Act I:

The Writing of it:

endre farkas playwright

 

I’ve been working on Haunted House” for about twenty years. Enough to make one wonder why or go mad or...

 

My interest in Klein began in University in a CanLit 101 course. I discovered that this fine poet and I shared a similar history. He was a child of immigrants who fled their homeland because of anti-Semitism, lived in the Jewish Ghetto area of Montreal, (between Mount Royal and Van Horne) attended the same high school -Baron Byng (the alma mater of Mordecai Richler and Irving Layton) and wrote poetry. I was particularly moved by three of his poems: “Heirloom”, “Montreal” and “Portrait of the Poet as Landscape”. 

 

Later I discovered more about his life, thanks to a very enjoyable biography Like One That Dreamed by Usher Caplan. After reading the biography, doing some more research and reading his collected works and his novel The Second Scroll, I began to think that his story would make for a powerful play. Up to that time, I had never written anything else but poetry.

 

I was interested in more experimental art. I was part of a group of poets now called The Vehicule Poets. We hung out at the Vehicule Art Gallery, shared time and ideas with artists from different disciplines: painting, dance and music and from this mix emerged a hybrid kind of art called Performance Art. Performance Art was a theatrical presentation, usually by the artist him/herself, of their ideas using mixed media: music, video, and/or movement. There was always a visual/theatrical aspect to it. This environment led to my collaborating with dancers and composers.

 

From the start, I was more interested in more experimental forms of poetry and began to write texts for performers, for two or more voices, for contemporary dancers and contemporary composers. I liked this multi-voiced, multil-ayered text and texture approach.

 

I worked in fits and starts and thought this would be the great-never-to be finished and never-to-be produced play. However, sometimes the stars align and things work (spit three times to ward off evil spells).

 

I was talking about this great never-to-be finished project to Carolyn Marie Souaid, a fine poet and often collaborator, who pointed out that 2009 would be Klein’s 100th birthday the ideal time to mount the piece.

 

Also, by now, I had written a play, Surviving Wor(l)ds, that had been produced at the Centaur Theatre and had done a couple of other “almost-plays”, so I felt more comfortable working in this milieu. I approached Liz Valdez who directed my first play Surviving Wor(l)ds and, as usual, she was gung ho. I then approached Sandor Klein, A.M. Klein’s son, who had not been so enthusiastic when I first approached him for permission and blessings a few years back. He liked the new version and agreed. Finally, I approached Bryna Wasserman the artistic director of The Segal Center who also gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up.

 

 

Act II:

The Auditioning for it:

 

I don’t know how they cope with it. They enter an empty space and face people sitting behind a table. They present their bios and their photos and partake in a bit of a chit-chat that they and the auditioners know is more than chit-chat. Partially it is about getting the actors to relax but also to have a sense of who they are, not only as actors. For the auditionees it is an opportunity to get a sense and a “feeling” of/for the director and of/for the project.

 

Then the audition begins.

saro saroyan, nem jevtovic, eric hausknost, chris moore, audrey finklestein, paula jean hixson

paula jean

They are asked to perform a monologue or a dialogue with someone you just met.

They are asked to move,  to improvise in this empty space.

They are sometimes asked to sing and dance.

 

It is not their abilities to do these things that I am awed by. No, most of them had training; it is the psychological ordeal of making oneself so vulnerable. Actors are always dealing with the psyche-characters or their own-and are always on the edge. And then to deal with the rejection. How does one deal with it? What kind of ego-crushing defense does one develop? How not to take it personally? How can one not take it personally? I have had my work rejected by editors and publishers and even though I tell myself that it’s not me, I still go through the feeling of being a failure.

 

nem, saro, chris

eric

paul brian imperial, amy steinman

They don’t get rejected right then and there. Everyone is polite. We all understand what courage and desire it requires to do what they just did. And they are part of your community and you always wish they do well enough to make it. And they do it publicly

 

It aint easy and I wonder why we put ourselves through this? Artists from all walks of art have a similar answer. It’s not an issue. It’s a way of life that makes sense, touches the senses, senses the life in what we do. Artists aren’t interested in a normal life or as the the poet bill bisset says in one of his poems: “I wouldn’t know normal if…”. Artists put you on the edge. They makes us realize how asleep we often are when we should be awake. And they try to wake us.

 

So I watch each actor enter and put her/himself on the line for an opportunity to put her/himself on the line in front of an audience who will, at the end of an hour and a half, let her/him know how s/he did.

 

I watch and can only say "Thank you."

 

 

Act III:

The Reading of it:

 

This is the first time that the actors and director and, in this case, the playwright get together for a read through. After the read, there is a discussion about Klein’s life, times and place. 

 

chris, eric, saro

This is the first time that some of the actors have met. Thus begins the “team bonding” process. They are getting to know each other and each other’s characters.

