Today we sat down with some of the cast of CBC's hit series Heartland. Jessica Amlee (Mallory Wells), Heartland's newest cast member, Alisha Newton (Georgie Crawley), and Graham Wardle (Tyler Borden) to talk about their exciting new season, and some of the fun they had on set.

tV: (to Alisha) You're the newest cast member to join Heartland, yes?

AN: Yes.

tV: How are you liking it? Is this your first show?

AN: I've done a pilot and a couple of short films and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters but this is my first TV series.

tV: They made you ride a horse.

AN: Yes.

tV: Had you ever ridden a horse before?

AN: My grandma has a horse. I rode her horse a little bit: she walked the horse for me and I just sat on it. Right before Heartland I started taking some lessons and I absolutely loved it. When I came to Heartland it was perfect because I could ride: not well but I could ride.

GW: She's really good now.

AN: Really?

GW: Yah. We were on set the other day and she was just running up and down getting ready for the scene and I was thinking, “man, that chick is good at riding” (laughs).

JA: Yah, she's really good at progression.

GW: Yes. She learned very quickly.

tV: Did you two have any riding experience before the show?

JA: I did. I'd been riding a lot of my life. My best friend owned a horse so I did a lot of bareback. That's not really as structured as English riding. You need to have really good posture and really good stance and I had to learn that through Heartland.

GW: Graham had a big fat zero but that was okay because my character had no experience on horses so I was about a week or two ahead of my character in terms of learning. Amber (Marshall) has a picture of me to remind me to stay humble, and it's me and my first horse riding lesson and I'm wearing shorts. I wore sneakers because I didn't know I had to wear boots. They gave me boots, so I have these leather cowboy boots and these shorts that are now riding up my legs, and I'm on this horse with this stupid grin on my face (laughs).

JA: (laughs) “I'm from Vancouver...”

GW: “...and I've never ridden a horse before.”

tV: So you've just wrapped up season six. Do you know if you're coming back for another season?

JA: We don't know yet.

GW: We hope so, if the fans keep watching, and keep writing on the blog saying they love the show. Last year they didn't tell us whether we'd be returning, until a month before we went back. We have a good cliffhanger this year and we feel really good about the stories. We're hoping the fans will enjoy them as well and we'll be back for another season.

JA: We always prepare for the next season. The writers are already making story arcs and planning everything out just in case.

tV: Are you able to tell us about some of the highlights of the new season?

GW: We always have cliffhangers in the middle and the end so there's this nice episode coming up this Sunday with a big event. We can't say what it is, but when we were shooting this scene there was supposed to be a nice sunset on the water and it was supposed to be really beautiful but it clouded over and started to rain hard, and there was thunder and lightning. They put up these little things over top of us to keep the rain off our heads they tried to frame out the lightning and change the scene with colour correction. When you see the scene you'll think it looks great, but on the day it was a storm. Without giving anything away, it's a big moment. It's a very big step for my character.

There's a storyline that Mallory has coming up in a couple episodes we can be vague about (laughs).

JA: Yes, we can be very vague about (laughs). Something really crazy happens that effects everybody.

GW: And it's all her fault (laughs).

JA: Yah, it's all my fault. My character goes through a little bit of craziness. She goes through some turmoil. It's hard to explain. Some really tragic, shocking things are coming up on Heartland, especially this year. We just finished filming our last episode of season six and that is one of the most shocking episodes.

GW: We had a barn burn down in season one or two...

JA: Season two I think.

GW: And that was one of my favourite episodes because it was epic. There's some stuff we did this year that we'd never done before and it's really intense and it's really dramatic, so I think the fans will enjoy what's coming up in these next few weeks of the show.

JA: We hope that there's a season seven because season six will leave a lot of people very curious to know what happens next.

tV: For this past season, what were some of the biggest challenges you had individually?

GW: I had this giant word I had to say. My character is a veterinarian now so there's this word I had to say Phosphofructokinase... I had to memorize it and say it like I knew it.

tV: Do you know what it means?

GW: No idea (laughs). How about you Jess?

JA: There's been some horseback riding which is fun and challenging, to look like you know what you're doing. Alisha has also been doing lots of horseback riding.

AN: Yes, and in one episode my character Georgie falls off a horse. I didn't fall off the horse it was my stunt double. But I had to do ADR (additional dialogue recording) for that scene and I found that very hard because it's someone falling off a horse and they want you to scream or something but you don't really know what to do because, would you really scream or would you go, woah!

