Q&A: EDINBURGH 2024: Leah Coloff on SUPER SECOND RATE

How did you first get involved in the world of music?

My Dad! He was a music teacher, an inveterate lover of classical music and also a cellist. He started giving me lessons when I was six years old.

What inspired the creation of Super Second Rate?

My Dad! Ha ha! A few years ago, I was helping my Mom clean out the house I grew up in. I found the draft (It was actually three drafts!) of a letter that he wrote to my conservatory cello teacher. It was not positive. I thought that I had mostly come to terms with the relationship I had with my Dad and music, but reading this letter stirred it all up. I knew I needed to take a closer look. My relationship with my Dad was complicated. What parent-child relationship isn’t? But there was this extra layer having spent my life pursuing a craft that held childhood trauma for me. I was always questioning if I kept at it because I was trying to heal that trauma or because I have an abiding love for music. 

The show is also a portrait of my Dad in all of his complexities. He was a very creative artistic person and I appreciate that I grew up with art being a priority. But his unlived dreams dictated the direction of my life. We’re all born into specific situations, familial and societal that can dictate our futures if we don’t understand their conditioning. I also discovered that I have an adventurous spirit and I protected my inner creativity. 

What has the creative process been like for Super Second Rate?

Initially, I responded to the letter by writing songs because music-making is my first creative impulse. I created black-out poetry from the letters, using words and phrases from them as lyrics. Then the title came to me. The phrase has been in the back of my mind for years and I thought it's the perfect antidote to Dad’s obsessive need for my sister and me to be string players and the striving for perfection that’s such a part of classical music.

Getting and taking feedback has been crucial to the process. I joined a writing group for structure and started writing stories. Eventually, I started editing them together into a cohesive piece of theatre, whittling the stories down to their essence to create flow.  I started working with a director. I knew I needed the perspective of someone else to bring the show alive. 

How do you combine storytelling and music, particularly the genre you like to call “CLUNK,” to make a show like Super Second Rate?

I think of it as a collage. The songs capture the emotional centre of the stories. I also like to underscore the stories with playing. The juxtaposition creates meaning.

What is it like telling your personal story as a performance?

I often question why I’m doing it. I mean, who cares? Then I remind myself that I love other people’s stories and how they reflect back to my life.  I was offered a work-in-progress showing last summer and I thought, OK, we'll see how people respond. If it's a lead balloon, I don't ever have to do this again. I've written about this dastardly letter from my Dad, thoroughly worked it over and I can move on- 'nough said. BUT! People got it - they related to it. 

What is it like bringing a show up to the Edinburgh Fringe from the United States?

It’s been quite a bit of work since I’m producing it myself. But a lovely actor/singer/creator, Lori Hamilton, brought a show to Fringe recently and she connected me to the people she’d worked with. It made it feel possible. And they’ve all been fabulous. I feel really lucky and grateful to have made those contacts. It’s going to be an adventure!

What do you hope audiences take away from Super Second Rate?

Even though it's very specifically about my musical upbringing with my overbearing Dad, almost everyone can relate to feeling that they can't - or don't want to - live up to the expectations of their family/parents. Most people spend their lives navigating the systems of values, beliefs and expectations they receive from their family of origin and also society.  I hope that it’s captivating and takes people on a quest that will spark reflection. And also entertain. 

How would you describe Super Second Rate in one word?

I’m going to go with “humane.” The show is really about family, intimacy and what we choose to do with our lives. Everyone is travelling that road.

Super Second Rate runs from 2 to 17 August (no performance on 11 August) at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall - Haldane Theatre at the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Photo Credit: Paula Court

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