I’m super excited to finally announce the two wonderful performers who will be joining me onstage for the Canadian debut season of Trampoline. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with both these guys before (You may recognize one from ROCKY HORROR and the other from CAPTAIN SPACESHIP) and am super excited to be working with them both again on my new play!
STEVIE PEMBERTON – Kelly/Dr. Vangillies
Montreal-based actress Stevie Pemberton is thrilled to be part of the Montreal edition of Trampoline. Graduate of the Dome Theatre Program, credits include: Janet (The Rocky Horror Show), Puck (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Nadine (The Wild Party), Eve (Waiting for the Parade), Miss Prism (The Importance of Being Earnest), Madame Ranyevskaya (The Cherry Orchard).
Vance Gillis is a Nova Scotia-born actor, improvisor and writer. He teaches and performs at Montreal Improv Theartre as a member of troupes Megafauna, Dream Hunks and Monsters. He is also a member of the cast of Wild Heart Acres, a monthly mini-series. He has previously performed in Shane Adamczak’s serialized sci-fi comedy Captain Spaceship and does sketch comedy with 52 Pickup, who performed in Best Of The Fest at the 2013 Montreal Sketchfest. He is lead writer for 2014 Sketchfest troupe Ghost Townand will be directing an improvised mini-series this summer called 1979 about the fall of disco.
Last week, after ten months and nine amazing “episodes” (including a motherflippin’ XMAS SPECIAL!) the crew of Captain Spaceship just had their final mission at Mainline Theatre (But for HOW LONG!?). The finale was bitter-sweet, funny, silly, spacey, timey-wimey and even a little sentimental; all the things I’ve come to love about this format!
This on-going sci-fi improv series has been one of the funniest and most rewarding shows I’ve ever had the pleasure of being involved with. The incredibly talented cast, that really was the best of the best, made my stupid idea come alive and took it too places I never thought imaginable. I was thrilled to see how quickly audiences embraced the show and gave us our own little cult following (cult followings are cool). I have had such a blast living out the adventure of these crazy characters, I do hope we get to do this again sometime. Plans are already underway for Captain Spaceship Down-under and a follow up series in Montreal next year, so stay tuned Spaceshippers, the Captain is just locked in stasis…for now.
I want to take this opportunity to thank my incredible cast Lea Rondot, Pat Dussault, Dan Jeannotte, Lise Vigneault, Matt Goldberg, Marc Rowland and Kirsten Rasmussen as well as all the incredible guest stars who appeared throughout the series: Dan Derkson, Jess Fildes, Anders Yates, Colin Munch, Brent Skagford, Vinny Francois and the mighty Vance Gillies!
Thanks also to the fine folks at Mainline Theatre, Especially Amy Blackmore, Al Lafrance and out awesome techie Emily Thorne. Big thanks also to Jeremy Hechtman who got the ball rolling on this project and without whom, it might never have happened.
Or How I learned to NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS and became an actor again.
It’s been a while since I written a real “bloggy” blog, but it’s been a busy year and I got some stuff I gotta say. So strap in kids.
YOU CAN’T ARREST ME, I’M A ROCK’N’ROLL STAR!
I’ve always believed that theatre is rock and roll. No. Theatre CAN be rock’n’roll, when it wants to be.
Independent theatre fucking excites me man. Creating something new and gritty and fresh and then daring to take it out and sharing it with the world, that takes some guts. To take a risk by putting yourself out there as an artist is fucking scary. I think that’s why I’ve fallen so deeply in the Fringe culture these last ten years (TEN years!?! TEN!?! Fuck, I’m old…)
PRETTY VACANT
I’ve seen countless big budget, full scale theatre productions with giant sets, big projection screens and a thousand unnecessary lighting effects that haven’t excited, interested or captivated me half as much as a powerful, no-budget one man show, told with nothing but basic lighting and enough set and props that would fit in a suitcase…it’s all about the stories… If there no story to engage people, it doesn’t matter how you dress it up, I’m probably not interested…with the exception of Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark which I saw on Broadway, that was the biggest billion dollar piece of shit I’ve ever seen and I would watch it again in a second. Goddamn it was beyond awful.
