Tom McCamus (3/15 Seminar)
Mirvish 3/15: Tom McCamus
SEMINAR
November 2015 Panasonic Theatre
Four aspiring young writers have paid big bucks to seek wisdom at the feet of the fearsome Leonard-once a celebrated novelist, now a cantankerous editor, teacher and grandstanding chronicler of third-world war zones. Under Leonard’s recklessly brilliant but brutally unorthodox teaching style, competition for his approval is intense. Alliances are made and broken, tactical schemes are hatched-how far are the students willing to go to make it to the top? Pulitzer Prize-nominee Theresa Rebeck’s mordant comedy is a sparkling cocktail of ambition, power and lust-and one with an unexpected kick. Theresa is the creator of the hit television series Smash and her previous plays include Dead Accounts and Mauritius. Stratford Shakespeare Festival star Tom McCamus plays Leonard in this new production.
© Mirvish
Excerpt from Playbill 3/4/15: Tom McCamus
If/Then, Motown, Matilda and Rupert Everett in Judas Kiss Are Toronto-Bound
By Robert Viagas 04 Mar 2015
Award-winning musicals and plays from New York and London including Matilda, Motown, Disgraced and A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder are among highlights announced for the David Mirvish 2015-2016 season lineup in Toronto. In all, the Canadian producer will present 14 shows at various venues around the city, including seven shows in the Mainstage Subscription Series, three in the Off-Mirvish Subscription Series and four shows off-subscription. Specific dates and casts are yet to be announced for most of the shows.
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Also planned is Theresa Rebeck's Seminar, starring Tom McCamus. Mirvish said, "We are bringing Broadway and London hits, launching Canadian and North American premieres, co-producing with local companies, and featuring star performances from such luminaries as Rupert Everett and Tom McCamus."
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Off-Mirvish season at a glance: Seminar by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Stewart Arnott, starring Tom McCamus (Nov. 2015, Panasonic Theatre)
© Playbill
Excerpt from Winnipeg Free Press 10/21/15: Tom McCamus
Actor Tom McCamus a tyrannical teacher in Warehouse comedy
By: Randall King Posted: 10/21/2015 12:54 PM
Respected Canadian actor Tom McCamus takes the role in the Warehouse iteration, co-produced with Mirvish Productions. Though this comedy is set among the literati, McCamus says he can relate to it as a story "about art and what it costs." In his long experience, including 14 years with the Stratford Festival, he acknowledges the theatre world has its share of caustic personalities like Leonard. "I’ve dealt with directors in particular who have been kind of vicious," he says. "There was a period of time all these British directors would come over and it was a style of directing, that kind of brutishness.
"I don’t have any time for that kind of thing," McCamus says. "I don’t think that’s a great way to teach."
Seminar is a homecoming for McCamus, 60, and not just because he’s returning to an RMTC stage after playing the role of Rhett Butler in the 2013 production of Gone with the Wind. McCamus was born in Winnipeg, and raised in Silver Heights and Tuxedo Park for the first decade of his life, until his dad, who worked for Labatt, moved the family to London, Ont. "Even though I was only 10 when I left, it still feels like home," McCamus says during a rehearsal break in the lobby of the Warehouse.
If the role of Leonard sounds like nasty fun, McCamus says it doesn’t come easy "even though I kind of understand it.
"They call him a ‘rock star’ editor, and he was a great writer at one time, and he’s not doing that now. He teaches kids and he also goes to Africa and writes all these magazine articles about what’s going on in Somalia and places like that, and then comes back and tells these kids they’re totally irrelevant.
"He’s looking for the truth and he’s brutal about the truth," he says. "But it all has to do with his own flaws.
"He’s a real son of a bitch. He takes some enjoyment in messing these kids up and then says, ‘When you get in the real world, it’s going to be 100 times worse than anything I can do to you.’
"But it’s been really difficult to find the right tone of that, because somewhere along the line, you’ve got to see into the guy enough so that you can understand why he’s doing this."
The role is demanding, but it probably helps that the busy actor comes to it rested, after taking the summer off to vacation in Scotland and the south of France. "It was really nice not to have lines in my head," he says.
