Performer, songwriter, producer, playwright, and set, costume and projection designer, Toronto’s Kelly Clipperton wears many hats at totally different moments, because the saying goes. Kelly each writes and performs in a brand new present Let’s Assume I Know Nothing And Transfer Ahead From There, A One Man Woman Cabaret Present.
Naomi Campbell directs the present which opens on the Manufacturing unit Theatre from March 4 to 16.
We spoke to Kelly and Naomi concerning the present.
Let’s Assume I Know Nothing And Transfer Ahead From There, A One Man Woman Cabaret Present: The Interview
Lively in each the performing and visible arts fields, Kelly has been a Toronto fixture for 4 many years. With a BFA from York College’s theatre program, he’s branched into manufacturing, songwriting, playwriting, designing, pictures, filmmaking, and extra. His work as a dressing up designer netted a Dora nomination in 2013.
“I used to be within the theatre program,” Clipperton says. “I initially confirmed up there considering I needed to be an actor.” For the previous few years, he’s been centered on manufacturing, costume design, and different issues which have saved him off stage.
Music could be a detour out and in of theatre. “I grew up in a musical household,” he recollects. “My dad was an unimaginable musician.” At prolonged household gatherings, Blissful Birthday could be sung in four-part concord. It despatched a message. “Music was one thing you probably did since you loved it.”
In college, he wrote, produced and acted in 3 performs: Trash, Brotherhood, and Cruelty. Writing and manufacturing carried him via a number of years. “However, I took a stab at writing one thing a lot shorter — a pop music,” he says. “It rolled from there.”
His band Kelly & The Kellygirls toured North America and the UK, and had singles from their seven recordings on the indie charts between 2004 and 2014. In whole, he devoted about 20 years to music, with ten albums to point out for it.
“It’s nonetheless a part of my world.” He says he’s engaged on his first album in about ten years. “I didn’t see myself doing theatre anymore, both,” he provides wryly.
The brand new present goals to hit each humorous and poignant notes, with reflections on grief and growing old alongside an entertaining efficiency and a excessive octane 5-piece band for stay accompaniment. The present is offered cabaret fashion, and initially offered in workshop kind final Could. The 2 workshops have been bought out successes.
Kelly is answerable for every little thing from costume design to the projections that can show in the course of the efficiency. “Naomi and I’ve designed every little thing collectively,” he says. “I actually like doing issues with my fingers.” That extends to duties like video modifying and post-production work.
Working each on and off stage creates an acute consciousness of the assorted points of your personal persona. “There’s a push and pull,” he says.
“I actually love creating.”
The Present
“Once you stroll into the room, it would really feel like a cabaret,” explains director Naomi Campbell. She describes it as a cabaret with classic fashion.
Campbell is a performing arts skilled with a specialty in new Canadian theatre. She served as Inventive Director of Luminato Competition Toronto from 2018 to 2023.
“It’s a one man present, however it’s not a one man present.” The five-piece band provides to the atmosphere, and interplay is a part of the present. “They’ve little bits, props,” Naomi says. “They’re very a lot part of the present. It’s an actual mixture of music and story.”
The present begins with an old-fashioned welcome message to the viewers. It later incorporates centered monologues and music, delivered in Clipperton’s trademark excessive vitality fashion. He’ll be singing a mixture of his personal songs and related covers, and even seems as his personal father in a distinct period in a second of theatre magic.
“It’s humorous, and it’s excessive vitality, however it additionally tells a narrative of grief and loss,” she says. Clipperton’s father handled vascular dementia, and it’s a part of his story. “It’s related, it’s not simply pure leisure. It tells a phenomenal story.”
All through, he goes again to his household’s music. “The music of the household is absolutely clear all through the entire piece. It’s additionally simply purely entertaining.”
She describes the workshops final Could at Monarch Tavern as having a shoulder to shoulder viewers.
“Form of scary, really,” provides Kelly.
The present has since been developed with extra refined manufacturing, and choreography by Shane McKinnon. Clipperton made not solely his personal costumes, however these for the band as properly.
“It’s a very good time of the 12 months for an actual shot within the arm present,” Naomi says.
What does Kelly hope individuals will get from Let’s Assume I Know Nothing…?
“We’ve had a number of conversations about that,” Clipperton says. “Attain out and contact somebody.” The outdated Bell business adage was his first thought. “The way in which the know-how has shifted over the past 20 years has been a wrestle for me,” he provides. It’s modified the way in which individuals work together, as he factors out.
“I believe that our fixed barrage of data […] doesn’t maintain the sincerity that I believe we used to speak with.”
His message, in the long run, is sort of easy.
“Be kinder to one another, and all that.”
- Discover present particulars and tickets [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
