8 minute read
Spotlight Israel Horowitz Interview.
ISRAEL HOROWITZ
By Fritzi Cohen
Why would an internationallyacclaimed playwright want to present the world premiere of his play in Portland, Maine? He ponders that for a moment, then says, witha mischievous chuckle, "Well, I thought it was a good idea at the time." Apparently it was not a momentary impulse, because YEAR 0F THE DUCK, byworld-renowned Israel Horowitz, will be presented on March 11th by Portland Stage Company.
Horowitz is one of the most-oftenproduced playwrights in contemporary theater. His THE INDIAN WANTS THE BRONX, written in 1968 and mounted firstwith the then-unknown Al Pacino as its leading actor, may be the best-known of his 60 scripts. Horowitz and Pacino worked together again on the 1982 film AUTHOR, AUTHOR, said to be based on the single-parenting experiences ofthe thrice-married writer. His LINE, which opened in 1967 with Richard Dreyfuss making hisNew York stage debut, ran in Manhattan for 9 years, in Paris for 10, and in Brussels for 7. A lifelong writer, his first novel was completed when he was 13. Israel Horowitz has seen 50 of his plays produced all over the world and in 20 languages. His awards have included an Emmy, two Obies, fellowships of all descriptions, and last year's Elliot Norton Award. He is one of the very few playwrights in this country, or in the world, who has his own theater, The Gloucester Stage Company in Massachusetts, founded in 1980. After YEAR OF THE DUCK premieres inPortland, it willbe produced in Gloucester. With lots of hard work and a little bit of luck, New York may follow.
Iread YEAR OF THE DUCK before I phoned its author and found it to be a very funny, tender, incisive, fascinatingly real account of a group of community theater actors, The Wingaersheek Players, preparing to present Henrik Ibsen's THE WILD DUCK. Rosoff told me that after the staged reading last summer she feltlikeyou do at the end of a Spielberg movie...like "Wow! Isn't life wonderful!" She describes it as a gentle, optimistic, sweet
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play with lots of humor. It asks a lot of questions and it is very important to make the point that itdoes not make fun of people in community theater. She is captivated by itswarm-heartedness and love of very simple people trying to bungle through their lives and describes Harry, a central character, as a "fabulous nebbish."
Iasked the playwright to describe his play. He said "Yes, it is about an old amateur theatre group putting on a production of THE WILD DUCK inGloucester. It isa play about the need for illusionand fantasy inordinary lives. Two of the characters, father and daughter, discover that their lives are caught up in the parallel characters of THE WILD DUCK. This play ispart qf my 'Gloucester cycle' which includes SUNDAY RUNNERS IN THE RAIN; PARK YOUR CAR IN HARVARD YARD; THE WIDOW'S BLIND DATE (which is scheduled to be done inNew York starring Kathleen Turner); NORTH SHORE FISH, HENRY LUMPER, and FIGHTING OVER BEVERL Y. With this cycle of plays I want to chronicle what lifeis like in our time on our little spot of the planet Earth." He added that YEAR 0FTHE DUCK "will not replace night baseball or cure cancer, but it willentertain and touch people. It's the lightest of the cycle, and I do like it a lot. There's something quite magical about it.Yeah, I guess maybe itisa Valentine or a love letter to Ibsen."
Horowitz is concerned with the quality oflifeinGloucester and what universal truths can be drawn from it. I know that Portland will be receptive to this work. Maine, like Massachusetts, and indeed all of New England, has many old, successful community theatres alivewithworking-class people who do the classics and love them dearly. Whether or not they understand them or interpret them correctly is hardly important. YEAR OF THE DUCK paints this picture withunflinching truth, love, honesty, and delicious humor. The characters recall momentous events in their lives by what plays they were involved· in at the time. Community theatre players willclearly relate to that.
