Update from the front / MTYP Board Chair interview

In CreComm land, the four nations (Public Relations, Advertising, Journalism and Media Production) are hustling toward major project presentations at the Winnipeg Convention Centre this coming week. You're very welcome to attend and see some absolutely outstanding work from up-and-coming communicators — from tea parties that raised $30K for eating disorders to documentaries on beer league hockey to silly little radio shows.

The public relations and advertising majors just finished their alchemical experiments, combining their two disciplines to produce three dynamite integrated marketing campaigns for FriendMatch, a platonic friendship-making site. Thanks to my teammates — particularly Jaclyn Leskiw, for being the perfect team co-leader. Employers take note, she's an advertising triptych (knows what to say, who to say it to and why she's saying it).

Here's a wee taste of FriendMatch: The World is Friendlier than you Think.



While cobbling together these campaigns, the public relations majors have also been practicing hostile/aggressive media interviews (with Melanie Lee Lockhart bringin' the heat).

My friends in journalism grumble every now and then about "being handled" by PR people — getting explanations and redirections instead of juicy, controversial remarks. The flip side is, of course, aggressive, sensationalism-seeking journalists who've only had five minutes prep to grapple with complex, long-standing and often confidential issues.

As a freelance arts writer and a public relations major, I have a foot in both camps, so it's a fun discussion. Especially when worlds collide and a beloved member of my theatre community is "released" from the theatre she founded 30 years ago.

Here's the CBC Information Radio interview with Manitoba Theatre for Young People's Board Chair Gloria Koop after Artistic Director Leslee Silverman's contract was not renewed amid ongoing financial struggles.




Let's agree this isn't really a hostile interview. (Not like some of the take-no-prisoners flayings you can find online.) The questions are reasonable, the tone is polite. Marcy Markusa asks the questions Ms. Koop's audiences and key stakeholders must be asking.

Remembering there is a legal obligation to maintain confidentiality on some issues (and pretend you're neutral... which is hard...), you decide if the interview went well.

I'll see you in media training.

How to do an interview

Over the past two weeks I sat down for beverages/nosh with three titans of Winnipeg interviews: Joff Schmidt (CBC Manitoba theatre reviewer and associate producer for Definitely Not The Opera), Joanne Kelly (CTV and Shaw TV anchor, Journalism instructor at Red River College) and Drew Kozub (Breakfast Television). I sought these gurus out, climbing the proverbial mountain (actually, just sending emails) because while I've cottoned on to the basics of interviewing (ask question, record answer), it is an art I'd like to get better at.

A few hours of conversation amounted to a masterclass in interviewing. I'm struggling to absorb the wisdom imparted and work it into my radio show Heartbeat. It'll take some time to reflexively adopt their tips, of course. But I'd like to think I've taken some big steps forward lately, versus my usual shuffle.

And what tips did they have? Well, because I like you, here's a few pointers from the pros...

Joff Schmidt

• Ask the question you most want answered first. Too often interviewers ask a few soft question before getting into the actual meat of the conversation. Do your audience a favour by grabbing them with the most interesting lead question possible. Less filler, more killer.
• If you give your interview an intro, don't lean too heavily on stats. (She won this award, he's been published in all these books, etc.) Choose only the most important accomplishments and use the rest of your time to tell their life story - what matters to them, what messed them up, what they want.
• "What did you take away from that situation," is a cheap question. And the answers it gets are usually golden. Use it.

Joanne Kelly

• Get your guest to tell stories from their lives. Don't ask broad questions or wander into esoteric fields of pontificating boredom. Ask your interview to tell a story. Then use that story as a springboard to explore who your guest is. ("So that incident is when you learned to never lie..." "And that's why you followed your father's footsteps..."). Imagine starting on a tight focus with intimate detail (the story) then drawing back to a wide focus (the subject's life and world).
• Pre-interview your guests during the five minutes of microphone checks, lighting adjustment or walking into the studio. Those brief moments are your chance to find golden stories to fill your interview.
• Use physical cues when interrupt people. It's a great way to show you're engaged while nudging your guest to wrap up their thought.
• Bring the audience listening/watching at home into the conversation by talking about them ("People at home can appreciate how awkward that must have been." "I know that those listening want to know - because I want to know - how..."). Make the interview a three-way conversation.

Drew Kozub

• Don't talk about yourself. People don't care about what you think - they care about your guest (hopefully) or how your guest's story impacts their lives.
• Cover what you can in the time you have. If you're doing a brief hit, you can't do a ten minute interview; you have 90 seconds before you throw it back to weather. Keep your eye on the clock.
• Make sure your guest knows about the clock too. During your pre-interview ask, "What's the most important message you need to get across?" Focus on that.

A Creativity Wrangler

Meet Maeghan Heinrichs, a Winnipeg creative light. Dayna Robbie, Priya Tandon and I filmed this quick interview with her (and the Vantage Team in action).

And listen with care to her parting wisdom - do what you enjoy. It's a simple suggestion, but what a difference it makes when you start living it.

