I mentioned to a group of friends that B and I were going to see Les Misérables. Tammy Bonell Garner gave a laugh of pleasure.
“Gaby (Lomberg), you and I went down to Durban for the weekend, to see a musical called The March of the Falsettos, don’t you remember, Gaye?”
I shook my head.

“The show wasn’t coming to Johannesburg and we had quite a few friends in it. So I drove us down there and I happened to have a CD of Les Mis in my car. We put it on and sang along all the way to Durban. We stayed at your aunt, Libby’s home and left really early on the Monday morning. We had to get you back for a rehearsal of Othello at 2.00 pm. I remember we ran out of petrol, just as we got to Jo’burg and we were all hysterical! But luckily enough, we were able to cruise to a garage not too far away and fill up. So you arrived on time!!!”
Isn’t it strange how bits of my forgotten past continue to reveal themselves?
I lost my memory in a fall. Discovering bits of my past that have been hidden from me for twenty-nine years is an otherworldly experience. When this occurs, I am always surprised, amazed and often filled with delight.
Another memory given back to me to store away!
This explained why I knew Les Misérables so well!

B wished to make this theatre experience unforgettable. So, B being B, she contacted the top person in control. She wrote off to none other than Cameron Mackintosh, the theatre producer of Les Misérables! She explained that the two of us had booked to see the show. She then told him that I had been an actor and had an 18 metre fall from the stage during a performance of Camelot. Was there any way, as a treat, that we could have a tour backstage. She received a reply  from the Company Manager, Hannah Shafran, saying she would be delighted to show the two of us around.

We arrived at The Queens Theatre at a quarter to six. Warm eyes greeted us as we introduced ourselves to Hannah. We followed her along backstage corridors and suddenly we were there – on stage. We looked out at a beautiful, old theatre that must have seated over a thousand people. Our attention was called back from the auditorium to the stage.
“If you look at the floor you will see a round, movable stage. This is actually integral to John Napier’s stage design.”
Looking down, I could see that we were standing on a large disc-like piece of flooring that had various markings and notches placed in certain locations. Obviously they were distinguishing symbols by which the stage hands moved the rotating stage into different positions. 

Gazing upwards, I saw figures hanging eerily in a cluster. I stepped back in horror. Then I thought: ‘Gaynor, you are in a theatre, you Dweet, they are merely props!’
I studied them. They were figures in soldiers uniforms. I laughed softly to myself. I was really looking forward to this show! 

Hannah called us over to the Stage Managers desk. Written on the wall in front of it was a well known name. It was a name of royalty in the theatre and film world: Judi Dench!
She had seen the show and loved it. Apparently she had been performing in the theatre next door, The Gielgud. She had a long gap in her performance during which she nipped across to The Queens, still dressed in costume. She stepped onto the stage of Les Miserables during the barricade scene and entered into Victor Hugo’s world for a brief moment in time. Giving careful note of how long she dallied in that world, she withdrew when necessary and raced back to step into her performance at The Gielgud.
I love the daredevilry of such a feat!

“How many people do you have working backstage?” I asked.
“Apart from the performers, there are about 66 of us,” Hannah answered.
“Sixty-six,” I gasped. I had never worked with that many people backstage. Les Miserables must have to have a highly organised system to deal with the backstage workers and the forty-four performers working together to perform a marvellous show.

We were walking across the stage, on our way out when Hannah called out: “Hi, Dean!”
“Hi, Hannah!”
“Dean, meet two friends of mine, B and Gaynor.”
While we were shaking hands, Hannah said: “You will be seeing this man in an hours time onstage. This is Dean Chisnall. He plays Jean Valjean.”
“Oh, my goodness, the lead!”
“One of the many,” he laughed.
“I can’t believe it. Please may I have a photograph with you?”
And that was how Jean Valjean and I ‘got together’. In the photograph, I mean!!!

Les Misérables wasn’t everything I was hoping it would be. No, it was far far more. Each new scene I would imagine the backstage crew quickly going about their work. The performers would be doing their quick changes into costumes I had seen placed in the wings. Seeing the  soldiers bodies lying on the stage, I knew where they’d come from.

This was the penultimate performance of Les Mis. The following night, this version closed it’s doors for the first time in thirty-four years. The cramped backstage area of the theatre was due to be torn apart and restructured. Les Miserables is also going to be refurbished. To me, it seemed perfect as it was. But I appreciate, that you should always look forward, seeking improvement.

I marvel at the mastery of Trevor Nunn and John Caird who have adapted and directed this show.
One of the reasons Les Miserables stands out as the masterful musical it is, is because of it’s incredible teamwork. One tends to come away saying: “Oh, wasn’t Éponine wonderful in her song: On My Own” or “Jean Valjean and Javert were utterly incredible.”
What about the lighting, the stage sets, the magnificent stage management etc, etc and etc! Nothing could happen onstage without the incredible backstage team. Laugh – as an audience, you don’t give the backstage a thought! You don’t because you are devoured by what is happening before you, onstage. 

