,\D
It," "A Foggy Day" and "Love Is Here
to Stay."
In the comedy Easy Virtue,
Waldman appears in one of the large
scenes toward the end of the play,
about an English family whose son has
married a woman unlike anyone
they've ever known.
"The variety is lots of fun," says
Waldman, 34, a competitive gymnast
as a child. "I get to throw on all kinds
of different costumes and become
these different people.
Born and raised in Toronto,
Waldman attended the University of
Toronto and the Banff School of Fine
Arts, where she was the recipient of a
musical theater scholarship. Before
joining the Shaw Festival last year, she
toured almost five years with Joseph,
playing Judah's wife and Mrs.
Potiphar. Other roles have been in A
Chorus Line, Durante, Sweet Chiirity
and Funny Girl, the last at the Leah
Posluns Theatre, Toronto's Jewish the-
ater company.
"Doing several different things in
one season is easier in terms of stami-
na and keeping up interest," says
Waldman, who spent a year perform-
ing Swing and Sing for Tokyo
Disneyland and touring Japan, Hong
Kong and Australia.
"Every day, I'm doing something
different, and every week is different
from the week before. We also have
the opportunity to take classes in voice
and acting."
Waldman's father, who plays the
guitar and has sung in his synagogue
choir, passed along his musical inter-
ests to his daughter.
"Once I'm out on stage with the
orchestra playing and people there, the
energy just kicks in," she says. "It's
really an amazing thing, and it feels
wonderful when it happens."
Waldman, who is divorced and
makes her home in Toronto, finds the
Shaw setting a great respite.
"Being in Niagara on the Lake is so
beautiful and relaxing," she says. "The
small town is so nice, and I feel I
know everybody and where everything
is. I. ride my bike to beautiful
orchards, vineyards and along the
Niagara River. It's like being at a cot-
tage doing the thing I love most with
an incredible group of people."
For festival information and tick-
ets, which range from $25-$70
in Canadian funds, call (800)
511-SHAW (7429).
s
Schedule
Three of the 10 plays in the 1999 Shaw Festival
A Foggy Day," 'All My Sons" and "You Can't Take It With You
are to the credit of Jewish writers.
All the Shaw Festival produc-
tions build on a stage tradition o
almost 40 years. Founded in the
summer of 1962 ; the festival has
grown to use three distinctive the-
aters — Festival Theatre, Court
Houk and the Royal George — in
historic Niagara-on-the-Lake in
Ontario, Canada,-Almost 40 per-
cent or a- udien
—C7Miriefttim,
the United States:
The, Academy of the Shaw
Festival is a broad-based profes-
sional development program fea-
turing voice and movement class-
es, scene study and specialized
workshops for members of the
company and outreach programs ,:
for the public.
Variety marks each season, and
this year's fare includes comedy
and drama, romance and mys-
tery. A Gershwin musical makes
an encore for people turned away
last year because tickets sold out
so fast.
Here's what audiences will see
this summer:
sense of life and finding larger
moral responsibility.
Easy Virtue — July 2-Oct. 30
By Noel Coward
When a man marries a woman
unlike anyone his proper English
family has ever met, it brings out
the worst and, funny foibles of the
family and their
It's_ a com-
e y i.ch the
the
cocktail hour-a new round
in the social battle.
Getting Married — Through
Sept. 26
By Bernard Shaw
When the last: 'attic -bishop's
five daughters is about to be mar-
ried, the bride and groom learn of
preposterous legal arrangements
they must follow once they are
wed. After each threatens to cancel
the wedding, various members of
both families reveal their own dis-
satisfactions with marriage and
divorce laws, leading to discussions
of celibacy, monogamy, divorce
and marriage. Can the group come
up with an alternative to marriage?
A Foggy Day - -Through Oct: 3
Words and Music by George andIr4
Gershwin; Book by John Mueller
and Norm Foster-
Based on the 1919 PG.
Wodehouse novel A Damsel in
Distress, the musical follows : a n
American songwriter -as-- he falls4ty.-
love with an EngliSh aristocrat and
pursues her to her -raricestral
He must overcome all kinds o
obstacles to rescue Ins "d Inset
distress."
.
.
All My Sons — Aug.13-Oct. 31
By Arthur Miller
It's just after World War II
when an American family reveals
secrets surrounding the death of
the eldest son in the war, the
father's tainted manufacturing
business as it supplied defective
parts to the armed forces and the
remaining son's love for his broth-
er's girlfriend. Ultimately, the play
is about remembering, making
Heartbreak House — Through
Oct. 31
By Bernard Shaw
Shaw's comedy is about a widely
diverse group of individuals gath-
ered in the outlandish home of 88-
year-cild Captain Shotover. Among
the characters are the captain's two
daughters, who seem to have cer-
_tain powers over the men they
encounter, and-fa naive.y6Ung
':worfian who is being baled into
marrying a wealthy, older man.
The Madras House — July 11-
Sept. 26
By Harley Granville Barker
The Madras House is a high-
class fashion house whose
founder has converted to Islam
and moved to Iraq. His son is the
connecting link between four
feminist tales that make up the
play. The first is about the drap-
er's six unmarried daughters. The
second is about a pregnant and
unrepentant salesgirl. The third is
about the mannequins and an
American financier. The fourth is
about the son, his wife and his
bizarre parents.
Rebecca — Through Nov. 28
By Daphne du Maurier
When a naive, young bride
arrives at her new home, a grand
seaside estate named Manderley, she
finds that everyone seems to corn-
pare her to her husband's late wife.
Is her husband behaving strangely
because he still loves Rebecca or is
there some other reason?
S.S. Tenacity — July 24-Sept. 25
By Charles Vildrac
Two men who fought together
in World War I decide to make a
new life for themselves in Canada,
but the tramp steamer on which
they've booked passage is delayed
for repairs. The two take rooms
above a bar in a poorer section of a
French seaport and soon fall in
love with the barmaid.
Uncle Vanya — Aug. 6-Sept. 25
By Anton Chekhov
Subtitled Scenes From Country
Lift, the play follows Uncle Vanya,
who tries to shoot the professor,
and the professor's very young
wife, who tries to find out if the
doctor is interested in her step-
daughter only to find out that he's
more interested in her.
You Can't Take It With You —
Through July 24
By George S. Kaufman and Moss
Hart
An eccentric family believes in
living life to the fullest. Penny
writes plays because a typewriter
was accidentally delivered to their
home. Her husband, Paul, manu-
factures fireworks in the basement.
Their daughter, Essie, takes ballet
lessons in the living room from a
Russian emigre ballet-master.
.,:www,a;:safgam.wagz.,memoom.&:f;A:a....›NA6ugmiii
6/25
:..1999
Detroit Jewish News
91