What is your role in The Women? In The Women, I play the Countess de Lage – a lady of leisure and many former husbands. She loves to see & be seen and host fabulous parties at The Casino Roof. She never knows who will be there but everyone has clamoured to come!
What is your background in theatre? In Edmonton? At Walterdale? I started doing theatre in my teens and then went on to pursue a drama performance diploma from Keyano College & my BFA from the University of Lethbridge. I’ve lived in Edmonton for 15 years and have done lots of shows with many groups, mostly musicals. This is my 6th Walterdale show – my last one was directing Jesus Master Builder at From Cradle To Stage in 2015.
What brought you out for The Women? Originally I hadn’t planned on auditioning but the lure of doing a show with an all female cast & artistic team was too great. I had just done an all female show at the Fringe and was directing Little Women The Musical at the time. With such great experiences from strong female driven shows I thought, “what the heck” and when I was offered the role of the Countess I just couldn’t say no.
What do you think audiences will take away from the show? Why do you think they should come and see it? We as women can have really intense and really strange relationships with the other women in our lives. We are given mixed messages of showing empathy and being nurturing while viewing other women as competition. This show holds the mirror up to that part of us. Clare Booth Luce really understood the complexity of these relationships and the characters are all at various levels on the spectrum of empathy to outright ice cold competitive.
What do you think is the most important issue facing women today (in North America? Globally?)? Why? There are so many issues facing women today that no one takes precedence over another. My awesome cast mates have mentioned having total agency over our bodies in our reproductive health, pay equality and equal representation. In our current vitriolic political climate, my one hope is that those of us who have been lucky to be born into or worked our asses off to earn these kinds of freedoms can learn to overcome the impulse judge or oppress women who have not been as fortunate. We have the opportunity to use our privilege to help those women who are under-represented. Taking time to mentor a young woman, supporting a small business led by women or even learning to be conscientious in how we engage in discussions about other women are small, incremental things that we can do to build change around us and lead the way for others.