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On this episode, we hear an inspiring conversation about the power of plays and growing up in Edmonton’s scrappy theatre scene with Louise Casemore.
Louise is an award-winning playwright and self-described “Prairie Nuisance.” She is a dramaturg, and in 2021 she published a national study on new play development titled “Surveying the Landscape.”
Louise also has an interest in human resources. She is an artist advocate and consults with arts organizations around policy creation and organizational audits. Human resources in the performing arts is not only an area of focus for her, she is creatively inspired about the language and nuance we navigate in our working worlds. Her plays specialize in immersive and participatory storytelling to create transformative theatre experiences.
Louise was a recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund (EATF). The award recognizes an artist’s work and contribution to the community and provides financial stability to renew, develop, create or experiment. EATF is a joint project of the Edmonton Arts Council and Edmonton Community Foundation
Thanks to our correspondent, Theodora MacLeod, for bringing us this story.
Links:
Find out more about Louise Casemore’s Defiance Theatre.
Learn more about the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund (EATF).
Read Louise’s national study on new play development titled “Surveying the Landscape.”
Don’t miss Found Festival by Common Ground Arts.
Check that stat: In the interview Louise mentioned that Canada is among the lowest ranked countries in the world for whistle blower protection. Read the article from the National Post.
ECF Happenings:
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The Well Endowed Podcast is produced by Edmonton Community Foundation.
Image for this episode is by Jody Christopherson.
Transcripts by Karli Drew.
Transcript
[The Well Endowed Podcast theme music plays]
Andrew Paul [00:00:25] Hi everyone. Welcome to ECF’s The Well Endowed Podcast. I’m Andrew Paul—
Shereen Zink [00:00:29] And I’m...
Andrew [00:00:30] Edmonton is full of generous donors who have created endowment funds at Edmonton Community Foundation.
Shereen [00:00:34] These funds are carefully stewarded to generate money that supports charities in Edmonton and beyond.
Andrew [00:00:39] And on this podcast, we share those stories about how these funds help strengthen our community because… it’s good to be well endowed.
Shereen [00:00:46] Theatre fans, you are in for a treat. On this episode, we meet Louise Casemore. She’s an award-winning playwright and a self-described prairie nuisance.
Andrew [00:00:55] She’s also a dramaturg. For us more casual theatre folks, a dramaturge is someone who studies plays… their structure, their themes, language, and history… to help elevate the production of the play.
Shereen [00:01:06] In 2021, Louise published a national study on new play development titled “Surveying the Landscape.” Now as you build the image of Louise’s career in your mind, the next thing you think of may not be human resources, but that is exactly the landscape Louise is curious about.
Andrew [00:01:19] Louise is an artist advocate and consults with arts organizations around policy creation and organizational audits. Human resources in the performing arts is not only an area of focus for her, she is creatively inspired about the language and nuance we navigate in our working worlds. Her plays specialize in immersive and participatory storytelling to create transformative theatre experiences.
Shereen [00:01:41] Louise was also a recipient of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund, which is an award that recognizes an artist’s work and contribution to the community. The award helps provide financial stability to renew, develop, create, or experiment.
Andrew [00:01:52] Our correspondent Theodora MacLeod sat down with Louise to learn more about her career and what receiving the funding means for her.
[The Well Endowed Podcast jingle plays as segue]
So grab a cup of tea and cozy up for an inspiring conversation about the power of plays and growing up in Edmonton’s scrappy theatre scene.
Theodora MacLeod [00:02:08] First of all, congratulations on your Trust Fund award. We’ll just kinda start— maybe, if you can give me a little bit of a background on how you got into, uh, theatre and writing and what kind of keeps you there.
Louise Casemore [00:02:23] Sure. Uh. I was always a kid that was very, very interested in reading and writing. Uh. I was definitely that, sort of, off-putting child that at six-years-old declared, “I want to be Stephen King when I grow up.” Yeah, reading and writing has always been a big… a big passion of mine, certainly. Uh. And then that shifted into live performance and theatre when I was, you know, in junior high. I ran away with the… the performance art circus for a couple of years after high school. Uh. And then eventually found my way to Fort McMurray to the Keyano College visual performing arts program that existed up there in its sweet time. R.I.P. that program.
