Arts & Culture – Page 99

Try to reduce screen time

In her latest book, Be the Parent, Please (Templeton Press, 2018), author Naomi Schaefer Riley reminds parents to take back control and help their kids find healthier means of entertainment.

Originally from Massachusetts, this New York mom of three kids (ages 11, 9 and 5) is no stranger to society’s pressure to give children whatever they want, including the latest technology.

“Over the last few years, I myself struggled with the issues of how to handle screen time, and I’ve watched a lot of other parents struggle with it,” Schaefer Riley told the Independent. “As a journalist, I wanted to talk to experts and do reading, and find out what the research says … and talk to parents about strategies they were using to deal with this.

“The pressure to hand over screens to kids starts almost immediately these days,” she said, “The iPhone came out a little more than 10 years ago, coinciding with the birth of my oldest daughter. It took a couple years but, by the time she was in preschool, a lot of parents, even to have a basic conversation with another person, would hand over their phone just in order to distract the child.”

Today, tablets and cellphones have become a source of all things entertainment for kids (let alone adults), whether that involves looking at pictures of themselves, creating videos or playing games.

“When my kids were younger, we let them watch one show every night, some half-an-hour cartoon,” said Schaefer Riley. “Then, my son was born and the fight began over what they were watching and who gets to pick each night. And it became more of a struggle to tell them you’re going to turn off the TV…. A book I read enlightened me, called The Plug-In Drug. It came out a little more than 40 years ago and was mostly about TV and videogames.

“The author noted that, when you turn off a screen, it’s almost like waking a child up from a nap. It’s a trance-like state and they’re so into it that it’s almost like a change from sleep to wakefulness when you turn it off. And they become cranky. It can be as long as a half hour before they adjust back to reality. I think I was tired of the crankiness, too, of every time I turned it off, to have this fight ensue.”

At the Schaefer Riley house, there are a lot of toys and the kids are expected to entertain themselves without the TV. “But, a lot of parents don’t make that expectation,” she said. “They assume that, unless the child has a screen, the parent has to be entertaining them at all times, that the child can never be restless or irritated.”

She went on to explain that it’s not a parent’s job to ensure that their child is 100% engaged in something at all times. Instead of screens, she suggested, “Why not give your kids some pots and pans to bang together or some cardboard boxes? These are things we know are good for building fine and gross motor skills, and [that] encourage kids to explore things.

“I think what the screens have allowed is for us to exercise more control over our kids and keep them on a tighter leash. You don’t need to go all the way to the park. You can just sit in the living room and give your kid an iPad. That way, I don’t need to worry about whether you know enough about crossing the street or whether you’ve achieved that level of independence. The phone will allow me to have this tether on you. This is not very beneficial to kids in the long run.”

Children are now finding tasks difficult to handle if they cannot immediately text their parents for advice or counsel about their lives, argued Schaefer Riley. There is constant communication, with technology serving as a crutch for helicopter parenting.

“A lot of parents have confessed to me … they know, deep down … that they don’t need studies to tell them that their kids are on screens too much,” said Schaefer Riley. “Parents know this.”

It’s time to apply basic parenting strategies to technology, she said. “I know it sounds simplistic to say, but your kid doesn’t generally ask for chocolate cake for breakfast in the morning; they know there’s none for breakfast. If you talk about screen-time limits and stick to them, your kid will not be on you constantly…. If you stick with the rules you set for a few weeks or months, your child will learn that there is no point in asking again; they already know what the answer is and will stop asking for things you consistently say ‘no’ to. The idea is to bring parents back to reality and back to a sense of where they do have control.”

According to Schaefer Riley, the life skill of asking for assistance from an adult is one that many children are missing out on, due to the reliance on tablets and phones.

“I see the kids … my daughter is on the swim team … and they all walk out of practice and everyone is texting their parents – pick me up in five or 10 minutes outside,” said Schaefer Riley. “I’m like, ‘who are you?’ These are not your chauffeurs. I think that’s how we’ve come to think of ourselves.”

Schaefer Riley said observant families, who turn off their phones on Shabbat, have an advantage, as the children come to appreciate that there is something to be gained from family time. “I think,” she said, “that more and more people, whether they are religious or not, are trying to find that ‘technology Sabbath,’ as they like to call it, to give themselves a break … either at meal times, or one day a week, or on vacation. It’s considered a luxury now, to be able to get away from your phone.”

Schaefer Riley emphasized that her book is not meant to scold anyone. She herself faces these challenges.

“There’s a lot of pressure coming from technology companies and schools, and from the culture generally, that are really pushing you to hand over these devices to your kids,” she said. “It takes some willpower to say no, that’s not for my child, or this much time is not for my child.

“There’s a point at which you need to go into your community and find allies,” she added. “Everywhere I went, every community of people I’ve spoken with, there wasn’t just one family trying to hold the line. There were several and, sometimes, they weren’t connected with each other. But, if you do a little searching, you can find people trying to take a similar tactic, and it helps to have allies.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

My chat with Ed Asner

Ed Asner stars in A Man and His Prostate, which is at the Anvil Centre Theatre for two nights only: April 27-28. (photo from ACT)

I did my homework. I had read and watched interviews. I had my questions ready. I was prepared. But Ed Asner is a force of nature – a funny, caring and curious one, but a force of nature nonetheless. And nature is more powerful than the proverbial man. I learned that in high school English class – man has a chance against another man or his own internal demons, but not so much against nature.

I was calling Asner about his upcoming performances in New Westminster at the Anvil Centre Theatre April 27-28. He stars in A Man and His Prostate, written by his longtime friend Ed Weinberger, a multiple-award-winning scribe (including a Writers Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award), who has written for countless TV series – for soooo many comedies. Both Weinberger and Asner know funny, so this show promises to be hilarious. But its purpose is also to make a point: “that point being,” Asner told me succinctly, “get examined.” Hear that, guys?

