BB Spotlight | Byron Martin

BB Spotlights feature Edmonton individuals that intrigue, inspire, and interest us and will be published throughout the year. Photography by BB Collective. Written by Fiona Dempsey.

After graduating from Grant MacEwan, Byron Martin has solidified his position as one of the most sought after performers within the theatre community. As the Artistic Director of Grindstone Theatre, Byron is one of the very few artists in Edmonton who manage to make a living off the arts, a task that is not easy to maintain. From teaching theatre classes to performing magic in his spare time, Byron is a man of many talents. And we're not the only ones who think so. He's just been announced as a nominee for The Sterling Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Theatre Yes' Bone Cage.  We were lucky enough to catch up with him and find out everything from the greatest lessons he’s learned over the years, to how the highly successful improvised musical, The 11 O’clock Number, started. 

What school did you attend? 

Grant MacEwan Theatre Arts and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

What would be the biggest lesson you learned during your time at MacEwan?

I think Ken Brown was a big influence in encouraging us to create our own opportunities, to not wait around for work and just create it for yourself. So I think that is probably the biggest thing but there's also a tonne of lessons I learned from each of my instructors like how to approach text, vocal technique, movement work and so on that I use on a day to day basis. 

Was there a particular experience that stands out to you?

There's a lot of fond memories I have of MacEwan. I definitely remember the very first day of the program sitting in the black box theatre and getting assigned our ten minute plays and meeting all the instructors and classmates and I just remember how excited I was about being there. 

You’re now the Artistic Director of Grindstone Theatre, how did this come about?

It mainly started because of The 11 O’clock Number. Jeff Haslem and Stewart Lemoine were looking for new late night programming at the Varscona after Rapid Fire Theatre moved out and I was involved with Oh Susanna at the time so they asked me for some ideas. I offered them a few, one being an improvised musical, and they said "you should produce it". So I just got friends together and basically tricked them into doing the show. I got together with Erik Mortimer who was touring with me for Alberta Opera at the time and we founded the show together. We started rehearsing in October, 2011 where we had an open door policy that anyone could come play with us and then we started the show in January, 2012. We eventually closed the doors and started auditioning and now we're coming to the end of our fourth season. So Grindstone just came out of a need for an umbrella company for a show we were doing and then it allowed us to grow into a non-profit society and expand in other ways to produce other programming.

Why an Improvised Musical?

When I was living in Glasgow, I saw an improvised musical at the Edinburgh Fringe which some friends of mine were doing and I thought it was a great format. When I came home it seemed like no one was really doing it here. Since I had my Masters in Musical Theatre and I had a background in improv from working at Rapid Fire and teaching improv it seemed like a logical choice.

Grindstone is pretty successful, what would you say sets it apart from other theatre companies?

I think we started being set apart by taking over a very niche market doing improvised musicals. We're set apart because we are still very young when compared to any other established company in town and we aren't just doing improv. We're putting on plays, musicals, sketch comedy shows, we're teaching classes, doing corporate events, play readings and so on. We also have a particular mandate to create opportunities for emerging artists which I think sets us apart as well. 

You’re lucky enough to work on a lot of non-Grindstone shows, is there anything you’re working on right now?

I’ve been really fortunate, I’ve pretty much worked full time, well relatively full time, since graduating in 2010 from the Royal Conservatoire. I just returned from Orlando and am back teaching Grindstone classes and workshops.  I'll also be teaching Musical Theatre at the Citadel in June. This week i'm filming a pilot episode of Plight; The Comic Book Rock Opera. Then I'm just getting ready for Edmonton Fringe where Grindstone is producing 4 shows: The 11 O'clock Number, Blackout Sketch Comedy, The Adventures of Chucky and Reggie and Drinking in America. 

What do you love most about Edmonton? Specifically the theatre scene.

I just like the people in the theatre community, there's so many talented, lovely people who I have had the pleasure of working with and so many that I look forward to working with. There's a lot of stuff going on in town. It's impossible to see everything, and there's a lot of good work happening.

Is there someone you look up to? Performance wise?

I think there are a lot of people I look up to, there’s sort of a whole generation of actors, like Ryan Parker, Sheldon Elter, Jessie Gervais, Amber Borotsik, Melissa Thingelstad, who I admire . It sort of changes all the time because I constantly meet new people who inspire me.

You also do magic, was this a talent that came before or after theatre? And how did this come about?

It’s more recent. On my first trip to New York, I stumbled upon a magic shop and I bought a book of basic card technique and after I read that really quickly I ordered another ten books, and then started doing tricks. I was touring with Alberta Opera and I had a lot of down time in my hotel room everyday so I would just start playing with cards and performing for the kids each day.

You were previously featured as a top five upcoming talents to watch, where you said you didn’t do much singing before you attended Grant MacEwan?

Yeah, well I started singing in church and then I started doing musicals in high school and got introduced that way.

How was it going from that kind of background to being completely thrown into theatre at Grant MacEwan?

Well I don’t know, I sort of grew up performing so it wasn't a crazy transition. I was really big into hip hop when I started MacEwan so I remember putting yoga pants and a dance belt on for the first time and having a bit of an identity crisis. I just really liked it though; having to take ballet and tap classes and having private vocal lessons, it was great.

What was it like being featured as an upcoming artist to watch?

I don’t know, it was nice, I feel like you have to work very hard just to get to a point where people are acknowledging you as "upcoming". It really was just a little bit of a nod which was nice and encouraging but you can't let those things be your goal. There's a lot of amazing artists who never get featured so I just felt lucky.

If you could pass on just one piece of advice, what would it be? 

Don’t wait around for people to make it happen for you, just go and create the opportunities. You can complain about what's missing or you can see it as an opportunity to be that thing or provide that thing for other people. 

Is there something you hope to see for yourself in the future?

This year has been a huge step because I’ve been able to start paying myself through my own company, which was three years of volunteering all my hours. To sustain that is a huge challenge, it’s sort of like a dream to not have a regular job and to be living off of the arts. My goals for Grindstone right now are to expand our classes and solidify our funding; getting our casino funding and operational funding. I mean those are the big goals, because we’re already doing a lot in terms of programming. On a personal level, I hope I can learn how to take breaks and make sure I give myself enough time to rest in between all the projects. 

If you’re interested in any Stand-Up Comedy, Improv or Musical Theatre classes and to see what Byron’s up to, head to www.grindstonetheatre.ca.