Thanks Maeghan!

Heartbeating

Have you ever found that life has sped up to point of detachment? That when you think about your day, your week, the past month, not only does it seem like events happened a lifetime ago, but they happened to someone else?

I'm in that season right now, it seems. And I'm deeply grateful I chose the independent professional project (IPP) for college that I did, because nothing pulls me out of the blurring race of life like a great conversation. You know the kind; the ones that slow time down as you openly, honestly connect with another person; the ones that set off thoughts in your head to the tune of "Oh my god, here is this intelligent, funny, beautiful human being who is trying to answer the big questions, just like me."

As much work as my radio show/podcast Heartbeat is (and will be), I wouldn't trade the conversations I've had for anything. They've been an anchor in a stormy three months.

I could ask you to head on over to Heartbeat's website, Twitter and Facebook to see what I'm up to (the first episode is now podcasting).

But before you do that, grab someone (a friend, an acquaintance, someone you barely know), clear an hour of your time and have an open, honest, emotionally available conversation. Tell them something you've never told anyone and ask questions that leap over barriers of polite manners and awkwardness.

Trust me - it's worth it.

Exploring the Music Spectrum

This fall I'm starting up my Winnipeg-arts-focused radio show Heartbeat. It's going to require me to interview local musicians (among others) which is something I don't feel entirely comfortable doing. I'm not a very 'musical' person (tunes carried but bucket required) and my hope for Heartbeat is to approach interviews from a place of knowledge. And not cheese off local musicians (I hear drummers are trouble... or is that just when you're dating them?).

I'm reading music reviews and interviews this summer as prep, but I'm also open to advice. Do you have any tips, suggestions, pet peeves or sacred cows when it comes to music interviews? Or useful graphic aids, like the one below?

Three Actors Walk Into A Bar...

Ross McMillan and Sarah Constible in Steve Ratzlaff's Dionysus in Stony Mountain (photo credit Leif Norman)

Ross McMillan and Sarah Constible are two mainstays of the Winnipeg theatre scene. They’re being directed by Bill Kerr in Theatre Projects Manitoba’s upcoming production of 'Dionysus in Stony Mountain’ by Steve Ratzlaff. I caught up with them (on behalf of The Uniter) having a break at Elephant and Castle between rehearsals.

SC:       Is it recording right now (leans in to Android) Hellloooooo?

BK:      Do you know the British hen party tradition? It’s like a stagette… what they do, Ryan Air flights are so cheap that they spend like $150 to get to Dublin and they spend 48 hours getting tricked there. So you see these mobs of drunken women throwing up and yelling and fighting. And it’s another weekend in Dublin.

SC:       Oh my god. I’ve got to go to this place called Ireland.

SC:       We were doing a line run the other day and there was an old Winnipeg Sun sitting there and I started flipping through it and there were two articles within two pages of each other about different offenders from Stony... It seems like the Winnipeg Sun is filled with all these sensationalist stories and I think the play we’re working on, a lot of it goes ‘Why is this the society we’ve decided to embrace?’

MT:     Does anyone here have experience with the justice system?

RM:     No!

SC:      Twenty years. Twenty years, yep. Killed that kid.

BK:      My foster brother has been incarcerated a number of times, though not here in Manitoba. So I’m fairly familiar with the failure of the justice system as a place that 'certainly didn’t rehabilitate him' let’s put it that way… it’s hardly a place of reform, yet somehow it’s claimed to be.

SC:       And Steve’s not only touching on the justice system, he was a teacher in the regular education system too.

RM:     I asked Steve what he was doing with this play, after seeing its earliest draft. And he said ‘Well, I just want to take some Nietzsche and shove it in the faces of the middle class just to see. Just to go ‘how do you like that?’’ If you take the quite persuasive argument of one of the main characters in the play, it really recommends that you don’t take the weak members of society and revere them as victims. The implication left hanging in the play is that you let them die… I think he wants to provoke a discussion. That’s quite a piece of provoking, I’d say.

BK:      We can get caught up in the sense that nothing ever gets better. But there has actually been real change. Whatever -ism you care to look at, like post colonialism – we were just talking about Ireland – yeah, a lot of the problems are replicated but there is a country there and there wasn’t before. Partitioned, but certain things have improved.

SC:       I can now marry a black man…

BK:      Yes, you can! Exactly. So there’s always a ying and yang, but there is genuine change.

RM:     Yes, true. But look at the States. Look at all the social advances that started in the 60s: feminism and the civil rights movement. A lot of people on the Right are now talking very openly about taking these away, about rolling these back. These changes aren’t necessarily permanent. And the British could invade Ireland again.

SC:       Well the only reason they have a platform is because of the Internet. Now we have this democratization of communication - that’s the only reason these nutjobs are getting a chance to say their point of view.

RM:     Not necessarily. Look at the Republican nomination race. These nutjobs are mainstream now.

SC:       What? You’re saying Santorum is a nutjob? What is your problem?

