As a fan of Rebecca Northan, it is hard to picture her as a troublemaker. She is one of the most generous actresses in Calgary, taking young actors under her wing, creating material for those she loves, and creating quality shows for her audiences. Yet her newest venture, Troublemaker, playing at Loose Moose until March 14^th, delves into just that. The autobiographical show looks at times in her life where she was dubbed a troublemaker.

"I encourage myself to do things that scare me," Northan told GayCalgary prior to the show’s opening last week. "Doing a real, one-woman show – just me all by myself on stage – has always intrigued and terrified me. I set it as an intention for 2015 to finally do [it]. I reverse engineer everything. I booked Loose Moose and then thought I had better come up with a title. The title is inspired by the fact that I have been accused of being a troublemaker my entire life. Once I booked the theatre and had the title, I had the poster designed and went gee, I had better write the show. That is how it came about. I finished it the day before the show opened. Bruce Horak was my consultant; he consults on all my creative projects and often is in them. We came up with the structure together and I got to relax a bit, and tell some true stories about my life. It is a time of explorations and seeing what makes a troublemaker. There is little trouble in your life, and actual big significant trouble."

It has been a great few weeks for Northan, who was given the Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award at the recent Mayor’s Lunch for Arts Champions.

"They tell you in advance and you have to keep it a secret. I am a Calgary artist; I believe Stephen Hunt recently referred to me as ‘one of Calgary’s brand ambassadors’. I am a Calgarian and it doesn’t matter how many times I try to leave I can’t stop saying this is my home, and being here. I guess I make the city look good; I don’t know? It is a weird thing to talk about. The good thing about knowing in advance is I got clearance to share the award with Ellis Lalonde, who is a young Loose Moose volunteer that has done a lot of work with me over the years, usually for free. This allowed me to share the award with him."

In sharing the award she also shared the $5000 prize, giving LaLonde $1000. Northan’s belief in giving back shows in many of her projects. After successfully creating the show Kung Fu Panties she restaged it with up and coming actors. Her wildly successful Blind Date show, which has seen her in New York and England among other international venues, now features other actors. For some who create a show, they would refuse to give up a character like Mimi, but Northan doesn’t see it that way.

"I don’t have kids; the only thing I can guess is it must be like watching the kids move out of the house. You are like awww they are leaving the nest, but it’s time. It is really exciting to watch my projects have a life beyond me. I know a lot of really talented people and I love my friends. If I can make work for my friends and family that is a bonus for me. There are 11 weeks of Blind Date bookings this season with three different Mimis doing them. Renee Amber is currently performing it in Whitehorse at the Yukon Arts Centre. I have known Renee since she was 12. She does the show in a way that is completely different from me, so the thing that is delightful about it is I actually get to just be an audience member and watch Blind Date, which I can’t do when I am in it. Christy Bruce is another Loose Moose alumni doing shows in Central and Eastern Canada. When either of them are doing it I get to relax and enjoy it."

When you see Rebecca’s name you know you are getting quality. She has built a reputation for creating magic on stage.

"I am a bit nervous. I am always convinced, every time I do a new thing, no one is going to come; it will just be my aunt, cousins and a few of my friends. It is a really nice feeling – I always feel really, really grateful to Calgary audiences for supporting my work. I am also indebted to Loose Moose where a good part of my personal artistic aesthetic was cultivated. The world is kind of a rough place sometimes, and things happen in our daily life that are kind of a drag. There is no shame in entertaining people, and the one thing I make sure I include in the shows I do – in terms of giving you a little something extra – ... [is] I don’t want to do things that are frivolous; I want to do things that have heart and truth. It seems like people like that."

When you look at the works she has created – Blind Date, Kung Fu Panties and Legend Has It, an improvised fantasy show that debuted at Alberta Theatre Projects final PlayRites festival and will return as their holiday show – they are all quite different. How do such varied ideas come about in her brain?

