Interview with Carolyn and Allister Cameron
The audio play version of Harvest by Ken Cameron is available for listening for one more month, until July 11th. Artistic Director Adam Corrigan Holowitz (ACH), talked with Ken’s parents Carolyn (C) and Allister Cameron (A), about how their real life experience inspired the play. Carolyn and Allister are loyal supporters and audience members of AlvegoRoot and we feel honoured to get to share their story.
ACH: What was your reaction, way back fourteen years ago or so now, when Ken told you he wanted to write a play about your experiences selling the farm?
A: “Do you really mean that?” That is the question we said to him. Do you really want to do that? I didn’t think much about it, it didn’t seem like anything people would go to see.
C: Well I didn’t expect it to take off the way that it did. I could see local people maybe saying “oh we’ll find out what the real story is”, but I didn’t really expect it to be done across the country.
ACH: People connect to this story, definitely for Canadians, and I think anywhere where there is that kind of rural community.
A: It [an illegal grow-op] is not the first time it happened. It was at the same time as the big bust at the closed down [Molson] brewery in Barrie. I was on CTV…I got a call asking if they could interview us. I said “why us”? He said well the young lady whose grandfather lives next door to you, was on a…three month…practicum, is that what they call it, at CTV. She said that [they] should interview the couple next door to [her] grandfather. So CTV did an article, that is it not only the big [grow] operations happening, it is the little ones in a house. I was on TV from coast to coast. That was my first exposure to being on TV.
ACH: What a way to do it. I am curious, how did you discover that the people you were renting your house to were running a grow-op in it?
A: We sold the farm, but we were renting the house. We had a couple of people come to look at it, and then we had this one couple come, and the man did all the talking and the lady she just stood there, didn’t even look around hardly, in hindsight. All I remember is the guy standing in the stairway into the basement and his comment was “this will work”. We rented it to them. Three months later I went to take the hydro bill to them just before Christmas, to prove to them that I was not just scamming them. That the amount of the hydro bill was right, and the back door was kicked in.
C: They said they were broken into and they didn’t feel safe there anymore…But basically, it was the neighbour who got the farm next door. He would be over working [in the field] and see them and say “why don’t you have me over for coffee” and we think because he was so…
A: Nosey.
C: We called him the nosey neighbour. That he was so inquisitive, that they were afraid he might discover what they were up to and decided to leave.
ACH: In a way it was a benefit, that he was nosey, because they left sooner.
C: Before any serious damage could be done.
ACH: What was it like to see your story, or a version of your story, played out on stage?
C: I think the first time I was really curious, in how this is going portray what really happened. Is it going to cause any problems with friends and neighbours? Then after seeing it over and over it just was funny.
A: Every time it is done, it is done differently. Every director has their own take on it, along with the area they have to work with. One production we saw, the audience was on four sides.
ACH: You have seen it done in different places across the country and one of the really neat things about the script, is that Ken wants the local place names to be changed to match the local geography of wherever the play is being performed. To make it feel as though the story is happening in the local area.
C: It is interesting when friends see it, especially friends we haven’t seen in quite some time, and I will ask “do you think that is really like me”. They just laugh and say “ya some of it is”.
ACH: In Ken’s forward he mentions that you are clear that you don’t say “lord love a duck”.
A: Laughs. She won’t admit it. She hasn’t said it as much as she used to, let’s put it that way.
ACH: You talk about neighbours. When you discovered that your house was being used for a grow-op, how did the community respond?
C: I think because we had moved to London, we hadn’t really seen our neighbours. So I am not sure what their reaction was. The other’s felt sorry for us.
A: I guess the question a lot of them asked was “how much does this cost you”. And I said “it cost about $5000”, we were lucky. What it cost us, was some painting and cleaning up and we did one ceiling that really needed doing anyway. We got off lucky.
ACH: Very much so. I was struck by what Carolyn said earlier, that seeing more recent productions of the play you find it funny. The consequences were not as severe as they could have been. But this must have been a harrowing experience. Did you learn something from this experience?
C: Well if we were ever to rent again I would certainly be checking more diligently into their references. Although, I don’t know if we would have [found out] anything or not. Still you hope that you would uncover something that would make you say no.
A: You made that comment to someone we know in law enforcement and they said if you called references, they would have been primed to give the answers the renter would want them to give.
ACH: Oh of course they would not give real references. I had not thought about that.
A: One thing I learned was, I did not want to be a rental landlord.
ACH: It can be a fulltime job for sure. What is something you would like people to take away with them after listening to Harvest?
A: It can happen to anybody.
C: Be careful who you rent to.
A: It can even be happening around the corner.
C: Yes you don’t know what is happening next door.
Thank you so much to Carolyn and Allister for talking with me. You can listen to Harvest until July 11th by CLICKING HERE.
