Thursday Reports by Marvin Orbach

Page 6. The Thursday Report
By Marvin Orbach
Artie Gold is a Montreal poet who is
presently studying at Concordia. His
published works include: Cityflowers
(1974), Even Yr Photograph L ooks
A fraid o f M e (1975), M ixed Doubles
(1975), Som e o f the Cat Poem s (1978),
and a number of broadsides. His
poems have been included in several
poetry anthologies, and have appeared
in many Canadian and American
magazines. This interview was
prompted by Mr. Gold's recently
published, Rom antic W ords.
Marvin Orbach: You were once a
student at Sir George Williams
University. You dropped out, embarked
on a career as a professional
poet, achieved a degree of fame, and
now you are a student once again, at
Concordia. Why did you drop out,
and why are you back?
Artie Gold: I dropped out because I
found I wanted to do too much with
writing, which was a new toy for me
then, to be able to keep up with a full
course load.
O: You wanted to write full-time?
G: I wanted to really plunge on ahead.
I'm back now because I feel there are
areas I'm totally blind in, and just
taking the odd course virtually is like
learning another language for me. I
feel it sharpens me and I feel the
biology course I'm taking now, offers
something really exotic.
O: Being a full-time poet, and not
holding down the proverbial job, do
you find that society is antagonistic to
you? That is, conventional, workaday
society?
G: Not really. I wouldn't really care
because I do what I consider my own
work and it requires more energy than
I would have left if I held a nine-tofive
or conventional job. I think for a
writer a conventional job is to write.
O : You're not concerned with what
people will think?
G: I don't think I'd even hear them
unless it was the case of an argument
ad hominem.
O : As a creative artist, what value do
you feel you have for society?
G: This is a difficult question. I was
talking with John Newlove once. We
were discussing how we were affected
by various reviews we got, and we
were also discussing one's own reaction
to one's work—not necessarily how it's
structured to meet the world, but
whether it's a tool or just an analogue
unit sent out for somebody to study
and interpret.
So poetry may be a liturgy or it may
be just an object, and I think that's in
the hand of the person who tries to use
it. I think any poetry able to hold a
person's interest has something of
value for that person. I don't use
poetry as a proselytizing device. I feel
it's important for me to write because I
have an urge, because I find energy in
the writing and a certain kind of
energy called voice.
O : Artie, I find your poetry to be very
much alive, whether you are writing
about felines or sex at thirty-one. Do
you labour long and hard at your craft
to achieve this vitality, or do your
poems come forth spontaneously?
G: I do both in combinations thereof.
Some poems I haven't been satisfied
with. At times I've fused two like
poems together, seeing an identical
music in each, and run one after the
other, making each a stanza of a new
poem, rather than two short poems in
themselves. At times after having quite
a session of w riting-w riting twenty or
thirty poems—I find I'm warmed up,
and the next piece of work I do will
have an evenness and a dynamism
and a seeming spontaneity that I
couldn't achieve otherwise.
O: To what extent may you be labelled
an experimental poet?
G: I think the poet who doesn't use a
scheme of poetry which has preexisted,
like rhyme or the sonnet, in a
sense is an experimental poet. Because
he is dealing with new structures he
has to invent as he goes about expressing
himself. Generally when one
thinks of an experimental poet one
thinks of a sound poet or a visual arts
poet who paints huge things on
billboards. These aren't experimenatal
things. They are side excursions into
shamanism. In fact they mix poetry
with something that is not of poetry.
One of the needs poetry has is to be
constantly revitalized, and it must aim
at the centre and stay there. Probably
only novelty can keep it there. The
distinction between novelty and experiment
is: novelty is freshness, experiment
is process. All experiments
are the same in that they either succeed
or fail, and they usually have a
clumsiness to them. In fact the experiment
is the root experience which
when proven to succeed should become
the formula for the poem.
