Maggie Interviews Shana Carroll
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00:00I'm Maggie McKay with 94.7 The Wave, and I'm so excited today because we get to talk with
00:06Shana Carroll.
00:07Who is she?
00:09She is co-founding artistic director of the Montreal-based contemporary circus, Seven
00:15Fingers.
00:16Welcome, Shana, and how do you really say Seven Fingers?
00:20In French, Les 7 doigts de la main, actually, if it was just Seven Fingers, it's Les 7 doigts,
00:26but the original name of the company was Les 7 doigts de la main, the Seven Fingers of
00:30the hand, because it's a play on a French idiom, which I could explain if you want me
00:34to get into that.
00:35But, yeah.
00:36Okay.
00:37I'm going to stick with Seven Fingers for the purpose of this interview because I took
00:41French for five years and still am so bad at it.
00:45It's been 22 years and even my parents can't pronounce it correctly, so.
00:51Okay.
00:52So, Dual Reality is coming to the Amundsen Theatre, 15 performances, September 11th through
00:57the 22nd.
00:59Tell us about this amazing show.
01:01I can't wait to see it.
01:03Yeah.
01:04Well, so it's a version of Romeo and Juliet, but told as a sporting event, and obviously,
01:11you know, using circus as its language.
01:15And yeah, so it starts out, it's red versus blue, which is very apropos.
01:21I'm blue.
01:22At the moment, but yeah, so we feel like we're in some sort of a stadium, like it's a football
01:29or soccer match or something, and there's a referee and it's red versus blue.
01:33And then, but then the Romeo and Juliet of it, the red Romeo and the blue Juliet sort
01:38of see each other from across the field.
01:42And then all sorts of, you know, the plot twists from there.
01:47So I won't give it all away.
01:49But yeah, so it's sort of a bit of a commentary on our polarity, which is, of course, quite
01:56pronounced these days.
01:58But also it's, you know, it's the timeless tale of Romeo and Juliet.
02:01So and it's really kind of slingshot.
02:04I mean, one thing that's great with acrobatics is it, you know, it speaks volumes.
02:10And I like to say that, you know, one of the best ways to show emotional stakes and dramatic
02:15stakes is through physical stakes.
02:18So quite often the, you know, the pure, the risk-filled actual acrobatic language is,
02:29you know, really what's doing the heavy lifting in terms of the storytelling.
02:34And we're just sort of viscerally taken from one scene to the next.
02:39So there's little pieces of Shakespearean verse, which is sort of fun, juxtaposed with
02:45the contemporary circus language.
02:48But it's mostly very physical.
02:50And yeah, for people who don't know, it's Cirque du Soleil, some illusion, some theater,
02:56some music, some dance.
02:57I mean, you guys have it all.
02:59And this is your debut at the Amundsen.
03:01How do you feel about that?
03:02Oh, it's so exciting.
03:03I mean, really such, such an epic theater.
03:06And I'm also originally, I mean, I've been in Montreal now for over 30 years, but I'm
03:11originally Californian and grew up, I'd say half in LA because my parents were divorced
03:16and my father went down there.
03:18So, and grew up, you know, being taken to, and my grandmother lived in LA, so being taken
03:22to the theater, actually my earliest memories of, of seeing, you know, the life changing
03:27theater was in, you know, in that area in Los Angeles.
03:31And I don't even know actually which literal theaters I was going to, but, but anyway,
03:36so it feels really like sort of a wonderful homecoming too, for me.
03:40And you started yourself because you have performed for what, 20 years in these kinds
03:46of shows?
03:47I was performing, it's been now a bit since I've, I've stopped performing, but, but when
03:53I was performing, I guess I was, I had a 20 year performing career doing, well, more than
03:59that, but 20 years doing trapeze in the air.
04:02So yeah, and yeah.
04:05So now you're directing, how do you feel when you see the people that you've been working
04:11with day in and day out, tirelessly flying through the air, knowing what that takes?
04:15Because you've done it yourself.
04:16Yeah.
04:17And nervous?
04:18Oh yes, so much.
04:19And in fact, people, people often think that I'll be the most sort of like blasé or like,
04:25oh, you know, it's, I've seen this a hundred times and it's not really as dangerous as
04:28it looks, but it's really the opposite.
04:30Like I'm actually sort of the most, you know, nail biting of everyone because I know the
04:35actual difficulty and I know which tricks were maybe sketchy and warm up and more dangerous.
