{"id":13619,"date":"2015-07-10T00:12:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T07:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=13619"},"modified":"2015-07-14T16:48:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T23:48:13","slug":"community-talent-in-tuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/07\/10\/community-talent-in-tuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Community talent in TUTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left to right: <\/strong>Nathan Piasecki (Artful Dodger), E. Marie West (Nancy) and Stephen Aberle (Fagin) in Theatre Under the Stars\u2019 production of Oliver! Aberle\u00a0also plays Mr. Brownlow. (photo by Tim Matheson)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Actor Steven Aberle describes Theatre Under the Stars as \u201ca thrilling combination of enthusiastic, amazingly talented youth and, as they say, \u2018seasoned\u2019 pros.\u201d In this instance, Aberle \u2013 who plays both Fagin and Mr. Brownlow in TUTS\u2019s Oliver!<\/em> \u2013 counts among the seasoned pros, while fellow Jewish community member Kathryn Palmer, who plays Strawberry Seller and is in the ensemble, is one of the talented youth, though Aberle and the other seasoned pros also have plenty of that, of course. The Independent<\/em> caught up with both actors by email earlier this month.<\/p>\n

More than just luck<\/strong><\/h4>\n

JI<\/strong>: You\u2019re a relative newcomer to the Vancouver stage. Could you share some of your performing background?<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Kathryn Palmer is Strawberry Seller \/ ensemble in Oliver! (photo from TUTS)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kathryn Palmer<\/strong>: I have always had a deep-seated passion for music and performing. When my home life started getting rocky, my Auntie Kathryn, who was a professional opera singer, seized the opportunity to get me out of the house for a few hours a week and into her studio for voice lessons. I was hooked and completely inspired! It wasn\u2019t long before I was accepted into the voice program at Canterbury Arts High School, taking Royal Conservatory Exams, singing in choirs, competing in music festivals across Canada and performing in as many musicals as I could.<\/p>\n

JI<\/strong>: You\u2019re a graduate of the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria. Are you from Victoria? Can you share some of your personal background, including what role, if any, Judaism or Jewish culture or community has played (plays) in your life?<\/p>\n

KP<\/strong>: Born and raised in Ottawa, I moved to Victoria to study at the Canadian College of Performing Arts. I was very fortunate to graduate with about two years of paid theatre work \u2026 beginner\u2019s luck, I call it.<\/p>\n

At school, we were always told to use what makes us different and unique. One of the things my auntie had taught me was all about Jewish folk music. Being able to sing folk songs in Yiddish and Ladino was definitely something that made me unique but also grounded me. Being Jewish doesn\u2019t exclusively impact the work I choose to do but it definitely infuses it. When I\u2019m doing these musicals that are set in the past, I always wonder that would my life be like a young Jewish woman during this time. I also get excited to perform in shows with a more Jewish theme, like Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof<\/em> at the Gateway Theatre or Louise Philo in Girl Rabbi<\/em> at Congregation Emanu-El in Victoria.<\/p>\n

JI<\/strong>: What are some of your aspirations regarding a career in performance?<\/p>\n

KP<\/strong>: I adore theatre. I love musical theatre. I also love working with kids. I want to go back to school within the next few years and do my ECE [early childhood education]. I\u2019m hoping to one day move back to Ottawa and start a theatre school there. Hopefully, I can inspire children the same way my auntie inspired me.<\/p>\n

Not just the beard<\/strong><\/h4>\n

JI<\/strong>: You seem to have been very busy on stage in the last couple of years. Can you share with readers some of your performance highlights since the JI<\/em> last spoke with you in December 2013 about Uncle Vanya?<\/em><\/p>\n

Stephen Aberle<\/strong>: I have been blessed with busy-ness these past several years, yes, kein ayin hara<\/em> [no evil eye]. I guess I\u2019m at that stage in my career where, if one remains alive, willing and (unfortunate but still true in today\u2019s theatre) male, opportunities arise. Since<\/p>\n

Uncle Vanya<\/em>, I\u2019ve had the good fortune to perform in Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook<\/em>, with music by Stephen Schwartz (of Godspell <\/em>and Wicked<\/em> fame) at Studio 1398 on Granville Island last fall. That was an opportunity to work on some amazing material with a wonderful company, including director Chris McGregor and Wendy Bross Stuart as music director.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been fortunate to perform with Wendy many times, including a couple of shows together at TUTS. We\u2019ll be doing Snapshots <\/em>again this coming fall [late October, early November], at Presentation House in North Vancouver, this time to be directed by Max Reimer.<\/p>\n

I got to be part of a workshop of Hamelin: A New Fable<\/em> by Leslie Mildiner (another member of the Jewish community) for Axis Theatre, although, unfortunately, scheduling didn\u2019t make it possible for me to be in the touring production. And, earlier this year, I was in What You\u2019re Missing<\/em>, a lovely new play by Vancouver-born playwright Tamara Micner (she\u2019s now based in London), at the Chutzpah! Festival.<\/p>\n

JI<\/strong>: What most attracts you to, and repels you about, the character of Fagin? How are you approaching the role?<\/p>\n

