The "new" BMT

I'm not sure how I feel right now. It's been six months since the Canadian premiere of Bare closed and I have been fairly busy doing some theatre since.

In September, I was added, last minute, to the cast of the remount of the Canadian premiere of Jerry Springer - The Opera. Because I'm sort of a musical theatre snob, I could appreciate the art behind the subject matter but not its execution or message. I pretty much did the show so I could meet some people and sing some pretty songs. I succeeded in doing both of these things, so the experience wasn't a total loss.

Then, I was thrown into the original Canadian cast of High Fidelity: the Musical which was a great experience, though I'm not too sure the show was that good. I mean, it was good. People came to see it in droves but I didn't see it for myself and from what I hear, we did the best we could with shotty material.

Anyway, I'm writing this post because I'm feeling so overwhelmed with defeat. I just read a review of Urinetown by a professor who I truly respect as an artist. This show is being staged by a company called BMT, which I founded and Artistic Directed from 2005-2008. For four years I ate, slept and shat this company and made it in to something amazing. The whole point of this company was to create another opportunity for artistic growth in the students at Brock. It was completely self-sufficient and was completely staffed and run by students. We had some great shows and some not-so-great shows, but we always had a good time.

When I graduated and started attending Sheridan, the students at Brock took control of the company and kept it going. Urinetown is the second show that BMT has done without me and I am so proud of everything these students have accomplished. I remember having to fight tooth and nail to make this company succeed, raise money, find rehearsal space, negotiate performance rights and on top of all of that, direct the show! I had no idea what I was doing when I started, but decided just to dive on in. If you know me, you know I don't do anything in a small way, so the first show I decided to do was Jesus Christ Superstar. This is a show that some seasoned theatre companies stay away from, simply because it is a huge undertaking, expensive and vocally demanding. Though our staging of this musical could possibly go down in history as one of the worst ever (though my mother still says this was her favourite of all my shows), we still put on a show and didn't give up. Since then, I directed Tommy (a production people are still talking about) and High School Musical (which I wish people would stop talking about because it was pretty terrible).

The reason I preface with a summary of what I did while at Brock is this: never once did I think this was going to be a competition for best staging of a musical. I would simply choose a show I thought would be fun and did it. I wish I would have known that five years later a phrase like this would enter a review,

"This is BMT's most successful show to date of the ones I've seen, with reduced numbers on stage leading to more controlled and clean stages images as well as much more effective storytelling...With their new off-campus digs, one gets a sense of this being a producing organization beginning to grow into their own. My challenge to the group: either find as interesting a musical as Urinetown for next year, or write your own. Please don't lapse back into the ever so cheesy and un-ironized american musicals: successfully tackling a piece like Urinetown is a testament to your creative and critical intelligence."

Perhaps Urinetown is the company's best show to date. It might very well be. It is directed by Spencer Smith who I have worked with and have come to know as a first-rate peformer, writer and all-around intelligent theatre practicioner. I will be the first to admit that he has entered this show with much more knowledge and know-how than I had when I first helmed Superstar.

However, I don't think this should ever have been a competition. Why didn't anyone tell me that this little thing I was doing for fun was going to end up tarnishing my name for years to come. Yes, High School Musical was a bad show, but does that make it okay to say, "This show wasn't great, but at least it wasn't as bad as Brian's High School Musical." Why compare the new with the old? If I had known this were the case, I would have tried a little harder.

I was looking forward to seeing this production. Not to compare this show to mine, but to support my friends and see the amazing things BMT is accomplishing and how it has grown. But this article suggests I do something else. Should the gloves come off? Should I get defensive and critical?

I don't mean to sound bitter and jealous because these are not the things I am feeling. I owe my entire career as an artist to the work I did with BMT. This is where I was taught everything I know about theatre and I know that the students involved with the company today will take what they learned and do amazing things in the "real world." I do, however, feel as though the "challenge" set out by the reviewer shows he has missed the point. This company was not started in order to make it to Broadway or win a Dora award. It was simply to have some fun putting on a musical that you either never got to do or always wanted to do. Why judge? Maybe the next director wants to direct Hairspray. Is that not okay anymore?

I say it is. Do all the mainstream, fluffy, meaningless, cookie-cutter musicals you want! Do them badly!! But break your back doing them badly and suck every last bit of experience out of doing them. Learn everything to can doing these shows because when you're done and you're ready to direct something out in the world (like the Canadian premiere of Bare, perhaps [which got positive reviews from four out of five national publications]) you don't have that luxury. You have to be on your guard 100% of the time. This is when the gloves come off. This is when you get defensive and critical.

Theatre doesn't have to be cut-throat all the time. It can simply be a group of artists doing their best to put on a show and have fun at the same time. I hope the cast and crew of Urinetown had the time of their lives and did a lot of learning at the same time. I also hope that when I travel back to St. Catharines next year, I am not pummled by some pretentious peice of metaphorical darkness. Instead, I want to see something beautiful. Whether it be Mamma Mia or The Black Rider, I want to see young people having a great time and committing 100% to whatever it is.