It’s not about money (not that I have a problem with money, if you have some you want to give me I’m all for it), for me, it’s more about creating something new from what you have to work with. I’ve always been about creating new exciting work, it’s the grounds on which Weeping Spoon was created and what I feel has kept us growing stronger as company each year. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with doing Romeo & Juliet or Death Of Salesman for the millionth time, the idea just doesn’t excited me. Creating something new and magical on a shoestring budget, that’s exciting, that’s fringe and that’s fucking PUNK man. I guess it’s that DIY punk attitude towards theatre that gets me going.
NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS…
A few months ago I auditioned for the role of Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten in a play called Vicious Circles. How could I pass up the chance to play of the most iconic figures in the history of music?
As an actor who typically get casts as the “nerdy guy” or “awkward guy” comedy roles, this has been a fucking ride man.
And don’t get me wrong, I have no PROBLEMS with the roles I’ve played, I’m happy to play to my strengths, heck, I’ve built a “career” on awkward and geeky, there’s rarely a Zack Adams review that doesn’t feature at least one of the following; nerdy, geek chic, lanky, skinny or “Ziggy Stardust meets Woody Allen”( I quite liked that last one). Heck without this I may not have been given to chance to play Brad Fucking Majors in The Rocky Horror Show last year, an experience I will treasure forever. But to be given the chance to show that I am capable of more has been an opportunity I’ve been seeking for a while and so utterly pleased that I found. Because not one review in the last month has mentioned any of the adjectives from that list and it feels fucking awesome. FUCKING AWESOME.
I owe a lot to my director Stéfan Cédilot, who took a chance on me in this production. Even in Montreal, I’m mostly known for comedic work, but he gave me a chance to show I can get dirty, punk and downright ROTTEN on stage! This process has been a fucking whirlwind, but such a pleasure to get to work with such a professional, and fucking dedicated cast, who love these roles, honoured these roles and BECAME these roles. The amount of research and development that went into this show was phenomenal. And it’s a high pressure gig, Sid, Nancy, Malcolm where all real people (shit, my “character” Johnny Lydon is still well and truly alive) and a lot of people care about these people and how they belong in the mythos of Punk History. It would be a disservice to take this show lightly and none of us wanted to do it half-arsed.
Our writer, Ben re-worked his script from last year (adding in The Pistol’s manager Malcolm McLaren) and fleshing out the interactions and story and did a bloody killer job. Ben and Stef know and love the Pistols, so that was further incentive to make sure we did it right. They’d know if we were making shit up and wouldn’t shy about calling us on it.
This was a meaty role, we had to actually WORK to make this show happen and it felt bloody good. Hours of research, voice coaching and watching hours of old footage, studying mannerisms, posture and stage moves, I can think of far worse ways to spend your evenings…
BODIES
Pat, you “method” motherfucker, I fucking loved you as Sid man, you were Sid, I respect you for how hard you threw yourself headfirst into that role and you fucking owned it. Charles all your hard work toward bringing the “Vicious Circles” Malcolm to life paid off tenfold, on stage I often felt like smacking you in the face so you must’ve been doing something right, you devious bastard. Kathleen; when I say that you were the most annoying, whiney whore of a character I’ve ever performed with, I mean in the best and nicest possible way. I loved you in that role as much as Johnny hated Nancy. A lot.
DON’T KNOW WHAT I WANT BUT I KNOW HOW TO GET IT
Punk was about being who you wanted to be and doing what you wanted to do. That what this show has been for me both on stage and off. It’s given me a real hard kick in the bollocks in the direction of what I want to be doing as an artist and onstage it’s been fucking anarchy. I have a thousand bruises, my hair may never recover from the amount of strange products I used to style and colour it and I don’t envy whoever has to clean the stage floor at Mainline or any of the costumes, but goddamn if it wasn’t a shit-tonne of fun.
The reviews have been delightfully stellar, the houses (much like those of the actual Pistols) for the most part have been varied in size, but always awesome and receptive. The future big plans made over many beverages are big, people. Grand plans ahead. We’re not done trying to sell the swindle yet darlings.
Do da.
Punk’s not dead. Punk’s just been hanging out at Mainline Theatre. God save the Queen indeed.
“EVERY GET THE FEELING YOU’VE BEEN CHEATED? GOODNIGHT” –Johnny Rotten
I WOULD LIKE, IF I MAY, TO TAKE YOU ON A STRANGE JOURNEY…
(How could I NOT start this with that line!?)