GW: Exactly. A lot of times in ADR they want you to make a sound that doesn't really sound like what you would do but it makes sense for the people who are editing it. It's really hard to make it seem real if you feel you wouldn't actually do that. ADR is an ongoing challenge.

AN: Yah. It's a battle.

JA: With ADR we get to see the footage before it's on television so it's nice to see what we're doing before it airs.

GW: Sometimes we'll tweak things if we think our performances aren't good enough.

JA: Yah, like change the tone of your voice to something much more sensitive (laughs).

tV: We're getting signaled to wrap things up so perhaps you could quickly tell us what supporting the Food Bank means to you.

GW: I think it's great to give back and I think that when you are blessed to be able to share with others, I think that that's what life is about: sharing what you have and giving. I think food and a food bank is one aspect of that and it's a great thing to be able to share things with people who aren't as fortunate and who need those necessities.

JA: Yah, and it should be such a human right that everybody should be able to eat.

GW: Especially in cities. You don't have the trees where you can go pick an apple.

JA: Food is a necessity and it's great that the CBC this and that it's Canadian. It's something that they can be proud of.

AN: I agree.  


Click on Heartland to check out the latest news, and don't forget to write on the blog and let them know what you think.

Ravenswood co-founder, Joel Peterson, sent out invitations to his exclusive wine-tasting event at Vancouver's Flying Pig. With over 100 northern California growers supplying the grapes for his delicious wines, it was sure to be an event to remember. 

The evening starts off with a 2011 Vintners blend Chardonnay. A bright, rich wine with a hint of peach and citrus it proved a great pairing to the appetizers that followed.

Tomato, basil, prosciutto ... 

Salmon, salmon roe, dill on cucumber...

We switch wines and move on to the first dish of the evening, a delectable plate of Quadra Island honey mussels in a tomzito corn and speck broth.

Peterson turns out to be quite the entertainer, giving us the history of his wines with comedic flare. He talks just long enough to give a bit of the history of the wine and then takes a sip. "It tastes pretty darn good," he says, and asks us to enjoy.

Plates are cleared and we're introduced to two new wines: a 2009 Old Vine Zinfandel with an intense black cherry, blueberry, plum flavour, and a 2009 Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel with a flavour of dried currants and spice.

The wines are coupled with a Bromme Lake duck duo of braised leg, sweet pea garganelli and a duck breast in a red wine reduction. On the first round it is the Lodi that stands out. It is dangerously smooth and stands well on its own. Once we start on the duck however, it is the Sonoma that shines through and balances the richness of the meat.

The wines are very different from each other. "Each region has a soil type that's very much that region" we're told. "What you're tasting is the region." 

From here we are introduced to a 2008 Old Hill, Sonoma Valley Zinfandel from vines originally planted in 1860 and harvested from 30 different varieties. "in my opinion," says Peterson, "this is the best vineyard in California." We're also treated to a 2009 Barricia Zinfandel.

The wines are paired with a vension striploin (above) wrapped in bacon and a skillet roasted chop with parsnip puree and wild cherries. The uniqueness of the coupling is both rich and surprising.

The final savoury wine is a 2009 Teldeschi Zinfandel. It has a hint of oak and is organically  farmed, though has yet to be certified.

It is perfectly matched with a braised organic beef short rib, aged Canadian cheddar mashed potatoes, and Dry Creek Valley bone marrow jus. The short ribs fall from the bone and, though bone marrow isn't something I'd normally gravitate towards, it's a big part of the dish and catches me off guard with how well it goes with the Teldeschi.

The final wine of the evening is fruity Late Harvest Gewurztraminer that is refreshing and sweet with a slight bitterness that matches it nicely with both sugary and savoury desserts.

It is presented with Chevrot cheese brulee, candied pecans, and fresh fruit: a perfect end to a perfect evening.

Next time you are in California make sure you check out Ravenswood Winery, and for an extraordinary local taste experience, check out the Flying Pig.

Today we had the great pleasure of talking to guitarist extraordinaire, Jesse Cook about his sensational new album, The Blue Guitar Sessions. Here's what he had to say.

tV: You've created a much more intimate and personal album with The Blue Guitar Sessions. Can you talk a little about that?

JC: It's something that I've wanted to do for a long time. I love the fiery rumbas and the albums with lots of percussion I've been known for and I've always tried to be the Phil Spector of sound: the wall of drums and wall of guitars and big world music but on this album I wanted to go in the other direction and leave as much space as possible which is something I hadn't done in the past. It's something that Miles Davis has spoken about: it's not the notes you play it's the notes you don't play. I wanted to do that: leave enough space so when you play a note it has more significance.

