Brampton Culture Worker Profile: Danny

Danny Harvey, a lifelong Bramptonian, has been a performing arts professional for the past 22 years. Currently functioning as the Programming and Presenting Coordinator for Brampton on Stage at the City of Brampton, Danny curates the presenting series at The Rose Theatre, Lester B Pearson and Garden Square. This performing arts series is multidisciplinary providing Theatre, Music, Dance, and Comedy to the people of Brampton. Prior to this Danny was the artistic director of the Shakespeare in the Square festival as well as the producing wing of the Brampton performing arts department. Danny has been a performer and artistic director on amateur and professional stages for the past 19 years having directed some 40 plays and musicals. A Graduate of Humber College – Comedy Writing and Performance program, Central Peel Secondary School, and winner of a Sears Festival award for performance excellence in the year 2000.

We interviewed our colleague Danny for this Resource Package. He spoke about his career path in performing arts and why he thinks Hamlet is a meaningful play. Here are a few quotes from that discussion.

On what he does in his job… “As Artistic Programming Coordinator, it's my job to source pieces of theatrical, multidisciplinary programming. I'm looking at drama, dance, all different forms of music, comedy, spoken word, the list goes on. It's my job to source it, see it, and then look at it against the goals of the team. We showcase different artists that could be exciting or new to see, as well as family experiences. We want the whole community to be represented in the performing arts, so they can see themselves on stage, see artists they admire on stage, and have incredible experiences of gathering together in a live space and watching art unfold.”

On his own career path… “I wanted to go to some sort of performance school, and I hate to put it this way, but I was not the best student. I wasn't very focused and didn't do the work as I should have. I didn't have the grades. I'd always been kind of funny, I didn’t mind being the butt of the joke. I figured, why not take a shot at this new program: Comedy Writing and Performance at Humber College. I went did an audition and was invited to be in the class.

It was a beautiful and a hard experience. A room full of class clowns is a heck of a place to be. But the courses in improv writing, stand up, movement and voice for the actor, history of comedy, it all just made me so well-rounded and made me understand not just comedy, but performance in the industry. It can be challenging, but can also be collaborative and a beautiful place to create. It also taught me to have a sense of humor about everything.

On Hamlet… “Hamlet is essentially a perfect story. It has everything you need. And even to this day, even though it's hundreds of years old, it surprises me every time I see or read it. It's not predictable, even though we know how it ends. Everything is led to through kind of a stream of consciousness and an interesting way of thinking. And I think that is how people think. It really shows a human condition where everybody's imperfect, nobody's truly evil. And even though they do evil things or they do good things, there's something wrong with everybody and something good and sincere in everybody. And that's the world as I see it.”

Advice on careers in the arts… “If you like the arts and want to be involved, my biggest piece of advice is see everything, go to everything. If there's a show you don't think you're going to like, go anyway! You're going to find something in it. Always approach everything with an open mind.”