There is friction, too, and perhaps 'Controversial relationships, but in Portland Stage Company's history the plays that have drawn the largest audiences have been the hardest hitting, most controversial offerings, likeCLOUD NINE and THE CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS. Rosoff says you've "got to have friction in order to have excitement. What makes .~spark? Friction! You need the grit in the oyster to make the pearl!"
Following previews on March 7, 8, and 10, YEAROFTHE DUCK opens on March 11th to run through March 29th at Portland Stage Company. Rosoff willdirect, and Horowitz willbe there during rehearsals, working with her every step of the way. As director Rosoff says, "He works hard. Keep up or get creamed!" As director John, in the play, says, "We have a play to rehearse. We put on plays. It's who we are. It's what we do." As a character in Tom Stoppard's THE REAL THING says, "Keep your knickers on. It's only a bloody play." Since this ismy column, I say that this YEAR OF THE DUCK is more than just a bloody play and this Israel Horowitz is more than just a playwright. This splendidly talented artist has presented us with a loving portrait of ourselves and our neighbors, and we willcelebrate it with cheers and applause.
.~' .... , Continued from page 31 . f7~l; continues, "is that
~~ the city needs some kind of j ~ ~ control on the design of these buildings. They need to fit ... Just to leave the city exposed is dangerous. We have controls on every other aspect of development, but we don't have design review. We don't even have review in the Old Port." Gendron believes that, likezoning, design review should exist "to protect the general publ' IC. "
Gendron isvery concerned about the future of Portland's office market. Although the city currently boasts a vacancy rate of only 12.5 percent (312,500 square feet), the best in New England, he sees one millionsquare feet coming into the market on the Portland peninsula in 1986-87 and an additional million square feet develoeed or proposed in the area of the Maine Mall, leaving 2,300,000 square feet to be absorbed in 1986 and 1987. In that event, there wouldbe1,000,000 square feet of vacant space at the end of this year of a total amount of 4.5 million square feet in the Portland market, a vacancy rate of 22.5 percent.
Concerning residential space, Gendron sees "all kinds of additional demand" for living space on the peninsula, whichhas a vacancy rate ofonly 2 percent. This lack ofsupply, rather than price escalation forced by expensive new developments under construction, has driven up the cost of rents, according to Gendron. He believes that even expensive property willrelease some of this pent-up demand and make prices more reasonable.
The Boulos Company has helped lead the way to the Maine Mall . area ofSouth Portland withtheir extensive involvement in what Greg Boulos calls "the second generation of development around the Mall." Although interested in Westbrook, Portland, and other communities, too, the Boulos Company has concentrated its efforts on new commercial and industrial construction in the Mall vicinity.
The developers are currently constructing Mallside Shopping Center, 117,000 square feet of retail space, across from the Ground Round on the Mall Road, and only 4,200 square feet remain unleased. The Boulos Company is also constructing the 12-acre Robert Road Office Park behind the mall and is involved in a joint venture with other developers on another 120,000 square footofficepark nearby.
Greg Boulos knows first-hand why businesses are relocating out of downtown Portland. "Many companies move because of parking," he says. "That's the single most-expressed tenants' con"
cern.
He singles out businesses such as insurance companies, physicians, accountants, and the "backroom operations of banking" as high users of parking and thus most likely to leave downtown. Many of these businesses have 5-7 employees per thousand square feet of office space, while most businesses may only have three or four.
In Portland, Boulos sees that "political pressure certainly could hurt development," but "the pendulum swings both ways. Where in the past they may have been pro-development, now it may be swinging the other way. There
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ismuch more J .,/ :.,.,/ awareness inthe neighborhood ~ about development and its potential impact, and the politicians have to be concerned," he says. Whatever the trends, Greg Boulos thinks there is plenty of developing to keep the Boulos Company busy.
The MacBride Dunham Group also is concentrating its expertise on commercial and industrial development away from the Portland peninsula, with projects like the Larrabee Complex at Exit 8, Southborough near the Maine Mall, shopping centers inFalmouth and Windham, and the Herman Shoe plant inScarborough. Partner Mac MacBride says, "You do Continued on page 44
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