Chapter 68, Theatre Club

Theatre became my new interest, after seeing how they made movies when I lived at the “Kibbutz” I kind of lost interest in movies. Seeing that the actors had to reshoot every scene so many times turned me off. What kind of actors are those if they can’t remember their lines? Theatre actors must act live in front of an audience. So, I decided to join the acting club at the school.

“Would you please read this?” Asked Marcella the Director/Teacher. She handed me a poems book by Haim Nachman Bialik. I hate poems – I could never figure out what they’re all about and why. Yet, I read it out loud, pretty dry, I would say. Marcella still accepted me to the cast, and we started to work right away on a play depicting the life in Jerusalem before 1948. We sang and even danced. I finally got to dance at the school. I had no choice, I didn’t have to impress anyone, it was part of the play. I promised myself; next time I go to the basketball court on Friday night, I will dance. Yeah right!

Anyway, being a part of the Theatre Club had many privileges; We never had to pay admission to any show or play performed on our fancy theatre. We always had a reserved seat on the front row. We had backstage passes to meet with the performers. And we got to go out of school to perform. One of the places where we were invited to perform was an Army Camp in the outskirts of Haifa. “Mahane David” It was a military school for new immigrants and soldiers who didn’t have good education. We felt very proud to perform in front of the soldiers and felt as if it was a special contribution to our country. When the show was over, we were invited to join the soldiers for late dinner at their dining room. The soldiers came and slapped us on our shoulders and thanked us in person. We stayed there for a long time, by the time we got back to our dorms I was walking to my room with my eyes closed.

Meanwhile, my cave was a great place to practice my guitar playing and I was slowly getting better. The year before, I joined the school “Mandolin Club”. We first learned to read music and play simple songs. It wasn’t easy for me to read the music. By the time I read the next few notes, the song was over. I had to learn to play by ear. No one really knew, not even the teacher. Before the year was over, I was able to join the little orchestra on a few performances. But I didn’t like that instrument. Guitar was my calling. Still, I had to learn to play by ear or at least read chords. I was getting better and was able to sing and play at the same time. Yet, I did it only in my cave. Every Friday night after dinner and before the Israeli dance session we would gather at the fancy theatre and get to sing along with a slide show and watch a few kids who wanted to perform. Hezi Akerman was singing almost every week. He was good, he was even singing his own songs. 

When Purim came that year, I asked Manuel, a friend from South America who was giving me cords for songs to play with me while I was singing a funny song that I made up to the toon of “Bad Moon Rising”. We dressed up like hippies and got nice applauds when the song was over. After that I managed to sing a few more times even a popular French song by Adamo.

One Friday evening we were all required to go and see the show of one of our school alumni. “Joukie Arkin”. Joukie was a mime, he gave an hour show where he was a weightlifter, a wall climber, a clown, and even an eagle. I loved it, and as soon as I got back to my room, I tried to do the same. It worked pretty well, I remembered almost all of his tricks and when Edna the ballet dance girl walked by my room and saw me, she stood and looked at me for a few long minutes.

“You should take some ballet classes,” she said.

“Dancing?” not for me, I am too shy.”

“What do you mean? I really don’t know why; you got the moves.”

“No way!” I answered “I saw how you dance with Nathan. He is a dancer; I can’t dance like him.”

Yet, I was still shy about dancing. I have no idea why; I was dancing at the parties in Netanya. I had a folk-dance partner when I was in 5^th grade. We were good together. So, what if there are new dances? I should be able to get up and learn them like everyone else. All I did was just sit and watch. I watched the circle dances, the partners dances and the line dances, I just looked. I even would go to watch Nathan the gay boy dancing with all the girls in our building in one of the girls’ rooms. I would sit there and feel jealous, I wanted to be just as popular with the girls. 

It all changed one day like within a flick of a finger. One Friday after the folk-dance session we went to our club room for some disco dancing. As I walked in, I saw Tall Mark dancing his usual frantic “Jo Cocker” style while everyone standing around him and cheering him up. I joined them, clapping my hands to the beat of the music when I felt someone pushing me into the center of the group and edging me to join Tall Mark and dance. Now I had no choice and I started dancing, but I was not shaking like Tall Mark. I had my own beat, and I moved to the actual tempo of the music. Anni my classmate joined me with her younger sister, and we danced the rest of the evening together. The following Friday at the folk-dance session I got up and asked Anni’s sister to join me and like I never stopped dancing, I was able to dance all the dances I was watching all that time.

***

 

Wild Rice Salad

 

 

Wild rice takes a little longer to cook and will need a little more water than regular rice. It is nutritious and full of vitamins. This recipe is an excellent vegan dish.

 

Ingredients:

1 Cup Wild Rice

2½ Cups Water

¼ Cup Chopped Dry Fruit

¼ Cup Chopped Nuts

2 TBSP Minced Candied Ginger 

¼ Cup Chopped Parsley

1 tsp Minced Mint

1 Chopped Scallion

1 TBSP Minced Basil

½ Cup Crushed Feta Cheese (on the side)

½ tsp Salt

2 TBSP Olive Oil

¼ Cup Lemon Juice

 

Preparation:

Rinse the Rice and put in a pot with the water and salt. Bring to boil, lower the heat to simmer and cover. check every 10 minutes without mixing to see if the water has disappeared, there will be holes in the rice.  Let the rice cool to room temp and mix with all the ingredients and serve.

 

-----