The Story: Interview - Ken Gass

Eyes on the Future

A new chapter opens in a turbulent life

by Christian Baines

@XtianBaines

It was the story that dominated Toronto theatre all Summer. The Board of Factory Theatre had decided the company’s future would be better served without the vision of its founding Artistic Director and one-time rescuer, Ken Gass. What escalated in the wake of that decision was the kind of bitter feud most theatre professionals will only face in their nightmares. Artists from across the country swore to boycott the Factory. Prominent Canadian playwrights George F. Walker and Judith Thompson withdrew their plays from the 2012-13 season. And while opinions flew from both sides, the outpouring of support for Gass, one of Canadian theatre’s loudest and most respected advocates, was tremendous, and ongoing. 

While the Board would ultimately not be moved, the incident has wreaked massive damage on the Factory’s reputation, something Gass addressed in a September press release, which confirmed he would not be returning to the troubled company. 

“I think for survival, I needed to just cut the cord and move onward,” he says. “I think it’s astonishing that it’s that same Board of Directors that are still in place. What’s happening now seems to be that Board is trying to find a way to salvage its self-esteem or something, and not really thinking in terms of what’s the answer for the Factory. How does the Factory renew itself? How does the Factory regain the confidence of the community?”

A touch of cynicism, even bitterness is evident in his posture.

Though Gass is a realist, with eyes firmly set on the future – specifically the revival of his 30 year old dream, Canadian Repertory Theatre - he makes no effort to hide the wounds inflicted by the Factory dispute. A touch of cynicism, even bitterness is evident in his posture. He leans on one elbow at the table, fidgeting between sips of juice as he dissects the endemic problem seemingly responsible for the fiasco. “What became obvious was that there’s no mechanism to deal with a Board,” he explains. “There’s nobody to call them into question. Not the Arts Council, no government body. The only recourse is for the people who are aggrieved to take this Board to court, through a very expensive process of litigation, which would take a year, a year and a half, and cost tens of thousands of dollars, to have the Board removed or to change its… whatever.”

While his battle with Factory dominated headlines throughout the Summer, much of Gass’s support has followed him to the revived Canadian Rep Theatre, which will begin its life with the English language premiere of Wajdi Mouawad’s Pacamambo. For some, Gass believes, the project's return is a much needed breath of positivity after the negative story that grew around Factory. But a focus on the positive doesn’t mean he’s shying away from dark themes – not even in children’s theatre.

death and Julie have a conversation. They have the most extraordinary conversation about life

“(Pacamambo)’s just a beautiful, poetic play. But it is challenging, thinking about theatre for children about death. And yet children do, at a certain age – the girls in the play about 12 or so – lose their grandparents and they have to deal with ‘what is death?’ So this is about a girl who’s very angry, when she suddenly loses her grandmother. It’s such a universal theme, and yet in Wajdi’s theatrical universe, he manages to deal with it with humour. The grandmother and the dog start talking to each other, as the girl starts to go a little crazy and around the bend. The girl, Julie is simply waiting for death. She wants death to come so she can give death a piece of her mind. Eventually in the play, death does come. And death and Julie have a conversation. They have the most extraordinary conversation about life.” 

While some might argue the risk of opening with such a work, particularly geared towards children, Gass waves these concerns away with confidence in the sophistication of his audience. “What I actually discovered at Factory, was that audiences ultimately expect something of weight and substance. We always talk about producing plays that are substantial, that have substantive weight of ideas. For me, some of the great successes were shows like Brothel #9, a very dark play. I thought audiences were going to have a very tough time with it. But I was just astonished at just how well that particular show did. She’s talking about using fertilizer on herself, and talking about the darkness. It’s a play that ends on a sort of ray of hope within the bleakness.”

whenever you try to do something to be popular, it always fails

Gass confesses it may be some time before audiences see mainstream comedies at Canadian Rep Theatre, an assessment partly shaped by his time with Factory. “In my experience, whenever you try to do something to be popular, it always fails. Maybe just the context of Factory, or something. We did a show called Hockey Dad, Hockey Mom. I thought ‘well that should bring in some of the 905 audience’ and it didn’t really. It did okay. It ran for a while in 2003/4. But you know that play would do really well if you produced it at Markham or something. You produce it in a downtown, urban environment, people say ‘Er, it’s a bit soft.’ They want the balance.”

It’s a balance he’s confident of finding in George F. Walker’s Dead Metaphor, which makes its Canadian premiere as the second show of Canadian Rep Theatre's debut season. “With Walker there’s always entertainment value, there’s always humour. His last play about the schizophrenic child and all that. People losing their jobs. It was a pretty dark play in fact. That’s what people want. The audience that I’ve cultivated, and that I think will transfer to Canadian Rep, want to be stimulated. They want to be intellectually engaged.” He goes on to discuss the approach to programming at Soulpepper, a theatre company on a scale he – perhaps – would one day like to see for Canadian Rep Theatre. “For me, Canadian Rep Theatre was always a sort of Soulpepper scale project, but focused on the Canadian viewpoint. I don’t think I have quite the fundraising power that Albert has managed, but I think we’ll move as far down that road as we can.”

It’s easier when you have the infrastructure fully in place… So it’s harder for a while.

The final play of the season is Judith Thompson’s Watching Glory Die, which, along with Dead Metaphor, abandoned the Factory Theatre as part of the boycott in protest of Gass’s dismissal. Asked about how the sudden change of home and theatre company affects the realization of these works, he embraces it as a mix of challenges and new opportunities. “It’s the same process. Obviously, the Factory has the building, the facility, operating grants. It’s easier when you have the infrastructure fully in place… So it’s harder for a while.” But Gass says he is ready, and enjoying the freedom of his new venture. “It’s great to be just focusing on this, and on the work, and on building and not what I went through last year.” 

“I’m just very hands-on – kind of a farm boy, a cowboy in that way. I see something that needs doing I’ll just fix it myself,” he reveals with a kind of sly smile that leaves one wondering if this admission is a subtle thumbed nose at Factory’s Board.

Canadian Rep Theatre aims to commence its first full season in Fall 2014. In the meantime, Gass will be busy with a company finding its own identity and purpose within the theatre community. He stresses that the idea of Canadian Rep Theatre is not entirely unique, though he does hope its work will help to explore and understand the Canadian voice and canon. A series of monthly readings will begin in 2013, dedicated to established Canadian repertoire. Thompson’s I Am Yours is distinctly on the cards, along with works by Michel Tremblay such as Les Belles-Soeurs. “Ultimately I always wanted to do Les Belles-Soeurs and Rez Sisters and sort of do the plays in repertoire, looking at how those two plays might intersect. So I think it’s a kind of way to preview some of those ambitions of Canadian Rep Theatre.” A reflection of Canada’s contemporary ethnic diversity will also be key to the company’s identity. “The core company will have some kind of resemblance to the demographics of the country. It’s likely to be at least 50% artists of colour. Whatever portrays the diversity. That will certainly be part of the way we examine work.”

With the headlines and heated battles of 2012 behind him, Gass is looking forward to bringing audiences new ideas unhaunted by the ghosts of theatre politics. "The company’s been on my mind and the ideas have been there for decades. It’s there. I think, without the Factory, there is something liberating to say, ‘let’s focus on this, and if it takes a little longer, at least marching down this road as consistently as we can.’"