Uh. And… yeah! After I finished that in 2007, I moved back home to Edmonton and started my independent theatre company to finance theatre and have, sort of, just been off to the races ever since with that. Uh. Developing plays, putting on plays, and more than anything, trying to create enough of a platform to encourage the outstanding talent that exists in Edmonton, uh, with one more reason to stay here in this community. Um. After seeing so many, you know, colleagues and friends, you know, flee to larger centres or feeling like there was no place for them on our stages, my company was created, you know, at its… at its beginning stages as… as a reason to keep those folks who I adore[inaudible] in town and has since gone on to evolve and expand into trying to foster the development of new Canadian theatre and… and create a platform for my work and a little umbrella for that to sit in as well.
Theodora [00:04:02] Yeah! It’s always, uh, nice to have something to keep people in Edmonton when there’s a bit of temptation to go elsewhere. Um. What would you say makes Edmonton such a great theatre town?
Louise [00:04:13] Edmonton is an extraordinary theatre town. I think, uh… anybody who goes off to other centres and comes back, or people that come in from the outside, one of the defining characteristics to me is Edmonton’s scrappy DIY spirit. I think “scrappy” is the word that you’ll hear most often associated with Edmonton artists. Uh, and that speaks to the spirit of creation. It speaks to, uh, Edmonton artists, the community’s ability to collaborate and work together to just make work, to just make art. Uh. And of course, growing up with, you know, the second biggest theatre festival in the entire world nestled in our backyard, um, it creates a really interesting ecosystem for artists that in so many other cities, the prospect of producing a play is something that’s sort of reserved for, you know, the big kids or the folks with money or the folks that have, you know, an institutional education an-and things like that.
And with the Fringe in our community, those barriers are sort of, uh, washed away in an interesting way that, um, I think Edmonton is the personification of that maker spirit that tells people, “If you have an idea, just get it up there and try it.” And so, yeah, we learn by doing in Edmonton. We go through the trial and error of doing here, which I think makes for a very adventurous spirit.
Theodora [00:05:43] No, that’s very true. Having been in theatre when I was younger, I completely agree. So you’ve performed in various locations around the world. How does the experience, uh, of doing that differ from when you’re performing for a home crowd?
Louise [00:05:57] Oooh. That’s a great question. I think… one of the… one of the interesting things about going elsewhere and doing work in other communities is that you sort of have an opportunity to tell the world who you are. [laughs] You can stomp around in a new sandbox and… and… and sort of— sometimes even project a confidence that you maybe wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise. Kind of a fake it ‘til you make it sort of experience. Uh, but performing at home is, uh, just a really beautiful, supportive way to make, uh… to make art of growing. At the end of the day, there is a community of people here who have seen you grow from, you know, your awkward sort of angsty teen years of early creation into some semblance of artistic adulthood. Um. It’s… it’s a tremendous honour and a privilege to have people that have sort of watched your evolution.
[00:06:53] And because of that, you wanna— you wanna— um, you wanna do well by them. You wanna keep… keep taking risks and keep putting things out there that-that shows an evolution and shows-shows a dedication, uh, and a sense of gratitude to the folks that have stuck with you over the years as you’ve gone from… yeah. Fledgling pieces. You know, failing big in those, you know— I wasn’t gonna— I was gonna say early years, but a dedication to failing big, I think, is a lifelong pursuit. But, um— Yeah, yeah. I think performing at home comes with a simultaneous, like, soft place to land with those beautiful failures, but also the encouragement to keep pushing and trying to evolve.
Theodora [00:07:32] Yeah, no. That makes sense. I think if you’re gonna do art, you gotta… swing and be willing to miss gloriously or what’s the point in doing it? [laughs]
Louise [00:07:42] Yeah, definitely. [laughs]
Theodora [00:07:43] Um. So… as for, like, specifics on specific things that you’ve written, can you tell me a little bit about, um, Blow Your House Down and Put Your Lips Together?