O: Have you experimented with drugs,
and if you have, has that influenced
G: Psychiatrists and pharmacologists
experiment with drugs. I think you can
only experiment with drugs on an
unwilling G.I or on a cat. I've taken
them at times. I find that sometimes a
chemical stimulus can be a channel
into a deeper experience, and can
engage one's language and one's mind
in a spirituality which may not be
there in the straight expressing of one's
thoughts. Charles Bukowski is a person
who happens to get blind drunk before
he does any writing. It's hard to think
of that as experimenting.
O: What percentage of your total
output do you publish?
G: Probably one in every fifteen poems
has some appearance, mostly in little
magazines. Maybe one in twenty
becomes a poem in a book.
O: You have been accused of being
overly influenced by American writers,
and of not being a truly Canadian
poet. Indeed, one can see the
Americans, Jack Spicer and Frank
O'Hara, in your poetry. What is your
answer to this kind of criticism?
G: It's usually not very polite. When I
consider what's here and what's there,
and step forward to decide on a
mentor, I fully intend to take the one
that will benefit me the most, and
whose work I respect, and I can't think
of any Canadian poets who can hold a
benzine torch to Frank O'Hara. He's
dead and they can write all they want,
they still won't get there.
O: Do you find the critics sufficiently
receptive to your work?
G: I don't think I've been on that
butcher counter yet, or on that
cosmetic assembly line.
O: Do you find that friends pat each
other on the back, in reviews?
G: Friends should pat each other on
the back in reviews. Essentially, they
should provide each other's poems to
other people. These reviews should
really be introductions to work they
like.
O: Arti what do you think of poetry
work-hops?
G: I've gained a lot from one I was
part of.
O: Which one was that?
G: George Bowering's.
O: In Montreal?
G: Yes. In 1968/69. I see them hurting
potentially good writers, and pandering
to people who have no business
sitting in front of a typewriter. A
workshop cannot be of any use unless
there is someone capable of transmitting
something valuable to the
people in that workshop, and there just
aren't enough good poet/teachers to go
around. I'm afraid the average poetry
workshop is rather pathetic.
O: Does your acceptance as a member
of the League of Canadian Poets mean
that you are now part of the
Establishment?
G: Certainly not. I'm in there to see if
collectively individual poets can get a
better deal from the arts/money sector,
and I'm also in there personally to see
if I can get a share of the money that
they are always willing to give away to
the figureheads of society like the
League, but would hesitate to give to
individuals. Canada Council does not
quite trust themselves. They've made
too many howlers. They would like to
see thousands of mits up in the air
before they throw that one baseball.
O : Artie, do you feel that university
libraries adequately support young
writers like yourself?
G: Not at all. The library has not
allowed its space to be used for poetic
activities. The library is like a museum
of books. It really has no side activities.
I've been pretty annoyed at various
libraries at various times, for not
allowing me to take out books. It's
kind of strange that at the old Sir
George library where I had three
books, I couldn't even take out my
own book.
O: In one of your poems, you say you
would not live your life over again.
Why is that?
G: That is in the context of the poem.
It was comparing someone else's
wanting to live her life over again,
having thought she got a very raw
deal. I'm sort of content the way the
blows have fallen. I might even have
botched it more given a second chance.
O: What do you want to do with the
rest of your life?
G: I would like to continue writing. I
would like certain things to happen in
my writing. They are vague now. If I
could express them in words, I would
probably be doing those things right
now. You only get one chance at life,
and it seems very important that you
leave your peers, and I don't mean
when you die but during your life, a
constant stream of enthusiasms and
hilarities.
Marvin O rbach is a reference librarian
at the G eorges P. Vanier Library.

Page 6. The. Thursday Report
An interview with Iro Tembeck;
dancer, choreographer & teacher
By Marvin Orbach
Iro Tembeck is a Montreal dancer,
teacher and choreographer who will be
teaching at Loyola next year. She has
taught at various universities and
professional studios, such as McGill,
Concordia, Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens, and Les Ballets Jazz. She
danced with and choreographed for
Groupe Nouvelle Aire for a period of
five years. She is presently involved
with Axis: Dance, a dance umbrella
group which she founded in 1977.
Tembeck has performed her
choreographies across Canada and in
the U.S.A. She is one of Montreal's
most innovative and exciting
choreographers.
