The Argyle Street Kitchen Party returns to Neptune Theatre’s Scotiabank Studio Theatre and runs until August 25th, 2019. The show was conceived by Ian Sherwood and Jeremy Webb last year as a way to bring the iconic East Coast “Kitchen Party” to the stage. Sherwood is joined by cast mates Celia Koughan, Karen Lizotte, and Malia Rogers and nearly every night the quartet will be joined by a special guest artist, who will add their own special musical flair to the evening. I sat down with Sherwood, Koughan, Lizotte and Rogers earlier today at the Neptune Studio Theatre lobby.
In speaking about the genesis of the show Sherwood says, “It started with myself and Jeremy Webb coming up with the idea of having a kitchen party on a stage. What that would look like was fairly nebulous in the beginning, and then we held auditions for it… we were basically looking for the best people we could find to put a party on… so people who played the right kind of instruments, people who had the right kind of attitude, people who looked like they would be fun people to hang out with at a party- but also great musicians who sing really well. Once we had those people [the show] really started to take shape. It was like, ‘Okay, this is who the people at the party are… but what are the arrangements going to look like? Who is going to sing what?’ So, over the next few months I started chipping away at that, and putting that together, and then we brought it into the rehearsal studio, which is when the four of us met on the first day, and had some fairly frank conversations about where this was going to go. Over the next three weeks it shifted a lot from what it was maybe going to look like to what it eventually did look like. It is basically a party on stage with lots of music and us kind of goofing around— but professionally- and with special guests!”
Sherwood created the show’s set list before rehearsals began, but one song, the show’s encore, made it into the Kitchen Party at the request of Koughan, Lizotte, and Rogers. Incredibly, Sherwood was initially unfamiliar with The Rankin Family’s “Mull River Shuffle,” but the others were certain it would be a perfect song for him. “These guys were playing ‘Mull River Shuffle’ in rehearsal like, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?!’, explains Sherwood, “and I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds good. What’s that?’ And they were like, ‘Oh, just a little thing… you should listen to the lyrics.’ All of a sudden I was like, “Oh yeah, that’s amazing; that should be our encore.” As far as the rest of the music he stresses they needed to learn it before they started rehearsals, “There was a lot to learn. Our feet were to the fire from Day One.”
For Celia Koughan, she loves the fact that this show is set up in a way that encourages audience members to come back again and again. “There’s one man who came to see the show six times last year! And, our first show on the road in Pictou this year, we looked out and he was in the front row of the crowd! I feel like it just warmed all of our hearts to see Bob there.” Lizotte agrees, adding, “Our energy and excitement was even higher once we saw him than we ever thought.”
“I feel like every time we do the show, no matter where my head space is during the day, by the end of the show, it’s just joy,” says Malia Rogers. “I have so much fun on stage every time I do this show, I come off stage and I’m just so happy. I also think getting to have that time on stage to sit with these other incredible guest musicians that we have coming in and being able to watch what they do from an intimate space is really really inspiring.”
For Karen Lizotte she sees the cast’s chemistry as something special. “We have a really great camaraderie on stage,” she says, “I look forward to that every night. If something goes a little sideways during the show, which rarely happens… but you know… all we have to do is make eye contact with each other and we are right back in. You know you’re grounded and that we have each other’s backs. It’s so great working together all the time. The chemistry that we’ve got is pretty cool to come out of an audition process. This great group is my favourite part of the show.”
“The show feels more like a party this year,” says Sherwood, “because we’re a little more at ease. We had lots of fun last year, but [the music] is more under our fingers [now], so more fun can be had with it.” “And we know each other so much more now,” adds Rogers, “And there are ways that we have all grown and changed between this year and last, and that sense of cohesion is so much stronger between us. It’s always funny when you get people talking to you after a show and they’re like, ‘So, how long have you all been playing together as a band? Where are you going on tour next?’ The audition process is something that is invisible to a lot of people.
For Sherwood, hearing people refer to the cast as a band is ideal. He wanted the Argyle Street Kitchen Party to feel like joining four friends who regularly jam with one another. The closer the cast grows and the more shows they perform together the closer the art comes to reality.
Special Guests to the 2019 Argyle Street Kitchen Party:
Cassie & Maggie: July 23, 2019
Christina Martin: July 24 – 26, 2019
Charlie A’Court: July 27 & 28, 2019
T Thomason: July 30 – August 1, 2019
Ryan Cook:August 4, 2019
Tomato/Tomato: August 6 & 7, 2019
Reeny Smith:August 8 – 9. 2019
Mo Kenney:August 10, 2019
Makayla Lynn:August 11, 2019
Heather Rankin: August 13 – 18, 2019
Lennie Gallant: August 20 – 25, 2019
The Argyle Street Kitchen Party plays at the Neptune Theatre Scotiabank Studio Theatre (1593 Argyle Street, Halifax) until August 25th. For tickets visit this website, call the Box Office at 902.429.7070 or visit in person at 1593 Argyle Street.
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