Louise [00:07:53] Sure. Uh, yeah! These… these sassy little companion pieces. Uh. It’s my first experience, actually, with having two plays that are being created somewhat simultaneously that aren’t necessarily connected to each other in their execution. Um. The way I sort of think of it is that these are two plays that exist in the same world, um, but, you know, none of the characters necessarily overlap and stylistically they’re quite different, but they’re both examining the world from a lens of, you know, a contemporary moment in a way that has a genre attached to them. Uh, so Blow Your House Down is a— sort of my… [laughs] my large attempt at almost a quintessential kind of a dinner party drama. Like, it’s a very almost American-feeling play to me that is something stylistically I’ve come to describe as Succession meets The Office. Um. Because we’re looking at the… the sort of linguistic phenomenon of shock-talk, and what it is for colleagues to spend social time together and what it’s for coworkers to try and navigate incidents of harm and scandal, and the ways that we talk when we can’t necessarily speak as freely as we would want to.
[00:09:14] Uh, so Blow Your House Down is, yeah, a big 8-person extravaganza that’s looking at a group of real estate heavy hitters whose award show has been canceled because of a scandal, you know, with the big wigs. And over the course of a dinner party, we see them try to navigate, you know, the burning curiosities of trying to get down to what’s going on and everybody wanting to talk about it, but not necessarily being able to. Uh, and that’s— Yeah! That’s… that’s a way of sort of unpacking some of my curiosities and my sensations of what it is to see lateral impact of harm. So, you know, to use a terrible metaphor— I’m not terribly interested in Harvey Weinstein. I don’t think that’s a story I’d wanna tell, but what’s curious to me is not Harvey, but, you know, maybe the… the agent who just signed a three-picture deal when that empire fell.
[00:10:10] People who have a reason to be inconvenienced by harm, that’s very interesting to me. It’s a… it’s a sticky mess in that sort of universe of what it is to see professionals navigate, uh… navigate incidents of harm. Uh. And so, that sits as sort of a counterpoint to Put Your Lips Together, um, which is a style that I have absolutely made up of my own accord that I’m calling, uh, a neon-noir. So… looking at a contemporary story of four women who are strangers who meet following a candlelit vigil for a woman who has been killed by a coworker, uh, based on th-the very tragic real-life murder of Molly McLaren. Uh… so I’m imagining four women who, you know, are attempting to unpack this vigil experience in a coffee shop who meet, um, start a conversation and through the natural sort of unfolding camaraderie of, uh… of-of women— [laughs] women in diners having coffee, um, develop a bit of a kinship and resolve to continue meeting at this diner once a month.
[00:11:20] Uh. And so, the story that unfolds inside of that is-is these women who are all from very, very different backgrounds economically, professionally, life circumstances, uh, but what are the unifying aspects? Uh, what are the… the camaraderie aspects that unite women? And in this case, it so happens that each of these four women are encountering, uh, toxic and abusive workplace behaviour. So, the question behind Put Your Lips Together in almost a [laughs] sort of Disgraced meets Strangers On A Train kind of way is looking at this idea of “Could four strangers work together to blow the whistle on each other’s toxic workplace?” Uh, looking at the phenomenon, particularly of female whistleblowers and the interesting history that exists around that topic. Um. And all of that was— actually began, uh, when I was at the Banff Centre in a residency and came across this statistic that at that point in 2020, Canada was ranked last in the world when it comes to whistleblower protection… um, which is a fairly astonishing statistic, uh, that I immediately wanted to investigate and… and dig a little bit deeper into the notion of Canadian identity and how we treat whistleblowers, particularly women.
Theodora [00:12:41] Wow. That is incredibly, uh, poignant and timely, especially, you know, being a journalist and seeing the ongoing impacts that seem to kinda ripple out. And tha-that’s really interesting, too, that both of them kinda focus on that extended ripple effect of… violence against women or harm towards women. [Louise: Mhmm.] Um. Are those shows, uh, being staged soon?