The audio play version of Harvest by Ken Cameron is available for listening for one more month, until July 11th. Artistic Director Adam Corrigan Holowitz (ACH), talked with Ken’s parents Carolyn (C) and Allister Cameron (A), about how their real life experience inspired the play. Carolyn and Allister are loyal supporters and audience members of AlvegoRoot and we feel honoured to get to share their story.
ACH: What was your reaction, way back fourteen years ago or so now, when Ken told you he wanted to write a play about your experiences selling the farm?
A: “Do you really mean that?” That is the question we said to him. Do you really want to do that? I didn’t think much about it, it didn’t seem like anything people would go to see.
C: Well I didn’t expect it to take off the way that it did. I could see local people maybe saying “oh we’ll find out what the real story is”, but I didn’t really expect it to be done across the country.
ACH: People connect to this story, definitely for Canadians, and I think anywhere where there is that kind of rural community.
A: It [an illegal grow-op] is not the first time it happened. It was at the same time as the big bust at the closed down [Molson] brewery in Barrie. I was on CTV…I got a call asking if they could interview us. I said “why us”? He said well the young lady whose grandfather lives next door to you, was on a…three month…practicum, is that what they call it, at CTV. She said that [they] should interview the couple next door to [her] grandfather. So CTV did an article, that is it not only the big [grow] operations happening, it is the little ones in a house. I was on TV from coast to coast. That was my first exposure to being on TV.
ACH: What a way to do it. I am curious, how did you discover that the people you were renting your house to were running a grow-op in it?
A: We sold the farm, but we were renting the house. We had a couple of people come to look at it, and then we had this one couple come, and the man did all the talking and the lady she just stood there, didn’t even look around hardly, in hindsight. All I remember is the guy standing in the stairway into the basement and his comment was “this will work”. We rented it to them. Three months later I went to take the hydro bill to them just before Christmas, to prove to them that I was not just scamming them. That the amount of the hydro bill was right, and the back door was kicked in.
C: They said they were broken into and they didn’t feel safe there anymore…But basically, it was the neighbour who got the farm next door. He would be over working [in the field] and see them and say “why don’t you have me over for coffee” and we think because he was so…
A: Nosey.
C: We called him the nosey neighbour. That he was so inquisitive, that they were afraid he might discover what they were up to and decided to leave.
ACH: In a way it was a benefit, that he was nosey, because they left sooner.
C: Before any serious damage could be done.
ACH: What was it like to see your story, or a version of your story, played out on stage?
C: I think the first time I was really curious, in how this is going portray what really happened. Is it going to cause any problems with friends and neighbours? Then after seeing it over and over it just was funny.
A: Every time it is done, it is done differently. Every director has their own take on it, along with the area they have to work with. One production we saw, the audience was on four sides.
ACH: You have seen it done in different places across the country and one of the really neat things about the script, is that Ken wants the local place names to be changed to match the local geography of wherever the play is being performed. To make it feel as though the story is happening in the local area.
C: It is interesting when friends see it, especially friends we haven’t seen in quite some time, and I will ask “do you think that is really like me”. They just laugh and say “ya some of it is”.
ACH: In Ken’s forward he mentions that you are clear that you don’t say “lord love a duck”.
A: Laughs. She won’t admit it. She hasn’t said it as much as she used to, let’s put it that way.
ACH: You talk about neighbours. When you discovered that your house was being used for a grow-op, how did the community respond?
C: I think because we had moved to London, we hadn’t really seen our neighbours. So I am not sure what their reaction was. The other’s felt sorry for us.
A: I guess the question a lot of them asked was “how much does this cost you”. And I said “it cost about $5000”, we were lucky. What it cost us, was some painting and cleaning up and we did one ceiling that really needed doing anyway. We got off lucky.
ACH: Very much so. I was struck by what Carolyn said earlier, that seeing more recent productions of the play you find it funny. The consequences were not as severe as they could have been. But this must have been a harrowing experience. Did you learn something from this experience?
C: Well if we were ever to rent again I would certainly be checking more diligently into their references. Although, I don’t know if we would have [found out] anything or not. Still you hope that you would uncover something that would make you say no.
A: You made that comment to someone we know in law enforcement and they said if you called references, they would have been primed to give the answers the renter would want them to give.
ACH: Oh of course they would not give real references. I had not thought about that.
A: One thing I learned was, I did not want to be a rental landlord.
ACH: It can be a fulltime job for sure. What is something you would like people to take away with them after listening to Harvest?
A: It can happen to anybody.
C: Be careful who you rent to.
A: It can even be happening around the corner.
C: Yes you don’t know what is happening next door.
Thank you so much to Carolyn and Allister for talking with me. You can listen to Harvest until July 11th by CLICKING HERE.