The award-winning musical Come From Away opens at The Empire Theatre Toowoomba in just over a week. Come From Away tells the remarkable true story of 7,000 stranded airline passengers and the small Newfoundland community that welcomed them with open arms when US airspace was closed in the wake of 9/11. The Scoop sat down with the show’s Director and Choreographer, David Wynen ahead of opening night. David talks all things Come From Away including bringing this show to life in a small town and what makes this version special. Read the full interview below.
With opening night approaching and rehearsals wrapping up, Cyclone Alfred looms. How has that deepened your connection to the material, or changed the tone in the rehearsal room?
I don’t know that it has, because Toowoomba has had major floods and disasters over the years. So the people who are local understand that this can be a thing, and they really support each other. I don’t live here. I’m originally from Melbourne, but I live in New York now, and I’ve already had people reaching out to me asking, ‘Do you need any food? Could I have you for dinner if you don’t have any food? If something happens, can I drop you any water?’ I’ve already had that last night and today, and that just seems to be the spirit that people bring to the table.
Talk to me about when you first saw Come From Away in 2017 and how it affected you.
I saw it very early on when it hit Broadway, and it affected me because it is an amazing project. It’s actually real people’s words put into the script, and it’s based on real individuals and a real event. So it’s not your typical music theatre fare, where it’s fantasy, larger than life, sequins and backdrops. I think it impacted me, also because, even though it’s a musical, it’s an acting piece. It’s a reality piece with song, it’s not necessarily a musical. It was also a bold thing, because it was a new work with unknown writers.
Just reading about the story online, I was feeling emotional, so I can’t imagine what it would be like being in the audience.
Well, it’s also interesting. When I was here doing the auditions, I went around the town, and every time I bumped into someone, I’d speak to them about it. And the thing was that so many people aged under 30 do not have a conscious memory of this event. They never saw the footage. They weren’t there. Whereas, if you’re older than that, you can remember getting up in the morning and turning on the TV and going, ‘What the hell is this?’
Talk to me about the challenges of doing double duty as a Director and Choreographer and about bringing this particular production to life.
The beauty is that this piece is about real people, so it’s not a fantasy. It’s not an advanced dance piece, like A Chorus Line, where everyone’s got to be precise. It’s about real people dancing, for example, in a pub scene. So it seems really obvious that there should be a Director / Choreographer, because there’s so many moving parts in this piece. The choreography has also been what we call chair-ography, which means, ‘how do you dance, moving that chair there to make it look seamless, so that in the next scene, everyone’s ready to go?’
And the other thing is, most of the other productions that have been done in Australia so far, they’re doing the Show Bible, which means they’re doing exactly the same Broadway blueprint. They bought a blueprint, which means this chair goes here, this set goes there. It’s a formula. Whereas I didn’t really want to do that, because that’s not art. That’s me just doing Lego with your stuff. We applied and asked for special consideration to do our version. So we have a different set, different choreography, different cast size, we’ve added video content. Of course, it’s respectful, and pays absolute homage to the piece, but it’s doing it in a different way.
I love that, and I imagine it would be a very visual process in your head, seeing it and then bringing it to life on stage?
It’s been terrific, because in the original, it is thirteen people and we’re a cast of twenty one. So in the original, multiple people play multiple roles. We still play multiple roles, but I wanted more people in it for the community. It’s very hard because there are so many accents that you have to learn, as there’s so many different characters from all around the world. Some cast members have to speak up to six accents.
Also, it was originally designed back in 2011, so I’ve brought in new technology, and we’ve got a whole lot of data projections so that the audience who don’t know the piece can get references from the media or from the film footage, to understand the gravity of it.
I love reading that the cast is a blend of skill levels, that you have got professionals, but you’ve also got members of the community. What’s that dynamic been like in the rehearsal room?
Pretty much it’s been great; there’s no real line in the sand. They all had to audition and be of a certain standard. But as we know, there are some people in the business who work, and then there are others who try for two or three years and don’t want the School of Hard Knocks. Or they go on, especially in Australia, to teach, and then they do shows when they can. They’ve been trained as actors, but it’s just a very cutthroat, small industry here. So that’s how I think I’ve been able to get a really good blend.
I ask this of every interviewee, and I am constantly intrigued by the answers. What advice would you give anyone who wants to get into this industry?
That you define you. You can have producers, you can have teachers, you can have mentors tell you that you’re good at this or good at that. But you should trust your gut instinct. If it’s your passion, you should fight for it. You choose your journey. Don’t let someone else choose your journey.
Come From Away runs from 14 – 23 March at The Empire Theatre, 54-56 Neil Street Toowoomba 4350.
Tickets: https://tickets.empiretheatre.com.au/event/come-from-away-b1whiu
Website: https://empiretheatre.com.au/whats-on/come-from-away
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/empire_theatre/
Hero image credit: The cast of Come From Away, photo by Justin Nicholas
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