We were lucky to catch up with Sue Goberdhan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sue, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on, by a LONG shot, has been my most recent play, CHUMP.
A short introduction to what the show is about: The Kumar Family suffers a tremendous loss when they suddenly lose their family’s matriarch. While the family gathers at Grandma Baby’s “Nine Day,” they learn a hard but necessary lesson about the root of their grief, the fortitude of their joy, and the tension that arises from everyone’s favourite card game: T’ruup Chaal.
I started writing the play three years ago at 4am on Christmas morning. The house was so quiet; my mom works at the hospital, so she’s typically working on Christmas Day, and the rest of my family lives a ways away from here; most of them are on the East Coast or in New York or back home in Guyana. I couldn’t sleep and, honestly, was feeling a little bit sad because I was missing the warmth of a family Christmas. One of the biggest traditions in my family (and in a large subsection of Guyanese communities) is to play cards at family gatherings; we have a specific game called T’ruup Chaal that I learned to play before I learned almost anything else! My fondest memories are of playing T’ruup Chaal with my family, and after being in my feelings for a while I realized that there were many parallels between the game and my life. That morning, I started writing CHUMP. I wrote about two and a half pages and found myself to be pretty stuck, so I didn’t really touch it again until about 2 years later.
One of the accomplishments I’m the most proud of alongside this play is the fact that I got to write it as the 2022-2023 Catalyst Theatre CONFLUENCE Fellow. The CONFLUENCE Fellowship gives focus to an IBPoC theatre creator whose work speaks to their identity, and to the importance of creating new work here in Edmonton. I used the two pages I had written that Christmas morning to pitch myself for the Fellowship, and by some miracle that was enough to get me the gig. This Fellowship is particularly meaningful to me because I have had a long history with Catalyst Theatre. When I was 15, my AP English teacher took our class to see Nevermore by Jonathan Christenson. This play made me realize that, no matter what, I was going to be a theatre artist for the rest of my life. It was so moving and original and it stuck with me for a literal decade after I saw it. As far as I was concerned, this was one of the greatest honours of my life.
The CONFLUENCE Fellowship gave me the freedom not only to explore the play I was trying to write, but also the connections to seek out to other artists belonging to the Indo-Caribbean diaspora in Canada. My play features a cast of 8, and they’re ALL Indo-Caribbean, which was no small feat. Through writing this play and a national call for Indo-Caribbean artists, I was able to secure one of the most incredible casts I have ever had the privilege of seeing on a stage, let alone working with. We had two Albertan actors (myself and Sterling Award-Winner Damon Goberdhan-Pitcher,) one actor from Vancouver (Shaun Omaid), and five actors from all across Ontario (Leela Sitahal, Marvin Ishmael, Kenneth Mohabir, Andrew Prashad, and Dave Autar.) The collective credits belonging to this group of actors could stretch MILES, but some notable roles you may have seen some of them in include: Instant Star, Larry, the upcoming Doubles with Slight Pepper, Supernatural, Riverdale, The Flash, Welcome to Marwen, Degrassi: the Next Generation, Slings and Arrows, Rookie Blue, Private Eyes, Astrid and Lilly Save the World, Shazam!, Run the Burbs, and Kim’s Convenience (I know. Bonkers, right? I lucked out HARD.)
This ensemble brought a Guyanese family who has lived in my head for MANY years to life with all of their brash, bold, beautiful and complicated natures on full display. We workshopped CHUMP for 2 weeks and were so committed to the work we managed to stage a near-full production of the show in that time culminating in a one-night-only performance followed by a community dinner catered by Cafe Caribbean.
CHUMP was a process unlike any other I’ve ever been a part of; my mom was our chef for the week (she stayed home from work for 2 weeks and made lunch for the entire team every single day.) My uncle was our driver; he got our team and our food to and from our homes every day. We also had the most incredible artistic team behind the scenes: Amanda Bergen was our fearless leader, Molly Pearson staged managed (with support from Morgan Yamada,) Rebecca Cypher designed the set, our costumes, and our lights, Andrew Prashad also wore his Sound Design hat, Gordie Lucius (host and co-creator of CBC Gem’s Frick, I Love Nature) was our dramaturg and production assistant, and Jennie George (who was in the middle of the run of Anahita’s Republic at the Backstage Theatre simultaneously) helped manage script changes as we were working to solidify the script. It was collaborative, delicious, joyful, and deeply moving to see everyone give themselves so fully to this work. I’ve never seen a team put so much weight behind something I’ve written before, and that level of validity from people I respect so deeply is a gift I will never take for granted.