Following the Winnipeg run of Seminar, the comedy will move to Toronto’s Panasonic Theatre from Nov. 14 to Dec. 6.
© Winnipeg Free Press
Excerpt from Winnipeg Free Press 10/24/15: Tom McCamus
Comedy's barbed humour easy to swallow: Snappy pace, performances soften harsh lessons about brilliance
By: Randall King Posted: 10/24/2015 3:00 AM
THE premise of American playwright Theresa Rebeck's comedy Seminar is simplicity itself: Four aspiring writers each put up $5,000 to hire a once-brilliant novelist to evaluate their work. Each writer has talent, but they all need the tough love a good editor can provide. They are, to paraphrase the title of an old sex comedy, four loose nuts in search of a bolt. But their teacher proves to be a bit of a nut himself. Upon his arrival, the glamorously rumpled Leonard (Tom McCamus) promptly takes down the seminar's hostess Kate (Andrea Houssin), who has been toiling for six years on a piece of Jane Austen-inspired irony. (In a funny exchange, Kate quotes the kind, non-committal comments of various authorities as though they were effusive blurbs.) Leonard artfully mixes his message to the wealthy, pretentious intellectual Douglas (Ryan James Miller, very funny) calling him "talented" but "whorish" and thus destined for Hollywood. Leonard seems downright smitten with the work of the sexually provocative Izzy (Grace Lynn Kung), but his motivations may be suspect.
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As the seminars continue over the course of the 100-minute, intermissionless performance, the scrutiny intensifies on Leonard, with the participants compelled to ask: How was this once-brilliant novelist and journalist brought so low as to conduct seminars for rich kids for the money? The answer seems to set us up for a major melodramatic reveal, but to Rebeck's credit, the play offers a more nuanced solution that doesn't derail the comedy.
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And veteran actor McCamus brings his considerable stage presence to bear as the shaggy, oversexed instructor whose most valuable lesson might be that brilliance doesn't equal satisfaction. In fact, in Leonard's case, one tends to cancel out the other.
© Winnipeg Free Press
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail 11/5/15: Tom McCamus
Actor Tom McCamus on the power of tyrants, on and off the stage
J. Kelly Nestruck Published Thursday, Nov. 05, 2015 3:43PM EST
With his raccoon eyes and deep, seductive voice, Tom McCamus has turned in many memorable portraits of charming tyrants - from Richard III to Captain Hook - during his seasons at the Stratford Festival. But now the 60-year-old actor is trying a contemporary one. He’s playing Leonard, a harsh but charismatic writing teacher in Theresa Rebeck’s Broadway comedy, Seminar - currently at Winnipeg’s Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, then in Toronto as part of the Off-Mirvish Season in November. McCamus - also co-starring in the film adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s Room, now in theatres - talked to The Globe and Mail over the phone from Winnipeg.
Leonard is described as a tyrannical teacher - are there ones you’ve had that you’re drawing on for this part?
Not necessarily teachers. But some of the directors that I’ve had over the years, I’ve sort of used some of their tactics, because there’s a lot of similarities there.
Which directors?
I don’t think I’d actually like to say.
Can you tell me about an experience that you’ve had with a director that maybe crossed the line?
I’ve been in a room where a director is taking a bead on one particular person - and then just gone to town on them to the point where it was quite unnecessary. The other interesting thing that happens in a situation like that is everybody in the room watches it happen and rarely does anybody step in and say, “Hey, that’s enough.”
In an interview with you I read, you mentioned brutish British directors that used to come over to Canada.
Yeah, that’s right. I don’t know if it was a style of British directing - but there’s always been a lot of stories about that.
I get the feeling from talking to actors that that era is fading. Are you finding that directors are more friendly in the rehearsal room these days?
I definitely find that. Definitely more collaborative. People have problems in a rehearsal hall, but it’s not that kind of thing.
So the director of Seminar, Stewart Arnott, hasn’t been shouting at you?
No. I’ve known Stewart for a long time. We acted together back in the eighties. We’ve both had experience with those directors I’ve referenced, so I talk about one person and he says, “Oh yes, I know who you’re talking about.”
