FANTASIA

Interviews by Kayla Gaisi

Photography by Yeonung Kim

Styling by Eve Bolduc and Jeanne Bransbourg

Makeup by Orly Estrin and Ari Lafrance

Who were you in your childhood dreams? Who have you become? Go ahead, close your eyes and imagine...

In Fantasia, Bella Reyes and Mona Wang invite you to explore the relationship between childhood imagination and identity. First take a glimpse at their contrasting realities of theatre school prop rooms and engineering student libraries. Then let your eyes trail over to the next page, and soon find yourself immersed in the colourful realms of their childhood fantasies.

From spies and forest fairies to Studio Ghibli-inspired cyberpunk cities, Fantasia offers a look at how our childhood dreams still pulse beneath the surface of our realities. How much have our dreams evolved over time? How much of that magic still lingers today?

Bella Reyes has been playing pretend for as long as she can remember. Now a student at the National Theatre School, she channels the pure imagination that inspired her childhood games into every role she plays. For her, acting is more than just performance. It’s a world of creative freedom and storytelling, and an invitation to keep dreaming.

When you were a child, what was your biggest dream?
I don’t think I was someone that had one specific dream; it was always changing a lot. I really wanted to be Carmen from Spy Kids for a while. Then I think I wanted to be a veterinarian, though I didn’t really have a reason for that. The idea of health when related to people grossed me out, but I wanted to work with animals. I also wanted to be a teacher for a bit. I would line up all of my stuffed animals and make them practice reading little books in my room, which is a story my mom tells me all the time. She’d say, “maybe you’ll end up being a teacher at one point in your life. You’ve always had that in you.”

What inspired your imagination as a child?
Playing with my friends in the school yard. My childhood best friend, who’s still one of my best friends now, Emma, we went to kindergarten together and we would go out to the yard at play time and build little houses for bugs. We thought we were saving the bugs, by scooping them up and putting them in our houses. We would also go over to each other’s houses and play playmobil for hours on end, inventing little narratives for each of the characters. I had the little toy horses to go along with it, and I remember making them fly. Or sometimes, we would go into the woods nearby, and pretend the trees were sparkly and had fairies in them. We’d talk to the bugs and the fairies. When you’re a kid your imagination is so boundless.We would just make up nonsensical stories and it didn’t matter if it made sense–it was pure fun. Just playing with things, playing with friends.
Then at night, my mom would read us bedtime stories, which I loved. There were ten books that we owned and we would cycle through. I think I learned a lot from that.

Did you have a favorite book?
Alice the Fairy was one of them that I loved. I think she was training to be a fairy, but she was really just a girl. There was one image from that book where she turned her bathwater into jello, and I remember wanting to do that. I wanted to have a jello bath.
Also hearing my parents tell me stories from their lives. My dad in particular would tell me stories about when he was a little boy to help me fall asleep. I loved those, and I think it kind of feeds into my life now. I got so interested in other people’s stories, and now I study acting, where that whole world is storytelling. I think that that’s a really central part of who I am.

Yeah, I feel like when you work in the arts you see everything as narratives. Usually, that’s something that starts when you’re a child.
In recent years, as I’m forming more of a friendly relationship with my mom, I hear her talk about things that my brother and I would do as children when we played. But now, having seen us grow up, she recognizes that most of these things have stayed the same, like our interests or even our facial expressions. We really are who we are from a young age.

Moving onto the present, do you want to tell me a bit about what you do now?
Sure! I’m in my third year at the National Theatre School, which is our last year. It’s a conservatory school program, so it's a full-on art school. I did one year at McGill before this and it’s very different.

Oh, did you study theatre at McGill?
I didn’t, I was U0 there so I did general arts courses, like some PoliSci, some history. I think I took Shakespeare 101 and “The Art of Theatre” but none of it was engaging and actually acting in the way I wanted.

