Stage mainstay dismisses talent

Damien Atkins, 36, is the first actor I’ve met who doesn’t believe in talent.

Atkins, a successful St. Albert Children’s Theatre alumnus now based out of Toronto, is in Edmonton with the Young People’s Theatre touring production of Seussical. It opens at the Citadel Theatre tonight. Atkins has landed the role of the wacky Cat, the musical’s narrator and devil’s advocate.

“He’s a kind of sociopath. He’s the complication. The other word I use is anarchist. He just wants to have fun,” chuckles Atkins.

Our appointment is for a breakfast meeting at the Coast Edmonton House hotel where he is staying for Seussical’s two-week run. Atkins has a long day of taxing rehearsals and he’s loaded his plate with bacon and eggs.

Seeing the jaw-dropping, stunned look on my face after he comments on talent, Atkins goes on to explain.

“Talent or lack of talent is too often used as a way to deny access. And I find it cruel. When I talk to actors, I talk in terms of level of work. You can’t change aptitude, but you can focus on what you can control. You see I have a fairly complicated ethos. As artists, our lives are so much out of our control and I try to focus my energy uncovering the areas where I have control.”

Atkins has the rich, melodious voice of a radio announcer. In answering all my questions, he conveys a sensitive and serene manner. Perhaps it’s the chamomile tea he drinks. Perhaps it’s an inner confidence knowing his peers take his work seriously as a theatre and film actor, singer and playwright.

Just last year he landed a small part as a “Nazi aqua-fit instructor” in Sarah Polley’s movie Take This Waltz that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

It’s difficult to picture Atkins as a terror. He has a lanky frame topped by a face that communicates a natural innocence.

“You’d be surprised. I’ve played rapists and pedophiles. People don’t expect it from someone who looks like me. I love it. I’m blessed to have such a wide variety of roles.”

After graduating from Grant MacEwan’s theatre arts program in 1994, the character actor worked with diverse companies such as The Canadian Stage Co., Theatre Calgary and both the Shaw and Stratford festivals.

He’s performed in musicals, cabarets, Shakespearean productions, Restoration plays and even a few hard-edged avant-garde indie works at the Crow’s Theatre. Along the way he wrote five plays that were successfully staged across North America.

Born in Australia, Atkins’ family moved to St. Albert when he was three. By the time he was five years old in 1981, he landed a small part in St. Albert Children’s Theatre premiere production, The Hobbit.

Although he attended Father Jan and then Ă©cole Secondaire St. Marguerite d’Youville, SACT became the focal point of his life.

Of founding director Maralyn Ryan he says, “Of the many things she taught us was to love theatre and feel passionate about life. It was not just about good acting, but it was also to be curious and accepting of others. That has been a central imperative of my life – to commit, to care. I don’t think there’s any doubt that’s why I had any kind of career.”

Of the polka-dotted Seussical, he sees it as work that can affect change.

“All people are worthy of respect. It’s simple enough for children to commit to, but adults can chew on it for a long time.”