Gray Powell returns to the stage after a four-year absence.Tim Leyes/Supplied
When the pandemic shuttered theatre venues in 2020, veteran Canadian actor Gray Powell was forced to step away from the stage. Thus ended a 13-year stint at the Shaw Festival, which concluded with a historic performance of Man and Superman – a rarely performed play that runs over five hours.
Powell soon found himself facing a new kind of professional challenge: a starring role in the CBC’s critically acclaimed sitcom Sort Of. The series, which airs on HBO in the U.S., follows a gender-fluid millennial navigating various identities, with Powell playing the lead character’s employer.
Now, after a four-year pause, Powell is set to return to the stage in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate at Toronto’s Coal Mine theatre. The play, which explores the complexities of a family grappling with racist harms perpetrated by the previous generation, will run to Oct. 15.
Speaking to me on the phone from the theatre ahead of rehearsal, Powell shared his fondest memories from his time at the Shaw, what it was like making the transition into television and what he’s most looking forward to with his return to live theatre.
Powell on stage in Appropriate, which explores the complexities of a family grappling with racist harms perpetrated by the previous generation.DAHLIA KATZ/Coal Mine theatre
What are some highlights from your 13 years at the Shaw?
The Circle introduced me to Neil Munro – that was pretty special. I didn’t know who he was at the time, and I quickly found out what an amazing presence he was in Canadian theatre and at the Shaw specifically. He was kind of like the conscience or the soul of that place.
And then the next one that was a big touchstone was Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And then also, Tony Kushner’s The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, which is a huge three-act, three-hour long show.
The last show I did was Man and Superman. It was probably the biggest challenge I’ve ever had on stage and probably ever will in terms of the volume of text and the dexterity of thought. I think it’s 50,000 or 55,000 words. It’s an absolute monster and it was such a privilege to get to do.
What was it like having to step away from the stage when the pandemic hit?
It was bittersweet. I have two kids at home – my wife and I live in Niagara-on-the-Lake – and we just hunkered down. It was sad to have the show not come back the following year, but in that time, I was also offered a whole different type of job, which was doing a CBC TV show that we had just shot a teaser for in 2019. And we got the green light to go into production in 2020.
So it was a hard time in many ways, but I remained employed. I was allowed to be creatively fulfilled in a completely different way, and it was really, in hindsight, great, because it allowed me to gain perspective on the last 13 years of just being on stage in the same place.
How have you enjoyed being a series regular on such a groundbreaking, beloved TV show?
I’d done bits and pieces of television, but being a series regular, it was the closest thing to feeling like theatre. You get to know the crew, you know the story from the day you get to read the script, you know what’s going on, you talk, you rehearse. It’s really been an amazing experience. And that first year was fantastic because it was so new.
I feel really grateful to be a part of it. It’s wonderful to watch how it has affected people. What Jennifer Kawaja and Laura Perlmutter and Andrea Glinski and Sphere Media and Bilal Baig have created, and the tone they’ve set as a place to work from and toward, is beautiful. What I hear most from people who watch it is that they appreciate the complexity of the humans that are created in the show.
Why did you choose Appropriate for your return to the stage?
I was given the script, I read it and I could not put it down and I could not get on the phone fast enough to say yes. It’s really something special and it’s a really challenging piece in many ways, and not just for the actors. It gets a lot of neurons firing and the potential it has to exhilarate, excite and shock is attractive to me. It’s so well written and it’s so big and I just can’t wait to do this, to be a part of it.
How do you feel about returning to the theatre after four long years?
I’ve missed theatre. I’m privileged to be in a place where I’ve had as much time on stage – to have it be a familiar place and to be able to miss it – to want to come back. I miss the room, I miss rehearsal, I miss problem-solving, I miss being vulnerable. And all those things are part of being an actor on set as well, but it’s different. I miss the conversation with the audience and however cliché or cheesy that sounds, I’ll sing it from the rooftops. I think now, especially having done Man and Superman, there is a conversation that happens and I’ve never been more attuned to it than in that show. It’s a relationship that doesn’t exist in any other art form.
Appropriate runs to Oct. 15 at Toronto’s Coal Mine Theatre.
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