Meet the Playwright Barb Scheffler

My Life in a Nutshell
ABOUT ME

Tell us a bit about yourself.
 

My name is Barb Scheffler. I’m an actor, a singer a playwright, a mom. I have three amazing kids and one very patient and loving husband. For several years I was on tour with Menopause the Musical travelling all across Canada. When I’m not performing, I’m renovating houses with my husband - my specialty is doing all the plumbing. And when I’m not doing any of those things I dance with The Northern Classics dance team for the Toronto Raptors. True story!

 

What got you into the biz?

Going into theatre, was not something I ever thought I wanted to do when I was young. I was painfully shy as a kid. I loved to sing and I read voraciously, but I had a hard time just looking people in the eye, never mind speaking out loud. Just before leaving elementary school, my grade 8 teacher talked me into signing up for drama class in high school. He thought it would bring me out of my shell. But I was so opposed to the idea I would only agree to add it as an alternative - a fallback if one of my other courses fell through. Well guess what…

 

When I went to that first theatre class, terrified and awkward, something amazing happened. I found that playing a character, being someone else, had the power of breaking me open. I could do anything! I had confidence, charm, evil intentions, mwahaha! As long as I wasn’t myself, I was unstoppable! knew then that I wanted to be an actor.

 

How did you become a playwright?

Amazingly enough, I didn’t have any aspirations to be a playwright early on either. I started out as a musical theatre performer. But when I started having kids I wanted to be home more, so I started doing murder mysteries at Mysteriously Yours dinner theatre in Toronto. After working there as a performer for several years, I decided to try my hand at writing some scripts. I wrote four scripts that all did really well. And I started to think about writing for real.

 

I joined the Toronto Cold Reads, a weekly get together for playwrights and actors to put their work in front of an audience. Over several years I wrote lots of stuff - short plays, longer plays, fringe plays, musicals, kids shows, a screenplay, a TV pilot, strange ideas that went nowhere, you name it. I even wrote a play called “Pirates Don’t Babysit!” that won best of Fringekids at the Toronto Fringe. Turns out I really like writing! When the pandemic hit, I joined an online writing group called ACT 3. And then I wrote… “The Beaver Club” 

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ALL ABOUT THE BEAVER CLUB

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What was your inspiration for this play?

At the start of the pandemic I was invited to participate in a Zoom read-through of a script about four older women, that were all American stereotypes. You know, one was from the deep south, one had a Brooklyn accent, etc. And I thought to myself, why are we doing an American play? We have Canadian stereotypes too!

 

So I set out to write a comedy that drew on the regional characters we have here in Canada. And because I had been touring all across the country performing in Menopause the Musical Canada, I decided to send the characters on a road trip, drawing on some of the funny experiences that I had had travelling with a bunch of women.

 

I also joined an online writing group at that time - ACT 3, a collective of mature women playwrights and actors. It was a wonderful group that allowed me to try out my material as I wrote it, and also to draw from the experiences of some of the members. Older women have some fascinating stories!

 

How would you describe this play?

I would describe this play as a kind of buddy-movie road-trip sort of story. The women go on a journey, and the journey changes all of them in some way. They are forced to confront their problems, and turn to each other for help and support. In the end they form a strong bond of friendship to carry them forward.

 

I also like to call this play my love letter to Canada. Touring this country was an absolute delight for me, and I tried to incorporate all of the places I got to see. If I ever get to do a sequel, I will send the ladies west!

 

How did you come up with the title of the play, and what does it represent?

I think I came up with the title almost before I came up with the story! I knew I wanted to write a story about a group of older women, and that it should start off with them forming some sort of club. The Beaver Club just came to me as the perfect title because it’s a little bit salacious, but also very Canadian!

 

How did you come up with the characters and their background stories?

Are there autobiographical elements in the play? I started with where I wanted the characters to be from - Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, and B.C. and then thought about what women from there might be like. For example, Karen from Toronto definitely had to be the most uptight! Then I just started imagining their lives and who they were as people. Were they married? Did they have kids? How did they talk? What were their flaws and their strengths? I did a lot of work building the characters before I wrote the story.

 

There are definitely autobiographical elements in this play. I often think of myself as Karen, because I’m a control freak too! And some of what the characters go through is drawn from either my own experiences or stories that other women have shared with me.

 

Is there a particular moment in the play that is especially powerful or memorable to you?

I really like the moment when Yvette tells the story of how she and her husband fell in love when they were in the church choir. I think it’s very funny and terribly heart breaking at the same time. I love that juxtaposition. And it’s also the moment when she cracks open and lets all her sorrow pour out. I had tears in my eyes when I was writing that scene.

 

What was the most challenging part of writing the play?

All the rewrites! Having an idea and writing a bunch of funny scenes is easy, but then you have to shape it into a play. It’s a lot of work! Especially when there are four equally important characters that all need to have a well thought out story with a satisfying beginning, middle and end.

 

What do you hope the audience will take away from this play? I really wanted to write a play about older women that didn’t just draw on cliches. Even though they are stereotypes, each woman in The Beaver Club has a rich inner life, and a complex history. I want the audience to laugh, to cry, and to ultimately fall in love with these characters. I think that older women have so many fascinating stories to tell, and my goal as a playwright is to amplify those voices.