In Conversation with Sarah Kitz and Marie Beath Badian Transcript
Sarah Kitz Welcome, you're listening to GCTC's podcast "In Conversation". My name is Sarah Kitz. I'm the artistic director at GCTC, and I am joined today by Marie Beath Badian and who's hit play "The Waltz" is currently on our stage all the way from Factory theatre in Toronto. Marie Beath is a Filipino Canadian writer, playwright, theatremaker, performer, teaching artist and style icon. [laughs] At least to me, one parent artists to another, she's always remarkably well put together. Welcome, Marie Beath.
Marie Beath Badian I'm embarrassed. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Sarah Kitz So glad to have you here.
Marie Beath Badian I'm really thrilled to be here.
Sarah Kitz And so glad to have your show on our stage. And so I'm wondering if to begin for our audience who maybe haven't seen any of your work before. Could you just give us an overview of your career to date, how you started in theatre,
Marie Beath Badian Oh my gosh
Sarah Kitz and how you got to here now, I encourage you to brag about yourself
Marie Beath Badian [laughs]
Sarah Kitz and your accomplishments?
Marie Beath Badian Oh, ah...
Sarah Kitz No wrong answers.
Marie Beath Badian Well, I started in theatre, as an actor, I went to TMU [Toronto Metropolitan University]. Before, long before it was TMU. After having dropped out of the journalism program,
Sarah Kitz hmm, which was also at TMU, which was Ryerson previously.
Marie Beath Badian Yes, TMU. Yes, at the time, and I taken the journalism program because I thought that that was acceptable to my parents, at the time that it had maybe a feasible career, there's no way as much as I loved doing theatre in high school. I couldn't imagine a world where my parents would have supported me. And then I was out on my own after dropping out and moved downtown with my brother, as my roommate and then decided to be like, well, I can make this choice for myself and risk it and I remember telling my dad, I was going to audition, like, I got into this theatre program. And he had told me. "Well, you know, if you took computers, you you could work at Disney World with those" [Laughs]. That's kind of like theatre.
Sarah Kitz That's an interesting connection Dad. [laughs]
Marie Beath Badian It's so strange. And it was just another one of those moments that I was like, "You don't know me, and one day I'll write a play about that". So you know, fast forward to graduating from that program, it was the second last of the diploma program. And then going out into quote, unquote, the real world, I think my frustration was, as so many of us you're under-- feeling underrepresented that I either wasn't getting an opportunity to be the dreamy characters that I thought it could be like, in my brain, I thought I could be Anne of Green Gables and, and Lizzie Bennet. But it wasn't happening. And I decided to take a gamble on the Fringe Festival and I had been in it with a collective of friends the year I graduated from university. And then the next year, I put it myself in thought, if the universe says, you, you're in the lottery, you're gonna write a solo show. And I did and I think that like looking back, that really began what I think has become an excavation of emotionally, autobiographical work. And that one was probably certainly the most autobiographical, as I think a lot of us first-timers will do. That play was called "Novena" [more info here]. And then that somehow led me into a trajectory of two really formative parts of my career, which was the former artistic director of "Theatre Direct" Canada, Lynda Hill [now AD of the Wee Festival here] had heard about the success of that show, and I auditioned for her, and ended up doing a tour that really ignited my love of theatre for young audiences. Like, really ignited the immediacy of it, it ignited, I found a place where all the things, the possibilities that I believed I could be, as a Filipino Canadian cis woman. I could be a 12 year old.
Sarah Kitz Hmm.
Marie Beath Badian I could like and I could, and I could be in a in a performance where it's 600 audience members are invested and believe in you. And they're like, Yeah, you’re a 12 year old. I'm going to talk to you like you're a 12-year-old. Like that. That kind of liberation of imagination was really formative for me. And then also, I was on a, on an OAC [Ontario Arts Council here] jury, a projects jury with Eric Coates. And it was his first year as Artistic Director of the "Blyth Festival" [more info here]. I didn't know him. And we fought about everything.