Marvin Orbach: Initially you were
trained as a teacher of classical dance.
What made you leave ballet to become
a practitioner of modern dance?
Iro Tembeck: I was a classical dancer
long before I became a classical
teacher. I found I was over-emoting in
terms of the classical and romantic
idiom. When I came to Canada I didn't
like the way classical ballet was being
taught having come from a Russian
ballet background. So I took jazz
dancing. In taking jazz I discovered my
torso, and the importance the torso
had as opposed to the limbs which are
mostly used in classical dance. One
thing led to another. My first love
having been ballet, I went on to jazz
and then finally to modern dance
which crystallized the best of both
techniques — the restraint in classical
and the vibrancy of jazz.
There seems to be an increasing
awareness of modem dance all over
Canada. Have Canadians finally accepted
modem dace as a distinctive
and serious art form ?
I really wonder about distinctive and
serious, but they have accepted
modern dance as being one of the
artistic statements. People still tend to
think that if you are a modern dancer
it’s because you couldn't make it as a
ballet dancer. Talented though you
may be, there would be more renown
for you if you were doing po^nt work
in Don Quixote or the Nutcracker.
Many theatre students are more
interested in performing than they are
in reading about their art form. In
other words, they are not very libraryoriented.
Is this the same with dance
students?
It's very interesting that you ask this
question. This is my own crusade.. I
came from an academic background as
well as a professional one, and I had to
come to terms with my varied interests.
And the way I did that was by
teaching intellectual subjects in
professional studios, and teaching
physical things to academic students.
This is how I bridged the gap.
You founded a new dance group
several years ago. What is the raison
d'etre of this group?
Axis is quite a unique group. It
gathers together a nucleus of
professional dancers and
choreographers who left other dance
companies of their own accord because
they didn't have enough room to grow.
Axis challenges the dancer as a total
human being. It tries to demystify
dance.
What does dance mean for you?
Dance is a way of life for me. I've
been dancing since I was five, and I
really can't conceive of living without
dancing. Dance to me is an approach,
my way of sharing or partaking of
something meaningful with other
people.
Who are your major influences?
As a choreographer I can look back
on my pieces and say this was influenced
by Graham or this has a
definite Wigman expression, or this is
romantic and therefore Isadora
Duncan, etc. I don't consciously come
out and say I will do a dance that is
M ary Wigmanish.
What would you say to critics who
claim that your choreographies are too
dramatic and ritualistic and are not in
line with what's going on in modern
dance today?
I think they are right. They are
dramatic. They are not plebeian.
Unfortunately it's both my strength
and my weakness. I think that people,
whether they understand them or not,
do not remain indifferent to my pieces.
They might come and say: "that's
enigmatic." But they will not discard
them as being trivial.
Reviewers have said that your
presence on stage is so powerful and
pssionate that you overshadow your
colleagues. Do you agree with this?
I am a very tall person and I'm dark.
A blonde Ophelia-like person will have
a more sublimated connotation attributed
to her movement. My
movements are physical and very
down-to-earth. Some people thirst for
the more sublimated type of dancer
who is willowy, wispy, beautifully
fragile, and delicate, which I am not. I
tried for a long time as a classical
dancer to think romantic, when I
wasn't it all jelled together when I
decided to accept and reveal myself as
I was.
How much time do you spend
rehearsing before you actually mount a
choreography for the public?
Not too long. It depends how clear
my ideas are. I usually know what I'm
looking for in terms of blocking, and
motivation behind the movement
sequences. Sometimes I cannot work
alone because I need the manipulation
of bodies. What I need is a period of
incubation.
Is there any cross-pollination of
ideas between Canadian and American
chore ograp h e rs ?
American choreographers are about
twenty years ahead of us. They started
modern dance around the turn-of-thecentury,
and particularly in the
nineteen thirties. Modern dance is just
about twelve to fourteen years old in
Canada. So you can see the
discrepancy here.
What is the present state of dance
criticism in Montreal?
The best critics are those who know
the material well because they have
been on the other side of the fence.
