BF26: Alyssa LeClair takes centre stage in Blyth Festival debut

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

Actor Alyssa LeClair is new to Blyth - very new! “This is my debut - I arrived last night at, like, 4:35,” she laughed. “It’s quaint, it’s lovely, it’s beautiful… I walked the length of the town on the main street with my dog last night. I’m so delighted to be here.”
While she may be new to the Blyth Festival, LeClair has brought along a suitcase packed with a wide range of training and experience. “I did my undergrad in Canada, and then I went to the U.S. to do my Master’s degree,” she explained. “I feel like I learned something brand new every week - new festivals, new spaces, new people. It’s kind of insane how much Ontario has going on.”

 

This season, she is one of a team of talented performers taking on dual roles in Curveball and Sisters of ’78. “I’m playing Joyce in Sisters of ’78, and I'm playing a couple different roles in Curveball,” she told The Citizen. 

 

Her path to each production has been paved with a mix of artistic admiration and personal connection. For Sisters of ’78, it began with a deep respect for the show’s director. “Mary Francis Moore is, in my opinion, a visionary,” she said. “I’m from Hamilton, and she works in Hamilton, and the work she is doing is some of the best Canadian theatre right now, if not the best of North American theatre. She just has such an eye!”

 

When Moore asked her to audition, it was a dream come true for LeClair. Then she received a draft of Kristen Da Silva’s script. “I couldn’t stop reading it!” she exclaimed. And, Kristen Da Silva also lives in Hamilton. She has such a specific way of writing… she honours the past while still making it accessible to people. This story is about the Fleck Manufacturing strike, and it’s so readable, and so performable!”

 

Curveball, meanwhile, was a home run from the get go. “I’m primarily a musical performer and so, any musical, I am in,” LeClair declared. “I also played baseball growing up. My dad was a catcher and an umpire. It’s in the LeClair family. So it just felt natural. And, Severn Thompson is the director of Curveball, and every time I bring up her name in conversation with anyone in the Canadian theatre industry, they always say ‘oh my God!’ So I’m just really excited to work with her.”

 

LeClair has been equally struck by the reputation of the Festival itself. “I’ve not heard a single bad word about the Blyth Festival - it’s kind of amazing that almost every Canadian actor I’ve talked to has either gotten their start or had their first contract or even world premiere in this sweet little town.” she mused.

 

Now in the early days of rehearsal, LeClair is settling into her daily pre-game ritual. “I’m starting to become very regimented. It’s a 6 a.m. sharp wake up. I check in with my nine-to-five job, walk my dog, get ready… it’s just nicer to ease into the day with an early morning.”

 

As a repertory actor, LeClair has been enjoying finding the complementary ideas and themes running through these two very different plays. “I think both are rooted so deeply in Canadian history,” she pointed out. “This is incredible stuff that we don’t always learn about!”

 

For Sisters of ’78, that means building a story that means examining the evolution of both labour rights and women’s rights. “It’s a touchpoint in our history that we need so we can understand where our rights came from in Canada,” LeClair told The Citizen.
Curveball, meanwhile, will be singing the story of a phenomenal women’s baseball team to life. “Curveball is really cool, because it’s about the Stratford area specifically!” she exclaimed. “I think when the setting of a play is a local or a regional touchpoint, you can see the world a little bit better.”

 

As a performer with a strong musical theatre background, LeClair is excited to implement her passion to emotionally connect to the people of Blyth. “Musical theatre is such an outlet for people to just be so authentically themselves,” she told The Citizen. “I just saw the new Tragically Hip show [It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken] on Friday night. I think it was one of the most perfect ways to honour Canadian lore in a musical setting - because music spoke for Gord [Downie], right? There was no in between with him. And then you take all of that lore and use it to tell a story about a refugee - it’s so beautiful, and so special. Musical theatre just is bigger, louder and more emotional… because you’re singing about it.”

 

For LeClair, access to the arts is not just a valuable tool - it’s essential. And not just for artists - for everybody. “Arts education, generally speaking, is one of the most important things in the world,” she asserted. “I come from Hamilton, where we were called the ‘City of Music’, and then they cut funding to all of our really big music programs… when you remove those things just because there’s no sort of feasible return on investment, you eliminate the whimsy and magic that makes any job good, from the CEO of a bank to a graphic designer. There’s nothing better in the world than giving people a touchpoint to creativity.”

 

Now, LeClair is throwing down the gauntlet and inviting audiences to experience both productions for themselves. “Come see them because it’s Canadian work, and because it’s new work. And they’re world premieres. Come see them because of feminism,” she said with a laugh. “Don’t not come - that would be crazy!”