I’ve interviewed famous people before so that wasn’t the reason I got somewhat flustered in speaking with Asner. Admittedly, I loved and watched every episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spinoff drama Lou Grant. I have enjoyed Asner in various other roles over the years, including on Murdoch Mysteries (as Santa Claus, of all things) and, of course, as the voice of Carl Fredricksen, the grumpy protagonist in Up, who made me cry. Hearing such a well-known voice respond to your questions is very cool, and a little unnerving, but there was more to it.

I called Asner at the number I was given by the publicist for the local show. The woman who answered the phone simply said he’d had to leave and that I should try his cell, so I did, thinking nothing of it. The connection wasn’t great, but I reached Asner – he was in an L.A. hospital waiting to get a CT scan. When I wished him well and said we could reschedule the interview, he said, “Let’s try to talk now. It’ll help me pass the time.”

As I started asking him questions, he stopped me: “Are you uncomfortable doing this?”

“No,” I said, “I’m happy to keep your mind off things if that’s going to help.” I got as far as finding out that Weinberger had approached Asner about a year and a half ago to take on this role, but the line really was bad and we weren’t hearing each other – he said he’d call me back. But it was Asner’s righthand man (Nick, I think) who phoned, telling me that Asner had gone in for his CT, and they would call again once it was complete.

Next call: “Are you OK?” I asked.

“I’m fine. Well, maybe a little dizzy,” said Asner. Or, at least that’s what I think he said. After a spike of feedback came through the phone, I admitted, “I can barely hear you.”

In a louder voice, enunciating carefully and speaking slowly, he responded, “I said, maybe a little bit of syphilis.”

I might have taken a beat before saying, “Oh my. Really?! Is that the headline I can put?”

While it may not be apparent on first meeting, I can be bawdy with the best of them, and I enjoy such banter when all involved are of age and it’s in good fun. And this would turn out to be one of the most fun interviews I’ve conducted.

Laughing, I said, “So it all went well, the CT scan?”

It had indeed. He’d had a fall but was OK. I thanked him for calling me back, and he let me know, “Well, I’m reversing the charges.”

“You should!” I said. “You’re paying for this now. Oh my gosh. I was hoping to get my parents to pay for it.” (I was in Ottawa, and was calling him from my parents’ house.)

“Ah, no, no, no,” he assured me. “Anyway, you’ve got a lovely voice.”

“As do you, of course. But a little more famous than mine.”

“Well, I’ve been working at it longer.”

We eventually returned to where we had left off. “Were you involved in any of the writing process, or is there improv involved?” I asked about the show.

“Not on this,” said Asner. “I worked with him [Weinberger] on our book together, called The Grouchy Historian, which came out in October. We worked together on that, but he wrote A Man and His Prostate all by himself.”

“And you obviously liked what he wrote.”

“I love it.”

Asner said his first performance of A Man and His Prostate was in the fall of 2016, but then he stopped the interview again, leaving the phone with Nick – the two were still at the hospital, about to grab a very late lunch. Getting into a rhythm for this interview was proving impossible. Case in point, when Asner returned to the line, he started interviewing me. Why was I calling from Ottawa? I explained I was at home for Passover and asked if he had attended a seder. “No, we were on the road,” he said, going on to ask me about the weather in Ottawa, how many were in my family, whether I had grown up in Vancouver. When I let him know that I had grown up in Winnipeg, he said, “Oh, God.” And, while I fumbled to regain my role as interviewer, he continued his train of thought, “Froze your ass off didn’t you?”

“I did,” I admitted. “And that’s why I live in Vancouver now.”

After some PG-rated politically incorrect exchanges, I managed to get back to my questions.

The first shows of A Man and His Prostate were in California, he said, then they did a few in New York.

“Do you do what the show preaches? Do you get regular prostate exams?” I asked.

“Well, I’m due for one, I must tell you,” he said.

Asner called A Man and His Prostate “wonderfully funny,” and said “it stresses a very important point – that point being, get examined.”

He said the show is “very rewarding to do because the laughter is prevalent.”

At 88, he has no plans to retire. As for his beginnings in the profession, he said his desire to be an actor “didn’t achieve consciousness until I did the lead in the play at university.” He said, “I had done radio in high school, and loved it, but full-fledged stage-acting, I hadn’t thought of that.”

That doesn’t mean he didn’t like the spotlight as a kid. “I loved to get up and sing Adon Olam louder than anyone else,” he said, adding, “My bar mitzvah was a failure.”

He explained, “I spoke too fast, and angered my father. I put my hands behind my back, hovering over my ass, that angered him, as well. I was a prize student … but that bar mitzvah was not of prime quality.”

Asner grew up in an Orthodox home and, he said, “I’d say I pursued acting, probably, as part of my atonement” for his bar mitzvah. He said acting was at least a partial atonement in that it involved “pleasing the crowd, reciting or reading the script correctly and empathetically … all kinds of things.”

While no longer religious, Asner attributed his activism to “the intensity of my raising, the love of my parents, the constant identification as a Jew, [being] born in the time of Hitler.”

The actor has seven grandchildren. When I asked about whether he actively tries to engage them in the world around them, he joked, “Nope. I don’t like ’em.”

“You only hang out with them when you have to?” I asked.

“Uh huh. They don’t like me. It’s a perfect fit.”

I told him how much I enjoyed the Funny or Die video Old People Don’t Care About Climate Change, in which he took part. I mentioned it because one of his lines in it is, “My grandkids are spoiled anyway. They could use a little hardship.” The video’s message, of course, is that younger people must take action to protect the environment.

“I worship the earth,” Asner told me. “I don’t necessarily worship any god.”

Returning to the reason for the interview, I asked him whether he had anything else to say about A Man and His Prostate. “You’ll be there, and you’ll see how right I was to urge you to come,” he said.

