Host 0:03

Hello, welcome to Her Canuck Voice, where we are talking about things, performing arts, and the power of connection. My name is Lindsay Anne Dow. I am the Her in Her Canuck Voice. And this season I'm taking you behind the scenes of my first ever professional production, Dear Evan Hansen. This is a multi-Tony award-winning musical debuting for the first time in Kelowna BC Canada this spring. So, ladies and gentlemen, take your seats and enjoy the show. m The voice you are listening to is Randy Leslie, my director and choreographer, and artistic managing director at Kelowna Actors Studio. Randy does not appear on stage in Dear Evan Hansen, but the work he does behind the scenes is integral to the show. He is also the one responsible for acquiring the materials, the rights and permissions, all the technical stuff, so that we could put on the official Broadway show in our little dinner theater in Kelowna. As you will hear shortly, it goes far beyond merely selling tickets for Randy. He has been an Evan. And he too once found himself in a place where suicide felt like the only way out. Which brings me to my trigger warning before we get into it here, since Randy's past and the story of Dear Evan Hansen deal with complex themes of mental health, suicide, and grief. Please honor where you're at with these subjects. And if it's not for you, that's okay. I invite you to move along and take care of yourself. This is heavy stuff, and it's not for everyone. Okay, I'll provide a bit of an update before we get into my sit-down with Randy. At the time of this recording, we are already six shows into our 18-show run. Crazy a third of the way through. I'm currently on a dark day, meaning no show, and those fall for us on Mondays and Tuesdays. Being home, back to my regular responsibilities, feels not gonna lie, strange. I think we had 11 or 12 days in a row at the theater every day, fine-tuning, finessing. Hours would pass. I never knew what time it was, when I had eaten last. Would it be light or dark when we exited out the back to our cars? It was anyone's guess. Now, coming from a habitual clock checker and snack packer, this is totally outside my character. I've actually been meaning to do some research on the creative brain. And what is firing in there to make time just totally disappear? And so, thank goodness my in-laws were out during the lead up to live shows and could take a lot off my plate. When I say it takes a village for a mom to be out of commission for six weeks or so, I mean it. Between my husband taking on more at home, to babysitters watching the kids, to other parents carpooling, to grandparents swooping in, we are leaning on all our resources right now. This is no small feat, and we knew what we were getting into. And I do believe the first time will always be the most challenging. I have learned so much about the process, what to change next time, what boundaries to put in place. Anyway, I digress. I sat down with Randy Leslie one evening when the eight of us opted to get together on our own time and run lines. We had the night off, but we were getting closer to each other, I mean. We were beginning to lean on each other and show up for each other, hence meeting up on our own time. And besides, running lines on your own is not so stimulating. So I came in a bit early and dragged Randy away from his lighting programming in order to ask him the deep questions. Naturally, he was all for it. Turns out he loves an opportunity to push boundaries on stage. Dear Evan Hansen, while it's wildly popular amongst musical theater lovers, is still relatively new and unproven. And in a smaller town, Kelowna, with conservative leaning values, a show about mental health and suicide may not have the biggest draw. But it's not about that, says Randy. I'll let you listen on to hear why. Oh, and I had a few technical difficulties recording this episode. Randy says it's the ghost of his mother. So I'll pop in to fill in some of the gaps when my recording program accidentally cut out. Awesome. Randy Leslie opened Kelowna Actors Studio 23 years ago with his partner, Nathan Flavel. At 61, he has directed and starred in approximately 200 shows, the most recent being Dear Evan Hansen. Since I recorded this, he has also expressed that Dear Evan Hansen is his number one show to date. That's right. He is also choreographing and leading lighting design for Hansen, so wearing many hats in this show. Ladies and gentlemen, my leader, my boss, and the one who said yes to this new kid on the block, Randy Leslie. This is Randy, he's my boss. And I want to know a few things about you.

Randy Leslie 6:01

Okay.

Host 6:02

Your favorite live music experience.