Over the years there have been albums that I've loved: Miles Davis' Kind of Blue was certainly an influence for this record hence the album cover which is kind of a throwback to the Blue Note records or Prestige Jazz Collection albums. Another artist who has influenced me for this record is Ihasa de Sela. She did a beautiful album called La Liorona which was kind of an underground hit: immediately people all over the the planet loved it though I don't think she ever received mainstream attention. Her album is very moody and it sounded like a cross between Chavela Vargas and Edith Piaf. There are a lot of elements of almost circus music almost Kurt Vile at times. You can certainly hear those influences in this album. Adele's 21 was certainly an influence as well.

tV: You mentioned Miles Davis. Track six in particular sounds like a tribute of sorts to Kind of Blue.

JC: It was actually sort of a tongue-in-cheek title. I usually sit with a guitar and improvise until I find something that I find compelling and then I'll try and orchestrate it or arrange it into a song. Once I've done that I'll record it into my computer and as soon as you record it you have to name it. In this case because I was writing something that felt a bit like a tribute to Kind of Blue, I called it Miles. Later I did a shorter arrangement of it and called it Miles Shorter, which then sounded like a pun on Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter.

tV: I was thinking of the tone of the song itself.

JC: Oh for sure. It's probably the most jazz sounding piece on the record.

tV: This record is a departure from your usual style so why was it important for you now to make that switch?

JC: That's an interesting question. I guess because right now is the time I actually had the courage to do it. I wouldn't say it was a switch: it was something I wanted to explore. I'm probably going to go back to doing big and bombastic pieces because I love them but this was something that I wanted to explore. I'd wanted to do it the last three albums but other things caught my attention: or I wasn't sure I was ready to do it; I wasn't sure my audience would be interested. For whatever reason I just didn't do it. This time around I actually had to write two albums in order to convince myself that this was the album to make. I actually wrote a whole lot of music for another album which would have been, had it come out, a loud and bombastic, world music album. Then I wrote a whole bunch of other music that I called Plan B, which was all of these quiet little songs. I played them for a friend of mine and asked him which he preferred: he said he liked Plan B. That was how I felt as well but sometimes you need the validation of somebody else because when you write these things you're too close to them. That was all the encouragement I needed and from that point on it was Plan B all the way.

tV: It's quiet and more intimate. Was there something specific you were trying to express?

JC: The beauty of instrumental music is that it doesn't really have to mean anything: it's wide open for interpretation. When you write an instrumental piece it can be about anything. Maybe for me a particular song feels like that feeling that you get on an autumn day when it's raining outside and you're looking out the window going, “Where has the time gone?”, or “Where has my life gone?” or whatever (laughs), but for somebody else maybe it's something completely different: maybe it's that uplifting feeling of driving to the horizon. It's up to each person to find their own meaning in the songs.

tV: What was the most challenging things about making this album? You mentioned not wanting to fill the space.

JC: Oh my god, for me that was probably the biggest challenge. I had to fight my own inclinations all the way because I'm an arranger and my motto has always been “more is more.” You start arranging these things and they lose that space. If you fill that space suddenly it sounds like a big, dense arrangement. In order for it to have that intimacy you just can't load it up. The more instruments you have the more it starts to sound epic and I really didn't want to get there: I wanted to keep it personal.

All of the songs were written for two guitars, in fact they sounded beautiful with just two guitars and it was one of those things where I would add an instrument and listen to it and think, “No, I prefer it with two guitars” and off the instrument would go. I'd try out a violin or a cello and, take out the violin and leave the cello. You're feeling your way through. I had to keep removing more than adding: anytime I'd add something there was an 80% chance it wasn't going to end up in the final version.

tV: How has this album affected your choice in venue? Are you finding you're trying to book smaller, more intimate venues because of the nature of this album?

JC: No. I don't think there is a correlation between the size of the venue and how loud the music is or how many people you need on stage. The other thing too is when you tour a new record, if you only play songs from that new record they're going to hate you. People come because they want to hear their favourite song and the more albums you have, the more difficult it is to make sure you get everybody's favourite song. What we try to do in any concert is play music from right across my discography. Certainly on this tour there'll be a focus on the music from The Blue Guitar Sessions but I'll be surprised if it'll be a third of the concert.

tV: What was the biggest thing that you yourself took away from this experience? For example, was there anything that you discovered you'd like to do more often?

