Jackie Maxwell:
- The Mentor's Practice

By Patrick McDonagh

Jackie Maxwell – © David Cooper

"You've reached an interesting age in your career when someone wants to give you a lifetime achievement award," says Jackie Maxwell, who is the 2005 anglophone winner of the National Theatre School's Gascon-Thomas Award for her contributions to Canadian theatre. "You think, 'Gee - am I really at that age?' It makes you take stock of what you have done." When Maxwell takes stock, she can reflect on a career that has seen her travel the long path from child actor in Belfast to Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, with notable stops along the way as AD of Toronto's Factory Theatre from 1987-95, and as Head of New Play Development at the Charlottetown Festival from 1996-2000.

Maxwell got her Equity card at fourteen – “I played all the child roles in the Belfast professional theatre,” she says – and attended the theatre program at the University of Manchester, “fully intending to play Juliet at the RSC.” But fate, or personality, intervened. “To be a successful actor, I think you need a strong inner belief in yourself, and a narrow focus on your art. Whereas I was doubt-ridden, and I have a magpie brain.” Fortunately, there are places in theatre for the magpie-minded. “As a director, you have to see every tiny detail as well as the big picture,” she says. “And I certainly find it as creatively fulfilling.”

Maxwell discovered her directorial inclinations after coming to Canada and working as an assistant at the National Arts Centre in the late 1970s. A sense of openness in the theatre community at that time made it comparatively easy to experiment. “People would say, ‘You want to do what? OK, let’s try it,’” she recalls. This openness was also expressed in the support she received from established artists. “As a young director, I was lucky to work with talented, experienced actors who taught me a huge amount,” she says. “I was introduced to new work with Sharon Pollock and mentored by her in how to work with writers. And throughout my career I have benefited from extraordinary generosity. And as you get older,” she stresses, “it should be a natural progression that you take over the mantle of leadership yourself – either one-on-one with younger artists, or, if you enjoy running things, through an organization. But however you approach it, you must embrace the notion of your generation becoming leaders and mentors.”

Success in the arts – in terms of artistic growth if not pecuniary increase – involves engaging with both the form and its practitioners. While one gives, one also receives. “I believe you have a responsibility to partake in the theatre community, and not be focused on simply furthering your career,” says Maxwell. “It may sound a bit po’-faced, but I believe in mentorship and encouraging young actors, writers, and directors. Artistic practice is a two-way street – you have to see your own path in context.” As she notes, there are countless ways to participate and contribute. Some may be overtly political – in the 1980s, Maxwell helped found PAND (Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament) – whereas others include more traditional activities, such as serving on juries and arts councils. “Canadian theatre allows lots of ways of participating. Your journey as an artist is important, and is the sum of all those ancillary activities as well as work in the theatre itself.”

“Teaching forces me to clarify how or why I do things, so I can be clear with the young actors and make sure they understand my expectations. There is definitely a line between directing and teaching.”

One of Maxwell’s on-going contributions has been as a guest faculty member of the National Theatre School. And while she gives of herself freely, she also receives. “It’s energizing to work with students,” she says. “You have to check your cynicism at the door and challenge your assumptions – it clears a lot of the cobwebs. Teaching forces me to clarify how or why I do things, so I can be clear with the young actors and make sure they understand my expectations. There is definitely a line between directing and teaching.”

Maxwell was a fixture at the School for several years, and today a generation of young actors has grown under her tutelage. Currently, she is working closely with School alumni Eda Holmes (Directing 1996) and Morwyn Brebner (Playwriting 1996), as she has commissioned Brebner to do translations of two one-act Chekhov plays that Holmes will direct at the Shaw Festival next summer. “And I’m sure I still talk to Michelle Giroux (Acting 1997) in an overtly maternal way,” she laughs.

Norman Browning, Guy Bannerman, Diana Donnelly (Acting 2000), and Mary Haney (Acting 1975) in Bus Stop by William Inge, directed by Jackie Maxwell, Shaw Festival – © David Cooper

Maxwell has been the Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival since 2002. Her predecessor Christopher Newton had led the Festival for 23 years and toward the end of his tenure, opened the mandate to include contemporary works about Shaw’s time in addition to plays from Shaw’s period (which, fortunately for the cause of programming freedom, extends from 1856 – 1950). “The chance to include contemporary works and revel in their juxtaposition with those from Shaw’s day certainly attracted me,” says Maxwell, who has made contemporary drama an important part of the programme. She regularly commissions new translations of non-English plays, as well as of new Canadian plays. The Festival’s New Play Development program – one of Maxwell’s initiatives – has eight projects currently underway, and this year’s program included Ann-Marie MacDonald’s (Acting 1980) Belle Moral. “People are responding well. The company loves it, and I think the audience is jumping on board too.”

The task of directing the Shaw Festival takes full advantage of Maxwell’s magpie skills. “There are all sorts of things you don’t normally think of as being part of the theatre,” she says. “For instance, I do a lot of ‘cultivation’ events – we have subscribers, and 42% of our audience is American, so I’ve travelled all over the place talking about the Festival. I don’t mind, as I feel passionately about what we are doing, but it can be exhausting.” Fortunately, her job as AD still allows time to direct the odd play on her own. “I have to – if I didn’t direct, I’d wither or at least become very grumpy.”

In winning the Gascon-Thomas Award, Maxwell joins a select group of theatre practitioners – many of whom she works with almost daily. “The Shaw was crawling with Gascon-Thomas winners the day I discovered I was receiving it,” she says. “Martha Henry (Acting 1963), Ann-Marie MacDonald, Christopher Newton, and Neil Munro (Acting 1967) were all there – so I knew I was in good company.”

Ultimately, one’s theatre contribution stems from everyday practice. “I don’t think anyone does things as a ‘contribution’ – you just do what you do, then evaluate it and do some more. I wouldn’t say I’ve done twenty visionary productions, but I’ve spread some good ideas around, and perhaps that is my contribution to the ongoing life of Canadian theatre,” she says. “I would describe myself as an avid and proactive collaborator, who has tried to create environments where people can work together with freedom and passion. And that makes me very proud.”

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