The show is about Weinberger’s “journey to discover his inner self both literally and figuratively,” reads the press material. “This near tragedy is masterfully transformed into a poignant monologue perfectly portrayed by Asner as he visits the hospital in preparation for a surgery he needs but doesn’t want.”

“There’s mostly jokes all the way, or building up to a joke,” Asner said. “But then we get to that little section where I talk about the celebrities who have died – it’s a long list of celebrities – and I make the serious point that, every 16 minutes, a man dies of prostate cancer in the United States.”

As we wound up, he said, “You’re a wonderful interviewer, I don’t care what they say about you.”

“You should only believe half the rumours,” I returned.

A charmer to the end, he said, “I can’t wait to meet you.”

After I told him I didn’t think that was an option for me, he asked, “Why not?”

“Because you’re you!”

He told me to tell the publicist, “Well, say that I asked for you.”

“OK,” I said. “And I’ve now got it on tape, so I can actually prove that I’m not just making that up.”

“That’s right,” he agreed. “That’s absolutely right.”

He said, I “could even bring Momma” – my mother had answered the phone when he called back.

“Momma might even fly to Vancouver for that,” I responded before handing the phone over to my mom so she could say goodbye.

For tickets ($75) to A Man and His Prostate at the Anvil Centre Theatre April 27-28, 7:30 p.m., visit ticketsnw.ca or call 604-521-5050.

S Word changes perceptions

Craig Miller in a shot from the documentary The S Word, which screened for the first time in Western Canada on March 22 in Winnipeg. (photo from MadPix, Inc.)

Jewish Child and Family Service of Winnipeg (JCFS) partnered with the Suicide Prevention Network and the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg’s Young Adult Division to show the documentary The S Word for the first time in Western Canada. The screening took place March 22 at the JCC Berney Theatre, and the event’s aim was to help put a stop to the silence surrounding the subject of suicide.

“Suicide is widespread and affects all age groups and communities,” said Carli Rossall, JCFS addictions and mental health caseworker. “There are many ‘S words’ that reinforce the behaviour around suicide, such as silence, stigma, shame and struggle. The hope is to turn this around into S words such as support, survival, sharing and solutions.”

Rossall has taken the lead in organizing this project, along with Cheryl Hirsh Katz, JCFS manager of adult services, and Shana Menkis, JCFS director of operations.

JCFS is a member of the Suicide Prevention Network, which is a group of agencies and individuals committed to enhancing the mental wellness and quality of life of people in Winnipeg, preventing suicides and supporting those bereaved by suicide.

“I think our goal with this [event] was to begin to create a safe space within the community where topics like suicide can be freely and openly discussed,” said Rossall. “Staying silent doesn’t make an issue cease to exist. Suicide is a reality in our community as it is in all communities. Healing requires openness, acceptance and dialogue. The more we talk about these things, the more fluency we develop when it comes to hard conversations, [and] the better equipped we all are to support one another.”

“Bringing this film to our city and specifically to this community,” Hirsh Katz added, “will hopefully give a voice to this problem and put a face to the solution.”

The S Word aims to open the conversation surrounding suicide. Its director, Lisa Klein, is a survivor of both her father’s and her brother’s suicides. In the film, she wanted to show the voices of those who survived suicide attempts, as well as others, to provide an honest portrayal of the thoughts and feelings surrounding suicide. She further wanted to provide positive messaging.

“It’s an outstanding collection of stories that, unlike other films on the same subject, shines a light on hope,” said Klein. “It talks about language, relationships, relapses in mental health, and about how recovery is rarely a straight trajectory. It’s very real and raw. I consider it to be one of the best mental health documentaries I’ve ever seen … unique in its approach to an otherwise familiar topic.

“We hear about suicide epidemics, about over- and under-medicating, about the bereaved when it comes to suicide in the community, but, rarely do we hear from survivors. Frankly, I don’t know if ‘survivor of suicide’ is a concept most people even know exists.”

photo - Carli Rossall, Jewish Child and Family Service of Winnipeg addictions and mental health caseworker, at the information table on March 22 — Carli Rossall, Jewish Child and Family Service of Winnipeg addictions and mental health caseworker, at the information table on March 22. (photo from JCFS)

“Loss is never easy to talk about,” said Rossall. “But, when loss gets tied together with morality, as suicide often does, an added layer of stigma exists. Anything that challenges our definition of ‘right,’ ‘moral’ or ‘normal’ tends to make us uncomfortable – and it often makes people look to blame.

“Generally,” she said, “people who have thoughts of suicide suffer from intense psychological pain, where there is a feeling of hopelessness, isolation, and no alternative. The reasons for this can vary, from those experiencing mental health challenges or physical illness, to those who have experienced trauma, are struggling financially or have addictions. The rise in suicide rates may be due to life’s increasing pressures and complex circumstances.”

It was in her late teens that Klein lost her father and then, three months later, her brother, to suicide.

“It’s something that obviously is a huge part of my life, my existence, and it wasn’t something that right away I knew what I’d do with,” said Klein. “It affected me greatly. I really didn’t know who to talk to. That was a big part of why I did this film, because it’s so difficult to talk to people when you’ve lost people. They don’t know what to say to you.

“When I came out to L.A. and went to graduate school, I did a film prior to this one…. We started to do documentaries. We did one on bipolar personalities and, when we did that one, we had someone who was in the film who had lost their daughter to suicide. I thought, OK, I’ve dealt with this. And then, almost immediately, I realized that I actually hadn’t. I thought it was time to do something, because people weren’t, and aren’t, talking about it enough, not talking about it responsibly.”

As Klein began researching the topic, she found a large community of people dealing with suicide – so great a number that they were holding conventions in the United States about it. Klein found this resource helpful when it came to finding specific stories to include in her film.

While The S Word is not yet widely available, Klein has worked to get the message across through teachers, mental health professionals and survivors. And she created a toolkit that is on the movie’s website that anyone can access to find ways to bring the message to their communities.