JC: There were a number of things like that. I engineer my own albums and with a few exceptions I've recorded all my albums in my own studio. For me sound has always been important: the way my records sound and the production on them. On this album, because I was trying to make a record that sounded like a BlueNote record, I did a lot of research on how they recorded them. They didn't record the way we do today. Nowadays people will have a mixing room with a computer and a little booth where the musicians record one-by-one, and then they mix them all together later. In the old days they had a great big sound stage. They'd put out these really expensive mics, have the band play all at the same time, and they'd lay down an entire record in a four hour session. Nowadays to modern engineers that's terrifying. There are all sorts of complicated things that happen and if you do that, suddenly the drums are bleeding into the bass microphone etc., and it starts to sound awful. It's a difficult process to record that way but somehow they did it and there was a very organic, real sound to it and a bigness.

I did a lot of research on the mics they used and the way they recorded and the way they mixed and I ended up searching all over the planet for the best microphone. I did a huge number of test recordings on most of the modern mics that are available and started doing tests on old vintage mics and ended up finding this one mic, which I can't tell you about because it's so fantastic and it took me so much work to get it that I want to keep it as my own secret (laughs). It's probably the greatest mic that was ever made. I found one of them in London England and another in Los Angeles and they cost as much as a small house because there are very few of them to go around. I recorded most of the record on them and I couldn't believe that these old mics sounded better than the new mics. To me that just seemed counter intuitive.

tV: That's the way though, isn't it?

JC: It is. And the old mics were made by hand so you think, “How accurate can that be.” The fact is they weren't accurate and maybe that was part of their magic.

tV: You said before that you were planning on going back to your original style but would you consider making another album like this at some point?

JC: I might. I certainly enjoyed it but after a year of music that has that blue mood to it, I was kind of looking forward to some happy rumbas. Honestly, I'm not sure what the next record is going to be or where it's going to take me. I try to make each record a little bit different. One record I went to Cairo and recorded with Egyptian musicians and the record before this one I went down to Columbia and recorded with Columbian musicians. Each record tries to find a new sound and I hope that the next record will too. Whether or not it's a quiet sound, who knows.

Jesse Cook will be in Vancouver at the Orpheum Theatre, Sunday December 16.
Check out Jesse's web site for other tour dates. 

Anthrax, one of the legendary Big Four (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth) is coming to Vancouver in September as part of a huge cross-country, US/Canada tour showcasing their latest album Worship Music. We caught up with drummer Charlie Benante to talk about music, movies, and Mars.

tV: Joey Belladonna rejoined the band and is back on vocals again for your latest album Worship Music.

CB: I feel great about that: he's an awesome front man, an awesome singer. We're very happy to have him back.

tV: It's been said that Earth on Hell and Revolution Screams are about people taking power back.

CB: Revolution Screams is a bit about that. In America especially, it's a very strange time that we live in politically. What you think is right someone else thinks is wrong. It's very strange to show something that is very black and white and others see it as totally opposite. For me, I think we need to do something: a revolution of some sort needs to happen because we pay a crazy amount in taxes and an insane amount in health insurance. It's obscene what we are forced to do, yet this is the “land of the free.” I think something has to be said about that.

tV: Let's talk about the image for
“Fight 'em Til You Can't”. It's you fighting zombie versions of yourselves. How did that come to be?



CB: I had this idea of us fighting our doppelganger, zombie selves and Alex Ross, who did the album, thought it was a great concept. We all took snapshots of ourselves in those positions and sent them to Alex and he did it up. He did a killer job.

tV: Is it true that some of your songs have incorporated Stephen King's work?

CB: Back in the day we were all big Stephen King fans, and of course I still am, and that element came in the Among the Living album, and one of the songs was taken from the Apt Pupil Book. We've been intrigued by horror: heavy metal and horror just seem to go hand-in-hand.

tV: Anthrax has done music for the film Ghosts of Mars. If you could write the music for any horror film you'd like, what would it be?

CB: That's a good one. I don't know. My all-time favourite movie is Jaws and there's no way you could improve on the music to that: I wouldn't even bother trying.

tV: On this album you've included some covers of some of the bands you respect. So it's important to you to acknowledge other people's work?

CB: We've always done cover songs and we've always had a fondness for doing this for bands that inspired us when we were growing up, or who we listen to today. We'd always been toying around with the idea of doing a Rush cover and so we did it. We chose an older Rush tune called Anthem. It has a real heavy metal feel to it.

tV: Your album with the cover tunes is going to be re-released this fall. Is that right?

CB: I hope so.

tV: Your music is officially “out of this world” with Curiosity transporting it to Mars. What was that like?

