The Kaleidoscope Rests:
A Portrait of Sherry Bie

by Alexa Topolski

Since Sherry Bie, a long-time associate of the National Theatre School, assumed her latest and biggest role at the School in January of 2001, she’s had a new venue, a new script and a new audience. Her appointment marks the beginning of a new era: Perry Schneiderman, her predecessor, led the Acting and Playwriting Programs for the past ten years. A lot is resting on her shoulders: no matter how inclusive and democratic a director she may prove to be, her personality will inevitably filter into the characters of the programs, in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. For that reason, the question of who Sherry Bie is and what she stands for is inextricably entwined with the goals and characteristics of the Acting, Playwriting, and Directing Programs she now heads. With the latest twist of the kaleidoscope, the pattern of her diverse and sometimes unorthodox career has emerged as not only deliberately intricate but also inevitable. In retrospect, it’s tempting to conclude that everything in her life was leading up to this: the job of running three departments of a famous Canadian theatre school.

There’s no question the National Theatre School is entering another phase of its forty-year-plus existence. In the past two years, the School has undergone major changes. Bie is not the only new person at the School: many of her colleagues, many of them recruited by her, are also there for the first time. There are more than winds of change in the halls: more like gale-force gusts. Idealism is rampant. Bie works long hours. She has big dreams for her programs and her students. In her vulnerable moments, she is cautious about the huge responsibilities of her job. It’s a heady time.

Here are some of the changes Sherry Bie has wrought since becoming Artistic Director in January of 2001: she has introduced a Playlab, that offers the first-year Acting, Playwriting and Directing students the possibility to create together; established a Life Drawing class for the Acting and Playwriting students to give them an opportunity to interpret what they see in an intuitive, non-verbal way; set up a course in Canadian theatre; connected the first-years with the Montreal community through art projects and volunteer involvements; helped build unprecedented bridges between the English and French sections; brought in many new teachers, some of them from regions of Canada that had been under-represented at the School; and included self-evaluation to the student evaluation process.

Sherry Bie and Artistic Director of the French Acting, Playwriting and Directing Programs, Denise Guilbault.

So far, the changes she has made are the best kind of changes, ones that, once they’ve been made, seem obvious and timely. In fact, retooling the National Theatre School’s programs is a daunting undertaking. The first thing to recognize is that you can’t teach everything. "Their training is a life-long journey," Bie says. "You have to choose the basics. The question is, how do you marry the classical base and the adventurous spirit? Trying to design a program that is lean, that has rigour but is not excessive, has been a challenge.

"Edmonton-based actor and teacher Sandy Nicholls, one of Bie’s recent recruits, calls Bie "a breath of fresh air." In order to get a feel for what a typical day for her NTS Acting students is like, Nicholls spent one day following them through their classes, from their 8:00 a.m. warm-up to their evening rehearsal with her. "I was struck by their energy. I was impressed that they were fresh when they came through my door — and that’s professionalism."

"It’s like they’re training for an Olympian career," Bie, former UBC ski team captain, says, admitting "Sometimes I think their days are too full. I’m trying to give them some time to digest."

The essential training — Bie calls it the "core work" — has not changed substantially from the School’s first days. Bie compares the morning classes — in mind-body work, voice, movement, and other essentials — to the pianist’s scales. "It is their training," Bie explains. "I think it’s really important that the work we’re doing is inspired by Michel Saint-Denis’ model.

Through the years different directors, like Perry and Nick, have added to and enriched that work. We’re building on the experience and gifts of the teachers that came before."

Ker Wells, an Acting graduate who returned to teach a course at the School last fall at Bie’s invitation, was struck by his fellow teachers’ curiosity and supportiveness. "I think Sherry has very good instincts and she has assembled a group of people who can really do something," says Wells. Since he does a lot of work focused on movement with his company, Number Eleven Theatre, Wells was pleased to see the way the School’s courses meshed. "One of the exciting things about the movement training is that it produces a strong, connected body in the same way the voice training produces a strong, connected voice."

All the courses seek to lay down pathways for a lifetime of learning. Intellectual curiosity, a firm grasp of the classics, imagination, concentration and control are the students’ tools. "The more talent an artist has, the more technique an artist needs to release that talent," Bie explains. "The goal is to bring out the talent of each student, and that has been the goal of the School since the beginning. I want our students to walk away knowing they have the resources they need inside themselves, and the power to release them."

Bie’s own path has always made a priority of learning and exploration — two values common to good teachers and good actors. The last time she was based in Montreal was as a graduate student, when she studied Art and Education at McGill University. Diploma in hand, she started her teaching career at a progressive school outside Toronto whose curriculum was based on art. For Bie, it was an opportunity to continue researching her specialization at McGill: the area where play and learning intersect.

