Hey there, my name is Tracy Martens and thank you for joining me for another episode of
YQG In Bloom.
And today we are on stage at the KordaZone Theatre in Windsor, Ontario and I am talking
to the director and one of the actresses of an upcoming play called The Trench.
So I have Jeremy Burke and Georgie Savoie.
Thank you guys for being here today.
Thank you for having us.
I really appreciate this.
Now what is The Trench?
Yeah, it's a play written in the UK not too long ago.
It's about, it's inspired by the true story of a miner in the First World War who got
buried underground while digging trenches.
The play kind of takes that story, mixes it with kind of some old Greek myths of Orpheus
in the underworld, etc. etc. and gives this fantastical, larger than life, poetic story
about like the human spirit and about grief and this character, Burke, has to face these
trials as the world kind of comes to life around him and we question like what is real
and what is what matters.
Now did you pick this play to do?
Yes, I pitched this.
Originally I actually pitched this pre-pandemic and we did start rehearsing and it had to
be cancelled.
We had to be able to do it again.
I've loved this play for a long time.
It's a short, beautiful, poetic little play and yeah, I was excited that I was able to
pitch it and that they wanted to do it.
Yeah, because I had never heard about it and I was on the Cortisone website and I was reading
up on it and it sounds like a really fascinating show.
I can't wait to see it.
And are you acting in it as well?
No, no, no.
I would be too much.
It's a very physical and visual show so you really need the outside eye.
If I was like on stage, which I don't like doing it the same time of directing anyways,
but if I was on stage I wouldn't be able to have that like audience visual of the images
we're making.
And you, Georgie, who do you play?
I play chorus member number one.
I never leave the stage.
The cast is comprised of Burt and then four chorus members who all play different roles
throughout the play.
We were discussing in a rehearsal recently like the differences in characters and I play
more of a like maternal caring figure.
Oh cool.
Because I know you are in a lot of different plays here at the KordaZone Theatre.
How long have you been here?
At Korda, just about a year.
My first show was with Rocky Horror, which we did in October and we started rehearsals
around this time about a year ago.
Since I've done Cycle Beach Party and the Drossie Chaperone and After the Trench I'm
going to be in Three Musketeers.
Oh my goodness.
Oh he's got, so you have a real love for the stage.
I got my BFA in acting at the University of Windsor, just graduated a year ago.
And you're already so busy.
Now do you only work here at the Corta or do you do other performances?
Recently did a show with SHO, Arts, Beard and Performance.
It was a show for schools called New Canadian Kid.
It was about immigration.
Oh, I think I saw that one on their website about it.
And how long have you been with Korda?
My first show with Korda was probably 2018, 2019, the summer of one of those years.
I can't remember.
And yeah, I just kind of fell in love with the group here and the team and the people.
I mean it's about the people.
The community and community theater is really important to me.
And Corta was really good at fostering that community.
And so I've been doing shows on and off with them for a while.
Yeah, and I'm happy to.
I was acting, I've done some set design on shows and now I'm directing some shows and
it's been super fun.
Now when you do directing, do you also work with the set design as well?
Because I know I saw you and your fiancee bringing stuff in here a few weeks ago.
So I've done shows where the set isn't very complicated and I've directed it and done
the set design.
But this show, I'm very lucky to have my fiancee Nicole work on the show as the set designer.
I knew that the set would be, I wanted the set to be a little more complicated and a
little more like a piece of art in itself.
And I wasn't able, I knew with directing I wouldn't have the time to give it that attention.
And she's a very talented set designer and painter.
So yeah, she's going to do some really cool stuff with it.
We're doing a lot with stretched fabric.
It's kind of like this abstract depiction of an exploded life.
So there's like pieces of like picture frames and old radios and doilies and like baby cribs
like exploded throughout the set.
Like his life has just been upended when everything collapsed.
So it's going to be very visual.
Yeah.
With the background.
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah.
And the way we're doing it, like the chorus members, the set's important because the chorus
members are really like from the earth.
They're like part of the environment.
So their costumes are really going to tie in with the fabrics in the set so that it
looks as if they were like birthed from the set itself.
They're kind of like Frankenstein together of like these different lives, I guess.
