Tom McCamus (6/10 Amadeus)
Excerpt from Broadway World 6/27/10: Tom McCamus
BWW Interviews: Jitter's Noah Reid and C. David Johnson Talk Theatre in Canada
In keeping with the theme of Jitters, BWW sat down and talked with Noah Reid (Beauty and the Beast, Degrassi, Score: A Hockey Musical) and C. David Johnson (Street Legal, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Sound of Music) about what it is like trying to make a full-time living in the Arts, and (of course) their own opening night Jitters.
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Could you tell us a story of the most disastrous experience you have ever had leading up to opening night?
C. David Johnson: I must say I have been fairly lucky when it comes to getting through Opening Nights, but I was in a production of "Amadeus" and the actor playing Mozart came down with laryngitis the day before we opened. They tried to put a body mike on him, but no one could get within ten feet of him without their voices booming out over the house speakers. They cut their losses, flew in Tom McCamus who, never having even read the play, learned the part in two days and went on to play Mozart flawlessly!
How do you find you balance being an artist in Canada and ensuring that you have a stable career? Lucky enough to sustain work or is the idea of having to get a "joe job" always lingering?
NR: Again, I feel I've been very lucky. I've been working pretty consistently since i was about 8 years old. But in this business, not even the best are infallible. I was talking to Tom McCamus last year in Stratford, and he said that to this day he's always been prepared to have to do something else to make a living. This is a guy whose career I think of as a huge success - he's one of my favourite actors.
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