Joy Coghill on Culture, the 50th anniversary of the NTS, and Chicago (Part 1 of 9)
Joy Coghill on the value of culture, the 50th birthday of National Theatre School, and training in Chicago.
R.H. Thomson and Joy Coghill begin their discussion with the question of whether the passion of performance is a drug or a calling. Coghill believes that it is an essential calling and that the state of the performing arts is inevitably reflective of the state of society.
Coghill describes how the attitude towards the performing arts differs across cities. Vancouver is a tough region in which to produce because people travel to British Columbia for the natural environment and sports. You must talk them into attending the theatre. In sharp contrast, the people of Winnipeg cherish their arts and in Quebec the arts are so highly valued the 50th anniversary of the National Theatre School attracted the Premiere of Quebec and the Mayor of Montreal as speakers.
Coghill’s mentor at UBC, Dorothy Somerset, taught her about the value of theatre and how one must fight for it. For her graduate studies, Joy joined The Art Institute of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, but after two weeks she realized that she did not want to be like any of her instructors. Fortunately, on the day she intended to quit, Coghill spotted Charlotte Chorpenning who was surrounded by joy, dancing, and singing. Coghill discovered that Chorpenning specialized in children’s theatre and became her assistant.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.
Joy Coghill on US and Canada, New York, and the 1967 Centennial (Part 2 of 9)
Joy Coghill on the US and Canada, New York, and the 1967 Centennial celebrations.
Joy Coghill reminisces on her time in Chicago during the McCarthy era. When she was a student, the trend was to reject New York and LA in favor of reaching the rest of the country through regional theatre. This changed in 1952 when Geraldine Page launched into stardom after performing in Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke at the Circle in the Square Theater. Everyone returned to New York, which never appealed to Joy. She had the feeling that there was a lack of community and no one really saw each other. One was either lonely at the top or poor and miserable at the bottom. In Canada you could create theatre for yourself. Thomson marvels that he had the same feelings about New York in the 1970s.
Thomson and Coghill discuss when Canadian theatre came into its own. Coghill posits that between 1948 -1967 is when it all happened; we decided to be professionals. In 1967 the Trudeau government needed Canadian content for the opening of the National Arts Centre. They gave out $1000 subsidies for the creation of Canadian works. It was the chance Malcom Black, then Artistic Director of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, needed to commission and produce new Canadian plays.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.
Joy Coghill on the National Theatre School and teaching acting (Part 3 of 9)
Joy Coghill on the National Theatre School and teaching acting.
Thomson and Coghill recall when she was his teacher at the National Theatre School and a class in which the students each had to present a monologue from a Greek tragedy. For Coghill, it was a way to make the students focus on simply being in the moment to tell a story to anther human being.
According to Joy, you cannot teach acting but can only give practice. The formula she used was taught to her by Dorothy Somerset and consisted of two primary questions: “What am I doing?” and “Why am I doing it?” It is about demanding truth. Coghill suggests an exercise to ensure you have the truth by stripping away performative vocalism and delivering your text at a whisper.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C.
Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.
Joy Coghill on The Ecstasy of Rita Jo, Frances Hyland, and the Vancouver Playhouse (Part 4 of 9)
Joy Coghill on the Ecstasy of Rita Jo, Frances Hyland, and the Vancouver Playhouse.
The Ecstasy of Rita Jo began as an idea that Malcom Black eventually offered to playwright George Ryga. The unfinished pages landed on Joy Coghill’s desk on her first day as the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company. Creative director Charles Evans and Coghill decided to mount the production as soon as possible. With less than a month to go Ryga sent a new outline that had lost the spirit and poetry of the original pages. Director, George Bloomfield, and Ryga spent two weeks reworking the play just in time for the first rehearsal. On opening night, the performance was so powerful there was no applause. Audience members just gradually left. The original cast included Frances Hyland, August Schellenberg and Chief Dan George.
The success of The Ecstasy of Rita Jo led to its remount, directed by David Gardner, as the inaugural performance of the studio theatre at the National Arts Centre in 1969. The performance was attended by all of the Canadian Premiers and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. After its Ottawa premiere, this pivotal piece in Canadian drama prompted a poignant question from Chief Dan George’s son: “It is going to work?”
Coghill was the first female Artistic Director of the Playhouse, staying in the position only two years because of conflict with the Board. Each member wanted something different and they were all uncomfortable with her choices. For example, she produced The Filthy Piranesi by William D. Roberts which featured two men kissing, and Grass and Wild Strawberries by George Ryga which depicted drug use.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.
Joy Coghill on the arts on the west coast and Emily Carr (Part 5 of 9)
Joy Coghill on the arts on the west coast and Emily Carr.
Joy Coghill and R.H. Thomson discuss what it is like to be a West Coast artist. Coghill describes the texture of the West Coast performing arts as struggle. The vastness of Canada can result in artistic isolation between cities. The magic of British Columbia’s natural beauty is an asset that inspires some art forms but presents competition for the performing arts. Coghill describes her criticism of Bard on the Beach in Vancouver, which presents Shakespeare with the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. Artistic Director, Christopher Gaze, believes that the unique, breathtaking vistas are what attracts audiences while Coghill contends that it puts the actors in competition with the environment.
