Since The Omega relaunched during the Fall semester of 2023, we’ve had the privilege of presenting to readers our Professor Spotlight series. In this series, we interview some of the student body’s favourite professors and sessionals, offering readers a chance to get to know our learned instructors on a deeper, personal level. Late last year, The Omega had the opportunity to speak with Professor Catriona Leger from the Literatures, Languages, and Performing Arts department in the Faculty of Arts.
Born in Montreal, QCC, raised in Ajax, ON, and graduated from high school in Pitt Meadows, BC, TRU professor Leger has fought to stay true to her passion for theatre. Leger’s pursuit of the stage began in grade two and has since taken her all across the Country. Now, Leger has made dreams into reality as an actor, director, movement coach, artistic leader, and teacher whose resume is to die for. Revealing her backstage tricks, The Omega interviewed Leger to find out how she shines in the supreme act: life.
DR: How would you describe the type of person you were when you went to UBC?
CL: I was really shy to speak up for myself or to express my own opinion. I was always worried about being wrong. To go to study theatre [and] acting, it was an avenue for me to express myself in a way that was really safe because it was through someone else’s words; interpreting a text; interpreting a play; and interpreting a character.
DR: Is there one piece of advice from that time you now give to your own students?
CL: Yes. When I was studying in Paris … Philippe Gaulier would say, in regard to the audience, ‘We want to love you. Just let us love you,’ which is an extremely freeing piece of advice.
DR: What drove you towards that school in 2006?
CL: Those are my lost years, like Shakespeare’s lost years. I worked as an actor; travelled across the country. [I] lived in a 150-year-old log home in the Gatineau Hills, worked in retail [and] marketing promotions at the convention center; went back to school and studied horticulture and landscape design. I did what you do as a young actor trying to make it. And then, I started working for Lululemon … and I worked my way up to head office. Shortly after that promotion, I took a look at my life, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to be doing this. It’s too early to give up on theatre,’ and so, I quit my job and started telling people I was going to study with Philippe Gaulier in Paris.
DR: Two years later not only were you working in theatre, but it was also when you started instructing in different schools as you were getting your master’s degree in fine arts at UBC. How did you balance your studies, job, and acting career without feeling burnt out?
CL: There’s always this fear, I think, as a gig worker when you’re working as an actor or director, that the work’s going to dry up. But it also came to a point where I was like, ‘I’m not going to say yes to every single thing that comes my way’… I think the pinnacle of that was to be given the role of artistic director at the Company of Fools. To be given that opportunity in 2015 was amazing, but … it was in really poor financial shape. So, there was a sense of responsibility, of course, to not only keep it afloat, but to improve things.
DR: Is there a production you hold close to your heart as your career advances in each directing and acting?
CL: For my thesis production for my master’s degree, I did a production of Romeo & Juliet (2010) at UBC. It was a really special production … I spent so much time planning and working on it. [As for acting,] when I look back, I think about two productions that I did with a Company of Fools. As You Like It (2014) where I played three characters. And Someone for Everyone (2011); in that show, I think I played 14 different characters. I remember just running around backstage going, ‘Oh, which [character] is it now?’
DR: In 2013, you participated in devised theatre and helped create a production from scratch. When Ladies of the Lake (2013) was performed, how did you feel?
CL: I mean … when you’re devising, you don’t have a clear map. Because [Kate Smith] and I created it together with John Doucet, we didn’t have a clear leader. So, it was a bittersweet experience because it did get put into the Undercurrents Festival at GCTC … but it was a testament to being—how working with your friends can be a blessing and a curse because it caused a lot of friction in our relationship for a while.
DR: When you got to TRU in 2019, you had already excelled not only in acting but also directing, hosting, and teaching in the industry. Which of these do you favour?
CL: Oh my gosh… I love teaching because I love to help people develop and find their strength, confidence, and abilities … And then there’s a product at the end that we get to share with the public that people get to come and see. And it’s short. So, there’s always like, there’s always a new project
DR: You’ve also made appearances on T.V. shows and movies such as Single and Ready to Mingle, and recently My Secret Santa. Now that you are an assistant teaching professor, do you plan to keep acting as you did before?
CL: Well, in theatre, when I can. It’s a little bit easier to do movies now because of my teaching schedule. But yes, I do plan to continue doing it.
DR: Lastly, what is one message you want to give to young actors around the world?
CL: Besides, ‘We want to love you, let us,’ here’s something I say in my classes a lot, ‘You are only limited by your imagination, and sometimes… gravity.’