In this series of interviews, I sent several questions to couples who are bringing shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe together. In this edition, Stephen Smith and Stephanie Van Driesen talk about how to work through annoyance at each other, what they’ve learned working together, and the morning routine that keeps them going.
Who are you?
Stephen: My name is Stephen Smith.
Stephanie: I’m Stephanie Andreasen.
Stephen: We are a couple heading to Edinburgh Fringe, presenting 36 shows over 23 days this summer.
How long have you been together?
Stephen: How long have we been together, honey?
Stephanie: Five and a half years.
Where did you meet?
Stephanie: We met at a physical theater acting class. And I think it was at…
Stephen: Jackson’s Lane in Highgate, Islington. It was a physical theater class that my tutor from LIPA, I went to LIPA up in Liverpool, she was doing a class down in London, and we met and Stephanie came with a load of friends.
What is your history in working together?
Stephen: Well, we started, I guess, working together properly in the pandemic cause everything went into lockdown and we started doing digital theater shows from home. Those were filmed with my brother helping out. The first show we did together was The Tell-Tale Heart, which is one of the stories that we’re presenting at the Edinburgh Fringe. So it’s nice to kind of go full circles with that one. Besides that, we haven’t really worked together before. Oh, wait, no, I did direct, so I directed Stephanie in a production called Fire Embers Ash, which we did at the Barons Court Theater, earlier this year, January of this year. But besides from that we work together pretty much every day in terms of being partners with each other.
Stephanie: With Tell-Tale Heart, Stephen was the one that was kind of creating everything. He performed it. I was helping out mainly with sound, a bit of lighting and, composing a bit of a weird score for Tell-Tale heart, which we performed during live stream. And then after that we did Within, which was another, similar thing in the pandemic as well, a live stream play that Stephen played in the main role. And it was a similar thing to Tell-Tale Heart, where I was doing a bit of the light and sound. And so was his brother, as a cameraman and everything.
Stephen: I went on to create other online shows outside of the home, but those were the two that we did initially.
What is the best thing about working together?
Stephanie: Stephen’s a good leader. He he’s he’s got a very clear idea of what he wants. So for me, it’s it’s kind of like, just sort of following that. I support him. And then later on as well, I kind of did a bit of sound or rather just operated his shows for a couple of things. He was putting on the play, Paved with Gold and Ashes, some of the London previews last year before they went up to the Edinburgh Fringe. I just helped out with operating light and sound. And he makes it so easy. I think he will put put technicians out of a job because he’s found a way to simplify at least a sound part of playing tracks and everything, on an app on the phone and stuff. So it’s kind of idiot proofing it, so that anyone can do it and I suppose hence I can step in.
Stephen: Yeah. And, I mean, I just love working with Stephanie because she’s such a professional and she gets the job done. And she’s just very, very good at what she does. Everything she does.
What is the worst thing about working together?
Stephen: The worst thing. I suppose it’s it’s it’s somewhat hard to separate the work aspect of our relationship to, you know, the… Well, just being a husband and wife relationship. I like to think that, not too stressed out about lots of things. I do get a little bit stressy the about the shows, but I’m quite calm when it comes to the actual performance side of things. It’s more the admin and producing that I kind of get all stressed out about that Stephanie has to endure. But when we’re actually doing the shows, I like to think we kind of have a lot of fun. But yeah, it’s that’s kind of work life separation, I suppose when you’re when you’re working with your life partner.
Stephanie: When Stephen gets quite, anxious about certain details, I have to navigate that. He’s very methodical and likes to plan things well in advance and have all the details ironed out. For me, it’s a bit like playing jazz sometimes. I just kind of like I get a general idea of what’s going on, and then I just start and then I figure it out as I go along. So it’s a bit of a messier approach, and I think sometimes we clash on that because it can be quite frustrating for him when I, you know, like if I’m doing something and I’m making last minute decisions that he hasn’t factored in, or, you know, I’m finding maybe something that he’s proposed to be maybe a little bit strict, but it that’s all part of it.
How do you respond to criticism from each other?
Stephen: Yeah, it that’s been a process, I suppose. Certainly on my part, I mean, I can be quite reactionary in that regard. But I think we’ve learned to well, I’ve learned to kind of maybe reflect on it over time and then come back to you kind of thing. But, I don’t know where we both hold each other to a kind of high standard for for the sake of being happy with each other. I wouldn’t call it criticism, really, I don’t know. I’d like to think we’re, well, if anything, constructive
Stephanie:I know it depends on how we feel on the day. Because sometimes we, you know, we can take things a little bit too personally. You kind of always have it’s a good exercise to just sort of have a larger view and, you know. You might react in the moment, but then you go like, “actually now there’s a good point”. So it’s yeah, it’s a work in progress. No one’s perfect.
When roles do you play when you are working together?
Stephen: Well, both by and large, it’s me performing and Stephanie operating. However, with Fire, Embers and Ash earlier, it was the other way around.
How can you tell when the other person is annoyed?
Stephen: That’s an interesting one I guess. Well facial expressions, it’s quite obvious.
Stephanie: Body language, tone of voice.
