Interview with COMMUNITY CHALLENGE GUEST Stephanie Boghen
Our FIRST Community Challenge was super fun and our SECOND Community Challenge is happening NEXT THURSDAY from 7-8 PM! It’s an interactive table read in partnership with Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal’s New Stories Project! AND IT’S FREE!
Stephanie Boghen from Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and Robert Girolami from Spectrum productions will each be presenting a short interactive table read. They’ve each written a HALLOWEEN themed script and YOU get to vote on the characters’ fates!
Check out Robert’s Creator Profile!
Our Community Challenges host Sierra interviewed Stephanie on her theater experience. Check it out below!
Stephanie Boghen is a master of the theatre! She has been in countless productions with many different organizations and is more than comfortable on stage. She also has Down Syndrome and really taps into that to give unique performances. She has found a home at Playwrights Workshop in the Mile Ex area of Montreal, a dramaturgy center which has a special program just for actors with different intellectual abilities. There she gets to work on her talents and I asked her how she started building her career.
Why did you want to go into acting?
I realized when I did a speech at my graduation as a valedictorian and my legs were shaking. But being at the podium my legs were hidden so I didn’t need to worry about people seeing it. I realized I loved getting on stage and speaking my heart. It’s something that came to me naturally.
When I went to Concordia I had a tutor named Marionella, and it just so happened that there were people there just like me that had Down Syndrome. I started my courses in theatre there.
When I came to Playwrights for the first time, I met Mikayla and she got me involved along along with Erin. I really started loving it when we started discussing ideas for plays and things really started popping off!
With Erin we work together in a program called New Stories that matches creators with Mentors to help their dreams and goals come true. It’s to foster more creative plays than just people talking in a living room
When did you start acting?
I started around 2012 and from there I was at the center for arts and human development at Concordia, and I had my very first performance. It was about religion, tradition, and song, and I celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purin. All my co-stars celebrated religious traditions of their own, and I loved seeing all of them. It was for the Our World ethnodrama and everyone had their own dance and cultures. This was the first serious performance I did.
What kind of roles do you like playing?
It was interesting to really get into acting, but after a while I found my place and voice. I liked the ones where I could do music, and drama, even the ones where I pretended to be in a fight! At Concordia I learned Theology in film, Current Canadian Theatre and Irish Plays, and that informed a lot of my choices for roles. Especially the Performance Creation class where I had to audition for a variety of plays. When you love a certain course and a professor, it’s like getting junk food! I went to I Can Dream theatre,
What has been your favourite play you’ve starred in?
One recent was with Goldcast, a play called Emily’s Story, with a woman named Sangelie who did professional makeup for me. This was a very free experience and I played the attendant at an actual gift shop. It was a very immersive experience! It was with a lot of magical characters!
Do you have any roles you’d love to play in the future?
I want to find more creative roles and be involved in plays that use technology. I’d like to do a mix of traditional and new entertainment. I also want to try improv!
You got to speak at the UN for World Down Syndrome day, what did you talk about and what was it like to go there?
It was around 2015, and going to New York was really awesome, it was just during winter so it was freezing! The audience was looking at the screens and they were watching me speak intently, and I got a lot of adulation for my story! I talked about what I was doing at Concordia and the support system I had there, and speaking about how successful I was doing in my classes I got even more support, even from people all the way from Australia! I was a little nervous, but the applause made it all go away. Also I got pretzels after so it was great!
What are things that you take inspiration from?
People I’ve met like my Opapa, who was known for storytelling! It affirmed in me that it was in my blood. Also I think about the stories my other ancestors had and those entertain me a lot. I also love nature because my mom and my dad do, just in different ways. My dad points out everything in the forest and explains how everything works since he’s a nature buff. It’s like show and tell. My mom and I go for walks and she takes in the feeling of the forest and shares her passion with it for me. We go to the fountain in the park and seeing all the parents, kids and dogs gives me so much joy!
How did you make something you’ve been passionate about since you were young into a practical career?
It became natural for me when I was around a teenager, and I would record myself and make CD’s and tapes of music I made. It felt silly at first but I enjoyed it a lot. The one thing I always wanted to do is dance since I love choreography! I started creative writing in high school and I was always excited to show my work to the teacher, so I knew I wanted to do something that tapped into my creative side! Creation just comes to me so naturally!
Credits:
Violette, Dir. Catherine Bourgeois 2021 Theatre Production https://vimeo.com/user5111082 \
Extra/Beautiful/U, Dir. Eda Holmes, 2017 Theatre Production
Les waitress sont tristes, Dir. Catherine Bourgeois, Joe Jack and John