You Are Here Theatre

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You Are Here Theatre

Intimate. Immediate. Immersive. You Are Here is a sister company to Thou Art Here Theatre, Alberta’s alternative Shakespeare company founded in 2011.

currently an artistic associate. Andrew is a director and theatre maker from Edmonton, AB who is a co-founder of Common Ground Arts Society’s Found Festival, Edmonton’s only found space arts festival and was the Theatre School Director and Sandbox Series Coordinator at Globe Theatre in Regina, Saskatchewan from 2018-2020. You Are Here is based in Edmonton, AB and acknowledges and honours that we are on Treaty 6 territory, the original home of the Indigenous nations of the Cree, Nakota-Sioux, Blackfoot, Dene-Tsuu T’ina, and Métis. PRODUCTIONS & INITIATIVES

Stoop Hangs with Andy - June-October, 2020

Mr. Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn - 2019 co-production with Blarney Productions at the Westbury Theatre as part of the Edmonton Fringe Theatre’s 19|20 Off Season. (Edmonton)

Still, Still, Still by Geoffrey Simon Brown - 2017 at the Commons Theatre as part of the Third Wheel Theatre Festival (Toronto). Assist Ed by Andrew Ritchie - November 2017 at Theatre Passs Muraille’s BUZZ Series (Toronto), June 2017 at Theatre Network’s Nextfest (Edmonton), February 2017 at Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto), June 2016 at Dirt Buffet Cabaret (Edmonton), April 2016 at YES Festival (Toronto). COMPANY PRESS

“The Journal talked with Ritchie about Hamlet, finding your voice, and why wanting what you can’t have is a very good thing. The Edmonton-born Ritchie launched You Are Here in 2016 with a focus on the production of contemporary Canadian plays with a political edge. But the company is also a vehicle for Ritchie to direct and produce shows he cares about.” - Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal

29/09/2021

Excited to announce we have amalgamated with our sister company Thou Art Here Theatre and incorporated as a Non-Profit!

Follow the Thou Art Here Theatre account on Instagram and Facebook! We will be de-activating this account in a month!

THANK YOU to all the artists, funders, donors, patrons, volunteers, family members, and partners over the years who have supported the company and the productions. Creating theatre is ONLY possible through Community.

With that we are proud to relaunch a NEW Thou Art Here Theatre. New mandate, New logo and a new decade of theatre!

05/11/2020

Huge THANK YOU to all the guests of Stoop Hangs this summer!
Thank you to Natércia Napoleão, Mohamed Ahmed, Sue Goberdhan, Kelly Turner, Andrés F. Moreno, Elise Jason, and Helen Belay for sharing your time and candid conversation.

You Are Here Theatre is taking some time to retool the Stoop Hangs Initiative and plans to launch a 'Season 2' in 2021. Stay tuned for more details and announcements to come!

Find all 7 conversations at https://www.youareheretheatre.com/stoop-hangs

20/10/2020

STOOP HANG #7: Helen Belay

Helen and I first met at the auditions for "Mr. Burns, a post-electric play" in 2019 but we have known of each other for a few years through social media and the local theatre scene. Most recently we were both in Regina at the same time when we were working at the Globe Theatre. We met up over a glass of homemade Kombucha!
Check out the conversation at https://www.youareheretheatre.com/stoop-hangs

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
I am someone who for a very long time has loved stories, the magic of stories, and has dedicated myself to telling them, which at this point of time it presents itself as performance. At the core of who I am is a storyteller.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THEATRE?
I was very academic growing up, but reading and writing were my main hobbies, and I would often join online forums and role-play characters I had created. As a first generation Ethiopian immigrant and as a child of that respective diaspora, my parents wanted me to go into jobs that have financial security. I went to M.E. LaZerte High School near Londonderry Mall, took Academic Challenge and full I.B. (International Baccalaureate) throughout high school.
After graduating I did one year of Computer Science at the U of A and it was so wrong for me so I took a semester off. During my semester off, my father suggested I try an acting class. So I took the Fundamentals of Acting taught by Liana Shannon at the Foote Theatre School. After the first lesson I felt electrically alive and thought to myself, “This is what I want to do!” This led me to audition for the Citadel’s Young Company, then the University of Alberta Department of Drama's BFA in Acting, and now I am a recent graduate, emerging artist and current Associate Artist at the Citadel Theatre.

