It’s taken a while for us to catch up with Kelsey Verzotti. The reason? She is always busy!
This was true when COVID-19 forced the live arts to shut down last March. She channeled her entrepreneurial spirit to create Sidebiz Studio, an ecommerce marketplace where her fellow artists could sell their personally handcrafted projects in one place.
It’s true now, when she is part of the ensemble cast of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at the Shaw Festival, adapted and directed by Tim Carroll, and will perform in Annie Baker’s The Antipodes at Coal Mine Theatre in January 2022.
And it’s been true since we first encountered her after she graduated from Sheridan College’s Music Theatre Performance program and performed the role of Chirp in Torrent Productions’ annual panto Pinocchio: A Merry Magical Pantomime in 2017. The following summer, we saw her at the Toronto Fringe Festival in Edge of Sky’s One Small Step, playing one of a group of high school students who mount a musical about astronaut Chris Hadfield with hilarious results. Soon after, we saw her work in two fantastic productions at Young People’s Theatre: Under the Stairs and The Adventures of Pinocchio. Needless to say, many other productions in between have leveraged her arresting presence and gorgeous voice. And recently, she drew deserved praise as Little Red and Rapunzel in Talk Is Free Theatre’s two sold-out runs of Into the Woods in Barrie.
Anyone who has seen her perform will be moved by her impressive vocal and acting talents. And those who chat with her can’t help but be taken by her warmth, candour and verve. So we were thrilled when she made time in the midst of her busy-ness to discuss her current experience at the Shaw Festival, her upcoming non-singing role in The Antipodes, and the experience of creating a business. And of course, she did so with all of her customary friendly enthusiasm.
SM: What’s your personal connection to A Christmas Carol and what attracts you to the role(s) you’re playing in this production?
KV: I’m fairly new to the story of A Christmas Carol. I was familiar with the concept of course, and the famous characters like Scrooge and Tiny Tim, but I’d never seen a production of the show before. That’s what made this process so exciting, because I was able to discover the story with a fresh perspective.
One of the characters I play is the Ghost of Christmas Past. It’s an extremely fun role and the innocence of the character is a wonderful contrast to Scrooge.
SM: Tell us one thing about this version of A Christmas Carol that distinguishes it. And is there any change in your character(s) that might surprise the audience, especially one that is familiar with this beloved and ubiquitous story?
KV: Our production of A Christmas Carol is packed with stage MAGIC. There are actors playing furniture, puppets that give quite a scare, ghosts on wheels and swings, breathtaking harmonies – there’s really never a dull moment. I believe that the vision and design of this production have been married so well that many aspects of our show will surprise the audience and offer an experience of a classic that they’ve never had before.
SM: Although the story is over a hundred years old, many of its themes are timeless. Does this interpretation of A Christmas Carol reflect issues that are preoccupying us today, especially anything that young people should be conscious of?
KV: I think everybody has a little bit of Scrooge in them. It’s so easy to lose yourself in your work, love, money, social media- for goodness sake! The theme of waking up to how you affect the people around you and how you’re spending your precious time on this earth is something that everyone can learn from at any stage of their life.
SM: Would you like to talk a little about your upcoming show, The Antipodes and your role in that play? (It is not a musical play, which some people might not associate with a triple threat like you.) What drew you to it?
KV: Yes – The Antipodes is a play by Annie Baker and it takes place in an ambiguous conference room (the audience never really learns specifics about what they’re trying to come up with), but they’re all brainstorming ideas. It seems that there’s a lot of pressure on them to come up with an original and amazing idea.
My character is Sarah. She’s the bubbly assistant to the big boss, Sandy. I’m really excited to play this part. My good friend Kaylee Harwood had mentioned this play to me a few years ago because she’d seen a production of it and absolutely loved it. When the call for submissions came out, she emailed me right away and told me to submit. I’m so glad she did. As someone who mostly does musicals, I’m so excited to dive into this work and discover more about myself as an artist.
The show is somewhat abstract in the way it jumps time, and the stories that the characters tell become more and more fantastical as the characters are running on less sleep. I think the play really mirrors how humans remember and retell their own stories.
SM: Tell us about your company, Sidebiz Studio. What prompted you to start the company, how do the participating artists collaborate, and what has it been like to run an e-commerce business during the shutdown?
KV: WELL – SideBiz is an online multivendor marketplace designed for artists of all mediums to sell their products and services. It was a pandemic baby that started when my friend, Jacob, and I noticed a lot of our performer friends posting on social media about all of their pandemic passions. Some people were baking, painting, or teaching cocktail classes!
We thought it would be a wonderful way to support local artists rather than giving more money to big corporations. We recruited a bunch of vendors who were interested in setting up an online store with us, and we grew very quickly. Having a degree in music theatre, the world of e-commerce was definitely not a walk in the park for me. But the skills I learned were immeasurable.
As theatre is beginning to start back up, it’s been tricky to balance the demands of running an e-commerce marketplace and following my passion for performing. I’ve made peace with the fact that SideBiz came at a time when people needed it most. We’ve helped artists kick start their businesses and supplement their income, and I don’t regret a thing!
SM: Any advice for budding entrepreneurs?
KV: If I had any advice for an entrepreneur it would be to just dive right in. You learn most by doing. And make sure to surround yourself with people who believe in you, and you’ll be surprised at what you can do!
SM: Your choice of the final question: Now that vaccination rates are rising and vaccine passports are the norm, we can return to live performances more regularly. Going forward, what would you like the arts to look like?
KV: I’m craving more recognition for arts workers. I hope that when people come to the theatre again, they consider just how much of a miracle it is to be in a room with strangers experiencing the magic of storytelling. I hope every dresser, stagehand, stage manager, lighting technician, seamstress, carpenter, sound designer, director, usher – THE LIST GOES ON – crosses their mind as they applaud the actors at the end of the show.
The theatre community has been hit so hard, but our resilience is unmatched. Art is essential, and I can guarantee almost everyone on the planet turned to it to cope through the pandemic.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2021
