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Theresa Tova appeared as Yente in Fiddler on the Roof,
May 3 to November 5, 2000, and as Lady Jane in Patience, July 11 to
October 13, 2000, at the Stratford Festival, home
of North America's largest repertory theatre company. Theresa, a veteran Canadian actor
and singer, graciously agreed to share her Stratford experiences with Canadian Actor Online.
Page Three:
To Page 1 of e-Notes
To Page 2 of e-Notes
My apologies folks....I have been so busy with keeping tabs on the "Kidz in the Biz" discussion board, trips into Toronto twice a week for..... ACTRA Kid's advocacy work, the Stratford EQUITY negotiations, rehearsals for 3 upcoming concerts including a holocaust concert for teachers seeing The Diary Of Ann Frank, my CD release (see this weeks People section in Macleans), auditions, my aching back, Patience, Fiddler and OH yeah ... being a mom... that I have been too crazed to keep you all informed. So, sorry....but there really is only so much a girl can do....
By way of a brief overview and a fond farewell to the eNotes: Patience closed with a bang October 13th. We had a scare the second last show when Bruce Dow who is in New York rehearsing Jayne Eyre on Broadway was kept state side by a canceled flight and the marvelous Gerald Isaac's stepped in with great flourish to play our beloved Bunthorne. It was a real hoot. Bruce was missed, but everyone came together to support Gerald and the show took on all sorts of new subtleties. BRAVO Gerald!! Two days later my back went out again and I was trussed but there for the last performance.
I really miss Patience. It was such a lovely counterpoint to the shtetl world of Fiddler.
Both Sheldon Harnick (lyricist) and Joseph Stein (book) flew up from NYC to see our production of Fiddler. They even brought their families.. and we got to meet and talk to them both in a private reception post show. The last member of the original creative team will be here this weekend. What gracious lovely men they are and can you spell HUGE TALENTS!! On a personal note, I gave Mr. Harnick my new CD as a gift and he actually wrote me a lovely fan letter. Yes, I'm sure I will frame that one as everyone has told me I must do.
Every night is sold out. Standing Ovations are the norm. We even see audience dancing in the aisles. The show is as good as ever and we are finally through extra end of season rehearsals. Gerald Isaac's has left the show early to go to France to sing Opera and Bruce is on Broadway. Darcy Dunlop has stepped in for Bruce and as of last night the non stoppable Damien Atkins (his play Good Mother is on the 2001 season playbill) has stepped in to beautifully fill the shoes of Mendel the rabbi's son.
The Guthrie awards were handed out in an awesome emotional evening. Over $93,000 was given out to some 90 something recipients. Money was doled out to some for creative ventures, others for personal time and more then a few for Dental...
One of my favourites was given to a Festival usher who wanted only $300 to help her get to Australia to visit her daughter. I was given an award to throw an end of season say good-bye to the shtetl party complete with my band performing a little Klez, a little Jazz. Should be fun.
The weather has shifted as have the audiences. We are SRO, still packing them in at Fiddler, but the streets are a lot emptier these days. Store owners are getting ready for holidays. Actors are looking at offers for next year....
Less then 3 weeks to go...
I will really miss this place...
...and hope to be back here again someday.
Lady Jane Tova
Yenta Tova
June 21 -- All right it has been way too long since posting a diary entry. My apologies....
June has been an exceptionally full and stressful time. Fiddler has been a joy to do. Houses are sold out almost every night and the cast led by Brent Carver is playing and discovering every night. Unlike some shows where performers are locked into attitudes and lines become rote.... We are having the best time keeping it new. In the dressing room, ears are always perk up when we hear something new. There is such a sense of community....
The back stage monitors are still crowded when the boys dance TO LIFE Speaking of which, last week we had a crazy SIT-COM moment. A stool accidentally was knocked off the stage during a run around the table in the Tevya/Lezer wolf-drinking scene. Kicked straight out into the front row. Thank G-d it didn't hurt anyone. Well, of course the action halted and the quick thinking Michael Fawkes (who plays the innkeeper) improvised telling everyone, "It was all right ... no need to worry" and dropped to his belly to reach out over the edge of the turntable and get it back from the woman it attacked.
Well, Brent and George Masswol were left on stage looking at each other... I believe it was Brent who said, "What should we do now?" George answered, "I think we should have drink." Brent then quipped, "I think we should have 3 or 4." The audience howled and applauded at each interjection.
