TORONTO — David Eisner and Avery Saltzman, co-artistic directors of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, are among an estimated possible 3,000 alumni of William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute who plan to be at the school’s 50th anniversary reunion on Sat., May 1.
Avery Saltzman and David Eisner
The four-day event, being held at the Tillplain Road school, will kick off on Thurs., Apr. 29 at 7:30 p.m. with special guest Jeanne Beker of CTV’s Fashion Television, also a Mackenzie graduate. Karen Mock – Thornhill’s federal Liberal candidate, who co-wrote the school song – will MC the evening, which will include an alumni music performance and the launch of the school’s solar panel project.
Eisner and Saltzman will speak the next night at 8 p.m. in the school library, following an introduction by Nathan Shuster, their drama teacher in the mid-1970s.
The Saturday night main event runs from 7 p.m. until midnight, and individual alumni get-togethers will be held on Sun., May 2.
Tickets for Saturday night are $20, either online by April 28, or at the door, cash only. The events on Thursday and Friday are free, and the Sunday get-togethers are $10 per person.
Some 1,600 former staff and students have registered on the reunion website (mackenziereunion.com), and organizers are anticipating there will be many more at the event itself. A reunion 10 years ago drew 3,000 people.
The school, which served students in Bathurst Manor, had a Jewish student population of about 90 per cent at one time. It was originally planned as a junior high, but a rapidly increasing population of baby boomers at Northview Heights Secondary School meant that another high school was needed in the area.
Mackenzie opened as Southview Secondary School in 1960, and a contest was held to rename it.
Reunion co-chair Larry Anklewicz – a lawyer who is also program co-ordinator for the Toronto Jewish Film Festival – said Mackenzie “was intended to be a very academic school, and anyone who didn’t come up to the mark was encouraged to leave.”
Anklewicz, who attended the school from 1960 to 1963, said he has very fond memories of the people, and of “a few teachers who were fabulous.”
Although the last reunion, in 2000, allowed alumni to register online, the current website is more more sophisticated and interactive, Anklewicz said. Among other features, it allows participants to communicate without giving out their personal e-mail addresses.
“We’ve had e-mails from people in Vancouver, Winnipeg, various places in the United States, even from Israel,” Anklewicz said.
He has heard that “quite a few” teachers, including some from the earliest days, will attend the reunion. A staff dinner will precede the Saturday night reunion.
Helene Green, now in her sixth year as Mackenzie principal, told The CJN it’s been a pleasure working with alumni on the upcoming reunion. “They’re a very engaging and spirited group.”
Among them, she has reconnected with Anklewicz’ co-chair, Linda Miller, a 1974 graduate who at the start of her career taught at Mackenzie for three months, replacing a science teacher who was on sick leave. Miller and Green worked together at Georges Vanier Secondary School, where both were vice-principals.
Miller, who took early retirement from the Toronto District School Board, said that Mackenzie has been “such a foundation in this community. Over the 50 years, it’s really maintained its reputation for excellence.”
Also, she remembers, students were encouraged to “follow their own paths.
“We had a lot of very creative teachers,” she recalls. Miller mentioned attending “Alternative Days,” a two-day event organized by students for students, with speakers such as lawyer Clayton Ruby, political leaders from three parties, and magician Doug Henning.
“It was a pretty new thing then,” she said.
Saltzman traces the beginning of his acting career back to his high school days, when he and Eisner starred in a Mackenzie production of Fiddler on the Roof.
“It was such a seminal moment,” Saltzman recalled. “I remember saying to myself in the middle of that play, ‘This is what I’m going to do the rest of my life.’ It turned out kind of great.”
Eisner said he also fell in love with acting at Mackenzie. “It was a really good time,” he added.
Saltzman said he has fond memories of the sense of community he felt growing up in Bathurst Manor and attending the school.
Notable Mackenzie alumni who are recognized on the school website (www.wlmac.ca/50for50), include Mel Cappe, president of the Institute for Research on Public Policy and former High Commissioner for Canada to the United Kingdom; Toronto Star columnist Rosie DiManno, and social worker and television personality Joe Rich.
For more information, go to mackenziereunion.com.