 

We discuss the idea of doing a play about someone who existed, who was real and how it places certain obvious restrictions on the play. However, since this is a “creative” telling of his life, I have certain liberties. I explain that aside from sticking close to the facts, I “invented” some dialogue and some scenes to flesh out the “characters” and the story. But those texts are based on what I gathered from research and reading his texts, journals and poems. Also because the play is not a strictly a “realist” play the liberties taken extend to the mounting of the production. More about that later.

 

We also discuss the times. Neither the actors nor the director were alive during the times the play takes place, I give them a little background about the times. No, I’m not a hundred years old but old enough to have been around while he was still alive though I never met him. Also I had a similar background, so that helped.

 

paula

Klein lived in what is now the Mile End/Plateau neighbourhood. That’s the area between Sherbrooke (to the south) and Bernard (to the north) streets though the entire city was his neighbourhood. Now-a-days this is a very trendy, artists area. But then it was the Jewish ghetto. First stop for immigrants on their way to a better life in Outremont or Hampstead or Cote St. Luc or the suburbs. It was the heart of the “shmata” (the needle trade-no not that kind of needle trade but the clothing manufacturing/sweatshops) district. People lived and worked there. Here French, English and Yiddish could be heard in the same sentence.

 

This area also encompassed a large French area east of rue St. Laurent (The Main).(See some of the photos posted). This was the only district that ever elected a communist as a member of parliament: Fred Rose. This reflected the political activism of the times and neighbourhood.  It is here where most of the play takes place though it also travels back in time to the early 1900s to the “shtetls” (ghettoes) in the Ukraine where his family is originally from.

 

text

 The reading is also good for me to hear how the dialogue sounded: strained, natural, clunky or smooth. It made wonder whether I needed all or needed to add. It certainly sent me back to the script. So far I’m up to version 16.

 

 

 

Act IV:

The Production meeting for it.

 

Second Cup still doesn’t know how to make a good cappuccino. I highly recommend any café in Pantin (a working-class suburb of Paris and the district where Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu Roi” was first mounted). If you can’t get there, I also recommend Café Italia on St. Laurent Boulevard, near Dante Street.

 

But, Second Cup is the most convenient place for all of us to meet. And it is where the play will start to take a physical shape.

bruce lambie -technical director

lara kaluz-set

noemi poulin-lighting & costume

 

Having read the script, the set, lighting and costume people, along with the technical director, come to ask questions. Liz is the kind of director who encourages everybody to bring ideas to the table. She doesn’t have a fixed idea of what the stage should look like but has a general idea of what she wants to present. The “how” is fleshed out by the tech side. It is interesting to hear their ideas because they think in visual and 3D terms: in colours, objects and stage layout.

 

mike payette-coproducer

mat perron-coproducer

I have included instructions in the script as to what is happening, where it is happening, when it is happening and, sometimes, how it is happening. Now, the production people have translated that into their language and come to the table with something Liz and I had not thought of or not thought possible but that will capture what we want visually and symbolically.

 

We discuss what, if any, audio-visual equipment we might need. At this point, I worry because technology is notorious for messing up at the wrong time. I recently attended a technically complex show and noted that the playwright/director/actor had included a prayer to the gods/goddesses of technology in the program. I’m thinking of following her example.

 

I begin to see that a play I had envisioned as “minimalist” is really very complex. I don’t think there is such a thing as “simple” in theatre. Simple is an illusion that you create. There is no “simple” set, costumes, or lighting. It’s amazing how much a play owes to these people and to their art.

 

Because all actors except the lead, Abe, have multiple roles, they will have to be able to make clean breaks between the characters they are portraying. Conventions created by the director and techies will help them. Conventions are objects, costumes or actions that an actor, director, or techie use to identify a character. This way, the audience clearly understands that a role-change has happened.

 

Multiple role-playing is both an artistic and economic decision. Perhaps economics is the mother of invention that gave birth to the solution of multi-roles but I always considered it an interesting break from “realism”.  In Haunted House, I wanted to use them not only as multi-roles but also as a “chorus.”

 

Typically, the chorus in a Greek play provides background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. It comments on themes, and shows how an ideal audience might react to the drama. It also represents the population in any particular story. In many of these plays, the chorus expresses to the audience what the main characters can not: their fears or secrets. In Haunted House, the chorus will function much the same way, but with a contemporary feel. I consider this vocal accompaniment a device to help reveal part of Klein’s mindscape.

 

Another reason for the Greek influence in the play is that Klein was obsessed with James Joyce’s Ulysses, based on Homer’s epic. The book itself has a role in the play. Also Klein’s novel The Second Scroll owes a lot to those two books. The idea and image of the journey/labyrinth is important to the play and their inclusion seems natural.

