Paul Newman

I never met Paul Newman and I’m not sure why the death of someone I’ve never met should have any bearing on my life but it does.

There are certain people who you can’t help but respect. For their talent, their ability to stand up for what they believe in and their way of making the world seem like a good place. Paul Newman was one of these people.

He used his fame for good. His Newman’s Own products were produced solely for the purpose of selling them and giving the proceeds to charity.

He led a normal life. The only time you saw him in the tabloids it was because of something he was doing to better someone’s life.

All of the characters he played on the big (or small) screen were infused with a dignity and affability that made us love him no matter flaws the character possessed.

The world became a little less bright on Friday. Paul Newman seemed like a really good person and he will be sadly missed. My heart goes out to his family.

Paul Newman - January 26, 1925 - September 26, 2008

Rachel Corrie

Last week I had the great opportunity to take in a play called My Name is Rachel Corrie.

My Name is Rachel Corrie is a one woman show which was produced by Theatre Panik, directed by the brilliant Kate Lushington and starred Bethany Jillard in a passionate and heart-rending performance.

The play comes from the genre called Verbatim Theatre which is exactly what it sounds like – a play written using the precise words that people have written or spoken about a particular subject. In this case, actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katherine Viner have pieced together emails and journal entries written by Rachel Corrie. Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement who travelled as an activist to the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. She was killed while attempting to prevent an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer from engaging in the demolition of a home in a Palestinian residential area of Rafah, next to the border with Egypt.

The production as a whole was exquisitely done. The play was performed in the Tarragon Extra Space, a black box style theatre using a very simple set with minimal props and costumes which were accompanied by projections and a really effective soundscape. All these subtle elements added to the impact of the show but allowed the audience to focus on Bethany Jillard and the writings of Rachel Corrie.

It’s not an easy thing for an actor to keep an audience engaged for 90 minutes – especially by quoting journal entries and emails. But Bethany has a quality that most actors aspire to which is the ability/desire to lay her soul bare and to make an audience do the same. If you’ve never seen this girl on stage then you should get off your butt and do so (she’s featured this summer in Driftwood’s production of Romeo and Juliet as Juliet). She’s not only beautiful but her technique is exquisite and she will have you laughing and crying and, most importantly of all, thinking.

The “making people think” thing is what has made this play so controversial. It is perceived as an agitprop - portraying a one sided view of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The most common concern being that anyone seeing this play will get a slanted/biased perception of the conflict. Personally, I think this is nonsense. Sure, the show only depicts one side but that’s because it’s a verbatim account of the writings of Rachel Corrie, who was only exposed to one side of the conflict. To add accounts of outside experiences in order to make it a more “balanced” vision would be ridiculously PC and would completely take away from the subject. Mike Scott described the show well “The show is a tribute to the life of a young woman whose passion and belief that everyone should have the chance to feel safe led her to a place and to a situation that few, if any, in the world really understand.”

Needless to say I don’t think it’s EVER okay for someone to strap a bomb on and go to a crowded marketplace and blow themselves, and anyone in the vicinity, up. And this play didn’t change that. However, I don’t think it’s wrong to present a piece that makes people look at potential reasons why that happens and what it is that drives someone to take that kind of extreme measures to get their point across. As Rachel Corrie says “If we lived where tanks and soldiers and bulldozers could destroy our homes at any moment and where our lives were completely strangled, wouldn't we defend ourselves as best we could?”. I don’t condone it but I get it.

In truth, Kate Lushington’s production is not a call to arms but instead an impassioned plea to theatre goers to be responsible members of society. That can never be a bad thing.

What I took away from the show on Thursday was a sense of being ashamed by my own apathy. There are events taking place all over the world where people are in dire circumstances and I have done nothing to help except for making the occasional donation to an emergency fund. This show made me want to jump on a plane and go fill sand bags in the cities that are flooding in the states, or go and help build infrastructure (homes, hospitals and irrigation systems) in a developing country or maybe just get off my butt and give blood or volunteer some time here at home.

You may not like the subject matter but any play that gets people to think is good art. And anyone who can’t bear to see something performed that doesn’t jive with their world view should stay at home.

I leave you with a quote by the Jewish News regarding a production of My Name is Rachel Corrie at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in 2005 "So what? Are we big enough to take it artistically? This is not legislation in Congress; this is the diary of a woman who was run over by a bulldozer. Should we hear what she had to say? Why not?"

Exactly. Why not?

Bringin’ Back The Art

Last winter while walking in downtown Toronto I was passing the front window of an art gallery when I noticed a perfect painting of a snow covered field with a small house in the background. Its early evening in the painting and the house has warm glowing light spilling from the windows on to the icy ground outside. The snow covering the field has a blue white glow to it and you can almost feel the crisp, cold, still air. It was quite wonderful.

When I was a teen I use to spend almost every waking hour in Taylor Creek Park which is part of the Don Valley Park system. It’s located just off of Dawes Rd in the east end of the city. When you’re in this park you’re totally secluded from the streets, lights and noise of the city around you. I would walk to school, which was a fair distance, through the park. I would come home the same way. Almost every night I would meet one of my friends and we would spend hours walking, talking, climbing hydro towers (okay I would climb he would pretend to be my mom and tell me to get down) and just enjoying the crazy un-urban landscape. At night, in the winter, the only light you would find in the park would come from the moon and it would give the snowy hills and trees around us the same blue white glow as the field in the painting. Seeing the painting in the window reminded me of that time and it gave me a really incredible warm fuzzy feeling in my tummy.

It’s been about a million years since I sat down and actually produced a painting. For those of you who know me well you’re probably thinking “Dot paints?” Answer: Yep. I do. But my creative side is coupled with my irrational need to keep all things emotional private - I can hear Kerry sighing as I write that – which is why very few folks have ever seen any of my artwork. I mentioned my urge to paint to a couple of friends and subsequently for Christmas I was given an easel, canvases, paint, brushes – everything I need. I don’t have the creative force that a lot of my friends have. Over the years there are a handful of things that folks I know have created that have stuck with me. Simon’s “Lonely Bench”, Steve’s “Barrington Avenue”, John’s “Nudes of Fife”, Reston’s “Crystanthia”, Catherine’s sketch of Jennifer. I’m hoping to be able to produce at least one piece that’s worthy of some warm tummy fuzziness.

Wish me luck and my apologies in advance for not letting any of you see it!