Hi internet,

Exciting stuff this week, as I bring to you an interview with Stratford principal actor Emilio Vieira. It was really wonderful catching up with an old friend and introducing him to my husband (Jacob). Emilio’s been with Stratford for 6 years, which is an incredible accomplishment at such a young age. In this interview, we chat about Emilio’s career path, the audition process for Richard II, his take on his character of Aumerle, and more. There may even be a royal guest appearance at the end… I hope you enjoy!

**This interview has been edited for clarity, and approved by Emilio before publishing**

Lori: Hi Emilio. It’s so nice to catch up! Let’s start from the very beginning. When did you know that you wanted to pursue acting as a career?

Emilio: I thought I was going to be a doctor. I was fast-tracking science courses in high school because my school wouldn’t allow students to take music and drama in the same semester, so I did summer school every year to make space in my schedule. But I realized that I liked the story of being a doctor more than actually being one. I liked the idea of a cancer researcher or someone who’s gonna make great breakthroughs and help people. Grade 11 would have been the year we were doing Les Mis, and that’s when I realized that if I take [acting] seriously, maybe I can do this thing. At the time, I didn’t have any formal acting training, so as the conversations about what to do post-secondary were happening, that’s when I thought, “maybe I should get an acting degree.”

Lori: And then you went to York University to study drama. I know you almost went to Ryerson.

Emilio: I almost went to Ryerson. I was waitlisted for Ryerson, but York gave me a scholarship, so I took it. And then after I took it, Ryerson called me and told me I got off the waitlist. And I was like, “ahhhhhhhhh.” But I took York anyway. And I was glad I did. [York is] a conservatory program that starts with general arts that’s like 150 people, and then you reapply to specialize in something, whether it be acting, stage management, directing, producing…I had a production teacher (who I still keep in touch with) who really encouraged me to go into production, and I considered it for a long time. I had my pick – I got into the 3 [streams] that I applied to – and I chose the acting conservatory. And that was it.

Lori: You could always go into production later.

Emilio: Maybe. I have done a little self-producing. The pandemic was part of that. Theatres were closed, I didn’t know what to do, so a playwright friend and I ended up writing a romcom together. Even gathering outdoors was being restricted, so we made a film. I had my first taste of self-producing, and it’s a lot of work, but it was confirmation that the ideas are there and I’ve got creative, talented, collaborative people around me. Which is, I guess, where most producer stories start. Who’s gonna give me that [money] to make the big project?

Lori: Have you ever questioned your decision to pursue acting professionally, instead of just recreationally?

Emilio: You know, the pandemic really made me wonder if there was anything else I could (or should) do. And I very nearly became a massage therapist. I’ve always loved squeezing people’s shoulders backstage…

Lori: I think we sat in massage-trains during Les Mis rehearsals.

Emilio: Yeah, yeah, we did! I’m a really huggy, touchy guy. I’m always feeling people’s tensions and working it out, so I thought that may be something I do. But I think I just realized that there is something vital about storytelling. That we engage as society with larger ideas.

Lori: So tell me about how you found your way to the Stratford Festival.

Emilio: I had no idea that Stratford existed. It wasn’t until an ex-girlfriend of mine bought me tickets in 2013 to come see Tom Rooney in Measure for Measure, who played [the role of] Angelo. At the time, I was playing Angelo in a scene study at school, and I was obsessed with the play, with the part. And [seeing that show] changed my life because Tom Rooney is extraordinary, and he was making choices in the show that made me feel like some of the weirder or crazier things that I wanted to do with the part that my teachers were trying to steer me away from were valid. So I stuck around at the stage door to meet him, and I said, “Tom, I’m doing the show right now…you are amazing and I’d really love to work with you someday.” And he said, “I’m sure we will.” And then two years later, the season I got here, I was working with Tom Rooney.

Lori: Wow. What a full circle moment.

Emilio: Yeah. It was just like, I didn’t know Stratford existed, and then from 2013 onward it was this magnetic pull. But it aligned with everything that I wanted to do. I was really interested in Shakespeare – I’d been doing a lot of Shakespeare both at-school and immediately following I did [Shakespeare in] High Park and this small touring production of student Shakespeare shows. So you know, little things like that I think made my resume at least a little more exciting. And god love Martha Henry, the director at the time of [Stratford’s Birmingham] conservatory. She gave me that shot.