“We’ve signed with an educational distributor and eventually it will be available – probably in the late fall…. We want to help open the conversation, for sure,” said Klein. “We want people to feel less alone, like they’re not the only ones going through this. And we want people to know that they can be there for somebody else, too. Also, to know that, if you, yourself, are struggling, there are people to talk to.

“A lot of times, what can really kill people, what can drive people to this is the silence or the hopeless feeling of being alone – feeling that they have nobody to talk to, and the stigma and shame keep people from talking about it.

“We see this also in the rape culture and the whole #MeToo movement,” she added. “People who were so afraid to talk are now coming forward. And it’s so important to be able to do this. We want to be part of that conversation.”

Klein invited everyone to visit the film’s website – theswordmovie.com – for more information and to watch the many interviews conducted with suicide survivors that did not make it into the film (click on the “#SWordStories” link). She further encouraged people to send in written stories about their own experiences to the website.

In Winnipeg, JCFS is ready to help anyone in need, via their active mental health services program for the Jewish community and counseling services that are open to the general public. In Vancouver, Jewish Family Services is also ready to help.

“Through these supports, there are opportunities for individuals and families to address their concerns, feelings related to suicide, and other issues on a proactive basis,” said JCFS’s Hirsh Katz. “There are also several other community-based agencies in Winnipeg that provide both crisis and non-crisis work with suicide. The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention is a nationwide organization dedicated to offering support. Livingworks Education Inc. is a leading provider of suicide intervention training through various workshops – the training is focused on identifying, speaking and intervening with people who have thoughts of suicide, and it is invaluable for individuals ages 15 and over who want to help people be safer from suicide.”

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Success in comedy biz

Mark Breslin (photo from Temple Sholom)

Yuk Yuk’s co-founder Mark Breslin is excited to be entertaining Jewish Vancouverites at Temple Sholom’s annual spring fundraiser May 6.

“I can’t get enough Jews in my life,” he told the Independent. “I’m married to a Catholic woman but I’m a Jew through and through. Any time I can talk about Jews and Jewishness, and my unique views on that, I jump at the opportunity because comedy is the jazz of our people. That’s how I express my Jewishness in the biggest way, not by keeping kosher or going to Israel each year, but through comedy.”

Breslin opened his first Yuk Yuk’s location in 1976. Today, he has 15 Yuk Yuk’s franchises across the country, has published four books, produced programs for television and radio, and appeared in theatrical productions. He’s a sought-after public speaker and, in December 2017, he was awarded the Order of Canada.

“Comedy is not usually something people respect, so it’s gratifying that some bureaucrats in Ottawa see what I’ve done with my life and think it has value,” he said. “But all the people I’d like to lord this over are dead now.”

Those people include a high school principal who informed Breslin he was a menace to society, as well as his aunts and uncles, who refused to attend his shows “because they thought I was wasting my life.”

Back when he started Yuk Yuk’s, Breslin said he received no support or encouragement from the people closest to him. “My mother was a child actress in the Yiddish stage in 1920, so you’d think she would be thrilled about what I was trying to build in comedy, but instead she was appalled by it right to the grave. My father was more ambivalent. He respected Yuk Yuk’s as a business and was proud of me, though he didn’t find the comedy funny. Even my friends thought I was nuts.”

When he began the first Yuk Yuk’s location, in Toronto, Breslin said his main goal was to avoid law school. “I thought I’d do comedy for a couple of years and find something else to do when it ran out of steam,” he admitted. “I never thought it would become my life!”

Initially, the Toronto Yuk Yuk’s was known as “that Jewish club,” because the names of the performing comedians were all Jewish. “When standup started, it was a very Jewish thing to do,” explained Breslin. “A lot of the comedians at that time were my friends from high school or university, and they gravitated to Yuk Yuk’s because they knew me.”

Today, standup is a mainstream phenomenon and Yuk Yuk’s is no longer known as a Jewish club. One thing that’s remained unchanged from the get-go, however, is Breslin’s insistence that his clubs be uncensored. “I’ve never censored an act in the 42 years I’ve been in business,” he said. “Being uncensored is important because the clubs are small enough that no one can control them. We have an obligation to be the official opposition and, these days, it’s more important than ever.” While he conceded that most comics exercise their right of free speech to talk about sex, not politics, he said, “Still, the opportunity is there.”

Yuk Yuk’s has two locations in British Columbia: Abbotsford and Vancouver. The Vancouver club opened in 1988 and is located on Cambie Street, near City Hall. It’s always been a success, said Breslin. “I measure success by some level of profitability, but also by how impactful our product is on the wider community and on comedy in general,” he said.

Among the comedians who got their start at Yuk Yuk’s are Russell Peters, Jim Carrey, Howie Mandel, Mike Bullard and Gerry Dee.

Breslin said that, on May 6, at the Temple Sholom event, he plans to talk about how each Jew has their own unique form of Jewishness and how we treat our culture as a Chinese buffet, picking what we want from it.

“I’m going to talk about the golden age of Judaism, 1950 to 1975, when it was cool and sexy to be a Jew,” he said. “I’ll try to figure out what happened between then and now, and why we’re a people in need of a good PR person. I’ll also reveal a lot of fun stuff about my life, my family and things I’ve done, relating that to comedy in general and what it means as a Jewish art form.”

For event details, visit templesholom.ca/inspired. The evening at Performance Works on Granville Island is titled Inspired to Act and includes comedy, music by Adrienne Robles and Liel Amdour, and the 2018 Tikkun Olam Youth Awards.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.

Music from around the world

Local group MNGWA helps open the World Music Festival on April 26. (photo from Vancouver World Music Festival)

The Vancouver World Music Festival celebrates cultural diversity through music, and world-class musicians from Mexico, Brazil, Africa, Spain, the United States and Canada are participating in this year’s festival, which runs April 26-29. Among them is local group MNGWA (pronounced Ming-Wah).