CB: I thought that was pretty amazing. Our music is in outer-space (laughs). I just thought it was killer.

tV: Yes. Very few people can say that.

CB: Exactly.

tV: Your band also has its own special day 9/13/11 in the Bronx. How are you going to celebrate this year?

CB: I don't think I'm going to be here this year so I think I'm going to celebrate it somewhere else.

tV: How do you feel about going on the road in Canada? How do Canadian audiences compare?

CB: I love the Canadian audiences, especially when you go to places like Calgary and Edmonton. It's cool.

For tour dates and venues check out
Anthrax

Vancouver's Blue Water Cafe + Raw Bar joined Master of Wine, Mark de Vere, to co-host a wine-tasting event that showcased some of the best wines from Napa Valley's renowned Robert Mondavi Winery.

It was an educational and informed evening of delicious wine paired with exquisite signature dishes.

Founded in 1966, the Mondavi winery has fast become synonymous with premium California wine. It is the birth place of Fumé Blanc; the wine chosen to open the evening.
It is coupled with gougeres with goat cheese. Fumé Blanc is also known as Sauvignon Blanc but has a slightly richer style and a “gentle creamy texture,” says de Vere. The 2010 is a “dry but high-quality version,” he continues. Both this wine and the Pinot Noir we sample later are hand-harvested in order to draw the flavours from the juice of the fruit rather than the skins. It is two-thirds barrel-fermented then finished in a steel tank to punch up the flavour.

Next on the menu is scallops casino and it is paired with a 2008 Chardonnay.

The Chardonnay has a brightness to it with an aroma of apples and pears and an ever-so-slight hint of pineapple. Glasses are raised more than once for this flavourful wine, and are generously refilled. "There is a hint of oak on the nose but not the palate," says de Vere. "These wines have an intensity but aren't heavy."

From there we are treated to a delectable dish of sockeye salmon with tuscan kale, mousserons, shell beans, garlic sausage, and in a balsamic soy reduction.

It's paired with a 2009 Carneros Pinot Noir that brilliantly accents the flavour of the fish. It has a hint of fresh cherry and raspberry, "Giving it a richness and expressiveness and a silkiness that keeps it fresh," adds de Vere. The first grapes to arrive at the Mondavi winery were the Pinot Noir, we're told.

We then move on to a
Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 ...

paired with braised kobe short rib agnolotti with creamed spinach, alpindon cheese, and reduced braising juices with lovage soffrito.
The Cab Sauv 2009 has an intensity of fresh blackberry without a jam characteristic. "Mondavi once said, 'making good wine is a skill. Making great wine is an art'," quotes de Vere. "Fine wine leaves you wanting for another sip. You taste new things every time," he continues.

With each new wine we move further north in the Napa valley. We are next introduced to probably the most delicious combination of food and drink of the evening, with a prime beef striploin coupled with a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2008 and a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005. These are two of the priciest wines of the evening but there is no denying the intensity they bring to the palate.

The reserve wines are the cream of the crop: the best parts of the best vineyards; the vineyards at the foot of the hills. The looser drain soils are at the back of the vineyard because the rain washes the soil down from the mountains. Both the 2008 and the 2005 draw ohhs, and ahhs from the table; glasses are drained and generously refilled, to the great pleasure of all.

"There is a power and intensity and yet an elegance, subtleness, and gentleness too," says de Vere. "Mondavi put it best when he said, 'They have the power of Pavarotti and the gentleness of a baby's bottom'. Mondavi would walk the vineyards and taste the grapes to tell when they were ready. It really depended on the block of grapes."

The evening wraps up with two scrumptious deserts. Apricot panna cotta featuring an almond streusel with white peach sorbet ...

and petit fours.

The final wine of the evening is Moscato d'Oro 2009: a sweet, desert wine with exotic floral aromas of pink jasmine and lemon blossoms overlapping tropical notes of guava and lychee.
"When you ferment at a cool temperature you preserve the flavours," says de Vere. "It's the sweetness that is the natural grape flavour. A beautiful way to end a meal."

"The real purpose of wine is to add beauty and joy to a meal," adds de Vere. And that it did.

This was a well-thought-out meal coupled with some of the best wines from the Napa valley.
The Blue Water Cafe and Raw Bar and the Mondavi Winery; a match made in culinary heaven.

The CBC announced its fall line-up of programs this week.

Two of the hits to return this season are Dragon’s Den and Murdoch Mysteries. We were able to talk with two of the stars of those shows.

