Kid Gloves will be the sixth time Patrick Keating has been in a Firehall production. Today we speak with him and receive a guest visit from Scott Bellis.
GD: Patrick, tell me about your character.
PK: My character, Daniel Crane, is an Alderman in Vancouver, and an upstanding citizen.
GD: What are you doing now outside of acting?
PK: Right now, writing.
GD: What kind of stuff do you write?
PK: Different stories, trying to put together a one person show.
GD: Oh wow, can you tell me a little about that?
PK: It’s very rough right now, but it’s stories of my life.
GD: Very cool. What was the first show you were ever in?
PK: First show I was ever in, was The Ecstasy of Rita Joe.
GD: Really? Here at the Firehall? When was that?
PK: 1992, I believe. I played a bunch of different characters, I played a clerk, a policeman and a murder.
GD: What other shows have you done at the Firehall?
PK: Oh yeah, this is my sixth show. I did Respectable,Stone Angel, Sisters, I did the Ecstasy of Rita Joe again. I like the Firehall a lot. It’s a wonderful theatre and Donna’s really great at bringing in and including great people in shows.
GD: What would you like audiences to know or take away from seeing Kid Gloves?
PK: What women had to go through to be part of the police department and all that goes with it. I’d love to see a play about Gertrude [Crane, played by Deborah Williams] and what she had to go through to get the police department to listen to her and install these two women.
***At this point, Scott Bellis walks in and I ask him to make up a Would You Rather question for Patrick.***
SB: Would you rather sing a jazz solo or dance a ballet solo in a show?
PK: Sing a jazz solo.
GD: Why?
PK: Because I can’t dance.
(Laughter)
Fantastic dancer from here and writing image from here
Scott Bellis, who can be seen back at the Firehall in December for Hotel Bethlehem, talks about his characters in Kid Glovesand his search for an all powerful talisman.
GD: Tell me about your characters in Kid Gloves.
SB: I play two characters. I play constable Fields, who is a member of the Vancouver Police force, who is not overly thrilled to be having female members joining the force. His role in the play is to illustrate to the audience what the establishment is. What the two lead characters are pushing up against coming into this male dominated world. The other character I play is a man called O’Rourke and they call him the ‘Lord of the Bawdy Houses’. He is an Irish ex-patriot in Canada who has found his way to a fairly high level of, what you might call the ‘underbelly’ of Vancouver society. He’s a saloon owner, and he runs a prostitution operation.
GD: An all-around good guy.
SB: Well, he does provide some colour, and he’s not entirely bad, but he’s not entirely good either.
GD: That must be fun, playing two characters.
SB: I always like playing more than one character in a show. It usually provided me with a few different challenges. And certainly keeps me busy.
GD: What do you do when you’re not working?
SB: (laughs) I’m pretty lucky, as an actor I work a lot. My work keeps me busy and when you’re a working actor in the theatre you’re on six days a week usually. And then you try to cram real life into that one day off. I have a family, I have three kids. My off-stage life is not that interesting. I like to watch movies with my kids, play board games, do the New York Times crossword puzzle.
GD: What’s your favourite board game?
SB: We’re into this game right now called Talisman. Everyone is racing around the board trying to find the key to the talisman that will let them into this magic area where you gain the Wand of Control, so they control all the other characters. Once you have that, you’re pretty much close to winning the game.
GD: Would you rather fly or be invisible, and why?
SB: Oh, I would rather fly. Probably the sense of freedom. I used to have recurring dreams when I was younger about flying – well not flying so much as controlled giant leaping. The exhilaration I would feel waking up from those dreams. I love it, I love flying. I always love a window seat when I’m in an airplane.
GD: What are some things people will take away from Kid Gloves?