The festival was founded in 2014 by Tom Landa and Robin Layne, both friends and members of the band Locarno. Their belief is that music can help heal, educate and transform society, leading to better cultural understanding.

Rooted in Afro-Latin and cumbia rhythms, MNGWA mixes elements of psych rock, surf, salsa, reggae and hip-hop into one polyrhythmic pot.

“We started the band about five years ago,” band member Anton Ayzikovsky told the Independent. “Today, we have eight core members: five from the former USSR, two originally from Mexico, and one born Canadian. At first, we were nameless. Then we chose the name MNGWA. It is not an acronym. Mngwa is a mythical African cat from Tanzanian legends. Nobody ever saw it, but everyone was afraid of it.”

Descriptions on the internet compare a mngwa to a leopard, although the former is apparently much larger, the size of a donkey, with brindled grey fur and a ferocious temperament.

“Our music has African, as well as Latin rhythms, so we wanted to find a name that would emphasize that connection,” fellow band member Boris Mandlis explained. “One of our players, our music director Nick Lagasse, is a radio host on CJSF radio. Once a week, he goes on air with his program, Wandering Rhythms, selects a country and plays the native bands from that country. He suggested the name MNGWA, and we all loved it.”

The ensemble draws inspiration for their music from many and varied folk traditions. They are well known on the local festival circuit.

“We play at festivals and venues all around British Columbia,” said Ayzikovsky. “Usually, it is only during spring, summer and fall. We could have played more often, every week, if we wanted to, but, for all of us, the band and the music is a hobby, not a profession. We do it for fun. We like to see people dancing to our music.”

Professionally, Ayzikovsky is an engineer, while Mandlis is a web designer. Besides their university educations and high-tech jobs, there are other similarities between the two musicians. Both of them immigrated to Canada from Russia via Israel: Mandlis, 10 years ago; Ayzikovsky, 15. Both play percussion instruments.

“I play congas, a Latin American percussion,” Mandlis said. “I started learning it about 10 years ago, when I still lived in Israel. I played drums as a kid in Russia. As an adult, I liked listening to Latin music, especially when congas played. Finally I thought, why not learn to play it?”

Ayzikovsky started playing drums as a child in Russia. “My mom is a piano teacher, but I never wanted to play piano,” he said. “I fell in love with percussions at school and have been playing drums as an amateur with many bands over the years.”

Ayzikovsky and Mandlis met through their individual music, and the beginning of MNGWA was sparked by a strange coincidence.

“We had played together only once before that time,” Mandlis recalled. “On that day, we played for awhile, then took a break. There were seven of us and, for some reason, we decided to play this children’s game, Rock-Paper-Scissors. And we all threw scissors simultaneously. All seven of us. I’d say that showed some kindred spirits.”

The group has been together ever since, and most of their projects – new music and lyrics – are collaborations.

“Someone comes up with an idea or a tune,” Ayzikovsky explained. “Often it is Nick Lagasse. Then we jam together. Nick also writes lyrics, he or Blanca [Escobar] or some of the others.”

One of their songs on YouTube, “La Rumba de Kingsway,” is a wonderful and funny tribute to the historic Vancouver thoroughfare. It is also indicative of the group’s style, a blend of cultural influences from all over the world. “We call it cumbia, Vancouver-style,” said Mandlis.

Their unique and eclectic blend is well suited to the ideals of the World Music Festival.

“This year will be the first time we’ll participate in this festival,” said Mandlis, “but we know all the bands playing in it. We listened to them before and liked what they’re doing.”

Ayzikovsky and Mandlis also said the group believes, as do the festival organizers, that music has the power, in a small way, to bring about peaceful, needed change.

The World Music Festival takes place at different venues around Vancouver. MNGWA helps launch the event on April 26, 7 p.m., at Guilt & Co. For the full schedule and tickets, visit worldmusicfest.ca. MNGWA’s website is mngwa.ca.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

Festival fêtes Russian music

A scene from Vancouver Opera’s production of Eugene Onegin. (photo by Trudie Lee)

“I’ve sung a lot of Russian, and I love it,” Jewish community member and opera singer Leah Giselle Field told the Jewish Independent. Field will have a lot to love at this year’s Vancouver Opera Festival, which starts next weekend.

Russian White Nights, the second annual Vancouver Opera Festival, celebrates Russia’s luminous midsummer nights. Among the festival offerings is Eugene Onegin, based on the classic of Russian literature by Alexander Pushkin, which was turned into a lyric opera with a libretto co-written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with K.S. Shilovsky. The festival will also feature the première of The Overcoat, an opera based on Nikolai Gogol’s famous short story, as well as Requiem for a Lost Girl, an original chamber musical collaboration that explores themes around homelessness and violence towards women.

According to the press material, Eugene Onegin – which plays April 29 in the afternoon, and the evenings of May 3 and May 5 – promises “breathtaking music [and] choreography, lavish orchestrations and compelling arias.” Field will be playing the role of Larina, the mother of the two main female protagonists of the story, Olga and Tatyana.

“The libretto includes portions of the original verses of Pushkin,” Field said, noting that the score is one of her favourites. “Tchaikovsky originally thought it would be blasphemy to make Pushkin’s poem into an opera, but eventually he agreed. I love the Pushkin poem the opera is based on as well – it’s so environmentally evocative, it is so Russian, and it takes you into right into that environment.”

A number of Russians feature in the cast, including baritone Konstantin Shushakov (Onegin), soprano Svetlana Aksenova (Tatiana) and tenor Alexey Dolgov (Lensky). This new production has been created in collaboration with Calgary Opera and is directed by Tom Diamond and conducted by Jonathan Darlington. Eugene Onegin will be sung in Russian with English surtitles projected on a screen.