Louise [00:13:06] Oh, the journey continues. [laughter from Louise and Theodora] Uh. Um. For these— Both of these plays represent a— sort of a levelling up of process for me. My experience as a playwright has largely been about creating plays, particularly for myself to perform. Uh. I expanded that out with a-a play that I wrote for Vern Thiessen and I, uh, a couple of years back called Gemini. Um, but, you know, Blow Your House Down is a cast of eight, Put Your Lips Together is a cast of four, but with a highly ambitious, you know, approach to design. Um, and these are my first… my first experiences with plays that are created explicitly for me not to be in. Um. And so, I’m… I’m enjoying the process of… of taking a staggered approach to development. Um. Looking at drafts, looking at the tool of workshops and deepening my relationship with workshops, um, so that, um— I feel like once your experiments hit a certain size, you wanna take some of that learning and-and-and stagger it out over time rather than putting the whole thing in front of an audience of 200 people blinking at you and go, “Oops! That ending doesn’t quite work.” Or, “Whoops! That… having the marching band come in in the second act doesn’t quite work.”
[00:14:22] But… [Theodora laughs] um, so I’m taking my time. I’m taking my sweet time. Uh. I think the experience of the pandemic has made me become… a lot more conscious about the who and the where that I’m creating in. Um. The spaces that I’m creating my work in, the companies that I’m, you know, not just doing business with, but engaging with artistically. You know, who those people are and what those companies are means something very different to me now in 2023 than they maybe did at earlier stages in my career. So I’m patient because of that. I want to find the right partners and the right people who… who can meaningfully support the work and especially, you know, given the subject matter, too. Like, it matters to me who we do this with and so… uh, I’m taking my time and building resources an-and letting the writing sort of happen in its own way.
Theodora [00:15:19] Absolutely. That’s… that’s wonderful. It, uh… deserves the space to breathe, I always think. When I put my own work down, I’m like, “It deserves time to settle.”
So you’ve written a number of solo shows and both of the shows mentioned above have, like, fairly decently large casts. I mean, eight and four is, you know, not-not a solo show, for sure. Um, how does your approach to writing change when you’re preparing to write for multiple actors and for such a large cast?
Louise [00:15:50] Yeah, I think it’s made me a better writer, to be honest. I think once you’re, you know— once you evolve from creating… you know, basically just a performance plan for yourself. I mean, some of my early scripts ar-are more or less a set of sticky notes reminding me to breathe every now and again or make a joke if that guy doesn’t pay attention talking or et cetera, et cetera. So, I think the experience of-of expanding the character list and handing the work over for actors and directors to interpret, um, yeah, makes you… makes you more conscious, makes you a bit more specific. Um. I-I love crafting dialogue, which is, you know… softly ironic considering I spent, you know, my first few plays avoiding it so aggressively by creating solo shows. But to me, theatre is always about an active relationship between performance and audience. And so, I’m always curious about how we can integrate audience into the conversation and into the experience.
[00:16:54] Uh. And so, yeah. Creating… creating larger cast shows and creating these more dialogue-based shows, I think it’s just such a great creative exercise because, particularly with a play like Blow Your House Down with eight people, you know, to keep it from being an exposition, you know, factory… you want to make sure that your conversational dialogue is, you know, considering the audience who’s desperately trying to learn the play in real time as quickly as possible. Uh, and I love that challenge. I love the economy of language and going, “How can we teach the rules of the play, the rules of this world, tell people who they are in as few words as possible?” is-is one of my favourite puzzles to untangle.
Theodora [00:17:38] “Economy of language.” I really like that. I really like that. [laughs] Um. Uh. You mentioned, uh, interaction— like, audience interactions. Is there anything specific that you can elaborate on with regards to that?
