This week I had the pleasure of interviewing fellow OLT Board of Directors member and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner director Brian Cano who details his experiences and advice for putting on a production from start to finish.
Brian Cano (Photo by Maria Vartanova)
Semi-retired from his position as a drama teacher of 30 years at St Pius X high school, he has managed to fill up a lot of his spare time, to our benefit, at the OLT. He said to himself while watching his students act: “Why should the kids have all the fun?”, and back in 1994 he tried out for the two-week summer show Arsenic and Old Lace. He was bitten by the acting bug and has since performed in over a dozen plays at the OLT and other companies, as well as directing six plays and working on over 75 productions.
His first directing job was Talking Carrots at the End of Act One, an OLT National Playwriting Competition prize-winner which became our entry into the Eastern Ontario Drama League (EODL) One-Act Festival in 2002, winning the award for best production. This was momentous because it was the first time OLT had participated in the festival in over 30 years. In the 2003-04 season, Talking Carrots was part of an evening of one-act plays, becoming Brian’s first mainstage OLT production. (I have not seen the play, but this has got to be one of the more unique titles!) In addition, as part of the 100th OLT Season, Brian directed Behind the Beyond, a Stephen Leacock essay he adapted for entry into the EODL One-Act Festival. It won five awards including best production and best director.
There is a natural progression to becoming a director. One should get involved with numerous productions in the role of Assistant Director which gives first-hand perspective of everything required to putting on a production. The next step is applying to be an Associate Director which provides a foundation to directing one’s own production.
The OLT’s Season Planning Committee (I am one of the members) chooses the plays as well as the directors. A call letter is put out to all the participating directors on our list with the titles of our forthcoming plays. Brian looks at the descriptions, reads all the plays and ranks the ones he is interested in 1, 2 and 3. He then writes a brief description of why he is interested in the play and what he can bring to the production, and submits his entry to the committee who eventually decides.
Once the mantle of director is given, it’s time to put together the team of ADs, designers, etc. Sometimes he approaches the people, many of whom he has worked with in the past and sometimes they approach him. The first “hire” which is crucial for Brian is the AD. The role is essential because he needs someone to have another eye on the stage and the organizing to ensure that no one drops the ball.
The development can take as long as a year and a half depending where on the season roster the play is slated. Brian tends to read the play multiple times to come up with his vision and how he will bring it to the stage.
This is the third production that Brian has directed involving a play that has previously been a famous movie. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner would be a major challenge if the OLT actors had to live up to the Academy Award-nominated performances of Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracey and Katherine Hepburn. Brian’s advice is – don’t watch the movie, thus avoiding even a subconscious influence. The actors should make it their own. In fact, this is what the audience expects and enjoys.
Auditions take place on a weekend and call-backs might be necessary. Some choices are easy, while others may be more challenging. The majority of our plays are open to colour-blind casting but in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, the characters have to be race specific. Brian put a message out to the Black Community to help with suggestions and a great cast was eventually selected, though some members were aged to portray their roles.
Brian recognizes that the success of a production rests in the ensemble and that includes how well the cast, crew and design team get along. Relationships are developed through hard work in rehearsals, but also some socializing after rehearsals to share a laugh and get to know each other. After all, it is important that a strong bond of trust develop within a production. Brian’s approach to directing is extremely open to the ideas of others, and he enjoys sharing his vision with the design team and the cast and hearing their input and suggestions as well.
Brian recounts that sometimes crazy ideas actually work. Case in point; in 2011 he suggested taking a trip to a local junkyard to get an old shell of a car (without motor) to use on stage as part of a trailer park set of Messiah on the Frigidaire. It worked!
The set of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner uses an image of San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge that figures prominently in the background of the set. Brian refers to the play taking place in “a liminal space which is the time between the ‘what was’ and the ‘next. ‘ It is a place of transition, a season of waiting, and not knowing. It is where all transformation takes place, if we learn to wait and let it form us. In the case of the play, the family is at the threshold of new acceptances with respect to the civil rights movement and interracial relationships.”
Brian always looks forward to the lead up to opening night, but also feels a sense of letting go. He always says before the opening curtain: “It’s your show now, run with it!” At the end of it all once the final curtain drops, Brian feels tired but very happy that everyone did a great job. He says that he will miss all the people involved, those who have been part of his life for the past three months. He is not sure when he will see them again, but he hopes their paths will cross again, perhaps even working on another production together.
Brian knows that there are so many hands that work together to put on an OLT production. It is our OLT organization, the Season Planning Committee, the theatre company of everyone involved both in front of and behind the stage who give so much of their time and energy to ensure an enjoyable evening for our ticket holders. Brian sends his thanks and kudos to all involved in making Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner a memorable show.
albert
Albert and his muse, Mr. Pickles (photo by Maria Vartanova)