Are the costumes made specifically for this show or is it just?
It's a mix.
We're pulling some things from stock.
We're buying a few new pieces.
Actors bring in some pieces and we see kind of how we can do that because we're doing
a cobbled look.
It works out that we can kind of pull from different sources and like, oh, we're going
to add a different sleeve to this shirt or, you know, this fits.
So we'll use that as the base and then we'll like add stuff on top.
I've heard a lot of people talk about this and I had never heard about it until I came
here a couple of weeks ago.
In fact, that was the first time I'd ever been in the KordaZone Theater.
So I love it.
It is very, very nice.
Now have you guys started selling the tickets for the show yet?
No, the ticket link should go up in just a few weeks from when we're filming this.
We are April 27th.
And we're using ShowPass to sell tickets online and then tickets will also be available at
the door or there is a KordaZone phone number, I wish I knew off the top of my head, that
you could probably call and reserve tickets.
But you can find all that info on cortisone.com once it's up.
Yeah, because KordaZone is really, it's been here forever, but it seems in the last year
or so it's really gained a lot of momentum and a lot of followers.
So any of the shows you want to see, especially this one, you get tickets while you can because
how many people does this fit?
Usually it depends on the show.
Usually we can fit about 100.
Sometimes we stretch that a little bit.
It depends.
But yeah, a few of our, especially our musicals recently have sold out the rest of their run
quite often.
So yeah, get tickets while you can generally.
It sneaks up on you when things sell out.
And when is this one running?
This one opens on June 14th.
Thank you.
I was like, it's not 16th.
This one opens on June 14th and runs for three weekends.
So it pretty much goes to the end of June.
And are you going to be doing anything else after the trench?
Do you have anything lined up?
Yeah, there's things in the works as always.
And I think Korda is going to have, regardless, is going to have a really cool season next
year with a lot of shows.
Yeah, because they just put up that call on Instagram for the directors to get your ideas
in.
Yeah.
So I have one of those written, but no, no guarantee.
Yeah.
And then I also work with some other companies and stuff.
Oh, so you also work elsewhere.
Yeah.
I'm I just was the scenic designer for St. Clair College for Cats.
So I oh, and I missed that one.
Oh, that's okay.
It was just tons of fun.
I heard it was fabulous.
Very talented students there.
Yeah.
And it was super fun to work on kind of that design side.
And I was in painting side.
I like I think it's really important to like appreciate and know about all the aspects
of theater.
I think it just makes you more versatile and generally like have a better awareness of
how the art making process happens and makes that go more smoothly.
For sure.
And have you thought of doing anything else like behind the scenes or do you just like
being on stage?
I am interested in directing.
I might also pitch something for next year as well.
Oh, that's exciting.
That is exciting, especially because you're so you just graduated.
So that's awesome.
I wish I had that kind of confidence to be able to do something like that.
This community fosters confidence in the people who come in here.
Yeah, they seem to be extremely supportive.
And I'm really excited.
I am definitely getting tickets to see Trench.
Now I can't remember if I already asked you how many have you directed so far?
With Korda or in general?
In general.
Yeah, I this is only my second time directing for Korda.
I direct I'm directing the Trench.
And I directed Romeo and Juliet last year.
And then I've directed for some other company that directed a play called Art by Yasmine
Areza, kind of a comedy about a friend who buys a white painting and everyone's upset
about it.
It's that kind of stuff.
And I've directed some children's theaters while I like working with kids.
But that's about it.
Yeah.
And he's doing improv tonight.
And tonight I have an improv show.
I guess we'll make it up.
Why not?
Yeah, I think it's great to be creative.
And you also are you in a band?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was I was I was on Instagram this morning kind of looking around.
Yeah, I'm in a band called Bitters.
If anyone wants to give it a listen, it's like alternative folk.
It's nice and chill.
Do you guys play around?
We play sometimes we're we're pretty busy people and there's six of us so it can be
hard to get together.
But we have a show in Toronto coming up.
But yeah, we usually will post on our Instagram if you want to follow us there, I guess.
Not what I'm here to promote, but I'm happy to do it.
But you know what?
Promote yourself.
