10 questions: Megan Flynn

1) What the fuck is going on?
Generally, many things are much worse than we imagined, and some things are far better than we can hope, but in the end, it’s all about the same as we think it is. For example, the federal budget just came out and suddenly the whole country has become conservative, or the conservative have become liberal, but the meaning of “a liberal” in our understanding, has changed from social-welfarist to leave-me-and-my-latte-alone-ist. At least people are resting. And minimum wage is going up, and Jacob Zimmer is wearing a white undershirt.

The other thing that is happening is… my theatre company One Reed, is opening our show, Nor the Cavaliers Who Come With Us next Wednesday and we’re all gearing up for that.

2) How do you feel about your time at the National Theatre School of Canada?
Wow, we barely know each other, and already such a personal question? With a million hours of classes a week, the school part is a bit of a blur at the moment, but, yes, I remember it quite fondly. It was hard, and I met some of the most creative, engaging and hilarious people in the world, some of whom I still have the pleasure of working with. I’ve also been back to work twice since graduating, so my time at NTS is ongoing I guess you could say.

3) Have you ever been able to put your horseback riding skills to use in a dramatic role?
I wish! Marc Tellez is the only one riding a horse in this show.

4) What part of your performance skill set has improved most in the past two years?
What is a performance skill set? Like knife tossing, fire breathing, etc? Because those are cool. Do you mean what cool stuff can I do better? I am better at stilt-walking because I didn’t do it before, same with guitar (although I’m not good at that yet either). Daniel is teaching me some sweet kung-fu and says my form is excellent. I do yoga a lot so I guess that has improved.

5) What kind of questions do you like to be asked about your work?
I like to be asked anything about my work, because I love to talk about it. It forces me to make decisions, to be concise and to articulate what it is that I do – which helps me do it better. A good question for all of us about the Cavaliers as we were making it was, “What is the play about?” Because it’s about many things, and has two separate storylines that are interwoven, we had to select a through line that was clear to the person asking. This shaped my understanding of the play for sure.

I also like to be asked easy questions like, “how did you learn those lines,” or, “do you get nervous before you go on,” because those are the things people really want to know.

6) Who’s funny?
Frank Cox-O’Connell, Marc Tellez, Daniel Mroz, even Evan Webber is funny. Jacob Zimmer, Chris Reynolds, Ame Henderson, Lee Brunton, Tara Flynn, Paddy Flynn, hell all the Flynns. Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, the people who make A League of Gentlemen, the people who make WonderShowzen, and many others.

7) Why have you chosen to pursue theatre arts?
When I was a two years old I got lost in a funeral home during my great grandmother’s wake. My father realized I was not in the room, and ran through the building, as others scoured the neighbourhood in case I had actually gotten out. Several panicked moments later I was found in one of the other visitation rooms with the corpse of an old man; I had crawled up into the coffin and was sitting on his lap. Long story short, I guess I needed the attention.

8) What’s the best way to tell a theatre artist that you hope their show goes well?
In the ass of the whale!

9) What do you like most about the Studio Theatre as a performance space?
It’s a really cool space, it has amazing acoustics and makes our songs sound beautiful. It also allows us to perform the show in the way that it is intended to be, with the audience on four sides. At SummerWorks in the Factory Mainspace, the Cavaliers was modified to fit into a proscenium.

10) What does the title of One Reed Theatre’s latest play Nor The Cavaliers Who Come With Us mean?
Nor the Cavaliers Who Come With Us is a phrase from El Requiremento – The Requirement, which was a decree created by the King of Spain, read aloud by the conquistadors to each nation or village they encountered before beginning the attack. Of course, it was read in Spanish or Latin to peoples who neither spoke nor understood Spanish or Latin, and therefore was rather useless as a tool of diplomacy or otherwise. El Requiremento basically says that the land belongs to the King and Queen of Spain, and they are sent as representatives of the church to take rightful possession of land, and that any damages or losses incurred as a result of the resistance of the people “is not our fault, nor the cavaliers who come with us.”

6 thoughts on “10 questions: Megan Flynn

  1. so so exciting to be excited about a play.

    el requiremento… must find this document. fascinating. and didja know that in 1493, shortly after news reached the spanish court of these new people, pope alexander vi quickly decreed them human and therefore able to be christianized? he, in fact, stated that they ought not to be dispossessed of their land and resources due to this potential for conversion to catholicism, should steps be taken to convert them with civility.

    a surprising and scandalous example of people claiming piety disregarding the official word from top dog. swept under the rug like so many pedophilic priests. popes continued in this way as colonization spread through the americas, with an official statement to that effect issued in 1537 and again in 1639.

    that there was cause to reiterate is proof that bad behaviour was widespread and well known. that the stipulation for recognizing the humanity of the first nations of the americas was contingent upon their catholicization is… expected, i suppose. fuckers. but still, i think it worth noting that there was a gaping lack of understanding and communication between the actual colonizers and the upper stations in their chain of command, comfortably nestled away in europe.

    holy blog hog. i get excited about these things. gagging to see the show.

    i love you, megan flynn. thank goodness i met you briefly last week, otherwise that would seem really slutty of me.

    tb

  2. Re: Megan’s answer to Question 10 and Tara’s subsequent response. Wow. I didn’t know any of this. It’s amazing how deep a history goes, and how levels of corruption and human failing cover it all like the skins of a onion that’s rotting from the inside.

    The arrogance of the front-line colonizers? The outlandish decrees from on high. The complications of understanding a history from the First Nations perspective when the dominant myths have been written with a very different pen.

    Where does this leave us? Today. Here in Toronto?

    Ian

  3. i’m pretty sure this show is gonna rock. there’s like 8 plays opening this week and this is the probably the first one i would check out.

    hey tara, how do you convert with civility? isn’t that like gently kicking the shit out of someone? i’m also not sure about setting up the pope as any sort or standard bearer for human rights or care. after all, he decreed these new people human to get gain spitiual power over them, not because they were human. finally, smallpox does not take orders from anyone. i bet you have nothing to say to any of this.

  4. Mike,

    Tara makes it pretty clear how she stands on the fact that, “the stipulation for recognizing the humanity of the first nations of the americas was contingent upon their catholicization. . .” She calls them “fuckers.”

    And, Mike, could you expand on what you mean with your smallpox comment?

    Thanks,

    Ian

  5. ian, you are a gentleman.

    mike- i know this game of provocation that you so love. i seldom lose when i choose to engage in games.

    my primary point is: there was a lot of horror in the development of the world as we know it. people treated each other badly. sometimes we forget about it because of how comfortable we’ve become. we ought to remember, no matter where our roots hook us into it. it is horror that we all share because we are all alive here now. we carry it in our blood.

    how blessed we are that we get to work as artists and work to serve as reminders of all of it- horror, beauty, and above all- the way that we are all in it together.

    fucker.

    xo

  6. hmm. it’s best to know when you’re smoked sometimes. i was making a different point but yours is better. which are the games that you lose at?

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