Sarah Kitz [laughs]
Marie Beath Badian And then a couple of weeks later, he called me and he was like, "Do you want to come up to the Blyth Festival and see what we do here?" And that began, oh, my gosh, like, I think it's now been a more than 20-year relationship with the Blyth Festival.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And that has been, that plus theatre for young audiences, really ignited a sense of service to the audience, for me. Like, a real clarity of who are the people you are creating art for? And it's, it's not, it was no longer driven by an artistic desire to express singularly for the sake of expressing, but really, that that's gonna land.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And who is it landing on? And why? And is it specific? And Eric was such a– the consideration that he put in that very long-term mentorship, from directing, from I went from being a guest artist to the young company, to taking over the young company for two years, to assistant directing, and being in a show, and then being commissioned, and then directing a show, and then my work premiering there. That was over the course of 10 years.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And over the course of 10 years, I was embedded every summer in that audience. I stayed with who I call my fairy godparents, who are patrons of that theatre. I would see, I would just walk up to the theatre anytime. I would see shows four or five times in a row with audiences who recognize themselves on stage.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And when Eric commissioned me, I brought him a play and, and I said “Eric, this is a terrible play. And this is not for the Blyth audience, but I think I have one. Will you give me the time to think, like to see it throug?” And it was "Prairie Nurse". And, the only thing I knew at the time, so I think that was probably around 2005 or 2006. I was like, my mother has a rural story. She came from rural Philippines to rural Saskatchewan in 1969. I think there's something in there. And in 2007, I took my mom back to Saskatchewan. She hadn't been back for 40 years,
Sarah Kitz my goodness!
Marie Beath Badian and all the stories that were theoretical in Toronto, became alive in Saskatchewan. And we went from Saskatoon to Prince Albert to Tisdale to Arborfield to Nipawin to Regina, just following the path of anyone who may have known her at the time, and it was a slog, like I didn't know who we were going to encounter who I would meet if anyone remembered Mom. But on the advice of David Craig [more info about David here]. He said write to the local papers, put in a letter to the editor and see if something catches. I did. And out of the ether, this person emailed me and said, "Hi, my name is Patricia Hacket. I knew your mom. I was the candy striper at the hospital. Why know everyone? They're still alive. The hospital still exists. A family in Arborfield bought it and turned it into their house." And so,
Sarah Kitz incredible.
Marie Beath Badian We go. the turn to the nurses residence into their house and the hospital into their garage. It was nuts. This rural hospital we walked in, in the reception area, or like onions hanging from the ceiling, a ski doo in the corner. We go into the examination room - they'd bulldozed the examination room and put a boat in there.
Sarah Kitz My god.
Marie Beath Badian And then we walk into the staff room and my mother just is awash with stories I've never heard before. And on that trip, meeting all the people who were still alive, including the other nurse who was stationed with her, the head nurse. The--the caretaker who to basically did everything, the thing that became apparent was they kept seeing my mom and saying, Where's the other one? Like, who's the other one. And mom was like I knew she was. I knew she nursed with another nurse there. But she never spoke fondly of her. And Fay said, Penny, who's the other one, is in Saskatoon. And I found her. And we met her at the airport lounge before we were going to fly out. She looked just like my mom. Short, four years out of retirement. Two years freshly divorced from the man, she risked everything to come to Canada for.
Sarah Kitz Woah.
Marie Beath Badian And that was the story. All of a sudden, I had a mistaken identity story. And that, that began"Prairie Nurse" at the Blyth Festival premiered in 2013. And then, as in Canadian theatre, I didn't expect it to have another life for a long time. And then in 2018, for some reason, some beautiful reason. It got four productions in 2018, across Canada. And around that time, in preparation for those productions, a lot of the media rhetoric was this is an immigration story. And I felt really cagey about that.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And where I was in my life at that time too my kid was, I think, five or six years old, and I was really kind of in this very strange place where people would kind of exotify my biracial child. I was also in this place where it's like, no, this isn't an immigration story. It doesn't end here. And I told Gil at the Blyth festival [Gil Garratt bio here], I think I have a sequel. I actually think I have two, I just don't know which is going to show up first. And what showed up first was "The Waltz". And "The Waltz" was because, honestly, I just wanted to see two kids fall in love. Because I've been seeing so many stories of brownness, and BIPOC, and otherness being trauma stories.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And they exist, they are absolutely part of the fabric of my identity. But that is not our singular story. And I'm a Gen Xer. I grew up on love stories. Loves. I didn't have the joy of watching what is our mass media now, of seeing different bodies and identities falling in love. So I had to make it. And that was really satisfying. And that's "The Waltz". And "The Cottage Guest" [more info about plays in development here.] has always been in my brain since 2015. And then it changed drastically in 2019. And I didn't know if I could write it. I remember calling Gil saying, I don't think I can write this play. I don't think I'll ever be able to write this play. And then after "The Waltz" premiered, and I had some distance - I think I needed to see "The Waltz". And the good news is I finished "The Cottage Guest" it's done.