Louise [00:17:51] Absolutely, yeah! A few of my works in particular are… things that would be considered more in the scale of immersive theatre rather than a traditional sort of [inaudible] piece. Um, I say this as I’m, you know, mere six days away from my MFA thesis defence, um, in immersive theatre specifically. Uh. And so, the play that I actually created as my thesis play is a fully participatory experience for myself and just eight other audience members at a time. Uh, it takes the framework of a fully realized Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. So, a circle of chairs. We’ve got coffee and cookies on the side. The play takes place in a church or a space that would host AA meetings. Uh, and there’s actually three different outcomes in the play. There’s three different endings. And which ending happens depends very specifically on… on things that the audience offers, things that the participants offer that determine actually where we end up at the end of the experience.
Um. So this notion of audience offerings and participating and wanting to make them a critical heartbeat of the experience is something I’m very, very passionate about. Uh. And so, you’ll find that in a— uh, in a few of my plays that contributions from the audience, whether it’s active or, you know, spoken are… are things that I think are a big part of what I relish about the liveness of theatre. To me, the idea that this show cannot happen if you’re not sitting here is something that I find really beautiful, really meaningful.
Theodora [00:19:26] That is really beautiful. How did you go about coming up with that idea? Like, that’s an element of improv that you don’t traditionally see in something that is scripted. Is there… is there a specific place where that came from or something that has inspired that… immersiveness? [laughs]
Louise [00:19:43] Yeah, I think— I grew up as a person without high economic means. I didn’t see my first play at the Citadel until I was 30 years old because it wasn’t an option to me as I was growing up very passionate about theatre. Um, but I just didn’t have— I didn’t have the funds that allowed me to be able to grow up with, you know, viewing plays the way that some of my colleagues have. And so, because of that, this notion of performance art or art that happens, you know, in the alleys, in the ravines, in the bars, not in the boardrooms, uh, was sort of how I developed my artistic, I guess, value system. And so, that is a type of performance that dismantles this wall between the audience and the performance because if you can’t afford to do a play in a theatre, you [laughs] do it in the streets, you do it in a van, you do it anywhere you can.
[00:20:39] And because of that, we’re eliminating that distance between artist and audience. So that’s something that’s always been a big piece of what I’ve been doing. And then I’ve gone on to be inspired by… by artists around the world that are doing this type of work at such a spectacularly high level. Uh. I’ve been very fortunate to… to work and train in New York with a company called Third Rail Projects, um, who have a show that ran for a number of years in Brooklyn, uh, called Then She Fell, which is a highly immersive and environmental experience in a decommissioned mental hospital in Brooklyn, looking at Louis Carroll and the development of Alice in Wonderland through this beautifully interactive lens. So inside that experience, you know, you’re checking in, you’re checking your phone into a locker, you’re sort of, you know, guided through this… uh, this theatre experience. But yes, there’s storytelling, there’s movement, and there’s all the traditional aspects of theatre, but you’re also, you know, painting. Like, you’re picking up a paintbrush and you’re painting roses with that white rabbit. You’re sitting down at a tea party as teacups are getting smashed at your feet and you’re trying to keep up with choreography and, you know, you are part of that experience.
