It had been two-and-half-years since I last performed on a stage. Purim 2022 made the return of something I love to do come true. How, you may ask?
Temple Sinai, a Reform synagogue in the North York area of Toronto, was paying tribute to a legendary member. The show was called A Star is Borsht, and I was fortunate to be selected as one of the performers.
Harvey Atkin, who died in 2017, has been honoured with this annual young performer competition—which took place this year in front of a small audience, along with a live video stream.
The actor who might’ve been most recognized for his role in Meatballs (which Bonjour Chai discussed in our episode about Ivan Reitman) also racked up American network credits as a recurring actor on Cagney & Lacey and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
A montage of his notable work kicked off the evening, with a video message from Harvey’s wife Celia to talk about his legacy, and wish everyone a Happy Purim.
David Eisner, co-artistic director of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, introduced the performers: Shannon Leibinger, Lily Librach, Ben Page, Seth Zosky and myself. Three of them were past or present musical theatre students of Sheridan College—but two of us go further back.
Shannon and I both attended John Abbott College’s Professional Theatre program in Montreal, before she headed to Toronto to further her studies at Randolph Centre for the Arts. We last performed together, in a production of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013.
This time, it involved singing two songs in front of a panel of industry professionals. And after we crooned and belted our hearts out, the judges shared their notes, American Idol-style. (Not to worry, they were nicer than Simon Cowell.)
While it was all for fun and games—it was Purim, after all—it was still nerve-wracking to get back up there in front of such talented fellow performers, and strut my stuff after a long hiatus. I was glad for this opportunity to brush off some of the dust.
And then things took a sillier turn, with a Purim spiel composed by Canadian Jewish writer Emil Sher.
A modernized re-telling of the Book of Esther, the story began in a shtetl in Poland, where a tailor named Gershon Blumenthal begins making chocolates at night. It leads to the development of a chocolate company called Crown Chocolates.
Generations later, the Blumenthals have assimilated and shortened (or “circumcised” in the parlance of the play) their last name to Bloom. But chocolate wasn’t the only thing that was passed down. The family tradition was for the men to hold the positions of power at Crown, while the women did most of the work (uncredited, of course) behind the scenes.
Everything changes when Esther—I mean, Julia Bloom, granddaughter of Gershon Blumenthal—takes matters into her own hands.
The spiel was high energy and fun, with megillah excerpts interspersed throughout the story, chanted by Temple Sinai’s Cantor Charles Osbourne and Rabbi Jordan Shaner. A highlight of the night was when they would put on character voices for Esther, Haman and Achashverosh, while continuing to sing to the trope.
And everything was underscored by the incredibly talented accompanist, Mark Camilleri, who often works for Mirvish Productions, as well as for Temple Sinai and the Harold Green.
After the spiel, audience members could vote for their favourite performer, whether they were in the room or watching at home.
Rabbi Michael Dolgin then came on stage to announce the winner of the talent competition… (cue drum roll) Ben Page! Very well deserved! Ben performed two quirky comedic numbers from obscure contemporary musicals. The judges loved it—and apparently the audience did, too.
Despite the competitive nature of the event, everyone was absolutely lovely, as they contributed to experiences I waited too long to return to.
Live theatre’s back, baby! And hopefully here to stay.
My other friend reunion of the week
I’ve wanted to have Kat Palmer on Bonjour Chai for several months, because she’s one of 17 biological children of former Ottawa fertility doctor Norman Barwin—who had his medical license revoked in 2019 for artificially inseminating 83 of his patients with the wrong sperm.
And, in Kat’s case, that sperm was Dr. Barwin’s.
What made the talk more timely was a March 2022 article from Toronto Life, in which Aviva Coopersmith wrote about the experience of discovering her biological father’s ethnicity was different than what Barwin claimed it was, which connected Aviva to my friend in Vancouver.
I’d seen Kat posting about the scandal for years—from the moment she went public with her news as being one of the “Barwin babies,” to last year’s announcement of a proposed $13.3-million settlement.
What I learned from catching up with Kat is that there’s currently nothing illegal about a doctor using his own sperm to inseminate a patient. That is just nuts. She hoped that the case would go to the Supreme Court, but it never made it passed the provincial stage. Now, her primary concern is seeing that Canadian legislation changed, rather than go after Barwin in particular.
To hear more about Kat’s story, like how she discovered that Barwin was her biological father and her newfound relationships with 16 surprise siblings, check out our 20-minute conversation on Bonjour Chai.
(The segment starts at 33:40, but we try to make the entire hour worthwhile, every single week! And, if you don’t know how to subscribe to podcasts, check out our new how-to.)
Ilana Zackon can be reached at ilanawritesthings[@]gmail.com and found on Facebook and Instagram.
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