In addition to Eugene Onegin, Field will participate in a chamber music performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s From Jewish Folk-Poetry Op. 70 on May 4, 5 p.m., at CBC Studio 700. This song cycle was written in 1948 by the Soviet composer, who initially wrote eight songs that were meant to reflect the hardships of being Jewish in the Soviet Union. In order to disguise this sensitive material, Shostakovich added three more songs depicting the “great life” Jews had under the Soviet regime. Despite these efforts, the censors were not fooled and refused to approve the work – it could not be performed until after Stalin’s death in March 1953.

On the lighter side, Field will also appear in a family-oriented original adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, a student performance co-produced by Vancouver Opera and Delta School of Music on May 5, 1 p.m., also at CBC Studio 700. The production is one of four offerings aimed at children and/or teens on the festival’s Family Day.

Vancouver Opera general director Kim Gaynor, also a member of the Jewish community, is in her second season at the organization, which she came to after years working the festival circuit in Europe. Gaynor told the Independent that she has modified the Vancouver festival quite a bit from its first year, trying to take a more “out of the box” approach. This includes a more diverse and daring program with a mixture of classical and contemporary works, and the inclusion of chamber music. The festival will also include three films: the silent film Man With A Movie Camera on April 28, the 2001 CBC production of The Overcoat on April 29 and 1965’s Dr. Zhivago on May 1.

The festival starts on April 28 with an outdoor celebration at Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza that features Russian cultural performers, food trucks, market vendors, a circus presentation, a movie screening and a patio bar. Festivities that day will get underway at 2 p.m., and a highlight will be the re-creation of the pinnacle of white nights celebrations in Russia that evening. A 40-foot schooner with scarlet sails will serve as the stage for acrobatics, music and custom-designed projections on the 22-foot-high sails in a performance suitable for all ages. Scarlet Sails will also be offered April 29 and May 3 and 5.

The Vancouver Opera Festival runs to May 6. The full program and more information can be found at vancouveropera.ca.

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He is Pacific correspondent for the CJN, writes regularly for the Forward, Tricycle and the Wisdom Daily, and has been published in Sojourners, Religion Dispatches and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.

The magic of laughter

Magician Stephen Kaplan entertains at last month’s Empowerment session. (photo from Jewish Seniors Alliance)

On March 21, the Jewish Seniors Alliance, in partnership with Temple Sholom Seniors, once again brought the community a magical program of laughter.

In the program, which was the second in the 2017/18 JSA Snider Foundation Empowerment

Series with the theme Laughter and Music: Feeding the Soul, magician Stephen Kaplan delighted the audience of more than 100 people with his energy, sense of humour and enthusiasm.

Kaplan introduced himself as “the Maestro of Magic” and, as such, he said he conducts the magic that is within us all. Combining interactive entertainment with jokes and surprises is what he loves to do – and he does it so well.

The audience was shrieking with laughter and wonder. How did he guess that Heather’s first boyfriend’s name was Peter? How did he guess that Lila was thinking of the city Winnipeg? And how did he guess that the card that Bonny picked was a seven of diamonds? Did he really guess all that? It doesn’t matter. As a finale, he took a section of the Vancouver Sun, tore it into pieces and, within seconds, put it back together.

Gyda Chud, his preschool teacher, introduced him beautifully. Was she the one who instilled the charm and magic in him? Kaplan made sure that every one of the attendees left the program with a big smile.

The afternoon began with greetings from Bill Gruenthal, Arthur Gutman told some jokes and led the audience in Passover songs, and Ken Levitt, JSA president, encouraged people to join the JSA, if they hadn’t already.

Two more Empowerment sessions on the theme Laughter and Music are coming up: Perla’s Music Workshop on April 17 with Congregation Beth Israel, in conjunction with the Jewish Family Services’ Seniors Lunch program; and Music for Our Hearts and Songs We Love on June 25, with the Kehila Society in Richmond. For more information, visit jsalliance.org or call 604-732-1555.

Tamara Frankel is a board member of Jewish Seniors Alliance.

Cabaret a timely show

Michael Wilkinson, left, and Kurtis D’Aoust in Royal City Musical Theatre’s Cabaret, which plays at Massey Theatre until April 29. (photo by Emily Cooper)

The musical Cabaret is a classic in the English-speaking world. Since its Broadway première in 1966, it’s been staged multiple times in many countries, and its acclaimed movie version of 1972 won eight Oscars. This April, Royal City Musical Theatre (RCMT) brings the show to New Westminster’s Massey Theatre.

“I saw the Cabaret movie many years ago, but it’s quite different from the stage musical, which I saw for the first time on Broadway in New York, starring Alan Cumming, in 2015,” actor Michael Wilkinson told the Independent. “The Broadway production was spectacular; not only is the show filled with great songs and dance numbers, but the various storylines were, and are, timely to current events that we’re seeing around the world today.”

With music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, the show is loosely based on the book Cabaret, written by Christopher Isherwood.

“Taking place in Berlin [in 1931] just before the Nazis came to power, Cabaret demonstrates how there was an increasing presence of far-right wing politics, which is not dissimilar to some of the political movements we’re seeing in the United States,” said Wilkinson, who is a member of the Jewish community. “It provides a stark reminder of how we need to stand up for those who are most vulnerable in society.”

In the RCMT production, Wilkinson plays Victor, one of the performers at the cabaret. Victor is a dancer, singer and waiter, Wilkinson explained. “As Victor, I spend most of the play singing and dancing in the ensemble numbers, as well as serving and fooling around with the patrons. It’s a fun role, and many dance numbers are very energetic.”

Unlike most members of the cast, Wilkinson doesn’t see his professional life revolving around theatre. “I actually am not studying acting,” he said. “I did study theatre for one year right after high school in New York at NYU. However, after an amazing year, I decided that theatre school was not for me, so I returned to Vancouver. I’m currently one year away from graduating with a bachelor of arts from UBC’s Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice. I would love to work in arts marketing or management, but I am also very passionate about youth education.”

