What is your role in this production? My role is the character Elsie Schultz, a German immigrant to Canada. Elsie is a widow and is best friends with Jennie McLean. She also has a close relationship with Jennie’s two children. Elsie is optimistic and strong however her German background and hidden struggle become problematic in the face of the war and the devastating Halifax explosion. Learning the role of Elsie has been a challenge, as she has a German accent and some of her lines are in German!
What is your background in theatre? At Walterdale? I was involved in theatre in high school, and I’ve done some acting in educational videos for Alberta Health Services. I’ve taken courses at the Foote Theatre, I’m involved with Actor’s Gym, and I’m also studying singing. I’ve done one show previously with the Walterdale, Portrait of a Family Dinner in May 2017. I was recently hired as a confederate actor for the AHS eSim program, which will be a fantastic way to combine my nursing background with acting!
What brought you out for this show? I had so much fun with the Portrait of a Family Dinner production that I couldn’t wait to get involved in another show! It was a lovely surprise to be cast as Elsie.
What do you think audiences will take away from this show? Why should they come and see it? I think that the audience will find the characters compelling and that they will enjoy our director Josh Languedoc’s inspired vision for this production. There will be a little bit of a Canadian history lesson as well, and the similarities to some of today’s societal issues are…unsettling, to say the least.
Shatter deals with a major event in Canadian history that Canadians today might not know too much about. Are there any other major events in Canadian history that you feel we should know more about that we do? The discovery of insulin in 1922 by Sir Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, is perhaps the most well-known and widely celebrated medical breakthrough in Canadian history. Although insulin is not a cure for diabetes, its availability has made it possible for people with diabetes to manage their condition and enjoy a longer life expectancy than they would have in Banting’s era. For his contribution to the medical community, Banting was awarded Canada’s first Nobel Prize. My grandfather developed diabetes as a young man and was one of the first Albertans to use insulin. He lived to the age of 76. He also survived a serious case of encephalitis as a 10 year old, caused by the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918!