THE PIANO TEACHER
Where: Chemainus Theatre, 9737 Chemainus Rd.
When: Sept. 27-Oct. 20
Tickets: $22-$74 from chemainustheatre.ca or 250-246-9820
After years of uncertainty, playwright Dorothy Dittrich finally listened to her post-COVID “internal craving” and relocated to Vancouver Island.
“I had a real need to be closer to nature,” the Vancouver-born, Nanaimo-based writer and musician said during a recent interview with the Times Colonist. “No matter where I was on the mainland, I would have to drive a long way out of town to experience this kind of access to nature. Nanaimo was close to a ferry, and close to my mom. But it was mostly nature. I had to get out of that city, which was a very, very scary move. But I took the leap — and I’m really happy that I did.”
She arrived in Nanaimo two years ago, around the time she was receiving her flowers for a titanic theatrical achievement, The Piano Teacher. Dittrich wrote the play in 2017, and it netted her the Governor General’s Literary Award for drama in 2022. Acclaim for the minor-scale masterpiece is liable to continue as The Piano Teacher is the kind of theatre that never goes out of style, or loses its relevance.
Its central metaphor is the process of grief and arriving at the point of healing. “It’s about moving through something that could potentially take you down,” Dittrich said. “Grief is really, really hard. But it’s an optimistic piece, in that regard. It’s about resilience, really. And courage.”
Marketed as everything from “Lessons on Life and Love” to “A Healing Key” — Dittich isn’t fond of the latter tagline — The Piano Teacher has been performed on two occasions thus far, in Winnipeg and Vancouver, where it debuted at the Arts Club Theatre. Chemainus Theatre is mounting its upcoming third production, which opens tonight and runs until Oct. 20.
Chemainus Theatre’s production stars Rebecca deBoer as a classical pianist navigating a family tragedy who finds herself unable to go near a piano. Her teacher (Erin Ormond) and an unannounced love interest (Victor Hunter) help bring her around. Dittrich, a classically-trained pianist, lent her instructional expertise during rehearsals, coaching the trio of actors, who are asked to play the instrument during the performances.
Dittrich always expected cast members would perform live on piano. “It adds a layer of authenticity. It’s a play about a concert pianist, so they should be able to play at least a few bars of something. The teacher needs to be able to show the audiences what she means when she’s talking about music. To me, that seems absolutely critical.”
Dittrich began playing the piano when she was seven years-old, and by 15 was offering accompaniment on piano during theatre rehearsals and ballet classes in Vancouver. She eventually studied music at Simon Fraser University, and received her master’s degree in liberal studies. Though she never gave up playing the piano, Dittrich began working on theatre projects in the areas of sound design, original composition and musical direction (for fun, she even appeared in the house band for Chemainus Theatre’s Classic Country Roads revue-style production in 2022).
When she eventually arrived at writing, Dittrich was given a rare opportunity to combine her multitude of talents. “Music is always part of the plays that I write. Other talents and interests come in through the periphery,” she said.
With an abundance of directions in which to travel artistically, she has to “backburner” some ideas, in deference to what is on her plate at any given moment — which is almost always music, she continued. “I play music every day, I don’t let that go. I just may not be performing, or having it be a big deal in my life.”
Her aptitude for writing extends beyond The Piano Teacher, which also won a Jessie Richardson Award for outstanding original script.
When We Were Singing, first produced in 1995, and later staged at The Belfry, won Jessie Richardson Awards for original script and musical direction, and was nominated for two Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including one for musical direction.
The writer, musical director, and concert pianist demurred when mention of her multi-hyphenate status arose during conversation. Plenty of people in film and theatre have her same skillset, she said. “There’s lot of people who do lots of things. Joni Mitchell is the most brilliant songwriter of our time, and also a brilliant painter. There’s so many ways to incorporate music into your life which, culturally, I don’t think we often think about. But all art is interpretive. That’s the beauty of live performance and art.”