Do you like the hands-on aspect at NTS? I’m not too familiar with theatre school–would you tell me a little about your day-to-day? I assume it’s more hands-on than McGill.
Every year in school, the structure changes a little bit. This year, since I’m in my final year, it’s Performance Year. So I have rehearsals everyday, and some days I have core classes where we have focused study on voice and movement in the morning before going into rehearsal for the show we’re working on. But in the past, we would start the day with morning training, which is mandatory for everyone in the English and French section, since it’s a fully bilingual school. Then for an hour and a half each we would have movement and voice classes, before a 5 hour chunk of whatever project we were working on at the time. Some projects we did were Shakespeare intensives with monologues, we also studied mask work, improv, Chekov, and different playwrights. It is a really funny experience though. I can’t tell you the amount of times teachers in first year would say “If your parents call you and ask what you did in school today, lie. It would be too hard to explain verbally. They’ll wonder what you’re doing with your life.”

That’s really funny! I’m curious, now that you’re in your last year, do you have a certain area of theatre that you focus on, or are drawn to?
I loved working on Chekov in second year. We did scenes from Uncle Vanya, and that project was coached by two brilliant minds in theatre, Jessica B. Hill and Rodrigo Beilfuss. They were amazing teachers. I loved doing that project because there’s a simplicity and depth to Chekov that’s specific to that style of writing, and an existentialism that’s also really interesting to me. I think there are also a lot of compelling contemporary works right now in Canada and across the world. I wouldn’t say I really have one specialty, I’m open to many different styles.

You already talked a bit about what your typical day looks like now, but what do you think it’ll look like in 10 years?
I would hope I’d still be performing. Careers in the arts are very unpredictable, so I honestly can’t say. But I hope that I’m working in my chosen field, on this day in 10 years. I hope that whatever I’m working on feels fulfilling to me, and exciting. I’ll probably be in Toronto if I stay in Canada. And I hope that I own a dog.

What kind of dog?
Either a huge bernese mountain dog, or a french bulldog. No in-between.

I love that!! Since we’re talking about the future, do you ever see yourself transitioning more into writing or even teaching, like you mentioned in your childhood dreams?
I think I’ll always be performing, because the exciting thing about this sphere of work is that you never finish learning. You’re never really a fully formed product and there is no end point. So, I hope that I’m still really actively engaged in the art of learning about the craft and I’m still curious about it. I think definitely at some point in my life I’ll be very interested in writing. I already am! Or maybe directing as well. But both of those are no easy tasks, and if I were to do those, I would want to pay respect to the craft of it and actively train before I step into those roles.

You’re pursuing theatre, which is an avenue that not everyone gets to pursue. Would you say that your dream has come true yet?
Honestly I would. I would say that I'm in a very lucky position where I’m getting to engage in the act of learning about life and exploring curiosity and playfulness for a job. It’s funny how much of the ‘art of acting’ is about getting back to the freedom you had as a child, and the ability to involve yourself in your imagination. I feel really lucky to be doing something that feels like a dream.

So I guess your dream was more realistic than a fantasy? I mean, you’re doing it!
Yes I am doing it! And I’m doing it in a place I didn’t think would be accessible to me in my life. I remember learning about the NTS and people who came here, auditioning on a whim and getting in. Which is crazy! I don’t know if my childhood self would’ve imagined these exact things that are interesting and exciting to me now, but the feeling is the same. Getting to be inspired and getting to work with people who have such vast and powerful imaginations. People who are breaking open my world over and over and over again. I think this sense of excitement and play is still there as I get to explore different characters. Every role I get is like playing pretend in a different way.

