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Feb. 1, 2013
Theatrical musical thrill ride
Rielle Braid created her own character for Ride the Cyclone.
OLGA LIVSHIN
“I feel complete when I’m on stage,” said Rielle Braid. “Theatre is the only thing I could ever do.” The young actress is in Vancouver this month, starring in Ride the Cyclone, a musical written by Jacob Richmond. This is the second Canadian tour for the 2009 production of the Victoria theatre company Atomic Vaudeville, and it is presented in conjunction with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.
For many actors, being the first performer of a role, its creator, is a dream that not often turns into reality. Braid created the role of Ride the Cyclone’s Ocean Rosenberg right out of acting school.
“I studied acting at the University of Victoria,” she recalled. “One of my instructors, Brian Richmond, directed the show Wind in the Willows, where I performed. Brian’s son Jacob came to see the show, and then asked to meet me. We had coffee and talked about his ideas for Cyclone and for the role of Ocean. I was really interested. So I was there from the beginning, participated in the workshops, and then the rehearsals. The music was adjusted to fit my voice.”
To this day, she is the only actress ever to have played this role, although by now, she has added a few new parts to her widening repertoire, including in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
“It’s different, playing a classical role and creating a role. Both are difficult. When you play classics, there is more pressure to get it right after so many excellent examples, but when you’re the first performer, there is more freedom. You try to find the core in the role, to express yourself and your character the best you can.”
She considers Ocean Rosenberg to be still a work in progress. “How I’ve played her has changed a lot, because I was in my final semester of school when we performed the show for the first time. Jacob [Richmond] and Britt [Small], the directors of the show, helped me find the truth in her; to listen to what the other characters say about her. She’s a real person, and she has good intentions, even if she is not ideal. I found similarities between us too. Like her, I try to be the best in anything I do. Like her, I have a close connection to my parents, although in a different way. We both have intense fear of death. But I’m much nicer than she is. I hope,” Braid laughed.
When she is not acting, Braid likes to keep busy. “When I have a break from acting, I work for a video store in Toronto. That way, I get to talk about movies all day long. I draw and paint. I read a lot. And I write. I had my first play produced at the Victoria Fringe Festival in 2009. It was terrifying. I sat in the audience and thought what I could’ve fixed. Acting is much easier. There are so many people around you to help you to get it right: the directors and your actor friends, but writing is solitary.”
Still, writing beckons her. “I want to write about various death prophecies: the Nostradamus, the Mayan prophecies and others. I want to make it a comedy. But Jacob [Richmond] writes about death so well. I don’t want to repeat him. I want to find my own story.”
Besides writing and acting, another abiding creative pursuit of hers is music. “I started taking singing lessons when I was six. I sang around our house all the time. After a couple of years, about the time I turned nine, I started singing in Kiwanis festivals and doing it more competitively. I’m very competitive and I try to be hard on myself, always improve, always try to do better.”
She found one application for her love of music in a local synagogue. “For several years, starting when I was 16, I sang during Friday services. I loved it. Even when I graduated from high school and moved to Victoria to study theatre, I still did it every time I visited home.”
For Braid, music and drama are equally important. “I remember my very first experience with Shakespeare: I saw Much Ado About Nothing in Calgary. It was a fantastic play, and I was enchanted. I forgot I was in a theatre. It was magical, and I wanted to do it too. I started participating in community theatre when still in high school.”
Her parents have always supported her in her drive to become an actress. “They are both creative people – they are writers. I know how hard they have been working, constantly improving their craft. That’s what I try to do too.”
Encouraged by her parents’ example, she is not afraid of the challenges of artistic life. “Creative people often are best when they work with limited resources, against the odds. What is the hardest challenge? I think it is finding the strength to pursue what you love and stick with it even when there is no work. Persevere. It’s also challenging to fight being categorized as a one-type actress. It’s not easy, but there are great rewards too. Sometimes when I’m performing I get carried away, become my role. It’s wonderful. And, of course, I like it when people laugh and applaud. Every actor does.”
Ride the Cyclone, which has garnered rave reviews as “a work of pure genius,” “the next big thing” and “riotously funny,” is at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage (artsclub.com) until Feb 16.
Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@ gmail.com.
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