Jewish community, meet the Chinese community. Chinese community, meet Golda Meir.
Tovah Feldshuh in Golda’s Balcony.
This is partly the goal of of the 2010- 2011 theatre season at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Arts.
“Many of our shows address the multicultural makeup of our community,” said Eli Lukawitz, head of marketing, development and education at the centre, adding that Richmond Hill and the surrounding area has a high Chinese and Jewish population.
“What we’re trying to do is to expose the cultures to other people,” Lukawitz said. “It’s educating the neighbour about their neighbour.”
The new season includes plays like Golda’s Balcony, which explores Golda Meir’s journey from a school teacher to prime minister of Israel, as well as Chinese New Year Celebration: East Meets West, a concert with music from Huang An Lun, a Chinese composer.
Lukawitz thinks that both performances will appeal to the Jewish community.
“I think the Jewish community is a type of community that will embrace a lot of different things,” he said.
The season’s theme is debuts and divas, mainly because most actors are either performing at the centre for the first time or, like Jackie Richardson who will sing on New Year’s Eve, are divas.
Other shows include Seinfeld actor Jerry Stiller, who stars in his one-man-show in November; a production of Hamlet in October; and Cherry Docs, a play by David Gow about a liberal Jewish lawyer who is assigned to defend a neo-Nazi skinhead. Cherry Docs will run in November.
The process of creating a theatrical season is a lengthy one, Lukawitz said, explaining that the theatre manager usually sits down with the centre’s staff and goes through all the shows being pitched by booking agents.
“We take a good look at what’s being pitched to us and what’s relevant to the community in York Region,” he said.
Keeping with the theatre’s aim of educating different cultures, Lukawitz believes Golda’s Balcony, which will run in April, is an important piece.
“Obviously, with my background, I know quite a bit about Golda Meir. But when I talked to [people in the community] about a fairly substantial historical figure, they don’t know much about her,” he said.
“She had an effect on not just Israeli politics, but world politics. The story of Golda Meir is the story of survival and perseverance,” he said, “because it’s told in a theatrical way, it brings to life this person who, for most people, is just a name in a book.”
For Lukawitz, nothing can replace a live performance.
“I love going to see a movie, but there’s just an energy that happens when you watch live performance, whether it be theatre or music or dance. We share the experience with the artist,” he said. “You see a movie and every night’s the same. But if you see a piece of performance, every given night you’re seeing something different. A line is delivered in a different way, there’s a different movement from the night before. You can’t replace that energy.”
The centre’s new season also has an emphasis on children’s programming with shows like Caillou in February, Splash’N Boots, a musical sing-a-long, in December and Junie B. Jones, a musical based on the book series by Barbara Park that will run in November.
“I love watching children experience live theatre. They can’t contain the awe and the joy they have when they’re sitting in the audience and out walks Caillou,” Lukawitz said. “This is the next generation of theatre goers. If we want theatre and live performance in general to be sustainable, we need to build our audience from young ages.”
For tickets or more information, call 905-787-8811 or visit www.richmondhill.ca.
