Actress/comedian Kirsten Van Ritzen has starred in a plethora of plays, acted in television commercials, and toured with a live theatre troupe.
But Victorians most likely know her as the creator of and actress in her own live theatre improv show, Sin City.
Van Ritzen and her partner moved to Victoria in late 2010; just a few months later, they created Sin City, and they have been performing here ever since. Every year, a new installment is introduced, with a new setting and new characters.
“It’s always been a passion,” says Van Ritzen. “My partner and I, we created this format. We did it in Edmonton for several years; then, when we moved to Toronto, we did it there. Then we found our way to Victoria, and we started the company here with these local improvisers, who were amazing.”
Van Ritzen says that the plot of Sin City isn’t incredibly complicated and stresses that even though it’s a serial, people can come for just one night and enjoy it.
“You’ll laugh a lot, you’ll be entertained, and it will be super easy to figure out what’s going on,” she says.
Van Ritzen says that theatre in Canada doesn’t pay well for those working behind the scenes, but if it’s your love, you do it anyway. Financial security can be an issue, but she says that’s the price you sometimes have to pay in order to live your dreams and practice your passion.
“It’s ups and downs when you’re a Canadian actor,” says Van Ritzen. “People think you’re either famous or you’re not; there is actually a lot of in between, where you’re a working actor and you have a lot of good years that are lucrative and you have a lot of years where you’ve got day jobs.”
Van Ritzen has been a dedicated actress since she graduated from university. She fondly remembers spending part of her first year touring Saskatchewan in a van during a frosty, snow-gripped winter.
“I majored in theatre, and in my first year out of the gates I got professional work,” she says. “I toured Saskatchewan in the winter, which is about as brutal as you can imagine. We were travelling in a van to northern Saskatchewan; at 7 in the morning you load your set into some high-school gymnasium and do a show at 9 in the morning, and get on the road and go to the next town. It’s kind of a rite of passage for a lot of professional Canadian actors—your first year, you do touring for young audiences.”
Aside from improv, Van Ritzen’s other great passion is stand-up comedy. She teaches a class on stand-up, and some of her graduates have gone on to perform around the world. Instead of feeling nervous or catching stage fright when performing, Van Ritzen thrives in her element and finds performing in front of a live audience to be enthralling, regardless of whether it’s improv or stand-up.
“I love improv because you don’t know what’s going to happen, and you’re completely trusting in the other people you’re on stage with,” she says. “That’s the addiction for us, the adrenaline of not knowing what’s going to happen. We look in each other’s eyes and then something amazing happens that neither of us expected, and, to me, that’s the rush of it. Stand-up is a different kind of rush, because it’s the relationship just between you and the audience, and you’re in charge of what’s going to happen. You get your laughs or you don’t get your laughs, but you’re completely on your own for that.”
Sin City
Tuesday, October 25
to Tuesday, December 13
(Season launch 8 pm Tuesday, October 18)
Various prices, Victoria Event Centre
sincityimprovserial.com