Performers talk love of Prince Edward County crowds and community

Gavin Crawford performs one-man show Every Brilliant Thing written by Duncan Macmillan, with Johnny Donahoe

Because it’s an island, [Prince Edward County] has its separate areas, but everyone travels from one area to another, so it seems like a broader community. There are a lot of expat Torontonians in that community, which is weird for me because I (almost) know as many people in Prince Edward County as I know in Toronto. As far as the play [Every Brilliant Thing goes ...], it’s about everyone coming together to tell a story; and even if they don’t know the story that they’re telling, they do near the end. It’s a small play in terms of intimacy. It’s not meant to be performed in a giant space with 700 people. It’s a small group of people that have gathered together. It almost harkens back to sitting around fires. It has that kind of feeling, because it’s not necessarily performed in one particular spot; it’s all over, in and amongst the people in the audience. You’re not just watching someone stand in one spot. It’s someone amongst you telling a story and will occasionally turn to you and ask somebody who’s nearby to assist with the role of telling that story. And I think it gives it that community feeling. Like everyone’s around a campfire and having a shared experience and one person’s guiding the game, but everyone’s involved in the game.

Nigel Bennett will be in John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar

I was born and raised in a little village in England, a little village called Essington, and we knew everyone. All the families knew each other. I used to go and play as a kid and if I did anything wrong, my mom knew about it before I got home. Because sort of the jungle telegraph had gotten the message back to her before I got back to her. And that’s disappearing because people are moving onto the big cities and large towns, but that’s one of the great things about a small community. Small communities look after themselves. They take care of themselves in a way that cities don’t. Cities can’t because they’re too big. In Outside Mullingar, everyone knows each other. It has a deep history. The character I play has personally had the farm, but obvious his parents had the farm for 120 years. It’s that sort of depth of time that people have lived in the same place. And that’s rare nowadays.

Matt Baram co-developer and performer of The Script Tease Project

I know that improvisation as an art form unto itself is the idea of collective creation. We write the shows by ourselves on the spot with audience suggestions. It’s not like we’re doing a show for them, we’re doing it together and creating it based on things that are happening in the community. Also it’s inspired by two pages from a playwright and together we create it. At the end of the hour it’s a brand new play that’s never been seen before and will never be seen again. Only by the members of that community.

Naomi Snieckus co-developer and performer of The Script Tease Project

If we did the play without the community it would be called Dinner, like the rest of our lives. So we need the theatre to make it less like a snapshot of our life. We’ve been doing these shows for so long and like Matt said, improv is such a celebration of the community since we create it together. There was a tipping point: I remember doing a show and suddenly I was like, “Oh, this show brought these people together,” and we shared a common laugh and a common heartbeat for an hour and a half, so it’s a really extraordinary thing to share for sure.

Melody A. Johnson will perform her one-woman show Person of Interest

I talk a lot about the village [in Person of Interest], Roncesvalles Village, which is Little Poland, so there’s that influence [related to community]. [In the play,] I talk about the ice cream truck, which has a certain sound in this neighbourhood as opposed to the old place we used to live and there’s a couple of public schools and it’s a real great vibe in terms of the parents and children around here. There’s lots of kids. My son’s now fifteen, but this story took place when he was five years old, so go back in time to Roncesvalles Village then and tell the story through the 2010 lens and I talk about the world at that time; we had a power outage in Toronto, but we never had major catastrophes happening. Thirty-three miners were trapped in a cave in Chile and there was BP spilling oil into the sea in the Gulf of Mexico and in our little village things were okay until the upheaval with the neighbours. They became kind of notorious through the school as they were parents with kids at the same school. But Person of Interest is all about our house and living in this end of Toronto, which is a lovely area, but if you have difficulties with your neighbours it’s like a black cloud leaving your house every day.

Wendy Thatcher will be in John Patrick Shanley’s Outside Mullingar

Community is community no matter where you are. I live in Toronto, and the area that I live in, I feel like I’m living in a community because I know the area and my neighbours. I think with somewhere like Prince Edward County, it’s different because it’s smaller and people know each other and they probably look out more for each other. It’s got that close feel to it.

Danika Lorèn will sing as part of the programming for Wellington Water Week

Performing in the county is so special! There is an amazing community here of artists and art lovers, and therefore it is the perfect audience for new ideas. I have been able to both perform and create in Wellington and some of my best work has come from those experiences. This year, I will be performing with CollectÌf, my creative family! We are so excited to bring our adults-only comedy cabaret “Watering Hole” to The Stache. I love that this show brings classical music’s mischievous side to a community culture hotspot, and I know that Wellington is ready to have some fun with us. I can’t wait to be back!