That’s such a great way to put it! Now, we’ve talked about your childhood and also about what you’re currently doing, but I’m wondering if there was a moment in between when you realized this is what you wanted to do? How did you know you wanted to do theatre?
This is a little bit of a story. I went to a high school that was doing the IB program, I started off in pre-IB and I thought my life path was going to be very academic. The arts weren’t really taken seriously–nobody in my immediate family is an artist at all–so it wasn’t a pathway that I ever considered doing professionally because I had no model of that. And then in grade 12 when I was trying to make up my mind about where I would go for university, my high school drama teacher approached me and said I should apply for musical theatre schools. I ended up applying, and I got into a program that was so exciting. But it was COVID and arts training had gone online, which is not what I wanted to do. I realized the program probably wasn’t going to be a good fit for me, which was kind of heartbreaking and shattered my built up excitement. After, I got into McGill and decided I was leaving the arts behind to pursue academia, because I also really love that.
And then on Thanksgiving Break my first semester at McGill, my mom and I got tickets to see Hadestown in New York. I had discovered that soundtrack when COVID hit and had been listening to it for a year and a half. Listening to it was such a beacon of hope, it really got me through the pandemic. The themes of the cyclical nature of hope and loss and grief and love and hope again, just to have it all come crashing down. But then the show restarts, because that’s life, and maybe it’ll work out the next time. So, the pursuit of trying is important. That all hit me at once when I sat down to see the show live. I remember it started, the ensemble went on stage carrying in the chairs, and four bars into the opening number I was immediately wracked with tears. My mom was sitting beside me and she was pulling tissues out of her pocket, while I was sobbing silently the whole time. I just had this weird come-to-God moment where I was like “woah.” If I don’t pursue theatre and do everything I can to even try to be a part of it, and emulate the same sensation and self-revitalization that I just experienced, what’s the point? So I applied online to NTS the next week, and started the audition process. I got my callback the week after my last English exam at McGill, and I was not thinking about exams at all. Honestly, it’s a bit corny but that musical means so much to me because I sat in that theatre and decided then and there. And it’s kind of been a straight path ever since.

I really love that. Everyone in the arts has their one show or book or piece that pushed them over the edge into pursuing their art. I’m really happy it’s working out for you and I can’t wait to hear what projects you’ll be working on in the future! Thanks so much for being part of this project!

Thank you!

Mona Wang's path has led her from a childhood in China filled with dreams of being an artist, to studying bioengineering and computer science in Montreal. Along the way, she’s never lost her passion for exploration, weaving it into her work and everyday life. This curiosity for the world around her, and her love for Studio Ghibli, continue to inspire the vivid images that appear in her mind today.

When you were a child, what was your biggest dream?
When I was a child, I didn’t have a single big dream. Job-wise I wanted to be a creative, like a writer, artist, or filmmaker. But I also had a dream of exploring. I wanted to explore as much as possible.

When you say exploring, do you mean traveling or learning about new things?
When I was a child, I was living in China, so my knowledge of geography was limited because we didn’t have a geography class yet. I didn’t know much outside of my own space, but I liked exploring where I lived, going to different neighborhoods and looking around. That kind of exploring. And over time, I really liked how seeing different things made me feel.

What inspired your imagination as a child?
Dreams inspired my imagination. Since I was little, I had very colorful, adventurous dreams. They were inspired by where I lived back in China, where there’s a mix of modern society and old, nostalgic surroundings. Sometimes my dreams would be set where I used to live, but something would be a little off, like a parallel universe with completely different rules. When I woke up I felt like all that magic went away. I wanted to go back to it, but I didn’t know how to, so I’d draw them out, or when I played I would make up stories. When I was little I drew a lot of the environment and architecture.
I also watched a lot of Studio Ghibli films and cartoons when I was growing up. They inspired the stories I made up or wrote down too.

Do you still draw or write?
I don’t really have the time to write anymore, but I do draw during the summer. During COVID when I had more time, I used to draw a lot. Now it’s less of what I imagine, more what I remember, like scenes from movies. I wish I could imagine more, but there’s not much time to.

Was there a certain job you often chose to have when you played pretend?
When I was little I wanted to be a meaningful person, so I’d choose to be a doctor, police officer, or nurse. I used to play with a few friends of mine, and we’d pretend we were taking care of each other. Though, I don’t remember playing pretend too many times.

Speaking of jobs, do you want to talk about what you study or do for work now?
I am a full time-student, studying bioengineering, with a minor in computer science. I’m also involved in two research labs, which I work for remotely. Aside from academics I try to work different part-time jobs like cashier, grader, tutor, coach– at the moment I work as a tutor and at CopiEUS which is a printer shop. I’ve always enjoyed service jobs or anything that involves exploring and moving around.