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE PART OF THE THEATRE COMMUNITY?
Yes… I felt like I officially became part of the community when I did my first professional gig with Teatro La Quindicina. I did the show with my fellow BFA in Acting classmate Chris Periera, which was really wonderful and grounding especially coming right out of university. It's such a gift to do this (theatre) and get to treat it as a means of living, as a career. I am very lucky to have worked how much I have worked but as a recent grad from the U of A I often feel I am still sitting in that divide of being on the inside and outside of the community.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE SHOW/ROLE?
I really loved a lot of what I have gotten to do already. If I had to pick one it is Cleopatra from John Dryden’s "All for Love", his adaptation of Shakespeare’s "Antony and Cleopatra". That was the first time I got to play someone who was African, from my corner of the world.
The conversations and schools of thought around race and theatre are changing as we find new ways to practice. I have often felt to ignore part of someone’s racial identity or other identity is to ignore part of what they bring to the table. The director of the project asked me to bring who I am into the conversation and into the rehearsal hall. In our world of the play, all the white people were trying to keep the two people of color (myself and Diego Stredel who played Antony) away from each other, to stop them from loving each other. They knew if there was a unit of people of color that their world would cease to exist. It would change the world, as they knew it. This structure within the play added a whole new level of stakes to the room and the production.

DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVOURITE TEACHERS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA?
Peter Hinton who directed "All for Love" by John Dryden. He was incredible to work with. I remember one of the initial talks with my class he shared that he wanted us to see the actor we were before the rehearsal process and the actor we were after the process. I enjoyed all of our sessional teachers but he was my favourite (Also because I got to play Cleopatra!).

DO YOU HAVE A DREAM ROLE/SHOW?
I have so many and hopefully several more dream roles that haven’t even been written yet that I will get to play! Lily Rabe, the American actress put it really well in an interview. She felt so gifted to be able to live dozens if not hundreds of different lives. I dream of playing Portia, Juliet, Mercutio, the Daughter in "The Arsonist" and most of all Natasha from the "Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812".

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE CHANGE IN THE EDMONTON THEATRE SCENE?
I would love for us to have real genuine conversation without fear of cancellation or punishment. These topics are so hard and I really want people to be actively engaging and failing forward (then at least you are moving forward). There is a huge fear of being wrong and that defining who you are. Embrace a humble generosity and that you might not know what is right but continue to acknowledge that you will do better. I think fear is the enemy to everything.

I grew up talking politics partly because I am an immigrant and a black woman and partly because my father has always been politically active. Racism and xenophobia are two things I am extremely familiar with. In order to cope with racism I needed to try to understand it. That work is exhausting so when I see colleagues doing this work, perhaps for the first time engaging with racism and race politics in their own lives, I get it. It can be and will be difficult work. However it is work we all must do.

In terms of fun change, BIPOC storytellers often tell stories entrenched in trauma, which is super important work but I want to talk about the joy of the immigrant story too. I had to fight to be proud of my Ethiopian heritage. The first time I saw Ethiopia on television was for a World Vision ad and it was images of the starving poor. These images did not make any sense as the country my parents told me about was written in gold. It was of an ancient country with a rich history I should be proud of and that I am proud of but I had to fight to find that pride.

CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR NEW ROLE AT THE CITADEL THEATRE?
The roles (Associate Artists) were part of the Citadel Theatre’s response to what was going on around the world. The cries of George Floyd for his mother woke up calls in every field and industry across the world about the inequity and inequality that continues to exist. Daryl Cloran, (Artistic Director of the Citadel) brought us (Mieko Ouchi, Tai Amy Grauman and myself) on to help guide the Citadel on where they could do better. We have talked to different departments at the Citadel on how they can address increasing diversity and accessibility. The Data Report was the beating heart of the work this summer because we believed the Citadel couldn’t move forward until they know where they were coming from. Up next is the Horizon Lab Live Series with each Associate Artist leading a production as part of the Citadel Theatre’s re-opening process. The most amazing thing is now so many theatres are all keeping track of their data. We now have a record of how it will change over time and it is more accessible to the public.

Thank you so much for hanging out on my stoop with me Helen! It was wonderful to chat with you.

