GRANT’S DESI ACHIEVER
PASSION TAKES CENTRE STAGE
“I made sure I was undeniable” - Anusree Roy, playwright, actor, director. Image credit: DAHLIA KATZ.
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
Anusree Roy is having not a moment, but the time of her life. The two-time Governor General’s Award-nominated and four-time Dora Award-winning writer, actor, and director is the co-executive producer and writer for the third season of Allegiance CBC) television series.
She has also worked on several other successful television shows.
For theatre, her plays include Through the Eyes of God, Sisters, Trident Moon, Little Pretty and The Exceptional, Sultans of the Street, Brothel # 9, Roshni, Letters to my Grandma, and Pyaasa.
Her work has toured internationally.
“I’ve just finished a reading of Trident Moon in LA. The play is being represented by CAA, America’s biggest agency, I’m excited,” says Roy.
“It feels like I’m living a very aligned life. Where I am is where I knew my path would take me. I’ve prayed for this path, to my God, to my art. I’m here intentionally. I’ve stayed loyal and true to my craft. I feel grateful and happy to have been able to stay honest.”
It wasn’t easy. She got so many rejection letters, her mother opened a folder.
“It’s a big, fat, red folder!” says Roy with a chuckle. “But I kept at it. Because I took myself very seriously, everyone took me seriously. I never showed up unprepared. Never missed a deadline. I made sure I was undeniable. I firmly believed that if I showed up ten out of ten, there was no way someone would reject me. I borrowed money from my father. I volunteered at theatres, or bartered the proceeds from a show for the opportunity to stage a play. Anything I could do, I did.”
Roy defines success for herself, not by others’ parameters. A play she felt was her best work would sometimes not get nominated for an award while another “pretty good one” – also hers – would.
“So what does success mean? If I can answer that I did my very best, I feel I’ve succeeded.”
Speaking of which... She is the recipient of the K.M. Hunter Award, the RBC Emerging Artist Award, the Carol Bolt Award and the Siminovitch Protégé Prize and was the 2018 finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize – the largest and oldest playwriting prize for women writing for English-speaking theatre.
“It’s amazing to have a prize named after Susan Smith. I was so honoured to be a finalist for Trident Moon. While I’ve had the privilege of being nominated and/or winning in both general and women’s categories, historically, women have been so marginalized, a category that celebrates women purposefully is important. Erasure happens, so special categories play an important role.”
As a playwright, Roy has brought moving family dramas, social issues and mental illness to the stage. She’s passionate about immigrant issues, women’s issues, and writes through a South Asian woman’s lens. And yet, while many such productions are relegated to or circumscribed by “community theatre”, hers connect with a wide audience.
“I’m not doing anything to be commercially viable,” says Roy. “My main intention has always been to be in service to the character, not myself. I will ask my characters how they want to be seen. As an artist, you are in service of the art. The story should be in service of the character with the most amount of honesty and integrity. The audience resonates because the themes are universal – we’re all navigating complexities.
“But I will say, I am able to do this in theatre, with no cuts, no editing! In television, with millions and millions of dollars in play, you need to take your cue from so many external factors.”
Roy agrees her television show Allegiance feels real and grounded.
“However, what I found in television was that you can write something but the location can fall through or the weather can go crazy on the day of the shoot. You’ve to work within the budget and actors’ availability. It’s the nature of the business. In a play, I can do what I want to. If I want to have bicycles falling out of the sky, I know my designer can interpret that. In television, you have to be able to afford CGI!”
Roy’s plays have been taught at the University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University, Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Calgary, the University of Guelph, the University of Regina, McGill University and the National Theatre School.
She is also an adjunct professor of playwriting at the University of Toronto and a professor of creative writing, teaching advanced drama to MFA students, at the University of British Columbia.
“What can I say? I’m good at time management. And I don’t get a lot of sleep!” she laughs. “I’ve benefited from great teachers and it’s a way of giving back. I’m not teaching right now because of my schedule, but the new talent coming out is phenomenal. Watching some of my students go on to launch their careers is such a wonderful feeling.”
