It had been almost a year (time flies when you’re having “fun”) since Leslee (Silverman) had approached me about “writing a show” for her theatre. The ups and downs of the creative process had yielded a foundation which, even after all this time, still needed work. Aside from some positive and encouraging input from admittedly subjective friends and family, I had been writing in a vacuum. The only objective voice had been Leslee’s, but with nothing to work toward I was at a loss for what to do next. Rick (McNair) had, after being plied with a lot of food and drink at a listening party at my apartment, finally given me some input. Aside from telling me between mouthfuls of food that he liked the music and that the script needed “more surprises” that event had been of little value. I decided to take my heart in my hands and sent out scripts and demo tapes to some smaller theatres back East for some truly objective commentary. And I waited.

            In the meantime, money work burgeoned. Along with Robbie, I had been cast in Rainbow’s production of “My Fair Lady” playing sidekicks ‘Jamie’ and ‘Harry’ to Cliff Garner’s “Doolittle’. We were a wee oasis of friends in a desert of principals all from out of town. Back in those days importing performers wasn’t a cause for much concern. It was considered “acceptable” because that was the way it had always been done – a ‘tradition” that was to change in very short shrift … but more of that later. It became apparent very early on (at least to my eye) that while our two leads were established and well- regarded Actors, their Musical Theatre experience was, well, questionable. While “My Fair Lady” has it foundation in G.B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, Lerner and Loewe’s adaptation of his play presents some challenges to anyone who approaches the Musical thinking this is just Shaw with some songs thrown in here and there. There are great differences in terms of approach and woe betide the actor who ignores the craft required to make it work! Unfortunately, our ‘Henry Higgins’ was baffled by what it took to make the transitions from speaking to singing work; and, amazingly, our ‘Eliza’ had a hard time with the essential Cockney accent! It confused me that they had been cast in those roles! Our Director had his work cut out for him!

            Alan Lund was a titan in Canadian Theatre! His storied history ran the gamut from the earliest days of Canadian Television choreographing and dancing across our tiny black and white TV screens with his wife, Blanche, to the Artistic Directorship of the fabled Charlottetown Festival for twenty years! Now, before my very eyes, here he was walking into the rehearsal hall of Rainbow Stage. I stood in absolute awe.

He exuded theatre, not flamboyantly or ostentatiously; but rather it was an aura that surrounded him and moved with him as he greeted us on that first day of rehearsal. One could sense his wisdom, his experience and, best of all, his utter devotion to the craft of making theatre! He was gentle, patient (except when he wasn’t – a focused anger that could fill a room to make a point and dissipate moments later) and consummately aware of the incredibly difficult process it took to mount a show. He had been doing it for so many years and it showed. He treated all his performers that way. Even in the huge production numbers there was never a sense of urgency. I saw a thoughtful approach as he wandered through the Ensemble, pausing for a moment, making assessments as to the big picture then, with gentle touch on the arm or the shoulder, giving a calm instruction as to what should happen on a step or a gesture, or indicating where he needed someone to move to. I trusted him as soon as I met him! Little did I know that I was to work with him many times in the years ahead, and that was soon to become a great friend and a crucial thread in my developing story.

            Cliff, Robbie and I were the major components of two major production numbers (“Get Me To The Church On Time” and “Little Bit of Luck”) and, because we were “seasoned” Musical performers and were well possessed of our characters, we had a whale of a time working with Alan and, I could tell, he with us. The unfortunate thing was that Robbie and I were in little else in the show and there was a lot of time sitting about or not being at rehearsals at all. It seemed to me that when we were in the room Alan was most alive doing all the tried and true vaudeville bits and bringing the old steps to life again. It was magic and I loved it. This was not the last time I would experience his genius. He was, after all, to become another thread.

            Over the years, there had been tense relationships between Actors’ Equity and some of the theatres (and, unfortunately, some members) in town. “Traditions” had inculcated themselves and were just “the way things were done” and were left that way. As the National Councilor I had worked to bring things into line with the rules but there were still situations that needed attention. Through cajoling and persistent “encouragement” we had gradually managed to get Rainbow Stage – an Equity engager – somewhat closer to the required “quotas” of Equity to non-Equity performers. Due mainly to Rainbow’s very large Choruses in its big shows, for decades non-Equity performers had far out-numbered the Equity members. Happily, that was changing, but one matter still to be dealt with was the Archival Video Regulation.

