Inquests of the Dead: Roger LeBlanc Interview

Roger LeBlanc is an intriguing young man. He is a true thespian. He wowed audiences when he brought his Shakespearean acting abilities to “Canada’s Got Talent”, and is currently the director for a stage version of George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” presented by Workshop Theatre. I had the good fortune to meet with him recently to discuss this new zombie project.

“Night of the Living Dead” would probably not be the first thing that comes to one’s mind when thinking of a project to adapt for the stage. What made you choose it?

It chose me! I had worked with Workshop Theatre in the past, and when the artistic director approached me and asked “how I felt about zombies” my eyes widened, my saliva glands ejaculated and my heart slammed against my chest cavity. “I fucking LOVE zombies” was my reply. It was after this exchange that the script for ‘Night of the Living Dead’ landed in my hands and I truly began considering its possibilities as an effective piece of stage drama. After presenting my vision for the project I was brought on as director.

What were some of the difficulties you faced when turning a screenplay into a stage production?

Well, the script that I was given was an actual ‘staged adaptation’. Hardly a convincing piece for the stage, it was nothing short of a scene by scene duplicate of the movie, with an added ‘off-stage gas pump explosion scene’ – fuck that. I didn’t want to cheap out on the audience with such a cop-out theatrical device. I wanted all the carnage of this story, on stage, live, and in front of the audience’s eyes.

The greatest difficulty I faced was validating the character’s dialogue, which was fine in 1968, but, I hate stereotypes and especially theatrical stereotypes. I promised myself that I would flush out these characters and stay as far left field as possible without jeopardizing the classic story. I wanted to justify each person’s arguments so that we don’t really know who to agree with.

Then trying to figure out what this play was about and why it is still relevant for today’s audiences was the next difficult step. I knew what I wanted to paint; I just didn’t know what it meant. I don’t think Romero even knew what it meant, he just made it and then ten years later went “Fuck, that was clever”. So I printed off a picture of George and wrote “You Got This!” on it and taped it above my bed. The hardest part being a director, I’ve found, is trusting yourself. Inevitably you have to let go of the intellectual stuff and just make fun fucking zombie play.

Your love for the zombie film genre is apparent. When and how did this affection develop?

When I was little, about 10 years old, we had lost our home and my aunt and uncle took my family in. It was a Friday night and as a loner, I didn’t have any friends to play with. My cousin, who is a horror FREAK, decided it was time for my ‘horror coming of age’. She made up a bowl of popcorn and turned on the television. It landed on a channel broadcasting a Friday night double feature – Lon Chaney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dam’ and George A. Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’. That night changed me from a weird little shy kid with a shitty haircut to — a weird little shy kid with a shitty haircut that was OBSESSED with horror movies and particularly zombie movies. At this time, going to the movie store was a ritual. It was always on a Friday night after a long un-inspired week of catholic school. I would enter the video store, run to the horror section and begin hunting. I remember one time I had rented ‘Day of the Dead’ or something, I had brought the VHS tape home, and at this time, video stores had begun putting those locks on the plastic video tape cases. Well they had forgotten to take it off! So I spent a good two hours trying to pry the damn thing off. After I eventually broke the case in half with a steak knife and sliced my hand open, my parent’s asked me: “Why didn’t you just wait until the next day to bring it back to the store”…wait to watch a zombie film?…ARE YOU INSANE!?. These films are my childhood, they are such happy memories and the purist form of escapism for me. It’s such a great scenario, the apocalypse wipes out who you were to society, it’s a fresh slate where you can rise to become a hero, or a villain. I’ve always found that so freeing and romantic.

I always have to ask this one, slow or fast moving zombies, and why?

Slow. They’re dead, they’re all messed up. I think that popular culture has taken the term “zombie” away from the everyman monster and applied it to a generalized apocalyptic scenario. All creative ideas change and adapt, they have to. However, my love is in the relentless, slow moving, Romero equalizer.

Without giving too much away, what are some of the cool things that audience members can expect when they attend the show?

I was actually surprised to see how many people have never even seen the original film. Everyone knows what the term ‘Night of the Living Dead’ refers to, but out of all the people I have talked to or met regarding this project I’d say about 25% of them have actually SEEN the film. I suppose this works to our advantage because we are staging the same story, we’ve just given it some new life and made the characters more believable. I’ve given my actors and artists involved in this production free reign to do whatever they want. I have this image of what these people are going through as an extremely bad nightmare, so everything that has gone into staging this play almost borders the aphotic realms of the dreamscape. I hope that quality shows with all the artists running free to explore their own darkness and the darkness around them. The audience can expect a lot of truth on that stage that doesn’t comment on the gore and mayhem, but compliments it.

We also have Easter eggs in the play, that if you spot, you can write down your answer, deposit it at the end of the play and win sweet zombie gear!

You recently acted in the Calgary stage production of “Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead”. What can you share about that?