This is as it is meant to be!

*

**

To listen to my favourite number from Les Mis, ‘On My Own’ click here!

The post Beyond the Stage! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

I love theatre! 

I love drama, comedy, dance and musicals. Theatres that are rapidly filling up for a performance of a musical are entrancing. The audience, waiting with mounting anticipation for the curtain to rise and the music to begin! 

I have always loved musicals. How well I know the music from: Oklahoma, Sound of Music, Phantom of the Opera, Half A Sixpence, Cats, Les Miserable! To name but a few!  I was recently told by Tammy Bonell Garner that I drove from Johannesburg to Durban with Gaby Lomberg and herself to see March of the Falsettos. Apparently, we played Les Miserables and sang the whole way. My fall has wiped that particular memory clean, but it explains why I know every single word of that production. After having my Cochlear Implants, I watched the film of Les Miserables. The song, On My Own, reduced me to tears. How wonderful it is to be able to enjoy music once more!

Recently whilst in England, my best friend, B told me that we were going to see Miss Saigon. How utterly marvellous to see a Cameron Mackintosh musical! Only I didn’t know the music at all. I was puzzled by this. Why didn’t I know that musical, I wondered? I knew Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Les Miserables. Why not Miss Saigon? I discovered it had opened on the 30th September 1989. I had my fall and became deaf in December 1989. 

That explained it.

In the afternoon, B sat down next to me, her iPad in hand.

“I wanted to make your Miss Saigon experience really special, so I emailed Cameron Mackintosh and…”

“You emailed WHO?” I exclaimed in this over loud, disbelieving voice.

“Well, Cameron Mackintosh Productions. I wrote this:”

Hi there,

I am taking my best friend, Gaynor Young, to your production of Miss Saigon at the Theatre Royal in Norwich on Monday, 20th August.

She is visiting the U.K. from South Africa. Gaynor was a professional actress. She had a tragic accident whilst performing the lead role of Camelot at the State Theatre, Pretoria in South Africa. You can learn more about her at www.earearblog.com/about and via this YouTube link https://youtu.be/rL-ZfEZsbtc

I wonder if you might be able to do anything that would make Gaynor’s Miss Saigon experience just a little more special.

Thanks, in anticipation

Barbara Royce

And, B got this response:

 Dear Barbara,

 Thank you for getting in touch with us about Gaynor. What an incredible woman!

 We’d love to invite you both to a back stage tour of the show after the performance if that is of interest? When convenient please feel free to get in touch with our company manager, and he will provide more details.

 Best regards,

 Rob 

On the 20th August, the Theatre Royal, Norwich was packed and there was an excited buzz of anticipation amongst the audience. A sense of people knowing that they were in for something special; a treat was in store. The feeling seemed to hover in the air, simmering and cracking amongst us as we found our seats. The curtain went up, the simmering and cracklings ignited and what an incredible production flamed before us. 

Miss Saigon is a moving tale of love in a war ravaged country.

At the centre is the violent impact of two differing cultures. There is the West’s uncouth captivation with the East. The sense that the East thinks and feels differently to ‘us’. The West often disregards Eastern beliefs and is ignorant of it’s culture. This exotic racism is a popular theme in musicals. Apparently a contemporary playwright announced in despair: “Theatre in the West End is pathetic as far as politics goes. The only thing you can see are musicals!”

Yes, a lot of theatre in the West End comprises of musicals but, as Miss Saigon illustrates, musicals are often extremely political! It is just they have their own way of highlighting political issues. Think of: Les Miserables, Cabaret, Sound of Music, The King and I, West Side Story. All of these productions are political. It is just that musicals have you tapping your feet as it creatively pushes a political truth home. Miss Saigon speaks of facts that are as present today as they have always been. Loss, prejudice, love, bullying, racism are all themes that strike a resounding note in this musical.

Our eyes, brains and spirits feasted on what was displayed onstage that night.

I remembered my sister, Liz, telling me about her experience of seeing Miss Saigon in London during the 90’s. She and her friend, Julie, had set off for the theatre. They were running late and Julie said: “I know I’m not meant to go down this street, but it will get us there so much quicker.”

No sooner had she began shooting down a one way street, than she heard the police siren behind them.

“Officer,” she said, bursting into tears, “I am so sorry. My friend and I have just finished work and we’re late for Miss Saigon. I am so frightened we will miss it. That was why we turned down this road.”

“It’s a wonderful show,” the policeman said. “Follow me, I’ll get you there in time.”

On went his siren and he flew ahead with Julie and Liz close behind. Arriving there, he shouted:

“Enjoy the show!” and disappeared.

The drama continued for Liz that night! Towards the end of the first half, there is an actual helicopter that literally lands onstage to fly the American soldiers out of Vietnam. Except, during Liz’s helicopter’s landing, there was a massive explosion and the helicopter toppled onto it’s side in a tangled heap. The big iron safety curtain came down on a horrified audience. The show came to an unprecedented, abrupt halt. The audience were all given tickets to see the show on another night. A few nights later, Liz said the helicopter landed and took off beautifully! On our night though, there was no actual helicopter. The stage must be too small, I thought. They had a wonderful 3D projection of a helicopter that was extremely vivid and real.