There had been a loosely-worded regulation allowing for a visual record of a production to be preserved by electronic means. That rule had evolved to mean a camera with a wire through the lens to make it unusable for commercial purposes. This meant nothing to Producer Jack Shapira. The Rainbow Archival Video had become a cash cow. It was widely known that multi-camera video copies of productions were being sold (at $50.00 a pop) to cast members as “souvenirs” of their time at Rainbow. For months I had repeatedly reminded  Jack that this wasn’t permitted but it seemed these warnings were falling on deaf ears. It was now time for a show-down and the Archival Taping Night of “My Fair Lady” would be the test case! What follows is the painfully detailed record of that night written in my Journal the following day.

“After arriving at the theatre, I walked into the stage area and could see out into the house. Over to the left in the audience area was one camera. I stopped for a second, closed my eyes and prayed that I wouldn’t find a second one as I walked three steps further on stage. There, ready to go, was camera number two and I could see number three in the booth! Lord, Lord! What had all these conversations been about over the last eight months!! The Stage Manger and Head Carpenter were standing there looking at me and, in his typical fashion, the SM threw up his hands, shrugging his shoulders as if he knew nothing about it. Damn! I was going to have to play the villain in all this again!

“It went up to our top floor dressing room to deposit my bag and met Robbie on the way. “I’m going to have to have to have two of those cameras pulled”, I told him. The amount of incredulity swirling about my mouth prompted Robb to say “Why did he do that?” referring, of course, to Jack’s blatant disregard for all that I have put myself through over the past while to save him from what I knew would be disastrous repercussions from Equity. There was no recourse in all this but to try and deal with it rationally first. In retrospect, I probably should have just left it alone and reported it the next day to the Head Office in Toronto. The words of warning to Deputies were “Don’t Confront!” But that’s just what I was about to do!

“I headed back downstairs. Jack was in some kind of involved conversation with the Music Director, but I hung around and made myself very obvious. Soon they finished, the MD walked away and I approached Jack. “I have to talk to you” I said very calmly. I think he knew what was coming because he became immediately defensive and in a rather belligerent tone said,  “I have to talk to you too!”

“Jack, do you really hate me?” I started. I could see his eyes dart away trying to figure out where I was coming from. The crucial thing for me in all this was to remain totally cool, rational and calm. I knew he wasn’t going to be.

“After everything we’ve been through in the past eight months, you’ve got three cameras out there?!” Jack’s Explosion Number One”: a bit of reason, lots of Equity blaming, lots of bravado. He knew he was on shaky ground at best.

“Jack, I have to tell Equity. Or you have to pull two cameras!” Jack’s Explosion Number Two: less reason, more yelling, much grasping at straws.

“Jack, don’t do this to yourself. They’ll blackball you, close you down and that will be it!” Jack’s Explosion Number Three: less bravado, a little more reason (God, I hated doing this!) and thoughts about being closed down quickly took over. “Well, I’ll see what I can do” he said. “Ernie (the cable station guy who was doing the recording) isn’t going to like this!” and he walked away.

“I stood there for a moment, somewhat at a loss as to what to do next. Jack Timlock, the Production Manager, was standing a distance away and had obviously seen and heard what had gone on. “You’re right and he’s wrong” he said as I walked by. I just shrugged and put my head toward getting my make-up on and the show.

“Shapira was on a headset trying to explain to Ernie out in the house what he had to do, that it was out of his hands. I stopped by him and watched him for a moment and went up to the dressing room. Robb had obviously told the guys in the dressing room what had happened and they were waiting for a report from me. I told them the situation, that Shapira was dealing with getting the other two cameras pulled and some thoughts were exchanged about the whole business. I started to put on my costume and was just about ready to start my make-up when who should appear at the door, huffing and puffing from hauling his great girth up the four flights of stairs, but Jack! Mercy, he must have worked himself into a state to get up all those stairs!

“Why don’t you get a vote from the others!” he yelled. “Then see if Equity gets so high and mighty!!”