 

This is the first time I am meeting the production crew. Noemi Poulin (lighting & costumes…what a strange combo!). Usually the two don’t go together, but that is because women generally don’t do lights (or didn’t). But she does. She asks questions about the play, and about setting and character to get a sense of what she will be working with. It is interesting to hear her light-and-costume perspective of the play.

 

Lara Kaluza presents a maquette and powerpoint presentation of the set. She even has cardboard characters. It’s like a doll house for adults. Liz (Director) almost delivers the “due-anytime” baby in her excitement of Lara and Noemi’s presentations.

 

Bruce Lambie, the technical director, quietly takes notes: what actual material, technical nuts and bolts will be needed to make this happen? He is the ideal TD: organized and serene. He may be panicking inside, but on the outside he is a blond Buddha. This is the image that you want your TD and stage manager to project.

 

For now, the play is in their hands.

 

I watch and listen to the play take shape, in the physical sense. I take comfort in their professionalism, creativity and take a sip of bitter cappuccino. Two out of three ain’t bad.

 

 

Scene V:

 

The Rhearsal for it:

  

Rehearsals are well underway: the actors are almost off book (theatre lingo for “know their lines by heart”). Lines are becoming the words and thoughts spoken by people living a life on stage. It is very interesting to watch the metamorphosis of words and actors into dialogue and characters. Liz (the director) is now “layering” the characters. Asking them to “feel” why they are saying what they are saying. It’s hard enough to do that when you are playing one character, but when you have to be 3 or 4 different characters, then it’s really demanding. You have to make physical, tonal and emotional changes. And sometimes 2 or 3 times in a scene.

 

chris , audrey

saro, chris

Costumes are almost completely ready. Noemi is making last minute alterations. She’s done a great job finding, sewing, and borrowing shirts, coats, shoes and etcetera. The set is under construction. It will be minimal: representative rather than realistic and dynamic. Lara is busy testing surfaces that will best reflect images and be transparent enough to allow silhouettes. Lucie has been scouring soundsources and making her own to produce the soundscape for the play.

 

Bruce, our Technical Director, is busy assembling the A.V. and our prayers. Unfortunately, I suffer from SNAFUobia. Even the most sophisticated machinery has a way of being “dysfunctional.”

 

So the countdown continues and as opening night nears, I am making the rounds of interviews. Mike Boone of The Gazette did a whole column on the play. Neil Boyce of The Mirror interviewed me and Liz, and CKUT & Radio Centreville have been their usual supportive community selves. We have also gotten good coverage from Le Devoir and Canadian Press & The Canadian Jewish Chronicle.

 

Now all we need is YOU! See you there, and spread the word.

 

Act VI:

The Show of it

 

eric, saro, nem (background)

There is no "show". There are shows. Each night the show was a different show. I watched it grow, stumble, get up and continue, solid confident and entertaining. And it's not only the ego talking.

Seeing it almost every night was a physical, psychological, and instructive act. Every night I learned something about the text, about acting, about staging and about the audience.

 

Act VII:

Curtain

 

It’s over and I am on a high and on a down at the same time. It’s been quite an experience. I got to see my work come alive in ways that I could not imagine.

 

I want to thank all the people who helped to make it a huge success.

 

I start with Liz Valdez, director, who performed miracles and went beyond “the show must go on”, to not only get it on its feet but to get it to move with grace, class and guts.

 

Next the actors who breathed life into the words and characters.

Eric Hausknost who did yeoman’s service as A.M. Klein. He brought depth and understanding to his character.

 

Paula Jean Hixson who shone as Bessie and made the teacher a full character and the muse both ethereal and powerful.

 

Chris Moore who gave David Lewis a feistiness he deserved and made his multiple other characters believable.

 

Audrey Finkelstein as Yetta gave us some of the funniest moments in the show as well as a solid supportive Sophie. 

 

Saro Saroyan as Kalman turned in a touching performance as a man of faith and a quiet strength. Saro also found in each of his minor characters a clarity and a personality.

 

Nem Jevtovic, a most versatile performer, who had the most roles to switch into and out of, from Bronfman to a Nazi, to the poet Frank Scott among others. His ease and strength in each was evident.

 

These six actors created a world of characters that required not only skill and talent but a willingness to work in an ensemble environment and trust of Liz and I who until a week before the show were changing scenes, rewriting and reassigning lines.

 

And of course, thanks to the crew behind the scenes without whom all this could not have happened. Thank you to Lara Kaluza for your haunting set, Noemi Poulin for moody lighting, simple yet striking costumes and video (with Lara) Luci Monsarrat for your subtle music and soundscape, Bruce for your technical work and Brian Paul Imperial who stage managed the chaos into order and Amy Steinman who assisted Brian and was a rock steady.

And finally to you, those who attended and made it worth while,

THANK YOU. 

 

Act VIII:

Cast Party

 

bryna wasserman artistic director of segal and endre

endre & liz

 

cast & crew