James Richardson
They Speak Horses, Don’t They?

By John Custodio

Translation issues aren’t just the concern of writers, actors, and directors; differences in language and culture affect behind-the-scenes work, too. Just ask James Richardson, who came to the School in 2000 to study Technical Production. Since graduating in 2003, this Winnipeg native has made the world his stage, working first for the primarily francophone company Cavalia, then for the Holland America fleet of luxury cruise liners. We asked him what it’s like working in languages he’s not fluent in.

Cavalia – © Frédéric Chéhu

“I started working at Cavalia in the summer of 2003, as the technical director of a new show that would later tour in Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Cavalia’s shows are similar in scope and style to Cirque du Soleil shows, except that in addition to clowns and acrobats, there are performing horses. The show I worked on had a stage 160 feet wide and a projection screen 200 feet wide that curved around it. Dirt, sand, and gravel—3,000 tons of it—made up the stage floor.

“Now I work for Holland America, a cruise-ship line with thirteen luxury liners, all of which have theatres comparable to anything on Broadway or in Las Vegas, complete with state-of-the-art, fully automated rigging, lighting, and audio technology. These ships put on two shows a night for audiences of up to a thousand people, shows with large casts that include dancers and musicians as well as actors.

“I’m an anglophone from Winnipeg, but I’ll work in whatever language I have to. In fact, I would say that I’ve worked more in other languages than I have in English. I’ve had to work in French, Italian, Tagalog (the H.A. crewmembers I work with backstage are Filipino), and Dutch. You can always find a way to communicate what needs to get done; you have to in this line of work. You learn to simplify cue commands, for example, and to use a lot of body and hand language. I make a lot of weird sounds myself.

“I don’t consider myself bilingual, certainly not enough to carry on a dinner conversation, but my French is just fine for yelling orders in a theatre. I make myself understood. When I arrived at the School in 2000, I didn’t speak any French at all, but I worked and became friends with a lot of francophone students and staff.

“We were a pretty diverse group, my class. French and English weren’t the only languages spoken; one of us spoke Japanese. We learned early on that if our class productions were to succeed, we had to find ways to convey our ideas—to each other, to the carpentry shop, to everyone we worked with.

“I remember working with Éric Gautron, who was like my counterpart in the francophone program. We did a dance show together. The crew was a mix of anglophones and francophones, as were the dancers. That was a great learning experience. You had an anglophone designer explaining lighting to a francophone choreographer and a francophone designer explaining wood, steel, and automation to an anglophone construction crew: we had to learn to use pictures to evoke emotions, but these were good lessons to learn.

“They certainly served me well when I went to work for Cavalia, where things got pretty hectic backstage, with all those dancers, acrobats, and stagehands wandering around, not to mention horses. When something went wrong, I had to be able to communicate quickly. You can’t yell orders when a show is in progress, so I learned to use body language, which essentially means lots of frantic waving. I learned hand signals and clicking sounds to communicate with the horses.

“When I go back to Winnipeg, I find it a bit strange not to have to use as much brain power to make myself understood.”

“When I started working for Holland America, it was on their newest ship, the MS Westerdam. We cruised around Europe for three and a half months or so, during which time we basically finished building the ship’s theatre. The contractors and builders I dealt with were Italian, and since I don’t speak Italian, I ended up buying a lot of espressos and learning new ways to gesticulate.

“I’m now so used to this way of communicating that when I go back to Winnipeg, or any place where everything is done in English, I find it a bit strange not to have to use as much brain power to make myself understood, like it’s too easy. So I’ve made Montreal my home base. I always said that I would choose where I’d live first and where I’d work second, so that if ever I weren’t working, I would at least like the place I called home. I fell in love with this city when I moved here in 2000, and I’ve never looked back.

“In October, I’m going back to Italy to oversee the construction, from the floor up, of a brand new theatre in a brand new ship. It will be my job to make sure that Holland America’s standards are met. Then, once the theatre’s built, I’ll be installing a new show and getting it ready for the ship’s maiden voyage. I’m really excited about it, and I don’t care what languages I have to work in.”

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