Yeah.
And we we post when we play.
So that's great.
And Trench, who did you pick to be the lead?
Yeah.
So we have a young gifted actor named Rylan Thomas, who's currently studying at the university
for his BFA in acting.
And he just you know, he came into the rehearsal room.
He was really friendly, which is a great sign.
I love someone I that I feel like I can work with and is responsive to direction and stuff
like that.
He was just game for anything.
He's just really like, yeah, this is exciting.
Let's try this.
He also had already read the play.
He like looked it up and read the whole play.
I was like, well, that gets you bonus points.
But no, he's really dedicated to the process.
He's really game for anything.
And he's super physical, which is great because it's such a visceral physical show.
You know, we got everyone knee pads because there's a lot of crawling and sliding.
And you know, he's so good at facilitating a performance that helps everyone else on
stage like support him while still having all those emotional beats, hitting all those
moments.
That's a pretty heavy role for a young younger.
Yeah, we're going to age him up a little bit.
And who else is in the chorus?
So of course, we have Georgie Savoy.
Our other chorus members rounding out the team are Julia Pistorius, who's a great trained
in dance and acrobatics as well.
So really physical.
She's great.
Joey Wright, who's on the court of board.
He's very experienced.
He's been doing shows here for years.
And Brandon Chappis, who has a great like naturalism to him and really like soothing
deeper voice.
Yeah.
How does the chorus you said that they are basically showing his emotion and everything
that is going on?
Like, are they going to be just in the background or are they going to be around him?
Because I'm really trying to picture this.
We're everywhere.
Everywhere and nowhere.
Everywhere we're pulling pieces off of sets and interacting with him.
The play is more of a movement composition than a play where like every movement is thought
out and we're all moving as a unit around and about Bird.
And that's why I was having a hard time because like I said, reading up on it and it's like,
how do you ask questions about a show that is very eclectic and very, like you said,
visceral and it's almost like the chorus is a piece of the main character is definitely
one that you guys are going to have to come and check it out for yourself because it really
sounds like it's going to be an intense show.
Yeah, you hit it on the head there.
A lot of the times the chorus is so present because they are extensions of what Bird's
feeling and there's even times where they are acting as, you know, the way we've blocked
it, oh, you can't see Bird's face.
So another chorus member is mirroring him behind.
So what they're playing is what you're imagining Bird's going through.
So they're like really weaving in and out as storytellers and as extensions of Bird.
And it's been hard, but I think it's a really rewarding style of storytelling.
Well how long have you guys been practicing and working on this?
We started rehearsals in late February, I would say.
We usually do two a week and we're going to hop up to three soon.
Yeah, so we're almost done the blocking stage, which is kind of when you decide, like really
the choreography stage for this one.
And soon we'll be bringing in our two musicians for this show, which I'm really excited about.
We have an original score composed by a friend of mine, Dylan Ionacello.
Original?
Yeah.
That's nice.
Yeah, so the production when it premiered had a score written for it and I wanted to
do something similar, but I wanted, you know, I knew a lot of musicians.
Dylan Ionacello, another member of Bidders, is a very gifted technical musician and so
he's writing a score for just acoustic guitar and cello.
That's going to be really like haunting, beautiful, kind of like hopeful and fantastical.
It's really nice.
It's nice to be able to put your own little mark on it.
Yeah, of course.
That'll be great.
I'm so excited.
And again, make sure that you go onto the KordaZone Theater website, Instagram, find
them, call them and get the tickets as soon as they're available because I have a feeling
this is going to sell out, especially in Windsor, Essex County, where we have so many creative
people and love the theater and the theater is really coming back.
I want to thank both you, Georgie and Jeremy, for being here today and I'm really excited
to see the trench and in a couple of weeks, make sure you keep an eye on Instagram, the
KordaZone Theater website for when the tickets become available.
It's going to be three weekends in June, starting June 14th.
And I have a feeling that it's going to sell out fast because Windsor, Essex County is
really into their theater, into supporting local and it's going to be tough to get seats
here.
So thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you again.
Thank you.
And again, my name is Tracy Martens and thank you for joining me for another episode of
YQG In Bloom
You guys have a good day.