Name: Michael Green
Title: Artistic Director
Affiliation: One Yellow Rabbit/High Performance Rodeo

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I was born outside of Toronto, the first child of English immigrants to Canada. We lived all over Canada, but the FLQ crisis of 1972 sent us fleeing to Calgary from Montreal. Although my parents continued their peripatetic lifestyle, I settled down and co-founded One Yellow Rabbit and High Performance Rodeo.

2. What do you look for when you’re seeking out new work?

Entertainment – that’s what I look for. I need to be engaged. My tastes are very catholic. I enjoy more different kinds of experiences than anyone else I know. I think this makes it easier for me to program challenging and satisfying performance for a broad cross section of Calgary’s public.

3. What was your most remarkable moment as a curator/presenter/producer?

I produced Whoopi Goldberg at Calgary’s Off Centre Centre Gallery in spring 1982. Six months later, she was on the cover of Vanity Fair.

4. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

Bolton, England, 1959: I saw Wishy jump into the washing machine to hide from his angry mother. Wishy’s mother was played by a man, but I didn’t know that then. This was old fashioned British panto on the Blackpool Pier. Wishy’s mother turned on the washing machine, and Wishy went right through the wringer and came out flat as a pancake. I leapt right out of my chair and somehow ended up marching around the piano with a balloon.

5. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I wish my French was better. I’ll keep working on it, though.