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ll . WATERIDO OlleCIE . Wednesday, Inn: 20. 2007 Haley McGee admits that when she was grow- ing up in Waterloo she was a bit ofa All she needed was an audi- ence, and she could go on for hours trying to entertain the bemused group of grown-ups looking on. It got to the point that her dad told her the little mini, productions for her parents' guests needed a little more structure, "My dad told me I couldn't per- form unless it had a beginning, middle and ending." laughed McGee. "From very early on I was trying to grasp dramatic struc- ture." . 1 "That's when I started acting 'prtd writing," she said. "Before I would just get up and improvise - I just loved performing." It was one of those stories, about a family she knew who had lost a child, that inspired her work as a student studying acting at the prestigious theatre training pro- gram at Ryerson University in Toronto, And her first play, called Escape from Grace. is being staged at the renowned Toronto Interna- tional Fringe Festival My S- I4. Waterloo playwright Haley McGee's first work hits the stage That taught the impressionable four-year-old about story arch, and. how to wrap up a perform- ance in three acts. And she's been keeping a journal of story ideas, character studies and plays she's written ever since that early taste of the stage. The production features Dora Mavor Moore, award-winning peter Paul Amato and well-known tctor Paul Rainville as the main protagonist in the play, Winston McCarthy. Members of the Ryer- hon theatre school round out the cast. including instructor and Gemini-nominee Marianne Escape from Grace By Boa VIMNAC - Chronicle Staff Not bad for a 21-year-old who always thought acting would be her true calling. It still is as she is in Peterborough for most of the sum- mer performing with 4th Une The- atre in productions of School- house by Leanna Brodie, and Beautiful lady. Tell Me ... by Shirley Barrie. Macisaac But she's found her muse min- ing her childhood and other expo riences in putting together a pro- auction that is described as poignant and hilarious at the same time. She's developed a knack for rrnding those moments of comedy in a tragedy that help people come to grips with their grief in her first full-stage production. "soihitirnes I'm in a hit of shock, but it's very exciting," said McGee. Haley McGee used a oohuriul didhood and the characters she men on the way to studying acting at Ryerson Undvet say as tttrtilts ground for her first fun-{3mm play called Escape from Grace, that will appear at the Toronto International Fringe Festival July 5-12. It's one of the first things I ARTS FOCUS wrote when I started at Ryerson, and I've been workshopping it ever since, "tt all seems very surreal that people are working with my EacapehdmGiatxs Ptsrformancer. )uly5-12 _ words." McGee studied acting at East- wood collegiate in the theatre arts program, and was continuing her education in Toronto when she took a text-examination class, it was a class taught by critically acclaimed playwright Sheldon Rosen which required her to create a dramatic monologue. The monologue required her to create a character with an entire back story. From those humble beginnings it turned into a play about the 6ctional McCarthy tami- ly, of Waterloo. who try to help their father Winston deal with the death of his youngest child. "You were given a question- naire to answer about your charac- ter," said McGee. "You were asked things like their age. their back- ground and all these details about themselves MD P0010 "And you had to writea mono- logue on what you got. The one I got said that her father was a relapsed Catholic, and I thought that was very funny. From there I explored the idea of a person who loses their faith, and from there it's evolved." Escape from Grace explores how people rind their faith when dealing with the tragedies of life. It's also about how other people lose their way trying to find answers. said McGee. McGee set the play in Waterloo because it was the familiar setting of home. She was also a Waterloo Chronicle newspaper carrier at one point which gave her a child's eye view of the city. She admits one of the charac- ters in the play is perhaps autobitr graphical, based on her memories of coming home from school on the Greyhound Bus. But most of the richly drawn characters are based on other people she's met throughout her life. The closest to home is a charac- ter she based on an unconvention- al aunt. Her aunt Lynda Penrose, an artist, added some fiamboyance to a play looking for humour. "People in my family will recog- nize her." said McGee. "My aunt is a middle-aged woman and the character is a tio-year-old gay man. "After the workshop Produc- lions she said, " would make such a good gay man. wouldn't l.' She's got a very good sense of humour." v It's aUiorrteiting style that seems to strike a chord with the audience. "l'm looking to tell the truth how I see it," said McGee. "My obsession is the moments of joy and hilarity that come out of honi- ble situations and celebrating and findingthose. "When you get an audience laughing with you then they are so much more open to anything else that happens in the play" Escape from Grace will be held at the Factory Theatre Mainspace. at 125 Bathurst St. in Toronto. For tickets call the Fringe hotline at “6366 1062.