05/10/2020

STOOP HANG #6: Elise Jason

Elise and I met up on a beautiful afternoon and had some tasty Crabbies Ginger Beer! Note Elise’s favourite ginger beer is actually Pedal Head for future reference. Elise and I have known of each other for multiple years in the theatre community but have never worked together or officially met.

Here is an excerpt of our conversation.

WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
My name is Elise Jason. I identify as BIPOC, non-binary, and q***r. I work as a scenographer and lighting designer mostly in Edmonton but definitely would travel for work. I also do projection design but do not get a chance to practice it very often. Projection design was not part of my official education but I have been learning about as I go. As a freelance artist I also do arts administration (Currently working part-time at Mile Zero Dance) and I occasionally work in devising, playwriting, and dramaturgy.

YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A SCENOGRAPHER. CAN YOU TELL MORE ABOUT THAT?
I like to describe scenography as a holistic approach to a show where everything works together such as the costume components being an extension of the set. I hate the word ‘designer’ and I don’t like identifying in that way. So whether or not scenography is how I am practicing currently it is how I want to continue to practice in the future.

RECENTLY YOU WORKED ON THE HORIZON LAB AT THE CITADEL THEATRE, CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE?

It was great! I walked in and had my drawings and ideas and the staff at the Citadel Theatre said “We will build this for you.” I came back in three days and it was all built. It was MAGIC especially when compared to indie theatre where I am often building the entire design myself.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE SHOW?
Yes, it was a remount performed this past February entitled "Secondhand Dances for the Crude Crude City" produced by Mile Zero Dance. The performance is inspired by Mr. Chi Pig, the lead vocalist of Edmonton’s greatest punk band ever, SNFU. The original production was performed at the Timms Centre but this remount was performed at the Hilltop Pub in the Forest Heights neighbourhood. The best part was winning over all the regulars at the bar who had showed up not expecting to see a contemporary dance piece at their local pub.

DO YOU HAVE A DREAM ROLE/SHOW?
I am actively pursuing scenography and design but am also interested in direction, artistic direction, and facilitation. I would love to take on the role of an associate or assistant artistic director in the distant future. My dream show would be a weird durational sculptural piece where the creation of the set is integral to the performance and is happening at the same time. I want the design to be an essential part of the narrative. EG: a play where two people are having a dialogue while the entire floor is being painted by them during the performance and after each performance a new painting is created. I want people to see and acknowledge the huge amount of work that goes into the creation of a set or a painted floor.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE CHANGE IN THE EDMONTON THEATRE SCENE?
I want to see more BIPOC, q***r and trans people in positions of leadership. I want leaders that will advocate and do the work to pave the way for people like Morgan Yamada and Sue Goberdhan, who just became the new co-artistic directors of Azimuth Theatre. When people are calling for change and there is very little response from leadership, it is frustrating. The other day I was trying to find out who was on the board of directors of a local company and I found the information was impossible to source online. I think the boards of theatre companies also need more diversity and can be more representative of the city and community they work in.

HOW DO WE GET MORE REPRESENTATION IN ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP?
Outreach and training.
The new artistic associate positions at the Citadel Theatre are an example of how a large theatre is facilitating a paid opportunity. Our training programs need to change who they are training and who they are selecting. This change will take significant investment in tearing down the many barriers to post-secondary education that exist and outreach and engagement into those communities.

HOW DO YOU GET WORK AS A SCENOGRAPHER?
Networking. I am not the most extraverted person but I just started going to parties and getting hired by people at them. I have tried applying for residencies to varying success and emailing artistic directors who typically do not email me back. Word of mouth is really the best way to get out there. I started doing contracts while in university so my grades and classes suffered but because of that I am getting hired now more as a graduate. It is the people you know more than your training or experience.

Thanks Elise for the great conversation!
Check out past conversations at https://www.youareheretheatre.com/stoop-hangs

18/09/2020

STOOP HANG #5 with Andrés F. Moreno

I met up with Andrés Moreno on a very chilly afternoon in September. We first met in 2019 at the auditions for my production of Mr. Burns, a post-electric play. Despite the cold weather we had delicious Kronenbourg Rouge beer and talked about everything theatre. This meet up was perfectly timed as Andrés left the next day to Whitehorse in the Yukon to work on a new theatre project with Gwandaak Theatre

Here is an excerpt of our conversation.

