Ashley Ford is proof of what Prince George's performing arts scene is capable of producing.
Before moving to New York she was Ashley Demers in musical theatre and community drama roles.
Her breakout performance came in 1998 as the young Molly in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
In the Excalibur Theatre Arts production of Grease in 2000 she played Marty. The Citizen review at the time said she "stands out because of her unique, attractive singing voice."
In the 2002 Prince George Theatre Workshop production of Monty Python favourite skits, the reviewer called her "delightful" in various comedic roles.
She got positive reaction for her turn as Jane in Brigadoon and in Paint Your Wagon the reviewer said "I especially enjoyed Ashley Demers" as she starred opposite Dave Rosin before he went on to international attention in the rock band Hedley.
"My last show in Prince George was Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat with Dave Rosin as Joseph. Poor guy - it's hard being on Wikipedia," she said, but her own trajectory has been similarly fulfilling if not yet encyclopedic.
It was clear even then that Ford was on a path that could not be contained by local or even national fetters. Excalibur boss Bonnie Mathers spotted those deeper theatre skills and set the young Ford up as her understudy director in her acclaimed 2001 production of Fiddler on the Roof. Ford was still in high school. When she got her first chance to move to Hollywood North, she was gone, and started treating Vancouver the same way she treated P.G. - methodical domination, creative talents her weapon.
It started innocently enough. She took performance art classes at Douglas College. She auditioned a lot. She networked a lot. She earned a part in the ever-popular Vancouver production of Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding; she was cast in the bio-musical The Kenny Rogers Experience performed at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, etc.
When those opportunities weren't quite enough to fill the professional calendar or the professional ambition, she and fellow actor Dave Brown started their own business: Enlightenment Theatre Company. She was now a startup entrepreneur as well as a working thespian. They were now called upon to select the plays, handle the casting, the directing, set up the tech team and front-of-house crew, and make the endeavour profitable all themselves. Instead of worrying about getting paid as an upstart actor, she was worried also about getting everyone else paid as well.
"I felt ready to do that because of hard work, studying from credible teachers, and being in P.G. really laid the groundwork for it all," she said. "Working with people like Bonnie Mathers and Dave Leach and [musical director] Broek Bosma really changed my perspective about how the theatre process worked. It set me on the right course."
What operating Enlightenment Theatre also did was turn the tables on the usual power positions in the city. Now, even established actors were coveting her company in case she might have a plumb part to offer. Sometimes she did.
"One show leads to meeting people who lead you to other shows, and then you start to want to do more, and there is a progression to the next level," she said.
For her, the next level was New York in 2008. She valued the ideal of never-ending learning, so she earned a spot in the two-year conservatory program at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Once New York got a look at her already considerable skills, the Big Apple became her oyster. Every genre in acting seemed to be calling on her - a national TV commercial for Mark's Work Wearhouse, the lead role in director Dan Rickmers's short film The One, a supporting role in the Jason Furukawa-directed short film My Babysitter Is An Alien, the cast of a U.S. national touring production of The 39 Steps, and a slate of stable theatre companies consistently picking her for their work.
All the while, she continued to study: clowning skills, shadow puppet techniques, dance, music, comedy, drama, Shakespeare, etc. From these classes came networking connections, additional credibility, and a growing list of specialty skills.
One of the best learning experiences came in the form of legendary vocal coach Marni Nixon. Although Nixon has been twice nominated for Grammy Awards and played the role of Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music, she is best known in stage/screen circles for making the biggest stars of Hollywood's golden age sound amazing. She sang Debora Kerr's parts in the films The King And I and An Affair To Remember. She sang Natalie Wood's songs and some of Rita Moreno's parts in the movie West Side Story. Hers was the voice of the unseen angels singing to Ingrid Bergman in Joan Of Arc. And grandest of all was her role singing all of Audrey Hepburn's musical parts in My Fair Lady.
"She is just an amazing person, and just so knowledgeable. I've never been coached by someone quite like her," Ford said. "I learned a lot about musical presentation from Broek Bosma growing up, and I actually felt a lot like Eliza Dolittle when I was with him - I felt like a science project sometimes. If I didn't have that foundation I probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to work with Marni, because she is such a legend. I feel unbelievably lucky that I was given the chance to be her student."
Ford cautions against too much education at the expense of doing the work. "I'm doing it," she explained. "You do have to take the classes that will provide you with the skills, but you also have to get out on the stage and use the skills, or you won't go anywhere."
Two theatre companies in particular have given Ford a substantial platform. The Connecticut-based Playhouse On Park group cast her in substantial roles for Cabaret (for which she earned a nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical at the 2013 Broadway World Connecticut Awards) and Lend Me A Tenor, and P.O.P. has already expressed their wish to have her return to their stage.
"I also work with Secondhand Theatre Company which does more experimental theatre," Ford said. "They are exploring a new format, neo-Vaudeville cabaret is what we're calling it so far but it's hard to label. I'm their movement director, also acting in the shows, I've written poetry that's been incorporated into the shows, we involve music, and they also have a film division. Musicals are changing and so is theatre, so we are crossing over the film and theatre divisions."
Once you run your own show, even if you are doing well on other people's stages, you can't easily hold back the entrepreneurial spirit. Ford is once again forming her own company, and this time her partner is New York-based Suzie Cho, one of the buzz-personalities in east coast showbiz. Cho has screen credits on shows like the dramatic TV program Law And Order, the thriller movie Girls Against Boys, and recently the Comedy Central show Inside Amy Schumer. The persona-flexible Cho found a kindred spirit in
multidimensional Ford.
"We both were taking a class in long-form improvisation from the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre Company," Ford said. "Suzie had a practice team, she invited me to that, we all hit it off so well that we call ourselves Fly By Night, we gave ourselves a name. That led to her launching Full Spectrum Theatre and we plan to work together heavily on that. She was talking about how she wanted more challenging work for her skills and talents and I told her 'why don't you just start your own company?' I guess because I did that before and it worked. So she did, and we are sticking together on that. We have a mutual respect for each other's talent and also each other's work ethic, and we both want to create theatre together, and give as many opportunities as possible for actors to play parts they can and should be playing, but aren't necessarily getting called for. We want to involve mixed ethnicities, to challenge how 'America' looks and sounds in our mind's eye."
She and Cho are particularly qualified for this view, since Cho is an American with visible Korean background while Ford looks just like a mainstream American but has her Canadian upbringing to inform her on the cultural differences.
"They call me Snowflake down here," Ford said, snickering.
It might be awhile before she gets back to the land of fresh snow.
She has hopes of family visits back to Prince George before long, but she has possible roles pending and when New York calls, an actor has to answer.
It seems to have Ashley Ford on speed dial.