[00:21:53] And… you know, those moments were just such unforgettable turning points in my artistic, you know, development. And so, I have aspired, you know, to try and sprinkle a little bit of that into everything that I’m doing to spread the gospel, so to speak, of participatory theatre, uh, in trying to dismantle some of the stigma around the idea. It’s— You know, you say immersive theatre to some people, and they go, “Oh yeah, I went to a show one time and a… a guy stood me up and humiliated me and I felt stupid and I never wanted to go to something like that again.” There are people who will run for the exits as soon as you mention participation. Um, but I-I guess there’s a piece of me that takes that— takes that cause on and says, “There’s actually a highly transformative quality when it comes to honouring the audiences and making them a vital piece of that puzzle.” Um. Because yeah. I… I don’t wanna just watch TV in a theatre. I wanna feel like I’m… I’m there and we’re all part of something together. And so, that liveness is-is participation and immersive— and immersion and all that fun stuff. [laughs]
Theodora [00:22:59] What does Edmonton seem like for immersive theatre? Uh. It’s not something you hear about a lot, uh, just as someone outside the community. [laughs]
Louise [00:23:07] Totally. Um. Edmonton has a wonderful history of support when it comes to immersive and… and, you know, non-traditional venue performance. Um. The fact that Edmonton actually has a whole festival sort of dedicated to it, uh, Found Fest through Common Ground Arts Society in Edmonton happens each summer. And it is a festival full of all of these different alternative types of performance that, um, centre experience and centre audience. And, uh, so Edmonton actually sits in a really great position, uh, in the national ecology when it comes to… support for alternative types of performance. Um, and again, too, I think, like, always tying back to that big juggernaut, the Fringe, like, we’ve got great, great opportunities there to sort of shake things up with format and form. And-and so, any playground to experiment in is gonna foster immersive work. We are gonna be tucked in those corners, hiding under beds, you know, anywhere we can be. And Edmonton is a fantastic place for that. [laughs]
Theodora [00:24:09] That’s awesome. That’s exciting to hear. Well, I’ll definitely have to check out Found Fest. But what keeps you coming back to Edmonton?
Louise [00:24:16] So what— what is it, Edmonton? Edmonton just keeps calling me. Um, no. I think… I think it means— Like, it means a lot to me to participate in the community that raised me. It means a lot to be a contributing member of that community. I think it’s too easy when we look at, you know, artistic… you know, communities to become both cynical and complacent, to sit around an-and want the world to deliver to us all of the things that are explicitly our interests as easily as possible. Uh. And it-it does. It means something to me to, you know, contribute to something that-that I was so enamoured with when I was growing up and-and wanting to be part of that— part of that world. And also, you know, forge new space for artists who are developing to have, you know, a different experience or a better experience, um, than I had. Which, you know, in the early 2000s was a lot of closed doors. There wasn’t a lot of opportunities. It was truly, like… you-you had a couple of years, maybe, after finishing your theatre school program to muck about with-with indie producing. But then either, you know, the demands of a salary or bigger aspirations artistically was sort of the end of the puzzle.
[00:25:32] So now to be here as a… as a professional artist and contributing to that and getting to see the remarkable work that developing artists are creating here, I’m just— I’m excited to sit on the sidelines and watch what they do. And every now and again, when the opportunity presents, toss a little something of my own in there as well. It’s just a wonderful ecosystem to splash around in.
Theodora [00:25:53] I like the concept of it being an ecosystem a lot… ‘cause there are a lot of players at play in Edmonton. There’s a lot of moving parts.
Louise [00:26:01] Absolutely.
Theodora [00:26:02] I know you’ve been working on your thesis, which congratulations, that is remarkable. Is there anything you’d like to plug or shoutout that, uh, you have upcoming?
Louise [00:26:13] Sure! Hmm. I mean, for me— for me, at the end of my MFA experience, I’m just so excited to… to have the time and space to deal with this backlog of plays that are sitting in my brain. Um, so in a lot of ways you’ll see me— you’ll see me sort of poking my head up every now and again to offer little tastes, little samplings, little tests of concept for these projects that I’m-I’m working on and developing. I have high hopes that we’ll be able to take the momentum of Blow Your House Down’s reading at Collider with the Citadel, uh, and see it take some meaningful steps forward for that big— for that big guy. And, um… and yeah! Other than that, I just really look forward to being a member of audiences inside of these incredible— Like, Edmonton is just exploding with theatre right now and it’s— I’m really excited now to have a bit more of the time real estate available, uh, to go and see some of the incredible work that’s happening and developing in the city right now.
Theodora [00:27:13] That is exciting. I completely understand. I’m about to graduate as well and— [Louise: Yeah!] I can’t wait to be part of the world again. Um—
Louise [00:27:20] [laughs] Exactly, exactly. A member of society once again.
Theodora [00:27:24] Yeah, right. I might have to dress like an adult, but gosh darn. I can’t wait to be fully functional. [laughs]
Louise [00:27:30] Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Theodora [00:27:31] Um. I guess one last question. Uh. Do you have any plans for the Trust Fund?