After the standing ovation, B and I made our way backstage. I was hoping that all the performers had already left. I didn’t want to be a ‘backstage gawker’. I needn’t have worried. I had forgotten the backstage rush to leave and relax with friends in the bar. Waiting to meet us was the assistant production manager, Sasha, and her husband, James, the stage manager. We told them how incredibly moving we had found the show. They apologised for not having the helicopter land onstage. James explained, as I had guessed, that the area backstage was too small to for the ‘usual’ helicopter.  We were amazed to learn that on tour it took nineteen lorries to move the sets of Miss Saigon. So far, he had stage managed four hundred and eighty eight shows!

Chatting to James about coming from South Africa, he mentioned that five years ago, he had assisted Artscape in Cape Town on Sound of Music. He fell totally in love with the place and recently took his new wife, Sasha, there on honeymoon.  

Lying in bed that night, I pondered the fact that politics rear their head in every walk of life….family arguments, sports fields, schools, acting, dance and musicals! In his productions political statements give added depth to Cameron Mackintosh’s wonderful creations. By bringing these musicals to life, Cameron Mackintosh, not only gives huge pleasure to millions of people but political insight rains down on everyone.

As my eyes closed, I thought: I must get the CD of Miss Saigon. I want to listen to it again and again. Like Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, I want to know that music. I want to be able to sing it to myself as I go about my day.

I want it in me.

Miss Saigon photographs courtesy of Cameron Mackintosh Productions

The post Musical Politics! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

Funny Girl.

I dipped with glee!
What an adventure I was about to have.
I was off to Cape Town to see Funny Girl!

At George Airport, the Cape Town flight was called and I joined the rest of the passengers to hand in my ticket. I felt this tap on my shoulder and turned to see a stunning woman standing before me.
“Gaynor, it is you! I couldn’t believe it when I saw you.”
I looked more closely at this woman and then she fell into place. I seemed to hear a voice from 28 years ago singing: ‘Life is sweet, tender and complete, when you find the bluebird of happiness……..The girl who’d played Cinderella in John Moss’s Christmas pantomime we’d put on at The Playhouse in Durban all those years ago – Julie Hartley!

“What seat are you in? I am 6C,” I asked
“16C. Miles apart.”
“Let’s wait and see. Maybe something can be arranged.”
The plane was half full and I had a spare seat next to me. We both hurled questions and answers at each other trying to catch up on twenty-eight years in a mere forty minutes.
Julie lived up the West Coast with the love of her life – her horses!
“The next time you are in Cape Town, please may I drive down and fetch you. I stay in an enchanting place. You will love my horses and dogs!”
I will definitely do that. I will go for a few days and take Perdita, my dachshund with me. Perhaps she will like the horses, I thought doubtfully, thinking of my  ‘I only love Gaynor’ dog.

The day of the show dawned!
I sat in a warm and cosy coffee shop. I was meeting my theatre friend of many years, Jenny Steyn. She came in and scanned the room. A wide smile lit her face as she came towards me. I love Jen. She is a person who speaks from the heart. When I had my fall and was hospitalised for seven weeks, Jen didn’t come and visit me. We were on the cusp of getting to know each other. So she didn’t feel that she could claim to know me and take up valuable hospital time. Now it’s a different case completely. Jenny has this natural joy that seems to emanate deep within her. When I worked as an actress, Jenny and I were often up for the same part. I considered us both containing an equal talent. How wrong I was. Recently I saw Jen perform in The Inconvenience of Wings. What a stark display of artistry and passion. Recently she played Nora in The Dolls House. She told me that the play had concluded with Nora walking through the audience and exiting the theatre. I love that! Her talent and grace seems to be fathomless.

On our way to the theatre, my sister, Liz said to me: “Tell me who is in Funny Girl that you know?”
“There’s Kate Normington who I approached about getting us complementary tickets to the show. Then Di Wilson.”
“Oh, I know Di. She’s been around to our house visiting you.”
“That’s right. And then there’s Michelle Maxwell. I did a show in Cape Town, I forget it’s name, but Mums and Dad came to see it. Mums said to me that in that show, for the first time ever, she didn’t recognise me as her daughter. She believed so totally in the character.”

What a beautiful theatre The Fugard is. It’s intimacy instantly transports you to a special place. We were shown to our seats in the third row! Glory be, not only comps but seated in a prime spot. We grinned at each other and settled back comfortably to enjoy the spectacle about to evolve before us. The musical tells the fascinating and bitter-sweet story of Fanny Brice whose vocal talents and comedic ability see her rise from a Brooklyn music hall singer to Broadway star. Intertwined is her tempestuous relationship with gambler Nick Arnstein. It was sumptuously designed and the dancing and singing were outstanding. But it was Ashleigh Harvey playing Fanny that stole the show.
“……Cause I’m the greatest star, I am by far, but no one knows it. Wait, they’re gonna hear voice, a silver flute…..”
I sat up and stared. This woman was incredible! She and the rest of the cast beckoned me into their world for the next two hours. I couldn’t help myself but as Ashleigh Harvey came forward to take her curtain call, I rose to my feet applauding.

