Westmount Profile: Gabrielle Soskin
Living a theatre dream
By Laureen Sweeney, WESTMOUNT INDEPENDENT – March 26, 2008
Gabrielle Soskin’s upcoming solo performances of Juliet, Cleopatra and other Shakespearean women could be said to embody all aspects of her 45-year theatrical career as an actor, artistic director and educator.
It’s a career during which she has ignited a passion for the stage in numerous students through after-school drama classes at Roslyn, two decades of teaching at John Abbott College and the founding of Persephone Productions, a theatre company she created to provide work opportunities for emerging anglophone theatre artists.
“We should be proud of our English theatre and culture, celebrate it and value what we have to offer,” she says. And it’s to that end, as a fundraiser for Persephone, that Soskin is embarking on her one-woman performances called The Loves of Shakespeare’s Women.
“What better way to raise money for Persephone than to get out there and perform myself?” she says.
Trained at Old Vic
Trained at England’s Old Vic Theatre School and steeped in British drama, Soskin will perform three times: April 3 at 8 pm at Centre Greene; on April 9 at Griffin House – the McAuslan cabaret centre on St. Ambroise St. in St. Henri – and a third time April 16 in Quebec City at Champlain-St. Lawrence College. And whether Soskin transforms herself into one of Shakespeare’s women or simply lives as the “Gabby” many of her old friends call her, a similar headstrong and somewhat rebellious personality shines through.
Moving from acting into teaching, Soskin’s entrepreneurial and risk-taking spirit led her to Canada for a fresh start. She soon settled in Westmount. “I began to grow in better soil,” she says, “and I began a most marvellous teaching career.”
Raised family in Westmount
It is also here that she met her husband, Ray Busbridge, and where they have raised their children:Matthew, who will be attending business school atWestern, and Annabel, who is studying psychology and international relations at UBC.
Interestingly, Soskin says, neither child dreamed of acting as she did even from her earliest days on a farm in Toddington, Bedfordshire during World War II. “My passion was always withmusic, dance and art.”
In retrospect, “I was too young and highly strung at the time to benefit as much from my training at Bristol Old Vic as I would now. I very soon discovered that although gifted in acting, I did not possess that kind of inner drive or calling that actors, musicians and the Tiger Woods of the world need to overcome failed auditions and succeed. So I decided to take teachers’ training and began teaching drama in London.”
Roslyn drama ‘serendipity’
Some of her happiest days were teaching creative drama for Roslyn’s Home & School Association during the 1970s. “It was almost a serendipity experience. Children love acting because it’s all about make-believe.”
But it was while teaching in John Abbott’s professional theatre program from 1975 to 2003 that Soskin began evolving into directing. “Discovering my new abilities was a turning point.” An experimental production of an adaptation of Anna Karenina led to the realization of her dream: to found and operate her own a theatre company.
She obtained a not-for-profit registration and so began Persephone Productions. Despite receiving fiveMontreal English Critics Circle Awards (MECCAs), Soskin has been discovering the challenges that small independent theatre companies face in obtaining funding grants that typically go to the larger established theatres. “The local community has been generous to Persephone. But to grow and produce more than one production a year, we need to be on a more stable financial footing rather than depending so heavily on ticket revenue.” (This year’s production in November of Othello will take place at the McCord Museum.)
Taking up piano and yoga
Soskin is also in the throes of preparing for her Secondary V piano exam from the McGill Conservatory of Music. “In another life, I would like to be an amateur pianist,” she says. Growing up playing violin, she only began piano lessons 15 years ago wondering if she could “sustain the rigorous discipline.” Taking up yoga has helped.
Gabrielle Soskin rehearses at home on Somerville Ave. for her upcoming Persephone fundraisers. She’ll wear a red dress (see p. 1) specially designed by Jean-Yves Lacasse whose Westmount boutique is on Sherbrooke St.
Meanwhile, her many students and friends will be able to attend her upcoming performances by reserving tickets at 514.481.1327. “They’re a collection of Shakespearean monologues interspersed with anecdotes of my life,” she says. And of those, she certainly has many.
