Stratford has two seasons: theatre and hockey. Local boy, Graham Abbey, a proud Stratfordian, has seamlessly skated between the two his whole life – from the rink to the stage.
“When I first started coaching last year, I brought my skates to rehearsals, and then walked out the door and across the street to the Allman with my stick. It brings me back full circle to when I was a kid,” Abbey enthuses.
As a young athlete playing hockey, soccer and volleyball, Abbey was also involved in singing and theatre at school. At 10 he auditioned for John Hirsch at the Stratford Festival for a role in Merry Wives of Windsor. They needed someone who could sing. “I was excited, because I could get out of school,” Abbey laughs, “But also because someone was going to be paying me for it.”
What he thought about this formative experience back then versus how he looks back on it now are two different things. “It was an amazing immersion into Shakespeare, because I got to listen to some of the greatest actors speaking that language, and it got inside my bones.”
As a Stratford kid, Abbey didn’t separate the two worlds of theatre and sports. They were both outlets that he loved, and in which he could immerse himself. “I always played sports that were constantly in motion, like hockey. I loved my Saturday morning hockey games. Theatre is also constantly in motion. Maybe that’s why I gravitated towards it.”
With his Political Science degree from Queens University, and a scholarship to work at the Provincial Legislature, Abbey intended to take his LSAT and enrol in Osgoode Law School. Fate had other plans.
“Sometimes life taps you on the shoulder,” his father would tell him. A persistent director had been calling him for an Oakville production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Abbey relented. Seated in the audience one night was Stratford Artistic Director, Richard Monette, who brought him into the fold to audition back home at the Stratford Festival.
Abbey’s debut was a big one. It was the historic production of Death of a Salesman. He played the role of Hap Loman in a legendary quartet that included Al Waxman, Martha Henry and Geordie Johnson. It was a great learning curve, but Abbey tells me that working with Waxman and Henry, “was a real masterclass –even off the stage. It was the best school you could have.”
After scores of productions over twenty-five years, Abbey has become a stalwart of the stage at the Stratford Festival. Each of his performances reflect his grounded strength. In addition to roles in film and television, as well as in theatres across Canada and in Chicago, he keeps coming back to Stratford. Why?
“I love the stages at Stratford.” He smiles. “I’m a sucker for the thrust stage, and the festival is unlike anywhere else that an actor gets to play.” But it’s more
than just the festival, he continues, “I really am a Stratford boy through and through. I love this town. It’s given me so much – a real rounded life. Beyond the arts, whether it’s the sports or the pork congress, it’s a really vibrant town.”
There’s only so many hours in a day, so I have to ask how he finds the time, between acting and directing, to also coach Stratford Rotary Hockey, and why that would be so important to him now.
“I’ve played sports my whole life, and some of the coaches I had growing up, like Ed Price, in particular, who coached me through volleyball, was like a second dad to me in terms of helping me to understand how to lose, understanding teamwork and discipline; so, I try to model Ed, and coach these kids and be a good mentor. Also my daughter plays on the team, and I really want to model a sense of camaraderie and sportsmanship between both the boys and the girls.
"By virtue of skating two paths at the same time, Abbey demonstrates for the kids on his team that they can also be artists, too; that sports and arts aren’t mutually exclusive. As actor at the Stratford Festival, and as rotary hockey coach, Abbey has certainly checked the boxes of the “quintessential” Stratfordian. “These are such different worlds, and it’s fun to escape into both.” He tells me, “I still run into friends at the Warriors games on Friday nights, and it’s like going back thirty years. And on Saturday mornings, half the town is at that arena, like they are on Friday nights for the Warriors games. It’s a real community event,” he beams, “and I love that.”
You can watch Graham Abbey perform this season as Capulet in Romeo and Juliet and Mark Meddle in London Assurance.
