The following is reprinted from PuShing it, the blog of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

Monday, January 9, 2012

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE IDIOT CREATORS DIRECTOR JAMES FAGAN TAIT AND COMPOSER JOELYSA PANKANEA

Both “Crime and Punishment” and now “The Idiot” mark a certain production style in your body of work. How did it start?

JAMES FAGAN TAIT: I had just finished working in the Downtown East Side with over 80 actors in a play, and I had done a few Ann Jellicoe-type community plays – one on Toronto Island, one in the Downtown East Side [In the Heart of a City] and six in Enderby with the Splatsin First Nations band and the City of Enderby – and I started believing in the power of large community and music and many people on stage of different variety. I realized that large shows with just a group of white professional actors didn’t have the same same resonance for me anymore. Camyar [Chai at Neworld] said that their mandate was diversity and I said “Can we have another field of diversity on stage: community artists, students, professional artists and artists who are not Equity?” So we did Crime and Punishment and the result was significant. We’re pursuing the same mandate with The Idiot: to create a culture in the cast.

Where did the idea for adapting “The Idiot” come from?

JOELYSA PANKANEA: I think Jimmy always felt it made sense after Crime and Punishment. He used to tell me back then, “We have to do The Idiot! That’s the next one!” So something about it was right for him.Continue reading→