Very often this is not the case, not just
in Montreal. The critic should feel that
he first has to inform the public as to
what he is doing, then describe what’s
happening, and only thirdly come up
with his opinions, being very sure to
explain that they are his own opinions
and not necessarily those of the public.
He should allow the reader to make his
own assumptions.
What significance does space have
for you as a dancer? In dance you try
to invade space on many levels —
above you, below you, and around
you — to give the illusion that you are
enormous.
Is it true dancers are in better
physical shape than most athletes?
In certain w ays. It depends which
dancer you are talking about. A
classical dancer is full of endurance
and resiliency, but is unable to jog.
The dancer doesn't have the cardiovascular
input that the athlete has.
On the other hand the athlete doesn't
have the long-term endurance the
dancer has. The athlete tends to be
muscle-bound after an hour and a half
of stretch exercises which is what they
do in dance. The muscle build-up is
Is there any correlation between the
tension/relaxation cycle in modem
dance, and sexual tension and release?
In modern dance very much so.
Particularly in Graham's outlook. She
found that the seat of movement lay in
the pelvis. This goes back to primitive
times, when dance was very erotic. In
Graham it's pared down, purified and
chiselled, but it's still there. In jazz it's
obvious, deliberately flagrant. You
swing the hips knowing it's sexy, not
necessarily sexual or sensual. There's
another approach to dance that says
that not only is it involved with love,
but also self-love, narcissism.
M ust good dancers be narcissistic?
Not to the point of self-indulgence.
There is narcissism, because if you
weren't narcissistic, you would't be
able to summon enough courage to go
up there and show it to the public.
That's one level. The other level is:
you would not have a love affair with
the mirror if you weren't a bit narcissistic.
And if you did not look at
your reflection you could not correct
yourself. So there is an element of
narcissism that is basic. If you do not
wallow it in, that's fine. If you become
self-indulgent. There is no cohesion.
Why do modern dancers perform in
bare feet?
To have more contact with the floor.
The floor is really the fourth dimension
and has been discovered and
thoroughly explored by modern dance.
Classical tends to be flighty,
sublimated and air-borne. Modern is
earth-bound, much more realistic. It
gives you better contact, being able to
rish being off-centre, off-balance. The
element of risk is of utmost importance
in modern dance.
You seem to be driven to dance.
Why? Is it a form of intoxication or
escape for you?
At some points in my life it has been
my safety valve, my release, my
method of expression that was the
most complete. I do not live for dance,
nor do I dance to live. I live through
dance. It allows me to come to terms
with life and with myself.
Marvin Orbach is a reference librarian
at the G .P. Vanier Library

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An interview with Poet Lionel Kearns:
Concordia’s Writer-in- Residence
Poet Lionel Kearns is this
year’s Writer-in-Residence. Marvin
Orbach, a Vanier Library
reference librarian and a poetry
specialist, interviewed Kearns
for T he Thursday Report. ‘
West Coast poet Lionel
Kearns was educated at the University
of British Columbia and
the School of Oriental and African
Studies in London, England.
He has been teaching English
at Simon Fraser University
since 1966. Widely published in
literary magazines and anthologies,
his work has also been
ORBACH: You studied w riting under
Earle Birney when you were a student. Did
he have a m ajor influence on your poetry?
KEARNS:I think so. I also studied Chaucer
under Earle Birney. It was one of the
best courses that I ever took in my undergraduate
years at UBC. And certainly Birney
and Chaucer had an influence on my
poetry. Briney’s creative w riting workshop
that I took was a very open, freewheeling
kind of course.
W hat I always adm ired in Birney was
his flexibility and his openness to new
ideas. Perhaps what I learned from him
was the idea that poetry is always an
experim ent, an opportunity to push at the
borders of convention, and to try new
things in language.
ORBACH: In the early sixties in Vancouver
there was a flurry of literary activity
centred around the magazine Tish, to
which you were one of the original contributors.
How did this so-called Tish
movement come about?
