Interview with Daffy Creative Leads
Interview by: Ashley Li & Subin Park
Karen Li is a second-year medical student who loves to write, listen to and play music, sketch, and explore other artistic media.
Julian is a third-year MD/PhD student, and the love child of Bonnie Tyler and Hercule Poirot.
Jasmine is a first year medical student and was a writer for Daffy this year.
Aditi is a second year medical student and was the Director and a Producer for Daffy 2024. She loves musicals and enjoys reading, baking and cooking for her food instagram, and playing badminton in her spare time.
Q: Could everyone introduce themselves, and tell us a little bit about what inspired/motivated you to join Daffy initially?
Aditi: My name is Aditi. I'm a second-year medical student. I've done various roles and performances before. In high school, it was orchestras, and before that, I used to be more on stage, dancing, singing, and acting. . .I came into musicals kind of late. I only really started getting involved more behind the scenes in my undergrad years. So when it came to University of Toronto (UofT), and I saw that Daffy was a thing, I was really intrigued because that's not something I thought would be a typical extracurricular in medical school. . .I was involved last year [in] an assistant directing and assistant stage managing capacity. . .[This year] was my first time [being a director]. I've never done it before, but I really liked the little exposure I got to it last year and wanted to take more of a role in the creative sense, rather than just handling more logistics behind the scenes.
Julian: I'm Julian. I'm a third-year MD/PhD student. I never really had any involvement in musical theater before medical school, but for the past three years I've been involved with Daffy as a part of the band. In the first two years of Daffy, I really liked seeing how the stories came to life, and how we were able to involve music and display everyone's wonderful talents on stage, in the band, and behind the stage too. And that inspired me to want to take a creative role this year [as a writer]. I had some ideas and I think that working with the other writers, we were really able to put them together and make a great show.
Karen: I’m a second-year medical student, and I was a writer and band member for Daffy this year. Having played the violin in orchestras and other ensembles, I wanted to join a community of fellow artists and musicians. The sense of community and support at Daffy was apparent from the first rehearsal, so I stayed, and I also came back the next year!
Jasmine: I'm Jasmine. I'm in my first-year of the MD/PhD program. . .I was lucky enough to do some theater in undergrad, and I really enjoyed writing and getting to work with creative people, so I thought this was a super cool way to get acquainted with the medical community as a first year and rise up to the challenge of helping to write this two-hour musical. I thought it would be a good way to also get to know my peers [and] like minded people who are passionate about the arts.
Q: What was your involvement in the arts before Daffy? A musical is a collaboration between so many different aspects of the arts—how did your background inform your approach and how did you find the transition to the medium of a musical?
Aditi: I've been playing piano since I was four or five, then I started playing the violin in middle school, and I was doing orchestra for all of middle school and high school. . .I also used to be a Bollywood and Indian classical dancer most of my life through high school as well. In the last year of my high school, I produced our variety show. . .so that was when I started to get more into behind the scenes stuff. And then at McMaster, in my first year, we did a residence musical. . .I helped produce that as well and helped build the sets for the McMaster musical theater in my second year.
In terms of my background in forming my approach, because I'm someone who filled multiple roles before,. . .I brought a little bit of my experience, [such as,] how when I was on stage what I wished were going on behind the scenes and also from my recent experience knowing what you put into rehearsals that makes life behind the scenes easier.
This [was] my first year doing any form of formal direction. It was a little bit challenging in the sense that I had ideas, but I wasn't entirely sure how it would transition onto stage because I've never been solely responsible for giving ideas that then get translated onto stage. . .But I think the fact that I had a diverse background across various forms of involvement in the arts helped me to figure out what it is that I would have wanted had I been a member of the band, member of dance, member of cast, or member of crew, and tried to take that perspective and transition into the medium of musical. I think by drawing on those past experiences it worked fairly seamlessly.
