backstage

Photographer, artist, musician and diva Tyler Matthew Oyer and I popped around the scene, where Oyer captured moments backstage and on the runway that reverberated with heat and intimacy.

He gave me some nice flowers during the show, but he also told me backstage, “You would have known a long time ago if I wasn’t cool with this.”

There’s even a winking reference to her Pussycat Dolls fame in the backstage bit that opens the second act.

To honour that moment, he gave a nine-minute acceptance speech thanking everyone from his mother to an art teacher he'd met backstage.

As more attendees arrive for the 8 p.m. plays, controlled chaos backstage takes hold at each of the center’s five theaters, which vary in size and perspective.