Sarah Kitz Ah,
Marie Beath Badian Yeah. I finished it in Banff last month [more about the Banff playwright’s lab here].
Sarah Kitz Congratulations.
Marie Beath Badian Thank you. So the trilogy is done.
Sarah Kitz It's done. Well, one of my questions for you was going to be - and you've answered it now - Did you know from the beginning that "The Prairie Nurse" was part of a trilogy, or did that happen over the course of writing it and it sounds like that is what happened.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah, it wasn't even in the course of writing it. given back.
Sarah Kitz It was emergent.
Marie Beath Badian In the performance of "Prairie Nurse".
Sarah Kitz That's so fascinating.
Marie Beath Badian In the performance and the response to "Prairie Nurse". Yeah, because like … this idea that … like I don't, I see it as, I see "Prairie Nurse" as a comedy. I see it as a Canadiana, as like my response to what, like a broader tapestry of what it means to be Canadian. And yes, immigration is part of it. This arrival of these two nurses from the Philippines, in the end of the 60s at the beginning of Medicare. 100%. That is part of it. But what is the full story of our presence here is not going to happen in one play. And when I think of my own family, what a tragedy to leave it at that to go, you know, my mom is a hero.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian She's a pioneer. She came - not unlike what we're experiencing now - in a crisis of health care. She came and risked everything. There was no internet. She didn't know what Canada was.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian She didn't know what Canada was until she arrived at the airport in Manila. And they showed her this Canadian, Canadian film board film, she thought she was going to a place called North Battleford. She arrived in Saskatoon and they were like “just joking.”
Sarah Kitz Oh, my gosh.
Marie Beath Badian You're going to Prince Albert. But that's just one chapter. The continuing chapters are the waves of immigration, and roots and stories of how we become Canadian. And my story of me becoming Canadian, is vastly different from anyone who, say immigrated in 1975 or immigrated last year, or immigrated in the 80s. So more and more, I feel a calling in this cycle that I've created, to own up to the specificity of this particular immigration story that begins in 1969. And with "The Cottage Guest" ends in 2017, that's 50 years.
Sarah Kitz And I, I just want to sort of hold these pieces up against each other. When you were talking about the deep and durational investment that the Blyth festival has given you over 20 years, first with Eric Coates, and then later with Gil Garratt, to develop your work as an artist and for your work to become legible and familiar to an audience population. And then for that work to have a life outside of that festival across the country is such a remarkable …I want to say gift, because that kind of investment is I think, what is required to build a Canadian artist, you know. One investment on one show does not make a career. We all know that. We don't talk about it very much. But we all know that. And, and similarly, when I, when I look at this work that you've made, specifically in this Prairie trilogy of "Prairie Nurse", "The Waltz" and "The Cottage Guest", I see you working very much in this lineage that you know, easily references David French's work [more info about David French here], which you mentioned, and his Mercer family cycle, which is about the Mercer family, this family who transplant from Newfoundland to Toronto, and you know, that kind of work is at the center of, you know, Canadiana in a traditional white canon sense. And I love the way I see you, I think, consciously taking that work, and taking up the mantle of that work for a new generation and saying that these are also the stories of Canada. And they are absolutely, as you've said, specific. And the thing that I wanted to hold up against the depths of, for instance, the Blyth festival's investment in you, is your investment in the longevity of the Alvarez family. Yeah. And what you give to us as an audience, in terms of the depth and scope of their stories, is a remarkable gift to the Canadian theatre-going audience. You know? Because they're, I feel like working in that scope is not something that all playwrights do, for any number of reasons. Perhaps it's not, you know, a desire of every writer. But to be able to live so deeply in the stories of central family members, and then peripheral characters as well, who expand their worlds, is something that we are, or I think the Canadian theatre-going public is more familiar with from a previous generation of work. And so to see you doing that in your work now feels like not an inevitable evolution because of the amount of investment it requires. But such a beautiful and necessary contribution to the tapestry of Canadian storytelling and to our, our collective ability to imagine in a contemporary way, what Canada is, who Canada is, and what Canadian stories are.
Marie Beath Badian I'm gonna cry. Yeah.