WHAT DO YOU DO?
I consider myself a creator first. In the past I have designed costumes, sets, lights, directed and dabbled in graphic design. I feel as an artist you have to learn how to do all of it yourself and so I try to be a jack-of-all-trades.

I studied acting at Red Deer College* and MacEwan University. During my time there, the theatre program at RDC had an emphasis on creation and one of my final projects was a site-specific play where you had to find a space and build, create, and do the whole show from scratch. Since then I have enjoyed the entire process and the idea of just making it happen. It always comes back to this idea of what are we as theatre artists? We are storytellers.

WHAT SHOULD CHANGE WITH POST-SECONDARY THEATRE TRAINING INSTITUTIONS?
I think it starts with leadership. Leaders need to have the gumption to stand up to the boards and administration of universities and advocate for their students. Many of our leaders are in comfortable positions and change does not come out of comfort. If you really want to see change, at a certain point leadership needs to evolve or change otherwise it is just staying stagnant.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE ROLE?
I have two experiences that jump out. One is an adaptation of "The Seagull" written by Jason Chinn inspired by the original play by Anton Chekhov directed by Marianne Copithorne. She was a strict director to work with but I enjoyed the way she challenged me and it was the biggest growth I ever had as an actor.
The second is at Red Deer College I got to play Mr. Toad in "Toad of Toad Hall" adapted by Philip Goulding from the novel The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I loved playing Mr. Toad because he was the aloof and very rich toad so I got to be green the whole show and drive a golf cart on stage which made for a very fun show to work on.

DO YOU HAVE A DREAM ROLE?
It has always been Usnavi de la Vega from "In the Heights" (music & lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda & book by Quiara Alegria Hudes). I was fortunate enough to see it a couple times in my life and I have listened to it religiously. I love "In the Heights" because it was the first musical I ever saw with people that look and sound like me. It is a story that is deep in my heart as an immigrant, to see my story represented and honoured was really life changing.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE CHANGE IN THE EDMONTON THEATRE SCENE?
Representation. Think about the really young children who go to see theatre through their school. If they are staring at a stage full of people that do not look like them, they will just think that acting and theatre is not a career option for someone like them. We need to reflect our community. Theatre needs to stop looking at itself as a business but look at itself as what it is: a way for people to reflect and grow internally. I have so much hope that we can do it.

Edmonton has a lot of potential. I don’t want to leave Edmonton, I like Edmonton and the life I live here but if we want are our artists to stay we need to make our spaces much more open and that starts with leadership. If we work together we could achieve so much more. For example from an environmental point of view, can theatres recycle and reuse sets and production elements to make our carbon footprint smaller?

Theatre has always been a reactionary art form. Theatre is reacting to what is happening in the world. But if the art you are presenting is reacting to events from the 1960s or 1970s is this adding to our community? What are you using your voice for?

As a leader I don’t think you have to step down but can you make yourself more available to the community? If someone comes to you to talk to you, don’t meet it with fear; meet it with openness to listen. Your platform has responsibilities and you need fulfill those. Change won’t happen in a week. Change takes time and you have to do the work. There are a lot of band-aid fixes for much larger systemic problems. As a leader you need to give yourself the time to reflect. Luckily we have that time right now. That is what the 35//50 Initiative is all about. I am one of the co-contributors of the 35//50 Initiative and this work is going to take years. It is all about starting the conversation. Learn more about 35//50 Initiative at www.3550initiative.com

* [Andy: Sadly many of the arts programming at Red Deer College including the theatre program (which ran for 35 years!) have been suspended indefinitely. (A decision that is direct result of Jason Kenney’s UCP cuts to universities and colleges). This is a huge loss for Red Deer and the entire Alberta arts community. Read more about this closure here.

Thanks Andrés for the stimulating conversation. Interested in having a stoop hang? Message me before the snow falls at [email protected]. Check out past Stoop Hangs at www.youareheretheatre.com

11/09/2020

The 35//50 Initiative has asked You Are Here Theatre and other professional theatre companies across Alberta to commit to a set of organizational beliefs and policies, rooted in anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices. These commitments will result in 35%+ of staff and contractors who identify as Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour, and 50%+ of staff and contractors who identify as female and non-binary, by the 2024/2025 theatre season.