But the pull of the theatre was too strong, and she went back to Vancouver to train to be an actor. Bie was a member of the first class of the Playhouse School, which was founded by Powys Thomas, who had previously launched the National Theatre School. Thomas’s generosity of spirit was a great inspiration to Bie, as to so many others. "Powys was revisiting his experience at the NTS and reinventing it in some ways. He went back to Wales and then died suddenly, so we were the only class trained by him at the Vancouver Playhouse."

Bie left the school a few weeks before graduation to join the Caravan, a traveling theatre troupe run by former NTS Director Nick Hutchinson. The company included twenty people, nine Clydesdales and eight riding horses. For two years Bie traveled on horseback from town to town in Alberta and British Columbia, performing everything from Shakespeare to new works. "It was grueling — unbelievably hard work," she recalls. In spite of that, "It was really fun and it enchanted and transported in a way that only theatre can do. We’d go to these tiny towns and they’d be packed." At times Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Hutchinson’s mother, joined the troupe. The two became friends. Ashcroft’s artistry, generosity and depth made her an abiding influence in Bie’s life.

Bie settled into the life of the Canadian actor. Although she continued to consider herself a Vancouver artist, she got herself a place in Toronto and criss-crossed the country, following the jobs. Some of the highlights from those years were: Tartuffe with Derek Goldby; the premier of Morris Panych’s 7 Stories; originating the character of Jenny in Jenny’s Story; and a recent production of George F. Walker’s Problem Child. Bie also acted in films, including the gothic thriller The Reflecting Skin, today a cult favourite in England. Another unforgettable experience, says Bie, was working with two hearing-impaired actors in a co-production of Children of a Lesser God. Bie also enjoyed successes as a director, notably with her interpretation of Dancing at Lughnasa, which Douglas Campbell considers "the most honest production of the piece I have seen."

John Lazarus, an award-winning playwright and former theatre critic and CBC radio arts correspondent, has followed Sherry Bie’s career since the early seventies. He calls her "a very, very confident, powerful actor." Lazarus reviewed Bie’s work in many plays over the years. He singles out her creation of Jenny in Jenny’s Story, about a young woman in the Canadian prairies who is sterilized against her will, calling it "a remarkable acting achievement."

In 1989, looking to expand her boundaries beyond the theatre community, Bie moved back to Vancouver. Before long she was a board member, and then president, of the Stanley Park Ecology Society, whose goal was to educate the public about ecological issues through projects like letting city kids camp overnight in the park. At the same time, she continued to act and direct, becoming the first-ever recipient of the Ray Michal New Director Award in 1991.

Bie, who had started teaching story telling for a month every year at the National Theatre School, also became the School’s Vancouver representative for the annual Acting auditions, leading the auditions and screening candidates. Now, as Artistic Director of the Program, one of her responsibilities is the national audition tour, a "long, arduous" process but one she welcomes as a chance to touch base. "I see people I’ve worked with. It’s a community that’s thinly spread across the country. We can say, ‘OK, this is what we’re doing, now what are you guys doing?’ It’s a way to share, better than over the phone. I look forward to it."

The School’s commitment to all the country’s communities is important to Bie. "In terms of the ‘National’ side of the School, it feels to me that it’s something we have to earn. We have earned it in central Canada, but we have to in terms of the east, west and north as well." One way she is doing that is by bringing in teachers from those areas, like Pamela Hawthorne from British Columbia and Jill Kylie from Newfoundland. In Bie’s eyes, the School’s responsibility extends beyond potential students and teachers. "How can we share our resources in a way that is nourishing for the professional theatre community? And our outlying communities?"

The microcosm of the School offers a chance to cement bonds between two other communities — French and English. Sherry Bie’s counterpart in the French section, Denise Guilbault, assumed her new position at the same time as Bie. The two have become friends — it was Guilbault who drove Bie to the airport at Christmas for her flight to Vancouver. "Our programs are different, our approaches are different, but it’s so revealing to confront them," says Bie. "It gives you another vantage point. It feeds both of us and I think it feeds the kids." The increased dialogue has led to changes both in and out of the curriculum: in the fall the French students each "adopted" an English student, complete with adoption certificates; the English students hosted a "Bohemian Poetry" night and have started a Wednesday night French class on their own initiative; both groups meet at the same bar on Friday nights to blow off steam. In addition, the English and French Directing students share one office.

Snapshot: Sherry Bie’s office at the National Theatre School, Montreal, 2001: it’s the half-way mark of Bie’s first full term, just before Christmas. One by one, the students she has come to know so well slip in for their interviews with Bie and their other teachers. As requested, each has prepared a list of what they consider their successes and challenges of the past months. It goes well. There are glimmerings of camaraderie and complicity between the teachers. The students are receptive, insightful. As the interviews pass, a feeling starts to rise in her like the feeling you get when you get the first scent of spring.

She thinks to herself, "Okay. Okay…"

Top of article