Gabrielle Soskin’s upcoming solo performances of Juliet, Cleopatra and other Shakespearean women could be said to embody all aspects of her 45-year theatrical career as an actor, artistic director and educator.
It’s a career during which she has ignited a passion for the stage in numerous students through after-school drama classes at Roslyn, two decades of teaching at John Abbott College and the founding of Persephone Productions, a theatre company she created to provide work opportunities for emerging anglophone theatre artists.
“We should be proud of our English theatre and culture, celebrate it and value what we have to offer,” she says. And it’s to that end, as a fundraiser for Persephone, that Soskin is embarking on her one-woman performances called The Loves of Shakespeare’s Women.
“What better way to raise money for Persephone than to get out there and perform myself?” she says.
Trained at Old Vic
Trained at England’s Old Vic Theatre School and steeped in British drama, Soskin will perform three times: April 3 at 8 pm at Centre Greene; on April 9 at Griffin House – the McAuslan cabaret centre on St. Ambroise St. in St. Henri – and a third time April 16 in Quebec City at Champlain-St. Lawrence College. And whether Soskin transforms herself into one of Shakespeare’s women or simply lives as the “Gabby” many of her old friends call her, a similar headstrong and somewhat rebellious personality shines through.
Moving from acting into teaching, Soskin’s entrepreneurial and risk-taking spirit led her to Canada for a fresh start. She soon settled in Westmount. “I began to grow in better soil,” she says, “and I began a most marvellous teaching career.”
Raised family in Westmount
It is also here that she met her husband, Ray Busbridge, and where they have raised their children:Matthew, who will be attending business school atWestern, and Annabel, who is studying psychology and international relations at UBC.
Interestingly, Soskin says, neither child dreamed of acting as she did even from her earliest days on a farm in Toddington, Bedfordshire during World War II. “My passion was always withmusic, dance and art.”
In retrospect, “I was too young and highly strung at the time to benefit as much from my training at Bristol Old Vic as I would now. I very soon discovered that although gifted in acting, I did not possess that kind of inner drive or calling that actors, musicians and the Tiger Woods of the world need to overcome failed auditions and succeed. So I decided to take teachers’ training and began teaching drama in London.”
Roslyn drama ‘serendipity’
Some of her happiest days were teaching creative drama for Roslyn’s Home & School Association during the 1970s. “It was almost a serendipity experience. Children love acting because it’s all about make-believe.”
But it was while teaching in John Abbott’s professional theatre program from 1975 to 2003 that Soskin began evolving into directing. “Discovering my new abilities was a turning point.” An experimental production of an adaptation of Anna Karenina led to the realization of her dream: to found and operate her own a theatre company.
She obtained a not-for-profit registration and so began Persephone Productions. Despite receiving fiveMontreal English Critics Circle Awards (MECCAs), Soskin has been discovering the challenges that small independent theatre companies face in obtaining funding grants that typically go to the larger established theatres. “The local community has been generous to Persephone. But to grow and produce more than one production a year, we need to be on a more stable financial footing rather than depending so heavily on ticket revenue.” (This year’s production in November of Othello will take place at the McCord Museum.)
Taking up piano and yoga
Soskin is also in the throes of preparing for her Secondary V piano exam from the McGill Conservatory of Music. “In another life, I would like to be an amateur pianist,” she says. Growing up playing violin, she only began piano lessons 15 years ago wondering if she could “sustain the rigorous discipline.” Taking up yoga has helped.
Gabrielle Soskin rehearses at home on Somerville Ave. for her upcoming Persephone fundraisers. She’ll wear a red dress (see p. 1) specially designed by Jean-Yves Lacasse whose Westmount boutique is on Sherbrooke St.
Meanwhile, her many students and friends will be able to attend her upcoming performances by reserving tickets at 514.481.1327. “They’re a collection of Shakespearean monologues interspersed with anecdotes of my life,” she says. And of those, she certainly has many.