As a member of the Alberta arts community You Are Here Theatre and by extension I, Andrew Ritchie am thrilled to publicly commit to this important initiative and take steps towards transforming how I practice and facilitate theatre.

As part of You Are Here’s response and in a step towards increased transparency I have attached to this post the statistics of all three productions You Are Here has produced in the company history since 2016.

Thank you to all of the leaders who created this initiative. I encourage all professional and independent theatre companies across Alberta to read the Calls to Action and examine their engagement with underrepresented communities.

This is only the first step in my commitment to the Calls to Action. In addition You Are Here is committed to re-examining the company’s core values, mandate, mission and will take steps towards adopting official policies of Anti-Racism, Harassment, a Code of Conduct, and conflict resolution. This process will be ongoing.

Read more about the 35//50 Initiative’s Call to Action here: shorturl.at/uxMX2

28/08/2020

STOOP HANGS is back! I met up with Kelly Turner who I met back in 2009 at the UIG: The University of Alberta Improv Group(aka the Notorious UIG). Kelly reminded me that the first time we met was actually at an improv workshop when we performed a Gibberish improv scene together!

So Kelly and I have known each other for over a decade but we have never hung out or talked outside of a group setting before. So it was such a pleasure to get to know her and her artistic work better over a delicious Moscow Mule (her favourite cocktail).

Excerpt from Conversation:

WHAT DO YOU DO?
I’m an improviser and comedian. I always wanted to get into comedy and was obsessing over it and all the sketch shows on tv and movies. I narrowed it down that all my favourite comedians got into comedy through either improv or stand up. The idea of doing stand up seemed horrifying so I went for improv. I went to the U of A for six year only to do UIG…I was never a student!
Currently I am a member of the senior ensemble with Rapid Fire Theatre, in a sketch troupe called Dang Dumb, and am an instructor of Grindstone Theatre’s Ensemble.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE ROLE?
In comedy there are no roles but there are troupes. So some of my favourite troupes or shows are Rapid Fire Theatre’s The Blank Who Stole Christmas. I played Mr. Burns and it was so playful and fun and I watched hours of The Simpsons to just embody the character.

Another favourite is Dang Dumb and doing sketch shows with them. There is this one sketch that I wrote about the mascot of the Washington NFL team. It was a satire about changing the name to the Washington Red Necks. Throughout the sketch my character becomes the bad guy and talks about dressing up as a cowboy on Halloween and it really flips the narrative. I got the idea for the sketch while in school when I was writing a paper about mascots for sports teams with indigenous names.

CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT ACTING IN SKETCH VS WRITING A SKETCH?
We [Dang Dumb] all really collaborate on all are sketches so there is a collective ownership over all of them. I really love diving into characters that someone else has written versus writing something and knowing I will be playing what I wrote. In the end they are both very gratifying but with writing you have to be more okay with killing your darlings.

DO YOU HAVE A DREAM ROLE IN COMEDY?
I would love to have a touring troupe and to teach improv and comedy around the world. Professionally I feel I have separated into the writing performer and the improv performer but it would be really gratifying to write and perform a one-woman show. I’m not sure if artistic director of Rapid Fire is a dream job, maybe I’m too timid to say it out loud, but I would definitely apply for the job!

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE CHANGE IN EDMONTON COMEDY SCENE?
There has been a shift recently and there has been a huge increase in sketch and with that there is space for each section of comedy: improv, stand up and sketch but I want to see more hubs in the city. There are little things happening around the city but we need more spaces to perform. For example, Dang Dumb has never performed north of the river. We don’t even know if there is a place to play north of the river. How do we get more awareness for local comedians? Can improv and sketch tour to schools outside of teaching workshops on comedy?

I have the wonderful opportunity to work with Rapid Fire Theatre in their outreach program. It would be fantastic to see more comedy and improv being available to more communities. It needs to be at your door and in your community and in your neighbourhood.

There is definitely a divide between the comedy community and the theatre community. I know people who do both but I feel like – even during Fringe – the worlds stay pretty separate. Inside the comedy community I think improvisers are so often willing to make fun of themselves and get placed at the bottom of any social ladder making us not welcome in many spaces. Even at the University of Alberta, while I was a member of the UIG we performed in almost every building on campus except the Fine Arts Building.

