What's a hick like him doing in theatre?

by Vit Wagner
Toronto Star
2 February 1988

Geordie Johnson--son of a sawmill owner from the small foothills town of Cowley, Alta.--still recalls how incredulous some folks were to learn that he was studying theatre at the University of Calgary.

"What could possibly be in that young man's mind?" one neighbor was heard to wonder aloud. "Imagine, the son of a lumberman going into acting."

Fifteen years and several theatrical successes later, the 34-year-old actor has no trouble understanding what the fuss was all about. After all, drama classes were an unlikely training ground for a rurally raised graduate of a high school where theatre was no more a part of the curriculum than nuclear physics.

As a youngster, Johnson was stricken with asthma and tuberculosis. Though he says he's not sure what drew him to theatre, he sees a relationship between his interest in acting and the amount of time he spent cooped up in hospitals and sanitariums.

"When you're in a passive situation like that, you watch the interpersonal relationships around you," Johnson explains during rehearsals for Thursday's North American premiere of Frank McGuinness' Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme at CentreStage.

"You can see points of view of people more clearly than if you're involved yourself. And I think that led me to an understanding that people are different and made me want to understand why they are the way they are.

It seemed like people in the theatre had something to say by showing people. I felt that if you could actually talk to people in that way and show them different points of view you could communicate with them in some way."

After moving to Toronto in 1975, Johnson spent several unfocused years playing bit parts at the Stratford Festival and elsewhere. One day about five years ago he woke up to the realization that "I was going to have to work hard if I wanted to get good work."

The results, particularly over the past three years, have been impressive. In 1986, Johnson won critical acclaim for his work in the Tarragon Theatre production of John Murrell's Farther West, although his enthusiasm resulted in a dislocated shoulder and an early departure from the show.

In the past year, he has impressed critics and audiences with performances in two Tarragon shows--as the title character in Richard Monette's revival of Hosanna and as the twisted Toilane in Judith Thompson's I Am Yours.

In the award-winning Observe The Sons of Ulster, Johnson plays the blacksmith Craig, one of eight soldiers from different backgrounds facing death in the trenches of France during World War I.

"He has an innate sense of himself and what he is as an Ulsterman," says Johnson. "He's straightforward. He's strong."

Not unlike some of the folks back home.

"In the rural community I grew up in, there were quite a few people who had a quiet sort of strength that they carried with them wherever they were. You always knew who that person was."

Directed by Michael Shamata and also featuring Paul Gross, Benedict Campbell and Joseph Ziegler, Observe the Sons of Ulster runs to March 12 in the St. Lawrence Centre's Bluma Appel Theatre, 27 Front St. E. Tickets ($11.50-$33.50) are available at 366-7723.

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