I Am YEG Arts: Chris Dodd
January 19, 2023
Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it. It’s a sentiment that Chris Dodd, a Deaf actor, playwright, and accessibility advocate, credits as the best advice he’s ever been given. In 2020, he trusted that advice again when he quit his full-time day job to become a working artist. How’s that working out? Well, let’s just say he’s been busy! Besides being cast in a feature film and published by Playwrights Canada Press, his most recent play, Deafy, can be seen at the Citadel Theatre, starting this weekend and running until February 12th.
Actor, playwright, and artistic director of SOUND OFF — this week’s “I Am YEG Arts” story belongs to Chris Dodd.
Tell us about your connection to Edmonton and why you’ve made it your home.
I’m an Edmontonian born and raised. I grew up on the south side near Mill Creek, and Whyte Ave has always been my lifeline. I travelled up and down that road for school and work, twice daily, for some 30 years before I finally moved further south. Now that I am an established artist, I am often working across Canada, but Edmonton is still always my home. You really can’t beat the artistic community here, so I’m always happy to return.
When you were first starting out, what was it about the arts that made you feel like it could be your community?
In my final year of my drama degree at the U of A, I met Ashley Wright, a local professional actor, when we were performing in an MFA project together. Ashley and I agreed to write a play together, which resulted in the show Silent Words, which was performed at the Edmonton Fringe the following year. The show turned out to be a critical success and was held over at Theatre Network. Later that year, we won three Sterling Awards for the show, and from that moment on I knew I had found a place in the community.
How did you get your start as a playwright?
I’ve been writing plays since my teens. I got my start when my drama teacher in high school asked me to write the year-end show for Grade 12. This resulted in a deeply personal show called Bridge to Nowhere about my feelings on hearing loss at that time. In my later teens and early adulthood, I took advantage of a number of opportunities for emerging young playwrights, including the Citadel’s Teen Festival of the Arts, NextFest, and workshops with Theatre Network and Workshop West, which included a writing class with Conni Massing. I later had the opportunity to take a workshop with the late Sharon Pollock at the U of A.
What themes are you drawn to as a storyteller?
Naturally, I gravitate towards Deaf themes but also focus on inclusion, identity, the sense of belonging, and justice. However, I also love writing comedy, and I am particularly proud of my play, Deafy, especially as there are so many funny moments in it that always get big laughs from the audiences. Sometimes I write plays that use metaphors for deafness. For example, Big Ear, which I wrote for Concrete Theatre’s recent Sprouts Festival, has no Deaf characters in it. Instead, the lead character of Maggie sports enormous ears, which she tries to hide from her classmates, an allusion to my past use of hearing aids and how I always felt they made my ears conspicuous.
Tell us a little about your role with SOUND OFF and what makes it special to you and the city.
SOUND OFF, which I’m the founder and artistic director of, is Canada’s national festival devoted to the Deaf performing arts that takes place annually at the Arts Barns. It was founded in 2017 with support from Workshop West, and it previously operated alongside the Chinook Series Festival at the Arts Barns. As of last year, it became an independent event, and we will be celebrating our 7th annual edition at the end of March. We are fully hybrid, and we offer both live and online plays, readings, workshops, panels, plus our annual improv collaborations with Rapid Fire Theatre. It is a unique opportunity for Edmonton audiences to come out and appreciate Deaf talent from across Canada and their stories.
Tell us about the best advice you’ve ever received and the last time you called on it.
“Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.” In 2020, I stopped trying to juggle both a full-time job and my artistic pursuits, and I quit to become a working artist. Making a career switch is stressful in any circumstance, but it was especially challenging during a pandemic. But I pushed myself to adapt to working online and doing more filmed work, and I actually became quite busy during that period. My biggest project during that time happened to be a live event, where I was in Winnipeg during the spring of 2021 for a month shooting a feature film with careful COVID protocols in place. That was a huge opportunity that I would not have been able to take had I still been at my day job.
Who’s someone inspiring you right now?
Most definitely Troy Kotsur, a Deaf actor who won an Academy Award for the film CODA last year. He was the first Deaf actor to win the award in 36 years. In his acceptance speech, Troy credited his success as an actor to his many years of working within Deaf theatre. He has significantly elevated the recognition of Deaf actors and proven that Deaf actors are actors, period.
Tell us about your upcoming play, Deafy, and what the highs and the lows have been so far.
Deafy has been in development for the past five years. It started off with assistance from Vern Thiessen, who was then the artistic director of Workshop West. After a period of readings and rewrites, it was accepted to the SummerWorks Performance Festival in Toronto in 2019 and received critical acclaim. We had many plans to take the play further and start mounting a tour, but then COVID happened, and everything needed to be put on hold. We had a remount during the Fringe in 2021 and an Ontario tour in the spring of 2022, and now we’re excited about being able to present this again to Edmonton’s audiences at the Citadel Theatre this January (January 21st to February 12th).
How do you hope to help shape Edmonton’s arts community?
I hope to contribute to the cultural diversity in this city and make it a bit better, brighter, and more accessible. I love consulting, and I am always happy to connect with people, whether formally or informally, to talk about how we can make things better not only for Deaf audiences and performers but also for artists and audiences with disabilities. SOUND OFF is a great start for exposing Edmonton audiences to the talents and stories of our many wonderful performers from across Canada. I have even bigger plans ahead, and I can’t think of a more fantastic and vibrant city than Edmonton in which to do them.
Describe your perfect day in Edmonton. How do you spend it?
Obviously, you’ve got to start with a hearty breakfast. There are so many great local breakfast spots, but Tasty Tom’s on Whyte Ave is always a great bet. Then head to the river valley to burn off some of those calories on the trails, and then perhaps wind up at the Muttart Conservatory to take in the feature pyramid and breathe in some tropical air, especially if it’s winter. Next, a late lunch at Culina on-site before shopping on Whyte Ave. Then I’d head off to see a show at Workshop West or Varscona — or even Rapid Fire’s soon-to-be-opened digs at the old telephone museum. Then I’d finish up the evening with a local craft beer and a late-night snack at one of the many nearby breweries, such as Blind Enthusiasm or Situation Brewing.
Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here all year and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! Click here to learn more about Chris Dodd, and here to find tickets info to see Deafy at the Citadel Theatre, January 21 to February 12.
About Chris Dodd
Chris Dodd is a Treaty 6‑based (Edmonton) award-winning Deaf actor, playwright, accessibility advocate, and Governor General Innovation Award finalist. He is the founder and artistic director of SOUND OFF, Canada’s national festival devoted to Deaf performance. Chris holds a degree from the University of Alberta’s Drama program and has been working within Edmonton’s theatre community, and across Canada, for over 25 years. His play, Deafy, recently toured Ontario and will be presented as part of Highwire Series at the Citadel Theatre’s 2022 – 23 season. The play was recently published by Playwrights Canada Press as part of the anthology, Interdependent Magic: Disability Performance in Canada. Notable performances include the role of Alphonse in Ultrasound at Theatre Passé Muraille. Recent film credits include the role of Odin in the upcoming feature film, Finality of Dusk. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Guy Laliberté Prize for innovation and creative leadership by the Canada Council for the Arts.
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