Sarah Kitz And who they're for, and who they're about.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah, we're a young country.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian I have just like one of the most - when I was doing research, for "Prarie Nurse", I still didn't know what it was. I came here to Ottawa, and was at the former-- I think they changed the name The Museum of Civilization.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian But they have this like, exhibit the great hall where you walk through the history of Canada, and it just felt like Disney World. But at the end, there was a small room, it was probably less than 500 square feet. And it was made to look like the Vancouver Airport in the late 60s. And the entire exhibit was about Filipino medical professionals who came to Canada at the end of the 60s.
Sarah Kitz wow.
Marie Beath Badian And in the Arcot. like, what they were exhibiting was like, my house.
Sarah Kitz Yeah. [laughs]
Marie Beath Badian The things that were in my home, like the straw bags that my mother brought back.
Sarah Kitz What a trip.
Marie Beath Badian It was, but like, that was a, there was a, I was in tears.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian It's like my mom is here in this room. And this national museum has dedicated this space to see the contribution of, of this population in Canada. And that, in our short history of this nation, is essential. Like, I'm not a --the joke is that I went to journalism school. That's the joke, because I am not a documentarian. But I am in effect, talking about our history in a theatrical way, that I hope, you know, when people for example, see "Prarie Nurse", they will know the reason why anytime they go to the hospital, or a doctor's office 80% of the staff is Filipino. That's why they will know that.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian Or now, like with "The Waltz". It was the specificity of stuff in "The Waltz" it's so important to me, because it's like, yeah, it's a 90s piece. But my 90s subculture in my little corner of suburban Scarborough was not the grunge mass culture of the early 90s. Mine was house music, R&B, dressing up, wide-leg pants, super stylish when you weren't wearing your uniform. Really invested in family, fam jams, everybody's Filipino, the mall, Scarborough Town Centre, footlocker, the Gap, Eddie Bauer, that is a subculture.
Sarah Kitz yeah.
Marie Beath Badian That is recognizable, but people don't see it, because we don't put it on stage. That and it's so satisfying to know I've written this play, and to watch an audience echo with recognition. Like a mixed audience.
Sarah Kitz I love that.
Marie Beath Badian See "Nirvana" in her and see "Boys II Men" in him.
Sarah Kitz I was not a part of that subculture, of course, but I remember and recognize it. So it's legible to me as well. And I find that so satisfying to see both of those, both of those aesthetic references from the 90s portrayed on stage in those characters. Something that I think is really interesting that feels like it's, it's happening lately. And your work I think is a big part of it. Is this kind of Scarborough Renaissance. I feel like Scarborough is having a moment.
[both laugh]
Marie Beath Badian Oh my gosh.
Sarah Kitz I mean, like your work certainly inside of the walls, Scarborough isn't it physically on stage, right? We're in rural Saskatchewan. But Scarborough takes up a massive amount of psychic space. And when we meet Romeo Alvarez, he's coming directly from Scarborough, and you are from Scarborough and other writing of yours is set there. And you know, and then we can think of Catherine Hernandez’ book "Scarborough" [borrow the book from the library here].
Marie Beath Badian Yeah.
Sarah Kitz Which was then made into a feature film [more about the film here]. And Scarborough is really having a moment on the cultural stage right now.
Marie Beath Badian [laughs] Yeah.
Sarah Kitz What do you make of that?
Marie Beath Badian I love it. So much. All of us who are from Scarborough are very defensive about Scarborough.
Sarah Kitz I'm sure,
Marie Beath Badian because Scarborough is enormous. Like the borders of Scarborough, are massive. So it runs from like the beach in, I'm trying to think of what the equivalent may be in the greater Ottawa area. I don't know.
Sarah Kitz I don't even know. Ottawa is not that big, right?
Marie Beath Badian Like, it's the size of I would say, it's probably the size of Ottawa.
Sarah Kitz Maybe yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And, like, I'm like, I knew Catherine growing up. But also our schools are so far apart. Every intersection is a different subculture. And so it's like, I was recently, I had recently finished "The Cottage Guest", and we did a reading of it, in Banff last month. And it was as if I didn't know this, but I just closed my eyes, I was like, all I write about Scarborough a lot, like a lot, Scarborough, it's, it's a trippy place to be, at this point in my career, to look back at a body of work. But my if anything is part of my body of work. Scarborough is the main character of my body of work.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And, and I love it. The things that make Scarborough: it's like the lake is part of it, the amount of time you have to spend on transit. Llike my commute from school to home, was an hour, or an hour and a half, if I was making up with my boyfriend at the bus shelter. It was like, if I would let the 129 pass four times I was going to be late getting home. And I would, you know, I'd get home after six when I like, after rehearsal or something. And do homework till 10 and then be up. Like the commute was just long. Yeah, but we all had it.