04:41And so I think a normal audience member wants to sort of feel like, oh, you know, they're
04:48professionals.
04:49I'm sure it's all very safe and it just looks dangerous, but when you're actually in, in
04:52the business, you're like, you know, that that trick was, you know, is more difficult
04:56than it looks.
04:57Or so, so I tend to, yeah, it's a very nerve wracking job to have.
05:03Someone's told me it's like, I'm a mom with 50 kids who says to her kids, like, go play
05:08on the roof.
05:09That's a good analogy.
05:10You must just be like saying your Hail Marys and crossing your fingers the whole time.
05:16I mean, every photo of me, like directing or I'm always like this, so yeah.
05:23What's the goal, Shayna, for when the audience leaves, how do you want them to feel or what
05:27do you want them to remember?
05:30Yeah, I mean, well, I mean, I do think that there's something unique with acrobatic language
05:37that it's quite empowering and uplifting.
05:41I mean, I think that there is something about doing a form where you're literally sort of
05:46defying gravity and laws of nature and pushing the limits of human possibility that when
05:51you witness it, even as a spectator, when you do it, for sure, when, even when you witness
05:55it as a spectator, it sort of teaches your brain sort of the things that you previously
06:00thought were maybe or maybe impossible or perhaps possible.
06:03So I mean, I've had friends who walk away from seeing, you know, one of my shows feeling
06:09like inspired to, you know, go pick up their their trumpet again or something, just because
06:14you kind of get the sense that actually anything is possible.
06:17So I do feel that that's something that that I mean, that I hope for and that that I believe
06:22in.
06:23I also really do ultimately feel that, I mean, sort of all live arts, it's really healing.
06:27Like it's it's actually I mean, it's cathartic.
06:29I think it's sort of we sort of don't dare to use those words sometimes because it feels
06:33so like self-important.
06:35But I actually think that that's part of what happens when we go into a theatre and, you
06:40know, there's a study about how our hearts beat on the same beat when we're in theatre.
06:45I don't know exactly, but you really do feel like being in a room with having this communal
06:49experience and all feeling these, you know, extreme emotions and being swept up that there's
06:55it's really, you know, the actual vibrations of the music in your bones.
07:00So I do think it's healing.
07:01And I think that it's that you leave sort of like this with this oxygen and hope and
07:09exhilaration and all sorts of emotions that are harder and harder to access now that we,
07:14you know, it's so easy to just, you know, play a game on your phone instead of, you
07:18know, get yourself to a theatre and get lifted off your feet.
07:21So, yeah, I like that, the inspiration.
07:24I can see that after going to something so moving and exhilarating and daredevils are
07:30flying through the air that you would be inspired.
07:32That's that's a good one among all those other things.
07:36So I'm just guessing that and and you are in that tribe, the people you work with must
07:42be such characters and so fun because to do that kind of physical work and be so brave,
07:50they just must be characters.
07:51Is it so much fun?
07:53Oh, it's a great amount of fun.
07:55I also think they tend to be very, how do I say, very generous.
08:01I mean, what's interesting with circus is that it's not a lot of people get into it
08:05more from the sort of athletic angle.
08:09You know, there are people who are also performers and sort of came to it through its
08:13artistic angle.
08:14But a lot of them, it's just, you know, really loving the the the training and doing
08:20these feats. And so, you know, it's people who sort of know how to work on a team and
08:24kind of just enjoy the physicality of what they're doing.
08:27And they're not looking to be a star, get the spotlight and and strangely not competitive
08:32because actually those who did come from more like a sports background chose to do
08:36circus because it wasn't competitive, because they didn't like the competitive aspect
08:39of sports and and are really happy to just to do this form in a way that's really
08:45more inclusive. And so it's really there.
08:48It's kind of it tends to be very sort of humble, generous people, which is really a
08:52nice aspect, too.
08:54And also because when you're doing especially when you're doing partner acrobatics,
08:58because we think often with circus, we think about the big solo acts like the aerialist
09:02in the air. But really, the majority of what we do is is ensemble work.
09:07And if you're doing a trick where it takes five people, where there's two people
09:11throwing someone in the air and that person's flipping and then someone else is
09:13catching them and you have to get your timing right and, you know, maybe all eyes
09:18are on the person in the air, but actually it's the five people on the ground that
09:21really make it happen. And you're sort of serving.