As a kid you mentioned being interested in the arts but now you study STEM, what led to that transition? Do you still get to explore and be creative in these fields?
I hated STEM until my last year of high school. It’s a funny story, actually. I accidentally got placed in a computer science class, instead of drama or art, because that’s what they had space for. I thought I would hate it, but I ended up loving it–it was my favorite class in high school. I’m pretty adaptable to things. Biology and chemistry I also hated in high school, and I wanted to go into philosophy or psychology in university. But my parents convinced me to try STEM first, so I did.
In my research, I work with AI, specifically computer vision and deep learning. For computer vision especially, I have a problem I need to solve that nobody has ever researched before. So, I have to look at a problem, which is a picture, and think about how I approach it. It’s very cool in that sense because I have a degree of creativity.

What does your typical day look like? What would your typical day in 10 years look like?
Right now it’s a little boring. I live quite far from school, so it takes me about an hour and a half to get there. I attend classes, go to my part-time job, self-study, hangout with my boyfriend, come home, then have dinner and chill.
Since I’m still exploring what I want to do in the future, it’s hard to imagine what my day will look like. This is still a little unrealistic, but I’d like to travel around the world in a van, since I work remotely. In the morning, do remote work, travel in the afternoon, then find a nice view at night to relax in front of. Realistically speaking, I want to find a well-paying job, have my own family, and nurture my family.

Is there any place you’d like to travel in your van?
Since I’m in North America, I would go to Mexico, like Baja California. I also really want to go to Europe, and even live there, especially the south of Europe.

Would you say your dream has come true?
It’s hard to answer because I never really had a specific dream as a kid, they’ve evolved a lot. But one of my dreams was exploring, and this is something I like to do even now. I go out and explore downtown, looking at different buildings, going to areas I haven’t been to. It still gives me a type of feeling. I always value the feeling I get the first time I go somewhere.

What are those feelings?
It depends on the circumstance and how I feel at the time. I remember going near Square Victoria with all those modern commercial buildings. The day was really sunny, and I remember feeling very hopeful. Sometimes when I see really tall buildings stretching up into the sky, I look up, and it feels like the possibilities are endless.
There are also times I feel sorrow. There was one time I was near Palais de Congres pre-COVID and there was a piano and someone was playing “Mariage d’amour.” I think something was not going well in my life at that time. So when I was hearing that along with the city lights at night, and reflecting, I felt very sad. I was staring into the colorful tiles, feeling a kind of sorrow I couldn’t explain. I felt like I wanted to go back to someplace but I couldn’t. It’s always very intense, and then goes away suddenly like a dream.

You mentioned that now, your imagination is less vivid than it was as a kid. Is there anything that revives it?
Studio Ghibli. I’ve watched like 80% of those movies. There’s a surge of creativity I feel. I remember during COVID, I started watching it a lot again. The next day, I picked up my pencil and started drawing the scenes, even if it was just copying. I also watch a lot of anime. I enjoy shorter anime that are relatable, less fantasy. But even though they are relatable, the things that happen still gives me an excitement that helps my imagination. I also try to read a lot of books–every book gives me a different feeling. I recently read Pride and Prejudice, and afterwards I was thinking a lot about that book.

With drawing scenes and using your imagination in this way, do you think it’s a visual fascination?
Yeah, I think I am a very visual person. Even when I listen to music, for every song I like, I have a backstory for it. I start imagining scenes for it, like a movie in my head.

If you could make one of your childhood dreams come true today, what would it be?
I have a few. First, going into the world of Spirited Away, that’s a very fantastical one. Also wanting to be a doctor–from when I was little I was fascinated by the knowledge of medicine, pathology, and treating people. Suddenly having all the knowledge that a doctor has. And then modeling is one I’ve never talked about but it’s something I always wanted to try, like doing it professionally.

Is there any specific dream you have now?
Yes, it’s the playground in Chernobyl with the ferris wheel. It’s an abandoned park, but not completely abandoned, just not many people. One part of the park is where I used to live, there’s Chinese tiles and a ravine in the middle with lanterns going down the ravine.

Thanks again for being part of this project! I think it’s perfect that you’ve always wanted to be a model, hopefully we can make that dream of yours come true! Good luck with all your studies and projects!

Thank you!