The Newborn Theatre Collective, which consists of Alexander Arsenault, Ashley Humphreys and Kelie Jensen, is the latest independent company to burst onto Calgary’s theatre scene.
Its debut production, Jump/Cut by Neena Beber, follows three characters. Dave (Arsenault) is a manic depressive writer. He’s in love with Karen (Jensen), a doctorate student who happens to be his best friend’s girlfriend. His best friend, Paul (Patrick MacEachern), is an aspiring filmmaker. Faced with Dave’s psychological condition, Paul and Karen decide to turn it into a documentary... and that’s where things start to get messy.
For a new company, the Newborn Theatre Collective has gathered an impressively professional cast and crew. Jensen, and director Kelly Reay, are respectively the general manager and artistic director of Sage Theatre, Humphreys works for the Epcor Centre, and Arsenault and MacEachern recently performed in The Lieutenant of Inishmore with Ground Zero Theatre. They’re no strangers to professional theatre... but the indie scene is a whole different world.
Self-producing is new territory for Arsenault, and he’s slowly adjusting to the dual hats of actor and producer. He can often be seen in the theatre after rehearsal, building set pieces or attaching casters to a couch to make it roll.
“You have to look after so many details that you wouldn’t normally think about,” says Arsenault. “Who’s getting the props, doing promotions, putting up posters, finding rehearsal space? Doing your own show for the first time involves a lot of trial and error, but you’re constantly getting better at your craft.”
MacEachern, on the other hand, is experienced with the indie scene. For years he was an artistic associate with the now-defunct company THEATREboom. “In a professional show, you’re in rehearsal Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 6. It’s your job,” says MacEachern. “In an independent show, you can’t ignore your life. You have to leave work, go to rehearsal for five hours, then go back to work.”
The challenge for independent artists is to balance their artistic life with the reality of looming bills. “I have to work my construction job during rehearsals, and I’m still broke,” he says. “Everyone’s broke! It’s hard to find an employer who will let you take the time off when a show comes around.”
MacEachern has experienced that reality many times. “I’m working at my third bar of ’09,” he says. “I get recognized more as a bartender than I do as an actor,” laughs MacEachern. “When people see me on the street, they’re like, ‘You look familiar, do I know you?’ I say, ‘Well, I’m an actor, you might have seen me in...’ and they go, ‘No, you’re the bartender at A Bar Named Sue!’”
It’s hard work, and often it doesn’t pay. A production like this can be considered a rousing success if it breaks even at the box office. So what’s the point?
“As an actor, you completely rely on audition season,” says MacEachern. “Your whole year is determined by two monologues and a short scene. When you put on your own full-length show, rehearsed with a director, people get to see your work fleshed-out, as opposed to five-minute segments.”
Moreover, says Arsenault, being able to create his own work is empowering. “I go to the theatre seeking religious rapture,” he says. “I want to feel. I want to be shaken to my core. And that’s what we’re trying to do with this show.”
That sense of empowerment is vital to the creation of independent work, where the artists are spurred more by passion than a paycheque. And if it’s a labour of love, the emphasis is more love than labour.
“When you walk into the rehearsal hall, you leave your baggage at the door,” says MacEachern. “When you’re in that room, you have the luxury and the liberty to play, to explore the motivations of a character that isn’t real, but who goes through real emotions. That’s why I love doing it: I can shrug off everything else, turn off my phone. Where else in life do you get a chance to turn off your phone?”
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