Lori: Can you talk a bit about the initial audition process?

Emilio: I did a general audition, and then from that general, they funneled me into the first-round conservatory audition. Then I did a callback, and then I booked it.

Lori: So the Birmingham Conservatory is a one-year training program run by Stratford?

Emilio: It’s recently changed, but when I started, it was one-season guaranteed, potential second based on mutual interest.

Lori: So that’s how you got your foot in the door. What’s the turnover like every year?

Emilio: It’s like congress, I call it. Cause every year there are people who are there for another term. There are some people have been there for 30 years. There’s a couple of people in the 5-10 range, like me. This is number 6 for me. And then there are newbies.

Lori: To be so young in your career and to have 6 years of Stratford is very impressive.

Emilio: I didn’t realize how much of a gift that was. I started here at 23 years old. That was in 2015. I’ve done 6 out of the last 8 seasons. I wasn’t here for ’19 or ’20.

Lori: Are you living in Stratford full-time? What does your year look like?

Emilio: I only live here contract-to-contract, so I don’t have a permanent spot, but there’s festival accommodations, so I pay rent in town [during the festival]. I’d like to look to settle in Stratford semi-permanently. I mean, the life of the actor is the life of moving around. Like last season was kind of the best-case scenario for me. I did the season here – rehearsed in February, closed in October. I flew out the next morning to Winnipeg to do a contract there. Flew back to spend the holidays with the folks, spent like a month in Toronto, and then got back here to start rehearsing again. That was the most consecutive work I’ve had for a very long time. If every year could be like that, that would be wonderful.

Lori: Can you walk me through the re-audition process every year once you join the company rotation?

Emilio: Usually around this time [June] they’re very close to confirming what next season is, and before that announcement happens, they start some internal auditioning. You’ll get like a call, e-mail, it’ll say “here are the sides for X Y Z.” More often than not, they are the real sides for the real show. Sometimes, they’re not, especially for a new play. And then as the whispers start to grow and certain things get confirmed through the grapevine, I usually send an e-mail to the casting director if there’s a project I’m interested in saying, “Hey. I’ve been hearing that this show is coming up. What’s the likelihood of getting an audition?” And she may write back and say something like, “We’ll see what we can do.”

Clarifying note: Stratford is a repertory theatre company, so most of the performers appear in multiple productions throughout the season.

Lori: Do they cast shows in a specific order, or is auditioning going on simultaneously? And do the directors have to fight for people? Is it like sorority recruitment?

Emilio: Haha. Shows have to first be chosen, and then the master scheduler will work on weaving everything together to determine what the whole calendar of the year will look like, from performances to rehearsals. Based on mutual interest and requirements that need to be filled for certain shows, a track will start to develop. So they’ll say “for Richard II, we know there’s going to be a lot of choreography, so we need a dance company. Let’s cross it with [the company of] Rent.” Also, anything that’s at the same theatre can automatically be a cross because they’ll never have performances at the same time. And to answer your first question, they audition shows mostly simultaneously.

Lori: Do you have to be in two shows in order to perform in Stratford?

Emilio: Some people are in one.

Lori: Is that because of the scale of the role?

Emilio: It could be a number of things. It could be that someone is an actor of great note, so maybe they thought there’s not another lead part to put them in. But the offer will come to you as a complete package. So for me, it was the Brigadiere in Grand Magic, the Duke of Aumerle in Richard II, and a non-appearing understudy for Love’s Labors Lost. That was the deal.

Lori: I see. And non-appearing understudy means you’ll only perform if someone’s off, but you don’t have an ensemble part.

Emilio: That’s right. I learn the role, attend rehearsal, and watch the show a couple of times to stay up-to-date with it. I haven’t been a non-appearing understudy since my first season, so I’m looking forward to seeing if the muscle is still working.

Lori: When you were last a non-appearing understudy, did you have to perform?

Emilio: I did.

Lori: What’s that like?

