“Smoother blending of parts,” “more powerful from end to end," “most complete individual” – these are a few turns of phrases you may never have imagined yourself hearing, at least in the context of a cow. That’s likely because many Canadians haven’t grown up on a dairy farm or enjoyed the spectacle of competitive cow showing.
As it turns out, it may not take “until the cows come home” to experience such an event either, as Cows Come Home, a new “dramedy” directed by Queen’s alumna Katie Uhlmann, Artsci’09, starring actor Allie Dunbar, Artsci’07, and executive produced by David Carruthers, Artsci'84, airs in June.
The “heartfelt dramedy” Uhlmann co-created with Lindsey Middleton looks at competitive cow showing but also loss, pain, and friendship – some of which is biographical.
Cows Come Home “centres around a woman who hits rock bottom and moves back to her small town, putting her life back together with the help of her best friend,” explains Uhlmann – all through the world of competitive cow showing.
As director, co-writer, co-creator, and co-producer of the series, she and her co-writer, co-creator, and co-producer, Lindsey Middleton (who also stars in the show), boned over their shared small-town values and a desire to tell a story centred on female friendship. Middleton, who grew up as a champion cow showperson, inspired the pair to set their show in that unique world.
In recent years, rural Canadian life has often been the focus of comedies (Corner Gas, Letterkenny, Schitt’s Creek), but portraying farming communities “as the butt of the joke” is not something Uhlmann says she intends for the series. “We’re really trying to do good by the [rural] communities we know and love,” she says, going on to describe the “magic” of filming on a real working farm in Fort Erie, Ont., for the show, which included waking up at four in the morning and milking and feeding cows.
The mix of comedy and drama in the series is, in part, informed by her studies at Queen’s. Having started out in the sciences, she describes having an “a-ha” moment sitting in the back of a biology class listening to a lecturer speaking passionately about fish. “I thought to myself, ‘I don’t care about fish, but I want to be that passionate about my thing.’ And I literally left there and went to guidance and switched to drama.”
Drama, including comedy, has informed Uhlmann’s professional experience since graduating. An accomplished actor (Nurses), director/producer (My Roommate’s an Escort), and writer (Cows Come Home), as well as a standup comedian, Uhlmann describes comedy as “a good entry point to talk about challenging things. There’s so much comedy in life, even in life’s toughest moments, [which] can sometimes be the funniest moments.”
Her medial in drama and psychology from Queen’s also plays a role in how she directs and her filmmaking goals.
“When directing a project, I always have a bit of an existential crisis before we shoot,” she says, asking herself, “What am I trying to say? What am I trying to do?” For Cows Come Home, she says the answer was: “What you’re doing is looking at a very tough time and finding the comedy in that. As a director, I was trying to play with that line where sometimes you can be crying, and then a friend says something, and you start laughing and crying – that moment where you’re on that line of comedy and pain. That’s life to me…. That’s what’s so exciting.”
Cows Come Home airs June 11 on Bell Fibe TV1.
