Rainbow Stage's production of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" featuring the songs of Neil Sedaka

Meet One of the Stars of MTYP’s Holiday Show

Katie German is wearing many hats this season!

Since joining MTYP in 2002, Ms German has worked at eleven different jobs for the company, including Box Office Manager, Theatre School Administrator and Teacher, Teen Events Coordinator, Production Assistant, as well as Artistic Associate, her current position.

Katie is a Winnipeg based Métis director, performer, and educator. She made her professional debut in Seussical the Musical in December 2006 and since then, some of her other credits have included performing in Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (Rainbow Stage), Pippin (Winnipeg Studio Theatre), Women of the Fur Trade (Vault Productions & RMTC Carol Shields Festival of New Work), South Pacific (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra) and Sweeney Todd (Dry Cold Productions).

 

This is a very busy season for you. You are playing Toad in A Year With Frog and Toad as well as Assistant Directing Tiny Treasures. Do you have any specific strategies to juggle everything?

I am a lists person! I make a ton of to-do lists with really small achievable goals and try to achieve something every day. Try to memorize a song, try to track through the ideas of one scene, that kind of thing. I also have a wonderful family that supports me in prepping. My husband lets me record him and I reading the Frog and Toad lines so I can listen to them as I do other things and my 4-year-old LOVES listening to the soundtrack. At this point, I am starting to get nervous that my kid might be gunning for my role, as he has all of Toad’s lines memorized in one of the first songs in A Year with Frog and Toad and gives me notes if I do it wrong. My best place to memorize is in my car when I am driving. I put the music and the scenes on repeat and I listen to them over and over.

You were the Assistant Director for A Charlie Brown Double Bill, among other shows. What did you learn from that experience that you can use for Tiny Treasures?

This is my third time Assistant Directing at MTYP and every time I work under a Director I learn something new. I am fascinated by storytelling and the different ways in which it can happen. I was drawn to Tiny Treasures because there is one section that uses a movement sequence to help convey a piece of the story and I am not familiar with working in that style so I can’t wait to be a part of building that!! One of the things that I loved in A Charlie Brown Double Bill was the way in which it interacted with the audience. I am excited to see how a very different show can still connect and interact with the audience that is watching in a different way.

What do you hope that audiences will leave with from watching Tiny Treasures?

The first time I read Tiny Treasures, I fell in love with James and was cheering him on all the way to the end. I hope that the audience will also cheer him on and come along his journey of what a day in his life entails. Music is such an integral part of my life and I am really looking forward to hearing the sound design and seeing how that changes or contributes to the story. I am excited to hear what award-winning bassist MJ Dandenau makes the show sound like.

What do you think will make playing a Toad fun? I hear Toad is a bit of a worry wart and an over planner? Are you either of those things?

Toad’s love of cookies, love of surprises in the mail and contempt for alarm clocks going off are all things that I 100% agree with. So I am looking forward to eating cookies, opening mail and smashing clocks!!! I do LOVE tobogganing though, so trying to stifle my excitement of sledding may be a challenge. I am also really looking forward to working with my other castmates. I have been on stage in past shows with everyone except for Matt Armet who is playing Frog and I can’t wait to develop that friendship on and off the stage.

Have you found yourself being more observant about nature as you prepare for this role?

I have been trying to figure out the differences between frogs and toads. At my cabin, my son and I would constantly be searching and trying to identify which was which. Did you know one of the main differences is that frogs tend to have smoother skin and longer legs and toad’s skin tends to be more rough and their legs are much shorter. I can relate to the short legs thing having been 5’1 all my adult life. Growing up in Charleswood, my sister and I used to walk down the road and go frog catching. Getting to play Toad really brings me back to when we were younger and chasing them around.