“Look, Jack”, I said, getting up from the table and going toward the door. “I can’t bother them in their preparation, besides, it’s after the half-hour” and I began to close the door on him pushing him out at the same time. That was obviously the wrong thing to do. I could sense young Shaun, the Stage Management Intern, somewhere behind me having come in to collect our valuables. Jack shoved the door back open with a huge crack as it banged against its frame and pushed me out of the way, hitting me in the process. Shaun edged passed us and fled the room. I learned later that he had ended up crying hysterically, telling the folks downstairs that “Jack was yelling and hitting Richard”.

“This is MY theatre!!” he screamed at me. I could see him gasping for air. He had risen to the occasion. I had touched him where he lived.

“I’ll close this show down right now” I said. I don’t know what possessed me to say that but Robb told me later that he almost blurted out “Oh, no, Rich, no!” My words broke over Jack and he backed away breathing very hard, looking completely bewildered and livid at the same time, like a wounded animal. He tried to leave, pulling the door with him, heading toward the stairs. There was no way I could let him go down those stairs in his current state and I followed him out, cornering him on the landing.

“Jack! Calm down!” I insisted, pushing him back from the stairs.

“NO!” he barked over and over, still panting, trying to get past me and avoiding my eyes.

“Look, I’m not letting you go down those stairs till you relax. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack!” He kept trying to get past me and I finally let him go after a couple of minutes. I watched him bustle himself down the stairs, quite uncertain as to what he could possibly do next.

“Back in the room, the atmosphere was of amazed expectation. It all seemed like a suspended moment, something none of us thought was real. But it was real and the show still had to go on. I finished my make-up, quite calmly actually, despite being not a little hyped with all the adrenalin pumping through me. Robb and the others were very supportive saying that, with the exception of the “close you down” line (about which we all had a good laugh) I was very much, in their estimation, in the right. Time would tell the validity of that observation. I thought I was doing the right thing.

“But there was another dimension to this event which I wasn’t, until a few moment later, aware; a dimension that perhaps to some degree explained Jack’s almost irrational objections to pulling two cameras. Not to lose touch with the situation (and not to appear to all and sundry to be “hiding” from the it) I went down into the Production Office. The show’s Overture had started and I had about twenty minutes before I was on. There was Jack sitting behind the production desk and Timlock leaning against a counter. Both were being “lectured” by a young woman, no more than 20 or 21 years old, quite literally being verbally whipped by her! I calmly walked in and sat in a chair in the very middle of the confrontation. This was Ernie’s wife and, if I thought Jack was irrational in our encounter, this girl was way off the deep end!

“In the course of all her rantings (and after I introduced myself as the cause of all the to-do) it slowly came to light – at least to my eye – that Jack, who knew what the situation was with Equity, had, very simply, neglected to tell the Cablevision people that they could only use one camera. Now, after they had spent some seven hours setting everything up and with this witch of a woman going for throats, I became the next whipping post. But, and I think much to Jack’s surprise, I wasn’t backing down or giving in. He was between a rock and a hard place and had to decide what ultimately was going to hurt him less!

“I tried to calmly explain the situation to her but she didn’t seem to care about Jack or the trouble he could get into with. She was concerned about the cameramen and the time they had given up and how they had other commitments that night! What? This was really getting us nowhere fast. The only thing I was truly concerned about was that no cameras were running now that the show had started. It turned out that one was so a record was indeed being made from the allowable camera.

“Timlock had to go out at one point, which, after a moment, when Ernie’s wife left, forced me and Jack to face each other. The girl came back in, pointed at Jack and said “I want to speak to you … outside!” and turned on her heel and exited.

“Jack got up slowly, took a large breath, opened his eyes wide, bared his teeth and looked like he was scared to death. “Don’t be such a chicken-shit” I said. “What’s she got on you?” He didn’t answer but walked out of the room like a man headed to the gallows. What an hour this had been!

“That was pretty well the extent of my dealings with Jack. Our paths didn’t cross for the remainder of the night. As I said, the adrenalin had hyped me and, as a result, my performance was as energized as it could possibly have been! I felt great but rather concerned about the down-the-road picture, that all this would cool Jack with me for good and all.

“After the show, while waiting for Robbie in the Green Room, I walked over and sat down beside Chickie, Jack’s wife. She obviously knew what had gone on and told me that she (and others) had just been waiting for Jack to “go off”. It had been a long time in coming and Chickie had told the General Manager to keep an eye on him. She was sorry it had been me that he’d blown up at. All I could do was shrug and say I was sorry I had provoked him.

