If you haven’t already, be sure to don your best neon and take a trip to the ‘80s with The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which patrons are calling “[t]he ‘must-see’ of this summer!”
Recently, we caught up with Agnes Tong, who shared some memories from her Bard experience so far, as well as some insights on her roles as Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Margaret and Seacole in Much Ado About Nothing. Read on to learn about her start in the arts, the iconic ‘80s characters that inspired Silvia, and some of her favourite memories from her first Season under the tents!
Can you tell us about yourself and how you got started with acting?
I grew up in Ottawa as a dancer. I started that when I was 10 and did that quite extensively as a teenager, and then right out of high school, I booked a job on a cruise ship as a professional dancer. That really was a sliding doors moment that reflected back to me that I could be an artist as a career. I did a play with Craig Erickson that we’re remounting at Pacific Theatre this fall called Wakey, Wakey, and there’s this section where he talks about these sliding door moments, where either a parent or a mentor or a teacher says something to you, or a moment happens that really shifts the whole trajectory of your life.
For that cruise ship job, I was at a dance competition in Boston, and it was just me and my dad on that trip. There were dozens of dancers auditioning with numbers pinned to our leotards. I made it down to the very end after many rounds of cuts. It was a closed audition, and when I went to leave, I just see my dad peeking in. I was like, “ba, you’re not supposed to be watching!” And he looked at me with such pride in his eyes and said, “I have never seen you dance like that.” That was one of those pivotal moments that proved to me that I can go for it and the universe provides. That my art loves me back as much as I love it.
So, I started out dancing, but I knew that the career of a dancer is quite finite, just with the physical demands. I was living in Toronto, dancing with different companies, and then I decided to get into acting. I auditioned for a bunch of theatre schools and then I got accepted into Studio 58 and then moved out here in 2009.
Agnes Tong as Silvia and Matthew Ip Shaw as Valentine in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2025) | Directed by Dean Paul Gibson | Costume Design by Carmen Alatorre | Lighting Design by Gerald King | Set design by Pam Johnson | Photo by Tim Matheson.
And this is your first Season at Bard! How has it been to dive into a character like Silvia?
She is teaching me so much about myself. With all the extreme costumes and musical choices pushing the boundaries of what the ‘80s can represent—gender fluidity and a certain rebellion against social narratives and structures and institutions—for Silvia to be in the centre of all that teaches me so much. I feel like in my journey of self-discovery, I’m always growing and learning about myself, but with Silvia, she knows who she is and there’s no compromise there. There’s such confidence and power in that. I’ve run into challenges where I’m in a room and I’m the only person of colour, and I’m kind of inadvertently put in the position of being the mouthpiece for all people of colour. Sometimes there’s a fear to speak up because I wasn’t given that permission or I’ve had negative experiences in the past that then made it dangerous or made it uncomfortable to, but for Silvia, she’s so clear about who she is and what she stands for that even in a dangerous situation, she still figures it out. There’s a certain kind of steadfast optimism for truth and goodness and morality, and as we see at the end of the play, without giving too much away, she takes a risk for herself without knowing what the outcome will be, knowing that she can’t live in a certain paradigm anymore.
Agnes Tong as Silvia and Tess Degenstein as Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2025) | Directed by Dean Paul Gibson | Costume Design by Carmen Alatorre | Lighting Design by Gerald King | Set design by Pam Johnson | Photo by Tim Matheson.
One of the aspects of The Two Gentlemen of Verona that really struck me was Silvia’s relationship with Julia. Can you speak to that relationship and how you developed that dynamic with Tess Degenstein?
I love Tess. She is an immense powerhouse talent, and I’m just so honoured to be on the same stage as her. At first, Silvia doesn’t know that it’s Julia, because she’s disguised as Sebastian, and Silvia’s just so taken by Sebastian’s devotion to his mistress, this Julia. And as we see reflected too, when Silvia has that scene with Eglamour about his partner who passed away, loyalty’s really important to her, and so seeing that in Sebastian, she just has so much respect for a young boy like that. To discover that with Tess—like, she’s just so funny, and there’s always so much to play with. She’s such a generous actor and I think it was all quite organic. It took a lot of fine tuning with the ending too, because there’s not much time or any lines to substantiate an allyship with Julia and Silvia at the end. That’s been on Tess and I to play live and find it in the moment.