Julian: My involvement in the arts before Daffy is mainly from a musical perspective. I played the cello for many years—since elementary school—and piano and other instruments too. I've always loved being in ensembles like orchestras and bands. When I joined medical school, it felt natural to want to participate in something like Daffy because it was an opportunity to collaborate with other musicians and create music together. In the first year that I joined [Daffy] during the pandemic, everything was done virtually and asynchronously, so we didn't actually get to play together as a band. So coming out of that experience, it was really important for me to participate in the band as a community and to work and collaborate with other people to add our own personal touch to the music in the play. . .In terms of writing the script, we really wanted a lot of opportunities for the band and the singing to really shine through and carry the musical.
Karen: I’ve always loved storytelling and creating narratives through different media, so witnessing the fusion of so many aspects of the arts was an eye-opening and fulfilling experience. I have dabbled in visual arts, but I identify mostly as a musician and a writer. There is something special about integrating aspects of the arts that often work in silos. The collaboration requires so much communication, mutual respect, and sometimes compromise, and I have so much admiration for the leads who made all of this possible.
Jasmine: Before Daffy, I was mostly involved in the acting side of the theater. I did do some writing, but I wasn't really into it until the later years of my undergrad [at UofT]. . .Some of the most memorable [memories] include High School Musical, Theory of Relativity, and some lesser known ones too, and some student written works as well. I had a lot of fun acting and that informed the way that I contributed to the writing of Daffy. As an actor, it's always great to have layers and the level of depth to the characters even if the character is not the main role. It's always great when everyone in the script has a story, reasons, and motives for acting the way that they do. It inspired me to advocate for an ensemble cast, which as we know, our script this year very much highlighted. . .It's always great to see different cast members shine in their own different ways.
Q: Last year, the script and score was written by one person and this year it was a collaboration between multiple writers. What was that process like? How did the idea for this story come together?
Julian: The collaborative approach allows for lots of different ideas to come together and for us to synthesize something that not one person could really create on [their] own. . Sometimes for the sections that I wrote, I would include something that was inconsistent, something that didn't make sense, or a joke that didn't land, and one of the other writers would catch it. I was also able to contribute and help build on others’ ideas as well. I think that collaborative process really helped us synergistically create a play that would be better than anything that any of us could create individually. . .I really think we carried a lot of everybody's ideas through to the end, and I think that was really valuable.
Jasmine: [We were] there for each other, catching different plot holes. . .and making sure that things [made] sense. It was really great to have more eyes on the script and making sure that [the story was] as cohesive as possible. . .I think it was Julian’s idea to have a 'whodunit’ genre, and I I believe it was my idea to [time travel to] the 80s. It was a mashup of different people’s inspirations and ideas, and somehow we made it all coalesce. Having other people's perspectives is super useful as a writer because it makes you more aware of the different ways that different lines can land with an audience, and being in a team makes you more able to see where some scenes might be unnecessary or you might need to add more to a specific character to make them more realistic or relatable.
Aditi: When I put out the applications for writers, I always wanted there to be more than one because you get a lot of like depth and quality of ideas when there's multiple people working together. . .I think incorporating [Julian, Karen, and Jasmine’s] visions worked really well. . .The thing that surprises people the most is I was actually talking to like Julian and Karen during the entire audition process because if I saw someone who auditioned who would fit well with the musical, but the role didn't necessarily vibe,. . .they were so great taking that feedback and adding in different roles and modifying the story.
Q: The work certainly didn’t end once the script was written. Could you tell us about your experience translating this script into reality? Were there any surprises?
Aditi: In terms of translating this script to the actual show on-stage, I think because the process had been so collaborative up to that point, and because Julian and Karen were also there at the first read through and able to answer questions for some of the cast members about what their characters personalities are and what the backstory is, it helped. . .our main five characters [to] feel grounded in their characters when we came into the first rehearsals. In terms of trying to translate it onto stage, there were definitely some changes. One of the changes. . .[was] based on the chemistry between the five [main cast members]. Those were some areas where, I knew what the original intention was with the script, and we maybe took the dialogue in a little bit of a different direction, either playing things up so that the characters are more angry or frustrated, or playing it down so they're more sad when maybe the original dialogue wasn't intended to be as sad.
