By: Noeka Nimmervoll, Staff Writer
From November 27 to 30, Just B Productions will present the Tony-award winning play Red, by John Logan, at The Cultch Theatre. The play tackles themes of legacy and the inherent conflicts of meaningful commercial art, in a conversation between the acclaimed abstract artist Mark Rothko and his assistant, Ken. Directed by Stephen Heatley, the play will be the debut production of Just B Productions, a theatre and film production company founded by actor and producer Blake Buksa. The Peak spoke to Buksa and Gabrielle Nebrida-Pepin, stage manager and producer of Red, to learn more.
“It’s based off of the real life artist, the expressionist painter Mark Rothko. He is painting a series of murals for the Seagram Building, which is the fourth of Four Seasons restaurants that was opening back up in [1958], in New York City. And so then the fictional point is that he brings on this assistant by the name of Ken,” explained Buksa. Rothko, played by James MacDonald, is a renowned painter of the 1930s–1970s and is credited as a key figure in the art movement Abstract Expressionism, as a spearheader of the style called colour field painting. Ken, played by Buksa, listens and challenges Rothko as he grapples with his ideas about the role of art: to please the viewer, or to stir intense human emotion.
“One word that always resonates with me with this show is legacy,”
— Blake Buksa, executive producer of Just B Productions and actor
“It is really this passing down to new artists.” The transfer of legacy is not so simple, however, and creates tension between the master and his pupil.
Both Buksa and Nebrida-Pepin are graduates of the UBC acting program. In January, the play’s initial steps began with “pitching the show to Stephen Heatley, who is our director, and also [was] our teacher back at UBC,” shared Nebrida-Pepin. MacDonald, the lead actor, was also Heatley’s student in the late ‘90s. The beginning and end of the professor’s career marked significant times in his students’ lives. “It’s very intergenerational,” shared Nebrida-Pepin.
Just B Productions started out as a shared ambition between Buksa and Nebrida-Pepin during their studies that developed later into Buksa’s production company. “I always just kept seeing [the message that] if you want to be that working actor and stuff, you have to create your own work.” He spent some time post-university as an actor waiting for opportunities to come, and decided, “it’s time to start pulling up my socks and get things going.” His goals for the company include paying his people well, casting talented friends in their dream roles, and creating a platform for underrepresented talents in the industry, actors that are constantly auditioning without landing roles — a reality for many in this line of work.
This mission is already having impacts. Nebrida-Pepin shared, “As a new time producer, what’s made this really exciting for me is the prospect to [ . . .] to step into a role that I know I probably would have otherwise had to have worked for nothing and then make my way up into becoming an associate producer for a theatre company.” Now, with this production and stage management experience, Nebrida-Pepin is able to bring her skills to other companies in the arts.
Follow @JustBPro on Instagram to stay up to date on show details and upcoming fundraising events.