After the show, I was meeting up with my old friends. I was nervous. I hadn’t seen Kate for about 13 years and Michelle even more. I had seen Di but that was years ago. I saw Di first. She gave me a warm hug and explained that she couldn’t stay. She had to get all the way home to Hout Bay. Then I saw Kate and my nerves vanished. She put her arms around me and we held each other for a long time. Michelle has this all embracing smile. When she had finished hugging me she said: “I have a present for you. I must see you before you go.”
Then I saw Ashleigh Harvey. Kate said: “Gaye, Ashleigh actually organised the tickets for you.”
“But…I don’t even know her,” I said to Kate.
“Ah, but I know you,” Ashleigh laughed coming straight up to me and giving me a hug. Pulling away but still holding me, she said: “I read and loved your book!”
I saw with astonishment that she was wearing a moon boot. I pointed at it questioningly.
“I fractured my foot in a dance class before I came down to Cape Town to start rehearsals. I have been in a moon boot all day for ten weeks but I take it off for my performances at night. I have had carbon plinths made for my show shoes so that my foot doesn’t move at all. Another few more days and then – goodbye boot!”
While Liz chatted to Kate, I re-found Michelle surrounded by friends at the bar.
“It is so good seeing you again. It’s been too long. I knew you were coming tonight and I….I wanted you to have this.”
She handed me a beautiful red and white dotted present bag. I put my hand in and drew out a mounted photograph of a much younger Michelle and Gaynor. The card said:

Dearest Gaynor
I found this photograph of us in Crossing the Line where I played your older sister. I had it copied as I think it’s sooo beautiful!
It was at the Baxter December 1989/90 (ish) and was directed by Mavis Taylor, (Colleen Craig, the author!)
Much love to you and blessings that we could see you tonight…….
Mich XX

I stared at the photograph in total delight. Mich’s timing was wrong. It had been in July, 1989. Here were the characters I had been telling Liz about in Crossing the Line. That was what the play was called! I had this image of me in khaki trousers and a t-shirt walking on stage. Then a blank. Since my fall, I have never been able to remember one instance of performing. Here was a ‘sense’ of the character I played and her relationship to her sister. I’m sure my name was Paula! I must check up with Michelle.

I give so much thanks for the love of a friend giving me back a touch of my past.

Kate and I arranged to meet for tea, a couple of days later. We hadn’t seen one another for about thirteen years, maybe more. The last show I had seen Kate perform in was as Eliza in My Fair Lady. Now I had just watched her play the lead’s mother. Time….!!!

And she had changed. We both had. While still possessing that sharp, humorous wit, she seemed to have grown gentler with age. We spoke of Funny Girl naturally and about the wonderful cast surrounding her. I mentioned laughing at a remark she made on Facebook about Michelle Maxwell getting on the piano and the two of them playing around with various numbers. She said: “Yes, but Gaynor do you remember Ian von Memerty, you and I found an empty rehearsal…”
“…room during Camelot rehearsals,” I finished. “Yes, that is one of the things that I remember clearly, Kate. We had a ball! Ian could do whatever number we came up with. We did numbers from Grease, My Fair Lady, Easter Parade, Sound of Music…”
“I sat on the piano stool as if I was playing the piano and singing and Ian crouched in between my legs with just his hand appearing on the keyboard. It was both magical and hysterical!”
I was so thrilled that that moment had been memorable for us both. It had broken through the mist surrounding my memory of Camelot and has remained sparkling like a much treasured gem all these years.
“And do you remember we found that wheelchair and we pushed each other harum scarum up and down those lovely, long corridors at The State Theatre?”
The wheelchair came skidding round a corner and into my memory.
“Oh yes,” I cried watching those two wild women acting like mad six year olds. That was a new memory that was magically conjured up for me that tea time. I will guard it jealously in my memory box.

Kate has been married for the last year. I am due up in Johannesburg in August. It will be wonderful to meet Kate’s husband during that time. I have also promised to see Ashleigh Harvey for lunch.

Finally, I met Shirley Johnston for dinner that night. She edited my book and is a very precious friend. She always finds time to see me when I’m in Cape Town. It somehow felt right finishing off my Cape Town visit having dinner with her. She had worked for five years with Ashleigh Harvey in Death of a Colonialist. I had heard Shirley speak of Ashleigh but hadn’t clicked that she was the star of the show that I’d just seen.
“That’s your Ashleigh? But…but Shirls, did you know she could sing like that?”
“I actually saw her in a cabaret. I remember tears just falling down my cheeks she was so moving.”