KEARNS: In the late fifties and early sixties
there was a kind of literary aw akening
all over N orth America. It was the time of
the so-called Beat Generation and the San
Francisco poetry renaissance. Some of that
ferment occurred in Vancouver, and part
of it was centred on the cam pus of U.B.C.,
where Tish originated.
It was started by a group of students,
George Bowering, Frank Davey, Fred Wall
am ong them, who had been active as w riters
for several years. It was actually just a
little m im eographed poetry sheet that was
distributed free. T he editors sent it around
the country to people they wanted to read
it. It was T ish 's good luck that it occurred
at a time in the history'of Canadian literature
when there were very few small literary
publications (no Canada Council in
those days), so it very early gained a readership
across the country.
Many of its readers responded negatively
to the upstart opinions and dogm atic
pronouncem ents of the Tish editors, and
the argum ents that ensued in the pages of
T ish and elsewhere pushed the editors and
contributors into sudden literary notoriety
which surprised everyone. I had declined
to be a Tish editor because I could not
agree w ith their ideas about poetry, but I
quickly realized w hat a great vehicle Tish
translated into other languages.
His publications include:
P oin tin g (1967); By the L ight of
the Silvery M clune (1969); Practicin
g up to be H um an (1978);
and, Ignoring the Bom b (1982).
Kearns is a socially concerned
poet who writes about the
downtrodden and disadvantaged.
Concordia University is
indeed fortunate in having Lionel
Kearns as its Writer-in-Residence
this year.
This interview is dedicated to
Louis Kearns, born December
1982.
was to get one’s poetry before an audience,
so I became an early contributor.
ORBACH: There have been many critics
of the Tish movement. One, Keith R i­
chardson, has stated that it consisted of a
group of Canadian poets, devoted to a
school of U.S. poetics, whose aim was to
reshape C anadian poetry based on U.S.
sensibility and U.S. concerns. How would
you answer such a criticism?
KEARNS: T he Tish group was very much
in sympathy w ith a stream of non-academic
w riting that was turning up outside
most college literature courses. Before the
publication of D onald Allen’s New Am erican
Poetry anthology, this material had
never been brought together, and was
quite difficult to obtain, except in small
publications like The Floating Bear, a
m im eographed m ag out of New York, or
the Evergreen Review, or even Louis Dudek’s
Delta that was com ing out of M ontreal.
It is true that a lot of th eT ish ites’ attention
was on American writers, but R i­
chardson’s idea that the Tish movement
was some kind of anti-C anadian plot is
ridiculous. O ur concerns were literary
rather than national. In fact, Canadian
poets like Souster or Avison or Dudek had
been reading Pound and W illiams and
Abstractions
I have no time
no tim e anymore
to listen to you
In fact I don’t
have enough tim e
to write my poems ,
But stop ^here stop
and think about
what you are saying
T im e is not a thing
outside of yourself
that can be possessed
Better then to say
you do not have
enough o f yourself
A nd when yo u ’ve
understood tim e
you’ll understand love
Olson long before Tish appeared on the
scene. *
I find it a little ironic that the strident
attack on Tish by such super-nationalists
as Richardson and Matthews has again
pushed it into prom inence and given it a
place in C anadian literary history that is
quite remarkable for a student magazine.
ORBACH: You have used the term
“Stacked-Verse” to describe your poetry.
W ould you elaborate?
KEARNS: “Stacked-Verse” was a notational
m ethod of puttin g my poems down
on the page to preserve the formal rhythm
that I thought they had. It was a very eccentric
system involving a line runnin g
down the page called a “stress axis” , and
the line of the poem hung on that line.
T he system ajlowed me to preserve the
rhythm ic character of the poem as I read it
out on various occasions. But it was a very
strange thing for the readers to encounter
visually, and I quickly learned that people
were getting so hung up on the peculiar
look of the poem on the page that they
couldn’t get through to w hat I was saying.
So I very early abandoned that method of
laying my poems out. “Stacked-Verse”
now remains a kind of literary curiosity.
ORBACH: Some of your poems are epigram
m atic, while others are prose-like
narratives. Have you found that one form
suits you better than another?
