BWW Interviews: Chatting with the Youth of Toronto's NEXT TO NORMAL

My name is Kate Stevenson and I directed this production of NEXT TO NORMAL and am also the Artistic Director of Clearwater Theatre.

What's your favourite song in the show and what do you think is the overall message behind the production?

Different songs are my favourites for different reasons. I love the way that the show starts "normal" in Realism and then at different points slides into Expressionism as we experience what Diana is experiencing. For that reason I love songs like My Psychophamacologist and Doctor Rock (a scene that makes people laugh out loud at every show). At the other end of the spectrum, I love 'Make Up Your Mind/Catch Me I'm Falling' which has been blocked in a way that all the characters overlap with each other in the same space both vocally and physically and I think it's very interesting what the cast does with it. When Sara Farb comes in to start the finale "Light" at the end of the show I am always brought to tears, and then the song transitions into having 6 of the most powerful and extraordinary voices singing mere feet away from the audience in stunning harmonies is like nothing I"ve ever experienced in a theatre before. During rehearsals, that scene would leave me breathless... actually it still does.

I believe that the overall message of the production is that there is no such thing as 'normal'. Grief, loss and the struggle for wellness, the struggle to know how to love and take care of each other- these things are normal.

What would you say is the number one reason to come out and see the show?

People are profoundly moved by this show. They feel connected to it. Audiences sit in their seats wiping their eyes. One audience member told me they just needed a moment to reflect and process what they'd just experienced. NEXT TO NORMAL addresses important and stigmatized issues around mental health, but I believe that it will resonate with anyone who has experienced loss or trauma or any family crisis. I saw it on broadway and loved it and I couldn't stop thinking about it afterwards. The one thing that struck me was that at it's core, it's a show with 6 people. As I was straining to see the actors faces from the back row, I wondered what it would be like to see it in an intimate space. Instead of giant sets, giant lighting, giant volume, the raw and powerful intensity of the show would come from experiencing what this family was experiencing feet away.

I knew in order to pull it off, I needed to find great actors who would be able to sing the challenging score, but who also could 'just be'- actors who could sing but who would truthfully be able to experience the show moment by moment. We have cast (in my opinion) the perfect ensemble of 6.

Many people were skeptical about me trying to do a rock musical without microphones in a tiny room, but Rob Pittman our MD has done a fantastic job mixing the instruments and the voices soar. The result has been beyond what I hoped or imagined. I'm so proud of our cast, musicians and of our version of this groundbreaking show.