For him, theatre is a beloved hobby, although he did want to be an actor as a child. “I grew up taking theatre and music classes, which I loved. I went to the fine arts theatre program at Lord Byng Secondary School,” he said. “I participated in school plays. I also participated throughout high school in many community and professional theatre productions across the Lower Mainland. And I’ve continued to do so into adulthood. I love to do theatre in my spare time, and companies like RCMT provide a great opportunity for this.”

Being in a musical is ideal for the young performer.

“I started playing violin when I was 5 and I played oboe in my high school band, so music has always been a part of my life,” he said. “Musicals just seemed like a natural genre for me to fall into when I became interested in theatre. I love being in big musicals, like Cabaret. RCMT is a great company because they present big musicals every year, which is not something that every theatre company is able to do. This is my fourth show with RCMT. With them, I’ve had lots of fun in the smaller featured roles or as part of the ensemble.”

Over the past several years, Wilkinson has performed with many theatrical companies in Vancouver. In addition to RCMT, he has played in shows put on by Theatre Under the Stars, Awkward Stage Productions, Gateway Theatre, Bard on the Beach, and Footlight Theatre.

“Most of them have been non-paying [roles], which was fine growing up and going through high school,” he said. “I never expected to get paid at that age. However, this year, RCMT introduced an actor honoraria, which is very helpful to offset transportation costs. While this is certainly not the case for many other cast members, I’m not at a point where I’m looking to make a living from doing theatre. I have two other part-time jobs, my UBC classes and rehearsals, so [being in] shows that do not pay, or at least not very much, works for me.”

The timing of a show is more important to him than the financial side, because he has to juggle his schedule. This is why he doesn’t go to auditions very often. “I only audition for productions that I would really want to be in and that I know I can commit to, in terms of rehearsals and performance dates,” he said.

He enjoys everything involved in putting on a show. “I love the rehearsal process,” he said, “because it is so exciting to watch a production come to life with all its elements: music, choreography, scene work, props, costumes, sets and lights, and eventually the audience. It is also great to get to know a new group of actors as we come together to work on a production. The Vancouver theatre community is quite small, so there are usually some familiar faces, but every cast kind of becomes a family for the duration of a show – some of my best friends I’ve met through theatre. And, of course, performing the final product in front of the audience is always very exciting.”

Wilkinson is not sure yet what his future holds, or even where he will be after graduation. “I’ve lived in Vancouver my whole life, minus my one year in New York,” he said. “Vancouver is home, but if a really great job presented itself outside of Vancouver, I would never say no. I’m also interested in doing my master’s degree at some point, so that may involve a move, as well. I think it’s important to be happy in whatever we’re doing, so that’s how I try to guide my education, work and theatre to balance in my life.”

Cabaret opened at Massey Theatre April 12 and runs until April 29. For tickets and information, visit royalcitymusicaltheatre.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected].

What is it to become Israeli?

Akiva Gersh teaching a group in Israel. Gersh is the editor of, and a contributing writer to, the book Becoming Israeli: The Hysterical, Inspiring and Challenging Sides of Making Aliyah. (photo from Akiva Gersh)

If you or someone you know is considering making aliyah, there is a book that offers a glimpse of the experience. Becoming Israeli: The Hysterical, Inspiring and Challenging Sides of Making Aliyah (Rimonim Press) is a compilation of blogs and essays written by 40 olim (immigrants), including the editor, Akiva Gersh.

“The book speaks about the various sides of aliyah, from the hysterical, to the challenging, to the frustrating, to the emotional,” Gersh told the Independent.

Gersh grew up in the New York area. He and his Philadelphia-born wife, Tamar, made aliyah about 13 years ago. As they were going through the process, Gersh wrote about it in a blog. When he realized others were doing the same thing, he was spurred to collect as much information as he could for publication in book form.

“I kept thinking, someone must have done this,” said Gersh. “People had written about their own aliyah experiences, but not a broad compilation of experiences … and that is what I wanted to do, what I wanted to share. I worked on it for about two years – finding the blogs, talking to the bloggers, telling them what I’m doing, and getting permission to use their posts in the book. And, after about two years doing all this compiling and editing, the book was born.”

In Becoming Israeli, said Gersh, there are the insights of (English-speaking) Jews who have made aliyah, as well as those who have been to Israel, but haven’t yet made the move. “In the book,” he said, “you can really sense the things they love about Israel. Above and beyond that, there is the general world … and much of that includes the Christian world who loves coming to Israel.”

The feedback has been good, especially from olim who have read the book and can relate to their fellow travelers. “They went, ‘Wow! Amazing!’” said Gersh. “Every page, they’re like, ‘This is my story!’ They’re laughing, they’re crying.

“I’ve read the book multiple times and I still laugh at the jokes and cry at the same emotional places,” he added. “It’s a really powerful book and I’ve had really positive feedback from olim who say ‘thank you’ and feel it is awesome … [and] exactly what they’ve been going through and experiencing.”

Gersh is a teacher by training and works in a private English-language school in Israel. He also connects with people using music, through a program he started in 2007 called The Holy Land Spirit.

As a musician and teacher, Gersh offers groups – mainly Christians – who visit Israel an evening program of music, prayer and spirituality from a Jewish perspective. “They love it,” he said. “We pray together, dance together, speak together.”

Gersh teaches at Alexander Muss High School, a study-abroad institution near Tel Aviv. There, kids from 45 different countries come to learn for a few weeks or up to a few months at a time, about Jewish history and Israel. They spend half their time in the classroom and half their time traveling around the country.

“So, it’s academic and hands on,” said Gersh. “It’s awesome. I’ve been there about 10 years now. The language of instruction is English and, for those who want to improve their Hebrew, there are opportunities.

