My head is still spinning.
We only met for about an hour and a half but we talked so much and I learned a lot, not only about Sarah but also about theatre and … life. She’s one of those people that challenges and inspires you to think hard see things differently. She’s a powerful person to be around.
That being said she doesn’t come off as intimidating at all. She’s very friendly, bright, and warm.
I don’t know how I’m going to distil everything into this post. You could write a book about Sarah. But here we go!
Activity
Sarah and I used the café in the Whole Foods Market at Lansdowne Park as a meeting point. The plan was to meet, check out the farmers market, and go from there.
We got coffees at the café (even though Sarah’s typical coffee joint is the Wild Oat Bakery in the Glebe) and I got her to introduce herself on camera!
Fast Facts
- Sarah was born in Germany. Her mother is French and her father is from the Netherlands. She learned French and German before learning to speak English (which she learned as a child while they were living Tokyo).
- She has a younger brother who currently lives in Marysville, a small town in BC, who works as a stonemason.
- She’s a doctor of English literature and therefore incredibly articulate, intelligent, and full of delightful phrases like, “exquisite virtuosity”.
Projects
Where to start? Sarah is Artistic Associate at Counterpoint Players, a past member of the Ottawa Stilt Union, and is currently working on a one-woman show called Monstrous, or, The Miscegenation Advantage.
Sarah wrote the show while also writing her dissertation for her PhD. When I asked her how she could possibly find the time to do that, she said, “It was more like I couldn’t not do it.”
She explained how she was feeling a bit tired of writing purely academically during her PhD and how she missed the more creative style of writing.
“A friend dared me to find the play within the dissertation,” she said. “All the things that didn’t fit into the dissertation went into this other theatrical text.”
As a result, the theatrical text became what Sarah refers to as the “shadow text” or the “haunted, rebellious twin” of the dissertation.
Very (very) broadly speaking, Sarah’s dissertation was on female Caribbean authors and narratives of Maroons. The discussion contained within her dissertation had themes of race and identity. Sarah connected with these themes on a personal level as a mixed-race woman. Everything that was too personal for the dissertation was funnelled into the theatrical writing and a play was born.
Philosophy on artists in Ottawa
I don’t know why, but for some time now I’ve had this impression that theatre in Ottawa is practiced mostly as a hobby. Perhaps because I know a few people who actually do consider theatre to be a hobby, and who have done some pretty impressive work, I took this to be the norm.
Regardless, when I mentioned this to Sarah she disagreed and gave me her thoughts.
She said that she knows lots of people, herself included, who define themselves as artists first.
“They would never say, ‘I’m a teacher’,” she explained. “They would say ‘I’m an artist’ and teaching is something they do sometimes to pay the rent.’”
We went on to talk about how the economic climate in Ottawa doesn’t necessarily permit artists to make a living off their art first and foremost. Having a “day job” is required to make ends meet.
Sarah finds this frustrating. We agreed that the “starving artist” stereotype is prevalent in Ottawa. It seems to be generally accepted that if you decide to be an artist, it’s inevitable that you will hurt financially.
For Sarah, this isn’t something that should be accepted. It should be challenged.
“I think the notion of the starving artist is really dangerous,” she said. “It devalues the work.”
In Sarah’s utopia, we would all be paid according to the work we do.
“Sometimes I think I’m a communist,” she said. “In my ideal world it would be like, Ok, you’re an artist, great. Here’s your salary now go do your work.”
*For more on this conversation, check out the comment section!
Highlights
While we were talking we discovered that Sarah taught at the CÉGEP I went to in the same program that I graduated from. In addition we learned that we have both played the role of Laura in The Glass Menagerie.
I had also never been to the farmers market before and having Sarah to show me around was a treat. Given her French roots she is a true cheese connoisseur and we sampled some of the best cheese I’ve ever had. (I love cheese. A lot.)
A day that involves meeting a doctor, discussing theatre, and eating cheese is a success in my books.