Stevie Vallance
A collection of projects by Stevie Vallance's production company.
Singer Comes Out Of The Woods To An Emmy For Her Madeline Work
by Adam Strachan
May 28, 2002, The Vancouver Sun
Two's the charm for Vancouver 'toon' talent Stevie Vallance.
Vallance, a vocalist and part-time actor who directed the voice-overs for more than 70 episodes of the Disney Channel's animated series MADELINE, won an Emmy Award when the program was named outstanding children's animated series last week at the 2002 Daytime Emmy Awards in New York.
MADELINE and Vallance were nominated last year, but did not win.
"I feel a little bit in disbelief," Vallance said Monday. "I'm walking on air."
Vallance did not attend the ceremony, though she did go last year. She did not feel as though the show would win, after last year's disappointment, and so spent the week incommunicado at a recreational cabin near Qualicum on Vancouver Island. She was without a phone, and did not know until she returned that she had won.
"I was totally surprised. I'm a runner, and so I just ran for two hours. We were climbing trees, having that kind of an Emmy time. Now I'm back, after nine days, and it's just starting to hit me. All my messages are coming in, and e'mails, and it's just unbelievable."
The weekly animated series is based on a series of popular children's books by critically acclaimed author Ludwig Bemelmans. MADELINE premiered in 1993 on the Disney Channel, a pay-cable channel in the US. Ironically, MADELINE cannot be seen locally on either conventional or digital cable, but episodes are available on home video. In addition to directing the vocal talent for MADELINE, Vallance also voiced the characters of Miss Clavel (the nun) and Genevive (the dog).
Although MADELINE is produced in Los Angeles by DIC Enterprises and much of the animation is done in Japan, the voice-overs are performed in Vancouver, by local actors.
In the past 10 years, Vancouver has become a voice-over mecca for US animated productions because of the city's shared time zone with Los Angeles, favourable exchange rate and tax incentives, and up-front buyout contracts that don't include clauses for residuals. Vallance, originally from Toronto, moved to Vancouver in 1993 to do voice-overs after 15 years as a part-time actor in Los Angeles.
"It's so ironic," Vallance said. "It's so bizarre to move here, to do that. It beats waiting tables in LA between gigs."
Vallance got her first break as a voice-director on the cartoon series Inspector Gadget. As an actor, Vallance appeared in Road to Avonlea, Night Heat and Knot's Landing. Vallance also teaches voice acting in workshops, and offscreen organized the recent DIVAS For Life benefit concert for people with life-threatening illnesses at The Vogue Theatre.
Vallance hopes to use the Emmy to establish her own production company, in Vancouver.
"There's such an amazing amount of talent here, especially voice-over for some reason," she said. "more so than in Toronto... This my first and only thing I've directed, and it's amazing to me that it went so far. I pray to God that finally, for once, it means I'll get more work."