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May 23, 2008
Producing theatre with heart
Jay Hamburger gives social awareness its place on the stage.
CASSANDRA FREEMAN
He instantly reminds you of Doc Emmett Brown from the movie Back to the Future, with all the frenetic energy, passion and concern for others that the role demands. But instead of science, Jay Hamburger has a genius for producing thought-provoking one-act plays. As the artistic director for local independent theatre company Theatre in the Raw, he's produced 160 original one-acts over the last 14 years, with more than 600 actors, performers and directors from all over British Columbia. But, for Hamburger, even more important than theatre is the opportunity to help other people.
Hamburger has just finished a six-year stint at Vancouver's Carnegie Centre, teaching acting and playwriting once a week to residents of the area. The class was free and many of the participants have become part of Carnegie plays, which in themselves are a major part of the rejuvenation of theatre in the downtown Eastside. From the class, participants "have reaped enormous rewards of self-satisfaction and self-confidence," Hamburger told the Independent.
If anyone were the Yiddishe Papa of the city's theatre family, it would be Hamburger. And it's not just way he talks with his hands or his New York Jewish accent. It's normal for Hamburger to have a cast member or playwright staying in his home. If he interviews a woman performer on his Sunday late night co-op radio show, he'll drive her home, rather than have her wait for the bus in a potentially dangerous neighborhood.
His journey to Canada
Hamburger fell in love with theatre at Dalton School in New York City. By the time he got to Putney High School in Vermont, the drama teacher, Bunny White, took an interest in him and cast him in important roles for every play from Grade 9 to Grade 12.
"She just had a vision, and I guess she knew wild and insane talent and how to literally knock some sense into a little guy's head," said Hamburger.
In 1970, he completed his bachelor of fine arts at Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts in Pittsburgh. During one summer, he rehearsed excerpts of Bertolt Brecht's works with a travelling theatre troupe to entertain miners in West Virginia. Unfortunately, a new cast member accused Brecht and the whole company of being communists and the show never opened. Instead, the troupe staged a 16th-century miracle play, where Hamburger played the angel who interrupts the sacrifice of Isaac. Hamburger said this was the show that changed his life.
"It was wonderful to do theatre for people who couldn't go to New York ... we were really doing theatre 'for the people' and serving a purpose," he said.
Still, living in a country where anyone could be labelled communist, as well as the Vietnam War and President Ronald Reagan, made Hamburger move to Canada in the 1980s.
Canadian playwrights
The Street by W. Ruth Kozack was one of the plays that put Theatre in the Raw on the map. Reviewed by the Globe and Mail eight years ago, the play not only focused on drug addiction, but, after the shows, there were panels of experts, including addicts. The result was a call for more detoxification beds. A short while later, authorities in Vancouver came up with a new plan to deal with the situation. "We definitely got the ball rolling," said Hamburger.
But acquiring enough funds to stage plays with a social conscience isn't easy. Though the grassroots theatre company has many supporters, actors can only be paid honorariums at this point.
"Half the time I'm pulling my hair out," Hamburger said. "There's a part of me that says, 'Jay, you are completely mad.'"
From a financial standpoint, Theatre in the Raw might not exist at all if Hamburger hadn't written the lyrics of "By My Side" for the blockbuster 1970s musical Godspell. Royalties from it got the company started 14 years ago at the now-defunct La Quena coffee shop. "Even now," said Hamburger, "half the royalties go to my family and half go to Theatre in the Raw."
Hamburger is currently preparing to take his troupe on its first major tour across Western Canada – the Rolling Stock Prairie Theatre Tour. It begins with shows this weekend at the Pal Lodge in Gastown. The program features three one-act plays (all comedies), written by Hamburger, Patrick Foley and Larry Trask.
Hamburger's play is inspired by the protest at Clayoquot Sound, in which he took part. The lead character is a tree-hugging artist putting the last touches on her painting when she is annoyed by a constant knocking at her door. Foley examines the plight of two bachelors in a restaurant competing for the same table and the attention of the pretty waitress, while Trask writes about two Jewish immigrants, one blind, the other cheating, playing chess and talking about life.
"We're very capable of doing classical works. We've done Chekhov and Beckett ... but for the last couple of years, we've been deeply involved in producing mostly Canadian playwrights," said Hamburger.
"I think we should recognize [these efforts] and not be out there with our big swords and our big machetes cutting people to bits because it's not Shakespeare," said Hamburger.
As for the future, Hamburger is playing with the idea of staging the chilling play The Dybbuk. In the meantime, he is mentoring writer Barbara Shumiatcher to write a play based on Even Higher, one of Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz's stories.
"It's part of a greater project we've been doing on myth. I couldn't be happier that she wanted to take this one on," he said.
In December 2008, fans of Theatre in the Raw can look forward to a play about the late city counsellor Bruce Erickson. "It's about a hero who stuck his neck out and helped get sprinkler systems in hotels, helped fight alcoholism amongst the poor and disenfranchised, helped to start DERA [Downtown Eastside Residents Association] and, most importantly, helped save the Carnegie building."
Hamburger lives in East Vancouver with his son, Sylvan, and partner, Atty Gell, who is a potter, artist and teacher.
Visit theatreintheraw.ca for tickets to this weekend's performances in Vancouver or show up at the Pal Lodge, 581 Cardero St. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., with shows at 8 p.m.
Cassandra Freeman is a freelance writer living in Vancouver.
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