Emilio: It’s like jumping on a moving train. There’s only so much you can gauge by watching the show. One of the things I wish we could do more of is shadow people backstage, because the backstage track is just as intricate as the onstage track. I mean, I know for me, now that I’m in the groove of my shows, I walk offstage, tuck around to the left. A dresser is waiting there to help me change…I keep going down the long corridor, I spritz my hair to get some curl back in. Then I go back around, grab a prop and jump onto the next thing. And that may not feel like it’s super vital, but what if, say, I go whipping around that corner like I always do expecting it to be empty and there’s an understudy standing there who doesn’t know that that corridor is usually empty? You might bump into each other. So it’s just stuff like that. But it’s always fun when an understudy goes on. Especially in a repertory company, the depth of talent is so great that there are people on the bench who could make up their own principal show. I’m going to see the Much Ado [About Nothing] understudy run next week because two of my friends are playing the leads, and I can’t wait to see them. They’re going to be extraordinary.

Jacob (guest interviewer/husband of this blog!): What is it like working with understudies? I mean in Richard II, your on-stage chemistry with Richard is really important.

Emilio: It’s funny you mention that because Stephen [Jackman-Torkoff, who plays Richard] was out sick during tech week and Andrew [Robinson, the understudy] went on, so I had to do all of that intimacy, all of that choreography, fight…with somebody I had had very little rehearsal with. He had rehearsed with my understudy, but not with me. So Andrew and I had a check-in the day before, which was a luxury because sometimes you don’t know [if an understudy is going on] until 10 am the day-of. We spent some time going through everything just making sure that we were on the same page. And especially the intimacy stuff has been built in such a way where we can adjust for comfort-levels, so if there was anything that I was doing with Stephen where Andrew was like “I really don’t want to do that,” we didn’t have to do that.

Lori: Let’s talk about Richard II. Were you familiar with the play before you were cast, in comparison to other Shakespeare texts?

Emilio: I had read the play. I loved a lot of the speeches. I have this nerdy desire to do all of Shakepeare’s plays before I die, and this is one of those ones that doesn’t come around a lot.

Lori: Can you talk about auditioning for the role of Aumerle? Did you know what exactly you were auditioning for?

Emilio: I got a call to audition for Richard II, so I taped a monologue. After the tape, when I received the callback information (which was an in-person audition with Jill Keiley, the director), Jill gave me a one-pager about Studio 54, the angels, and her concept. There was a little disclaimer about being comfortable with potential nudity and sexual simulation on stage, and Jill mentioned that Brad Fraser was adapting it, who’s famously the bad boy of Canadian theatre and a big queer icon. So I had a general idea of the direction of the production, and I thought that it was a cool concept.

Lori: At the time, did you know how substantial your role would be, in comparison to the original text?

Emilio: Jill told me in the audition that the play is called Richard II, but Aumerle is the heart of the play. Their relationship is so vital to the story, and his relationship to his family and what we do in times of towing the line.

Lori: Tell me more about the callback.

Emilio: I was in there for like 20 minutes, it was fun. Jill is the kind of director that wants to see your take and then work with you, instead of having an idea and then trying to get you to do that. So it felt very dialogue-based. She also started with a game – a game to get to know everyone at the table. The casting team and her and the reader and who else we’re reading with…and then we’d do the piece. I got very close to working with Jill in 2019 but then I had to take another show in Toronto, so it was nice to get to come back around and get to work with her.

Lori: Did you get to read with Stephen [the actor who plays Richard]?

Emilio: Yes – the callback was a chemistry read with Stephen and one other actor that they were considering for Richard. And then for the Aumerles, there were 8 of us. And we were all sitting in the hallway, staggered audition times [to read with the Richards]. We did two scenes, and it was in that first scene when I was like, “Stephen is going to get this part.” I just knew it. The other guy was great, but Stephen was something else. The other Richard was also still holding on to his pages – which, fair enough, there were like 6 or 7 pages of sides. But Stephen was off-book, Stephen was playful. Stephen brought costume changes. It was brilliant. And I do think that because we’ve known each other for half of our lives, the chemistry was just there. There was so much love already there.

Lori: Can you tell me about your take on the character of Aumerle?

Emilio: I think Aumerle’s love for Richard comes close to the point of cultishness. He’s in love with a god. He’s also in love with a man, and yes he does have gay sex. But he’s encountered heaven on earth in Richard, and wants to be as close to it as possible. And that Richard comes off their cloud to be with him, lifts him up, and somewhere in that middle place, they both get to be something better than they are.