Louise [00:27:37] Yes, yes. So… one of the things that the Trust Fund award allows is an opportunity for me to take stock. And… and I don’t mean that in a philosophical way. I mean that actually in a very practical way. Um. So the Trust Fund is going to allow me a bit of space after finishing my thesis to sit down and actually create an inventory of projects. Create an inventory of the ideas of the little threads you start to pull and then life gets in the way of going, “What is the roster of plays and projects and ideas that are in front of me right now?” ‘Cause I’ve got research, you know, studies, I’ve got plays in development, I wanna… learn how to braid my hair. Like, all these sorts of things, um, tha-that nourish you and your total experience as an artist. Um. The opportunity to actually sit and write these things down and take a look at the total picture and go— you know, if an artist’s life is looking at a stove with all the burners at different levels and going, “Okay, so this one’s on tour and this one’s just a seed of an idea still, and this one’s a mess and I’ve gotta fix it.”
[00:28:50] Uh, the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund will give me the time and the ability to look at all of the things that I have on-the-go to source out some collaborators or things to put those next steps in motion, uh, and take-take sto-stock of the total picture and say, “Alright. Okay, kid. Where do we go from here? Where do we wanna go? Who do we wanna talk to and what’s life look like next?” And that is truly, like, a [laughs] once in a lifetime luxury to be able to… to take stock of things and not just be surviving my artistic life, but actually thriving inside of it.
Theodora [00:29:25] That’s really exciting. That— And that is a— that is a rare thing for an artist, so it’s what we like to hear. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really enjoyed talking to you and I… really wanna go watch some theatre and write some plays now. [laughs] [Louise: Yeah! Yes.] Little bit inspired.
[The Well Endowed Podcast music plays in background of outro]
Louise [00:29:44] I mean, Edmonton’s great place to do that. Yeah. And do keep your eyes out for Found Fest. It should be coming up. I— It’s either June or July, um, but there’ll be, you know— they always have really exciting, exciting work happening there and great spaces for, you know— to just sit down and have a cider and talk to people. And that’s… that’s what I love.
Shereen [00:30:02] Thank you to Theodora MacLeod for bringing us this story and to Louise Casemore for sharing her time with us.
Andrew [00:30:10] Listeners, be sure to check out our show notes for links to learn more about Louise’s work and to read her study on new play development called Surveying the Landscape.
Shereen [00:30:18] We’ll also have more information on the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund, and you’ll also find a link to Found Festival by Common Ground Arts. This year’s festival runs from July 6th to 9th.
Andrew [00:30:26] As always, you can also find links to ECF’s grants and student awards and find the latest on our blog for even more great community stories.
Shereen [00:30:34] Well, that brings us to the end of the show. Thanks for sharing your time with us.
Andrew [00:30:37] Yes, thank you! If you enjoyed it, please share it with all the creative storytellers in your world.
Shereen [00:30:42] And if you have time, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It’s a great way to support our show.
Andrew [00:30:47] And come say hi to us on Facebook. You can see some pictures from the show, and we’d love to hear what you think.
Shereen [00:30:51] Thanks again for tuning in. We’ve been your hosts, Shereen Zink—
Andrew [00:30:54] And Andrew Paul.
Shereen and Andrew [00:30:55] Until next time!
Andrew [00:30:58] The Well Endowed Podcast is produced by Edmonton Community Foundation—
Lisa Pruden [00:31:03] And is an affiliate member of the Alberta Podcast Network.
Andrew [00:31:06] This episode was edited by Lisa Pruden.
Lisa [00:31:07] You can visit our website at TheWellEndowedPodcast.com.
Andrew [00:31:11] Subscribe to us on iTunes—
Lisa [00:31:13] And follow us on Twitter at @theECF.
Andrew [00:31:15] Our theme music is by Octavo Productions.
Lisa [00:31:18] And as always, don’t forget to visit Edmonton Community Foundation at ecfoundation.org.
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