SA<\/strong>: Well, Fagin is one of the great characters of 19th-century literature \u2013 and, in Dickens\u2019 novel at least, one of the great antisemitic caricatures of all time. That kinda sums up both the attraction and the repulsion: the character and his motives and passions are grand, fascinating, delicious for both performers and audiences; he\u2019s also, let\u2019s not mince words, a brutal travesty \u2013 again, as Dickens originally conceived and presented him in the novel Oliver Twist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I want to rise to the level of the challenges the character offers. He\u2019s big, and I need to honor and own that and, at the same time, find the truths in the character and his situation. Lionel Bart, who was Jewish and who created the musical Oliver!<\/em>, trod a careful line in dealing with Fagin. There are no explicit references in the play to Fagin\u2019s being a Jew, but Bart wove klezmerish themes into a lot of his music. The late great Ron Moody, also Jewish, who originated the role in London and who played it in the movie, followed that line, playing into Jewish nuances in the music and in the character\u2019s accent.<\/p>\n

The story of Oliver Twist<\/em> and of the musical Oliver!<\/em> deals with some dark themes \u2013 themes that are very much still with us, here and now. Grinding poverty rubbing shoulders with enormous wealth and privilege; love, hatred, loyalty and betrayal; violence against women; criminality, justice and injustice; prejudice; legitimacy and illegitimacy and the arbitrariness of those categories. Our director, Shel Piercy, is not shying away from that darkness, and I\u2019m interested in his approach, his color palette. There can be a tendency, sometimes, for musical comedy to be cutesy, all fun and games and sweetness and light; that\u2019s not the intention with this production. So, I\u2019m looking for ways to explore Fagin\u2019s breadth and depth. He\u2019s devious, avaricious, by turns fearful and bold, can be selfish and brutal; he\u2019s also probably the closest thing to a parent most of his gang of little thieves have ever known. He uses them, but he also feeds them and shelters them and plays with them and teaches them the only way he knows how to make a living, which happens to be thieving.<\/p>\n

Shel has made some intriguing casting choices. One actor \u2013 Damon Calderwood \u2013 plays both Mr. Bumble and Bill Sykes, and Shel has me playing both Fagin and Mr. Brownlow, the kind gentleman who strives to rescue Oliver from Fagin\u2019s clutches. I get to play both the wicked and good father (or grandfather) figures, if you like. A practical consequence of that choice is that I spend a lot of time on stage, so one important goal for me as an actor will be to remain upright. It\u2019s going to be a workout.<\/p>\n

JI<\/strong>: You were Buffalo Bill in a prior TUTS season. How did you come to start auditioning with TUTS, and have there been other roles? Does performing on an outdoor stage present unique challenges?<\/p>\n

SA<\/strong>: I first worked at TUTS (in those days it was called Theatre in the Park, or TITPark) in the mid-\u201970s as a carpenter and stagehand, and I\u2019ve had the pleasure of performing there each decade since \u2013 in Anything Goes<\/em> in \u201987, as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof<\/em> in \u201997 and as Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun<\/em> in 2008.<\/p>\n

I started auditioning for TUTS soon after I graduated from Studio 58, and I keep auditioning there when I\u2019m free and I think there might be a role for me. I love it there. The people are great, a thrilling combination of enthusiastic, amazingly talented youth and, as they say, \u201cseasoned\u201d pros. There\u2019s a lot of love around the place. A special smell pervades the atmosphere, although it no longer carries as much of the whiff of pigeon droppings as it had in the old days. I\u2019ve probably been just about everywhere it\u2019s possible for a human being to get to in that building, including all over way up in the gridwork, where I spent a great deal of my time during those summers in the \u201970s.<\/p>\n

Playing outdoors presents some curious and inspiring challenges, yes indeed. There are obvious ones, like wildlife, for example. You never know when you might be joined on the stage by a raccoon or a squirrel or a crazed moth, and every actor knows that small children and animals \u2013 even insects \u2013 are far more interesting to watch on stage than we are because they\u2019re unselfconscious and unpredictable.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re playing in Vancouver in the summer and the days are long, so the first half or so of the show is hard to light \u2013 you can\u2019t use light to draw the audience\u2019s attention very effectively because it\u2019s hard to compete with the sun. Shel pointed this out to us in rehearsal: \u201cYour movement is my spotlight.\u201d We as performers need to provide focus through our actions, positions, motions and stillnesses. We\u2019re also quite far away from the audience, so we have to use our bodies fully. Someone in the 20th or 30th row may barely be able to make out my features, so I need to release my thoughts and emotions into my body: to smile and frown and laugh and wonder, not just from the neck up but with all of me\u2026.<\/p>\n

JI<\/strong>: If there is anything else you\u2019d like to share with readers, please do.<\/p>\n

SA<\/strong>: Well, there is one other thing. It\u2019s interesting to me that, especially in the last few years, so many of the characters I\u2019ve played have been Jewish. Tevye in Fiddler<\/em>, Jacob in Joseph<\/em> \u2026 plays at the Chutzpah! Festival, now Fagin. I think I get called to audition for most of the film and TV rabbi parts that come into town.<\/p>\n

I guess it\u2019s the beard.<\/p>\n

Oliver! alternates evenings with <\/em>Hairspray from July 10-Aug. 22 at Malkin Bowl (tuts.ca<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left to right: Nathan Piasecki (Artful Dodger), E. Marie West (Nancy) and Stephen Aberle (Fagin) in Theatre Under the Stars\u2019 production of Oliver! Aberle\u00a0also plays Mr. Brownlow. (photo by Tim Matheson) Actor Steven Aberle describes Theatre Under the Stars as \u201ca thrilling combination of enthusiastic, amazingly talented youth and, as they say, \u2018seasoned\u2019 pros.\u201d In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[3605,4148,4149,1555,1689,1686],"class_list":["post-13619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-kathryn-palmer","tag-malkin-bowl","tag-oliver","tag-stephen-aberle","tag-theatre-under-the-stars","tag-tuts"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}