Randy Leslie 6:06

My favorite live music experience would be actually one I was in. It was Kiss of the Spider Woman. It was the first time that we did a show here in Kelowna that had sexual themes, including homosexuality. One brief snippet of nudity, but it was about uh it just came out as a movie. Uh I worked on it in Toronto with uh Hal Prince and Cheeta Rivera, who did the original with Brent Carver. Bless a soul, he's now gone. Uh, and it was about uh a revolutionary and a gay uh window dresser that were put into a camp together and how they survived through his stories about this woman called the Spider Woman. And it was like an old homage to movies, and uh it won several Tony Awards. It's by Kandra and Ebb, uh, which also wrote Cabaret, which kind of pushed the envelope, especially in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. So for me, that would be the one that kind of uh touched my heart uh as uh a young gay male and getting to play a dream part because Brent Carver was like the almighty to me when it came to theater. He was in musical theater, he won the Tony Award that year for that show. So that's kind of my special.

Host 7:28

Was so this was in Toronto?

Randy Leslie 7:30

Toronto, yeah. I performed Kiss of the Spider Woman in Kelowna, but I had worked on the professional production with Cheeto Rivera and Brent Carver in Toronto when I was a director of programming there.

Host 7:43

So how I'm interested to hear how that went over in Kelowna, which is conservative town?

Speaker 1 7:51

We weren't yeah, we weren't as popular as we were now, of course, because you're looking at 15, 18 years ago. Uh so we always did one show that kind of pushed the envelope a little bit, uh, because we kind of do what our actors want, but what some of the patrons want the boundaries to be pushed, not all do. Um, so it was accepted actually quite well considering uh we were quite surprised.

Host 8:17

That's great.

Randy Leslie 8:18

So we were open, ready to open up to other pieces of theater. And I think as long as people think, hey, this is theater, you know, it might not be my life, but this is somebody else's life. And uh Kiss of the Spider Woman was a uh famous movie with John Hurt, uh, which was turned into a musical, and it was that time where um these heavy-duty music uh plays or heavy-duty movies were becoming musicals, and not a lot of people thought of musicals as that cabaret and kind of that deep dark uh fantasy sequences. So I think that's why that's why it uh well was almost in this coming season, but instead we picked another show. So uh we picked Adam's Family. Yeah, so um, yeah, it was one of those shows for me that always will hold a special place for me. And I remember this one young boy um who was having challenges, and he came every night to do front of house and watch the story unfold. And I think it was because he was a young gay male and not knowing how to, you know, express what he wanted. I didn't know anything about his home life, but it was like he wanted to be here, he wanted to see the story, he wanted to help. So I think it uh is an outlet. The theater is an outlet for a lot of great things, dancers who want to dance, or people who kind of relate their own story to the story they're seeing on stage, which we know will happen with Dear Evan Hansen.

Host 9:46

Um ask everyone this question. Everyone says the same thing. I'm interested to see if you're any different. If you're a triple threat, you act, dance, and sing. Which is your strongest and your weakest?

Randy Leslie 9:58

I would say my strongest is acting.

Host 10:01

Yes, that's a new one.

Randy Leslie 10:03

I would say singing, and then finally would be dance.

Host 10:06

Great. Everyone says that. Well, everyone says dance is their hardest, but most people say singing is their top. So I'm happy.

Randy Leslie 10:13

Yeah, and I my first big part uh was in Brigadoon, and I was a sword dancer uh in that show, so I started on a show that was a big dance show. But yeah, I'd say actor, singer, dancer.

Host 10:26

I feel the same as you. Um I'm in Frozen this year, which is gonna be a challenge for me, but I'm really excited to flex that muscle. I'm gonna have to work a lot harder than everybody else, but I'm I've always wanted to be a dancer. I just didn't get into that, so.

Host 10:47

Randy grew up in Ontario, second-born child to a single mom. He never met his father. His older brother was a jock, and Randy, well, Randy loved the arts. His mom did what she could for the boys while suffering with bipolar disorder, formerly called manic depression, a trait that was passed through her genes to her youngest boy. Mental health and sexuality were terms less talked about in Randy's childhood. He grew up a bipolar gay male in the 70s and 80s, and ended up fleeing home after an attempted suicide. He was hurting, he felt he didn't belong, he didn't know how to ask for or receive help. Brandi is able to talk openly about his experience now. Many years have passed, and he sees the good that can come from opening up, from being vulnerable. In a recent Facebook post, he touched on his past when promoting Dear Evan Hansen. Quote: As a director, I can say very few projects touch the heart and soul the way this one does. If there's one show you must see this season, make it Dear Evan Hansen. The synergy, the truth, the honesty. Every moment feels deeply human. Please don't miss it. As a survivor of suicide, this show is especially important to me. It speaks to isolation, connection, and the impact we have on one another in ways that feel honest and deeply real. I believe it's a story that resonates across generations for young people, parents, educators, and anyone who has ever struggled to feel seen or understood. End quote.