Back stage, we all came running out to the monitors. It was like a Carol Burnett skit where Harvey Korman and Tim Conway crack each other up. The guys finally got back on track and were able to cue the orchestra for the big dance number. Audiences love that sort of stuff.... I even heard about it the next day from the receptionist at the chiropractor.
Ah yes my back :( A source of frustration again. I had a rib out of place all last week. As you can imagine it is very difficult to sing when you can't even breathe. I saw a chiro everyday and sat out of the dream dance sequence... We had a gentler and more pained Yenta all last week.... At one point I was on so many painkillers I was actually hearing high pitched ringing during our first Patience music rehearsal. All is better now.
Brian Hill our PATIENCE director has come up with a delightful concept and world for us to live in. Patience is being billed as a staged concert performance and he has placed us at a garden party where we will all read the scenes and do party pieces for one another. Just as they would have done at a parlour party in Gilbert & Sullivan's days.
There is some fierce singing going on and I am loving learning my harmony lines in the 10-part ensemble numbers... Yes, 10 part! A sextet and then four chorus lines. Bert Carrier knows this G & S style of music so well and is a fabulous teacher/musical director.
I am working like a busy beaver at my reading music skills and it is already making such a huge difference to my comfort level with the learning process. The other day we were about to sing a multi-part number and before we started I snuck up to the piano and gently plunked out my starting note. Bruce Dow my music teacher and Christina Gordon's co-star in Patience saw me and proceeded to gush about how proud he was that I could do that now. He is so sweet. And he is totally over-worked ... playing in Fiddler, As You Like it and now starring in Patience.
We have had no time to actually have a lesson ... but he bought me a theory book for beginners used by the royal conservatory and marks my lessons during Fiddler intermission. What a gem he is. If that isn't enough I have also been in to Toronto twice this month, on my days off, to sing at two different benefits. They were both fun but with the workload and my back out, I am a tired old puppy.
Fittings have started for Patience. We are going to be wearing chiffon like flowing sexy garden party dresses. I couldn't be happier after my time as a vision in Fiddler's wool shtelt garb. Get out the false eyelashes. We are gonna look FINE!!
Lady Jane Tova
July 21 - My apologies but the longer I take to report from Patience the more daunting the task becomes.
What a month this has been. I started the first day of rehearsals on painkillers with my recurring rib injury out of place. At one point at out first sing through, I actually turned to Christina Gordon to ask if she heard this high pitched ringing I was hearing? She looked at me with pity and confirmed, "No hon, it's just you". I saw a chiro every day for two weeks before starting to feel any relief.... and wore a bustier to hold my ribs in place. I had committed months ago to two benefit performances and had to sing in Toronto as well. Let's just say June was a challenge.
The entire company is exhausted. We started out with a full week of principle music rehearsals before the ensemble was added to the mix. Our musical team of Bert, Marilyn and Laura were incredible. I had a few private sessions with Bert and Laura, first making sure I had the notes and then Bert spent two sessions coaching me on how exactly he thought I should attack the recitative. A scary proposition at best. He encouraged me to find a lighter place to sing from, a truer sound. Once we found it, he kept saying, "You see? This is Theresa Tova singing G & S" and calling me "Diva Tova".
The work I have been doing learning to read music under the watchful eye of Bruce Dow has been so helpful. I took the entire score and wrote in the notes I sing above my part. When looking at 10 parts on a page it is easier at this point for me to see it written that way. I was then able to sneak up to the piano and quietly plunk out my entry on a choral section before we sang it.
You can't imagine the sense of freedom I am feeling for the first time. I actually taught my self an accapella section that Bert hadn't gotten to teach me yet for an early rehearsal. When I arrived Brian said, I know you don't know the song yet so let's start after that and I was able to proudly say, "It's all right I learned it myself this orning." Bruce, who was also in the scene looked at me in amazement, he was so proud!
Rehearsals are so difficult to schedule when in repertory. We are doing 5 Fiddlers a week, and many of the cast are doing 2 or 3 Musketeers or As You Like Its so it leaves 2 sometimes 3, 4 or 5 hour calls for Patience. Unbelievable, but I actually worked on a duet with Bruce one week for about 30 minutes and then it was two weeks before we touched it again. Bruce and I had every intention to work on it on our own but there just wasn't any time we could find to meet. One has to eat and sleep as well at Stratford. Thank g-d for my cleaning lady because otherwise forget laundry.
