A young actor with roots in Nuu-chah-nulth and Tsimshian culture has stepped out of his comfort zone to tackle the role of James Fenimore Harper in the musical comedy production of Reefer Madness The Musical, currently running at the Capitol Theatre in Port Alberni.
Aaron Wells, 20, is a member of Ehattesaht First Nation. His mother, Victoria Wells, helped develop the Ehattesaht FirstVoices App.
See story: (http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2012-01-25/nuu-chah-nulth-language-app-connects-youth-heritage) .
His dad, Ivan Wells, hails from the North Coast community of Port Simpson.
Aaron credits both with grounding him in traditional culture, while at the same time encouraging him to explore the mainstream performing arts.
“I was born in Campbell River. I like to say I’m from Victoria, because I really like it there, but we moved around a lot, mainly for my mother’s studies and work,” Wells said.
“I finished high school in Courtenay, at Vanier [Secondary], then I did one year at the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria.”
Wells said he’s not sure when the desire to go on stage took hold. A self-confessed class clown, he always knew he liked playing to an audience.
It wasn’t until Grade 10, at Vanier, that he was introduced to a formal performance environment.
The move wasn’t painless. At the time, his parents were living and working in the Tahsis area, where elective courses like theatre were nonexistent.
“I jokingly say they kicked me out, but really, they moved me out so I could get more opportunities,” he said. “I got into improv, as well as theatre and dance courses, as a result of being moved to Courtenay. From there it just grew, and I took improv and other courses and it became more of an interest instead of just a hobby.”
At the same time, the aspiring actor said he has maintained a connection to his First Nations heritage by performing with his father and brother.
“My dad’s from Tsimshian First Nation. We do a lot of his songs and dances.
In my dad’s culture, the men do the singing and dancing, while down here, it’s the women who do the dancing, with just one or two men dancing,” Wells said.
Currently, Wells is living with family in Port Alberni, helping care for his grandmother and looking for that first big break. That means keeping an eye out for auditions within the theatre, movie and TV industry. And while he really aspires to be a dramatic actor, when Portal Players put out a casting call for Reefer Madness, Wells said he was ready for anything.
“I was bored out of my skull. It had been nine months since I’d been on stage, so when I saw the audition on the Capitol Theatre Web site, I jumped at it,” he said.
The musical, written in 1998, is based on the 1936 anti-marijuana movie, Tell Your Children, which in the 1960s, morphed into the cult-classic Reefer Madness. While the play is a comedy, it is also a biting social commentary, Wells said.
“It’s a play within a play,” he explained.
The production hinges on the Lecturer, who narrates the course of events as Wells’ character, known as Jimmy, goes from “good egg” to “bad apple” after he is introduced to the Demon Weed. He hangs out with the crazed Denizens of the Night at the Reefer Den, but even at the local Five and Dime, the good kids are listening to the soul-destroying swing-jazz perpetrated by “ginger-coloured Agents of Evil” like Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie.
“My character doesn’t know how to dance, which is interesting to me. Everyone around him does,” Wells said.
That desire to learn how to dance sets him on the road to ruin and a date with the electric chair. You’ll have to see the play to find out how Jimmy is redeemed.
Wells believes the experience will help improve his prospects as he moves towards his goal of becoming a professional performer.
“I don’t find myself a comedian. I feel I can do serious stuff better, so doing a comedy show has been a step out of my familiar element, which has been an amazing challenge,” Wells said. “I originally wanted to be in the theatre, but during the course of college, we had working agents and casting directors for film and television coming in, and they told me I could possibly have a good career in film.”
With the proliferation of cable channels, including APTN, there is a lot of work out there for young actors. Wells said the industry has finally come to terms with the portrayal of First Nations.
“Back in college, I remember seeing Pierce Brosnan playing a native chief (in 1999’s Grey Owl),” he said. “Nowadays, if the role is First Nations, it has to be played by somebody who is First Nations, or if they’re black, by somebody who is really black. You can’t get away with just ‘looking like’ any more.”
Interestingly, the true-life character played by Brosnan, “Charlie Grey Owl” Belany, was not an aboriginal person at all, but managed to create a role for himself as a spokesman for the environment and for First Nations culture.
Wells said those days are over. While, with his grounding in both aboriginal and non-aboriginal culture, he is comfortable with stepping outside of the First Nations character envelope. He believes non-aboriginals are too far removed from First Nations culture to be able to portray it accurately, at least, for an aboriginal audience.
“If you’re cast in a role, you should understand it. How can you portray a good role if you’re not of the culture?” he said. “They can do the research, but there are things they just don’t understand because they’re not from the culture. And those are the things that make up what First Nations people are.”
Wells said he hasn’t been able to sit through the entire two hours of Last of the Mohicans (“I thought the acting was pretty melodramatic…”), starring Daniel Day Lewis as Uncas, but it is worth noting that, as a concession to that trend of ditching “counterfeit natives,” Lewis’ character, according to the script, was a white child adopted by Chingachgook, portrayed by Russell Means.
Looking into the future, Wells plans to return to CCPA in Victoria to complete the two-year certificate program. Because he did not complete the first year, that means auditioning again. But he is confident he will be able to re-enter the program, with a resume that now includes musical comedy.
“Then find an agent,” he said.
Reefer Madness The Musical runs Friday and Saturday nights at the Capitol Theatre through March 16.