Murdoch Mysteries is a detective show based in the early 1890s and set in Toronto, starring Yannick Bisson in the title role of William Murdoch. Murdoch is a cutting edge detective who uses the newly developing techniques of forensic science to unravel clues to the darkest murder mysteries of the city.

tV: Tell us a little about your character this season.

YB: In season Murdoch’s a long way from home in Dawson City, at the end of the gold rush. Murdoch’s quit the force and run away so that’s where we start off. There’s some beautifully shot scenes. Murdoch finds himself in a whole new adventure. 

tV: Where do you do most of your filming? Is it all up in the
Yukon or do you do most of it in Toronto?

YB: Absolutely. All of our interiors are shot in studio in Toronto. We also have a back lot of cityscape and we travel an hour out of town and we get to go to the places that actually sprang up out of the Victorian era during the shipping days. They weren’t called this at the time, but places like Cambridge, Brantford, Hamilton with all those tree-lined streets and beautiful Victorian architecture. 

tV: What can we expect from your character this season?

YB: At the end of season four Murdoch sees his love interest Doctor Ogden marrying another man. He packs up and leaves and it’s interesting to watch him find a new raison d’etre. Season four is a little bit of a dark time for Murdoch. Things haven’t exactly worked out for him in the way that he wanted and most of it is his fault. 

tV: Without giving too much away, is there anything unique about
this season that you could hint at?

YB: There’s a bit of tension between Murdoch and Ogden because
they still have to work together but in each episode the central characters are
really the murders.

tV: How much do you know about forensics in real life?

YB: Before I started the show I went to University for four years to study… (laughs) I’m kidding. I know absolutely nothing about that stuff. I’m a fan though. I really love the stuff that the writers come up with. A lot of it’s hokey but it’s a lot of fun. We bring a lot of historical figures to our fictional show and loosely play with the truth. We’ve got a bunch of mad scientists over at our shop coming up with all kinds of wacky stuff. We’re just about to start filming season six and we’re starting it off with chemical warfare and terrorism so it’s kind of fun setting that against the Victorian era.

 tV: What are some of the biggest challenges that you face as an actor portraying a character like this?

 YB: With this particular show the toughest thing is stamina.
Murdoch is a central character so he’s in every scene and sometimes I look at an
episode and you can tell which scenes were shot at six in the morning. It’s
tough to keep it up for the entire shoot. You shoot 14 or 16 hours every day for five months. You have the weekends but that’s it. 

tV: Where would you like to see your character go from here? How would you like to see him develop?

 YB: That’s tough. In a way I’ve built Murdoch in a certain fashion and used certain materials and emotional make-up so he’s always going to look at things the same way all the time, but it’s interesting to see what colourful things they throw on him that he has to somehow filter. That’s the best part of Murdoch: all this crazy, wacky stuff that goes on around him. He interacts with these incredible actors from all over country, all over the world, who give these incredible performances.

In its seventh season, Dragon’s Den brings us a fresh new face in renowned personal finance author David Chilton. Chilton is known around the world for penning Canada’s all-time bestselling book, The Wealthy Barber. 

Chilton will be introduced to audiences through a special Dragon’s Den episode, The Road to Riches.  This will be an emotionally charged show that focuses on the Dragons themselves and gives an in depth look at how they got to where they are today.

David Chilton talks about what it was like entering the Dragon’s Den. 

DC: It was a real compliment to be asked. I’ve turned down a lot of things because I’m very low-key. I’ve only really been interested in The Wealthy Barber and personal finance. I didn’t want to stray too much but it’s more that I don’t really want the attention. I like having a little house outside Kitchener Waterloo, but when your favourite TV show calls you’re almost like a five-year-old. That’s pretty exciting.

 I went down and did an audition and I loved it: the entire experience. I told them if they wanted me that I was in. I’m so glad it happened and I don’t have a negative word to say.

 tV: This is a well-established show with very dynamic people. What was it like for you entering the Den?

 DC: That was tough. There’s no doubt about it. You’re coming in from the outside and you have nothing to do with the show’s success and quite frankly you don’t want to screw it up. Normally you’re getting involved with
something and thinking how you would take it to the next level but in this case
I’m getting involved thinking how I can avoid screwing it up. They have an
established chemistry. They’re not just dynamic, they’ve all worked with each
other and they go back and forth really well with an almost subconscious
timing. I tend to use a lot of humour and sometimes they’re going to have to
adjust to that so yah, it was intimidating. 

In the first couple of days I didn’t do a great job I was thinking about the exact issue you brought up: fitting in. It was only the third day when I was really tired that I settled in. I was more natural and started picking up the flow. It takes a lot of time and I hope I get better in future years, if they let me back.

