Interview with Becky Low, by Ashley Song

Becky Low at Rumble Theater (image by Stephen Drover)

Becky Low, 37

Professional Theater producer

Qualifying master student at Simon Fraser University

Currently focusing on the topic of feminist issues in theater performance and the representation of women in theatrical works.

Q: What has been a formative experience for you?

“I’m originally from a small town in Alberta. I grew up very much in theater, both of my parents are theater people.”

“When I was five, I have this memory, super sharp, that they needed children for a play…And so my brother and I took the roles.I still remember the one song that we performed. It was a very successful show.”

“Having this moment of like, oh my god I’m going to be involved with this for the rest of my life. You know there are times I get bored and think that I could do something else, that working in arts is just silly - there always seem to be an echoing of that moment that has followed me for my whole life…its nice that its always there somewhere.”

Q: What do you love and why?

“Obviously my kids,” light laughter “I have two daughters, my five year old is so funny and has a beautiful outlook on life.”

Q: How have your works changed over time?

“Originally I was studying as an actor. If you look in any theater performance class, there are 80–90 percent female and there are two guys, the females are competing for two parts and not enough roles for men. And I started going, you know I’m not trying to compete against other women for the rest of my life, this doesn’t seem to be what I want to do.”

“So then I started directing and stage managing.” After undergrad, Becky moved to England

“I pulled up a professional theater listing website and basically emailed every single one with my info — Hi I’m from Canada, I just graduated from university of Alberta and I will come and do anything for you for free, and amazingly only one company got back to me.”

“At the time they didn’t have staff that made schedules for them and so I was like, here you go you can do this. The artistic director said it was the first time that someone knows everything that is going on. And it was really nice, I was able to organize things.”

Q:“It must have helped that you knew how the shows work.”

“Yea, yes. I think it helps to have an artist brain to understand how artists work ,but also just being an organized human who likes to create structure, the two things work together really well; to create a positive environment for people working but also for it to go in the right direction.”

Rumble Theater (image by Stephen Drover)

“I think I used to believe that art was inherently a good thing to all, and now that I’m aware of funding issues and what happens to the industry I really wanted to make sure that I am proud what I’m supporting and bringing to life. And there are things that, I don’t know if I need to be apart of that project or company”

Becky has worked with Forbidden Theater in London,UK, and Pi theater as well as Rumble Theater in Vancouver. (www.pitheatre.com) (www.rumble.org).

Interviewed and edited by Ashley Song