In Ancient Greece, the Playwright Aristophanes, scribed a play called The Birds that told of two men and their journey away from city life in search of a place of peace and tranquility to live out their last days. Upon the advice of Hoopoe who tells of the virtues and easy existence of the birds, they create a kingdom of feathered creatures that becomes revered by humankind. Inspired by this play, Artistic Director Zorana Kydd founded her own idyllic creative space appropriately named Birdland Theatre (Studio 366) in 2004. This one-woman tour de force has jumped into theatre production with both feet and her efforts have been rewarded with a whopping five Dora Mavor Moore Awards to date. For Zorana, who was groomed for the theatre from the age of three, there was simply no question that she would spend her life in the kingdom of theatre.
One of seven actors in her family, Zorana grew up in the first row of the theatre in Serbia. At that time, in the former Yugoslavia the National Theatre company was sponsored by the government and a group of up to sixty actors would perform a different show from their repertory each night. Zorana spent some time with an ensemble of this sort before immigrating to Canada. “My artistic choices are influenced by an eastern European sensibility - a much darker approach to the theatre. That is reflected in the plays that I chose to do, which is riskier in Canada. We can still tell these stories but we have to fight hard to get them out and sometimes in the fight you forget the story you wanted to tell.”
Zorana was the first person in her family to immigrate to Canada and take on the monumental task of not only working as an Actor in another language, but completing a master’s degree in Theatre Management and a PhD in Drama at the University of Toronto. One of the first stories Zorana chose to tell after establishing Birdland was The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. The play depicts the trial of the “New Testament's most infamous and unexplained ultimate sinner” Judas Iscariot set in modern times finding Judas in Guantanmo Bay and including appearances by some of histories most notorious figures such as Sigmund Freud and Mother Teresa. The play won five Dora Awards and Birdland burst in to Canadian theatre with their production. As Zorana explains, “for a young company one Dora Award would be nice, five is unbelievable - I had a headache for a few days after that. It’s great because now I know that my artistic sensibility resonates with audiences. But it also set the bar very high for the next show.”
Birdland has managed to consistently produce critically acclaimed work since then and the most recent production of the The Pillowman was equally well-received proving that Birdland is no one-hit wonder. It also realized a theme of sorts in the plays that Zorana chooses to produce. It would be simplistic to say that the mandate of the company is to produce plays that deal with religion, although this is true. More aptly it’s about Zorana’s own exploration of religious themes and how they can be interpreted through a modern lens. This again was largely influenced by her up-bringing in Serbia: “I grew up in a communist country where religion wasn’t allowed. We weren’t brainwashed, we knew that we could pick our beliefs, but you couldn’t publicly express them. I am interested in the basic stories of God or the one that is at the core of every human being guiding us and telling us what is good and bad. These are basic human questions that tend to be buried in any religion.”
Birdland’s mandate does guide Zorana’s choices, but the play selection process is not easy. For Zorana it involves continuous research that she does happily, professing to be a workaholic. Zorana is a voracious reader and goes through about three plays a week. She also travels to see plays regularly always on the lookout for her next project. She recently saw a play in New York called The Seafarer and has her fingers crossed that she can get the Canadian rights (Satan’s appearance in the play clinched it for her).
Despite producing plays that deal with heavy subjects and the darker side of humanity, Zorana feels drawing young audiences into the theatre is key to the future success of live theatre. During the run of The Pillowman a class of high-school students attended the play. The subject matter is far from light dealing with child murder and fratricide, but the reactions were exciting. “It was like a rock concert, we got so much response and laughter. We also had talk-backs after and the students asked such interesting questions - they are deep thinkers and if they don’t like something they will let you know.” A really positive experience in the theatre as a young person will establish life-long audience members and theatre doesn’t happen without an audience.
With all success comes challenges and for Zorana, like most non-profit arts disciplines, fundraising is the most significant of those challenges. Now that the company is more established they do receive grants but each time Zorana starts a new project she also has to start approaching sponsors and looking for the dollars to make it happen. As she explains, “even in the arts you have to have a business head otherwise there is no way of surviving. Also just the nature of producing is a challenge, every time it’s like a poker game. We are like gamblers who go out on a limb to tell a story.” This fall Birdland is going out on a limb once again to re-launch The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Zorana has scheduled the run so that the original cast can be reunited for the production bringing all fifteen members back together again. The limb is a little sturdier and familiar given the success of the play the first time around which is comforting, but no less exciting.
Zorana Kydd, Executive Director of Birdland Theatre
Production still from the play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, produced by Zorana Kydd.
