Theatre’s always curious about what’s already happening, and technology is happening, and will keep happening.
The One, a one-woman show about the development of a dating app, opened tonight at Le P’tit Impro as part of the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival. I sat down with producer, playwright, and performer Miriam Cummings to discuss her creative process in developing and performing in this play.
Answers have been edited for clarity.
In one sentence, what is The One about?
“A woman in her early (late) twenties searches for love in real life (online) while developing the world’s most authentic (fake) dating app.” Jesse [Stong] helped me with that. (Laughs)
Where did the idea for the play come from?
My life. I was writing it before I knew it was a play. It was just stories and poems that were a way for me to release energy in a positive way. I did a lot of app dating, and I used a lot of apps. I kind of felt like a scientist–I saw all these patterns and rituals and really strange but repeated human behaviour that felt pre-planned and ordained somehow, and I spent a lot of time and energy doing it in hopes of meeting a partner, so I kind of felt like I needed something to show for it. But when I was writing these poems and stories I would send them to one friend, and they’d be like, “That’s really funny.” And I’d be like, “Cool.” I’d say that started maybe three or four years ago.
The play was developed at Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal’s Young Creators Unit. What was the writing and dramaturgical process like through the program?
It was so great. I’ve never written a play outside of the context of school. I had the pleasure of working with Kit Brennan a number of times at Concordia, and I started to write a solo show in her class that I actually pitched to Jesse as the project I would work on. I said, “I have this solo show, I started writing it with Kit Brennan, I haven’t touched it in five or six years, but there’s thirteen pages of it. Or this other thing, that’s not really a thing, I don’t know what it is.” And he’s like, “That one!” So it was a good place for me because it’s such a good way to generate material in a really organic-feeling way. For this draft of the play, most of what’s in there I wrote on Wednesday nights from 6 to 9pm, at the Young Creators Unit, and there’s a few remnants of things I wrote three years ago on the metro home from a terrible date.
You wrote the play, and you’re also performing in it. What’s it like making the jump from playwright to performer? Do you have to change hats or are you still a creator in the rehearsal room?
That’s a great question. The jump feels to me like actor to playwright, not the other way around. All my training is in acting. Writing is one of those things I like, but I don’t ever feel qualified to do. Acting is my comfort zone, so I would say the tension between that is like, trying to make it better as an actor instead of making what’s there work. I do definitely have to change hats. I’m also producing it, so it’s a very distinct decision for me, like what hat am I wearing right now? What’s useful for the work? What did we agree to do today?
How do you find working on a show with multiple actors different from working on a show that’s just you?
It’s so different. Everything’s different. It feels like a forty-five minute coaching session. The director, Jessica Abdallah, is wonderful, and we have a lot of the same training. She’ll just make a gesture and a sound and I’ll know exactly what she means, and my experience with that level of attention to detail and transitions and breath is usually in the context of working on a monologue for an audition. But somehow, and I don’t know how she did this, we’re in each moment, breathing each moment, and there’s also a structure and a space that I’m in and a thing I’m doing at all times.
Have you worked with her before, or is this your first time working together?
It’s my first time working with her in this context. She’s the director of the Geordie Theatre School–she created that program from the ground up. She’s a very accomplished artist and skilled administrator, and I’ve known her for a long time, and part of what made me think of her is she just directed Alice Abracen’s What Rough Beast reading at The Centaur. Alice was part of the Young Creators Unit, too, and I loved working with her. I really needed someone in this process who I trusted completely to be organized, because as producer/actor/playwright, I need someone who’s a full partner in keeping us accountable and on time and doing what we said we were going to do, so I trusted Jessica completely in that sense, and it almost was this beautiful discovery, of like, wow, we are so aligned artistically, and we just understand each other.
What kind of designers are you working with for this show?
It’s a really amazing team. Caite Clark is doing the lighting design at the same time that she is making her directorial debut in the show Tomorrow, by another Young Creator, Ryan Bommarito. I really love working with Caite, we have a great working relationship, and again, she’s making this thing that was only in my head come to life. Jenn Townsend is stage managing, and she is so skilled and such a helpful presence in the room, and very present in her body, which is so key when there’s one actor. I was actually talking about this with my friend yesterday, when it’s a one-person show, it’s basically a duet with the stage manager. The only other person that cues anything that happens is Jenn. She’s pressing the button, but our bodies are connected in space. I’m so glad it’s her, I trust her completely. All the other design, the set and the costumes and props, are a team effort. I would say that I am in some ways the head designer, if I can say that, because the character is very close to me. She’s wearing all my clothes, for example, and her house is very similar to mine, so the armchair in my living room is coming to Le P’tit Impro, but it’s kind of like a sourcing and open discussion of what’s needed.
The show is very much rooted in technology. How do you think technology has changed theatre and the kinds of stories we tell in performance?
I’ll start by saying, my personal philosophy is not that technology is evil or bad or any one blanket statement thing, but that it really highlights what’s already there. I mean, I think technology in a broad sense has elevated the technical production aspects of theatre, the ability to have all these projections and amazing sound design. Theatre’s always curious about what’s already happening, and technology is happening, and will keep happening. I’m working one-on-one with this young artist who showed me this terrifying video of all the changes in the world by 2050, and 2050 is the year that it’s predicted that artificial intelligence will outmatch human intelligence. We are on a path. Not talking about it and not understanding it or trying to understand it won’t make it go away. I think it holds a mirror up to us, and highlights what we’re already doing.
The One runs from June 6 to 16 at Le P’tit Impro. Tickets are $12 General Admission and $10 for Students and Seniors.
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