But you won’t name names.
A lot of them aren’t around any more. People in the theatre community know who we’re talking about.
In Seminar, it’s you - playing a novelist turned teacher - and four younger actors playing your students. Has that relationship been mirrored in the rehearsal room?
I love working with young actors and this group is a great group of people, but I’m not a great teacher by any means. The five of us are basically working as peers. There’s no sense of trying to mentor or anything - I just have to make sure when I am brutal to them as the teacher, I’m not brutal to them as a human being.
Does Winnipeg still feel like home to you?
I was born here and I lived here until I was 10 years old, so my memories are childhood memories. But when I’m here, I feel like this is where I’m from. It’s not as cold as it was the last time I was here.
That was Gone With the Wind - and Winnipeg in January.
It was minus 30. But if you’re in Winnipeg, you should experience the cold. I enjoy it. Because you know the cold in Ontario gets in your bones, but in Winnipeg, it’s just cold you can stop by wearing the right clothes.
Ah! So, you are a real Winnipegger then - propagating that old myth about the “dry cold.”
It’s not a myth, it’s the truth! I remember the cold when I was younger. It was fantastic.
I should ask you about Room too - which won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival and now is generating a lot of Oscar buzz. Did you expect it to take off like this?
I certainly didn’t. I saw it for the first time at TIFF and it was a beautiful film. I was, really, not surprised exactly … It was just lovely to have it work the way you thought it was going to work, because that doesn’t always happen. I enjoyed being in the movie: I got to work with Joan Allen most of time and that was a fantastic experience. She’s an extraordinary woman.
I guess that leaves your TV career to ask about. Your character Dr. Nealon has been killed on Orphan Black, right?
I was killed off. The deal is you get a bottle of whisky if you’re killed off at the read-through.
But are you really dead? Fake deaths seem to be a thing now - and the show’s full of clones.
I have no idea. Actually, when I was filming it, it was so secretive, I didn’t even know if I was a bad guy. As the scripts come along, you go: Oh, I guess I am a bad guy.
What about Leonard in Seminar: Do you know if he’s a bad guy yet?
He’s a flawed guy, I guess. He’s just searching for the truth - and he’s a bit of a scarred individual, so the way he tries to get to the truth is not necessarily pleasant.
© The Globe and Mail
Excerpt from What She Said 11/12/15: Tom McCamus
Interview with Tom McCamus on his play “Seminar”
- by Anne BrodieNov 12, 2015
Renowned Canadian actor Tom McCamus is not a nice man. Well at least not in his new play Seminar, an edgy comedy by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Theresa Rebeck. McCamus plays a respected author hired to teach a seminar on how he does what he does. Well-meaning students have paid him a great deal of money for the opportunity to hear about his artistic process. But they’re taken aback just as the audience is to find he’s a tyrannical brute, verbally abusive, divisive and egomaniacal. Among his unsavoury tricks is pitting the students again one another as a kind of life lesson. The play is in Toronto after a successful run in New York and we had the chance to speak with McCamus from his southern Ontario farm.
The New York critics called Seminar “fiercely funny and cringe worthy”. I like it already! I think we have all have tyrannical teachers or bosses. How is it that they often have a lot of power?
He is tyrannical in the way he does stuff but he’s smart and basically his justification is that he is teaching them valuable lessons. He’s not doing it necessarily to hurt them. He’s obnoxious and he’s mean but he’s also a very flawed individual. And he’s a heavy drinker so he’s not always aware of where he is. But the show’s entertaining and there are lots of opportunities for laughter.
As an actor, I guess you have to find some way of connecting to a guy like Leonard. What did you look for?
In the script you find out something. He reveals himself because what he says you understand. As an audience member you don’t know it right away but as an actor, you do. He’s passionate about his subject. It’s one of the things attracted me to the play. It also talks about writing and the cost of art.
And ego.
There is ego all over the place in this business, directors, and actors. It’s about a healthy ego that allows you to get in front of people but not that strong that is turns bad. It’s confidence. A sense of ego in a director is perfectly fine. You don’t want an actor to clash with that. It’s not the norm but most people have experienced it. As long as it comes from a passionate, caring place.
