Kaitlyn Riordan, Eva Barrie, and the Board of Shakespeare in the Ruff are proud to welcome Desirée Leverenz as our new Associate Artistic Director!
Desirée is director, creator, and performer living in Tkaronto and hails from Treaty 6. She has an MFA in Theatre from York University (after finishing her undergrad at University of Alberta). She’s the artistic director of The Orange Girls, an experimental performance ensemble that blurs the lines between performance and art (check them out!). Want to see her work up close? She’ll be performing her piece Eat Me at the Rhubarb Festival.
To kick off 2020 with our new Associate AD, we asked her a rapid round of 20 Questions. Meet Desirée!
Favourite Shakespeare play?
Today, Othell0
Dream Lady M casting?
Viola Davis!!
Least favourite Shakespeare play?
Midsummer
Favourite park in the world?
The park down the path from where I grew up in St. Albert.
Must have picnic item?
Watermelon!
Super power?
I wish I could read books at warp speed.
Mediocre power?
The power to not put my fire alarm off every time I make toast.
A 2020 resolution?
To learn how to make toast.
Something you miss about Edmonton?
Eating green onion cakes with my sister.
The class/the thing that surprised you the most while doing your Masters at York?
How caring and supportive my cohort was!
A theatre show you’re looking forward to seeing in 2020?
Vivek Shraya’s “How to Fail as a Popstar.”
A favourite piece of advice?
Have a reading routine.
Secret music obsession that you’d never tell anyone about?
Line dancing music. Cadillac Ranch, Cotton Eye’d Joe, etc.
Which basketball team do you support? (hint: this is a trick question)
Duh, Raptors over everything!!! Want to know my least favourite? Phoenix Suns. Their logo is so bad.
Favourite book you read in 2019?
This is very hard for me to say, perhaps I will say an important book I read in 2019 is The Theory of the Young-Girl by a collective called Tiquun.
The thing you most like to cook?
Anything that requires a sauce, I am very good at making sauces.
Place you’d most like to visit?
Morocco!
What would you tell your 20 year old self?
To be brave and make bold choices.
What would you tell your 2 year old self?
To eat bananas, so that you could eat them as an adult. They seem like such a convenient snack, but I hate them.
What excites you most about being a Ruffian?
I’m excited to ask difficult questions, and struggle with answers and solutions with the rest of the Ruff team!