We all know the story by now, Brad Majors (Asshole!) and Janet Weiss (Slut!), a couple of recently engaged white suburbanites break down on route to visit the teacher that introduced them, finding themselves at The Frankenstein Place, a mysterious castle belonging to Frank’n’Furter, a sciencetist who just so happens to also be a transsexual alien. Obviously. Meet Riff-Raff; a handyman, his sister Magenta; a domestic, Columbia; a groupie and a whole host of strange characters and you have THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW. It’s a tale of science fiction double features, sexual awakening, Rock’n’Roll and above all, letting loose and having one helluva good time!
IT WAS GREAT WHEN IT ALL BEGAN…
When I was about 13 years old, for my Birthday, on my insistence, my Mum took me to The Burswood Dome in Western Australian a on Saturday night to see Jason Donovan, Peter Rowsthorn, Alyssa-Jane Cook and Ally Fowler from The Chantoozies in THE NEW ROCKY HORROR SHOW. This thing was freakin amazing, the songs, the characters, the debauchery! After that night I was hooked. I had never seen the film, I had never heard the music before that night (other than maybe The Time Warp on Hey Hey It’s Saturday), but I knew that somehow, some day I had to be a part of this. The first DVD I ever bought (of MANY) was the 25th Anniversary edition of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (replacing my by then slightly worn VHS copy) and I have since watched it more times than I can count.
LET’S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN
Flash forward from that first night at The Burswood Dome about 16 years on and I find myself, an actor, in Winnipeg, on tour and I hear about a production of ROCKY happening in Montreal. I’m not in town for the auditions but as luck would have it, the producer contacts me and asks me send in a video audition for Brad Majors, a hero. I get the gig and find myself a few weeks later, back in Montreal in a creepy old church (that really did look like a Hunting Lodge for rich weirdos) fumbling my way through “Dammit Janet” at the first musical rehearsal. I thought to myself “Whoa, I get to sing THAT song! My job is to sing THAT song!”
Shit just got effing real.
SOME PEOPLE WOULD GIVE THEIR RIGHT ARM…
Without getting to emotional or philosophical about it, the last two months have been a freakin’ privilege. It’s been a lot of hard work over the years and lot of strange circumstances that ended with me moving to Montreal and so, to be part of such an incredible production has already made it so worthwhile. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. To be able to work on not only, such a legendary, incredible show, but to get to work with such a ridiculously talented cast and crew has been an honour. There’s not much more you can ask for as actor, to not only step into the (high-heel) shoes of these well-known and obsessively well-loved characters, but to work with people who just as in love with the show and excited to be part of it.
DON’T DREAM IT, BE IT
Those that know me know that I’ve spent the last few years mostly doing solo work, so to work with an ensemble again after so long, and on something that I had not written/produced myself, was both exciting and super scary. But having a Production team and especially a Director with such a clear and great vision of where the show was going was very reassuring. I loved working with Philippe Gobeille (Director) whose sense of humour was very close to my own and made some great artistic choices and also allowed me to play within the role and find “MY Brad” and make him my own, I was never interesting in doing a Barry Bostwick impression. I think we found all something special in our characters and our songs and took the audience so much further beyond just “acting out the movie” on stage and you should all be really proud.
YOU’VE ARRIVED ON A RATHER SPECIAL NIGHT…
It’s pretty rarely that a production EXCOURAGES an audience to yell stuff at the cast, and I must admit, I was nervous about it at first, but it very quickly became such a great part of the show, like the audience was an extra (albeit occasionally disruptive) cast member. Of course the audience became a huge part of our show too, we all got be part of an EXPERIENCE.
LET THE SUN AND LIGHT COME STREAMING INTO MY LIFE…
To the cast and crew. Thank you. Holy kites, thank you! You all absolutely kicked this show in balls and OWNED each and every one of your roles. People are going to remember our Rocky Horror and again, I feel fucking honoured to have been part of it. Each and every one of you has touched my life (in some cases, my butt) in a way I cannot begin to explain (not my butt) and I will miss you all terribly. Please let’s do this again.
HEY JANET…I’VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY
And to the lovely Stevie, thank you for being such a great partner in crime through all this. You never forget your first Janet, so thanks for being mine.
LOST IN TIME AND LOST IN SPACE…AND MEANING.
To conclude: I love this show, I loved being IN it, everyone involved and I especially LOVED our production of it. Over-sold houses, great reviews, standing ovations, the crowd dancing along, the memories…what more could we ask for?
See you all again soon at the late night (Rocky Horror) picture show…
ZACKADAMS.ORG 