By Your Pupils You’ll Be Taught

It’s a very ancient saying
But a true and honest thought
That if you become a teacher
By your pupils you’ll be taught
-Lyric by Oscar Hammerstein II

About 15 summers ago I was scouting for young talent to be in a production of Bye, Bye Birdie I was directing for Footlight Theatre. It was an amateur production but it was the biggest thing I had directed at the time and I wanted to get it right – which meant putting together a really exceptional group of teenaged actor/singer/dancers.

I decided to attend the final performance of the musical theatre camp Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance. Among the eighty or so enthusiastic young performers on stage one in particular caught my attention – Kayla Dunbar. So after the show I approached Kayla in the lobby to find out if she might be interested in joining our cast.

It was – and continues to be – my incredible good fortune that she said yes… and our journey began.

For two summers after Birdie she attended the Arts Club Musical Theatre Intensive – a summer program I founded to offer professional training to young artists like Kayla. During the school year she would often come for private voice coaching. She was diligent, curious, passionate, thoughtful, eager… and soaked up anything and everything I had to offer.

In fact, Kayla was so eager she decided to team up with Iain Stewart, another young talent from the Intensive, to produce the musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and they gave me the privilege of directing their company of young artists – it remains, to this day, one of the most joyful experiences I’ve had in the theatre. Kayla played the plucky, precocious Sally Brown… a perfect fit for a young artist with more energy and vivacity than she could contain.

The years and adventures blur together… we performed together in the Royal City Musical Theatre production of 42^nd Street; she was an Assistant Stage Manager on our production of The Full Monty (diving under the production table for the ‘big reveal’); I hired her as a dancer for a chamber opera I directed with City Opera; she often nannied our son, Lukas; and at some point in there she decided to go to theatre school at Studio 58.

While at theatre school her younger brother, a beautiful, shining light named Quinn, lost his long battle with cancer. I feel incredibly blessed to have known him a little, but even more blessed to have seen Kayla with him – to witness what an exceptionally loving big sister she was / is. Of the many things that connect my heart to Kayla, it’s all too sad that the death of a sibling is one of them. We both lost siblings – to cancer – while we both were in theatre school… Perhaps that shared trauma has created some sort of unspoken truth that we both know and see in each other.

On to better things…

With incredible pride I cast Kayla as Kate Monster/Lucy in the Arts Club production of Avenue Q– a part she absolutely owned on stage for almost 250 performances!

She became the first alumni of the Musical Theatre Intensive that I invited to teach the program (which she has been doing for a few summers now).

Soon Kayla herself began to direct and choreograph… and when I was able to see her work I always took it in with great admiration. She has a director’s eye, a choreographer’s sense of composition, and the soul of an artist. She may not trust it yet… but I do.

We worked together (she as choreographer, me as director) on a student production of Grease at Studio 58 – another great joy as I watched her manage our cast with compassion, respect, and humour – challenging them all just enough while bringing out the absolute best in a group of artists who weren’t much younger than she.

Last year when I had to somehow simultaneously direct two productions in two different provinces, I knew the only way I could make it work was to have Kayla at my side. So Kayla worked as my associate on It’s a Wonderful Life getting the show blocked and choreographed and onto the Gateway Theatre stage while I was fiddling on roofs in Saskatoon. I came back to a beautifully wrapped production; all I had to do was add a bow.

Now here we are in rehearsals for Herringbone.

I am the actor, and Kayla is the director…

… and I feel I have so very much to learn.

-Peter Jorgensen