In terms of surprises or unexpected challenges,. . .we had a member of the band who is an alumni of Daffy, and before COVID, Daffy had this tradition of having an original song. That tradition got lost in translation over the years of COVID, so it was not something we were aware of. It ended up being added pretty late in the game because that suggestion was made the last week of November, and then by the time we got around to initial drafts of what that original song compositionally would look like, we were into mid-January. The biggest challenge was from a timing perspective, because our musical opens mid-February, so we only had a month to work and finalize that. . .I think that while it ended up being a challenge at the time, it ended up working for the benefit of the story, and I can't quite imagine it without that song in it now.
Julian: I think a lot of times in musicals, because the band is backstage or in the pit and they're not seen, they can often be forgotten in the creative process, and I've definitely seen that in the past. A lot of the time, the band is not on the same page with many other aspects of the show. But this year, because everyone really worked together as a team, and the production meetings were so collaborative and positive, everyone's voice really got to be heard. Band was really able to stay step-by-step with what was going on in terms of the acting and everything. I think that really allowed us to have the songs fit well with the singers. As Aditi mentioned, when it came time for the original song, we were able to fit that in relatively late in the game in terms of production. Usually, when different aspects of the musical aren't cohesive and aren't talking to each other as well, changes at the last minute like that can be really challenging. But I was really impressed at how willing everyone was to compromise, and I think that collaborative spirit allowed us to make changes throughout the production timeline so that the script was ultimately as good as it could be by the time we got to the performance.
Jasmine: It was incredibly rewarding to see the lines being delivered in such an amazing, thoughtful, creative way by the actors, and so many of Julian's jokes in the script, the audience just loved them. I was so happy that people enjoyed it, and it really made me want to continue working on Daffy in the future.
Q: What was it like to see your work come to life? What was the response from the community/audience?
Karen: As a violinist for the band, I first saw the play come together during one of our joint rehearsals sometime in January. I was in awe of the way the cast members incorporated their own personality and interpretations into the story to create authentic, real, and well-rounded characters. I can’t speak for everyone in the audience, but many of my friends and family were impressed by the level of mastery demonstrated by the cast (and of course everyone involved in the show).
Julian: It was really fun to see the lines that we wrote come to life. I think the actors did an amazing job and they really added life and personality to characters, which up to that point, had just been in our imagination. I remember because Karen and I sit beside each other in the band every time. If there’s a joke or an important part of the play, we're waiting to see if the audience is gonna catch onto what we were intending. Every time they would laugh or they would gasp, it'd be really satisfying. We'd be like, ‘yeah!’ and you'll high-five, or that kind of energy. . .The whole process was really rewarding. Credit to Aditi for translating the script to really bring everything to life!
Jasmine: I also just wanted to hugely congratulate Aditi on translating everything to the stage in such a beautiful way. I wasn't involved in the production process, so it was all just kind of a surprise to me to show up on Thursday and see how everything was put together. The cohesiveness of all the design elements, the set lighting, the costumes, making them sort of convey the '80s vibe. . .Everything worked so intricately with each other to convey the message—it was all so well done. As a writer, you have an idea of the plot points, but you don't necessarily always think of exactly how the actors are moving or how the blocking is going to be done. The actors took such spontaneous, unique and creative ways to play with the script and make it their own. So it was rewarding to say the least.
