This stage actor left Canada because of its 'glass ceiling.' Now she's back to break through it.

When Goldy Notay moved to the U.K. as a young adult, she made herself a promise: One day, she'd come to Toronto as a professional, working actor.

"I always wanted to be in Toronto," she tells CBC Arts. "That was my dream." 

Over the next few months, Notay will make that dream come true twofold. This month, she's playing the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre with the touring cast of Life of Pi. Then, in April, she'll head to the Bluma Appel Theatre with the cast of Mahabharata, a sprawling, two-part epic produced by Why Not Theatre and Canadian Stage.

Born in India and raised in Stratford, Ont., Notay trained as an actor at George Brown College. But she says her early years as a theatre student were marred by incidents of racism, so when the opportunity arose, she moved to England to continue to pursue her craft. She knew she'd return to Canada when the time was right, she says.

"Growing up in Stratford was a really hostile environment," she says. "We had quite a few racially-motivated incidents when I was growing up. And then theatre school, too, was a challenge — the lessons were taught through intimidation, and it often felt like quite a toxic environment. I didn't feel at the time that it was an equal playing field for someone who looked like me, and I had the opportunity to move to the U.K., so I did. 

"In Canada, I could see the glass ceiling," she continues. "But I didn't know how to crack it open. So I thought, well, I can always come back. I dreamt of going back to Toronto to perform. Whenever I heard of a project that was heading to Toronto, I tried to put myself up for it."

It's a fabulous coincidence that Life of Pi and Mahabharata will play Toronto stages so close together, says Notay, but it's an opportunity she's been working toward for most of her career. 

What makes these shows special is their emphasis on spectacle and grandness. Life of Pi, based on the novel by Yann Martel, requires its actors to maneuver a cast of enormous, intricate puppets, while Mahabharata asks its players to rotate through a series of different characters. Mahabharata is a six-hour, two-part affair that in past engagements has included a communal meal — it's a marathon for its cast and audience alike.

Both productions, says Notay, ask its cast to stretch their abilities as performers. In Life of Pi, Notay plays Amma, Pi's mother, which also involves playing an orangutan alongside a group of fellow puppeteers. 

"I had to learn puppetry, which is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do," says Notay. "I was thrust into it. I did loads of research on orangutans, their behaviours, their sounds, how they move. And then we had several weeks of being inside the puppet and moving with the other puppeteers — there are three of us inside the orangutan. I had to learn to breathe with them, and move with them, and I learned a lot by watching the other puppeteers."

Notay says the puppetry of Life of Pi completely changed how she thinks about her own body and breath when she's onstage. 

"There was so much to learn," she says, "and it's been an extraordinary experience. When you get it right, it's so moving to be inside that puppet. You feel like you're the body of the sun. It's given me such a newfound love and appreciation for orangutans."

There's a lot of precise coordination that goes into puppets as large as those in Life of Pi, says Notay. "We're always talking it through — we do warm-ups that bring us together as a community, a tribe of actors, and all of that helps when we're inside the animal. Orangutans aren't very social beings, so that was really quite something to learn."

Mahabharata, too, is vast in its scope and stagecraft. Based on the Sanskrit epic of the same name, Why Not Theatre's adaptation of the longform poem explores themes of revenge, ecocide and genealogy. While the stage version doesn't quite feature all 2,700 characters of the original myth, the two-part play does require its actors to play several parts at once, switching between them quickly as the story unfolds.

"I was no expert on Mahabharata, but [director Ravi Jain] was actually fine with that," says Notay. "He didn't want the cast to be a tribe full of experts; he wanted a mixture of people. He understood I was passionate about learning about it — and about coming back to Toronto. He knew my dreams were here.

"I'm a little bit terrified of the prospect," she continues, "but I'm equally fascinated by how we're going to do this." One of Notay's favourite monologues unpacks the notion of complicity in regards to a ceremonial disrobing in a room full of men — "it's such a powerful moment," she says. "When I did that monologue at the Barbican Theatre in London, in front of over 2,000 people, I wasn't just speaking to the actors onstage with me. I was speaking to the entire congregation at the Barbican."

Notay's looking forward to reconnecting with the Pi and Mahabharata casts in Canada — in many ways, she says, the rehearsals are her favourite part of any creative process.

"I love rehearsal," she shares. "More than doing the show, sometimes — the critics are there, and the anxiety, it's a whole other sphere of emotions that come in. But in rehearsals, you can try all sorts of things. I love connecting with my castmates, and researching — there's always something new to discover."