Elsa McKnight Gets Experimental
“Everything is useful. Everything is worth studying.”
When I met with Elsa McKnight to discuss EXPERIMENT 1a, I was slightly surprised by her cheerful demeanour. While the show’s marketing has a rather ominous tone—with black-and-red posters that read “Tabula Rasa Laboratory: We Are Always Watching” and Instagram posts with captions like “lean into the uncertainty” and “have you given up on society?”—its creator is warm and chatty, with a distinct gleam of curiosity in her eye.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Shaped around the premise of a psychological experiment, EXPERIMENT 1a takes its audience—or participants, as McKnight calls them—on a journey through the Spire. When asked for details about the performance, she’s evasive. “The whole thing is a bit on the down low,” says McKnight. “You don’t know what the experiment’s really going to entail when you walk into the space… but it involves being in a space and taking part in some fun activities and games.” Pressed further, she offers three words to describe the show’s vibes: “Confusion, playfulness, and competition.”
McKnight’s life has long been defined by competing interests. Although she’s enjoyed acting since childhood, McKnight didn’t always think she would go into the arts. “For several years, I was dead set on doing science. I kind of flipped between a few different areas—quantum mechanics, nuclear physics… There’s a lot of pressure [to go into STEM] if you excel in math and science, that it’s useful for society. And I love science, it’s so cool. But at the tail end of Grade 9, we read Twelfth Night, and I suddenly fell in love with English and theatre. So I completely did a full 180 by the time I hit Grade 10.”
Now an English and Drama student in her fifth year at Queen’s University, she’s discovered a flair for writing and directing. “Queen’s is so good because it’s a liberal arts program, it’s not a conservatory, so you can do anything. I fell in love with the creation process of theatre. I’d never really considered anything other than acting until I got to Queen’s.”
After adapting and directing Life Is A Dream for Queen’s Theatre Troupe (previously Queens Theatre Troupe) last fall, McKnight began to consider her next creative endeavour. “I started being interested in lighting design, because I hadn’t really touched design before. I was interested in directing a show based on vibes, basically, where there are different sections that each carry a feeling that the audience can be brought into. I was inspired by a lot of postmodern theatre, because that’s what we were learning in class at the time.”
What began as a mid-lecture daydream soon turned into a passion project. McKnight approached fellow student Grace Delamere, whose theatre company Of The Sea Productions made its debut earlier this year with Violets Bloom in April and Marigolds in Autumn, followed by The Cape As Red As Blood. “I said, ‘Hey, I have an idea for a show. It’s kind of experimental and participatory, and I think it would be really fun. Would you be interested in maybe producing it?’ And she said yes, so now we’re here.”
Like many student productions at Queen’s this semester, EXPERIMENT 1a, which was initially set to be performed in the Rotunda Theatre, has had to adapt to budget cuts. “I wrote the script as a methodology, with a step-by-step guide of everything to do, and I was planning as if we were going to be in our original venue. Then suddenly we lost the Rotunda, and we had to step back and rethink, and scale back a lot of the technical aspects of the show.”
Reworking EXPERIMENT 1a for the Spire was a challenge, but it’s also been a rewarding learning experience. “It pushed us out of our comfort zone in terms of what we know about how to make theatre. We found a lot of creativity playing with non-traditional lighting sources and sound technology, making the most of this new space, trying to see the bright side. We got experimental, and I think we found some really brilliant and creative solutions.”
McKnight sees this project—and this year’s budget cuts—as an opportunity to question the divide between science and the arts. “I was thinking about how we fund science and we kind of leave the arts behind. And we see that a lot in our society, unfortunately. But there’s a lot of overlap between the two—we’re the Faculty of Arts and Science for a reason—because science is very creative and beautiful, especially math, and there’s a lot of scientific methodology and testing when it comes to art, and especially theatre.”
Elsa McKnight is a 5th year student at Queen’s University studying Drama and English. She is an avid writer and is fascinated by everything postmodern!
‘EXPERIMENT 1a’ will be presented by Of The Sea Productions in the Spire’s Lower Hall on November 16 and 17, 2024. Tickets and more information can be found here.
