| If any shred of Edmonton and Calgary’s rivalry remains, it might find fuel in the fact that a script written by Edmonton-based Mieko Ouchi has been nominated for a Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding New Play. First, our shot at the Stanley Cup, and now our city’s highest theatrical award for a play titled, of all things, The Blue Light. It makes the blood boil.
Fortunately, just as the Red Mile predates the subsequent blue knockoff, Ouchi’s ties to Calgary began before her roots in Edmonton. Score.
As a teenager, Ouchi was a part of ATP’s Theatreblitz! program, an initiative that allowed high school playwrights to learn from theatre professionals. Though she would later graduate from the University of Alberta with a BFA in acting, Calgary audiences would graciously forgive her for her change in location.
Years later, Ouchi participated in the 1999 playRites Festival in the casts of Dying is Easy and Two Words for Snow. This was an opportunity that allowed her to connect with ATP’s then-dramaturg, Vanessa Porteous. Ouchi was then beginning work on The Red Priest (Eight Ways to Say Goodbye), her first full-length play and her first to both premiere at Alberta Theatre Projects’ playRites Festival and to be nominated for a Betty Mitchell Award (The Blue Light would be the second). The Red Priest premiered in 2003 and garnered two Betty’s, including one for Ouchi’s own performance as an 18th century French noblewoman forced to take music lessons from Vivaldi. While the script was Ouchi’s first full-length play, it garnered a host of nominations across the country, including one for a Governor General’s Award.
The Blue Light’s own genesis began when Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, through an old acquaintance from the University of Alberta, commissioned Ouchi to write a play. A filmmaker as well as a theatre artist (Ouchi has produced a television movie titled Minor Keys and is currently working on another as part of VisionTV and National Screen Institute’s DiverseTV), Ouchi was drawn to the character of Leni Riefenstahl, the Nazi’s quintessential propaganda filmmaker. Responsible for such iconic documentaries as Triumph of the Will and Olympia, Riefenstahl was a figure whose technical skill was matched only by the infamy of her patronage by the Nazi Party, and whose story Ouchi had been waiting to tell.
"Her story has so many relevant lessons for us – to talk about what the role of artists in wartime is, and to ask ourselves hard questions about the decisions that we make," says Ouchi. "I always hoped it would be more than a womb-to-tomb biopic about her life, but also open up discussions on what is going on today."
Ironically, one of Ouchi’s greatest breakthroughs in her story, which she began at home and continued en route to a six-and-a-half week trip to Japan, began on the day that Riefenstahl’s own story ended on September 8, 2003 at the age of 101.
"It was like this burden had been lifted, and I ended up writing a lot in Internet cafés and in my brother’s house and in Australia," recalls Ouchi. "I had a lot of breakthroughs writing away from home, fictionalizing and speculating more about her story. I felt a lot of responsibility while she was alive."
However, while Riefenstahl’s death may have served as a catalyst for the creation of The Blue Light, Ouchi is also a self-confessed book addict, having ordered a considerable amount of material in the researching of her play.
"If you came to my house, you’d probably be stunned by the personal collection of books I have on Leni, Walt Disney, Hitler, films from that time period," she says. "I’m sure there’s a CSIS file on me asking, ‘Why is this woman importing all these books about Hitler?’"
Of course, if the day should come that burly men in sunglasses break down Ouchi’s door, they’ll be doing it at an Edmonton address. Until then, this Betty-nominated playwright has roots enough in Calgary for us to stake our claim. But just until the conviction. |
Copyright ©2006 FFWD. All rights reserved.