

APN Member Profile: Jacqueline Russell

Bio:  Jacqueline Russell is a director, performer, playwright, and producer. A graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting Program, Jacqueline has toured across Western Canada with her feminist play Raunch (with co-creator Alice Nelson). She has worked as a performer/creator on several projects with Swallow-A-Bicycle Theatre, including Into the Abyss (High Performance Rodeo) and Across the Tracks. Last year Jacqueline produced (and directed several pieces for) “Girls gone Wilde” a festival of new work from female Canadian playwrights. Jacqueline has worked extensively in the TYA genre as both a performer and director. She is the Artistic Producer of Evergreen Theatre in Calgary, AB where she directs and produces educational children’s theatre that tours across the province. Her newest artistic adventure is as the Artistic Producer for Urban Curvz Theatre in Calgary.

Who are you? 
A very lucky girl, who gets to do what she loves and get paid for it.

What are you working on?I am currently working on a play that was commissioned by the Town of Morinville in celebration of their 100th Anniversary. I went out and spent a week in Morinville last spring interviewing residents and researching the town's history and wrote most of it over the summer. It will be performed in October. Even though I made a few Corky St. Clair jokes about it, there is a lot of really griping material to be found in a small town.

What inspires you?

Other artists. Watching my friends and colleagues take on the crazy challenges of self employment, lack of resources, constant self doubt etc. and then seeing them some how managing to create phenomenal art. It makes me want to paint my face red and white and run up and down 17th ave screaming and cheering.

Jacqueline Russell in Raunch

Also brave, funny women. Tina Fey, Lucille Ball, Ariel Levy. The first play I ever wrote was about Nellie McClung. I was 13. I won a Canadian Heritage Prize for it. I always call on Nellie when I am in need of some guts and guile. 

What is your favorite play?

That's a tough question. I can think of three plays where the images and words have continued to float in my mind for years after I first saw them. I, Claudia by Kristen Thomson, Frozen by Bryony Lavery and Jake's Gift by Julia Mackey (which is part of Lunchbox Theatre’s season this fall! Don’t miss it!)

Who is your favourite playwright?

That's even tougher. Judith Thompson, Ann-Marie MacDonald, and Timberlake Wertenbaker are all playwrights who made me want to try writing plays. 

Interested in being profiled? Don't hesitate to email us and let us know! We want to get to know you.