For close to 20 years, the Drama Workshop of the United Jewish People's Order in Vancouver was a place where friends gathered, combining their passion for theatre with their passion for politics and their dream of a better world.
Thirty members of the now defunct group gathered once more
at a reunion in June, held at the Peretz Centre for Secular Jewish Culture.
Laughter
erupted throughout the evening as they regaled each other with memorable
moments, re-enacted scenes and recalled late-night noshes and discussions
at Rubins, the Black Cat and the Aristocrat cafes.
Over the years, sell-out crowds with members of the Jewish
and left-wing
communities would come to see productions such as Tevye and his Daughters,
Awake and Sing!, The Biggest Thief in Town, Bontshe Shveig, Professor
Mamlock, The World of Sholem Aleichem, The Theatre of Peretz, The Dybbuk,
The Silent Partner, All My Sons and Doyres Zingen. Many of the productions
received great reviews in the city's daily newspapers.
Soli Jackson, one of the workshop's founders, said it all
began around
1948. Before coming to Vancouver, he was active in the Winnipeg New
Theatre. "It was a progressive theatre group that put on progressive
plays," he said. "So when I came here-I was a member of the UJPO (Vancouver
branch) at the time-I think I suggested we get started on a similar group
here." The UJPO is a progressive, socialist-oriented organization with
branches in Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg as well.
What was the purpose of a drama group?
Jackson smiles and states bluntly: It was a "propaganda
tool for the
progressive movement. We agreed, we shouldn't do art for art's sake."
Presenting plays was also a good and easy way to make money, he added.
"All it took was time."
Given the group's greater purpose, appropriate scripts were
not easy to
find. Basically, there were several criteria: they had to be Jewish in
content and/or carry a progressive message, and (hopefully) require no
royalties. After all, the group had no money to spend, and this was
supposed to be a fund-raiser.
Sylvia Friedman and Tova Snider, with assistance from Freddie Katz, spent hours reading every play they could find and wearing out the stairs at the Vancouver Public Library in the process. "We used to say, 'You see those grooves in the marble (steps)? We did that!'" said Friedman.
The workshop's first production was Greenstein on the Letter
Box, and
involved a postman who wouldn't deliver mail to a Jew named Greenstein.
It was presented in 1948 and Helen Veno was there. "They needed someone
to prompt." Many of the 35 core members got involved because a gap needed
to be filled.
In 1957, member Rikki Zuker, now Hoffer, went so far as to contact American writer Joseph Liss regarding a TV movie he wrote called The Silent Partner.
The story line was perfect, she recalls. It was set around
the turn of the
century and involved a daughter's relationship with her father as they
adjusted to life in America. She figured there must be a stage-adapted
version available. Apparently not. After much negotiation, Liss agreed
to
write the stage play and charge the UJPO a minimal amount for royalties.
Doyres Zingen was the group's only original play. Ben Chud and Label Basman
wrote the play; Searle Freidman provided original music and the musical
arrangement. Polly Weinstein, the producer, recalled that Chud was still
writing lines up to the time of the performance. "Everybody worked liked
dogs," she said, "We were painting sets until two and three in the morning."
Some productions required up to 100 actors, stage hands
and
behind-the-scenes support. Pauline Robb was singled out as being "an
outstanding wardrobe mistress" and Clive Kaplan was rarely seen on stage
but worked behind the scenes on every single production.
Out-takes
As everyone with experience in theatre knows, the show must go on.
During The Silent Partner, an actor was supposed to pull out a small comb
and present it to his lady friend, played by Sylvia Friedman. He said,
"I
have something for you." But when he reached into his pocket, there was
nothing there. He turned to her and said, "Wait a minute!" Friedman was
left on stage alone. "There were no lines so I started to rewrite the
play," she related. And what came out of her mouth was, "Were my latkes
that bad?" The audience broke into laughter. Pretending to cry, Friedman
doubled over in suppressed laughter.
Seemah Berson remembered doing rehearsals for The Theatre
of Peretz with a rubber chicken under her arm. "But came the real day,
I had a real plucked chicken Š it was dead." By the end of the play's
run, "It was really
smelly. It was four days old!"
