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March 21, 2008
Dybbuk plays in Vancouver
Jewish community plays a part in UBC production.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Award-winning director and former Vancouverite David Savoy has returned to his hometown – not only to further his theatre education, but to share his talent and accolades.
Currently in his last year of a master of fine arts degree at the University of British Columbia, Savoy has been the artistic director of Showboat Festival Theatre, a summer theatre in Ontario, for five years. He received the 2007 Sidney J. Risk Award for directing and the 2008 Dorothy Somerset Scholarship. In addition, Savoy's original adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's Diary of a Madman is the first production by a Canadian theatre school to be invited to Setkani/Encounter 2008, the 18th international festival of theatre schools, held in Czech Republic. The UBC troupe will join New York's Columbia University as the first North American ensembles asked to the festival, the producers of which chose only 14 applications from those made by schools from around the world.
Closer to home, Savoy is directing an upcoming Theatre at UBC production of Tony Kushner's A Dybbuk, an adaptation of a Yiddish theatrical classic written by S. Ansky between 1912 and 1917 about a bride who is possessed by the soul of the man who should have been her husband. A Dybbuk will feature klezmer-inspired live music by the Creaking Planks and a cast of 17 actors, including Jewish community member and UBC bachelor of fine art alumni Ira Cooper. The set designer, MFA design candidate Yulia Shtern, is also a member of the community.
"The Vancouver Jewish community has been incredibly helpful and supportive of this project," Savoy told the Independent. "Rabbi Lipa Dubrawsky of Lubavitch Vancouver was very generous with his time helping me to understand and appreciate the world of Chassidic Judaism. Rabbi Yechiel Baitelman of Chabad Richmond generously provided us with seven shofars that we needed for the production. Rabbi Kaiser-Blueth from Beth Tikvah in Richmond has kindly welcomed some members of the cast for a Shabbat service.
"Breanne Jackson of Hillel UBC has been an invaluable resource," Savoy continued. "Much of the Sigal clan (Marilee, Ruth, Avihu Nachmani) was of great help with various pieces of Hebrew and Yiddish translation. And, of course, the amazing Mordechai Wosk came out to teach a group of complete novices the art of shofar blowing! As a way of giving something back to the community, Theatre at UBC has provided tickets to the Jewish Family Services Agency to be used for their Tickets to Inclusion program."
Originally from Vancouver, Savoy explained that his non-stage name is Sherman and he is the son of Fay and the late Gerald Sherman. He went to Beth Israel Hebrew school, Camp Hatikvah/Masada and Biluim, as well as United Synagogue Youth Pilgrimage.
"I had something of a spiritual re-awakening after my dad died in 1991," said Savoy, "I decided that I would make the effort to go to shul at least once a month for the following year to say Kaddish for him. I was living in Toronto at the time and there was a small shul near where I lived – the First Narayver, which is billed as 'traditional egalitarian.' It was such an amazing, welcoming experience, that once a month turned into almost weekly, and I think I learned more about Judaism and the way a service is constructed than I had ever absorbed before."
Savoy said he saw his first play when he was growing up in Prince Rupert – "my father owned the Savoy Hotel up there, hence the stage name" – and after that, he said, "I was hooked. I took drama classes throughout school – and my performance in How They Knocked the Devil Out of Uncle Ezra, complete with my dad's bathrobe and a cotton beard, is the stuff of legend! I did two years at the University of British Columbia before moving to the University of Alberta, where I got my BFA
in 1982."
After various theatre projects, Savoy is back in school. Diary of a Madman premiered as his MFA directing project in 2007 and
was named as the top entry the judges received.
"Madman was a unique experience for everyone involved," he said. "It was my first time adapting a script – from the Gogol short story – and it was a chance for me to let my imagination run wild. It is a wonderful, sad story of a man driven mad by unrequited love – and what we did was create a piece of theatre that showed the audience not only the story as it unfolded, but also the way the story unfolded through the eyes (and ears) of 'the madman.' It was a very physical production, with an amazing lighting design and a sound score that ran under almost the entire performance. It was amazingly funny – and completely heartbreaking at the same time."
About his most recent directing project, A Dybbuk, and its relevance to modern audiences, Savoy said, "While faithful to Ansky's original story, Kushner has introduced elements of the future that was to come to the people of shtetls like Brinnitz, where the play takes place. Hints of the Holocaust are woven into the script, and a new character – called simply 'the Scribe,' who records the events of the play – was introduced.
"This started me thinking," explained Savoy, "about the story as a ghost story being told by ghosts – that the story of A Dybbuk is being retold by the people that the Scribe remembers – the people of his shtetl, perhaps who he last saw as they were gathered to await transport to a camp – and he is the only survivor. A critic wrote about the 1937 Yiddish film The Dybbuk (which I saw at Camp Masada – with no subtitles) that the film itself had become a Kaddish, a prayer of remembrance for a way of life that was soon to be swept away. In our production, the world of A Dybbuk and the 1940s world of the people who remember the story coexist and intersect."
Savoy will soon be heading to the Czech Republic for the Setkani/Encounter festival. Afterward, he will return to the
Showboat festival for another summer season.
"One of the reasons I decided at this late stage in my career to return to school and get my master's is that I have done a fair bit of teaching over the last few years – and I really love it (and think, maybe, I might actually pretty good at it?)," said Savoy about his future plans. "If I could find a teaching position at a post-secondary institution, I would love to be able to share what I have learned over a 25-year career with the next generation of theatre artists."
A Dybbuk previews March 26 and opens March 27. It plays until April 5 at UBC's Frederic Wood Theatre, 6354 Crescent Rd., with shows at 7:30 p.m. and tickets costing $20/$14/$10. Opening night features two-for-one tickets. To order or for more information, call 604-822-2678 or visit www.theatre.ubc.ca.
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