Nelson performing artist Bessie Wapp has been named Nelson’s 2015 cultural ambassador, following in the footsteps of fellow Kootenay artists such as Amy Bohigian, Anne DeGrace and Lucas Myers.
Wapp brings to the position an extensive background in acting, clown work, singing, stilt-dancing and a variety of other mediums. The 48-year-old, who grew up on the North Shore, performs as the lead singer of Bessie and the Back Eddies as well as pursuing a number of other creative pursuits.
The Star sat down with Wapp to discuss her creative development and to talk about what brought her to this point.
WHO IS BESSIE WAPP?
Wapp was born in the United States. As a two-year-old she moved to Toronto when her parents fled the Vietnam draft. She would eventually arrive in Nelson in 1971.
Her biological parents were both artists, and Wapp said she was raised in a very artistic household. It was at L.V. Rogers that she first began to explore her love for music with jazz choir teacher Bruce Hunter.
After graduating, she attended art school in Vancouver before transferring into Selkirk College’s music program. That’s where she serendipitously met musician Clinton Swanson, who she has been working with off and on for over two decades.
“I like to say music is my religion. I never feel more grounded and alive as when I’m working on a show, when I really have to step up to the plate,” she said.
Wapp moved back to Vancouver to pursue her career. She eventually ended up singing in a 12-member Balkan women’s choir.
“That was the first time that music had wide appeal internationally. I heard these recordings and I was blown away. I thought ‘I need to learn this stuff’. I vividly remember the first rehearsal I arrived at and the music was so compelling it just grabbed me,” she said.
After that, Wapp worked in a variety of creative projects before signing on with a stilt-dancing troupe called Mortal Coil, which she performed with for 13 years. Perhaps their greatest accomplishment in that time was an educational performance that toured to over 150 schools.
“We took curriculum teachers had to cover and we combined it with a very visual, very artistic delivery. It was hugely successful.”
Eventually, though, she decided to move on.
“Maybe it’s that thing where I had to work with other people. I also didn’t want to dance on stilts anymore. It’s hard on your body. It’s like standing on your heels at all times. You’re constantly catching your balance.”
Wapp ended her relationship and moved back to Nelson. It’s a move she’s been thankful for ever since.
“What brought me back was I had been working on a show based on some family history. My mom’s family, my great-grandparents, came over as Jews from Lithuania.”
Wapp had believed for some time that all of her relatives had been killed in a war, but chance correspondence brought together the sole adult survivor, who had successfully kept her four daughters alive, with her family.
After travelling to Lithuania, Wapp created an outdoor participatory theatre production called Letters from Lithuania that was hugely successful in Stanley Park.
During that process she collaborated with Oxygen Art Centre’s former executive director Nicola Harwood, who eventually invited her to mount a one-woman show in Nelson.
The final product, Hello, I Must Be Going was co-written with Harwood and her mother Judy. It was mounted in 2006.
“Creating and performing that was maybe the proudest moment in my career,” she said.
LOOKING AHEAD
Wapp said working in a number of different mediums can be challenging at times.
“On my bad days I can beat myself up for being a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. But I love that I get to explore all these things. That’s the amazing thing about living in Nelson, is the diversity of artistic opportunities I’ve had here.”
For instance, she was cast as Orpheus a few years ago in a community opera.
“In the big city I wouldn’t have gotten that opportunity because there would have probably been someone who’s an opera singer, who fit that narrow slot.”
Wapp continues to busily work in the area, and in February she will be performing in Shambhala Hall’s first ever theatrical performance Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
She continues to be passionate about her role in Bessie and the Back Eddies, she’s a member of the Balkan brass band the Oxygen Orkestar and she’s working on a folk opera called This Little Piggy.
During her acceptance speech at city council, she offered a wish that 2015 be full of “melody, rhythm, harmony, peace and joy for all of Nelson” and that the community’s support for the arts set an example “that cultivating creative expression results in mysterious, mind-expanding, heart-opening, life-affirming magical mojo.”
But that doesn’t mean the arts community is currently perfect. Wapp said there’s more work to do to create a vibrant and inclusive arts scene.
“There tends to be an expectation in Nelson of a willingness to spend huge amounts of time for almost no money, and that really has to change,” she said.
And as the city talks about championing multi-sectoral collaboration, Wapp is a little more hesitant.
“I think that plan is very ambitious. But more complexity is more complexity,” she said.
Wapp will be expected to represent and promote the city on her travels, increasing the visibility and cultural representation of Nelson.