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"A Family Tradition for 132 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Wednesday, May 26, 1999-9 Backstage with The Borelians comes of it. "I just want to see what comes natu- rally," says Norma, the woman who has studied this play so intensely for well over a year. She obviously has some pretty clear ideas of what she wants to see on stage, but it is also evident that she realizes actors have good ideas too, and can make contributions beyond sim- ply memorizing lines and absorbing stage directions. After a few runs, they've finished for the morning. It's a little past noon, and a bright sunny days awaits beyond the gloom of the theatre. Norma goes over a few more notes with her actors, then reminds them of who she'll need for Tuesday night's rehearsal. She assures them that, although the task before them may seem daunting now, they are on their way. "I's not there yet, but it's a good start, I think, for now," says the director. Nie likes to see their daugh- ter go on stage, Tina Kanarek says during the course of her reminiscence of days when she toured England with a theatrical troupe. "My parents were firmly entrenched in the ~ belief that the theatre is a world of sin... which it is, but so is everything. I've been in offices that are worse." Indeed, since coming to Canada in 1979, Tina has seen much more of the office than the stage. She has toiled in a number of corporate environments, and enjoyed success, but never forgot her life during and after her tenure at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She remem- bers touring the English countryside in cars and trucks, eating lousy food and sleeping in shabby lodgings, doing mur- der mysteries and children's theatre and the like. They are times she clearly remembers with fondness. It's that way, she says, for those who have determined that the theatre is their destiny; they will live under appalling conditions and endure unem- ployment and low pay, because at least théy're a part of it. "Some people, I think, accept it as a way of life," says Tina, who reminds you that life in the theatre can also quickly lose its luster. "Very rapidly one loses the stars in the eyes," she says. "It's not disillusion- ment; I think it's acceptance of the fact that there are varying levels, and this is the one you're at." Despite the move to a new country and her absorption in a new life which included raising children and pursuing a career, Tina was never completely divorced from the theatre. It was always "there, a part of her, and she missed it. "You know how they talk about amputees, and how a missing limb aches and twitches and itches?" she says. "That's how it was. It was uncomfortable for me to walk into a theatre and know I wasn't part of it." So a few years ago she enrolled in courses held by the theatre department at Ryerson University, involving disci- plines like movement, dance and voice. Last summer she auditioned for the Scarborough Village Players' production of Moon Over Buffalo, and landed the 'lead role. When she learned that the Borelians were going to stage The Stillborn Lover in February of this year, she was intrigued enough by the script to come out for auditions. She knows she has been given a part of great complexity and responsibility in Marion. It has the potential to be a daunting assignment; Marion's disease is such that it almost amounts to another character to be reck- oned with. "I looked at it and thought, oh boy, PHOTO BY JEFF MITCHELL Uxbridge actor Tina Kanarek took on the challenging role of Marion in The Borelians' production of The Stillborn Lover. Actors and crew devoted months to putting the play on stage. this is a challenge," she says of the role. "It's very easy to take the easy stuff, but that's not what it's all about." Sunday, Feb. 7, 10 a.m. Town Hall 1873 It's the first off-book day for the cast, which means they're on stage, running through the play, without the security of having scripts in their hands to refer to. The stage is still without a set, but there is some furniture in place -- a couple of chairs, a few tables, a bench and a few other items -- and the actors are work- ing their way through the play from beginning to end. Most members of the cast are by now familiar with their lines, but there's the occasional mix-up: Text is delivered out of sequence, people step on others' lines, and sometimes there is a pause until the actor, drawing an utter blank, will make the request, "Line?" and be prompted. Although the lines are coming, people are still feeling their way through the blocking and the movements they will execute. There are some awkward moments, as people come face.to face with one another and don't know which. way to move --- ever endure that terrify- ing feeling of approaching someone on the sidewalk and bearing right, only to have them do the same, then cutting left, and having a feeling of dread descend over you as they do the same and the distance between you shortens? -- but they will pause, discuss it briefly, look to Norma for verification, then either resume from the point at which they were interrupted, or go back a few lines. Throughout, Norma is calling out lighting cues -- "Lights fade on Riordon, lights up on Marion" -- to give people a notion of how the finished product will be illuminated, and when actors will become the centre of the audience's attention. There is an air of intense concentra- tion about the exercise despite the fre- quent interruptions, and the occasional blunder: At one point, Jarrett Hunter, whose character has been out for a run, jogs to the front of the stage, dead cen- tre, and bends over, breathing hard. But he has entered a few lines too early, and is blocking a brief scene of just a couple of lines which takes place further to the back of the stage. Realizing his mistake, he smiles sheepishly at the director, and hurries back off stage, the way he came in. At the end of Act One a break is called, and people disperse throughout the theatre. Some run off for the bath- room or downstairs for a coffee, while some other linger on stage to discuss the exchanges that will take place between their characters. Others just stand in groups and shoot the breeze. Norma says she's got her people on schedule -- this had been slated as the day on which they would be off-book -- and that she's pleased with their progress. She's hopeful that now that the lines are more or less nailed down, the "mechanics" of movement on the stage will come next. Then you have the whole package: you learn what your character says, then how he or she moves, and you put it together. Things begin to come "innately". "Once you're at that point, then the real characterization starts happening," says Norma. She's optimistic about the progress the cast and crew have made, but remains aware of her looming deadline: opening night is 19 days away. "Every rehearsal counts very much," she says. "I have to come with a real objective for every rehearsal, and stick to it." Then it's back to work. It's time for the second act. Monday, Feb. 15, 8:30 p.m. Town Hall 1873 There's a different kind of buzz in the theatre tonight, accompanied by the sound 'of hammers pounding and a cir- cular saw screaming. Tonight work begins on the set, an elaborate, multi- level affair which is essentially three pieces which converge at the back of cen- tre stage, which is the highest riser. Behind the set is a large screen upon which will be projected images and colours, to set moods. Norma is here, but the foreman of the construction crew is Gord Mahaffy, a Borelians regular for many seasons. He can always be counted on to work with set designers to create the stage upon which the play will unfold. He's another of the many community theatre support- ers who toil away in anonymity, but his contribution is inestimably valuable. The Borelians recognized his commit- ment a couple of years back in naming him recipient of the Les and Zona Parkes Award, given annually to the member of the company who has made the most outstanding contribution. Joining Gord are three other recruits, Mike Passmore, Ron Costello and Brian Shanley. It is their task to construct the set in a fashion that complies to design and is safe for actors to work on within a short period of time, and it is evident in their work ethic. They toil as a team, determined to put the pieces of the set in place and affix it all to the stage, then get out of the way so the cast can become acquainted with it. Although the order is tall and the pace intense, there is a less frenetic air about this set construction than some others have been. For this production the Borelians have budgeted a bit more for the hall rental, meaning Norma has exclusive use of the stage from now until her production ends. With other produc- tions time and budget restraints have meant a much smaller window of oppor- tunity, which meant the set had to be built from the ground up, painted and all the rest within a couple of nights. "Set construction can be late-night, grinding work," says Norma, who has pulled up with the family van full of lumber, and has been hauling two-by- fours up the fire escape from the parking lot. Construction usually begins on a Thursday night and continues until Sunday morning. Then it's time to hang and direct lights, another labour-inten- sive, time consuming process. By the time it's finished -- usually in the wee hours of the morning -- you fall in to bed exhausted. But at least it's done. And then you show up for the next rehearsal and, miraculously, there's a brand new world, right there on what was previously a bare stage. "Seeing it all come together is worth all that pain," says Norma. "It really is." 0 Next: Opening Night