This is what those delectable four days in Cape Town gave me. A superlative show! But more than that. It gave me: Julie Hartley, Jenny Steyn, Diane Wilson, Ashleigh Harvey, Michelle Maxwell, Kate Normington and Shirley Johnston. My theatre friends, old and new. And, except for Shirley, I have lost touch with them. I go up to Johannesburg and down to Cape Town and I don’t contact them. I tend to think: Oh, they won’t want to be bothered by me!
This is garbage! Those four days proved that to me. Friends are special. Theatre friends are exceptionally unique. I am no longer able to act. But that is not important. I believe that once you have entered into that ‘theatre fraternity’ you are there for life.

Oh, how I love my ‘Funny Girls’!!!

The post My Funny Girls! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

Steven Stead recently said: “I adored the almost ritualistic, transportive experience of being an audience member. The eager anticipation of the journey to the theatre, the thrill as the lights went down, and then how my own being seemed to fuse with the rest of the audience and the actors on stage. It created a thrilling, magical almost transcendental experience. It is something that has never quite left me, no matter how experienced I have become. Very rarely do I get transported these days. I am too jaded. And yet, it happened just recently in Slava’s Snow Show and at Clybourne Park. They were both mesmerising in their wild exhilaration. I found them stimulating intellectually and spiritually. No other art form delivers quite the same rush of adrenalin and empathy. Or as the ancients said: pity and terror.”

In April, I watched Steven Stead collect his two Naledi Theatre Awards – Best Director for the musical  Sweeney Todd and the Joan Brickhill Award for the best production of a musical. The golden mopped man smiled broadly as he stepped forward to say thank you.

He told me: “I have a very unhealthy relationship with awards. While I know they are there to give the industry traction and status, I think they can be so incredibly destructive to individuals, and divisive within our artistic community. You can’t compare apples with oranges, can you? Our artistic merit is incredibly subjective. The best thing is to take them with a massive pinch of salt. One has to treat the whole thing with a bit of healthy disdain. Which means that when one wins, one has to be consistent and treat it very lightly too. I was delighted that our work and our team got the recognition of nominations. It is great to be recognised and validated on a national level. The awards I revelled in were the lifetime achievement awards given to stalwarts within our industry. Your Spirit of Courage Award was breathtaking. Those were all very meaningful.”

My memory took me back to the 1987 Christmas pantomime of Cinderella that Steven and I had performed in. He was a young varsity student, eager to learn and always asking questions. I thought I was bad as far as asking questions went. I paled in comparison to Steven! Due to my accident, I left the theatre world shortly afterwards and as a result our paths didn’t cross for many years.

Our friendship was renewed when the KickstArt Theatre Company decided to put on my show Gaynor Rising in Durban in 2005. Greg King and Steven had formed this theatre company that has just gone from strength to strength.
“We actually just want to put on the sort of shows that we ourselves are desperate to see. That has been a strong motivating force for us both.”
Billy Suter, Arts Editor for The Mercury newspaper wrote:
Durban loves them, they’re perfect…and let’s hope they never change cities, because Greg King and Steven Stead’s award-winning KickstArt Theatre Company is as much an essential and cherished part of Surf City as dips in the ocean, slides at uShaka and gliding up the Moses Madiba Stadium arch.

Actress, Lisa Bobbert says: “When you work in a KickstArt production, you know it is going to be excellent. The sets, costumes, music, lighting, acting, you name it – it’s always world class, something you could easily see on the West End or Broadway. Friends who have seen shows like Annie and Cabaret on Broadway have told me that they far preferred KickstArt’s productions. Steven Stead and Greg King have made a significant and indispensable contribution to the South African Theatre industry.”

“What is it that captures you when you direct shows?” I asked Steven.
“I direct because I feel a deep connection to the theatre. It moves through me freely and powerfully. I want more than anything else to see it well served, with integrity, not ego. And so I serve it. As best I can. And find a deep and lasting satisfaction in doing so.
Basically, I have always been passionate about story-telling. The director is there to tell a story as clearly and as powerfully as possible. I find the process of working out how best to tell the story immensely satisfying and endlessly absorbing.”
Steven finished by saying: “It’s so hard to discuss this stuff without sounding like a cross between Stanislavsky and Donald Trump!”

Many of the shows that Steven directs are for children. I love children’s theatre. In fact Steven recalls as a child going to watch Pieter Scholtz’s Tambootie the Puppet. I played Pizzi the puppet whose twin was Cato. I will never forget the children’s faces as they sang along and shouted out suggestions to us characters onstage.

The renowned theatre critic Lyn Gardner says: “We worry endlessly about exam results and yet squeeze the arts from the curriculum. The opportunities to learn an instrument or go to the theatre are not an entitlement for every child, but activities that are only within the reach of the privileged few. As one of the characters in Lee Hall’s The Pitman Painters says: ‘Art is the place where you understand your whole life from.’
If one single child is excluded from art, we are all the poorer for it.”
I applaud Steven and Greg for providing children with these incredible productions – Puss in Boots, Snoopy the musical, Shrek the musical, Sleeping Beauty, Winnie the Pooh………
What a treasure trove for children to discover.