Sarah Kitz It was normal.
Marie Beath Badian And also like this, the subtext of Scarborough and my schools like my particular school, was they did a census at that school and it was 63% Filipino.
Sarah Kitz [both laugh] Wow.
Marie Beath Badian That's, that's, I didn't know I was a visible minority till I left Scarborough.
Sarah Kitz Isn't that, that's such a fascinating story. Maybe we can talk a bit about that. Because obviously, that experience growing up Filipino in Scarborough versus your mom's experience in Saskatchewan.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah.
Sarah Kitz Are drastically at odds. And you're writing both inside of this trilogy, and outside of it, seems to really fluently flip back and forth between or across this urban and rural divide. And I wonder if you can talk a bit as a playwright and also as a person of color about what the unique experiences or opportunities are, as an art maker, when you're making art about or for a rural place versus an urban place? Sure, for those audiences.
Marie Beath Badian Sure. I think it has everything to do with my long relationship with a Blyth Festival. Full stop. And particularly because I, I grew through it with the young company, there's nothing better than hanging out with a bunch of 12 year olds, 12 to 19 year olds, and being an outsider and being curious about their lives. To be like, I'm not of this place. You are, let's make work about where you're from.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian And to - like that's the combination of my love for TYA, young people, and the Blyth Festival. It culminated in working with a young company to be like, I love and respect them for the unique voices that they are. And when you meet them at that level, they are proud of where they're from. And so I get to grow up with them. And I get to grow up with an audience at the Blyth Festival, who are proud of who they are, love where they're from, and want people to understand that they're that they have a unique identity, unique taste, and demand a quality of storytelling. And so this challenge to me is to be like, I've embedded in this audience, I am this audience. over 10 years, I've learned to be this audience. So what am I going to bring them? That is both me and them. And that's, I think, inherent through everything I've done is 9 times out of 10, I am an outsider. And that's a superpower. Because the superpower is, I get to observe and treat the audience with the respect they require. Which is more than like, there's nothing more offensive, I think, in any play is just to name drop a place and be like we get you that gets it's a cheap laugh. And it tells an audience that you don't know us.
Sarah Kitz Yeah,
Marie Beath Badian It's a lot of work. I'm a long game writer. And it comes from for that for "Prarie Nurse". It's like a real love, like, you have to love it, you have to love you have to want to make people love it. I don't know how else to say that. But then the other thing is, with "Prairie Nurse", there's cheeky Tagalog in it. Like there's another. I don't speak it fluently at all. I remember I had my one of my best friends translate it for me, two of my best friend's translate it for me. And so that was my way of being like cheeky and an ode to my mom, when she would come to see the show. Mom will get a laugh, right? And the gift of that, which I never knew would happen. Because honestly, like, none of I don't think any of us writing plays in Canada thinking you'll have another life. Like it's just kind of like, that's just a sad, it's a sad statement, man. Like, it's another conversation. Yeah, but you're just kind of like, Yo, man, I hope. I hope more than one audience sees it, I hope. But this could very well be one and done. That's that. That's what we signed up for. I want to change it. I hope we can change it. But that's a reality. And then, and then the incredible privilege and gift of having it come to Toronto, and those Tagalog jokes suddenly hitting.
Sarah Kitz Yeah,
Marie Beath Badian Like that, that it went from, like echo laughter was my favourite. Like you'd had big laughter. And then you just hear pockets of laughter. So I don't know if it necessarily answers the question of, Do I make a distinction of writing for a rural or urban audience. I don't necessarily think so. But what I do know, is what I think we have forgotten about is that we are writing for the audience, like, as playwrights, that's what distinguishes us that this is not a vacuum we don't write, to not affect. And so this idea that what we write is not in service. Or sorry, the idea that we are writing in service. We think that that has gotten lost somewhere that what we do is eventually has to be in communion. And the strength of our storytelling will be benefited if we know who we're writing in communion for. [laughs]
Sarah Kitz Yeah. And the audience is so specific when you're because of its its live nature, right? Versus a book or journalism,
Marie Beath Badian Right.