You learn a lot from the other Dragons. They’ve been around so long they know what questions to ask and trust their instincts. They all have their area of specialty and when they’re asking questions I’m paying attention. 
 
I’m not a digital guy. 99% of my book sales are physical with one percent electronic. I’ve always been kind of old-fashioned, like the system you’re using (Chilton takes a poke at my tape-recorder). The downside is that if somebody brings in a digital deal I can’t compete with Bruce (Croxon). Those are the kinds of things you need to learn and grow with and I think that next year I’ll be in better shape.

tV: What are some of the things that are unique to you that you bring to the show beside your sense of humour?

DC: I thought that was unique but they’re all pretty funny. They’re all quick-witted. I think the thing that separated me a little was that I kept my business intentionally small in terms of capital investment and employees. I literally started as a basement business, building The Wealthy Barber and self-publishing it, and I stayed that way. 
 
With opportunities to do bigger and better things I didn’t want to go that route so I can really relate to the pitchers. They’re working out of their garages and bedrooms with their wives, husbands and kids and that’s exactly how I started. I know what it’s all about when you have to cash in your RRSP to start your business. 

tV: What is the most difficult part about doing this show?

DC: For sure it’s the amount of thinking you have to do. Bruce said last year that was what caught him off-guard. You’re trying to measure everything against what the other Dragons are doing because you’re competing with them. There were a lot of good deals this year that we were fighting over. There’s no cheating because it’s all real and I think that’s fantastic.

 tV: How do you like being referred to as a Dragon now?

DC: That takes a little getting used to. My whole life I’ve been called “The Barber.” Now I get “The Wealthy Dragon” or “The Barber Dragon.”It’ll
be worse in the fall when it starts airing because I’ve always lived a very
low-key life. I think that the fame aspect that the Dragon’s Den is going to bring into my life will be an interesting adjustment.

Go to CBC for a complete list of programming for the fall.

Vancouverites are in for a great treat next month as Osimous Theatre brings us the highly anticipated, Hedda Gabler. 

In director Bob Frazer’s adaptation of Hedda Gabler we are brought into the very heart of the action with a unique and intimate setting throughout rooms in a house. The audience is within arms reach of the performers as if they were guests at a banquet, and what a feast they will be having.   

Hedda Gabler is Norwegian author Henrik Ibsen's first play. Set in early 20th century Kristiania (now Oslo) the story follows Hedda Gabler and her husband George Tesman on their lacklustre honeymoon as their lives are thrown into disarray with the reappearance of Tesman’s academic rival, Eilert Lovborg.

It is a story of desperation, deception, and despair. Throw a loaded pistol into the mix and you have an exciting night of entertainment.

Today we sat with director Bob Frazer, Anna Cummer (Hedda Gabler), Derek Metz (Judge Brack), and Dawn Petten (Thea) to talk about Osimous Theatre, their new show and what it's like to create something so grand in such an intimate setting.

BF: Osimous Theatre is a company that the four of us here, as well as Craig Erickson and Parnelli Parnes, initially formed based on the principles of working and learning how to work together as an ensemble. A large part of it is the growth as an artist so continually striving to get better as an artist as well as striving to push each other to be better. A huge influence to me was the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago which was formed from an acting ensemble. All those people go back to work for Steppenwolf any time they want and they do whatever they want. If they're interested in directing or designing then they do it.

AC: What we're doing is a script based idea specific production so we're using an adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler which Bob has written. Certain scenes have been reduced and some scenes have a slightly different presentation. It's taking place at the Roedde House Museum downtown Vancouver so the audience will be in the appropriate setting for the show: it's going to be in a Victorian manor house. It'll be semi-promenade so there will be some movement through the various rooms and the audience will be able to, in a very intimate setting, witness the events.

tV: The character Hedda Gabler has been interpreted many different ways. How have you approached her?

AC: I think often she can come off as a raving lunatic: this beast woman who is full of spite and anger. Bob and I have had long discussions about making sure that she appears very human. All of her foibles are those of a regular woman who's just trying to deal with the society that she lives in and the situation in which she's found herself. Maybe dealing with some poor choices on her part: she's just not very good at controlling her anger or her impulses.

The audience is going to be very close to us so because of that we have to make sure that all her motivations are real and truthful. I don't want people leaving fearful, or sitting there giggling because she's rolling her eyes. It's going to be very realistic and understandable. Essentially she's a very sad person and sad people do amazing things.

tV: Can you tell us why you chose this play?