Host 12:48

Yeah, back to what you said about when you were younger and you know, kind of fleeing and having that, you know, mental health crisis. We are in a connection crisis where we don't feel comfortable opening up to others. Yes. So I think it's very brave for you to open up, and I think you're setting a really good example for kids and anyone really to just start the conversation.

Randy Leslie 13:13

Thank you.

Host 13:14

I think um the more we talk, the better. Maybe we'll get to a place where we're talking too much, but at this point we are so far the other way that we need people to open up more.

Randy Leslie 13:25

I think the big thing with this show, um, it helps open the conversations with your young ones or your family or your teenagers or your grown children or your mom and dad, your grandparents, right? I think it just opens up a conversation which may be one comment.

Host 13:42

Yeah.

Randy Leslie 13:43

Right? Um, I remember we did the Fantastics. This was years and years ago, and Chad Abrahamson, bless him, was was one of the leads. And um it it was it's uh a very strange little musical. It's one of the longest runs uh off Broadway runs. It's actually going to be opening on Broadway again. And uh this lady came in the next day and said, I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't get that show out of my head. I just hated it. And I remember looking at her and going, Well, we touched something in you because you still you stayed up all night thinking about it. And she kind of looked at me and didn't say much, but it but it's true. It obviously struck a chord with something, right? Whether you I mean I I love lots of musicals, but I hate a lot of musicals, but I enjoy watching them, right? It's not always so it's always interesting to see what what people take away from the table, right? Um, it's the same as when we did Guys and Dolls recently, uh, which did very well, but because we did it very differently, people had a whole new look at it and said, I've seen this show ten times in my life, and this was the best experience for me because it was interactive and they were part of the action and people on stage. So I think it's just the way, even when you sit down to watch a show, making an agreement with yourself that I'm gonna be open and I'm just gonna watch. And this may not be my cup of tea, but if you can take away one thing, right? That's it. And I say with this show, if we can have one person walk away and think, hey, I'm gonna reach out for some help because I'm feeling these emotions, I don't care what the rest of the people think. Totally. Right? I mean, we have an um, as you know, including yourself, we have an amazing cast. We have an amazing crew. We have like top-notch people who are ensuring that this show is as Broadway level as we can get here in Kelowna. And the projections, the lights, the sound, the effects. Um, you know, a lot of people think, oh, you know, it's a a a show with under 10 people, um, and think, oh, there's not much to it. Oh, they just put this together in a few weeks. Well, this has been months and months of you know, yeah, projections and TV screens being put up. And I mean, I maybe I shouldn't say it, but my for me, everything is in everybody's mind. So everything is blue. So everything in this damn show, because of my kind of idea as the director, is it's blue.

Host 16:21

It's dear Evan Hansen, it's the color.

Randy Leslie 16:23

Yeah, it's it's the color, it's the shirt color, it's um, and then he doesn't change except once or twice, and that whole reason was because everything changes around him. So the joy of being a director is sometimes getting to choreograph. And with this piece, the blocking, which is what all the movement the director does, is really intricate and goes into the choreography as well. This is not a dance-heavy musical like a one, two, three, four kick, you know, or a j'tei or whatever. Um, this is like traffic lines and people circling and passing each other and becoming crowds. Uh, so it's definitely harder needing to be at this point by this ah, and this point by this ah or wherever, and working it so that uh Evan feels like he's being, you know, enveloped in this whole land of emotion. Extremely, extremely important to have that connection of movement, emotion, and uh music together.

Host 17:28

Yeah, and I I'm interested to see the difference between this show and Frozen, because Frozen will be dance, right? And this is not, but yes, it is difficult. I have to say, like, especially when we transitioned from the rehearsal hall to the stage, just gone out of my head, like, okay, I visualize it in one space, and then I'm no longer in that space, and it's farther to get from one place to the other, and it's just gone out of my head.