09:23First of all, you have someone else's life in your hands and that's the top thing on
09:27your head. And you're sort of serving like, you know, this this the ultimate goal of
09:33creating this trick together.
09:34And it's not about your specific moment in your, you know, again, like moment in the
09:38spotlight. So so I just find it's a very, very healthy.
09:42It's kind of like the the positive ethos of a sports team.
09:45And yet with the goal of of doing something moving for audiences and not not in a
09:50competitive nature. So for me, it's like the best of both worlds.
09:55Well, I think it sounds amazing and we would need about an hour to talk about your
10:00resume. I mean, I can't even believe all the things you've done in your career,
10:06including an opening ceremony at one of the Winter Olympics.
10:10You were performing in that, right?
10:12No, well, no, I was one of the creators of the opening of the Sochi opening ceremony
10:20and and our company performed in the Torino ones.
10:24But I myself wasn't on stage.
10:26But yeah. So of all your experiences, is there anything like the people you've met or
10:32places you performed or shows you've directed?
10:35Is there anything that stands out that you're most proud of?
10:40Oh, I mean, all of them, I mean, they're all every experience you meet incredible people
10:45and have some wonderful, memorable experience.
10:50I mean, recently, the one I just did is the one that's freshest on my mind because it
10:53was a Broadway show of Water for Elephants, the musical.
10:57And that was such an experience to do Broadway.
11:00And we were just at the Tonys.
11:02And so that really felt kind of just bigger and kind of the yeah, the whole the whole
11:10grandeur of the whole thing wasn't what I expected, really, when I got into it.
11:13So that was really kind of life changing as an experience.
11:19And then and yet then since it's the really small ones, like just actually last fall, I
11:24was teaching at the university here and did a devised creation with my students.
11:28And it was just one of the most rewarding, like artistic experiences ever had.
11:32And it was just so funny to go from something so, you know, just at a university level
11:36with my students and creating something with them and watching them just, you know, doing
11:41it out of their the passion for the work and, you know, they're not being paid or any
11:46of that. And it was just so heartfelt and like watching them learn.
11:49And that was, you know, one extreme.
11:51And then two months later, I'm on a Broadway, you know, stage and and and that was the
11:56other extreme. So I think it all it all brings something exciting.
12:00And what I mean, what an exciting career.
12:04And you started with the Pickle Family Circus.
12:06Is that right? Exactly.
12:08Yeah. Based in San Francisco.
12:09I'm from originally from Berkeley, California.
12:11And and there's this there was a small what they called European style circus because it
12:17was one ring and no animals and fairly.
12:22Yeah, just more theatrical, you know, sort of pulling a lot from more like Comedia del
12:28Arte and sort of forms like that.
12:29So, yeah, I started with them in 1988.
12:34Right. Still around.
12:36Yeah. Well, no, the company's no longer around, but they that there was a school that was
12:40an offshoot from and there's I mean, it's still it's existing in other forms, I'd say.
12:47And in fact, one of my co-founders of the Seven Fingers is the daughter of the founders
12:51of the Pickle Family Circus.
12:52So nice.
12:53So in many ways, we're kind of continuing the tradition and full circle, full circle.
12:58Definitely. Yeah.
12:59In closing, Shayna, is there anything else you'd like to add that we didn't cover?
13:04Well, gosh, just because we said full circle, actually, we do have we the Seven Fingers
13:08have a show in San Francisco that's sort of like a permanent show at Club Fugazi where
13:14Beach Blanket Babylon used to be.
13:15And this sounds like I'm doing an ad, but also mostly because that's sort of what the
13:20when I was saying the sort of like the seeds of the Pickle Family Circus still exist.
13:23There was something very full circle when we decided to come back there as well.
13:27So I just thought I'd mention that because it just follows what you're saying.
13:31And yeah, we have a very international cast and dual reality.
13:37So that's the fun part of it, too.
13:38And in general, in circus, it's like people from all over all the time.
13:42So I guess that's it.
13:45It looks so fun.
13:46I can't wait, personally.
13:48And again, it's only 15 performances.
13:51So it's at the Amundsen September 11th through the 22nd.
13:55Shayna, thank you so much.
13:56Shayna Carroll, Seven Fingers, thanks for being here.
14:00And to get tickets, you can go to center theater group dot org.