KEARNS: At this point in history, the
definition of poetic form is so vague and
encom passing that it can include almost
anything.
A poet is therefore free to choose from
an almost infinite variety of possible
forms, or to invent totally new forms of
literary expression. In this situation one
chooses a form that is utterly appropriate
for whatever one is saying.
ORBACH: W hat in your opinion is a
good poem?
KEARNS: It’s a poem that is w ritten in
such a way as to have a good chance of
touching an audience and being m eaningful.
A poem has to be available to a potential
reader. In my opinion the principle
sins of modern lyric poetry are self-indulgent
privacy and obscurity.
ORBACHfGeorge Bowering has said that
you are the only poet he knows who can
bring together good hum our and a tough
revolutionary sentiment. T h at’s an unusual
com bination. Is your hum our natural,
or is it contrived and used specifically to
help get your message across?
KEARNS:i: I think hum our is an essential
com ponent of literature, or even of life. I
find life itself pretty hum orous, even in a
tragic sense. I try to get that into my
poems. It’s true that very often I have a
message to get across, but at the same time
I find it difficult to take myself, or the
message, or the world, a hqndrec}» percent
seriously. Perhaps my chief weapon in
dealing w ith the world is my sense of
irony, and perhaps it’s irony that underlies
the hum our in my poems.
ORBACH: Your signature poem is entitled
The Birth o f God. You have said
that it is the only perfect poem you have
ever written. W ould you explain?
KEARNS: I’m very pleased with that
poem. It’s the most published poem that I
have. As you know it’s made out of a large
“zero” -made out of “ones” encom passing
a large “one” made out of “zeros”.
It’s of course a poster poem, o ra visual
poem. It’s a poem in the sense that it’s art
made out of language. T h a t’s my definition
of literature. T he poem expresses the
tension between som ething and nothing.
T he large “zero” is the void. T he “one” is
the form w ithin the void. “Zero” is death.
“O ne” is life.
T he interpenetration and interdependence
of opposites is an old Vedantic and
Buddhist principle. You can also look at
the poem from a Freudian point of view,
seeing the one as the phallus and the zero
as the symbol for the corresponding female
organ.
W ith the one inside the zero you therefore
have the icon of sex. If you think of
the one as an individual w ithin the zeroshaped
cavity of the womb, then you have
the icon of birth.
And if you im agine the zero as a coffin
containing the individual, you have the
icon of death. Sex, birth and death are the
three cardinal points on the wheel of existence
that we are all pushing uphill. The
poem is a kind of m athem atical m andala.
It’s perfect in the same way that a sum or
an equation is perfect.
ORBACH: Have you been influenced in
your daily life by Zen Buddhism?
KEARNS: At one point in my life I found
Zen to be a helpful therapy. It gave me a set
See “KEARNS" page 7.

The Thursday Report 7
‘Punk Chic’ play
The Country Wife
to open
How does one make a 17th century Restoration
play contemporary? Easy, dress it
up in the latest “punk chic” fashion.
And that's w hat the theatre departm ent
is doing w ith The Country. Wife, a comedy
of m anners written in 1974 by W illiam
Wycherley. Director R alph Allison and
costume designer Valerie Kaelin went all
out to give the play an outrageous “ today”
feel to it.
Visually, the characters will display a
kaleidoscope of haute couture fashion as
Kaelin celebrates and satirizes the haute
couture of M ilan for its avant garde sculptural
forms, the baroque aesthetic sensibilities
of St. Laurent and the rock’n ’roll
dandyism and the punk chic of Bill Blass.
According to Director Allison, it’s possible
to do this with a play like T he C ountry
Life. "W ith its cynicism, double entendres
and sexual am orality, the play is
very contem porary,” he observes.
But there’s more to the play than that,
he says, the play is also “ brilliant and very
funny. Moreover, it doesn’t get preachy
an d m akes clear w itty statem ents th a t
KEARNS continued from page 5.
of down-to-earth principles that helped
me to look at life in hum an, though nonneurotic,
terms.