But I think the story we tell is one of a person fearful to come out and who questions why he’s in love with another man, and the crux of that either coming to light and creating shame in his life, or remaining a secret and he can just keep everything happy. Aumerle isn’t dating men in his life. He might be dating women – we talked about that a little bit. So when Richard reveals to the court that they’re lovers during the deposition, it all falls back on [Aumerle]. It would be a different story if Aumerle was a queer icon character, but I think that it’s much more nebulous than that and speaks to the kind of spectrum of sexual identity that I think a lot of people engage in conversation with.

The show tells us about the weight of the crown and how people get corrupted by power. So I think Aumerle has to be one thing for the court and for his legacy and for his father and for the community – in his public persona, and one thing for his heart.

Jacob: Aumerle has this great relationship in his life with Richard, and then the second act comes and Aumerle gets the impression that he needs to kill him.

Emilio: To survive.

Jacob: You view it as Bolingbroke will get rid of you if you don’t do this?

Emilio: I mean, I tried to kill Bolingbroke [the new king, i.e. Henry IV]. And what I say to Richard in that scene when they ask me why I’m betraying them is, “either I must answer, I must do this, I must kill you, or have my honour soiled by the attainder of your slanderous lips.” Like, my options are, live a shamed life, die, or kill you. So guess what? And I’m actually kind of angry at you. Because how dare you throw me under the bus like that in front of the court. I love you, and you’re my cousin, and I was on your side. And if you had just listened to me, we wouldn’t be in this situation. You went off to Ireland to go deal with these f**ing little skirmishes instead of dealing with the rebellion that’s at home. Speaking of the king…

**It’s at this point that Stephen Jackman-Torkoff (who plays Richard) walks in and joins us! We talk about the play a little bit, but we’re mostly just catching up. Some fun snippets from that convo are below:**

Stephen: [In discussing working with Emilio over the years] It feels very aligned, like in the universe that we’re together.

Lori: You two keep coming back to each other.

Stephen: It’s really nice.

…

Lori: Do you both have dream roles, or things that are on your hit list?

Emilio: I’ve always wanted to play Macbeth.

Stephen: Same. Or I can be Lady Macbeth.

Lori: Or Amaka Umeh [the actor from Sizwe Banzi is dead that I thought was incredible] can do it.

Stephen: I want to do it with Amaka, and we can switch off playing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth each night. That’d be a lot to learn.

Lori: They better pay you double for that.

Emilio: It’s an excellent play.

Stephen: I like how scary it is. I think it would be really fun to be in that play.

Jacob: I feel like there are some similarities between Richard II and Macbeth. There’s a little bit of that mental breakdown, ambition.

Emilio: Pride goeth before a fall. You start seizing people’s money and land and it leads to your downfall.

Stephen: I think I [as Richard] become somewhat enlightened at the end, becoming nothing, you know.

…

In discussing the intensity of Richard II:

Lori: I was nervous for you when you were put in the casket, because I don’t like small spaces.

Stephen: Yeah, it’s fine for me. But last night I got really uncomfortable, I almost started crying in the casket. Our scene got really intense that day, and I’m not an actor that’s like “oh my god, it’s real.” But last night it hit an emotion or made me really sad or something.

Emilio: It takes me a good 90 minutes to shake the show off. Which feels like this wanky actory thing to say, but it’s true.

Jacob: Even just watching it, I needed that time.

Emilio: I like that we do it twice or three times a week, because there’s space to go far and then recover.

Lori: So how many shows total are you doing a week?

Clarifying note: Emilio & Stephen are both performing in Richard II and Grand Magic.

Emilio: 2 or 3 [of Richard II] and then 5-6 overall. Sometimes a double day of both shows, which we did on Tuesday. I find those hard.

Stephen: Yeah, but for Grand Magic I was warmed up. I was like, “let’s go.”

…

A final kind word from an old friend to an old friend:

Emilio: [to Stephen] You have led with such a collaborative spirit. You’re a team player. You’re a community builder.

Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed our first official Girl Likes Theatre interview. You can follow Emilio’s journeys on his Instagram page. See you all next week with a brand new review 🙂

Featured image: photo provided by Emilio Vieira