Brain Hill has been an angel. Always positive about what we tired puppies were bringing in to the room. Always willing to give us a break on how much we forgot from time to time. In a pressure cooker environment he kept us feeling loose and playful. But before we knew it the company started to get sick as well. We were dropping like flies. I was just getting over my back issues when I was saddled with the company virus. It attacked my throat with a fury. Company manager Ron Nichol flew into action.
Within a day I was being driven to Toronto to see the EAR NOSE and THROAT man, DR HANDS. The good news is I had no chord damage; the bad news was the pharmacy of gargles, sprays, antibiotics and steroids I was to ingest over the next two weeks. I was a mess. Fever, chills, a really sore throat. More dripping than Niagara Falls. I felt so sorry about having to keep coming to rehearsals but we were so short on time. I couldn't take anytime off. As Barb had done before me, I stopped singing at all in rehearsals for Patience. My gracious understudy Karen Skidmore would vocalise while I did the blocking. And in Fiddler, Yenta was a baritone... Sounding a lot like Brenda Vaccaro doing a phone sex commercial. Call 1 900 Yenta?!
One night both Barb Barsky and I were so vocally challenged it was a much quieter gentler ANATEVKA. I was getting so ill I actually called our Fiddler SM to ask her advise. I was not able to do the two calls again that day or I feared I might end up in hospital. We had to make decision between me doing a Fiddler performance or a Patience rehearsal but I certainly couldn't do both. I slept all day and showed up for the evening Patience call. Karen Skidmore got to go on (I hear she was great) and I got the rest I needed to help turn the corner. And then, turn the corner we did.
Before I knew it, we were in previews. Amazing how good actors can pull it out of somewhere when needed. We got in front of our first invited dress and lo and behold, we were actually having fun. The show worked and people out there got it. Who knew? You can't imagine how surprised and delighted we were.
Brian's concept of an elegant garden party is delightful and the music work has been solid. I enjoy the idea of being myself on stage when not directly involved in a scene. I feel great, look great and with a whole lot of Patience it has worked out for the best. Pat, my violin cellist, is a fabulous person wit incredible energy. Audiences can't take their eyes off her. I don't have to do hardly anything.
Lady Jane
August 4 - My last post seemed to cut off in the middle... I fully intended to get back and finish the journey. Reading your posts and knowing that some of you appreciate my rambling has spurred me on, so here goes.
The last week of rehearsals was amazing. All of a sudden, everyone was back in full voice, and we were thrown into a whirlwind of tech runs and dress rehearsals. Brian kept dabbling with adjustments to the staging of our concert. Adjusting pictures and Aesthetic poses. Renee added beautiful lighting that cast a romantic pallor on it all. The chiffon dresses were pinned and coaxed in to shape. We look damn fine I must say. But good looks don't come easily....
The biggest joke these days comes from seeing Christina, Jenny, Lisa and me at vocal warm up in our various hair rollers. Christina looks like Medusa gone wrong, Lisa and Jenny are hot rolling queens (their heads bigger then their bodies, and I definitely pick up Wingham... The orchestra zits probe was especially exciting. WOW.... Patience has a real musical theatre set up. The same incredible orchestra as in Fiddler but this time they are in the pit in front of us and we hear them, and feel them and in some cases actually see them. (In Fiddler, they are in a loft three flights above the stage and we only see the conductor on a tiny TV monitor.)
Bert our MD conductor is bubble of joy. His words to us are supportive but cautionary.... "I'm not a mirage this time.... Look at me."
The first invited dress was an incredible release. The tension of being under-rehearsed and overtired vanished as we got our first laughs. The audience went wilde (pun intended) and unfortunately so did we. We had such a good time on stage it was a bit over the top you might say. We kept cracking each other up and even heard a few bravos ... from us. The audience cheered and hooted along with us but Brian pulled us back the next day and asked us to limit our
responses on stage to silent smiles and nods....
The next preview was controlled and precise but a bit lack lustre I thought..... Brian must have thought so too because over the next four previews he slowly inched us back in to the world of a group of actor/singers at a concert truly enjoying themselves and showing it (within boundaries).