It was a great experience. I got to work with such a talented group of people, not just actors, but the production crew on that team was INCREDIBLE. Kevin McKendrick, is an amazing director and I definitely took every note I could from him in preparation for this project. It was a great training ground before taking on this play. I would often sit myself in rehearsal in the back of the room behind a wall and close my eyes to just listen. I would hear a scene go on, then hear Kevin give the actors a note, I would close my eyes to hear if there was a difference in the actors voice. It’s one thing to give a note and have the actor physically portray what you said and it’s another to give a note and have it change the entire inner life of an actor, which completely changes the delivery of a line or sometimes an entire scene! Kevin is wicked at that, I hope that I was able to apply that to my directing.

Give me the title of three zombie films that you would recommend, and what is it about them that you find compelling?

Night, Dawn, and Day of the Dead – They can’t be separated, you simply just HAVE to watch all three of them, if you don’t it’s like saying you love metal music but have never heard a Black Sabbath album.

Zombi 2 (Zombie) – Fulci’s zombies are my favorites, I love how you can rarely see their eyes. Eyes are the windows to the soul and erasing that is extremely terrifying to me. Fulci is a master at that, and – come on….Zombie versus Shark? Need I say more?

Dead Alive – This film is so much fun! I really enjoyed showing this film to people when the whole ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy was huge. People refused to accept that a “respectable” director like Peter Jackson would make this gory, corny, zombie blood-fest. The zombie baby beat down!! – classic.

There has been speculation among fans that perhaps the entire zombie genre has peaked. What are your thoughts?

I don’t feel that it has peaked, it hasn’t really changed. I think that since we are now in the post-‘Walking Dead’ world we have opened up zombies to pop culture on a SERIOUS level, as opposed to MJ’s ‘Thriller’ impact, which turned zombies into something to laugh at rather than fear. I think this is a huge accomplishment for AMC that even my mother, who hates zombie films, watches it. It has given zombie culture new life (sorry, I had to). Of course anything that enters a ‘mainstream’ market will suffer from mass generalization but AMC has set the bar for quality in the zombie market, me personally, I love that people are taking it seriously now.

I would imagine that the makeup and effects for your production are a complex undertaking on a nightly basis. What can you tell me about them?

I have a wicked team on board. A majority of the people that I brought on to this project are either starting out or really early in their careers. That means that they are eager to make a name for themselves and their ideas are all fresh and exciting. It also gives that raw gritty production feel that I wanted in order to pay homage to the original film. My makeup team is all up and coming artists, they are hardworking and always taking in my crazy ideas and letting me know that unfortunately I can’t have a raining blood scene with 50 gallons of blood, or that we can’t decapitate a human’s head every night in front of people’s eyes because of financial restraints – damn! BUT, they are immensely clever and have adapted to live theatre’s restrictions to give everyone a gore filled performance EVERY night….Also it’s mostly girls! You rarely see a special effects team that is mostly woman, I’m really stoked on that!

What can you tell us about your cast?

Amazing, simply amazing. This is my first time directing a full play and they have all been patient and supportive. We have taken the script and worked the hell out of it so that the lines are our own. Everyone has put their ideas into the rehearsal process and there are some unique and truly beautiful performances. There are many moments that I feel even the most brutal horror hound will stop drooling and feel for at least one of these survivors. I wouldn’t have this play without them, every single one of them are incredible.

Where do you see the entire zombie phenomena heading? Is there anything new that can be done?

Romero did it all, essentially, he was the first person to invest his career into this genre and be successful at it. Dawn of the Dead was huge! That was almost 40 years ago and then The Walking Dead came out and grabbed our attention again. I once asked one of my Shakespeare teachers in college this question. “What’s the point of doing Hamlet over and over if it’s been done so many ways?” and she replied to me “There has been thousands of ‘Hamlet’s’ performed but never has the world yet seen Roger’s ‘Hamlet’.” I think that applies here. There will always be new visions and new ideas influenced by personal experience. Me personally…I’d love to see an adaptation of the ’68 Vietnam war zombie comic books by Nat Jones. I fucking love that series.

I’m going to give you an opportunity here. What is your pitch to fans to get them into your seats?

It’s fun, it’s gory and it’s brutal as hell. I could only make a play that I, personally, would like and that I would pay to see. We all put a lot in this, it’s not just a shitty, read through of the original 1968 screenplay with lame, slow moving raccoon eyed zombies and melodramatic ham-acting. We all pushed for truth, and didn’t once hesitate to skimp on the gore. COME OUT AND GET SCARED!

“The Night of the Living Dead” will be performed May 10th – 18th, 2013 at the Pumphouse Theatre: 2140 Pumphouse Avenue S.W. Calgary, Alberta Canada

Tickets may be purchased here: http://www.workshoptheatre.org/

Here is a clip of Roger in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjDu3sa-P54.