Aditi: I agree, it was definitely very rewarding. I guess from my perspective because I'm at every single rehearsal, I see everything unfold. . .and getting to see it all come together with the lighting, the set, all of the props, costumes, and the sound effects, etc. during our actual tech week was very rewarding. Up until that point, I had this vision in my head of how everything would look even though we didn't have all of those technical elements during rehearsal. Getting to see it come together, especially during tech week and then during the opening shows, was really spectacular. The moment for me that felt the most like, "Oh my goodness, I'm so glad it worked," was the original song. Hearing the lyrics being sung to the orchestration that Yuang did,. . .and then seeing it on stage, I was like, "Oh, I'm so glad that this works.". . .Overall, it was a very rewarding experience to get to see what was in my head come to life. [Everyone] honestly did better than I could have ever imagined. The combo of band, dance, crew, tech, and cast worked so beautifully together.
Q: What did you hope would be the key takeaway from this year’s Daffy?
Julian: [This year’s Daffy] was only the second Daffy that we've had since the pandemic. . . .What I really wanted people involved in the production to take away is that collaboration works—working together and openly communicating. Everyone is really a core part of what makes Daffy so great, and I hope that that's something the 2T7’s are able to carry forward into next year—to carry on the tradition of how important collaboration is.
Aditi: The biggest thing for me, coming back to Daffy this year, was wanting to create a sense of community. It existed to a certain extent last year, but there were so many new challenges to navigate with last year being the first year back in-person. This year, I really wanted to take everything I had learned from being involved last year and incorporate some of the lessons that I learned so that we were able to really focus on having a great community and a great collaborative effort for this musical. This was why I was so particular, especially when we started our Saturday rehearsals, that there needed to be production meetings, so we're able to talk about things and ensure that everyone's voice is heard.
Jasmine: People are so, so busy in medical school and it’s so hard to find the time to do the things that we love and bring us joy. This year's Daffy, all the years before, and all the years to come are evidence to show how valuable the arts can be for future physicians, and the impact that it can have on our development.
Karen: The play this year was all about teamwork, community, and camaraderie, both within and outside of medicine. None of us is alone, and none of us can be alone. For me, Daffy has always been about the people as much as it is about the arts. I hope the shows served as a reminder to check in on our loved ones, to reach out for help when we need it, and to stand by each other through life’s ups and downs.
Q: How will you incorporate the arts into your future career? What is the value of medical students engaging in projects like this?
Aditi: We think of the career path, trajectory and the job of the physician as being super technical and scientific, revolving around evidence-based medicine. But at the end of the day, it's a humanistic profession. You're working with people. To connect with people [is] where the artistry aspect helps you build the ability and capacity to have compassion and empathy, and to work with people. At the end of the day, a lot of what we do involves taking a medical history from the person. But, it's also listening to the person's story, understanding who they are, and then tailoring all of this information and knowledge that we've learned to apply it to the person in front of us. I think involvement in the arts is instrumental in building a lot of those soft and technical skills to be able to do that. It ties into making you more of a person-forward physician. . .For the rest of my time in medical school, I’ll continue to stay as connected as I can to endeavors like Daffy in order to keep that connection alive and well in whatever capacity I'm able to do. I think it's about never forgetting the kind of joy and lessons that art brings, whether that means continuing to play an instrument or continuing to attend future Daffys, or continuing to engage in any form of the artistic organizations that exist for the physician community. They are a significant part of our community—bands, musical groups, choirs, etc. There's a lot of like-minded people in medicine who have interest in the arts, and you just have to look to find them in order to stay engaged.
Julian: I'm really fortunate to be in the MD/PhD program. I think that the MD/PhD program has a long tradition of being involved in Daffy because we have the benefit of being able to participate in multiple years over the course of our program. Certain MD/PhD students have been instrumental in carrying the community and the spirit of Daffy forward throughout the years, and I'm looking forward to being able to participate in that field further in the future.
Karen: For me, the arts have helped me become a more thoughtful, empathetic person with a greater appreciation and curiosity for the narratives of those around me. Daffy also served as a reminder of aspects of my identity outside of medicine. My love for the arts and music is one of the key things that make me who I am. Projects like Daffy provide a platform for medical students to explore the intersection between arts and medicine. Moreover, they teach us lessons about being a clinician beyond what can be taught in a classroom.
