Tough racket

Josa Maule talks about teaching actors
the ropes and creating a community within
a community at the Montreal School of
Performing Arts

ADDING TO AN ACTOR’S TOOLS: Maule

By NEIL BOYCE

The Montreal School of Performing Arts, the on-the-go school down on Notre-Dame W., is celebrating 16 years in the business. In operation seven days a week, they offer classes on acting and surviving in the business, as well as teaching after-school programs for kids. They put on around 11 plays a year at their Express-O Theatre—and do it all without government funding.

It’s down to the tireless work of Josa Maule, whose career in casting (with movies like Who Is KK Downey?, Burning Mussolini and Amos Kollek’s new movie Restless in her portfolio) led her to start the theatre school in 1992.

Over 3,000 students have passed through its doors, among them actors Christine Ghawi and Alison Louder, writer-filmmaker Phil Price, and director Frances Balenzano.

Mirror: What are your students like?

Josa Maule: Our youngest is five years old. Our oldest is in his 90s. Kids all want to be on TV or in High School Musical 3, teens to 20-somethings want to pursue it as a business but they know it’s hard, and there are those who were in acting before and found a way back to it. People do it for a hobby, self-development, or a profession.

When we moved from Decarie to where we are now, we did it in two days and it was our students, past and present, that came and helped out: we are a community within an acting community.

M: In Montreal, you have the acting programs in universities and CEGEPs, private teachers, Actor’s Studio Montreal—where do you guys fit in?

JM: An actor must get many tools on their tool belt. Everybody has a different style of teaching, it’s like baking an apple pie: everybody has a different recipe, but the end result is still apple pie. The more recipes you have, the more versatile you can be. All my analogies refer to food—when you see me, you can tell why (laughing).

M: Students go to other schools and still take classes here?

JM: Yes, they start off with us and go on to Dawson, John Abbott, the National Theatre School. I’ve got a few now in New York and Toronto.

M: Any advice for would-be actors?

JM: It’s hard to sustain a living. Some actors believe that once they get an agent, they’ve “made it.” They say they want it, but they don’t network to meet people. It’s more than just taking acting workshops—it’s about the business, the protocol. I tell my students, ‘There will be opportunities. I’ll get you in the kitchen, but you’ve got to do all the cooking.’

M: How’s Mary Poppins coming along?

JM: We put up a play in only three weeks! My mother is here next to me right now, making alterations on the costumes. I put everybody to work in my family. Everyone’s having fun, and that’s what it’s all about too. I tell our actors, ‘If it’s not fun anymore, don’t do it.’

FRIENDS OF ESTELLA ROSEN

Those who follow the theatre and film scene know that my friend and theatre colleague Estelle Rosen was in a car accident on Oct. 23. A great community event to help her financially was held at Centaur last Monday. If you missed the Friends of Estelle Rosen Benefit, you can still send a cheque payable to SHEBA PRODUCTIONS to: Anna Fuerstenberg, 6631 St-Denis, Montreal, QC, H2S 2S1

MARY POPPINS TO DEC. 14 AT MSOPA
(3975 NOTRE DAME W.). TICKETS AT
THE DOOR, OR CALL (514) 483-5526