Alexis Gordon is one of the young stars of Canadian theatre. Her work at the Stratford Festival (“Carousel,” “The Sound of Music,” “Guys and Dolls,”
“Coriolanus,” “The Tempest, and more) has been getting great reviews.
After graduating from the University of Windsor’s School of Dramatic Art, at the age of 24 Gordon was discovered by Stratford Festival Musical Director Franklin Brasz, and director Donna Feore. In our interview, she admits that she had been singing in the shower and participating in choirs, but it was Brasz and Feore that spotted the potential of her “legit vibrato” at an audition that changed her life.
Since then she’s been a company member at the Stratford Festival, however in the upcoming summer theatre season she’ll be at the Shaw Festival – one of several Stratford Festival company members making the move to Shaw in 2019. In our interview Gordon explains the appeal of working at Shaw under the artistic director Tim Carroll, whom she first worked with at Stratford in “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
We also discuss her experience working with the internationally renoun director Robert Lepage at Stratford, just as criticism of cultural appropriation led to the cancellation of his show “SLAV” at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Although Gordon had nothing to do with that show she is a jazz fan and recently released a CD of Jazz and Musical Theatre tunes, making sure to include the work of several Canadians. The CD is available at the Stratford Festival gift shop and Revel, located on Market Place in Stratford.
SHOW NOTES
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