Showbiz survivor shows how it's done in SubUrbia
by HEATHER SOLOMON
Heidi Hawkins,at 23, is a showbiz survivor. In director Christian Viel's movie Samhain, her character Tara, while researching pagan festivals in Scotland, is throttled by sepulchral hands. In the play Sunday on the Rocks, directed by Gary Plaxton; Hawkins, in the role of Jen, is beaten by a boyfriend and has to agonize about it in full black-eye makeup.
Now the performer is in Persephone Productions' (the lower case "sub" emphasizing the underbelly of postadolescent thinking in the suburbs). It is a gritty play about small-town youths who turn to violence and substance abuse in their disillusionment with society.
This time, Hawkins comes out physically unscathed, although emotionally ravaged. In the Eric Bogosian drama, on Sept. 23 to Oct. 2 at the Studio Theatre of the Monument National, 1182 St. Laurent Blvd., Hawkins plays, Erica, a Jewish music promoter who accompanies her client Pony, a folk-rock star, back to his hometown for a visit.
Although Erica is from a privileged background in Bel-Air, her concerns are similar to those of the young people in suburban Burnfield. This fictitious burg is still reeling from the effects of present-day wars overseas, the hate and prejudice they engender and the aimlessness of its young adults who hang out at the corner store.
Pony's success is a red flag to his old buddies Buff and Tim, who seem unable to shrug off their inertia, except to plague an immigrant store owner. The young women of the town either despair or follow their boyfriends' angry lead.
It's not an easy play to watch and it's hard on the ears, boiling over with racist remarks and language that will be offensive to some. In fact, Hawkins thought twice about participating, but quickly realized that the award winning playwright's aim is to channel misbehaviour into a forum for understanding that will foster change.
Also, her former teacher Gabrielle Soskin is directing the Persephone company, now an established vehicle for theatre school graduates in their initial years of professional performance. Soskin was driven in her choice of play not only by the number of roles for young actors, but also by the play's relevance to the teenage violence at Columbine and to the prejudices prompted by the war in Iraq.
To Hawkins, war and its tragic consequences are part of her family history. Her maternal grandmother, Ella (Estera) Cohen was a 15-year-old hiding with her family in a Polish Christian family's attic during World War II. When the Nazis breached their haven, she and her younger sister Paula managed to conceal themselves but, saw their parents, aunts and twin brothers murdered.
"My grandmothertold me the only reason she kept going after that was she knew she was responsible for her little sister's life," Hawkins says. The girls worked in a labour camp, Ella married a fellow-survivor, also masquerading as a non-Jew, and they eventually immigrated to Montreal to rebuild their lives.
Hawkins' mother Mona Wizenberg, a wildlife artist, is contributing hand-painted stationery, a painted tea light and sculptural bookmark to a Petsephone fundraising raffle that continues throughout the run of subUrbia. She has always encouraged her daughter to participate in the arts.
Hawkins found her niche in theatre when she played Amanda in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie at Lindsay Place High School on the West Island. Three years in the professional theatre program at John Abbott College, where Soskin was teaching, launched her into the world of entertainment.
Hawkins is also a member of Rabbit in the Hat Productions which presented The Cyclops to rave reviews last winter. Not only does she act with them, but she is their production manager as well. She played the dual roles of a nurse and a witch in that show.
For a changee of pace, Hawkins was cast as a hockey team groupie in the MTV series Undressed
It is common knowledge that American film production in Montreal has hit a low. Hawkins is thinking of diversifying into local TV and radio, with plans to be a children's animator on a Disney cruise ship to earn enough to finance studies at broadcasting school.
Unlike the characters in subUrbia, who are prisoners of their own pessimism, Hawkins is ready-to spread her wings.
Reprinted from The Canadian Jewish News September 23, 2004
Heidi Hawkins,at 23, is a showbiz survivor. In director Christian Viel's movie Samhain, her character Tara, while researching pagan festivals in Scotland, is throttled by sepulchral hands. In the play Sunday on the Rocks, directed by Gary Plaxton; Hawkins, in the role of Jen, is beaten by a boyfriend and has to agonize about it in full black-eye makeup.
Now the performer is in Persephone Productions' (the lower case "sub" emphasizing the underbelly of postadolescent thinking in the suburbs). It is a gritty play about small-town youths who turn to violence and substance abuse in their disillusionment with society.
This time, Hawkins comes out physically unscathed, although emotionally ravaged. In the Eric Bogosian drama, on Sept. 23 to Oct. 2 at the Studio Theatre of the Monument National, 1182 St. Laurent Blvd., Hawkins plays, Erica, a Jewish music promoter who accompanies her client Pony, a folk-rock star, back to his hometown for a visit.
Although Erica is from a privileged background in Bel-Air, her concerns are similar to those of the young people in suburban Burnfield. This fictitious burg is still reeling from the effects of present-day wars overseas, the hate and prejudice they engender and the aimlessness of its young adults who hang out at the corner store.
Pony's success is a red flag to his old buddies Buff and Tim, who seem unable to shrug off their inertia, except to plague an immigrant store owner. The young women of the town either despair or follow their boyfriends' angry lead.
It's not an easy play to watch and it's hard on the ears, boiling over with racist remarks and language that will be offensive to some. In fact, Hawkins thought twice about participating, but quickly realized that the award winning playwright's aim is to channel misbehaviour into a forum for understanding that will foster change.
Also, her former teacher Gabrielle Soskin is directing the Persephone company, now an established vehicle for theatre school graduates in their initial years of professional performance. Soskin was driven in her choice of play not only by the number of roles for young actors, but also by the play's relevance to the teenage violence at Columbine and to the prejudices prompted by the war in Iraq.
To Hawkins, war and its tragic consequences are part of her family history. Her maternal grandmother, Ella (Estera) Cohen was a 15-year-old hiding with her family in a Polish Christian family's attic during World War II. When the Nazis breached their haven, she and her younger sister Paula managed to conceal themselves but, saw their parents, aunts and twin brothers murdered.
"My grandmothertold me the only reason she kept going after that was she knew she was responsible for her little sister's life," Hawkins says. The girls worked in a labour camp, Ella married a fellow-survivor, also masquerading as a non-Jew, and they eventually immigrated to Montreal to rebuild their lives.
Hawkins' mother Mona Wizenberg, a wildlife artist, is contributing hand-painted stationery, a painted tea light and sculptural bookmark to a Petsephone fundraising raffle that continues throughout the run of subUrbia. She has always encouraged her daughter to participate in the arts.
Hawkins found her niche in theatre when she played Amanda in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie at Lindsay Place High School on the West Island. Three years in the professional theatre program at John Abbott College, where Soskin was teaching, launched her into the world of entertainment.
Hawkins is also a member of Rabbit in the Hat Productions which presented The Cyclops to rave reviews last winter. Not only does she act with them, but she is their production manager as well. She played the dual roles of a nurse and a witch in that show.
For a changee of pace, Hawkins was cast as a hockey team groupie in the MTV series Undressed
It is common knowledge that American film production in Montreal has hit a low. Hawkins is thinking of diversifying into local TV and radio, with plans to be a children's animator on a Disney cruise ship to earn enough to finance studies at broadcasting school.
Unlike the characters in subUrbia, who are prisoners of their own pessimism, Hawkins is ready-to spread her wings.
Reprinted from The Canadian Jewish News September 23, 2004