What a great experience this has turned out to be. I love concert work and this is the best of both worlds. I get to sit on stage as myself enjoying the talents of my fellow cast members, then get up and put on a role in the scenes and numbers. No fourth wall.... I find that truly liberating.
My nervousness over singing G&S is almost a distant memory. Barb (our musical consultant) gave me a final note ... "Maureen would be proud." Gee.... Maybe I like this G&S stuff after all.
I still get nervous and prepare like crazy every day we do Patience. First, I won't go out or have a drink the night before. Makes me feel I am giving the notes half a chance of being secure. On the day, I try to limit my talking on the phone (Internet is OK) I run all my lines lickety-split, and hum a lot on my way to the theatre. I get to the AVON 2 hours before curtain.... I put in my curlers, do my face including false eyelashes (girls, get good with lashes if you can... they are hell to apply). I run the duet with Bruce Dow, then join the voluntary vocal warm up.... Then PAT (cello) and I meet in my dressing room to say hi before the show and then we meet again back stage at intermission.
We opened in a good place. The show is a delight to do. I affectionately refer to it as a rock concert for Octogenarians, but lo and behold, my kids really loved it too. Even the G&S fans I have meet are loving this concert version. Whew!! Who knew? Ah the theatre Gods...
Last night I was waiting in the wings for the second act entrance and heard someone enter in the down stage wing in front of me. I thought it was Bruce Dow who I have to follow on. It was not... It was Christina who goes on before us all to adjust drinks and props. I mistook my cue light being dark as having gone off and went out with full gusto.... About five others followed me... We were onstage in front of the audience with nothing to do and the rest of the cast hovering in the wings wondering what the hell we were doing and if we had lost our minds....
We were caught and stood there toasting each other in happy reveller fashion all the while under our breaths wondering how long we would be there... I apologized sotto voce and accepted the blame for putting us there. Funny thing, but I woke up this morning from a dream where I was leading a group of actors on stage and got lost in a labyrinth of staircases that took us everywhere but on stage.
Poor Tracy stepped on a needle and ended up in the hospital to have it removed. We were one maiden short last night as there is no swing system in Patience. Tonight Tracy's Understudy Michelle Graff will go on in Fiddler for the first time as Hodel. The biggest challenge now that everything is open, is remembering what time your next show is. The schedule changes every week. I have calendars in my home, in my dressing rooms, in Toronto ... and still find myself checking 3 times a day to make sure I haven't made a mistake.
What a time this Stratford experience is. I love it in every way. The work is top notch and I am so proud to be part of it. I talked to Domini Blyth last night about the demands of being in a musical company in the middle of such a hard working repertory. The challenges are very different for singers and dancers. We can't fake a high C. And yet Queen Gertrude can be a bit raspier one day without any consequence. But my hat is off to Monette for not separating the companies. Folks flow easily between Shakespeare, classical and modern to musical. It is an actors dream come true. Certainly one of mine.
Lady Jane
Theresa Tova: Honoured with a Gemini nomination as BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, Theresa was a regular for 5 seasons on the award-winning CTV series, ENG. Since then she has gone on to write, produce and star in the theatrical musical STILL THE NIGHT which won four Dora awards and a nomination for the prestigious 1999 Governor General's Award for excellence in Literature. Recently, Theresa starred as EMMA GOLDMAN in the National American tour of the Broadway Musical RAGTIME and will next grace the boards in the 2000 Stratford Festival season as Yente in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.
 Theresa's Yiddish Jazz CD titled "Telling Stories" is now available online.
An ACTRA and Equity member, Theresa has been active on a political level in pursuit of children’s rights and clear protective regulations at ACTRA. A past National Council member and part of the IPA negotiating team, she helped clearly define the Children's agreement for Independent Production in Canada. She is also the mother of two Biz Kids and the volunteer CAO Kidz in the Biz Discussion Board Moderator.
A bold work of music theatre, Still the Night by Theresa Tova follows the extraordinary journey of two young women from prepubescence to womanhood; from the pre-war days in Warsaw to the Polish underground of 1939. Young lives once filled with innocence, opera and the Yiddish theatre are transformed by espionage, survival and courage. Brought to life with an inspired selection of Yiddish and American music and songs from the ghettos, Still the Night shines with a vision of hope, compassion, and the power of the human spirit.
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