Gemini Award-winner Linda Kash has joined the cast of the multi-award-winning hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore at the Panasonic Theatre.
Linda Kash
The play by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the best-selling book by Ilene Beckerman, runs at the Panasonic until Oct. 2. Kash, part of a rotating cast, will grace the stage until Sept. 4.
Kash is best known for her 16-year run as the Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese angel, which she says she agreed to do because it included flying, and the thought of getting harnessed up sounded like fun.
She is thrilled to be sharing the stage with Lauren Collins from Degrassi: The Next Generation, Cynthia Dale, who starred in Street Legal, Wendy Crewson from Away From Her and 24, and Margot Kidder, best known from Superman and Brothers and Sisters and who Kash says is inspiring.
Love, Loss, and What I Wore began its theatrical run Off-Broadway. It uses clothing and accessories and the memories they trigger to tell stories covering some of life’s funniest and most poignant moments.
“The book was written by a woman [Beckerman] who wanted to leave her life’s memories to her grandchildren by the clothes that she wore. Nora Ephron and her sister, Delia, explored, reviewed, collected… these stories from women about important pieces of clothing and what [each] means to them,” Kash says.
“One of the monologues I do is called The Bathrobe. At the beginning, the woman says clothing means nothing to her… the character has a weight issue. It’s quite a departure from the rest of the monologues because clothing is so important in the other monologues. It is only the bathrobe that serves up any memory for her. My other monologue is about a purse… and it’s really funny,” Kash says.
“Quite a few of the monologues speak about parents, moms in particular, and I just lost my mom in June,” says Kash, the daughter of the late conductor Eugene Kash and opera singing star Maureen Forrester. “So, I am just putting my toes back into working because, of course, in any daughter’s life – it throws you for a major loop. You have no idea how you are going to react, and I reacted really strongly to my mother’s death… it was really tough.”
Kash says there are a couple of monologues that hit a nerve with her. “What is clear to me as an actor is I have to open that little wound that is quite fresh. I’m a comedian, I’m quite comfortable with comedy, but there is another colour that I need to play in this, and it’s required in the monologue. Otherwise, it would be indulgent. But, it’s not easy because it is personal. I think, though, that’s what makes older actresses and actors so incredibly interesting, because they have a lifetime worth of experience to tap from. It will be an interesting exploration because it is much rawer than it has ever been for me.”
Her entertainment career started at Second City in Toronto. Since then, she’s appeared in a number of CanStage productions, and more recently, in Sisters Rosensweig for the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company. Kash’s film and television work includes Cinderella Man, Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, Seinfeld, Third Rock From The Sun, At The Hotel, for which she won a Gemini, and The Joe Blow Show, which she also directed.
In addition, Kash teaches sketch writing and improvisation for Humber College and leads corporate workshops for Beyond the Box. Married to actor Paul O’Sullivan, she is the mother of a blended family of daughters; his – Megan 18, hers – Dylan 15, and theirs – Matilda 10. The couple co-founded a performing arts school called PAPA.
Kash will soon be seen in a short film for Bravo called Rosie Takes the Train. She’s also directing an upcoming show about motherhood called Push in which the actresses are all young mothers. She hopes to mount it in November.
For tickets to Love, Loss, and What I Wore, now extended until Oct. 2 at the Panasonic Theatre, 651 Yonge Street, Toronto, call 416-872-1212 or 1-800-461-3333, or go online to www.ticketking.com. For more information go to www.lovelossonstage.ca