I think there is perception sometimes that comedy does not need as much training but I trained in improv for 8 years before getting into Rapid Fire and now I am doing even more training after that with Rapid Fire. So it’s a lot of work to create and perform comedy.

Thanks Kelly for introducing me to the Moscow Mule and the great hang in the sun! Learn more about Kelly and her improv background here.

Interested in having a stoop hang? Message me at [email protected]

Check out the other stoop hangs at the link!
https://www.youareheretheatre.com/stoop-hangs

17/07/2020

HANG #3: Sue Goberdhan

This was the first time Sue and I have met! I became aware of Sue’s work through her indie theatre company could be cool theatre and her recent position as the Interim Producer at Theatre Yes. We met up over a tasty pineapple orange juice on a sunny break from the rainy days of Edmonton summer.
Here is an excerpt of our conversation.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN THEATRE?
I feel like I wear a lot of hats. I write a lot of my own stuff, I’m an actor, and I teach drama at the Grindstone Theatre, City Arts Centre City of Edmonton, Metro Continuing Education, and Citadel Theatre's Foote Theatre School. Also I do a lot of advocacy work.

I believe the roles of advocate and artist are not inseparable but they are inevitable. One usually leads to the other. There is that old adage that you should write what you know and if you are faced with adversity then it will appear in your work because you have something to say about it. Just being an artist of colour in Edmonton makes any art I do an act of advocacy.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THEATRE ROLE?
I have a couple favourite roles. I did an improv Seinfeld show called “What’s the Deal” with Success 5000 and I was their Kramer. I treasure that show and am begging them to remount it again!
My other favourite role is kind of fu**ed up. I remember having so much fun doing it but when I look back on it as an adult, I see how problematic it was. In a high school production, I was a maid named Rindy and only had three lines, but I loved that role for no good reason. I was one of the only people of colour in the whole show and I had the smallest part and it was the servant role. I was a kid and I didn’t know better but now as an adult I will never do that again. It is important to reflect on your past artistic choices and call yourself in for the choices you have made.

DO YOU HAVE A DREAM ROLE/POSITION IN THEATRE?
I love the Fringe Festival! It is the most important thing in Edmonton for emerging artists to get out there and do something. I would love to be Artistic Director of that festival some day. I am coming for you Murray.
As for dream roles, I was never anyone’s first choice when they were writing the show so it is hard to imagine myself in any of the well-known roles in theatre. That said I would love to do "In The Heights" in any capacity. Maybe I just haven’t dreamt up a dream role yet.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE CHANGE IN EDMONTON THEATRE?
We as an industry do not place enough value on putting resources on training artists how to create their own work. On teaching artists and communities how to develop their own creed, their own method and how to share their story with an audience.

How do we enable people to come back into the theatre? The people of colour, the indigenous, the black, the disabled, etc. The foundation of our theatre in Edmonton is patriarchal white and male but it could be so colourful and this begins by helping people and communities tell their own stories.

It comes down to resources and outreach. We need to develop outreach practices. Theatres need to be doing more outreach or the stories we’ve been hoping for will just stay where they are and will not be told, all because we didn’t search hard enough for them.

In my house and in my family, the philosophy is no matter how little you have you build a bigger table. Always. Then all of sudden somehow, something will provide. And that is what our industry will get if it embraces and supports the people it hasn’t yet. It will find new ways to root storytelling organically in who we are.

Learn more about Sue and her work by checking out her indie theatre company could be cool theatre or follow her on social media

Thank you Sue for the wonderful conversation and juice!
Interested in having a stoop hang? Message me at [email protected]
https://www.youareheretheatre.com/stoop-hangs

27/06/2020

STOOP HANG #2: Mohamed Ahmed aka Moe Show

What a blast to catch up with Moe over a refreshing Somersby green apple cider (my first ever!) Moe and I met in 2017 when he was a member of the ensemble cast in "Everyone We Know Will Be There: A House Party in One Act" by Elena Eli Belyea. Since then we have seen each other in passing but never really hung out.

Here are a few excerpts from our hang.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN THEATRE?