What wisdom or caution did you receive from tyrants you have known?
In that artistic thing and I don’t subscribe to it, I don’t like it. There are other ways to get your message across than that and if I work with people like that I don’t negate what they’re saying but the manner in which they say it. I listen to what they’re saying because it can be brilliant.
You’re also in the film Room which is getting Oscar buzz. You and Joan Allen walk on eggshells as parents of a kidnapped girl who is returned home with a son after 15 years.
I loved the writing, I’d read Emma Donoghue’s book and the character you see in the film is an amalgamation of characters for the film, the way she describes him. I got to be a positive male in the film and it was such a joy!
I remember being blown away by your performance in I Love a Man in a Uniform way back when and you’ve gone on to have a solid career.
I enjoyed working with David Wellington, the director. He taught me how to enjoy making movies just by the way we worked. He is a fantastic director and helped me feel free to play in front of the camera when before I had felt so much pressure.
Do you still get nervous onstage?
Always. And at different times but usually I find when we put a play in front of people, I get nervous because that’s another character in the scene, the audience.
© What She Said Radio
Excerpt from Broadway World 11/20/15: Tom McCamus
BWW Review: SEMINAR is Snappy, Sassy, and Smart
November 20 2:29 AM 2015 👤by Jason Carlos
Stewart Arnott directs this co-production between Mirvish and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre that stars Tom McCamus as Leonard, a hard-hitting and brutally honest writer whose harsh mentoring skills are anything but helpful.
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The chemistry of the four students provides a solid foundation for Tom McCamus to shine. His powerful performance as Leonard is harsh, brutal and simply hilarious. As the plot unravels, Leonard's motivations become clear - though one can likely predict the trajectory of the plot as Rebeck's script falls victim to some typical clichés.
© Broadway World
Excerpt from The Globe and Mail 11/20/15: Tom McCamus
Seminar: Literary Broadway comedy is something to write home about
Martin Morrow Published Friday, Nov. 20, 2015 3:13PM EST
Leonard, as played by the dynamic Tom McCamus, is a macho writer of the old Norman Mailer school: rumpled-sexy, pugnacious, provocative, but with the acid tongue of Mailer’s rival, Gore Vidal.
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In this production, a joint effort by Mirvish and Winnipeg’s Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (where it premiered last month), McCamus cuts a swaggering, Byronic figure. When his Leonard talks of exploits in Somalia and Rwanda, he revives that enticing image of the writer-as-adventurer.
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Still, the play offers a welcome showcase for McCamus - even if it doesn’t allow him the creative leeway of his quirky, Freudian-flavoured King John at Stratford two seasons ago.
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I’d never send aspiring writers to a guy like Leonard, no matter how badly they may need their illusions shattered. But for aspiring thespians seeking a master class in acting, I’d highly recommend Tom McCamus.
© The Globe and Mail
Excerpt from Toronto Star 11/21/15: Tom McCamus
Mentor becomes tormentor in Seminar: review
By: Carly Maga Special to the Star, Published on Sat Nov 21 2015
Major credit is due to Tom McCamus, who plays the aforementioned Scrooge of the New York City writing scene, Leonard.
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Leonard feels like he was written for McCamus, best known for his work at the Stratford Festival and for this year’s TIFF audience favourite Room, who can easily spit out soul-crushing disparagements, and make even solid advice sound like a death sentence, but he’s equally exciting when showing a little vulnerability.
© Toronto Star
Excerpt from Canadian Jewish News 11/23/15: Tom McCamus
A play about the writing life
By Dororthy Lichtblau - November 23, 2015
McCamus’ Leonard wonderfully elicits fear and loathing yet doesn’t alienate the audience. In control of Leonard’s enormous personality, McCamus capably reveals the many aspects of this complex character. As the play progresses McCamus adds another piece to the Leonard puzzle. He won’t submit to defeat, he is self-undermining, he is insightful, he is gripped by narcissism and at bottom, like his students, he is passionate about writing.
© Canadian Jewish News