BF: One of the things we did early on with Osimous was talk about what shows we wanted to do and write down a huge list. Anna had said that she wanted to do Hedda Gabler because she’d always wanted to play Hedda. I’d just seen a production in Edmonton, directed by Kate Weiss, where they performed it in a house. I said, “that’s exactly what I want to do too, how coincidental.” I talked to Kate and told her I wanted to steal her idea for performing in a house and she said sure and sent me her script. She works in a different method than we do so Fannina Waubert de Puiseau and I sat down and adapted the script for us: everyone was on board.

Dawn’s a huge Ibsen fan, she just finished doing A Doll’s House in Chemainus, and if you look at our group, with Craig Erickson (George Tesman) and our newest company member Aslam Husain (Eilert Lovborg), everyone seems to fit perfectly in the parts.

The crazy thing about this show is we’re only allowed twenty audience members per night so it’s not going to be a huge money making venture, though I’d love to make our money back. Early on in our career as a company it’s important to do those shows and get great exposure, great work done, but not worry about having to make back all the money that we’ve put into it, which can be huge once you’re totally formed and paying actor wages.

DM: I think that’s the key right now. It’s art for art’s sake. It’s not like we’re losing our shirts. We’re not financially dependent on the results at the very end so much as the results we’re getting in the rehearsal room and on stage.

It really is what all these people that are involved in this company are about. We’ve all had a chance to work with each other at different times in our careers at different venues around the city, and outside the city as well, and I think that we all have a similar vision of what this beast of a career and theatrical realm is that we live in. Each person here has the right heart for the business: they think about the play as a whole before the play as a character, if that makes any sense.

DP: The great thing about this collective is that so far, this being our second production, we have all been equally on board with passion for the show. So it’s not like any of us are slumming with a show that favours one person’s excitement about theatre, for either last year’s production of Pavilion, or this one. We all just love the show are so behind it. It’s a unique experience to have a play where each of us feel we play an integral role in the ensemble and are equally excited to be in the room.

tV: Can you talk a little about the process of putting this all together.

BF: It’s a lot of sitting around the table right now. It’s such an intimate show that we don’t have to do pictures on the stage, we don’t have to learn how to turn our bodies and place the scene just right so that the audience can see it, nor do we really have to worry about hearing it because the audience is going to be inches away from us. The audience is going to hear it: their going to get some peoples’ faces while looking at other peoples’ backs constantly throughout the show and that’s part of the enjoyment of it all.

A lot of it right now is breaking down what the show is about and how we’re going to do it. Next week we’ll start getting up on our feet and taking that intimacy and just playing it for real life. As Anna said, “realistically.”

DM: If you were to see the show four times and stand in four different areas or sit in a different place, you would see fours different versions of the show. I was trying to describe it to somebody the other day and I almost described it as a “choose your own adventure” book, because you can go there and follow one character all the way through and see different reactions each time.

You’re going to see Hedda gesture or turn her back, which says so much, but when she turns her back and she’s got that person who’s standing right in front of her, that person gets their own one-woman-show for that moment. I think that’s unique and exciting and challenging because I’ve never really acted with an audience up that close. I think that’s going to be part of the enjoyment: getting around that. We’re used to having an audience at least ten feet away and usually in the dark, where we’re lit. This way it’s going to be everybody in the same room.

DP: And in terms of process too what I think is unique is, given the fact that we’re doing this on our own time and fitting it in around people being in other plays, is that we have a bit of a longer arc. Normally you would have a three-week rehearsal period of eight hours a day: very compressed and very intense. We’re doing shorter rehearsals over a longer period of time, which does allow things to sink in and settle. We found that with our last show as well, that it gave a depth to the show because things had a chance to settle and find their place.

tV: You’re the main character in this show so how do you feel about this intimate spacing?

AC: I think it’s great. We have to do most of the work with the story telling and the text because the audience is going to be another variable, like Derek said, that we don’t normally have to deal with. The audience is going to be wherever they’re going to want to be so the blocking is going to have to be very fluid, which is exceedingly exciting because we’re not going to be able to establish patterns. We’ve been charting the journey in the text but some of the other stuff we’re going to have to do in the moment. It’s going to be almost filmic in a way. Every night is going to be a one-off and then we get to come back the following evening and try it all over again. It’s very exciting to work like this.


For tickets and times go online to firehall arts centre 
or call (cheaper) 604 689 0926 
Hedda Gabler runs March 13 - 31, Monday to Saturday.