Randy Leslie 17:56

So and the other amazing thing with this show is the lighting is so integral to the story that the lights actually there's a Cynthia light that follows your character.

Host 18:07

So I better not screw up.

Randy Leslie 18:09

And so there will be Saturday morning when we're doing some tech stuff, we might have to change a bit of blocking stuff, but the lighting and the acting and the choreography all work in tandem with the show.

Host 18:22

I still have to sing as well.

Randy Leslie 18:24

Yeah, and Spencer is our music director, is amazing because he goes on emotion and he understands what I'm trying to do with the movement, and it's so I'm so blessed to have that, yeah, you know, um, and my entire team, Joanne and Nate and Ethan, and Ethan, of course, Evan is also my uh artistic associate director. Uh taking a little bit of a few duties off him, so it makes me a little crazier, but uh it's uh they all care so deeply about the show, and I think that brings it even closer home to the audience.

Host 18:58

I was really happy to see that. I like I've cared probably too much at times about this show in the time I took to prepare for auditions. My family is like maybe sick of hearing about it at this point, but I was very happy to see, and and I almost think this podcast might have been an excuse for me to sit and talk intimately with each cast member and kind of find out like why are you doing this? But everyone has their reason for being a part of it, and we are we're still getting to know each other, but like even just as of today, we're all we're all gonna come in and run our lines together. We have the night off. I brought cookies. Ethan's bringing a veggie plate, he says. Um, so it's become like a little family, and I think like we're and I've heard this a couple times, we're trying to do our best for each other. Yeah, it's not even for ourselves anymore. It's like, I want to show up for you, I want to make sure our chemistry is what it needs to be so that it's the most believable.

Randy Leslie 20:05

Yeah, and for me, it's like Jaxsen and Cate and Ethan, you know, and Skyler, all my students, some of them were nine when they started with me. And now, you know, they're 18, 19, uh, 20. And it's just like, wow, you know, they started in the classes. Now they're going on to theater schools. We still have that connection with students. Julia, who studied in New York and now she's getting her master's, she's in town. Uh, Deslan, who played Carrie, uh is coming down to see Carrie when we're doing it with the kids. So there's always this amazing connection uh with the people who have done stuff in the past, and uh and they want to, you know, show, hey, I'm here and this is what I'm doing, so that there's a connection. I know people meet up in London and Toronto when they're in those towns. So, dear Evan Hansen, it is a movement, and I think that's important to know. But the type of movement and the reason I wanted to do it is to be able to touch that one person that may go, hey, I want to get more information about this, and then maybe see, hey, that person, they're having a bit of a challenge. How can I help them with that? And it it might not be a it could be as much of you know a little squeeze or a smile, that changes their day.

Host 21:20

How many uh kids have you seen come through your programs who have been like that little boy you mentioned at the beginning, or the the the kid who was um that came to see Kiss of the Spider Woman every night?

Randy Leslie 21:34

Um hundreds. When we decided to open the theater, which was 25 years ago, uh we had the option of adopting a child or opening the theater, and we opened the theater. So now I have hundreds of children, maybe thousands. Uh and of course, not all children like their parents. Uh so you know, there's been a lot of ups and downs, but um, there's been a lot of good that has happened, and not just Because of me or the theater company, because of the people that are involved with the theater company.

Host 22:06

Going back to what you said about theater as sports. So we kind of had this thing in my house where we said to our kids, okay, we want for extracurricular, we want you to do one art and one team sport. Because that's life stuff. Okay. So my son is the jock. He freaking loves operating spotlight here. Yeah. And he's Gareth's new favorite little spotlight operator. So that's his, that's how he's getting involved. Aria, she was in soccer and it just wasn't fitting anymore. And you know, we thought about it. I talked to my husband, okay, what are we gonna do? And I was like, you know what? Actor Studio kind of ticks all the boxes, as far as I'm concerned. She's got the art, obviously, and this is a team sport. Yeah, yeah. She's auditioning how many times per year? And then she's dancing and she's moving her body in a in a positive way, and she's working with a team. I don't, I think it's a full package. Um, so we've been very, very happy to have this place. It was never available to me when I was young. Yeah, me neither. So it's just just amazing. And when we get shows like this that then kind of take it that next step further, yeah, it's just like well, and it's been amazing.

Randy Leslie 23:22

We were we won Best Arts School.