RM:     He’s a fine man… He’s a good-looking man. He gives me the horn.

BK:      (laughing) There’s the quote right there.

RM:     And he’s doing it on purpose!

RM:     One of the most forcefully put point of views in Dionysus in Stony Mountain is not just critical of boot licking liberalism, but scornful of it. And not just scornful of it, but pointing an accusatory finger of it being the sentiment that is sickening our society. And that’s what he’s presenting to an audience and asking them to consider.  That’s definitely not preaching to the choir.

SC:       He’s going to offend everybody-

BK:      You mean intrigue!

SC:       Intrigue - that’s the word.

BK:      It asks real questions.

RM:     And underneath all that, there’s grief. There’s real grief that comes as a surprise. As perhaps it always does. That after all the blaming and guilt and anger, sometimes what you find underneath that is grief. Beyond which there’s not much to say… sometimes when you let people give vent to what appears to be their most deeply held grievances and beliefs - when they finally get it all out - underneath it is something as simple as grief that can suddenly transfigure a person and make everything they’ve been saying, not irrelevant…

SC:       Enhanced?

RM:     Enhanced, yes. But you can suddenly see that underneath all the arguments and moral haggling, sometimes what really needs to be recognized is simple pain. And real pain can’t be dealt with institutionally; it can only dealt with between two people. And if you ever experience that, you’re lucky.

Dionysus in Stony Mountain runs March 29 to April 8 - details and tickets here.

Chatting with Romeo and Juliet

Pam Patel and Marc Bendavid are performing as Romeo and Juliet for the >Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Artistic Director Steven Schipper has chosen to set the play in modern Jerusalem, with the Montagues as Jews, the Capulets as Muslims and the friars, Mercutio and Prince as Christians.

How are rehearsals going?

Marc   It feels right for the two weeks it’s been. The play is starting to take shape. We have lots of work to do but time to do it in.

Pam     The blocking is fluid. It has room to develop, even during the run and I appreciate that. I’m sure everyone does.

How does it feel playing these celebrated roles?

Marc   It doesn’t serve to think of it that way. I haven’t felt like I’m conjuring some ancient actor’s spirit. I try to approach the text thinking about how they would be my words and not think about their history.

Pam     I’m not thinking about other Juliets, although I sometimes use them for reference. Primarily I’m trying to connect with Juliet personally, find what it is in myself that makes me her and be genuine on stage.

How do you connect with your character?

Pam     It didn’t feel I was getting her until we got up on our feet and were blocking the scenes, interacting with other characters. My realizations came based on the way that she moves in the space and the relationships with other characters. Now that I have that, I’m just starting to feel her in my body.

Marc   For me it’s all about the text – the relationships that he has are all in there. They’re in the metre, they’re in the character’s lines. I look for a way that I would say the things that he says and do the things he does – find different meanings for a word, ask someone with more experience for advice. It has to do with my relationship with the text. If there are real mysteries I try to bring in my life to the work and make it as personal as possible, but the basic understanding is in the text.

Do you find the story hopeful?

Marc   As a story it has an enormous amount of hope - I don’t think it necessarily ends on a hopeful note. It’s a director’s choice; there is room for a director to shape the end. Prior to this rehearsal, I would have thought it was a play full of joy that ends terribly. This director has chosen to end hopefully, that’s how the play makes sense to him.

Pam     When I’m in it, I’m not thinking “the audience needs to feel this or that.” This is me being as true to the character as I can be – this is me telling a story. The individual watching it – they’ll feel whatever they feel. I’m not hoping they’ll walk away with this or that, I hope it triggers something, that we are able to trigger some reaction in them. If I was an audience member, I’d think there was a great amount of hope and a great amount of pain.

How has doing this play affected you?

Marc   I never have any idea where I am, what I’m doing, where to be, when to be there. I’ve become some muttering, insane person… which hopefully will go away.

Pam     This experience is a bit wild for me. I never thought I would be doing a Shakespeare play. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate language before, but now – I appreciate so much of the language that I use. It’s something I hope I can bring to my other work.

Marc   I had a teacher at National Theatre School; when he directed our second year Shakespeare play, he became this confused, bumbling, disjointed man. We loved making fun of his befuddlement. Now his behaviour makes perfect sense.

Has the concept (setting the play in Jerusalem) influenced your choices?

Marc   Not really. It’s a basic premise. The themes are there and they happen to fit with a particular part of the world, but they could fit with many places, Rwanda -

Pam     Or here.

Marc   It affords us details, but it doesn’t do anything other than slightly contextualize it for people who might think it’s not a pressing or important play.

Pam     What’s amazing to watch in this process is how these different bodies – with varying backgrounds, ethnicities and histories – how they come into the space and inform one another. It shows that we hold history in our bodies. It’s what I love about this casting – these bodies coming together and informing each other. I think you can see that we bring our own languages, cultures and histories to the stage

Romeo and Juliet runs November 24 through December 17 at RMTC.