ORBACH: Much of your verse is socially
concerned. You write about racism, injustice,
and exploitation. But does your poetry
really make a difference? Is anyone listenin
g ? Is n ’t your p o etry a p u b lic
expiation, an act of catharsis, h cry in the
wilderness?
KEARNS: I know w hat you mean. Poetry
hjts a relatively small audience compared
w ith other media such as television or film
or even other literary forms like fiction.
Yet, over the years my work has touched
thousands of people, and it is the feedback
from this audience that keeps mb at it.
Like anything'else in this world, a poem
has value to the extent that it is useful. My
poems seem to get quite a bit of use.
ORBACH: A com m on theme runnin g
through your poetry is the plight of the
Native Canadian. Do you think that N a­
tive Canadians and other Canadians will
ever come to terms with each other?
KEARNS: It is very easy for oppressors to
be blind to the victims of their oppression.
I think it is the job of poetry to illum inate
these areas of blindness.
ORBACH: Are you w orking on any projects
at the moment?
KEARNS: I’ve been w orking for some
years on a poetic treatm ent of West Coast
history. It focuses on the com ing together
of the people who have lived on that land
for thousands of years, and the others, the
Europeans and Asians who have arrived
over the last one hundred and fifty years.
I’m interested in the clashes and interm
ingling of language, genes, culture, sensibility.
T he work is called Convergences.
T h e first volum e of irsh o u ld be out from
apply to modern society.”
A llison and Kaelin are joined by set designer
Bill Reznicek and lighting designer
Roger Parent.
T he play debuts on February 10 and
runs to the 19th (no performance on Sunday,
February 13) at 8 p.m . in the D.B.
Clarke Theatre, 1455 de Maisonneuve
Blvd. West. Admission is $4 for the general
public and $2 for students and senior citizens.
For reserv atio n s, call 879-4341; box
office hours are Saturdays and Sundays,
4:30-9 p.m.; weekdays 6-9 p.m.
Coach House Press this year.
ORBACH: Do you find that teaching at a
university robs you of precious time?
W hen do you find time to write? W hat do
you do about all those time-consuming
committee meetings?
KEARNS: T h a t’s one of the reasons I accepted
this position as Writer-in-Residence.
T hanks to the Canada Council and
Concordia I have a year away from my
duties at Simon Fraser, a year in which I
can get some of my own writing done.
ORBACH: How would you com pare the
current M ontreal and Vancouver poetry
scenes?
KEARNS: For me Montreal is much richer
at the m om ent. There are so many diverse
elements. T here’s the w hole francophone
literary scene, and then there’s a very vigorous
anglophone w riting com m unity
w hich has been established here for many,
many years and has strong roots and traditions.
And there is a large group of very
active younger writers w ho are putting
out a wide range of fascinating things. I
find it very stim ulating to be here and
involved in it.
ORBACH: C ongratulations on the recent
birth of your son, Louis! W hat kind of
world w ould you like him to grow up in?
KEARNS: I’d like him to grow up in a
w orld where people are still alive. I have a
terrible fear that he and I may have the
dubious privilege of being witnesses to the
end of civilization, or our species, or life
itself.
ORBACH: You have been practicing up
to be hum an for quite some time now.
Have you finally arrived?
KEARNS: It’s always a struggle, always a
struggle.
Theatre production
Zastrozzi wins awards
Members of the cast and crews of the - and wig design w ith the San Francisco
Departm ent of T heatre’s recent production
of Zastrozzi participated in the Amer­
Opera which began in January.
T he Theatrical Design Award went to
ican College Theatre Festival-New England
Regional Com petition held January Lortie for her design for Zastrozzi. W heth­
second year scenography student Lucie
27 to 29. T he production of Zastrozzi was
er the production of Zastrozzi is sent to
selected as one of five university theatre
W ashington, D.C. or not, Lucie’s designs
productions chosen from am ong eighty will go to the Kennedy Center where they
entrants throughout the New England will be displayed during the Festival. In
states and eastern Canada.
addition, Lucie is invited to W ashington
Twenty-one students from the Departm
ent of Theatre made the trip to Keene, design for Zastrozzi will be criticized by
to participate in the Festival where her
New H am pshire and took part in the presentation
of Zastrozzi as well as attending panel of professional designers. Lucie’s
Broadway designer M ing Cho Lee and a
workshops and the other four productions expenses for the trip to W ashington will
that were entered in the com petition.
be paid, by a consortium of American
One or more of the participating pro- ^ companies and the N ational Endowment
ductions may be invited to perform in the for the Arts which support the Festival.