To support CHUMP, please consider donating to our GoFundMe! https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-chump-produce-a-full-show?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=widget&utm_campaign=p_cp%2Bshare-sheet
Sue, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Formally, here is what I can say about my administrative career: I’m an Indo-Caribbean performer, arts administrator, advocate, playwright, and collaborator. I have dedicated my career to advocating for the revitalization of the foundation of Edmonton’s theatre community to include and celebrate the stories and voices of people from underrepresented communities. Administratively, I work for a few companies here in town. I am a Co-Artistic Producer at Azimuth Theatre (alongside the illustrious Morgan Yamada,) I am one of the Interim General Managers at Rapid Fire Theatre, the Administrative Director at Artstrek (a theatre summer camp for teens,) and I am also co-founder of the new Canadian theatre company Could Be Cool Theatre. Currently, I have the distinct privilege of serving as the 2022-2023 Catalyst Theatre CONFLUENCE Fellow at Catalyst Theatre. I graduated from MacEwan University with a diploma in Arts and Cultural Management, and attended the University of Alberta in pursuit of a degree in Drama and subsequently dropped out; as it turns out, traditional post secondary education is NOT for me.
Informally, what I want to say about my artistic career is that it is a product of good old-fashioned gumption and a complete negligence of listening when well meaning people tell me what to do. Over the years, it’s been more and more clear that our industry has been a longstanding proponent of amplifying the elder white man, and the piece of the puzzle that propelled my career forward has been to ask WHY this is the case, as opposed to marinating in the WHAT IF’s attached to choosing irreverence for the way things have traditionally been done. The gift that comes from coming up in this industry without the attachment to traditional educational structures has been that I truly was starting from ground zero with almost no professional network. What’s the worst that could happen if I refuse to accept unhealthy work days and unfair treatment in the artistic workplace? A healthy ethos for creating work has been essential to building an artistic practice in the image that almost feels utopian. Thankfully, we are shifting the needle in terms of the voices and stories that we get to see on Edmonton stages as well as what is considered acceptable treatment on and off stages, and that has been a beautiful part of our community’s journey towards equity and justice.
Up until very recently, it’s been really difficult finding a place for myself in the Edmonton theatre community; a revelation I had at a relatively young age is that, up until a certain point (namely, when I started writing myself,) there wasn’t a single playwright who would have ever written a part and thought to themselves, “You know who I need for this role? A Sue Goberdhan-lookin’ son of a gun!” It was clear to me very quickly that NOBODY was going to give me work that was fulfilling enough as an artist. One day, I stumbled across an interview that Jason Segel did about his time on Freaks and Geeks. He mentioned that Judd Apatow came up to him on his last day of shooting and let him know that he was a weird guy so he probably wasn’t going to book any decent work after that gig, immediately sending himself down an existential spiral. Apatow then clarified that what he meant was that Segel needed to write his own work so that, no matter what, his work would be fulfilling from that point onward. In that moment, I reconciled with myself the fact that I, too, am a weird dude. Writing was the inevitable next step in my artistic evolution.
My work has been unapologetically rooted in writing what I know. What I know is that a) therapy is expensive, b) grief is a shapeshifter, and c) the thesis of what every person on earth wants is just to be understood. That being said, I feel that I need to preface everything I say from this point onwards with this: everything I write is a product of having lost my Dad. Having a surprisingly in-depth relationship with navigating old grief and generational trauma as an adult has been a rudimentary part of exploring playwriting. Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t really leave space for anything other than the most joyful version of the best and worst moments in life. This is why my work is so specific in the niche it fills. Joy is essential to understanding grief, breaking down trauma, and moving an audience to a more fulfilling relationship with the parts of themselves they may rather ignore.
If you have no context about me as an artist whatsoever, what I want you to take away from our little introduction are these essential facts about me:
1. People over product, ALWAYS. When people are thriving the work will always follow suit.
2. My work is honest. I write from perspectives that I have lived, and am not in the business of singing other people’s pain. FYI, the lyric “Will you ever learn to sing / Anything but other people’s pain” moved me to my core. It’s from a song called This Little World (Reprise) from a gorgeous musical called Fortress of Solitude. Look it up and do some research because it’s a wild story on and off stage. Trust and believe.
