All work - mostly fun

All work – mostly fun
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published May 10, 2003

Matthew Bissett has always loved music and theatre.
As resident director of the Pacific Opera in Victoria, he jumped at the chance to move to Burnaby two years ago when he was offered the director's post with the Burnaby Lyric Opera Company.
This spring, Bissett is taking on yet another challenge as he works behind the scenes as stage manager for the Footlight Theatre Company's spring production of Studs Terkel's popular musical Working, now playing at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.
"I've done a number of operas, but this is my first straight-up musical," said Bissett, who studied fine arts at the University of Victoria.
"Working is a very interesting and different musical," said Bissett, who was talked into taking on the job after Footlight founders Pam and Jim McAdie saw his work with the operatic version of Cinderella last winter.
"It (Working) doesn't have a story per say, it's more of a collage," he said. "In our production, the events are taking place over 16 hours in a single day and the narrative line is passed from person to person as they interact inside their jobs."
Because the mainstay of the show is its catchy music - Working's songs were written by such luminaries as rocker James Taylor and Godspell creator Steven Schwartz - the props are kept to a bare minimum.
"Most theatres don't have the budget to accurately represent 40 different workplaces, so we have to use what you call creative staging - using what props you have," Bissett says.
For instance, when a group of female textile workers are singing about their jobs - the machines they operate are in fact the male actors.
Bissett says Working is a real rarity on the stage because it is a musical written by a journalist.
"He (Terkel) took the root of journalism - a story about people's lives - and expressed it in the most non-journalistic form, which is music," Bissett said. "The show has this balance between entertaining and showing people at work.
"I think it's a really original play. It's a musical that touches on that part of our life that almost nothing else touches on, and that's our work," Bissett said. "Most people try to ignore those eight hours of the day like it was a gap in their lives. But those eight hours are a very important part of defining who we are as people.
"Besides, Working is fun and it has lots of great music. So the style and content is all over the place. There's lots of different things happening."
Working is now playing at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts at 8 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday nights until May 17, with a matinee show at 3 p.m. this Sunday, May 11. Tickets are $10 to $15, and can be purchased at the door, or in advance at the Shadbolt box office, 604- 205-3000.