Kennedy Center in W ashington, D.C. in
C hairm an Don Childs says that the
May. A nnouncem ent of those selected to value to the students who participated in
go to W ashington is expected some time the new England Festival is im m easurable.
It offered the students theopportunity
late in February. Departm ent Chairm an
Don Childs feels that Zastrozzi has a good
to com pare their work at Concordia to the
chance of being selected.
work of other universities in a concentrated
form. T he students returned from New
As part of the Regional Festival, awards
were presented for theatrical design and
H am pshire w ith a sense of confidence in
make-up. Both of these awards were presented
to Concordia scenography students.
their work and in the program m es at Concordia
University as well as having gained
T h e Jack Stein Award for M ake-up went
knowledge through the woikshops and
to Zastrozzi’s m ake-up designer Pierre
observation of the other productions.
Sandion, a third year scenography student.
Pierre was unable to participate in
Childs feel? that this type of participation
is essential for the development of theatre
the Festival as he was chosen to serve an
students, where the final judgm ent of
eight week apprenticeship in make-up
quality is in the productions that they put
on stage.
NOTICES continued from The Backpage
Dean of Students Office, Loyola, AD-135 or
SOW, Annex M. A pplication deadline,
Feb. 11 83.
LOYOLA CHAPEL: T he Chapel is open for
prayer and reflection every day, 8 a.m .-l 1 p.m.
Mass is celebrated at 12:05 noon from Monday to
Friday, and on Sundays at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m.
BELM ORE HOUSE: Belmore House is for
students. It has quiet space for reading, and
kitchen facilities you can use fnsored by the Concordia Christian
Fellowship.
FLORIDA: Feb. 18-27, $259. U.S. Price based
on quad, occupancy. Contact: Student Travel
Info. Centre, 6931 Sherbrooke St. W., #311 ot
call 620-6130 482-6724.
ACAPULCO: Feb. 18 - 26, $439. U.S. Pi ice based
on quad, occupancy. Contac t: Student Travel
Info. Centre, 6931 Sherbrooke St. W., #311 ot
call 620-6130 482-6724.
BORDEAUX PRISON VISIT: Wednesdays from
1:30 to 4:30 p.m. a group of students meets with
inmates of Bordeaux to discuss topical subjects
such as nuc lear disarm am ent, violence and us
effects and alcohol abuse. For more inform ation
call Belmore House at 484-4095.
POT LUCK SUPPERS: Each Tuesday at 5:30
p.m. at Belmore House. Bring som ething to
share (juice, bread, m ilk, dessert, etc.) and join
us.
LA FONDATION GIRARDIN-
VAILLANCOURT: application forms for
Graduate fellowships in the fields of
m anagem ent, finance, adm inistration,
economics, sociology, law, adult education,
history, etc. are now available from the Graduate
Awards Officer at 2145 Mackay Street on the 2nd
floor.
being offered by the Orchestic Sym phonique tie
Montreal to Concordia students. T he next
concert is being held on Tuesday, Feb. 15 and
Wednesday, Feb. 16, 1983. Reservations must lx‘
made by noon on Wednesday, Feb. 9 at the Dean
of Students Offices, AD-129, Loyola cam pus, or
2135 Mac kay Street, SGW cam pus. ALL
TICKETS M UST BE PICKED UP BY 5 P.M.
ON MONDAY, FEB 14 AT T H E SGW
CAMPUS ONLY.
MEN NEEDED FOR ALCOHOL STUDIES m
the Psychology Dept. If you are a healthy male
aged 20-35 contact Kathryn at H-1052 oKcall
879-8021. $5' hour.