Tom Hendry on being a good accountant and the value of the arts (Part 1 of 6)
Canadian Playwright Tom Hendry discusses his dual life as an artist and as a chartered accountant, and how the two influenced and supported each other.
With a penchant for defying convention, Hendry used professional acting to pay his way through bookkeeping school. While studying to be a accountant, Hendry auditioned for the CBC and was cast as the lead on a new television show. In the early 1980s, he put together a ground-breaking cultural report for the city of Toronto which compared what the city invested in culture to that of other cultural capitals and examined the possibilities for Toronto. Inspired by international evidence, Hendry offered the revolutionary argument that by spending a small amount of money fostering the arts, a city could generate a large amount of economic activity.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on July 18, 2012 in Toronto.
Filming location courtesy of The Canadian Stage Company.
Tom Hendry on Morality Squad and founding Toronto Free Theatre (Part 2 of 6)
Tom Hendry discusses the founding of Toronto Free Theatre and his co-founders, John Palmer and Martin Kinch. During Hendry’s time as a literary manager for the Stratford Festival (1969-71), Palmer and Kinch were producing shows in town which were decidedly less Shakespearian. Characterized by nudity and swearing, Palmer and Kinch’s productions drew the attention of the police and Stratford’s “Morality Squad”.
Toronto Free Theatre was founded in 1972 and merged with CentreStage to become Canadian Stage in 1988. Hendry recalls how the co-founders discovered the now iconic theatre space by climbing through the window of a boarded-up building on Berkeley Street which was destined for demolition. The building was owned by the Greenspoon Brothers, Toronto demolishers with an eye for beauty. Thankfully, the brothers agreed that the space was too beautiful to tear down and agreed to sell the building for $75,000.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on July 18, 2012 in Toronto. Filming location courtesy of The Canadian Stage Company.
Tom Hendry on the Toronto Free Theatre building (Part 3 of 6)
Once Toronto Free Theatre had secured their building, there was still the matter of making it a working performance space. Tom Hendry tells us how they received a government grant to fix the woodwork and the windows. Between a significant personal loan and collecting donations from friends, Hendry put together between $40,000 - $50,000 to invest in the theatre. In a fascinating bit of history, the original high balcony seats of the Royal Alexandra Theatre were eventually the first seats used in Toronto Free Theatre.
The first show ever produced by TFT was Hendry’s play “How are things with the walking wounded?”, directed by Martin Kinch. According to Hendry, one of the big secrets to TFT’s success is that they kept excellent books, owing to his background as a chartered accountant. The beneficiary of a LIP grant – a Canadian job creation initiative in the 1970’s – Toronto Free Theatre shocked the LIP auditor by having books at all.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on July 18, 2012 in Toronto. Filming location courtesy of The Canadian Stage Company.
Tom Hendry on the plays "Red Emma" & "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid" (Part 4 of 6)
Tom Hendry reflects on Carol Bolt's play, 'Red Emma'.
Tom Hendry reflects on the plays "Red Emma" and "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid". Carol Bolt’s play "Red Emma" was based on the life of anarchist/feminist Emma Goldman and the events leading up to her attempted assassination of American industrialist Henry Clay Frick in 1892. Bolt originally presented the idea to Hendry as a serious musical, but the play would ultimately be produced by the Toronto Free Theatre in 1974 as a drama in two acts, directed by Martin Kinch and starring Chapelle Jaffe. R.H. Thomson was in the audience and remembers how the conviction of community he felt in that theatre motivated him to return to Canada.
A few years later Thomson would find himself in a TFT production of "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid" by writer Michael Ondaatje. A legendary Canadian poet and writer, Ondaatje is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a recipient of the Governor General’s Award, the Giller Prize, the Booker Prize, and the Prix Médicis étranger.
Hendry reminisces on a time when Ondaatje was still an unknown poet and was paid $1000 to write a children’s show for the Stratford Festival. Ondaatje insisted he could not write a children’s show. Instead, Stratford bought the rights to his unpublished, experimental novel about the American outlaw Billy the Kid. Hendry discusses how he brought the book to Jean Gascon for adaptation to the stage and convinced him to consider purchasing an old skating rink as a venue for the production, which would eventually be the Tom Patterson Theatre. Stratford presented "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid" in 1973 but without a definitive script.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on July 18, 2012 in Toronto.
Filming location courtesy of The Canadian Stage Company.
Tom Hendry on John Hirsh (Part 5 of 6)
Tom Hendry reminisces on his relationship with legendary director John Hirsch. Remembered as equal parts genius and difficult, Hirsch was a Hungarian refugee and holocaust survivor who made an indelible impact on Canadian theatre. When both men lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Hendry and Hirsch ran in the same social circles and were initially introduced by Adele Wiseman.
Hendry describes how an innocuous observation outside of a Winnipeg restaurant resonated with Hirsch’s painful past. Hendry shares Hirsch’s story of escape from the Nazis and his final interaction with his brother. John Hirsch was an unstoppable force within Canadian arts, perhaps motivated by the idea that he was saved and so needed to do something remarkable.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on July 18, 2012 in Toronto.
Filming location courtesy of The Canadian Stage Company.
Tom Hendry on Satyricon and the Stratford Festival (part 6 of 6)
From 1969 – 71, Tom Hendry worked as the literary manager for Canada’s Stratford Festival. According to Hendry, he was brought in to broker some level of peace at the festival between John Hirsch and Jean Gascon.
One of the shows Hendry is most remembered for is Satyricon. Inspired by the success of musical comedies like A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the Stratford Festival wanted a similar offering. Hendry was asked to write the script and songs for a musical based on the Satyricon. Hendry and composer, Stanley Silverman, traveled to Barbados to collaborate on the show which incorporated Stratford’s most notorious scandals. While the legendary Dora Mavor Moore was not a fan and referred to the show as nothing but “entertainment”, the public loved the spectacle of Stratford scandals in Roman togas, which was sold out for a month.
Interviewed by R.H. Thomson on July 18, 2012 in Toronto. Filming location courtesy of The Canadian Stage Company.