Interview with Theatre Calgary
Interview with Theatre Calgary
I met with Stafford Arima, award-winning director and Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary, for our latest interview. We discussed moving “Shakespeare by the Bow” to “Shakespeare on the Go” to meet the needs of the community during this phase of the pandemic, the growth of the company, and how they’re nurturing new voices in the theatre. (More interviews here.)
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If you’d rather read the interview, a rough transcript is below.
Theatre Calgary interview
Michael Van Osch: Hey, it’s Michael Van Osch. Welcome back to the Hark Journal. This is our interview series. And before we get to that briefly, if you haven’t checked out our daily Shakespeare meditation on HarkJournal.com, please check that out and shout out to all the people this week that joined that daily email - we had people again from India, England, as far as provinces go: Ontario, and BC.
And Nashville (or Tennessee), and Colorado, and New York and somewhere else, they’re just coming in like crazy. So thanks for joining that folks. And I hope you enjoy it. But back to the task at hand, this is our interview series. I’m really pleased and proud to welcome today the artistic director of Theatre Calgary, and that is Stafford Arima, Stafford how are you? Thanks for joining me.
Stafford Arima: Thanks for having me, Michael. Nice to see you. And I’m really excited to be here with you.
Michael Van Osch: Thanks so much. I always like to kick it off by asking how things are going wherever people are, so you’re in Calgary, Alberta, last year was probably similar to you for you as it was for everyone else in the theater business.
But how are things up there right now?
Stafford Arima: Well, you know, I think that right now we are kind of living through a new kind of chapter of this pandemic with at least as of today, the Delta variant you know, kind of creeping its way through the world. We’re all still very cautious in the theatre.
The province and the city that I currently reside in kind of opened its doors to the annual Calgary Stampede. However, Theatre Calgary, and I would say that my colleagues at the other arts organizations, we’ve all been a little bit more cautious with regards to you know, kind of opening the doors because we’re still in a pandemic and the health and safety our audiences, our volunteers, our staff, our artists, our crew is paramount. And so I think we’re all just being very cautious about how the next few months are rolled out. And I think safety is paramount. It’s completely paramount.
Michael Van Osch: Yeah. Makes sense. Absolutely. And Tell us a little bit about Theatre Calgary in general because I know it’s a bigger organization. We’ll talk about Shakespeare in a minute, but I was reading up on it a little bit and it goes all the way back to the ’60s, but yeah. Tell us a little bit about the organization if you don’t mind.
Stafford Arima: Well, you know, it’s a 52-year-old organization, meaning it’s been in a, you know, part of the Calgarian landscape for over five decades.
Its first artistic director is the incredible Christopher Newton, who was the artistic director at the Shaw Festival for many, many years. And so to be a part of a theater company in a thriving city like Calgary… We are the largest in Southern Alberta and you know, we do a plethora of work that spans from the classics to new works to Shakespeare and, It’s been embedded in this community for a long time.
So very familiar with our audiences and our audiences have been incredibly supportive of our company over many, many decades.
Michael Van Osch: And how long have you been there as artistic director? Cause I know you’ve got a massive resume here and I want to highlight some things, but when did you start there?
Stafford Arima: So I came to theatre Calgary in 2017. So I’ve been here just about, or just over four years, but interestingly, I’ve been here four years but have only had one and a half seasons that I’ve actually programmed, obviously because of COVID. The other half of the season was cut short and when I came here in 2017, I inherited my predecessor’s season.
So I’ve been here four years, but I feel like I’ve just kind of started in many, many ways.
Michael Van Osch: Yeah, absolutely. And let me highlight some things from, from your resume for the folks that are watching too, because you’re born and raised in Toronto, near where I grew up as well. And you mentioned to me before we talked that you went, you know, you moved to New York and you were there for over 20 years and, and some really notable, notable achievements too, you know, and in 2015 you became the first Asian Canadian to direct a musical on Broadway.
When you directed Allegiance at the Longacre theater with George Takei. And you had an Olivier award in 2004 for your direction of the west end premiere of Ragtime. And you’ve done a lot of off-Broadway directing as well, as well as at the Old Globe Theatre and Williamstown Theater Festival. And of course the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, and many, many other things.
And you’re a graduate of York University there in Toronto. And. Let’s see, you’re an artistic advisor for Broadway Dreams and an adjunct professor at UC Davis. So you’ve got a busy, busy calendar. What do you like about Calgary? You know, you’re in New York for so long and it’s, it’s a big difference, obviously.
What do you like about it?
Stafford Arima: What I love about Calgary is inevitably that the city has a passion and a curiosity for the arts, one of the important aspects, you know, when I made the decision to move to Calgary was I didn’t want to leave, and in you know, New York City is thriving in the arts.