Sarah Kitz Where the relationship between the writer and the audience is one-to-one. Exactly. Right. But in the theatre, it's playwright to a whole group of people
Marie Beath Badian A whole group.
Sarah Kitz You know, maybe 60 to 1000 Yeah, depending on the size of the theater and, and so then you have opportunities like the echo laughter situation
Marie Beath Badian Yeah.
Sarah Kitz Where a joke hits and then there is a kind of ripple effect And you …it takes such a, such a deftness of craft to understand, I think, from sitting alone at one's desk, how to play with an audience like that. So I find that so interesting in that regard that it was when you saw your show in performance that you understood you were writing a trilogy.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah, yeah. Yeah, sure. But like, also, I think that it's a big ask of playwrights to know who the audiences are across Canada.
Sarah Kitz Yes.
Marie Beath Badian My answer to that is, in the same way my work has expanded and transformed and evolved over the past few years. So as my idea of audience like, that my kid is in the audience is probably the biggest drive now for me. Because now my kid can sit and watch "Prarie Nurse" and be like, That's my grandma. Yeah. And my kid will now watch "The Waltz" and be like, sure, that's not mom and dad, specifically. But I know that mom, that character that that line is dad, that that line is mom, that that line is my uncle, they know it, and my kid knows that down the line, there's going to be a play about them. Like, that's, that is my that is my ultimate audience member no.
Sarah Kitz I love that.
Marie Beath Badian That's who I'm in service for.
Sarah Kitz And if I can, if I can take that question of service to your child into the audience, and fold that into your discussion about working with the young company at Blyth and I know, you have your love for TYA so apparent, and for young artists and young audiences, what advice would you give to young playwrights from where you are now.
Marie Beath Badian Rest. Rest, I find overwhelmingly, in the past few years where I've been working with young artists, like 100%, the hustle is real, I believe in the hustle. But rest is essential. Like, I have watched far too many people burn out. And we are mirroring that to the up-and-coming generation. And it's like that serves no one.
Sarah Kitz Yeah.
Marie Beath Badian Because where are your stories? If you can't rest. Are your stories moving forward, going to are we going to be in the next generation of stories where just people are talking about how they burnt out? Like there's this space to follow, and rest and dream. That's what I feel like is missing. Like, I've really been like, it's, it's a long game. Yes, you have to live some life. I like aren't like feet, like I said with the last play, I thought was dead in the water. Had to live some life to go to rest and be like, can I, this is my job. I owe it to my child to be healthy. And to be able to do my job well, which is to be an archivist of who we are in this ridiculous canon of this ridiculous job I've just chosen to do. So how can we take it seriously? If we don't give ourselves the necessity of rest and reflection?
Sarah Kitz That is such a beautiful and generative response. And I think that's so accurate, because not only is there such a such a drive to just grind all the time, but also, art doesn't respond to that.
Marie Beath Badian Dude you know, right? No right.
Sarah Kitz Inspiration doesn't strike you when you're pushing and you're at capacity, or you're over capacity.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah.
Sarah Kitz That's not where new ideas and forms and stories emerge from.
Marie Beath Badian Like real talk. We're at an interesting place in Canadian theatre right now. Like post COVID. We're in a reckoning. Yeah. And so how are we going to show up for the reckoning? If we're dead in the water? [laughs] Like if we're, if we have no energy to face it?
Sarah Kitz Yeah,
Marie Beath Badian We're art makers. It requires love passion, curiosity.
Sarah Kitz Care.
Marie Beath Badian Care.
Sarah Kitz Yeah, and I think that art makers, it's, it's our job to create a vision.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah.
Sarah Kitz And if we are not envisioning rest as a part of that, then we are doing a disservice to ourselves as well as our colleagues and the audience.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah.
Sarah Kitz Yeah. The next generation of makers
Marie Beath Badian Yeah,
Sarah Kitz yeah,
Marie Beath Badian please. Next Generation of makers don't make plays about burning out like you imagine? [groans]
Sarah Kitz I don't. Yeah, that makes me really sad to think about.
[both laugh]
Sarah Kitz No one has the energy to make that play even.
Marie Beath Badian [laughs]
Sarah Kitz Okay. You're collaborating with Nina Lee Aquino on this play.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah.
Sarah Kitz You've collaborated with Nina multiple times now. What do you love about working with Nina?