I’m a black guy who is just trying to get past that right now. I am trying to play Hamlet and not having it be Black Hamlet. I fall into the belief that he [Shakespeare] is one of the greatest writers of all time. I subscribe to that and I know a lot of people don’t, a lot of people of colour don’t. But for me, Shakespeare understood human condition in a way, at the almost highest level, and there is something in that that resonates with me. It feels better than contemporary work sometimes. It moves. But I am also interested in contemporary theatre, in theatre that is breaking tradition. So I am trying to be an actor. I am an actor.*

*[Moe is a graduate of the Citadel’s Young Company program and is currently studying Acting at the École nationale de théâtre - National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal.]

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THEATRE ROLE?

My first role when I played Rosencrantz in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" by Tom Stoppard with my best friend at the time as Guildenstern! It was at Wagner High School with my teacher Noel Taylor as the director. I was 17 at the time and the only thing I had done before was improv, which I had gotten into through cartoons and anime on Youtube and my comedy was underground, edgy, and random. But Noel saw something in me and cast me and that set me off.

DO YOU HAVE A DREAM ROLE?

Have you ever seen "Atlanta", the Donald Glover TV show? I would like to do that but in a theatrical form. Like an episodic thing that is live that you can tune into every week. A two-month experience that is in different spaces in the city. My dream role is to be at the head of my creation, to be fully hands on, and for the work to come from a place of me knowing who I truly am. Also I’ve never played Othello!

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE CHANGE IN EDMONTON THEATRE?

This is my utopian dream. There are a couple more theatres but they are not centralized Downtown or Whyte Ave but instead are in places like Millwoods or Castledowns or the Eastside and these theatres are the same scale as the Citadel, no even bigger, and they are FREE. Truly accessible. In communities. Currently you can’t go to the theatre in Edmonton without a hour-long bus ride. With theatres in neighbourhoods, that is jobs in the community, investment in the community. I just want more theatres here that are more spread out. I want a theatre in my hood. Imagine if you go to a theatre show and there are people chilling from the neighbourhood inside and outside. We make these places so exclusive because of the homelessness situation we created in this city. That’s what I dream of: A Free Theatre. A life goal of mine is to open a free theatre in Millwoods. *

[Check out Moe’s poem “Theatre in my hood” on this episode of the Citadel Theatre Stuck In The House Series]

Thanks Moe for the convo in the sun!

Interested in having a stoop hang? Message me at [email protected].

https://www.youareheretheatre.com/stoop-hangs

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You Are Here Theatre is an independent Canadian theatre company exploring the audience-performer relationship and driven to challenge its audience with the content, direction, and design of their theatre. Founded in 2016 by Andrew Ritchie, You Are Here strives to create and produce politically driven and contemporary Canadian theatre. You Are Here is a sister company to Thou Art Here Theatre, Alberta’s alternative Shakespeare company founded in 2011. Andrew is a co-founding artistic director of Thou Art Here and currently an artistic associate. Andrew is a director and theatre maker from Edmonton, AB who is a co-founder of Common Ground Arts Society’s Found Festival, Edmonton’s only found space arts festival and was the Theatre School Director and Sandbox Series Coordinator at Globe Theatre in Regina, Saskatchewan from 2018-2020. You Are Here is based in Edmonton, AB and acknowledges and honours that we are on Treaty 6 territory, the original home of the Indigenous nations of the Cree, Nakota-Sioux, Blackfoot, Dene-Tsuu T’ina, and Métis. PRODUCTIONS Mr. Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn - 2019 co-production with Blarney Productions at the Westbury Theatre as part of the Edmonton Fringe Theatre’s 19|20 Off Season. (Edmonton) Still, Still, Still by Geoffrey Simon Brown - 2017 at the Commons Theatre as part of the Third Wheel Theatre Festival (Toronto). Assist Ed by Andrew Ritchie - November 2017 at Theatre Passs Muraille’s BUZZ Series (Toronto), June 2017 at Theatre Network’s Nextfest (Edmonton), February 2017 at Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto), June 2016 at Dirt Buffet Cabaret (Edmonton), April 2016 at YES Festival (Toronto). COMPANY PRESS “The Journal talked with Ritchie about Hamlet, finding your voice, and why wanting what you can’t have is a very good thing. The Edmonton-born Ritchie launched You Are Here in 2016 with a focus on the production of contemporary Canadian plays with a political edge. But the company is also a vehicle for Ritchie to direct and produce shows he cares about.” - Liane Faulder, Edmonton Journal