"I have no idea! To be honest, a lot of times I feel like where do ideas come from? That is a question I ask myself often: where did this idea come from? I have gone sit down Rebecca and come up with a really good idea, and as soon as I give those parameters I go blank. I can’t think of anything. I have no idea what a good idea is! I know what is fun for me and inspires me. The idea for Blind Date actually fully arrived in my head from elsewhere. I don’t really take credit for it; it was sort of shown to me. Kind of the same with Kung Fu Panties. (GZT founder) Ryan Luhning said do you want to write something for the 10 minute play festival? I asked if I could write it for Chantal (Perron), Julie (Orton) and I and he said yeah and I went great this is what I want to do! Then it was Ryan who came to me and said write the full version. So did you – you said this better become a play. If I hadn’t had so much encouragement from people that night at the festival, and then Ryan following up on it, I don’t know if I would have written Kung Fu Panties as a play. I thought it was a really fun 10-minute thing. Legend Has It came about because I pitched Vanessa a completely different idea for PlayRites and she said Hrm, I’m not interested. Take what you learned in Blind Date and take it to the next level and I went Ohhhh. ok... Playing with an audience member is fun for me; I have always wanted to be in action movie with my friends. I love the fantasy genre. If there is a through line it’s that it has got to be fun for me first. If myself and the other actors are having a good time I think it translates to the audience. I like things to be cheeky and daring, and there [has to] be a sense of misbehaviour."

Cheeky and daring describes Troublemaker. Northan sits and sips tea at the start of the show, sitting on a couch and talking to the audience prior to starting to share stories of her life, dating back to her first memory of being called a Troublemaker.

"The show is entirely autobiographical. My first memory of being told that I was a troublemaker was I tried to remove our Dalmatian’s black spots with a 25-pound bag of flour. So, in my mom’s opinion, that made me a troublemaker. When I was old enough to understand what had happened and why she was upset about it, in my defense, the question is was I a troublemaker or am I a canine esthetician?"

It is a point she brings up multiple times in the show, and does leave one thinking about the definition of the word, and how moments where we caused trouble could be interpreted. If one looks at exacting changes in society, Rosa Parks would have been labelled a troublemaker. According to some, those fighting for gay rights are troublemakers.

"The thing that I contend is that troublemakers are important; they are the people that challenge the status quo and get us to examine our laws and rules and go wait a minute; just because something used to make sense does it still? Troublemakers are here to change the world and, for the most part, for the better. I read a really great quote on the Internet attributed to three different people, so who the hell knows who said it. ‘Society honours its living conformists and its dead troublemakers’."

Northan has had people say to her that her works are not ‘real theatre’. It harkens back to a blog Northan wrote in 2009 when she performed in Evil Dead: The Musical that generated a similar response from some theatregoers. She argued then, as she does now, that getting people into the theatre is a positive, especially young people who may, in turn, become future subscribers to other theatre.

"I totally forgot about that! Evil Dead is a great example – I wish I had created it. That is the kind of stuff that I like. I want to be in a packed theatre. The thing that Evil Dead taught me, which really influenced Panties and Legend, it made me fall in love with the nerd audience. I have always loved them; I hung out with the nerds and geeks in school. Realizing what kind of audience that demographic is, I could very happily play ‘geek theatre’ for the rest of my life. I have never played for a better educated, more enthusiastic and supportive audience! That is what you want. I don’t want people dressed in evening wear golf clapping at the end of my shows. I want people hooting and hollering and having a couple of drinks at the bar and going YEAH LET’S GO SEE THIS SHOW! It should seem like a party. I am in the arts and it is hard for me to get out of my yoga pants and go out. If someone is going to make the effort to go to the theatre, some part of the show should be rock ‘n roll, should feel like a happening and a feeling of magic about it."

Troublemaker is the exact type of show that anyone who likes Rebecca’s work will love. First she hits you in the face with candy. Next she hits you in the stomach with laughter. Then, unexpectedly, she hits you in the feels. It’s a brilliant and beautiful show that is another homerun for one of Calgary’s finest.

"If you are an audience member who is familiar with me and my work, you should come just to see me scared out of my mind and potentially fall on my face; that could be fun for some people. It is me. I will be very purposefully telling some very funny stories. The other thing that makes me nervous about this show is it is the most truthful and vulnerable I have been on stage, but still in an entertaining way. This is a full meal deal. People see Blind Date and say it was so funny, I didn’t expect to be moved. That is my goal with this to be Oh gosh, it was so funny and then I was moved."