When stage director John Hirsch took over as head of CBC television drama in December 1973, the department was in search of a direction in which to go. Since that time, Hirsch has shown that he knows the plays and the groups making up most of current Canadian theatre, and more importantly, he has brought some of them to television, most for the first time. He has shown an openness to both the obscure and the obvious. Nevertheless, the future is bleak, for Hirsch is facing big budget cuts. For instance, commercial breaks that had been eliminated in 1975 in the Performance series will have to come back in 1976. Hirsch has also been told won’t stop us from getting a glimp se from time to time of groups such as Vancouver’s Tamahnous.
Morris Panych first made his mark in Vancouver more than ten years ago as an actor specializing in crazies: he was the obvious choice to play Mozart in Amadeus. More recently he has added directing, notably School for Wives set in Mussolini’s Italy and a Wild West Comedy of Errors, both for the Arts. As a writer, he began with three musicals, the best of which was the “post-nuclear cabaret”, Last Call.
In the review article, Malcolm Page reviews for us the products of a new publishing house in Victoria: Scirocco Drama. As the book review editor, I applaud Scirocco’s daring. To start up a publishing company in these less than ideal economic times, and one that specializes in Canadian drama, testifies to an admirable entrepreneurship and to a belief in the number and variety of our playwrights.
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