CULTURE GECKO
Saskatoon Summer Player’s Fun Home is a Complex Family Musical that Inspires to be Hopeful
By Ezekiel McAdams
November 5 2024
Saskatoon Summer Players' latest production, Fun Home, opens on November 6th to the 10th 2024 at The Broadway Theatre in Saskatoon.
Fun Home is an musical that was adapted from Alison Bechdel’s 2009 graphic novel of the same name.
Bechdel is a queer cartoonist, whose work includes Dykes to watch Out For, a cartoon strip that she self- syndicated and ran for twenty five years from 1984 to 2008. Bechdel is also prominent in pop culture for coining "The Bechdel Test". The test measures a range of media fiction and film, asking if a work can have two or more women and have a conversation that doesn't involve a man
This iteration is directed by Liz Whitbread and stars Amanda Lyman as Alison Bechdel, Joyelle Loehndorf & Kate Stensrud as Medium Allison and ensemble and Sloan Mccaig as Small Alison. The play also features Bobby Williston as Bruce Bechdel, Micaela Agopsowicz as Helen Bechdel, Avery Fehr & Maia Macatangay as Joan and Ensemble, Logan Graham as Christian Bechdel, Lex Barry as John Bechdel with Jules Gabriel Ganesco as Roy/Mark/Pete/Jeremy/Bobby and Janna Bernatsky & Julia Macpherson as part of the ensemble.
Fun Home is a memoir of Bechdel’s childhood, teenage years, struggles, family dynamics and her coming out. It is a delicate balance of strong themes such as sexual orientation, gender roles and suicide.
Whitbread, is directing for the first after doing vocal direction and co-direction in other productions. Whitbread is originally from Winnipeg where she got her her B.A. Honours in Theatre and Film from the University of Winnipeg.
Whitbread fell in love with acting at an early age and knew that it was the right career path for her. “My sister and I had this cassette tape, which just shows how much of a Millennial I am, of the musical Lez Miz. She and I from the like, the time I was three years old, like far too young to be listening to this musical, she and I would play it obsessively and we would act it out together and make our parents watch our performances. This is fun, What if I could just do this all the time?” Whitbread laughs.
Whitbread was active in the children’s theatre company, Junior Musical Theatre Company in Winnipeg and continued performing from elementary school, high school and university in various local production companies throughout the city.
Fun Home is a passion project for Whitbread, who gravitated to the material. “I actually was familiar with the musical before the graphic novel. Number one, the music is absolutely stunning. Jeanine Tesori, is one of the composers and I’m a big fan of hers. The music she’s written is so beautiful. It’s such an intimate story and told creatively and thoughtfully and non judgmentally The musical really portrays the difficulty of reckoning with your past in a sensitive and nonjudgmental way. That really appeals to me, I’m someone who likes to draw my own conclusions with art.” Whitbread said.
While Whitbread has done vocal direction in theatre this is her first time directing a production. “I’m fairly new to Saskatoon and SSP was the very first theatre organization that I connected with when I moved here. It’s a nice soft place to land. I’ve not really directed a lot and it’s something I’m very interested in. When they were looking for directors for their new season, I thought ‘If not know, when?’ This is the time to try out directing when I feel safe and have support.” Whitbread said.
Whitbread felt blessed with the audition process and having a smaller cast where some of the roles are double cast, made it easier for some of the cast's availability. "We were like 'The one more folks we can get involved, the better.' We can have two people play this role. So there are alternating shows. for our Medium Alison which is college aged Alison and Joan, who is her love interest. We have a cast of about fourteen or fifteen and it's a really nice mix of folks who've worked with SSP a lot.
Lyman plays Alison Bechdel, one of the three iterations of Allison depicted in the production. Lyman
Lyman, is a registered nurse (R.N) at the Royal University Hospital (RUH). she has been involved with SSP since she joined the ensemble of Shrek: The Musical in 2013,
This production is Lyman’s first lead role. Lyman fell in love with acting from an early age, when at the age of two, she unexpectedly interrupted a church Christmas program, where she waved at her parents, yelling loudly, as they asked her to stop. Being in front of an audience on stage, is something she continued in high school.
“In high school, doing theatre and drama, and seeing that pay off really solidified that for me, I love to make people laugh or cry.” She said.
Williston who plays Alison’s father, Bruce Bechdel has been active with SSP for over a decade.
Wiliston teaches English at Bishop James Mahoney high school.
Williston fell in love with acting after seeing The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto as a young child. “I was in absolute awe of the music acting, set. It was that first experience of the Broadway scale stage, that sparked my love of it and I’ve been chasing it ever since.
Whitbread is feeling fortunate with the team that was assembled, which has made the directing process slightly less daunting. “It’s a fine balance. I feel so lucky, the team we’ve put together, the creative team, the production team and the cast everyone was so open to collaborating and ready to take care of each other. Communication has been our best friend throughout it, especially with the heavy themes. Let’s take care of each other because at the end of the day this is community theatre, we’re not saving lives, we’re not doctors. A friend of mine, Mitchell Larson, a wonderful artist, is very fond of saying ‘People before art.’ and I’ve really adopted that and it’s been guiding me.” Whitbread said.
Lyman was grateful with the mandate and tone Whitbread set. “The tone was set from the beginning, that this is a collaboration and we were given a lot of freedom to try things. Liz’s first reaction is always ‘Well what do you think it should be? What do you think Alison would do? And just try it and see how it feels.’ She’s definitely given solid direction but always her first reaction is to go with what we think and feel about the characters.”
For Williston, it was finding the character that proved to be a difficult challenge. “The process has been a wonderful challenge. In many ways, I’m very much not like Bruce. Even in some of his expressions of anger and mistreatment of his family, some of those have been difficult for me as a human being to work around and present this character. The biggest thing I find with Bruce, even though he says and does things that are frankly horrible, understanding his journey to this, gives me some compassion for the man. He is in pain his entire life and he’s hiding who he is and unable to fully express himself. It’s a beautiful journey despite his hardship.” Williston said.
Fun Home is running from November 6th-10th 2024 at The Broadway Theatre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.. Tickets can be bought online here or at the box office.
It was mounted as a musical in 2013, that first debuted Off Broadway and later opened on Broadway in April 2015. The music was written by Jeannie Tesori with book and lyrics by Lisa Kron.