“We have young Israelis who are fresh out of the army. And, for those who want the Hebrew experience, they can get it from them and also from being out and about in Israel.

“The kids are inspired, enlightened, pumped up about Israel,” he continued. “We’re not a religious program. We’re not a church denomination. We’re pluralistic. We have Jews on staff, but we don’t push Judaism. We just open up a space for kids to explore connections to Judaism.”

According to Gersh, many of the students are experiencing certain aspects of Judaism for the first time. This is something especially meaningful for him, he said, noting, “I had no connection to Israel growing up at all. I never thought about it, nor talked about it. It just wasn’t a thing in my community. I heard about it a couple times in Hebrew school, but it wasn’t on the radar at all. By the time I was done with high school, going into college, I was really done with anything Jewish…. In college, I began searching for something more cultural, meaningful, spiritual in my life.

“That journey, which was a three-year journey, took me to many different places, meeting different people, reading different books. At the end of the journey,” he said, “it brought me full circle to Judaism. But, I found a new side and a new expression of Judaism that I hadn’t seen before.”

Among the places Gersh traveled after college was West Africa, where he spent two months learning more about the drumming he studied in school.

“After traveling around there,” he said, “I went to Israel for the first time. I was about 22 years old at that point. I traveled around Israel for two months, backpacking and enjoying, taking a class here, a class there, doing a Shabbat and just really getting into it. After those two months, I realized I wanted to really explore my roots and see what Judaism was about. Still, at that point, I did not want to become religious.”

Eventually, Gersh did become religious. He spent some time in a yeshivah, both in Israel and in the United States, before making aliyah with his wife in 2004.

The foreword of Becoming Israeli was written by Yossi Klein Halevi, an Israeli author Gersh looks up to as a Jew, as someone who made aliyah and as a writer.

“We had a book launch at the beginning of the summer and we had a panel of me and a bunch of other bloggers from the book, and he was one of the panelists,” said Gersh. “It was amazing to have his voice and his perspective.”

Becoming Israeli is available on Amazon, and Gersh also has a website, becomingisraeli.com.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Power of human spirit

Disarmed: Unconventional Lessons from the World’s Only One-Armed Special Forces Sharpshooter by Izzy Ezagui (Prometheus Books) is confusing, puerile, uneven, exaggerated, chutzpadik and strident – I loved it. I enjoyed every blessed moment involved in reading this extraordinary Proust-like jumble of words and ideas by an Israeli soldier who lost his left arm in a Hamas mortar shelling a decade ago when he was on duty near Gaza.

The unlikely protagonist of this memorable saga is a Sephardi Jew raised in Florida and Crown Heights (New York), and educated first in the public school system and, afterward, in a Lubavitch yeshivah, before making aliyah. His father and mother, whom he idolizes in this book, were complex parents who decided, while Ezagui was still very young, to become more serious about their Judaism.

This autobiography is among the few books available on the intricacies of the Israeli army’s training procedures for inductees into elite units – which Ezagui experienced not once but twice – and, as such, it provides an introduction to what it really means to become a member of Zahal, the Israel Defence Forces. The rigours of IDF training are equal or superior to American, British and Canadian special forces cadres.

When Ezagui’s tent was destroyed by the mortar blast that hit his unit bivouacked near Gaza, the young soldier did not at first realize what had happened to him, so great was the shock to his nervous system. The graphic description he provides of the wreckage to his left arm is not easy reading because it lies outside our normal anatomical parameters but Ezagui conveys quite adequately the physical and psychic damage he endured. It took hours before the extent of his personal catastrophe was fully known.

Ezagui’s comrades were able, once the dust had cleared, to transport him to an Israeli medical facility, where doctors stabilized the young soldier, along with others who had been injured by enemy fire. One of the most poignant parts of this journal is Ezagui’s attempt to speak to his mother on the telephone to impart the news about the loss of his left arm without provoking hysteria on her part.

Part of the treatment the author received from Israel’s medical cadres were heavy doses of very powerful drugs, including fentanyl, a narcotic, he notes, which is a hundred times more potent than morphine; it was the first drug administered to him when the severity of his injury was recognized. This is a relevant observation because, when Ezagui began to recover his sensibilities, he immediately declared that he intended to return to his combat unit. But he soon realized that he would have to go “cold turkey” before he could even think of rejoining his comrades. This he did by dint of unbelievable discipline in the face of incredible suffering from withdrawal.

During this crisis period in his slow recovery, Ezagui was confronted with the negative responses of army doctors, one of whom bluntly told him that his condition precluded the kind of camaraderie and fraternity among soldiers who depend on their peers to help them. That kind of subtle yet direct rejection ironically made Ezagui more determined in his pursuit of his former status as a soldier-sharpshooter. It did not help that he was continually hounded by his “phantom,” the curious physiological phenomenon when a severed limb asserts its presence despite its absence.

In his narrative, Ezagui gives us all the excruciating details of his retraining in the army – this time, with a limb missing. One of the greatest obstacles he encountered was mounting a wall with a rope anchored to it. In his previous incarnation, he had no problem, but one arm wasn’t enough to execute the onerous task. He finally realized that a contortionist’s skill was required to perform the feat and, through the use of his legs and other body parts, he was able to get over the wall.

Ezagui encountered a similar problem with his rifle. It jammed regularly when he tried to insert the shells into it. He overcame his frustration only when he realized that he had to dig his weapon into the ground, anchor it solidly and, then, with his one arm, load the instrument.

Ezagui passed all his retraining requirements and it was the doctor who had initially rejected his attempt to rejoin his unit who certified his reentry into the army.

Disarmed is a testimony to the resilience of one human being who beat the odds and conquered a disability, and Ezagui has become a symbol of what the human spirit is capable of accomplishing.

Arnold Ages is Distinguished Emeritus Professor at University of Waterloo, in Ontario.