By RON FANFAIR
As an Oakwood-Vaughan neighbourhood resident for the past 25 years, award-winning actress Kim Roberts is familiar with the bustling multi-ethnic community filled with a variety of goods and services.
When Andre Sills, who she acted with in ‘Intimate Apparel’ in Calgary in 2016 reached out, asking her to consider taking on a role in a play he directed for the Stratford Festival, she didn’t hesitate.
It was on her bucket list of things to do.
“I read the script and loved it,” Roberts said. “It made me laugh.”
In her Stratford debut this season, she plays Margaret Whyte in ‘Get That Hope’ which is making its world premiere at the Studio Theatre.
Written by award-winning playwright/producer Andrea Scott whose mother resided in the Oakwood-Vaughan community when she moved from Jamaica, the play is a complex and bittersweet domestic drama about family.
In a crowded apartment in ‘Little Jamaica’, Conrad Coates, who plays Richard Whyte, is planning the ultimate Jamaican Independence Day party and hopes to get the full support of his family.
His wife, Margaret, has long resented him for foisting the care of his daughter from a previous relationship on her; daughter Rachel – who works two jobs to support the family – has had enough of her stepmother’s disrespect and their son Simeon suffers from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) after a stint in the military and is job hunting.
Over a sweltering summer day, the brisk and upbeat façade the family presents to the outside world is about to meet its greatest challenge – each other.
Having Coates play her husband is special for Roberts who has worked with several revered Hollywood personalities, including Maya Angelou, Jackie Chan and Robin Williams.
“I have known Conrad for over 30 years,” she said. “He married my classmate (Canadian blues vocalist/actress Shakura S’Aida) in 1993. Over the years, we have crossed paths on various sets but never had a chance to work together. When it was confirmed that I would play Margaret, he sent me a text saying: ‘Finally’. I am so excited to be paired with him.”
Playing the character reminds Roberts of her Dominican-born mother who was a social worker. She turns 90 this year.
“She raised me and my brother on her own and sometimes she had to be tough,” the 1996 Harold Award for Theatre recipient said. “The character Margaret that I play can be very tough. Driving around to various appointments with my mom, she would say lines that Margaret says in the play. Though she was tough on me and my brother, there was no question that she loved us. That was the backbone of what got us through life.”
The Stratford Festival is the largest classical repertoire theatre in North America. Just to be in that space performing is magical for Roberts. Even more appealing is to be in a production where all the parts resonated with her.
“It is set in ‘Little Jamaica’ close to where I live, it is about a Jamaican family and it is about all the things I know,” she said. “It is also about the beauty of the neighbourhood and the fact that people don’t move out of that community until they die.”
In her early teens, Roberts attended Stratford for the first time.
“My uncle, who was a banker in New York, came to Canada every year to attend the Festival,” she recalled. “One year, he scooped up me and his kids and brought us here. The play was a Shakespearean classic and the actors were right up there in your face. The level of performance was so high and I was mesmerized by the experience.”
Roberts returned a few years later on a school trip.
Back in the day, it was rare to see a Black actor at Stratford. Since George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, the theatre festival has attempted to become more diverse.
After acknowledging its systemic racism ‘in solidarity with those demonstrating for justice’ after Floyd’s murder while under police arrest in Minnesota, the festival turned over its social media channels for 72 hours to Black artistes and artisans.
Roberts, who guest stars as Ms. Patty in ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ (Episode 205), embraces the positive change.
“When I started out acting 33 years ago, Stratford was the highest theatre you could attain,” she said. “It is quite prestigious and every actor hoped to get picked. Back then, it was not as diverse as they are making an effort for it to be right now. You were hard-pressed to find one Black person on stage. We had all these proficient actors who could not get roles because of their skin colour.
“We have come a long way.”
Four of the main plays have Black female leads this year. Besides Roberts, Starr Domingue plays Bea as the lead female in ‘Something Rotten’ which is a musical comedy, Allison Edwards-Crewe has the central role of Innogen in Cymbeline which is the final play from Shakespeare’s First Folio and Vanessa Sears plays Juliet in Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’.
Roberts would welcome another opportunity to perform at Stratford.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience of living here and working with very talented people,” she said. “This is just such a beautiful place to be.”
Ask Roberts where her passion for the creative industry comes from and her eyes light up.
“I think I was born with it,” she said. “My mother loved theatre and, just yesterday, she told me about her cousin, Aunt Judith, who orchestrated plays for younger family members to perform in and entertain the neighbourhood after sunset. My mom grew up embracing theatre and she encouraged me to do the same.”
Roberts took drama classes and, in Grade 2, was selected to be part of The Friendship Circle – a group of young singers and dancers directed by Lois Lilienstein of Sharon, Lois & Bram, and her partner Louise.
The ensemble toured locally, singing folk songs at schools and festivals.
“We taught songs and dances and performed at Mariposa,” she said. “So even at a young age, I was having fun, enjoying something I love doing.”
After attending a drama lab at age 12 at the University of Toronto and graduating from C.W. Jeffreys Collegiate Institute, Roberts – who spent time in Earl Haigh Secondary School’s gifted program and was in Claude Watson School for the Arts Acting stream – was at Western University for two years, majoring in Political Science with aspirations to become a lawyer.
In need of credits because of skipped classes, she took a summer course at York University taught by the Chair of the Theatre department and then transferred to the university.
In her first year, Roberts met Diane Roberts who became The Company of Sirens stage manager.
“Diane suggested I audition for a play directed by ahdri zhina mandiela,” she said. “I met ahdri’s daughter who played Chantay Black in ‘Degrassi’ and she took a liking to me. She asked if I could do a piece which I did and ahdri, who was very impressed, requested I start right away.”
A co-founder of Obsidian Theatre Company started in her home, Roberts narrated and performed ‘The Book of Negroes’ for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s podcast ‘Between the Covers’.
While shooting ‘In the Company of Spies’ in 1999, she became one of the first actors to shoot a scene inside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
It was the first and only movie the CIA approved. In addition to allowing the filmmakers to shoot at their headquarters, they provided 60 off-duty employees to serve as extras.
With over 200 credits in the last three decades, Roberts has enjoyed a lengthy and distinguished career.
What has been the highlight?
“Working consistently,” she said without hesitation. “There has never been a time when I was not working and I am grateful for that. Maybe, being single is what has kept me propelled. I am always doing something interesting.”
In 2014, Roberts received a Reelworld Trailblazer Award.
Tonya Williams, the film festival’s founder, said the veteran actress is a dynamo.
“Kim has that star quality that no one can learn,” she said. “You have it or you don’t and she has it in spades. She has talent oozing from every pore. From the minute she walks into a room, appears on camera or steps onto the stage, the eyes of the audience train to her and her alone. She has single-handedly carved out a career that only she could have.”
Williams noted that Roberts redefined beauty and sexiness in an industry that claimed skinny is the only way.
“She unapologetically owned her voluptuous body and proved to the world that this stereotype is false,” added the 2023 Changemaker Award recipient. “I am thrilled that Stratford has welcomed Kim and is presenting her to a new audience that will be entertained by this amazing actress.”
‘Get That Hope’ runs until September 28.