Director Dean Paul Gibson has described The Two Gentlemen of Verona as a way of connecting Shakespeare’s first play and that idea of coming of age to his own experience of growing up in the ‘80s. What was your relationship to that time?
Oh, my God, I was barely alive. I’m on the younger side of the spectrum in the cast, so I for sure had to do research. On Dean’s presentation day, he had a lot of specific references for all of our characters. Molly Ringwald was kind of the main one, from The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. So I watched all those movies to kind of see who he was modelling Silvia after. And of course, all the music.
Agnes Tong as Margaret and Jennifer Tong as Hero in Much Ado About Nothing (2025) | Directed by Johnna Wright | Costume Design by Mara Gottler | Lighting Design by Sophie Tang |Set Design by Pam Johnson | Photo by Tim Matheson.
We’ve talked about your role as Silvia, who’s the daughter of the Duke of Milan, but in Much Ado About Nothing, you play characters like Margaret and Seacole that are in very different positions in society. What was it like to get to play within that full range of social statuses?
Oh, I love it. It’s so fun. To start off with Silvia, with her status and her wealth, I just remember the visceral shift in the rehearsal hall when Carmen [Alatorre, our Costume Designer] gave me those turquoise heels. That’s always been something for me—usually when we land into tech and I get my wigs, I’m like, “okay, I know who this character is,” but for Silvia, it was the footwear. We were rehearsing and people were like, “What’s happening?” And I’m like, “Silvia’s arrived. That’s what happened today, folks.” And then for Margaret, she lives in a kind of intermediary space, because she’s a servant and she’s Hero’s waiting gentlewoman, but she’s also part of the family. For me, it’s always connected to action. Like, how am I serving Hero? I can also find it in my body by bowing when higher status characters like the Prince or even Leonato are in the space and negotiating those dynamics that way. And then Seacole is just so sweet. That was for sure influenced by Mara Gottler’s costume design, as soon as I saw that little bonnet. She was so collaborative with me, making sure everything felt right. She just wanted to make her very different from Margaret. The way I’m playing Margaret, she’s quite sex positive. She’s in her body and she’s brash and she’ll go for what she wants. We tried to make Seacole the extreme opposite: this very shy, demure, and unsure person who’s thrust into a leadership position and rises to the challenge.
Agnes Tong as Seacole in Much Ado About Nothing (2025) | Directed by Johnna Wright | Costume Design by Mara Gottler | Lighting Design by Sophie Tang |Set Design by Pam Johnson | Photo by Tim Matheson.
Do you have a favourite memory from the Season so far?
Oh, my gosh. So many. I think it’s just all the in-between moments backstage. There’s so much great music in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and before Karthik [Kadam, who plays Eglamour] and I go into the forest in Mantua, there’ll be a little dance party with Paige [Fraser] and Jen Tong. In each of our dressing bays, we all decorate it and kind of make it our own. Matthew Ip Shaw, who plays Valentine, and I are the only two in there on The Two Gentlemen of Verona days, so we’ve coined it Silvia and Valentine’s apartment. We really put in an effort to make it homey and playful and pretty, and it was really fun to build that and to keep the creativity alive. There’s also this beautiful landscape. The sunsets and the skies are so, so immaculate. I feel very fortunate to play in such an abundant environment.
What do you like to do in your free time when you’re not performing?
I love riding my bicycle. I have a belt drive bicycle, which means there’s no chain. It’s a carbon fibre bike, so low maintenance. I love it so much. And in the summertime, you know, I love beaching. I love swimming in the ocean. I like going for hikes. I love going out for food.
Do you have a favourite restaurant?
I’m a sushi person, so Kishimoto on Commercial and 5th. That’s my favourite upscale sushi, and we only go there if it’s a special occasion. My standard go-to sushi is Sushi Van’s Party Tray A. When I left Stratford [last year], they were like, “What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get back to Vancouver?” I was like, “Sushi Van’s Party Tray A.”
Thanks so much for chatting with us, Agnes!
Don’t miss out on your chance to see Agnes and the rest of our Mainstage Company in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, running until September 19 on the BMO Mainstage! Get your tickets now.