Toronto-born actors David Eisner and Avery Saltzman, the co-artistic directors of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, have lived and breathed theatre since they met at William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute more than 30 years ago.
Harold Green Jewish Theatre is a professional non-profit company that produces plays that reflect the Jewish experience.
“Our mandate is to celebrate and embrace Jewish stories, 5,000 years in the making, our triumphs and struggles. David and I feel it is our honour and privilege to do so,” says Saltzman.
The company’s 2010-11 season, their fourth, will feature Lenin’s Embalmers, a co-production with Winnipeg Jewish Theatre by Vern Thiessen and directed by Geoffrey Brumlick; Zero Hour, written and starring Jim Brochu and directed by Piper Laurie, and To Life, directed and conceived by Tim French and Saltzman .
“We had a great past season, and this season looks very exciting for us,” Saltzman says, noting that subscription sales are reflecting that. “It has been great and met every expectation. People appreciate the gift we are providing to the city by telling our stories, Jewish stories. We are getting towards good sustainability, but we are always looking for support… people to donate or buy subscriptions.”
Saltzman says they want to provide great theatre and to tell great stories for every generation and every ethnicity. He takes pride in producing plays that teach students, Jews and non-Jews alike, about Jewish history, including the Holocaust, as they did with the play Transport.
“We want to tell about our past, but we also want to tell new stories that are coming up – that is why we developed the In The Beginning Festival at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, May 10 to 13,” Saltzman says. “We asked for submissions from emerging young Jewish playwrights from across Canada, and we got close to 70 scripts and we chose four. It is amazing how many young Jewish theatre writers want to tell their story through a Jewish perspective.”
The company has garnered praise for their efforts from both their Jewish and non-Jewish audiences for their array of theatrical offerings, including the controversial and challenging play Talk, about the Mideast situation. Each performance ended with a well-respected guest speaker, including Martin Luther King III. Saltzman and Eisner also brought in Theodore Bikel, a legendary thespian who delighted audiences in Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears.
Also on tap for next season is the Conversations on the Green series, at the Jane Mallett Theatre. The program is co-sponsored by the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto .
“[Broadcaster] Ralph Benmurgui hosts one-on-one conversations with people in the community who are Jewish and how their roots affected where they are today. For the audience, it is like being a fly on the wall, and don’t we all like to be that hearing these personal stories,” says Saltzman.
This year’s guests are singer-songwriter Amy Sky, lawyer Edward Greenspan, theatre impresario David Mirvish and the host of Fashion Television, Jeanne Beker.
Harold Green Jewish Theatre hopes to one day have its own home theatre. Saltzman is also hoping to form an acting company of Jewish kids with outreach to great directors and actors by next year. For more information about Harold Green Jewish Theatre, visit www.hgjewishtheatre.com.
