Dedication is the key ingredient responsible for the future success of Nightwood Theatre’s Lawyer Show, which casts 28 lawyers as actors in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After I interviewed director Kelly Thornton about the play for my column on April 16, she invited me to attend a rehearsal so I could see the company’s process first-hand.
Rehearsals take place three times a week and generally run from 6:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. Professional actors Christine Brubaker and Pragna Desai do text coaching with some actors while others run lines and blocking (the actors’ onstage movements) with Thornton and her team of theatre professionals. The rehearsal I attended had the cast staging “Pyramus and Thisbe,” Dream’s play within the play. But I witnessed much more than a simple rehearsing of the mythological tale of two lovers: I saw the blood, sweat and tears of lawyers turned actors.
This is one hard-working, committed bunch. Actors took notes on their scripts, bent and worn from use. I saw one actor overcome a fear of heights and climb atop a (small) stack of boxes in order to rehearse her part. Others asked serious, detail-oriented questions about intonation and movement. Some improvised and caused the small team of observers (me included) to erupt into giggles. Others paid close attention as Thornton moved among her players, demonstrating her direction. A room full of lawyers? I would have never guessed. These guys looked like seasoned acting pros.
This is probably the result of working with stage vets like Thornton, Brubaker, Desai and company. Brent Vickar, who plays Egeus in the production, credits the calibre of the professionals putting the show together with the quality of his experience. “I love, love, love theatre, and I have lots of respect for people working in theatre,” Vickar told me at rehearsal. This respect seems to boomerang back and forth between Nightwood and their lawyer-actors, creating what seems to be a very safe, encouraging atmosphere where everyone is supported. Vickar also mentioned that life’s inevitable stress falls away while he’s rehearsing. In short, he is having a ball.
So is his colleague, Kate Lioubar, a corporate finance lawyer at Gowlings who is playing Hippolyta in the production. “Spring is busy season in my practice, but when I arrive at the theatre for rehearsal, I feel rejuvenated,” she says. “[This experience] adds so much to my life.”
When asked what the future holds for these thespians, both Vickar and Lioubar admit to having been bit by the acting bug and Vickar may even be so bold as to audition for community theatre now that he’s taking part in The Lawyer Show. And so: the legal community helps the theatre world, and the theatre world, in turn, helps the legal community by providing 28 of its members with reprieve from the daily grind of client calls, the endless deluge of emails and the tediousness of dockets that make up the practice of law.
The Lawyer Show, a fundraiser for Nightwood Theatre, runs June 11 at 8 p.m. and June 12 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs. Grab tickets before it’s too late by phoning 416.944.1740 x 5. Who knows? After watching from the audience, you may just be inspired to try acting on for size.
Check out the Lawyer Show blog at nightwoodtheatretoronto.wordpress.com.
Leanne Milech is a lawyer turned freelance writer. She reviews theatre, publishes children’s books and spends her free time hunting for Toronto’s best cultural escapes. Her column appears every Friday here on lawandstyle.ca.
Photos by Alicia Belvedere