SB: I hope they have a good time, I hope they have a couple of laughs, but I think the story of these women pioneers, is so interesting, so intriguing- quite arresting. These women became police officers before women had the vote, before women were even considered equal members of society. And these women were given law enforcement powers. I think that the world the story takes place in is really fascinating. It’s a story about Vancouver, it’s about our own history. I think there are so many levels that you can appreciate it.
Congratulations to Ryan for being our Leonard Cohen Raffle winner!!
He was thrilled when I called him and I’m sure he’ll have an excellent time at the show on Monday.
We’d like to give a HUGE Thank You to everyone who purchased raffle tickets. The Firehall Arts Centre raised almost $2000!
Thanks to you this money will go into helping us continue the fantastic work we do here.
Today we get to know Dawn Petten, or constable Minnie Miller, in Kid Gloves. Dawn was kind and adventurous enough to let me take her picture while she lay on the floor of one of the hallways here at the Firehall.
GD: What’s the first show you were ever in?
DP: Well, from the time I was very young, so from about grade two, I was always one of those kids putting plays on at home. And even in grade two whenever there was an assignment in class, I would always do a performance. And as a young kid I was in all the church plays. In my early years we went to church and I was Mary six years in a row in the Christmas pageant, and in puppet shows at Easter.
The schools I went to were always very arts focused. In middle school I was very drama focused and then I went to an arts high school as a drama major, so I’ve always done it. I have no idea what the first show would be because it was always happening.
GD: Who do you play in Kid Gloves?
DP: I play Minnie Miller, who is one of the first two female police officers in all of Canada. And of the two police officers, I’m the pious one, the Christian police officer who really feels like I’m on a mission from God, to lift up wayward girls and youth and to do it in a Christian way. To try to bring back respect to the streets in some ways and always doing my job with no foul language, being gentle with people and always good manners. Those are important attributes.
GD: What do you do in your spare time?
DP: I don’t have a lot of spare time, because since February I have overlapped shows. This one came right after Tear the Curtain in Toronto; I flew back and came right here, so I haven’t had any time. Sometimes I’ve been rehearsing by day and doing a different show at night.
But the other thing I do, which is really fun, is that I’m a sexual health educator. I work for Options for Sexual Health, doing sexual health education for different communities and groups of people. I love that.
GD: How did you get into that?
DP: I had been a volunteer with what used to be Planned Parenthood of BC, and volunteered for years with what they used to call the Facts of Life line, and I also volunteered at their Vancouver clinic. The started a certification program [for sexual education]. It used to be only nurses who could go into schools to teach Sex Ed, and I had taught a lot in the past, teaching drama and Shakespeare and so I did a year program where I went to class for a month and then did a year practicum where I taught in schools from grade three to grade twelve.
GD: What’s it like to teach Sex Ed to kids?
DP: It’s amazing. I teach Sex Ed in the classroom as if it were a drama class. My classes aren’t drony; they’re on your feet doing exercises about passing STIs (they call them STIs now) I try to make it really fun and empowering and a place where people can learn to express themselves. I think the amazing values that you can teach with Sex Ed are about self confidence, self-expression, being able to communicate to others, and those are all values that hold people in good stead. I find whenever I’ve taught a Sex Ed class, right after I want to say, ‘and now let’s do some drama or Shakespeare!’ and whenever I’ve talk a drama class I’m always ‘ok, now let’s talk about sex!’
(Laughter)
For me it’s the same sort of enthusiasm and very similar in that you’re helping people to feel confident and secure about themselves and able to communicate where they’re at.
GD: Would you rather have gills and be able to swim under water for long periods of time, or be able to go into Space with no protective suit?
Not quite gills, but you get the picture.
DP: Definitely the ocean. I’m an ocean gal. In the summer I try to swim in the ocean every day, I love being in water, I love aquacize classes. Swimming outdoors is my favourite thing in the world, and to be able to go deep, and be able to breathe underwater would be amazing. It just sounds dreamy, and romantic and sensual and brilliant.
GD: What do you want audiences to take away from Kid Gloves?
