Rebel With A Cause

Man of La Mancha playwright Dale Wasserman dreamed the possible dream.

SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

B

ecoming a prize-winning
writer might have seemed an "im-
possible dream" for Dale Wasser-
man, who coined the phrase in his
TV opus "I, Don Quixote" and repeated it
in his most famous play, Man of La Man-

the individual who rebels against society of self-discovery, and the discovery sur-
"What gives the dream value and valid-
in some way or other and is thereby ostra- prised me. The discovery was that while ity is that it is impossible, which means
cized, imprisoned or put to death.
pretending fairly hard-bitten cynicism, I that one strives continuously toward an ob-
"I suppose it comes from deep within me. actually had a very soft streak of idealism jective but not necessarily with the notion
I have never identified with normal home and even romanticism in me."
of achieving it."
life or a social or religious group. I think
And what about the term "impossible
cha.
fl Man of La Manch a runs June 3-22
of myself as an outsider and quite often a dream" so caught up in the theme of the
Orphaned at age 12, Wasserman was rebel."
at the Fisher 'Theatre. Curtain time is
musical about to open in Detroit?
left alone and unschooled during the Great
8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.
When Wasserman thinks of the two out-
"It always amuses me when people say
Depression. He survived as a hobo, mov- standing rebels in his repertoire of charac- they have realized their impossible
Sundays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sun-
ing from town to town until he was 19.
days. For information, call (313) 872-
ters, he recalls both the film One Flew Over dreams," he said. "One cannot realize an
"I rode freights and lived by whatever the Cuckoo's Nest and Man of La Mancha. impossible dream because it is impossible.
1000.
bits and pieces I could manage," recalled
Wasserman's writing of Man of La Man-
Wasserman, 79, whose musical comes to cha came by accident. In Spain working on
the Fisher Theatre June 3-22 with Robert another project, he read a newspaper arti-
Goulet in the starring role.
cle that reported he was in the country to
"I know the interior of a lot of jails script a dramatization ofDon Quixote. Al-
through vagrancy or needing a warm place though the article was untrue, it enticed
to sleep on a very cold night."
him into reading the book.
Self-imposed studies helped build a body
"I became interested in Miguel de Cer-
of work that now includes two dozen stage vantes and felt a real affinity when I found
plays and musicals, 70 dramatizations for out that he was first and foremost a man
television and 17 fea-
of the theater. He had been
ture films. Two new
a road actor and had written
plays, one about the
some 40 plays. I could iden-
class system in Haiti
tify with his life.
and another about a co-
"When I investigated the
median, will premiere
trial of Cervantes before the
later this year.
Inquisition, I found they
"I always was a vo-
were trying him on the basis
racious reader, even on
of a 'Purity of Blood' law.
the road, and I would
"He was a government
borrow two books at a
employee, and the law said
time from libraries in
nobody with Jewish blood
small towns, read them
could be employed by the
on the freights and re-
government. That was in-
turn them in other
teresting to me because this
towns," he explained. Dale Wasserman:"On e cannot realize was an implication that Cer-
"When I was living an impossible dream b ecause it is
vantes had or was suspect-
on the rooftops of Los impossible."
ed of having Jewish blood.
Angeles, there was a radical street theater
`That would have been very common in
going on around me. Somebody said they Spain at that time because there was
needed help, and I drifted into it."
scarcely an upper-class Spanish family that
Wasserman's enchantment with the the- did not have some or entirely Jewish blood,
ater was instantaneous, and he began new although the Inquisition had forced them
study projects to learn the ropes. He found to either leave the country or nominally
that lighting was one of the least exploited convert."
phases of theater and concentrated on it,
Wasserman, married for 18 years to for-
building experiences that brought him to mer actress Nelly Garza, ascribes his lack
Broadway and his first award.
of religious observance to a lack of a strong
"In the process of learning theater, I did home life when he was young. He retains
almost everything — stage managing, di- an intellectual curiosity about Judaism.
recting and producing," he revealed. "The
"If my Jewish background is written
one thing I admired most, writing, took a into this play, it comes from the uncon-
while."
scious," he said. "It may come from a
At age 34, Wasserman set aside a year moral indignation at the cruelties that
to build this skill. He started with feature people inflict upon each other or the
articles and short stories and moved into harshness of life."
television with a script about a young boy
Wasserman considers Man of La Man-
who introduces the works of Shakespeare cha his most personal play.
to three illiterate mountain men.
"It is the most involuntary expression of
That first script won an Emmy as best what I truly feel and believe," he said. "My
play of the year.
favorite line in the play is: 'Facts are the
"The recurring theme in my work is the enemy of truth.' That's because I believe
rebel," said Wasserman, who now writes that all appearances are deceptive and that
from a home in Arizona to escape the New our eyes and our ears lie to us all the time. Man of La Mancha, starring, from top, Darryl Ferber as Sancho Panza, Robert Goulet as Cervantes and
York and Hollywood grind. "I write about
`The play was, in some degree, a process Michael Licata as Captain of the Inquisition, runs at the Fisher Theatre June 3-22.

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