Nathalie Bonjour invites us on an exhilarating journey through the extreme states of the heart, from anguish and fervour to passion and rage. It is a universal narrative, and we can all intimately relate to L-E-V’s vulnerable study on heartbreak.

For Andre to direct a play, there would have to be something that inspires him so much that doesn’t have something for him in it. That play would have to give him the drive and challenge as if he was in it because that’s the type of theatre he likes to do.

But has Covid changed or transformed us as artists? I guess it has made us fighters. We will not lose our dream, and so we are adapting at every turn, as best we can, and we do so with determination. And I hope that I will personally be able to get back on stage soon as well. In French or in English, I need to be performing.

One teacher who has influenced me is d.b. young. I was part of the Soulpepper Academy and d.b. young was with us every Monday of the seven months we were studying. She’s awesome…she…built us up with confidence, especially within me and my ability to push myself towards a theatre career by being honest and real about it. That helped me a lot as an immigrant to be able to trust myself again, be confident again in what I believe…

Covid gave us that opportunity to just sit and be because we’re always on the go in this industry all the time to stay current on all levels…

I really came to realize how much theatre and acting mean to me. I said this to a couple of people and it does sound very, very dramatic but I felt as if I had lost somebody; there was this emptiness within my person at the thought of not being able to perform or be on stage again.

“Don’t become jealous of the success of others and try not to let that be something that drives you. Think about the connections you make with other people and the collaborations. Hold on to that because that is a source of strength. Nourish that.”

I’m in a place in my life where the pandemic taught me to take care of myself first a little bit more. With self care, things then fall in line around you versus trying to take care of other people, or take care of your job or try to serve something without serving yourself in a way that helps you and lends better results

I don’t think anyone can be unchanged by these 20 months from a social-political perspective, from a personal perspective, from not experiencing in person theatre. A lot of our work (from Theatre Passe Muraille) that is to come on our stages is work that was postponed from the pandemic. I’m definitely intrigued to see what’s to come.

When I was in my early 20s in Chicago for a year and a half performing ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ with Donny Osmond…when he would enter the group of the ensemble it was a pretty sublime moment of being with him. He let go of who he was for the moment, and his kids, and his commitment to the show and he would just BE with us…

Initially there will be a struggle to bring audiences back safely. But once they feel safe and ready to return, they’ll be so hungry for a live experience. I’m hopeful that theatres will be able to capitalize on that energy.

What intrigues me is seeing how theatre will be shaped as we start implementing more and more of the lessons we are learning … I am intrigued to see just how much we can decolonize this beloved art form and make it of use for the world we want to see.

I have a lot of close friends who surprised me in the way they are challenging the vaccinations and Covid. They challenged me on who I thought they were, and they were also challenged on who they thought I was. It really brought politics, beliefs and who you really to the forefront, and made you stand there and confront what’s happening.

Rehearsals are going SOOO WELLL they’re a delight. I wake up every day excited before I’m even awake enough to know what I’m excited about. It’s wildly exciting and very stimulating. Chris (Abraham) is an excellent, excellent wingman to have as a dramaturg and as director…

As a female, I do have a somewhat marginalized viewpoint to share, because we’re still struggling to achieve gender parity in the theatre industry, but I’m extremely aware that there are voices far more marginalized than my own… is there a way for me to support those voices being heard in my role as an emerging playwright? That’s what I’m exploring now.

I’m very grateful for my early drama teachers - Dorothy Leitch in Kitchener at the Beckett School and Mrs. Catherine Carlson, my drama teacher, at Grand River Collegiate. Both these women were great teachers who believed in me and fueled my passion in acting. I’m also grateful to Andy Massingham…

I love directing. My insecurities as an actor leave me when I’m directing. When I think of a play, I never think of the part I want to play but the play I want to do. I often think I get hired as an actor, I love acting, but if someone told me tomorrow that I’m not going to be acting anymore, I’d be okay.

I’ve lost so much of my family time to the arts just with late nights and weekends, and all the demands the arts takes from you. I’ve really lost a good amount of family time over my lifetime. To have this time is an important place for me to continue to grow.

I’m fascinated by the human condition and how people operate under the conditions we’ve been under and how we’ve adjusted and not adjusted. I’m also fascinated by the strength of the human spirit.

It’s a very thin line for the filmmaker in deciding how to be there and not be there. I never want to see myself in it. Every documentary I film, I don’t want to see myself in it. I hate it when I can see myself because it looks crafted, it looks like a reality show and I don’t want to see myself in anything.