Sharon Pollock speech
2008 Gascon-Thomas Award Recipient

National Theatre School
October 24, 2008

A few words to the student body.
Well, here I am - and there you are - I'm looking at the future of theatre, and I do take the liberty of charging you with that future. It's in your hands, and hearts and minds and souls.

Here I am, with the end of my life in the theatre approaching, since I don't expect to live forever - well, I may expect to, but that probably won't happen. And there you are with infinite possibility spread out before you. I feel privileged that I'm able to catch a glimpse of that future in my brief residency at the school, and I'm deeply honoured to be the recipient of the 2008 Gascon Thomas Award.

I could say that Powyrs Thomas, Jean Gascon and I were like ships that passed in the night, except that wouldn't be true. Powyrs and Christopher Newton were setting up the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre School when I was living in Van and writing my first stage play. We may have exchanged a few words on occasion as we brushed shoulders in a theatre bar, but that was it. Still Powyrs was an energizing presence in the community, and his commitment to theatre inspired many of us from afar. I very much admired Jean Gascon, again from afar, and I was exceedingly grateful to him. As Artistic Director of The Stratford Festival Theatre he included my second play "Walsh" in his season thus making me "an established playwright" by virtue of that one production - which tells you how misleading labels can be.

So we weren't like ships that passed in the night. They were ships that broke the waves of rough seas and I was a small rowboat making my way in their wake, and my way was made easier by their going before.

An important thing to remember. Nobody does it alone. Even a solo performer, in an empty square, needs some one to stop, listen, and watch, if only for a moment.

I think it's also good to remind ourselves just how fresh and new theatre in this country is. In the early 30's, not so very long ago, the well respected theatre practitioner, a playwright and academic, Merrill Dennison wrote that Canadian plays, meaning Canadian in setting and content, were as impossible to imagine as a desert Bedouin never having seen the sea coming up with a sailboat. We were to find our stories in the stories of the Mother Country, and the voice of culture and theatre was to be the voice of the colonizer. We were to ape our betters and in doing so, deny ourselves.

That was brought home to Canadians in myriad ways. Some large, some small. When I got my Equity card in '63/'64, as an actor you were unable to speak in your natural voice on stage - that is, if you wanted to work. You had a repertoire of regional accents for plays set in America, Great Britain, Ireland, and a mid-Atlantic accent for the work of Moliere, Chekhov, Ibsen and such like, although their plays were clearly not set in the mid-Atlantic. Times changed led by people like Paul Thompson, George Ryga, Bill Glassco, Doug Riske, along with many others. Nobody does it alone.

I speak of the past because you are the future. And because I believe the challenge presented to theatre artists today is more complex and profound than the freeing of our theatre from the cultural yoke of British colonialism. The extension of power or authority, rule or influence, in the interests of domination, can take many forms.

I do not work in "the entertainment industry". I'm offended when the kind of theatre I've given my life to is described as such by theatre artists and not-for-profit companies to justify their programming and their existence. Of course entertainment is the envelope for what I do - but I want a letter in that envelope - although experience has taught me that if the envelope is colourful enough, many audiences are quite happy receiving no mail.

Don't be seduced by that. Insist on writing to them, even if it's only to say p.s. I love you. I sincerely hope that whatever you do, with whoever and however you do it, you put a letter in the envelope, and take responsibility for what it means.

If we are to have a truly Canadian theatre I believe we need to look at whose voices are silenced or homogenized today, whose faces are relatively unseen, whose stories are too often untold on our main stage and established theatres. I support colour blind casting when race is not germane to the play and I believe we must acknowledge the privileged position of the Caucasian actor when it comes to casting. How we address and rectify that depends on you. The diversity of the student body here is reassuring. What concerns me is what happens when you leave this supportive environment. What roles you'll be considered for when you turn up for auditions.

Theatre is a demanding mistress. I hope you do not let your social, political and artistic investment in theatre exclude or prevent you from active participation in the social, economic and political issues of our time.

A cautionary note to close. I have a quote from playwright Vaclev Havel over my desk, in about 16 font type. I refer to it often, and I offer it to you along with my wishes for future success. The advice Havel gives:
"Seek the company of those who search for truth; run from those who've found it."

Thank you.

Sharon Pollock

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