Charlottetown – Enthusiasm. There is no other word for what the co-directors of this year’s Charlottetown Festival Young Company production bring to the group every day. Gab Desmond and Stephanie Graham, both Charlottetown Festival alumni, return this year to work with the Young Company and their production, Québec à la carte.
Québec à la carte celebrates the culture and history of the province of Quebec in a 45 minute performance that includes music, dance, drama and lively story telling. The public can see the Young Company in their free performance at the Confederation Centre of the Arts six days a week, but what they do not see is the extensive training in professional theatre that is also part of the program for the 12 members of the Company.
The theme of the 2008 Charlottetown Festival is People and Their Stories, a theme that extends beyond the productions to the people behind the scenes, people such as Desmond and Graham.
Desmond performed on the Mainstage and at the Mack six years ago in The Legend of the Dumbells and If You Could Read My Mind: the Music of Gordon Lightfoot. Graham played Prissy Andrews and Josie Pye in Anne of Green Gables – The Musical™ and Belinda in Johnny Belinda at the Festival in 1997 and 1998. Both knew Anne Allan, the Festival’s artistic director, through the theatre business, but neither had ever worked with her.
Desmond describes his return to Charlottetown as an “incredible opportunity,” adding that the Charlottetown Festival is a draw for talent and a great chance for performers.
“I’ve crossed paths so many times with Annie, but this is the first time we were able to work together,” he says. Born and raised in Ontario and now living in Quebec, Desmond has extensive experience working with youth in the theatre. Allan felt he was the right fit for the job, and the bilingual Desmond was on his way to Charlottetown.
Arriving only a few days before the company members themselves, he and Graham had to finalize the script and cut down the show to fit in the allotted time. He considers Québec à la carte to be his directorial debut.
“I like to work by collaboration. It’s been an incredible team. It’s a very intensive and very enjoyable process,” he says. “We’re really impressed by the youth. We’re quite happy with the result.”
While his role as director technically ended with the debut of Québec à la carte on Canada Day, Desmond watched the show every day in the weeks following to note little improvements they can make to the show. It is exciting, he says, to watch the cast grow and develop with their training each week.
“A lot of it is individual growth. It’s all about the story and how the story is told,” he says, reflecting the overall theme of the Festival and the people bringing Québec à la carte to life.
Stephanie Graham is from Waterloo, Ontario, but has an Island connection predating her days on the Mainstage: her grandfather worked for the Coast Guard on PEI in the 1960s, and her grandmother was a nurse here. Although she calls Toronto home now, she wanted to come back to the Charlottetown Festival. As choreographer and co-director of Québec à la carte and program director for the Young Company, she got her chance this year.
Many of the Young Company members are students in schools for the arts. In fact, Graham choreographed a show, She Loves Me, at Sheridan College in 2006 that included Matt Wagman, who this year plays Gilbert Blythe in Anne of Green Gables – The Musical™ and is a Young Company alumnus himself.
Like Desmond, she arrived in Charlottetown only days before the Young Company members and the two of them quickly worked on casting the roles from the 12 youth. “It took about two days for them to meld,” she says.
“We really got to create the shape of the show in those first few days. It was difficult to prepare ahead of time without knowing the kids and their talents.” She describes those first few weeks as long days at the Centre followed by going home to choreograph for the next day. Her enthusiasm saw her coming in on her days off as well to continue working.
In her role as program director for the Young Company, Graham coordinates the three and a half hours a day of training in every discipline that the youth receive. She coordinates the classes, the teaching staff and teaches some classes herself, including tap and ballroom dance, and lectures on the business of the business with topics as diverse as taxes and audition etiquette.
“It’s a big challenge for them. It’s a huge training ground,” she says. The youth also have voice and acting classes, often taught by members of the Charlottetown Festival, including Julain Molnar, Robin Calvert and Lisa Messina.
“It’s going to open a lot of doors for them. Amazing people have come out of the program,” she adds. Like Desmond, she watched the early shows every day, making notes for minor improvements. “They are going to improve as performers, and they are going to discover they can take what they learn in the classroom and apply it every day in the performance.”
“The kids are owning it. It’s part of them.”
For these young people, interpreting 400 years of Quebec history in Québec à la carte is just the beginning of the story.
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Media contact: Dan Wall, publicist, Confederation Centre of the Arts, phone (902) 628-6135
Email: confederationcentre.com, web www.confederationcentre.com
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Megan Gauthier, PR assistant, phone (902) 628-1864 ext 315, Email: confederationcentre.com