Adam Brazier on Stepping Into Evangeline in Edmonton

Confederation Centre Artistic Director Adam Brazier was recently called in to step into the production of Evangeline currently gracing the stage in Edmonton after actor Jay Davis took ill and was unable to perform. Brazier has chronicled the entire process, from the first phone call to stepping out on stage at the first performance for BroadwayWorld readers. Check out the story below!

My name is Adam Brazier. I am the artistic director of The Confederation Centre of the Arts and the Charlottetown Festival. Like many directors, I began as an actor and still love to occasionally perform.

On Wednesday Oct 28th I received a call from the Citadel Theatre's Artistic Director Bob Baker, informing me that the lead actor in our co-production of Evangeline had taken ill and could not perform the show. At this point our co-production had already run for three weeks at the Charlottetown Festival and was two days from first preview at The Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.

I should preface this by saying that I had originated the role of Gabriel in Evangeline two years previous in the World Premier production. Of course the production we did in 2013 was merely a sketch of what has been created this time around. The changes are significant with several new scenes, some major cuts and a few new musical numbers.

I was fortunate enough to have been involved in this epic Canadian musical through its many years of development and the story and music live deeply in my heart. This show is deeply personal to me and watching this new production from the house as opposed to performing in it, has been a roller coaster of fear, anxiety, pride and joy. This new production is so much richer and far more complex than our premier in 2013. With it's many moving set pieces, a revolve and most importantly it's many smart and effective dramaturgical changes, our new production takes this story to a whole new level.

When I learned that Jay Davis, who had been playing the role of Gabriel, had fallen ill, I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew exactly where this conversation was going... it was going to Edmonton and it was taking me with it. I went home and told my wife that I was on hold and would know tomorrow if they needed me in Edmonton "to stand in the wings and sing for Jay". To be honest this didn't really scare me as much as excite me. I knew the score well enough that if I had it in front of me, I would be able to fake my way through it relatively easily. I was more concerned about leaving my wife with two kids under four.

Thursday afternoon the phone rang and I was booked to leave the following morning at 5:45am Atlantic time. As the day went on I continued to be updated on the condition of Jay's voice and was to learn that he had been ordered to be on complete vocal rest for five days. Absolutely no singing and more ominously, no speaking. I was then informed that I would no longer be required to sing from the wings and to come to the wardrobe department as soon as I arrive for my costume fitting. It was at this point I quickly changed my underwear and started packing.

Now I could draw this out to make it sound more frightening and more dramatic, but the truth is, I was fine. I knew that before the show, Bob Baker would tell the audience what was happening and should I screw up, all would be instantly forgiven. In fact, I found it liberating to know that the expectations would be so low. If I was scared of anything, it was screwing up the scenes for the other actors.

I was quickly thrown into tech rehearsal and Bob Baker and the brilliant cast began to teach me the show. I had to learn four fights and even more frightening, three dances. In order to keep pace and not be caught up in remembering lines, I requested a prompt feed for my ear. A small ear bud is fed up my back and hooked over my ear, off stage is a prompter feeding my lines into a microphone just before I needed to say them. Much of the material came back instantly and I only needed the odd line but there were a few scenes and entire song in act two, that i hadn't a clue what the text was. The task of being the voice in my head and thus the only thing standing between my success and an utter deer in headlight was given to Jonathan Purvis, the shows fight director. If I saved this show, Jonathan saved me.

Jonathan and I had roughly three attempts at each scene before the first performance. He circled the areas I wasn't sure of and fed me perfectly the simple cues I needed. I will be forever grateful for his calm demeanour, clear voice and support.

Prior to Saturdays show we had two hours for dinner. I decided I would go back to my hotel and try to nap. I was delusional. Even though I was absolutely exhausted, having only had 8 hours sleep in the last 48 hours and a three hour time change, plus day light savings happened on Saturday....I really hadn't a clue where, when or who I was anymore.

7:30 came and the overture began. I opened my mouth to sing, sing that song i'd sung so many times before and I was immediately thrown back into the story. Guided by an incredible cast and crew under the watchful eye of Bob Baker I was given a second chance to live the story I love so dearly. To sing the songs that resonate so deeply in my heart. The experience was profoundly surreal. Never have I felt the support of so many people, willing me to do well. The audience was lost in the story and very quickly forgot they were watching an emergency stand-in. This is the highest mark of success for me. That for those two performances the audience forgot the situation they walked into and got lost in the amazing story and characters that Ted Dykstra has created.

I performed the Sunday evening performance as well and outside of the necessity of having prompt in my ear, I was back in Acadie.

This production is selling very very well in Edmonton and it is my hope to find other production partners and to begin working on a french translation.

Evangeline runs at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton until Nov 22nd. Visit citadeltheatre.com.

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