Natasha MacLellan

Natasha MacLellan has been making theatre for over twenty years, all the while based in the Maritimes. She has worked as an actor, a director, a playwright, a teacher, a producer and a dramaturge. This breadth of experience has given her a well-rounded view of her craft, which is beneficial, given her position as Artistic & Executive Director of Theatre New Brunswick.

What led you to theatre?

I like making people laugh. And I enjoy the feeling of having all eyes on me, I’ve always loved it and am very comfortable in the spotlight. I have a vivid memory of being quite young, somewhere between 5 and 8, and performing a poem at my school’s Christmas Concert. As I delivered my lines, I saw the whole room looking at me, and I remember knowing and loving that everyone was watching me, waiting for my next line. I was hooked.

How did your training and experience help you to create and innovate in your artistic practice?

We can only create, or innovate, from where we are, and where we are is in the present moment. And the present moment is only possible from the moments before. Training and experience are found in those moments before. They become part of you, good or bad. Innovating can only happen when you have a clear understanding of yourself and your voice and your context. IF I have innovated in my career, it’s because I’ve managed to understand who I am and what I do, and how I fit into it all.

What stimulates you most about your practice?

The moment when the best idea is accepted by the group, and no one remembers whose idea it was.

How has living and working in New Brunswick helped and/or inspired you on your journey?

I came here from Nova Scotia, which has a much larger theatre community, but when I left, it felt very small. I was frustrated by the politics, the cliques and the noise. I felt pigeonholed. Moving here gave me distance from all of that and allowed me to spread my wings. I think my directing has gotten much better since moving here. I got clear about the work I want to make, and the way I want to make it.

What motivates your creativity?

Leisure time. I’m an agitated person, I’m always rumbling with something, or arguing in my head, thinking deeply. This coupled with a full-time administrative job leaves me busy and distracted a lot. I don’t really hit my stride creatively until I’ve been able to unwind a little. Saturday evenings are good because I’ve usually had a quiet day in the house, and I have another quiet day ahead. I don’t relax easily (I’m working on it) but that’s when I feel most creative.

How does your creative process unfold as you create or play a character?

I answered the last question thinking about being creative outside of my job. I love to write and draw and cook, so that’s what I do to be creative outside of my work. I’m inspired by beauty in my life, I love beautiful linens, pottery, art. I take pleasure in creating beauty all around me. That’s how I am creative in my life and my process is a sort of, constant state of imagining things differently. That’s probably the best way I can say it.

When I’m directing, I think I do a similar thing, but it has a specific focus. I look for the beauty in the show. I think about the costumes first because I love clothes. I think about the words. I connect the words and costumes and themes to other shows or songs or paintings I love and then I watch them, or listen to them, look at them. Maybe I discover new artists or artworks through that process. I try to distill all those ideas and images that I’m pushing around in my head into an aesthetic and then I tell the designers what I’m thinking about. Then they give me their thoughts and ideas and visions, and then I think about those. Put simply, I go down a lot of rabbit holes.

I dream a lot. I think a lot. I stare off into space a lot. And once the actors start, I think about them a lot. It’s like they’re always in my head, and I hear them talking and hear what they bring to it. And I just keep looking for the beauty, even in the hard parts. The beauty and the truth and the dignity. Especially the dignity.

I don’t know if that is a process, but it’s what I do.

Why do you think it's important to create and pursue an artistic career?

I think creating is fundamental to being human. We need to express ourselves to know ourselves and to find peace with ourselves. I’m not sure it is important to pursue an artistic career. I don’t mean to cause offense or to be facetious at all. I just don’t know if I think that’s important. If it is, I’d venture it’s important to listen to your heart and honour what it needs. And if it needs to pursue an artistic career, then it’s important to heed that call.

What have you learned about yourself and New Brunswick's artistic community through your work?

So much. New Brunswick is not like Nova Scotia. There is a feeling here, an approach to art and life that is WAY more chill than in NS. There is a satisfaction with life, a feeling like there’s nothing missing. There is humility and contentment. Not that these things don’t exist in NS, but they are different…louder, maybe? It’s like NB is an introverted province and NS is extroverted. And I am an extrovert living in an introverted province. I have learned that about myself!

What do you think is the impact of artists' work on communities?

I really don’t know. Truly. And I’ve been yelling about it, writing about it, arguing about it for decades. I’m sure it’s less grand than I make it sound in my grant applications. It’s probably easier articulated by a five year old than anyone who has any skin in the game. I’m sure my answer will be different today than tomorrow. But the impact has got to be entirely positive. I don’t believe a community without artists would not be worth living in, not for me, probably not for most of us.

Describe what you are most proud of in your career.

That I’m still going. I read a quote from the late John Dunsworth, that was something like “success in the theatre is getting work. It’s not fame, it’s not glory. It’s just working.”

What advice would you give to people who want to go into theatre?

Two bits, I think:

1. Know what success is for you. And let that definition change as your awareness of industry expands.
2. It’s a collaborative art form, so if that isn’t your thing, think long and hard about committing to an industry where you’ll always, always be negotiating, compromising, sharing, risking, depending and relying on other people. Do you play well with others? Because you’ll never last if no one can work with you.