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November 15, 2002
Dancing to own fiddler
Lisa Stevens is making a name as a choreographer.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
A couple of tickets to Fiddler on the Roof would make a
great Chanukah presents and would offer the opportunity to see the
work of one of Canada's foremost choreographers.
Lisa Stevens took her first dance lessons at the Jewish Community
Centre of Greater Vancouver when she was five years old. Though
her theatrical career has since led her to many successes around
the world, she decided to return to her roots where she is in the
middle of a five-week stint as the choreographer for the Vancouver
Playhouse production of Fiddler on the Roof.
In her teens and early 20s, Stevens travelled around the United
States, China, Japan and Israel, using the study of dance as an
excuse to visit new places.
"Wherever I went I would find somewhere to take classes just
because I wanted to experience how other people taught and what
I could gain from it."
When she returned to Vancouver she started teaching her own classes
until she decided, in 1996, that is was time for her to see if she
could make a living as a dancing, singing and acting performer.
She moved to London, England, giving herself just one year to find
success. Within three months she had secured the role as Annie in
England's original cast of Chicago.
She did that for a year before deciding to try something new, which
included various other theatre and television projects, as well
as a couple of performances for the Queen of England.
"I was suprised to see [in London] that I really was at that
level where I could work and make a living from this," said
Stevens.
Since April, she has been starring in a new Andrew Loyd Webber production
called Bombay Dreams, in which she will continue to perform
the day she returns to London.
Stevens will also be a part of a team that will help produce Bombay
Dreams in Toronto and New York. She will take that opportunity
to make her move to New York, where she hopes to find continued
success on Broadway, either as a dancer, singer, actress or choreographer.
Though her work in Vancouver seems far removed from life in England,
Stevens said she wouldn't have missed the chance to work with this
version of Fiddler for anything.
"When I heard they were doing Fiddler I thought that
I had to do this show. There was no other choice," she explained.
"I made sure they knew that I was interested."
Most of Stevens' choreographic decisions come spontaneously as she
watches the actors and follows the script. This leaves the rest
of her time to do research, something she really enjoyed doing for
this project.
"To spend time researching the Russian Jews in 1905 at the
time of czars and the revolution just enforced my whole feeling
of the unity amongst Jews and what it was like to have that feeling
of a brotherhood," she said, before adding that the whole cast
and crew had watched a set of videotapes called Heritage,
which taught them about the time period and lifestyles that they
would be portraying.
Stevens explained that Fiddler on the Roof is a unique play
because, at the time that it was written, it broke the ice of the
transition from vaudeville to productions that deal with real-life
issues.
"What we want to have come across here is that this is real,"
she said, referring to that fact that Fiddler is based on
a true story. "It comes from joy, from love, from family and
the angst that comes from change while trying to keep your traditions."
There are five other members of the local Jewish community in this
production of Fiddler. Richard McBride will play Yitzik,
Hayley Fox will play Shprintze, Advah Soudack will be Chava, Matthew
Rossoff will play the fiddler and a Russian soldier, and Abraham
Jedidiah will be the rabbi.
Fiddler will play at the Playhouse Theatre Nov. 21 to Dec.
22. Tickets can be purchased by calling 604-280-3311 or 604-873-3311.
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