30 Days of NYMF: Giant Killer Shark

“Giant Killer Great Times”

By Sam Sutherland (Creator)

If you’re reading this, we’ve made it into America and have probably performed this play about twice.  We’re unbelievably famous and have all bought lofts in Williamsburg, and we don’t have time for you anymore. Thanks for coming.

Before we reached this extravagant peak in our young lives, we were just five (or seven, or three, depending on the day) aimless youths living in snowy Canada. I really liked this famous killer shark movie that we could never hope to get the rights to satirize on stage, so we made this play where no one has a proper name and there’s rapping.  I had never written a play before, our director had never directed, and our actors included a guy I was in a band with and the theatre usher from Cheaper by the Dozen 2. Then we ended up selling out our whole run at the 2006 Toronto Fringe, did the same thing in 2007 in Winnipeg, and decided it was time to conquer America in 2008. I mean, where else do you go after the cosmopolitan metropolis that is Winnipeg? It’s like the New York City of Manitoba.

So basically, we do this play for love. We’ve had a bunch of people who know all kinds of stuff about real theatre say super-nice things about us, we’ve sold out pretty much every performance we’ve done since day two, and one time some kids from New Jersey drove to Toronto to see us. Coolest kids ever. Since 2006, Giant Killer Shark: The Musical has grown from a weird vanity project for me into a big ol’ beast that is equally owned by all the people who you see in / around it. Which is, I think, why it’s now in New York (for, you know, three shows) and not just getting performed by high schoolers in Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Anyway, now we’re all mad rich and famous, so thanks, America. We owe you a beer.