DP: I think it’s a charming celebration of a moment in history in Vancouver. With these charming characters. One of my favourite lines in the play is the other cop, Lurancy, says: ‘we’re the first in the Dominion, school kids are going to be reading about us’. Well, we didn’t. I never learned in school, none of us did about the first two female police officers and their being in Vancouver. It’s one of those bits of history that women have been written out of, and now it’s great that people can see the show and find out a little more about that. And it has such lovely singing and dancing, I think it’s just a charming show that people can appreciate. And as a strong feminist, I appreciate about learning about the steps and the courage it took when everyone was against this couple of women, and it amazes me.
Sex Ed image from here, Ariel comes from here and Shakespeare’s likeness from here
I sat down with Colleen Wheeler, who plays constable Lurancy Harris in the upcoming production of Kid Gloves. We spoke about her character and the play, but I also learned that had it not been for an optional class in university, Colleen’s career path would have led in a very different direction…
GD: Tell me a little bit about your character in Kid Gloves.
CW: Well, Lurancy Harris is one of two policewomen sworn into the police department in 1912. They were basically assigned the ‘female morality question’, to go around and check into the brothels, the clubs and make sure all the young women were behaving properly, etcetera but Lurancy wants to be a ‘real’ police officer.
She doesn’t want to deal with morality, she wants to study forensics, get in with the boys, get ahead of the game, use her head, use reasoning, all of her training to move her way up in the police department. So at the beginning of the play, she doesn’t see helping the women get off the streets as her first priority but during the play, I think the character of Minnie (Dawn Petten) helps convince Lurancy that it’s a balance of both things: You can get ahead but our reason for being there is to help people.
GD: Do you have any spare time, and if so, what do you like to do?
CW: Spare time…(giggles) I look after my three-year-old and I have another job. I organize simulations for police training, child welfare services training and RCMP training. I supply all the actors for them.
GD: Wow, so you’re really involved with police outside of the show.
CW: Yes, and my husband’s actually in training to become a police officer. Yea, I guess that it a lot of police connections.
GD: What’s the first show you were ever in?
CW: What was the first show I was ever in…oh! Charley’s Aunt. Is that the murder mystery*? Yes, grade six, I was in Charley’s Aunt.
GD: And that was it, you loved it?
CW: No, I was actually a jock and a competitive swimmer, and I made the national team times when I was 14. I could have gone the way of a swimming career, but chose to go into other sports and became quite good at all sports, so I was going to be a Phys Ed teacher.
When I was in school in Calgary to become a Phys Ed teacher, I took what they called an “option” drama class with Keith Johnstone in Calgary. And then I never looked back. I switched the next year into the drama department. But yea, I was going to be a Phys Ed teacher…What the hell, eh?
(Laughter)
GD: Would you rather be able to read minds or be able to teleport?
CW: Teleport. GD: Why?
CW: Because reading people’s minds would make me stressed out all the time, and I wouldn’t get any sleep and it’s really important that people like me.
(Laughter)
And if they didn’t like you, then you’d know, and what can you do about it?
GD: Yea and you can’t un-know that.
CW: Yea, and bad thoughts. (shudders)
GD: What do you think audiences can expect from Kid Gloves?
CW: A good ol’ romp in history! Donna has created a real world, the early 1900s in Vancouver and you’ll get a really good feel for what it must have been like for certain people down here and what it was like to be a police woman here on the Downtown Eastside, and what the world was like. It’s of course a world created by Sally [Stubbs, playwright], a completely fictional world but based in our history and what makes it especially interesting is that we’re right in that area, and right next door is the police museum. It’s really very interesting.
* Charley’s Aunt is a farce, not a murder mystery. Sounds like a great play though.
Jane Lynch photo from here and awesome teleporting image from here
Want to get involved in the arts and serving the community? The Firehall Arts Centre is looking for energetic, talented and arts-interested volunteer board members to become a part of our dynamic not-for profit charitable society.