There’s no question that the arts are an important aspect of the city’s kind of livelihood and the city’s kind of cultural kind of vision. Calgary is obviously a smaller city than New York but it has a thriving art scene. And so for me, it was really important that I come to this great Canadian city, get a chance to meet the various friends of the communities that exist here, and help shepherd the company Theatre Calgary into its next 50 years.
I came in right at the fiftieth anniversary of the company. And I thought, well, this might be an exciting opportunity to kind of help pave the way for the next 50 years. Theatre companies need, and not just in Calgary, across the world, an opportunity to continue to reinvent itself. You know, it’s very easy for companies to get very stale or to become kind of, you know, not relevant anymore.
Times are changing. Culture is changing. Art is changing. And so it was an exciting aspect for me to bring my experience that I had you know, 20 years working and living in the United States, and to bring some of those curiosities or awakenings or ideas to Theater Calgary.
Michael Van Osch: Yeah, sure. Makes sense.
Absolutely. And then speaking of that, let’s shift a little bit to Shakespeare because Shakespeare is part of what you do there as well. And you’ve had a program for many years. It sounds like called Shakespeare By The Bow and the Bow River runs through Calgary. If I’m correct, okay. So Shakespeare By The Bow.
So maybe shed a little bit of light on that, but also how you guys have changed it up for this summer because I know there are some big changes.
Stafford Arima: You know, Shakespeare is one of those incredible writers that no matter where you are on the globe or in the globe, you say William Shakespeare, or you say Romeo and Juliet people know you know, people know they might not all like him and appreciate the language of Shakespeare, but he’s probably one of the most well-known playwrights of the world and of our time. And this initiative was in place before I came to Calgary, which was the Shakespeare By The Bow initiative. It’s really, its roots are in giving emerging artists in Calgary and Alberta, the opportunity to tackle some of the greatest works that have ever been written.
And by pairing these emerging artists with a celebrated director who has worked in the milieu of Shakespeare, knows this language understands the ins and outs of these iconic soliloquies and sonnets and plays, that it gives these emerging artists an opportunity to thrive in an environment with an established director and gives them an opportunity when we are in the park, which is Prince’s Island Park to be able to perform over the summer months and share this great work and their talents with the city of Calgary. When COVID hit it was imperative for me to you, and we’re going to use this word, probably a lot of pivot, you know, and how do we change?
We couldn’t be in the park last year because of COVID. So last year we did a Shakespeare on zoom and we actually did Romeo and Juliet completely live and on zoom. So everyone was in their own home. And it was a first for theatre Calgary to take Shakespeare By The Bow and bring it to the zoom platform.
This year, because we were still in a kind of uncertain space, I didn’t, and I couldn’t wait for the park to officially open up. So I thought, okay. We’re not going to do Shakespeare on zoom. We did that last year. We can’t go into the park this year because we haven’t got the permits and all of that. So let’s do Shakespeare By The Bow and turn it upside down and do Shakespeare On The Go.
And what we’re really doing is we have. Nine emerging artists. So nine actors in three different pods. So three different vans that are literally popping up across Calgary, into communities that we’ve not been too into you know, doing it at senior citizen residences in the, in the parking lots, And in backyards. We have these private spaces where if you want to book a pod to come to your cul-de-sac, we book the pod online and we perform Shakespeare in your cul-de-sac for your neighbors. So we have three different pods, all doing a variation of a theme on The Comedy of Errors. Adapted by Reneltta Arluk and they are directed by Reneltta as well.
And Barry Bilinsky, who’s also one of the co-adapters. And you know, these are 45 to 55-minute morsels of Comedy of Errors that have three different casts, three different interpretations. And it’s been…people have been loving it. It’s been such an extraordinary experience to do these, I guess they’re like pop-up Shakespeare’s across the city.
Michael Van Osch: Yeah, I can imagine. And talk about accessibility for people that may not have ever made their way to the theatre. It sounds like a big, big piece of it.
Stafford Arima: Absolutely. You know, accessibility, especially as we’re learning with what happened or what is happening in this COVID time. Sometimes people can’t come to the theatre.
Sometimes people don’t want to come to a theater maybe now, because of it being indoors. We’ve also learned through you know, a certain amount of surveying that there are still people who are intimidated by going to the theater and so Shakespeare in the Park and that, you know, it’s done everywhere across the world, is a great way to kind of make it more accessible.
This even makes it doubly accessible because we’re bringing it to you. And you don’t even have to leave your house. We had a private event the other day where people were on their balcony and the performance was in their backyard. So let’s bring Shakespeare to you. And they’re 50 minutes, you know, it’s not like a full play.