Roy says that today, she’d find it impossible to choose between theatre and movies or books.
“Because finally, twenty years later, over the past two-and-a-half years or so, I’m actually able to do both at the same time. I used to move from one to the other and it was hard. Now that I have access that makes me feel secure, internally, I can’t give up one for the other.”
Some might argue that movies or books can be accessed any time and are therefore more lasting than a play that runs for a limited time, but Roy says that because writing plays makes her so happy, she can’t bear to think of it as lesser.
“Always be in service of your art. Keep it so locked in that no amount of failure deters you.” Anusree Roy with director Thomas Morgan Jones for her play Through The Eyes of God.
“It’s my calling. I have a stubborn, illogical perception of what I do! When I expanded to television, I took a pause on writing plays. I had the pleasure of community recognition, I had toured, put in unrelenting hours. I remember thinking I can keep doing this or I can learn something new. I’m an artiste first, that’s my true and pure identity, the genre comes next. But I quickly realized that television is a new beast. People can hold seven different story lines in their heads at the same time – I couldn’t do that! They’re writing to a budget – I couldn’t do that either. I felt I was never going to belong. But every time I sat to pray, I’d hear a voice telling me to keep going, that it would work out. And it did. Now I have the privilege of being able to do both.”
Roy was encouraged to follow her dreams by her parents.
The family to moved to Canada from Kolkata, India, when she was a teenager. They settled in Toronto.
“Where do I start?” she says, talking about the early years. “We had a really tough time. It was difficult for immigrants in the early 2000s. The supports we have now for newcomers weren’t there. Even calling home was expensive, there was no Whats App! But we’re a resilient family, we made it.”
And through it all, her parents were supportive of her non-traditional career choice.
“We never once had the ‘this is fine as a hobby, but get a degree, have a Plan B’ conversation,” she says. “It was always, ‘This is your Plan A, there is no Plan B. What can we do to help? What auditions can we take you to?’ It was never about could I be an artiste? Of course you’re an artiste! How do you go about building a career from here? How do you make it last?
“I also had the huge advantage of having my uncle in Kolkata, Amit Roy, who is an actor and a voice artiste.
“He used to say, ‘Inspiration doesn’t last, discipline does’.
“He drilled into me that you can do it as long as you put in the work. When the draft doesn’t work, when you are feeling tired, what happens then? There’ll be highs and lows, ups and downs, but building a career takes discipline, discipline, discipline.
“Everyone watered that tree. The expectations were high and my brain is so wired to what I can do to make it work.”
She is married to Ryan Tiwari, a law student, and they moved to LA a couple of years ago. She describes him as the most supportive, and “just such a champion” of hers.
How does she juggle all her responsibilities? Her answer to the question women continue to be asked is frank.
“By constantly doing a good job and a bad job. People ask how I maintain my frenetic schedule and all the travel without burnout and I say, what are you talking about? Of course, there’s burnout! I’m constantly disappointing people, I don’t manage to call friends or family on important occasions, I miss weddings. But we have a very equitable marriage, I’m not burdened by day-to-day household chores. When I’m touring and we may not see each other for three months, we figure out ways to meet, to fly over for a weekend if need be. I think of it as harmony, and I’m blessed to have that in my life.”
Roy tells those who seek her guidance on how to succeed to always be in service of their art.
“To keep it so locked in that no amount of failure deters you. Stopping is not an option. You might fail at times, or face rejection. You continue regardless.”
Currently, Roy is the commissioned playwright at Tarragon Theatre, writing her new play, 147, 8th Street, and is developing a feature film inspired by her audio play Sisters, as well as directing and premiering her short films, The Birthday Party and God’s Plan.
And Trident Moon is being published, it comes out this spring.
• Grant’s is proud to present this series about people who are making a difference in the community. Represented by PMA Canada (www.pmacanada.com).
