Acting to raise funds for Anaphylaxis Canada.
Alley Theatre Workshop artistic director Michael Kash is starring in Eugene O'Neill's, Hughie, which opened Feb. 8 at the Theatre Centre. The production runs until March 3 and all of the proceeds of the Feb. 20 performance will benefit Anaphylaxis Canada.
Photo/COURTESY
It's about using what you have, to do what you can for others, according to the artistic director of The Alley Theatre Workshop.
And although the Alleyway Theatre Workshop doesn't have deep pockets, Michael Kash pairs performance with philanthropy to raise money for local charities.
"I do have an activist/altruistic bone in my body that is obviously driving this," said Kash, an actor who has lived in Parkdale for the past five years. "I want to be able to use this career."
Originally from Downsview, Kash, 46, attended Western University and after graduating, took a workshop in acting before heading to New York.
Kash lived in New York for about 10 years before returning to Toronto.
The Alley Theatre Workshop, which was started in the back of Lennox Contemporary Gallery on Ossington Avenue about seven years ago, was modelled after a theatre in the Big Apple called the New York Theatre Workshop.
"They are just a fantastic theatre down in the East Village," Kash said. "Creatively, it is my hero so to say."
Hughie is the first production this year. But it's the third production the theatre has used to raise money for local children's charities.
Supporting charities started in 2005 with the production of Squeeze Box, which saw $4,000 donated to Making Faces, an organization that helps children with facial differences. In 2010, the theatre donated $3,000 from the production of Where's My Money to Pia Bouman Ballet School Bursary.
"This time I linked up with Anaphylaxis Canada," Kash said.
Kash, himself an asthmatic, recently ran into a friend who has two children who suffer from severe food allergies.
"After talking to her, I thought that the theatre could continue to go down that path of donating," Kash said. "Without having deep pockets, we can generate money through our work."
He said he hopes the benefit performance will generate between $7,000 and $10,000 for Anaphylaxis Canada, which has a mission to inform, support, educate and advocate for the needs of individuals and families living with anaphylaxis.
The Alley Theatre Workshop is a for-profit organization whose production budget depends on annual donations from the private and corporate sectors. Kash said down the road he hopes to form a board of directors and organize as a not-for-profit model. Currently, the theatre company is hosting one benefit performance, but Kash said the goal is to eventually host two shows per production.
"I think that is a pretty powerful vehicle for raising awareness about the charity and the theatre," Kash said.
By holding benefit performances, Kash said it may expose theatregoers to a cause they were previously unaware of, or it may expose supporters of a certain charity to live theatre.
Written by Eugene O'Neill, Hughie is a two-man production; a drama piece with some comic elements, Kash said. It is the story of Charlie Hughes, a hotel night clerk, and Erie Smith, an alcoholic gamer who have spent the past 15 years living at the hotel.
"In a non-sexual way, it is in essence a love story between this loner Erie Smith, who I play, and the former night clerk, Hughie, who we discover early on has died," he said.
"It turns out to be a changing of the guard and the forming of a new friendship with the new night clerk, played by Dion (Ifill)."
Kash saw Al Pacino star - and direct - Hughie on Broadway in 1996.
"When I saw him do it, I thought, 'I have to do it,'" he said. "It was the language and the time period. He took me into that world of New York, 1928."
"As an actor even if I do it one time for 10 people, it is the kind of language you can wrap around yourself and disappear into," Kash said.
Kash said he believes this production is also appropriate for children and doesn't contain any language or offensive material.
"My daughter is eight and a half and she is going to come," Kash said.
Hughie runs until March 3 at the Theatre Centre 100-1087 Queen St. W. The benefit performance takes place Feb. 20 and proceeds from that night will go to Anaphylaxis Canada.