We are looking for individuals with previous not-for-profit board experience and an interest in fund development, community outreach and networking, heritage facility renovation, and a love of the performing arts.
Duties: the board of directors meets every second month with committee meetings; is responsible for the governance and the formulation of policies and procedures for the Society; participates in fund development activities and in the organization of the board of directors, officers and committees. Each board member is expected to participate in at least one committee of the board with board meetings and committee meetings scheduled for evenings and weekends.
If you are interested in contributing your time, experience and passion for the arts, please submit a short bio to the Firehall to find out if this volunteer opportunity is right for you. Please send your bio and contact information to our Artistic Producer dspencer@firehallartscentre.ca and it will be forwarded to our board president.
Mitch Janzen (or “Milt”, as he’s lovingly referred to around here), our wonderful administrative assistant, has decided to donate his upper lip and his dignity to help raise money for men’s health issues including prostate cancer this November.
Click here to head on over to his Movember page and make a tax deductible donation.
He is currently rocking a rather unsightly basic stash, and hopes to be sporting a majestic handlebar by the end of the month.
We are proud to announce that for the run of Kid Gloves, the Firehall will be working with the Vancouver Police Museum to present a rare and special educational opportunity!
On November 14, 21, & 28, the Firehall and the Vancouver Police Museum are offering a double header in the form of a Lunchtime Q&A session with two currently serving members of the Vancouver Police Department and the matinee performance of Kid Gloves!
Colleen Wheeler and Dawn Petten in Kid Gloves by Emily Cooper
You will begin at the Police Museum, where Constable Alison Gailus and Constable Jennifer Luccock, will be sharing their experiences as female officers and answering questions about the challenges of contemporary policing, particularly in an inner-city neighbourhood like the Downtown Eastside.
The session will offer attendees the chance to consider the evolution of women’s roles in society and the ever-changing nature of law enforcement, the justice system and society itself. Take a tour of the current exhibit, 100 Years of Women in Policing, and see how the role of women in the force has evolved.Then, walk next door to the Firehall to catch the 1pm performance of Kid Gloves, a fictionalized account of Canada’s first two female policewomen who were hired by the Vancouver Police Department in 1912.
This great opportunity gives you the chance to hear from officers today about their experiences and then travel back to the beginning of women in the force. Great for secondary school and university students as well as history buffs and police aficionados.
Open to groups of 10 or more, there is limited availability so book today! Call our box office at 604.689.0926 for more information and pricing.
The Lunchtime Q&A is offered with the support of the Vancouver Police Foundation
As many of you know, Leonard Cohen will be visiting Vancouver on his world tour, playing Rogers Arena on November 12.
To celebrate the man and the music, a generous donor has given us a pair of tickets for the show, to raffle during the Chelsea Hotel run and continuing until November 9th!
Buy one ticket for $25 or three for $60 in person or online
Funds from the raffle will go to supporting the operation of the Firehall.
And if you haven’t seen Chelsea Hotel yet, there are only TWO WEEKS left! Buy your tickets for the show here.
Here’s the man himself to give you a taste of what to expect November 12!
On Friday, October 12 at 8pm and Wednesday, October 17th at 1pm, Vocal Eye will provide live audio descriptions at performances of Chelsea Hotel.
Vocal Eye provides vocal description if theatre and performing arts to blind and low vision patrons.
“Each patron is given a personal receiver with a single earpiece and volume control that allows him or her to hear both the show
and our live audio description at the same time. The broadcast begins 15 minutes before curtain with detailed descriptions of the
set, characters and costumes. Once the show begins, the describer transmits pertinent physical action and visual detail between
the lines of dialogue. Brief program notes are provided at intermission.”
– from the Vocal Eye page on Kickstart Disability Arts andCulture website
We are delighted to be able to work with Vocal Eye on these performances of Chelsea Hotel!
PK: Right now, writing.