Stephen: Yeah, yeah. And we like to talk about things there and then if so.
Stephanie: Yeah, I think Stephen’s definitely a lot more willing address the annoyance or resolve stuff. Maybe me being part Asian or something, I suppose I tend to kind of like stew in something, or try to think of when when I should bring something up. But but I’ve learned from Stephen, I try to address it at the time as well, which is which is tough. But, you know, we’re all learning from each other as well.
What sort of media, music, movies, TV have you gotten each other into?
Stephen: Oh, I kind of like the deeper, kind of darker stuff, in terms of movies and TV. And I don’t know, I’ve been blasting out a bit of hip hop recently. I quite like how different our tastes can be, and I don’t really want that to change, personally. Plus we both work very hard on our kind of individual stuff. And sometimes movies, TVs, TV shows can be a bit of a distraction, I find. So I mean, what we do do is we read together, we do fitness stuff together. But, you know, we don’t read the same book. Obviously, we’re reading individual books. What have you got to say?
Stephanie: I think like, especially over the pandemic, because there’s a lot of time to watch, Stephen was always ready to watch something dark or horror and and for me, I don’t really. That’s not really my sort of main focus. I kind of the opposite really, but it was interesting. I’m always curious. So it was fun to watch the stuff that I normally wouldn’t watch. And he’s got a pretty good ear for music. You know, he’s sort of, I wouldn’t say he’s sort of got me into anything similar to what he said, but it’s it’s just nice to experience what the other person likes. For just a couple of hours, I guess. We do sometimes argue on what movie to watch, because he might be in the mood for something really, you know, horror or something. And I’m like, no, I just want to watch rom com.
Stephen: Well, I hardly watch horror. To be fair, it’s more deep and dark true life stories or something.
Stephanie: Yeah. Something that would make me, like, feel uncomfortable.
How do you encourage each other in those all is lost moments?
Stephanie: Well, hopefully both of us aren’t feeling doom and gloom at the same time because then it just kind of like can’t really help each other, but that doesn’t really happen. Usually it’s one person’s kind of down feeling down too. And we always offer suggestions.
Stephen: Perspective.
Stephanie: Perspective, or offer to help as well. Yeah, a bit in small way. And sometimes that’s just enough, you know, just to listen to it. That person usually just needs a listening ear at the time. Or, you know, sometimes just a suggestion to do something like something physical, something active and just distract yourself for a while. We have a good practice now where we do yoga every morning together and we read every morning together as much as we can. Which kind of sets a day up.
Stephen: I feel if all is lost later in the day, we know that we started it.
What about working together has made you a better artist?
Stephen: Well, just being supported. I mean, just just having that kind of unconditional love and support. The kind of stuff I do, or did from the pandemic onwards was really honoring my kind of inner child, obviously, like with all the horror stuff that I now do on stage. But, so yeah, just kind of feeling, supported and loved in whatever I do, that’s helped. Definitely helps.
Stephanie: When he directed, Fire and Ash and I was in it, it was nice to have a director who let you do your thing and let you find everything yourself. But at the same time picked you up on the things that he really wanted to see you change or what really wasn’t working. And I had to kind of separate in my mind the future husband at the time Stephen from the director Stephen and that was probably just a good boundary setting exercise.
What are you bringing to the Fringe?
Stephen: One is a quadruple bill of Edgar Allan Poe horror stories, which I’ll be performing from the second to the 24th, and also a new show called A Montage of Monet, where I’m playing Monet, the French impressionist, which will be performing from the second to the 17th. I’ve done the Fringe a few times. Stephanie has been to Edinburgh, but outside of the fringe. So this is the first Edinburgh Fringe for Stephanie. So I know what not to do, I know what to do. And what we have done recently is booked a load of shows that we know we’d be able to make and also kind of using our Fringe Friends discounts and avoiding booking booking fees and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I know how to have a very fulfilling but frugal Fringe, and I hope that Stephanie feels both fulfilled and frugal by the end of this.
Stephanie: I really do admire Stephen’s ability to structure everything and put one foot in front of the other because he really is pretty much doing everything. In the lead up, you know, he’s acting, he’s designing all the shows as well, and he’s kind of producing everything and marketing it all as well, with the help of our lovely producer Joan Greening who also wrote A Montage of Monet. And she’s been a wonderful support, too. I’m really just there also to be a pair of hands to operate the shows. And I suppose I will be cook as well while I’m there, too.
Stephen: Yeah, well, I’m always sous chef.
One Man Poe: The Black Cat and the Raven is at Greenside @ Riddle’s Court Closer Studio at 18:20 on August 10, 13, 15, 17, 20, 22, and 24th. One Man Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart and the Pit and the Pendulum is at Greenside @ Riddle’s Court Closer Studio at 18:20 on August 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 21, and 23rd. A Montage of Monet is at Greenside @ George Street Mint Studio at 14:00 on Aug 9-10 and 12-17.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Erin Murray Quinlan is an American playwright, amateur beekeeper, and proud confirmed solver of ‘Cain’s Jawbone’. Her full biography can be found at erinmurrayquinlan.com.