“Actually, Jack and I did speak at one other point during the evening. He told me that he understood my position and he was aware of all the times I had gone to bat for him with Equity. I also learned later that, had I approached the Equity cast members and asked them to vote on the camera situation, there would have been no recourse for Jack so adamant would their reaction have been to the multi-camera recording.

“(The next day) I wrote off a long from-the-heart letter to the head of Winnipeg Cablevision with copies to Equity, Rainbow and Robbie. I made reference to the “implicit” rule in the Equity regulations about “a single, stationary camera with a wire or device fixed to the lens”. Where I came up with “single” and “stationary” is beyond me. The ambiguity of it all was very frustrating and would have to be something that the National Council addressed. 

“The following evening after the show was the traditional viewing of the video of the production. Jack had avoided me all evening. I stood at the back of the scene shop while Jack made a speech to the cast as to how and why the videos got started. Then he expressed Ernie’s (!) concern that “through an error in judgment” the quality of the video wouldn’t be what he wanted. I guess we were all to assume that the judgment error was mine, but I just didn’t see it that way. It could very well be interpreted as being Jack’s error. I made a mental note of all this, shrugged, said goodnight to Chickie, and, with Robbie, walked out to the car hoping that now it was all over and if I didn’t work at Rainbow for Jack ever again, so what!”

This was not the end of the Shapira drama!

During the run of “Fair Lady” I had committed myself to hosting the “Entertainment Stage” at the daytime Walkabout of Prince Andrew and “Fergie” during their Royal Visit to Winnipeg. I quickly learned that political wonks should never never ever be in charge of programming events like this. It was a shambles and all rather embarrassing. It was a rainy day but thousands had turned up with their umbrellas at the Legislative Building grounds to catch a glimpse of the Royal Couple as they took the traditional stroll among the common folk. By the time they got to the Stage the much-too-tight schedule was shot to hell. A welcoming speech I’d been asked to prepare had been vetted by the “suits” and slashed to pieces and ended up meaning nothing. A kids choir (which had been dreamed up by the “suits” and called “The Multicultural Children’s Choir” but ended up being called “The Manitoba Children’s Choir” because there were NO “multicultural” kids in the group!) started the forty-five minute presentation by singing very badly.  Another under-rehearsed vocal group sang and a few drenched Indigenous Dancers bounced about the stage. It was terrible!

At one point, sitting on my stool at the side of the stage trying to make myself invisible while waiting to make the next introduction, I looked out at the umbrella-ed audience. There, down front, was Fergie looking right back at me. I guess my face was betraying my inner feelings. She put her finger up to her mouth and gave me a big smile. That jolted me out of my state and I smiled back. I was up next to sing “Feel The Spirit” for the first time in public. As I started, some of the “handlers” came up beside the Couple and whisked them back through the crowd for the end of the Walkabout … after only twenty minutes of the show! The sodden crowd moved away from the Stage following the pair and, after my song, we stopped the show. Everyone had left and there was no point continuing. I got off the stage, gathered up my backpack and coat, walked down the path away from the crowd, tossed my announcing script into a nearby trash basket and was home twenty minutes later. What a depressing experience. But I did get a smile from a Royal!

By now, responses to the “Now You’re Talkin’” packages I’d sent out were starting to come in. I had asked for feedback but most of the replies just indicated that my script had been passed on to the Company’s “reader” and they would get back to me. With the exception of one theatre, I never heard another word from any of them. Rejection is not a nice feeling. I wondered why all that energy had been expended to begin with. But then what had I really expected? But there was no time to get lost in those thoughts! I had other fish to fry. “Fair Lady” closed and I immediately packed my bags and headed east to Grand Bend, Ontario for a few weeks to do a mount of “Schubert Alley” at the Huron Country Playhouse. Steven Schipper was AD of the Summer Theatre and had offered me a two- week engagement – two-hours work in the evening and sitting in the sun on a Lake Huron beach during the day. I needed the break.

The time went by quickly but I felt isolated. I got somewhat bored early on, all the while feeling that I should be back home doing something else. The run ended successfully and my guilty feelings were eased as I landed back in Winnipeg and started to prep for the upcoming season..

Then, Leslee called me back into her office!

NEXT: A NEW ROAD, A NEW THREAD … AND MAYHEM!