Coghill describes herself as the type of West Coast artist that is always frantic because there is so much to do. Inextricably linked with British Columbia, Coghill also has a career long hate/love relationship with Emily Carr. Joy’s play, Song of this Place, is a piece about an actress who wants to play Carr but the famed artist won’t let her, claiming that “an actress can’t play me, I’m an artist. An actor is not an artist”. Coghill discusses what it is like to be an artist up against the example of Carr, who herself did not take off until the age of 56 when the Group of Seven accepted her.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C.
Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.
Joy Coghill on founding PAL and seniors and theatre (Part 6 of 9)
Joy Coghill on founding PAL, and seniors and theatre.
Joy Coghill is an undeniably successful woman in Canadian theatre, but according to her one does not think in terms of breaking barriers at the time. It was simply the next thing to be done. This was what motivated her to build the Vancouver Performing Arts Lodges (PAL), which offers affordable housing for those who have dedicated their lives to the performing arts. According to Coghill, the whole world is getting older and yet no one is prepared for it. There is untapped creativity in seniors, and we should be prepared to explore artistically in our 70’s. That same belief also led Coghill to found Western Gold Theatre in 1994 which produces theatre with actors 55 years and older.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.
Joy Coghill on Vancouver during WWII and Alan Barlow (Part 7 of 9)
Joy Coghill on Vancouver during WWII, and Alan Barlow.
Originally born in Saskatchewan, Coghill moved with her family to Glasgow in 1928. Twelve years later, after her father’s death and during World War II, Joy and her mother evacuated back to Canada. In BC, Joy attended Kitsilano High School and took elocution lessons from Anne Mossman. Coghill recalls performing with the Vancouver Little Theatre in their production of Bunty Pulls the Strings by Graham Moffat. Opening night was the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbour and there was black out in Vancouver, but the audience came, and the show went on.
Coghill recollects that one day she arrived at school and there were empty seats where the Japanese students used to be. No one was told what happened and it was not until after the fact that she became aware of the internment camps. Coghill reminisces on how she felt on VE Day and the feeling that it was such a significant day she was surprised the colour of the sky hadn’t changed. Regarding the loss of Japanese art in that time, Coghill discusses how Alan Barlow, legendary theatre designer, had a sense for finding remarkable pieces that had been lost. Thomson thanks Coghill for hiring Barlow to direct, as opposed to design, at the National Theatre School while Thomson was studying there. He credits Barlow with opening the door to the 18th century through the use of aesthetics.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.
Joy Coghill on early theatre in British Columbia, radio, and Iris Warren (Part 8 of 9)
Joy Coghill on early theatre in British Columbia (Everyman, Totem), radio, and Iris Warren.
R.H. Thomson asks Coghill when the distinctly Canadian voice emerged in West Coast theatres. Coghill recounts that before Sydney Risk created Everyman Theatre in Vancouver, he and Arthur Hill had founded a theatre company which presented Canadian content. Thomson and Coghill discuss the shift from imitating the British and the Americans to embracing a Canadian style. In the late 1950s, Michael Langham told the actors at the Stratford Festival to abandon the use of a Mid-Atlantic accent and to simply use their own voices. Coghill recalls how she began her career doing plays on radio and imitating the dialects used by British actors that came over to Canada. In her opinion, it changed when Canadians started performing Canadian plays. “When strong Canadian writers stepped up -- we were released.”
It was also the philosophy of legendary voice coach Iris Warren to use your own, natural voice. Coghill reminisces on working with Warren at both the University of British Columbia and at the Stratford Festival.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C.
Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.
Joy Coghill on the Holiday Theatre (Part 9 of 9)
Joy Coghill on the Holiday Theatre, Canada's first professional children's theatre.
Inspired by teacher Charlotte Chorpenning in Chicago, Joy Coghill founded the Holiday Theatre, the first professional children’s theatre company in Canada, in 1953 along with her husband, John Thorne, Jessie Richardson, Sydney Risk, Myra Benson, Peter Mannering and Russ Williamson. Dorothy Somerset offered her use of the old Frederic Wood Theatre to play on weekends. In order to financially sustain themselves, the company began touring. Myra Benson acted as their tour manager. An actor herself, Benson had studied in England with Brian Way and Peter Slade to become an expert on children’s drama. The company toured in schools throughout the province and eventually merged with the Playhouse and continued for a while under David Latham. Of the shows presented on tour, the majority were new plays. In the year of Canada’s centennial, Joy took over the Playhouse and they toured across Canada with two plays, one of which was Beware the Quickly Who by Eric Nicol.
Thomson asks Coghill where she found the energy and strength to work relentlessly as an actor, director, writer, teacher, artistic director, founder of PAL, and to raise three children. Coghill offers in answer, “I don’t know. I’d have to say God…It was given me. I was born with it…use what you were given to the max.” Joy recalls performing with William Shatner in Never Say No for the GM Theatre live on the CBC and that when reporters asked Shatner about what he wanted from his life he answered, “I try to do as much as I can with however many minutes I have left.”
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on December 14, 2010 in Vancouver, B.C. Filming location courtesy of Performing Arts Lodges (PAL) Vancouver.