Someone might get intimidated by that. It’s a comedy, it’s fun. It’s light, it’s entertaining. One of the pods is a musical version of the comedy of errors. It’s bringing, you know, Shakespeare to the masses and in many ways, it stays in line with what Bill himself you know, many, many, many centuries ago wanted to do for his public.
Michael Van Osch: Yeah. Yeah, no, that sounds great. And my guess is coming from theatre myself, is that your actors and crew members and all that are probably having a blast.
Stafford Arima: Well, they’re having a blast for three reasons. One, they’re able to perform and perform in an environment to get that audience feedback. I mean, know, that’s in so many ways, I, I think what the performer does not live for, but it’s so part of it. The feedback loop that happens between artists and audience. And thirdly, you know, it’s really about inspiring and engaging individuals. And when they get a chance to see the faces or the laughter or inevitably, you know, oops, it’s canceled. You know, we had to cancel a couple of performances because of the rain.
Or because of the heat, it just keeps everyone kind of back on their toes and keeps everyone in a kind of improvisational energy.
Michael Van Osch: I love it. That’s great. Well, I won’t keep you too much longer, but so as head of the organization, where do you want to take it over the next number of years? Where do you see it going?
Stafford Arima: Well, you know, I think one of the most important ingredients for any organization, arts organization, and perhaps maybe theatre organizations like Theatre Calgary is to continue to expand the canon of works that exist out there. Thank goodness we have the Canon of Shakespeare.
Thank goodness. We have the canon of plays and musicals that have been written over the decades, but what about the future? What about the new works and the new voices? Because those new works and those new voices and these emerging artists are our future. And so for me, it’s imperative that Theatre Calgary continues to support the new voice, the new work, because those new works are going to be tomorrow’s classics.
And so I think in many ways, as we are reopening our doors as slowly and carefully and cautiously you know, for the first season that we can kind of get ourselves back into normalcy, I’ll put that in quotes. We might be doing some of those traditional classics because we want people to come in, feel comfortable, have a good laugh. Maybe even have a good cry, but continue these initiatives where we’re able to.
We had a wonderful Page to Stage Festival (zoom festival) in March. Again, all new works, all new voices. And as a result of that workshop you know, we’re going to take one of these plays and develop it so that it can finally hit the stage, you know, in a year or two or three or four seasons from now.
So that’s my, my dream and desire to make sure that we keep the canon filled with not just the great classics, but with new works and new voices.
Michael Van Osch: Yeah. And thank you for doing that. I mean, a lot of theatres are doing that too, but, but I just, I thank you because you know, it seemed to me many years ago that that wasn’t part of the discussion and things naturally evolve, you know, over time.
And now that it’s part of the discussion, folks that come after us are going to see these phenomenal plays that aren’t even written yet. And I agree that’s such an important piece of the artistic landscape.
Stafford Arima: And you know, Michael in so many ways as we look at our world and we start to understand that in every city, state province, country, continent, that there are stories that will, we don’t know about.
There are amazing stories perhaps coming out of Africa, for example, or coming out of you know a small rural town in Virginia or a little town on the east coast in Newfoundland, whatever. There are stories that need to be told. So that we, as people can understand that this world is not this big. It’s actually this big.
And what the theatre and what the arts do, and not just the theater, but novels, movies artwork, you know, I think of a play that we produce called A Thousand Splendid Suns, which was a story about Afghanistan. And, and, and I think about what’s happening today. Right this very minute, you know, if we want to rip the headlines of Afghanistan then, and, you know, audiences who came to A Thousand Splendid Suns might not know those stories of Afghanistan.
So I think, again, it’s so important for us as a theatre company, to just expand the stories and allow all of the stories of this great world to kind of exist on this stage and, and future stages.
Michael Van Osch: Right. So well said, thank you for that. Well, listen, we’re going to sign off here because I know you’ve got other stuff you’ve got to get to. It’s a busy day there.
My final question for you. And I ask it to everyone. If Shakespeare himself was on this call with us and you got to ask him one question, what would you ask him? What would you want to know?
Stafford Arima: I guess I’d be curious to hear his thoughts on all of the variations that have happened, you know, over the last whatever 50 years, all those amazing kind of rethinks of Shakespeare and, you know, we’ll do a, what does he think of West Side Story?
You know, the musical, which is really kind of based on Romeo and Juliet. So I think as a musical theatre director, my main question would probably be what did you think of West Side Story? And did we do Romeo and Juliet justice?
Michael Van Osch: That’s great. Thank you so much. Well, folks, this has been Stafford Arima. Thank you so much, Stafford. Stay on the line here when we say goodbye, but best of luck with the rest of this summer and going forward up there in Calgary. And once again, thanks for joining us.
Stafford Arima:
Thank you, Michael. And stay safe friend.
Michael Van Osch: Thanks, you too.
