Actress Kira Guloien Dishes on Her New Role in HADESTOWN

Kira Guloien is one of the Canadian actors cast in Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin's much-anticipated pre-Broadway Canadian Premiere of Hadestown.

Originally from Edmonton, Guloien was previously in The Sound of Music at the Citadel when she was only 14 years old. Now based in Toronto, Guloien returns to the Edmonton stage for the first time as one of the Fates in Hadestown. The Citadel's Sydnee Bryant spoke with this fiery Fate about her love of music and why she had her heart set on being in Hadestown.

CT: What's it like working with Rachel Chavkin and Anaïs Mitchell on Hadestown?

KG: Amazing. They are both such intelligent artists and the energy in the room has been so wonderful. It's an amazing place to be creative. That doesn't always happen in a rehearsal room. I think they both are letting us find who these people are. They're letting us make choices that might not be the right ones but they're allowing us to go there and figure these things out for ourselves. Rachel is so articulate without being forceful with any ideas. She's got a great sense of humour and it's been really fun to know that you're allowed to go with the flow and discover what this story is for us. I'm totally fangirling over both of them. They're both such strong women and brilliant artists, and I'm so honoured to be in the room.

CT: How have your previous experiences prepared you for this role?

KG: I've done a lot of new musicals - not that this is completely brand new. I've been really fortunate in my career to work on some new pieces of work, whether they have previous workshops or productions - things that are still figuring out what they are, full of rewrites and restaging. It's such a creative process but it requires a lot of patience and a lot of willingness to adapt. I've learned from those experiences and I can bring that open attitude to this rehearsal process. It's not classic musical theatre. I didn't go to school for musical theatre. As I mentioned, I grew up in a musical family but it certainly wasn't show tunes - it was jazz and classical music. I would say my past experiences, even just listening to my father play the saxophone, has developed an understanding of this style for me. I feel it comes easy to me, vocally, which is fun. It's a treat to be singing something that isn't necessarily in a Broadway musical theatre style. I love storytelling and I love good music, and it doesn't necessarily need to be Hello Dolly-style show tunes. It's just such a treat to sing this stuff; I'm singing it all day long and listening to it all day long.

Citadel Theatre: How did you first become involved with Hadestown?

Kira Guloien: I've been living in Toronto for almost 10 years. I was actually trying to take a little bit of a break from musical theatre to try to do some film and television, which apparently [to do] you have to really shift your focus and be available and stay in the city. I love musical theatre; I didn't want to leave it forever. But I wanted to maybe take a year and try to do something else. I was sitting at home, and my roommate, Lucas, who's done a lot of work at the Citadel, asked me if I had heard of the show Hadestown. I had told my agent 'no theatre auditions,' so I hadn't. He told me it involved AnaïsMitchell, and that Justin Vernon and Ani Difranco had sung on the concept album, so I immediately got on the internet and started listening to the music. I had my agent on the phone in five minutes and said, 'I need to audition for this show,' and the audition was the next day. I was just set on being a part of it. The music just blew me away. And Rachel Chavkin is obviously an incredible director and someone that I've been hearing about. I auditioned in Toronto and here we are! And it's my first time coming back here to work, so it's so special.

CT: Does it feel really meaningful to be doing such a huge show in your hometown?

KG: Oh yeah, it's so special. It's a really important show right now. It's got so many resonant themes. It's my favourite type of music. I grew up in a musical family - a lot of jazz music. I love listening to and singing folk music. It seems like the perfect show for me to be returning home with. It feels so right and so meaningful. It's really, really special because I love musicals but this means something else to me for a reason that I might not be able to define yet but it's just already so close to my heart. It's cool to be sharing that with so many friends and family.

CT: Were you familiar with the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice prior to landing this role? Have you done any additional research to prepare?

KG: I wasn't too familiar with it. I believe it's in the play Metamorphosis, which I think I saw at the Citadel years and years ago. It's a terribly sad tale. I've been looking into different versions and different tellings of it. We keep asking, 'Why does Orpheus turn at the end'? And, maybe this is just our telling of the myth, but I'm amazed at how many current topics come up in this story. It's not forced; they are just there - they are timeless issues. As artists, we all know the sacrifice of doing something you love and creating art and not being able to necessarily put food on the table sometimes - that's a bit dramatic. It can be a struggle - it isn't always, but it is always a sacrifice in many ways. That's just so much of where Orpheus lives. He's so loveable and I think everyone can relate to his love of life and nature. I think we've lost a lot of that over the last few generations - or maybe even just a few years, even.

CT: Do you guys talk about some of the themes running through the show when you're rehearsing or do you try to stay away from that?

KG: On the first day, Rachel [Chavkin] spoke to that and she made a point that we don't need to ... that those themes exist and those resonant topics exist and we don't need to force them because they are just there, which I think is really smart direction. At this point, we've just been motoring to really get this thing up on its feet. Sometimes, things don't require discussion. There have been moments, sometimes after someone sings a song or we stage something and we run through it and we all look at each other at the end and we all know what we're thinking and feeling and we don't even need to get into it because it's almost exhausting thinking about everything that's going on in the world right now. I think that it's there and you can take what you want from it. It will make people think and it will definitely make people feel things, which is so important.

CT: You're playing one of the Fates. What is your role as a Fate?

KG: The Fates, in Greek mythology, we spin the thread of life. And we cut the thread of life when we feel like it. In this show, we almost serve as a kind of Greek chorus. We do a lot of speaking directly to the audience. And we have a great influence on the decisions that people make in the show. We like to stir things. Jewelle [Blackman] and Evangalia [Kambites] and I have been talking about why we decide to influence people in this way or other ways. Is it based on whether they're deserving of a good life? Or is it just arbitrary? We are pretty wicked and we are very matter-of-fact. I think the Fates have an attitude of, 'That's the way life is and you have to deal with it. And you have to make tough decisions and you gotta do what it takes to survive.' We aren't particularly sentimental. We're the voice in everyone's head at some point in the show. We creep in and poke at the characters and drive them in certain directions, which aren't necessarily good ones, unfortunately. It's been hard to get behind some of the decisions or some of the ways that we push things in the show. I think that maybe we have succumbed to Hades, maybe years and years ago, and now we're jaded and bitter and we just feel that life is hard - we know that life is hard. We push people to make difficult decisions.

CT: A song that reflects that is When The Chips Are Down. Do you have a favourite number or scene you've rehearsed so far?

KG: Chips is really fun. The Fates are lucky because we get to sing some really beautiful underscore-y type music and then some really nasty tunes - I mean, they're still beautiful. But it gets real. And we play. We have a sense of humour about everything that we do.

CT: Do each of the three Fates have their own personalities?

KG: I think we definitely have individuality. I don't know if we have figured out that dynamic yet. I know that the three Fates in Greek mythology do each have a name and a specialty, if you will. We haven't made those decisions yet. And we might not need to. I think we, as actors and performers and people, are so different from one another. And one of the really cool things about this show is that because there is so much direct address and it's very vaudevillian, we aren't necessarily in a strict ... we aren't in character the whole way through. I think I bring a lot of [myself] to this role. And certain moments, it's like, 'Okay, I'm watching someone else perform now, as Kira,' and we greet the audience as ourselves and then we morph into these characters. There's a lot of opportunities to bring ourselves to these characters, which is great.

Hadestown runs November 11 to December 3, 2017, at the Citadel Theatre. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 780.425.1820 or visit www.citadeltheatre.com.