Marie Beath Badian It's a joy, like, like, I think it's a very rare, it's very rare to be in this weird job that we do to be able to grow up together. She directed my very first play. I've been directed by her a few times. And it's so gorgeous to create language together. Yeah. I know that we're like, I've been in rooms, where we're all Filipino. And that's trippy. It's trippy and great and amazing and out an out of body experience, but also home. Like it feels like home. And she's family like our kids are besties. Like, it's, it's it feels like a homecoming. It feels right. Like, with "The Waltz". Who else could direct it? She's as much as a sucker for romantic comedies as I am. Yeah. Like a sucker. Like we the stuff we talk about, when it comes to stupid romantic stuff is great. And what a fun thing to be able to park it in what we love. And the just watching her like, how, how fun is it to spend your time being like, What's the moment they fall in love? Like, those are the conversations we're having. That's great, considering the very first thing that we ever did together with about a Filipino kid being shot in Scarborough. Like that's an evolution. And I'm glad to be on this ride with her.
Sarah Kitz It's I mean, your plays in such good hands with her. And it's such a, it's such a beautiful thing to observe the depths of that kind of collaboration when you have core artists that you trust so deeply that you've grown up with and developed as artists alongside and you have this kind of shorthand and trust and it's so beautiful.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah. It shouldn't be as rare as as it is. Yeah. So really take it as a privilege.
Sarah Kitz What Marie Beath. What do you want to write that you have not written? Like, like, sky's the limit? kind of question. No budgetary restrictions.
Marie Beath Badian Oh, oh, I'm so glad you asked.
Sarah Kitz No thoughts on how will this be produced?
Marie Beath Badian I am here for one, right. I know, because I'm writing it.
Sarah Kitz Oh, Fabulous.
Marie Beath Badian Well, in addition to the advice of rest, I'd say to young people, I'm trying to take my own advice, which is, write, what write big, big, like, screw the idea of a budget write big. And so I'm doing I'm writing a period Twilight-Zone-esque radio play. Inspired by an Andrew sisters song. Wow. And I may or may not be writing a prequel to "Prarie Nurse".
Sarah Kitz Okay. I've never heard the Andrew Sisters next to Twilight-esque but that
Marie Beath Badian Twilight-Zone-esque.
Sarah Kitz Twilight-Zone-esque. Yeah, but that feels very right.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah. Like that, to me is very exciting.
Sarah Kitz [laughs]
Marie Beath Badian Because it's like, that's bonkers. Yeah, like I won't what? And that's just me following. Like, I became really obsessed with a serious radio station called 40s Junction. And all they play as the Andrews Sisters and it's all it's all in the vein of 1940s like Post War or World War Two narrative. So it's all like exotic defying all of the places that they've caught up that the US is conquered.
Sarah Kitz Whoa,
Marie Beath Badian but this is this is also music that my parents love to sing.
Sarah Kitz Yeah,
Marie Beath Badian like that contradiction. How can I not?
Sarah Kitz That is delicious.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah,
Sarah Kitz Sounds good. Very rich and entertaining.
Marie Beath Badian Yeah.
Sarah Kitz Which I feel like is right in the core of something that you do so well, which is to put substantial content on stage in a way that feels so fun.
Marie Beath Badian Aw, Thank you.
Sarah Kitz And I and I know some of your plays are more overtly dramas. But certainly with the Prairie trilogy there's such a remarkable and skillful, entertaining sleight of hand, you know,
Marie Beath Badian Aw that's nice.
Sarah Kitz Like the sleight of hand that is good entertainment, but the root system below that joy?
Marie Beath Badian Yeah,
Sarah Kitz Is these deep and complex stories on stage
Marie Beath Badian That's very kind of you.
Sarah Kitz I am just so thrilled and in admiration of that skill.
Marie Beath Badian That's very kind. If this is the part where I now do a disclaimer for anyone expecting that in "The Cottage Guest" I'm sorry.
Sarah Kitz Okay.
[both laugh]
Sarah Kitz Well, I can't wait to read it now that it's done.
Marie Beath Badian Oh dear. Oh, dear.
Sarah Kitz Marie Beath, thank you so much for spending this time.
Marie Beath Badian Oh my god this is so good.
Sarah Kitz And our audience has been loving your play
Marie Beath Badian Yay!
Sarah Kitz and I'm so excited for the show to run on this stage. Thank you for saying yes.
Marie Beath Badian Thank you for inviting me. Yay.
End of Transcript.