Tell us a bit about your character in Herr Beckmann’s People.
My name is Klaus. I am the older brother of Anna, son of Clara and Rainer. I have a passion for booze and broads. I have secrets that must be revealed at any cost.
What’s it like to work on a brand-new script? When this play is published, it’ll be your name in the front under the original cast. Is this more pressure, or less, for your work?
It is such a joy to work on a new script, to walk into to rehearsal with no preconceived notions of the play and to create a character for the fists time. The pressure is the same every time you do a show, to stay true to the needs of the story, keep your intention clear and create as much room for the audience to sneak in there with you.
Tell us a little about your process.
My process? Wow. After thirty five years of acting and twenty of teaching, my process is tough to define. I surrender to the text and the impulses from my body. I trust that my partner in a given scene will provide me with enough tinder to set the place on fire. For me, the stakes can never be too high. We all are hungry for more: more light, more fucking, more fighting, more dancing, more desire, more singing, more shouting, all in the name of love. Every scene is a love scene. Every single one.
Outside of being an actor, you are….
Awriter, a producer, a director, a poet, a teacher, a musician, a wreck, a man of peace, a horny son of a bitch, a dreamer, a fraud, a gasmonger and a fool.
How is “just” being an actor different from being a director/writer?
Total surrender. Letting go of control is the most terrible euphoria. I love it.
What’s next for Bill Marchant?
Rest. Write. Rest. Teach. Write. Fear death. Write. rest. More fear. Produce. Contemplate suicide. Get slimmer. Rest. Fuck. Rest. Rest. Direct. Rest. Act. Rest. ( most of the resting will not occur, but it sounds good in theory)
Mac or PC?
Mac.
Bill Marchant is honoured to be working with Katrina Dunn and Touchstone Theatre. Originally hailing from Georgetown, Ontario, Bill has spent the last twenty years as a proud member of the Vancouver arts community as an actor, writer and director. His first feature film, “Everyone”, won the Zenith D’or at the Montreal Film Festival in 2004, followed by the debut of his next picture “By The Hour” at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006. His upcoming feature, “Exley”, a collaboration with Canadian filmmaking legend Larry Kent, will be released this Fall. Last year saw the debut of two of Marchant’s original plays, “Ashes’ and ‘Gift of Screws”. “Seven Miles Out”’ an album of alt rock tunes co-written with Michael Chase came out in may of this year. Bill Marchant is Head of Department at Vancouver Film School. He thanks Sally Stubbs for her beautiful and provocative play and his students for their love and patience.