He and Greg have kept theatre alive and flourishing in Durban. They are also maintaining the imagination and creativity of  younger minds.
“We’ve carved a name for ourselves here. And we are valued. Does Cape Town or Jo’burg need another theatre company? Not really. There is a reciprocal loyalty that is important to us in Durban. We have loyal artists and audiences here, and we in turn are loyal to them.

Steven has fulfilled that young schoolboy’s prophesy: He has put on musicals at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre in Durban, at Cape Town’s, Theatre On The Bay and at the Montecasino in Johannesburg. But he has done more.
So much more.

Steven laughs and says:
“It’s really just been a case of loving theatre immoderately and as Dory says in Finding Nemo:
‘Just keep swimming!’

The post Finding Nemo! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

I sat there that evening with a wide open heart.

The Lyric Theatre is such a beautiful space. A red and gold room that carries an elegance all it’s own. I watched the various winners receiving their Naledi awards. Beautifully dressed theatre persona being given their own unique Naledi trophies of glass. I looked down at mine nestled in my lap: Lesedi Spirit of Courage Award. I hugged it closer.

So many familiar faces from a world I had said goodbye to twenty-six years ago. What was extraordinary about that evening was that I was made to feel that I still belonged. Theatre people are special in that regard. Once you are part of their world, they will never let you go. You are still “joined” to that very special force. Over the years I have maintained a close relationship with my theatre friends. It was astounding having an auditorium filled with comrades and familiar faces.

I laughed softly to myself as my old friend, Fiona Ramsay gave her thank you speech. She had been nominated twice for her performances in Miss Dietrich Regrets and Doubt. In true Fiona style she had won for both of them. She had drawn with herself! This was the first time in the Naledi history that anyone had accomplished such a feat.

She thanked Naledi and congratulated all the other nominees. “But no one deserves this award more than me!” There was an explosion of mirth from the audience. Knowing the way that Fiona works on a role, I could see her point.

Before my accident, we worked on different productions but at the same theatre and our dressing rooms were next door to each other. Often I would share dinner with her cast in their dressing room. When we were working on A Midsummer Nights Dream together, we spent evenings at home going over words, delving into the richness of the Shakespearean language. We would often hoot with laughter at the outcome of some of our ‘explorations’. Fiona recalled with relish, what a great soup maker I was. Nowadays I am still a great soup maker but Woolworths stars with a flourish!

A fellow theatre performer, Tammy Bonell Garner, remembers a Friday evening at the Baxter Theatre: “We were coming in to start the marathon 4 weekend shows. I was dragging myself up the stairs to the dressing rooms, with all my bags and make-up box. I met Fiona just to about to leave after a week of heavy rehearsals, on her way to another show. We both looked exhausted and as we passed each other, she said, ‘The best part about being in the theatre is the phone call to say you got the role! Often the rest is just hard slog!’ I have never forgotten that conversation. And yet, we performers love the theatre life!”

Fi doesn’t like being second best. I am sure that whatever she had put her mind to, she would have been successful. Initially she toyed with taking up medicine. However winning an award at school for drama propelled her towards theatre. We now have one of the finest actors gracing our boards.

How I wished that I had seen her stern and stoic Catholic nun, Sister Aloysius Beavier, in Doubt and the contrasting fading glamor of the old Marlene Dietrich. With Fiona’s fire and passion, they were no doubt extraordinary roles. After a Doubt performance, an audience member burst out: “I don’t know any of you, but I just had to stay to meet you. In the performance I have just watched, I felt like I breathed in at the beginning of the play and never breathed out! I was spellbound and captivated from the outset!”

“Marlene Dietrich was such a faceted star and personality,” says Fiona, “and I was aware I would have to access some extraordinary parts of myself to make her live. Sylvaine Strike directed and she opened up vistas of character possibility. We explored parts of myself during this process that I hadn’t visited before. The rehearsal room fairly bristled with creativity.”

Fiona finished her Naledi speech by saying: “I love being on stage in the theatre. I feel fully engaged. Physically, mentally, vocally, every part of me is charged and stimulated. I also love going to the theatre to see my colleagues at work. I challenge you all: Keep theatre alive! Don’t only enjoy making it but go and support it and keep the theatres open!”

Keep theatre alive! Keep the theatres open!

That was possibly one of the most important things said that evening. How many of us go to the theatre? I was chatting to a friend and she said: “Theatre has never been a priority in my life.”
“But when you went to London…?”
“A different case completely. I saw Les Miserables and loved it.”
I wondered why this was the case. In Johannesburg, they have just had Sister Act on. This was an incredible show! I am sure she would loved it.

And so I reiterate Fiona’s challenge: Take yourself to the theatre! Those of you who live in big cities are so lucky to have theatres just around the corner. Every time I go to Cape Town, I promise to make a point of going to the theatre if there is something good on. I have an instinctive fear of going and not hearing. This is utter garbage! With my Cochlear Implants, I have proved that I can cope in a theatre. I saw the wonderful production Solomon and Marion, with the brilliant ‘Sir’ Janet Suzman at the Baxter. I loved it! I know that if I had been in the vicinity of Doubt or Miss Dietrich Regrets I would have sold my body for a lift to those productions!