Host 23:24

Yeah.

Randy Leslie 23:24

Right? We have so many students. Uh, like we only have 12 spots left in Mean Girls Jr. That's in the fall. Everything else is sold out. Uh, and uh our instructors, Skylar, Cate, Ethan, Jaxsen, they're all in Dear Evan Hansen. They're teaching, so these are the kind of people you're getting to teach. And then we have Mac who's come back and doing shows, and he used to do them when he was 19. And of course, Delphine is amazing, and then yourself, new to the to the whole family atmosphere. And then who am I forgetting? Probably Malachi. Oh, Malachi, and Malachi totally new, big Julie, uh, from Guys and Dolls, and now he's taking on a whole serious role. And I think he was feeling whoa, this is crazy, and everybody's just accepted him. And it's it's probably one of the strongest casts I've worked with in about 15 years.

Host 24:17

So yeah, well cast.

Randy Leslie 24:18

Yeah, that's that's 90% of a director's job.

Host 24:22

No, right, no kidding. Yeah, it's been awesome. Um, okay, I want to wrap it up here. Talk to me at the end here about you guys. Have kind of put it out that you would like to make sure anyone who needs to see this show can see this show.

Randy Leslie 24:37

Of course, yeah. So uh if there's anybody out there that feels it's really important to come see this show and they don't have the funds and we have no front of house spots, you can sign up for front of house and get to learn the theater and do it for every single show in the year and get to see the show. But if those opportunities they don't last long, there's not many left.

Host 24:58

I was on there looking the other day.

Randy Leslie 25:00

Um, you can always uh reach out to the box office and say, you know, um I'm trying to see if there's an opportunity for me to see Dear Evan Hansen. It's info at Kelowna Actorsstudio.com. They can mention me, Randy, in the comments, and it'll get to me. And if we can get you in and get you some tickets, uh, we'd be happy to do that.

Host 25:23

This is clearly beyond just selling tickets for you.

Randy Leslie 25:27

Oh, yeah. This show, um we didn't do this show because we thought it was gonna put, you know, sell out every night. Um, we did the show because we wanted to challenge ourselves and to bring it to the community and show them that theater can change lives.

Host 25:43

That's what this podcast is all about, too. I knew that this show deserved a bit more of a deep dive that you can't really put on social media all the time. Everything has to be so quick. So, for the you know, small amount of listeners that I have, and for anyone who wants to learn a bit more, like on the surface, it kind of like dear Evan Hansen, that is such an interesting name for a show, and just the stark Ethan's face and the blue, and it's like, okay, what is going on here? I wanted to get people closer to the message behind it, and more importantly, just in the habit of getting out to the theater and like you said, taking in new pieces of art, no matter whether it's their their jam or not.

Randy Leslie 26:27

Yeah, we've always do something. We've always been big of saying put bums in seats, go see children's theater, go see the ballet, go see the symphony. And even if they don't come see Dear Evan Hansen, I think you have put a message out there with your podcast that have open minds. So they may not necessarily have to see the show. We'd love them to, but maybe it it's the start of thinking new and thinking, you know, sometimes take six months and they go, Oh, yeah, I remember I l heard that.

Host 26:56

You know, so I'm gonna check out what else is going on in my community.

Randy Leslie 26:59

Yeah, exactly.

Host 27:00

And concerts and any anything. Yeah, take in some arts.

Randy Leslie 27:04

But if people think this is too heavy to go see, there's comedy in here too.

Host 27:10

Yeah, right.

Randy Leslie 27:10

It's like our lives, right? There's good times, bad times, funny times, and I think seeing that reflected on a stage um really kind of gives you an opportunity to sit back and go, hey, this happens in other people's lives too. And here's these two amazing families, and look what's happening to them, right? Everyone's doing their best. Yeah, and that's all we can do is our best. Yeah.

Host 27:33

Okay, so a cast of eight, plus a director and a choreographer. 18 shows over three weeks, June 10th to 28th. Shows are Wednesday through Sunday, two matinees on the weekend, and tickets are selling. Kelownaactorstudio.com. Thank you, Randy.

Randy Leslie 27:52

Thank you.

Host 27:53

See you on the stage.

Randy Leslie 27:54

No, I'll be in the audience, but I'll see you on stage.