In All My Sons, one of the actors who was called in at the
last minute lost
track during a performance. One scene required him to be on stage when
two women turned to address him. But he missed his cue. Director Lou Osipov
raced to the rescue by jumping on stage and announcing: "If he's not coming
out, I'm going in to get him!" The actor was then dragged onstage.
The group found out too late that, while another one of
the members had a
natural ability when it came to reading for a part, his memorizing skills
were less remarkable. He was given a major role in The Biggest Thief but
during the performance needed constant assistance.
"We had five prompters stationed under every window and every door," said
Friedman.
Crisis in world politics spills over
But in 1965, the group dissolved just days before they were to present
The Hamlet of Stepney Green. "It was decided to not go ahead, to terminate
the production, and by terminating it, that was the end," recalled Jackson
with a note of sadness.
"We had terrible internal problems," he said, shaking his
head. Hesitating,
he added: "There are still some stories that are hard to tell."
Personalities and time constraints contributed, but so did
world events.
"You must keep it in context," said Veno, "What happened in the Soviet
Union and in the U.S. with McCarthy."
In the Soviet Union, there was the famous speech in 1956
by Nikita
Khruschev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, in which he
exposed predecessor Joseph Stalin as a tyrant. Stalin was found responsible
for the murder of millions of Soviet citizens whom he believed were against
him, and for the suffering of millions more. This was a crushing blow
to much of the Left, which had looked to the Soviet Union as a sterling
example of communism.
"Things started to come apart with the revelations of Stalinism,"
said
group member Oscar Osipov. People in the drama group were crushed to also
learn there was antisemitism in the USSR.
And then in the U.S. in the '50s, under Senator Joseph McCarthy, there was the campaign to root out communism. Hearings were held where friends were bullied to rat on friends believed to be communist. To be labeled a communist was to lose your job, friends and, at times, your family. "It was very hard to not have that rub off in Canada," added Veno. For some, "there was a tremendous pull of loyalty." For others, "a tremendous amount of bitterness."
Jackson said "Some of us remained loyal to what we felt
was 'the cause' -
moving the people along to justice and socialism."
Veno explained: "It failed there. It hadn't failed here."
McCarthyism creeps north of the border
At the same time, many members who stuck with the UJPO believed they were
being watched. "I have no proof at all but I think so," said Jackson.
"I have no proof either, but I agree," added Veno.
Members recalled the ex-RCMP officer who joined the group for just one play and seemed very anxious to make friends. Then there was the case of a fellow who parachuted into the group and suddenly wanted to become the UJPO's membership chairman.
"I think a few infiltrated," added Arlene Jackson, who acted
and was the
make-up artist in several productions. She remembered a Romanian
interpreter with ties to the U.S. who joined the group - "out of the blue
(and) for a short time Š Yeah, we suspected but nobody had proof."
Adding to the troubles was the decision by the Canadian Jewish Congress
to expel the UJPO for criticizing Zionism and taking a vocal stand against
West German rearmament. This led to the Jewish Western Bulletin refusing
to run ads for the workshop's productions.The group got around that problem
by rewriting ads to say "Producer Polly Weinstein invites the community
to come see Š "
Around this time, the group entered The Journey of Simon McKeever in theVancouver Drama Festival. It tells the story of a pipefitter who develops arthritis and can no longer work. "The adjudicators refused to adjudicate it," said Friedman. "They gave the excuse that it wasn't legitimate because it had a narrator. I'm sure if any other group had done it, they wouldn't have had a problem."
Soon, the UJPO and Peretz Centre were completely ostracized from the rest of the Jewish community. Some of that fear and resentment lingers even today. The UJPO was finally reinstated in the Canadian Jewish Congress in 1995.
So what kept the workshop going as long as it did?
"The camaraderie," said Jackson without hesitating.
"That's what kept it going," agreed Veno. "Otherwise there was nothing,"
she jokes. "We didn't have talent."
But Friedman states firmly: "We're joking about rank
amateurs but the
productions were outstanding." Everyone at the reunion agreed. The
Vancouver Sun called The Biggest Thief in Town the best comedy of the
year. "After more than 50 years," added Gallia Chud, "They are still terrific
plays. They still stand up today."