“I find the industry all embracing and every part of it is exciting and feeds into the general process of being an artist.”
I find these words of Fiona’s so up lifting. They speak of a person that is happy and fulfilled in what she does.

Isn’t that one of the secrets of living?

The post Alive & Open!!! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

Joy of all joys, every Christmas we went to the Christmas pantomime! John Moss put on a yearly panto and the delight, laughter, shouts of enthusiastic children that the Playhouse witnessed, makes my heart sing in memory. I remember quite clearly watching Liz Edmiston playing Peter Pan. I decided then and there that when I left school, I wanted to act. The rest of the family didn’t have such a life-altering reaction but we always used to leave the theatre talking nineteen to the dozen, recounting and laughing over bits of of the show we’d just witnessed.
Going to the theatre in childhood transported us into another world where the improbable was made probable. It was a world where there was hope and dreams. It was a place where good triumphed over evil. Going to those pantomimes gave us all a lasting love and appreciation of theatre and the arts which we carried into adulthood.
Recently I met up with a friend of mine, Susan Danford. It is always wonderful seeing Sue. She has an eagerness for life that is infectious. She had just come from running a workshop for school children from deprived environments. The theme of the workshop was War Horse which was then taking South Africa by storm.
In Susan’s workshop, she and the children were exploring how horses move. They all cantered and galloped madly around the room. Utterly exhausting! I still remember, as a child, doing the galloping hand clap onto my chest. I have just tried it and yes, I can still do it. It is strange how things you learn as a child remain with you.
Several days later, Susan and other workshop groups, all boarded a bus and took their children to The Artscape Theatre where they all sat utterly enthralled and transfixed by War Horse. It was a heady moment for them. Going in a bus! Going to the theatre! And then seeing a play of the calibre of War Horse!
ASSITEJ SA was responsible for ensuring that over 5000 children got to see the international production of War Horse through the generous sponsorship of Rand Merchant Bank. Lesley Beake, director of the Children’s Book Network based in Red Hill, recounts: “None of our Red Hill children had ever been near a theatre. Many of them will never go again. When the boys came to the workshop, they slouched in full of attitude. When they left the theatre their eyes were shining… For us, as a reading organisation, the most heart-warming of all was the way they seized their books and immediately started reading them.”
Hopefully that experience will remain with them for a long time.
Susan suggested that I should contact Yvette Hardie, the World President of Assitej. She thought maybe in the future I might do some school workshops about my deafness and cochlear implants under the umbrella of Assitej. Or perhaps something connected to ‘my’ opera I mused.
Yvette Hardie carries a serenely organised air about her. She is the first African President of ASSITEJ International and has successfully championed the bid to bring the ASSITEJ World Congress and Performing Arts Festival to Africa for the first time in 50 years. The 19th ASSITEJ World Congress and Festival will be held in Cape Town in May 2017! The theme will be inclusivity!
On meeting, I asked her to explain exactly what Assitej is.
“Well, the acronym ASSITEJ stands for: Association International du Theatre pour l’ Enfance et la Jeunesse.” She laughed. “Yes, French, the organisation was actually founded in France. It’s aim is to promote high quality arts and theatre for children.”
On March 20th,  The World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People is celebrated annually by ASSITEJ members in nearly 100 countries. This year it is using this day to highlight it’s initiative “Take a child to the theatre today”. It’s hope is that by the end of March more than 20,000 children will have had the opportunity to experience theatre for the first time.
I consider theatre vital to children. When I was performing in children’s theatre at university, I played an evil witch. This witch played havoc with a small pig. The pig escapes and the witch is duly vanquished. After the show, I was standing chatting to my friends when a young five year old boy accosted me. “You are a nasty person! I have a pig. If you had treated my Henry like you did just now, I would have got Dad’s sjambok and…and…you wouldn’t have been happy!”
Laugh! While not advocating the use of his father’s whip, I rejoiced because that little child had comprehended the injustice that was shown in our production.
This campaign of “Take a Child to the Theatre Today” is so important because theatre presents its young audiences with their hopes, dreams, and fears. It develops and deepens experience, intelligence, emotion, and imagination. It inspires ethical choices; it increases awareness of relationships; it encourages self-esteem, confidence, and the free expression of opinions. All of this through merely watching and experiencing theatre.
Could you support Assitej’s campaign? Which child might you take to experience theatre for the first time? Believe you me, they would love it. And what’s more so would you!

The post “All the World’s a Stage……..” appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

To most people, Bob Martin, instantly draws up the image of vitamin tablets for dogs. But before he retired, to everyone in the South African theatre business, Bob Martin conjured up quite a different picture
Bob Martin was a theatre photographer.
I have known Bob for about thirty years. When I was twenty-two years old I shared a house with the beautiful dancer, Tossie Van Tonder. Bob recalls coming to meet Tossie and as usual she was late! “You used to feed me with gorgeous butternut soup or homemade tagliatelle Alfredo. Over those meals with glassfuls of wine, much chatter and laughter, our friendship was formed.”