3. I believe in collaboration! Ideas should stay, words should evolve.
4. Sister Act 2 is the best movie ever made. I know that’s not reeeaaaallllllly about me. It’s just important to say.
5. When it seems difficult to chisel out space for yourself in an artistic community, I firmly believe in retiring the shovel and building a bulldozer; spend the time making yourself undeniable and then all of a sudden you will be… It just takes time. We love the long game!
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Being a creative leader has meant really leaning into being an administrative leader. Some tools that have significantly impacted my worldview and approach to guiding artistic spaces have included:
– Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
This book has been essential in creating a leadership pedagogy that feels inclusive of the ethos behind my work. Brown creates a deeply compelling case for why we should be looking to nature to lead us in creating structures that support resilient work. One of my favourite parts of the book talks about how we have these incredible, strong, fearsome animals who exist in the wild (lions, tigers, bears, you get it) and they are somehow still going extinct. Then, you have a dandelion who, despite humanity’s best efforts, still thrives! What can we learn from the dandelion? We learn about work structure, redundancy, and gentle movement towards the world we want to see (as Brown calls it, “collective liberation.”)
– Ted Lasso
The very first episode of that series encapsulates EXACTLY what works about leadership that centres people over product, and the rest of the series is a testament to why excavating grief compassionately (and with jokes!) is essential to moving an audience to creating actual, palpable change. Just watch it and then try and tell me I’m wrong. It simply won’t happen because I’m absolutely right. Sorry ’bout it. It’s also just really lovely TV. If you haven’t watched Ted Lasso, do yourself a favour and relish in it’s kindness and soak up the ways it dismantles toxic masculinity and tells really, REALLY solid jokes.
– Essay: Performing Arts Training in the Age of #MeToo by Jennifer Spencer (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23268263.2018.1488461 )
This essay really moved me. Spencer, an artist and educator in Edmonton, has done significant research based in our city and has made a robust case for why our patriarchal, white theatre foundations need to be reinvigorated and restructured to be inclusive and equitable.
– Summary Report: Stories to Action: Co-creating Inclusive Pathways to Professional Theatre in Edmonton by April MacDonald Killins
(https://www.theatrealberta.com/resources/yegaccessibilitygroup/stories-to-action-a-summary-report/ )
An excerpt from the Theatre Alberta website about this research: “The research summarized in following report was undertaken with the theatre community in amiskwaciy-wâskahikan, also known as the city of Edmonton, from February 2020 to February 2021. To mitigate bias in the research, community artists with a variety of lived experiences were paid to consult on the research design, instruments and analysis. Local theatre organizations and theatre artists were invited to participate in research activities by interview and survey. Research participants from the artist community were offered a monetary gift for sharing their time and experience. An in-depth paper and additional resources related to this project can be found at transposethestage.ca.”
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
After I wrapped the workshop of CHUMP, all of my inboxes were flooded with words from the community about how they felt seen, how they felt represented, how they felt welcomed, and how they felt like they were a part of something bigger than themselves. THAT is the best part of being an artist.
When you enter into a creative process, you are signing on to act or write or sing or design or whatever, but the super objective of that work is to curate a moment that inevitably becomes a formative memory. That is the goal. Do we always succeed? Probably not. But curating something that becomes pivotal to a person’s association with art should always be what you hope to achieve, and the best part of being a creative is when you see that work solidifying into that thing your friends and family think about even when they’re not trying to.
It’s that feeling when you get the message in your inbox saying, “my partner is also Indo-Caribbean and has never related to a play so much before!” It’s that moment when your uncle, who is typically emotionless at the theatre, sheds a tear and actually comes up to you afterwards to tell you about it! It’s when your mom understands every single joke in a play for the very first time in her life and knows it was for her. The best parts are the feeling that remains when imposter syndrome FINALLY fades into the distance and all that’s left is the assurance that you’re onto something and the pride of a job well done. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.suegoberdhan.com
- Instagram: @itssueg
- Twitter: @itssueg
- Other: www.couldbecooltheatre.com, www.azimuththeatre.com, www.rapidfiretheatre.com, www.theatrealberta.com/artstrek/, https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-chump-produce-a-full-show?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=widget&utm_campaign=p_cp%2Bshare-sheet
Image Credits
Lead photo, photo with green background: Kaylin Schenk CHUMP Photos: Brianne Jang of BB Collective Red Background photo (Sterling Awards 2023 host): Ryan Parker Photography