I asked Bob how his photography had started? Laughingly he told me that he had always been a ‘Baby Brownie’ fan, and shot pictures from when he was ten growing up in Cape Town. He started his photographic career whilst in Kenya during the Mau Mau emergency. He was working as a ‘scene of crime’ photographer as a reservist with the Kenya Police. On his return to SA he worked as a Sunday Times photographer.
“I had many exciting, sometimes tragic moments during my life as a photographer there – such as the Sharpville massacre in 1960.” He then broadened his experience by working as a publicity-stills cameraman on a number of international film sets, assisting the legendary ‘Karsh of Ottawa’ on the film, “Zulu” with Michael Caine.

But his artistic insight from behind the lens really came into play when he began to work as the only permanent theatre photographer for the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT).
“I felt that I had found my true destiny,” says Martin. “And so it was that my real life as a photographer of the theatre began. I realised then that I’d found my niche, surrounded as I was by dozens of gifted, creative artists.”
We know Bob as a photographer. I was amazed to discover that he had longed to be an actor. I read this piece out of Bob’s memoirs to be given to his children one day:
“I had been making a reasonable name for myself as a ‘Photographer of the Theatre’. I had been given my first break by Leonard Schach and his ‘Cockpit Players’ in, Tennessee William’s, “Night of the Iguana” at the old “Playhouse” theatre in Braamfontein. I had by this time, already photographed about ten plays. Due perhaps to my “Walter Mitty” tendencies, I had secretly always wanted to be an actor! But, a relatively early marriage and the resultant responsibilities to my children, had prevented that.
One day, Bobbie Lang, who I’d known since 1949, told me to report to the Wits university Great Hall, “for an audition!” Just for the hell of it and with little in the way of actual acting training, I went. It was a bit of ‘chutzpah’ really, especially since the audition was for a professional production, directed by none other than Leon Gluckman who was “Mr. Big ”of Johannesburg’s theatre in those days. He already knew me as a good photographer of the theatre, but NOT as an actor!
The play was none other than, Peter Ustinov’s “Romanoff and Juliet”. If successful, I was to play ‘Romanoff’, opposite Heather Lloyd-Jones’ ‘Juliet’! Heather was the up-and-coming ingénue of that era. She was soon to become quite a star in Brian Brook’s ‘Irma la Douche’. I was shocked into reality to find that I had to read to her in person! She too, was most surprised to see me there because I had already taken some super publicity pictures of her. A mild flirtation between us had ensued. She was ‘hot’ property at the time. I read for about 20 minutes and apparently impressed Leon Gluckman. He totally floored me by saying: ”OK Bob, you’ve got the part! Now, when can you start rehearsals?”
I remember distinctly going back to the Alba Hotel in Braamfontein, which was my ‘home’ at the time. I needed not only a few stiff drinks but a good hard “think” as well.
My ‘working’ life had been so varied. Since leaving school I had been: an apprenticed motor-mechanic, a sailor in the SANF, a shop assistant, a waiter, a maitre-’d in a night-club, a student dancer with the Cape Town University Ballet Company, a car-salesman, (which I hated!) a Firestone Tyre Company representative in both Kenya and South Africa, (which I hated even more) and which is where I met my wife, Marie! And now, I was a reasonably successful freelance theatre and motion picture (stills) photographer! Could I, should I, would I become an ‘Actor’ as well?
Marie and I were still wallowing in the emotional aftermath of a traumatic divorce. I did have a good ‘day job’ with a big Motor company. Although I hated the work it was a necessity because of my commitment to my children. “The Theatre”, as a profession, was just as much of an, “uncertain heartbreak house” then, as it is today, and it seems, always will be.
Suddenly my longing to become an actor was at last, realised. All I needed to do was phone Leon Gluckman and accept the part.
What to do?
For once in my life, common sense prevailed. When I did phone Leon the following day, regrettably I declined the part. He sounded genuinely disappointed. As was Heather. He even offered me more money, but I’d made up my mind. Poor Bobbie Lang was absolutely livid! He had recommended me and had convinced Leonard that I was right for the part. Who knows? I like to think that he was right!
It was an absolute dilemma in my life that has haunted me ever since. Should I have thrown all caution to the winds, behaved irresponsibly and BECOME the good actor I felt I had the talent to become? Alas, I was never to know. In my heart of hearts, I instinctively knew, that for once in my life, I had acted wisely and done the ‘responsible’ thing.
I often wonder how different my life and that of my children would’ve been, if I had taken that part and become the actor I so badly wanted to be.”
I’ve always loved Bob but having read that Memoir that love is coloured now with great respect!

In 2009 Bob’s book Highlights and Footlights was published. It is a masterly tribute to South African stage and screen. I am incredibly honoured to have been included in this book. If you are in Exclusive or Wordsworth, do yourself a favour. Go and page through it….and marvel at his brilliance!

The post To Be or not to Be? appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.