Theater Director Named Honoree of the Month
May 03, 2010 05:37 PM
LAGUNA WOODS – It's
not a stretch to see Sheila Bialka in a directing role.
She not only started a theater movement in Laguna Woods
Village six years ago, but she also was a ballroom
dance instructor for more than three decades.
"I'm just good at telling people what to do, and for some reason they do it," said Bialka, who has been selected May Honoree of the Month by the Historical Society of Laguna Woods.
Bialka, 75, is not only the
founder of The Old Pros club, a group of retired
actors, musicians, dancers and directors that puts
on at least two theater performances a year in
Laguna Woods Village featuring residents from the
community, but she also directs and acts in many
of the productions.
She got her start in theatrics when she began tap dancing at the age of 5 in Birmingham, England. At 11, she earned an apprentice spot at the Birmingham Repertory. Bialka said she learned her chops at acting in two to three plays a week and making tea for the cast.
"I was a good tea maker," she said laughing.
Despite growing up in the land of William Shakespeare, Bialka said the theatrical poet is not her favorite to perform.
"Whatever I'm doing is my favorite at the time," she said.
Although she still kept her sights on acting, Bialka began ballroom dancing in competitions with her brother, Tommy, at the age of 14 – a move that would later become a career.
In 1951, she began working as a switchboard operator for the Air Force in England before she moved to Hartford, Conn. and started getting jobs teaching residents ballroom dancing in basements. Bialka then found an opportunity teaching dance lessons for patients at the Institute of the Living, one of the first mental heath centers in the country.
She would teach ballroom, Latin American, rock and roll and many other genres of dancing to roughly 400 patients at the hospital for the next 30 years.
She said dancing forced mentally ill patients to socialize, something many of them avoided, and helped them gain a sense of confidence.
”It’s one of the best social graces you can have," Bialka said.
After teaching for roughly three years at the institute, Bialka talked the staff and physicians into allowing her to put on a production of Cinderella with the patients. She suspects she got favorable treatment from the chief psychiatrist at the time—a fellow Englishman.
Bialka said she encouraged the patients to follow through with the production because their fellow actors were depending on them.
“It was the only thing they were ever asked to do as a group," she said.
By the time she left the institute, Bialka estimates she put on 120 musicals, plays and performances with patients like "Oklahoma" and "Bye Bye Birdie.”
She continued acting and directing upon retiring, when she started The Old Pros Club in 1994. Bialka belonged to a group of actors from the Theatre Guild, but she thought it unfair the club did not allow people outside the community, such as actors from other theater groups, to participate in the performances. Bialka thought the residents of Laguna Woods deserved a theater experience, even if it came from non-residents, and so The Old Pros was born.
Bialka just finished directing "The Gin Game" production at Clubhouse 3 in March, a Broadway play and tragic comedy about a couple who try and find comfort in their relationship by playing gin.
“The table was beat to Jesus by the time we got through," Bialka said.
She said the next project she would like to work on would be a take on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as summer approaches, and give residents an outdoor theater experience.
Bialka will be honored at a ceremony at Clubhouse 6 on May 5.
"I'm just good at telling people what to do, and for some reason they do it," said Bialka, who has been selected May Honoree of the Month by the Historical Society of Laguna Woods.
She got her start in theatrics when she began tap dancing at the age of 5 in Birmingham, England. At 11, she earned an apprentice spot at the Birmingham Repertory. Bialka said she learned her chops at acting in two to three plays a week and making tea for the cast.
"I was a good tea maker," she said laughing.
Despite growing up in the land of William Shakespeare, Bialka said the theatrical poet is not her favorite to perform.
"Whatever I'm doing is my favorite at the time," she said.
Although she still kept her sights on acting, Bialka began ballroom dancing in competitions with her brother, Tommy, at the age of 14 – a move that would later become a career.
In 1951, she began working as a switchboard operator for the Air Force in England before she moved to Hartford, Conn. and started getting jobs teaching residents ballroom dancing in basements. Bialka then found an opportunity teaching dance lessons for patients at the Institute of the Living, one of the first mental heath centers in the country.
She would teach ballroom, Latin American, rock and roll and many other genres of dancing to roughly 400 patients at the hospital for the next 30 years.
She said dancing forced mentally ill patients to socialize, something many of them avoided, and helped them gain a sense of confidence.
”It’s one of the best social graces you can have," Bialka said.
After teaching for roughly three years at the institute, Bialka talked the staff and physicians into allowing her to put on a production of Cinderella with the patients. She suspects she got favorable treatment from the chief psychiatrist at the time—a fellow Englishman.
Bialka said she encouraged the patients to follow through with the production because their fellow actors were depending on them.
“It was the only thing they were ever asked to do as a group," she said.
By the time she left the institute, Bialka estimates she put on 120 musicals, plays and performances with patients like "Oklahoma" and "Bye Bye Birdie.”
She continued acting and directing upon retiring, when she started The Old Pros Club in 1994. Bialka belonged to a group of actors from the Theatre Guild, but she thought it unfair the club did not allow people outside the community, such as actors from other theater groups, to participate in the performances. Bialka thought the residents of Laguna Woods deserved a theater experience, even if it came from non-residents, and so The Old Pros was born.
Bialka just finished directing "The Gin Game" production at Clubhouse 3 in March, a Broadway play and tragic comedy about a couple who try and find comfort in their relationship by playing gin.
“The table was beat to Jesus by the time we got through," Bialka said.
She said the next project she would like to work on would be a take on "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as summer approaches, and give residents an outdoor theater experience.
Bialka will be honored at a ceremony at Clubhouse 6 on May 5.
By CLAIRE WEBB
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
'THE GIN GAME' WAS BROADWAY
April 15, 2010 05:54 PM
Something spectacular
happened on the Clubhouse 3 Stage last month that so
staggered the small audiences at the closing curtain of
The Old Pros production of 'The Gin Game,' there was a
moment of stunned silence after which they rose to
their feet as one and wrapped the actors in praise with
their unending applause and shouts of Bravo. It caused
a 90 year-old, 18-year Theatre Guild veteran, to
exclaim this was the best performance she had ever seen
anywhere—and she echoed the feelings of the
entire audience.
The beautifully sustained, riveting performances of Jeanne Sanner and John Perak gripped the audience from the first word and never let go—eliciting laughter, tears and every emotion in between. This was acting at its finest and would have been rated spectacular for the Broadway stage let alone any regional or community theatre. Yet here they were on the CH 3 auditorium stage in our very own Village. And their expertly directed performances weren't the only professional thing about The Gin Game. The finely detailed set and furnishings elicited opening applause; the sound effects were realistic and the smallest whispered words could be heard; the lighting enhanced the mood; set changes appeared like magic by a silently skillful backstage crew; every aspect of the production came off without a hitch.
This performance was a gift to Laguna Woods Village—to see a performance of this caliber without paying ridiculously high prices, without driving some distance, without paying for parking—so it was sad to see the small audiences that attended. There are sure to be more professional performances by The Old Pros in the future. But, if you missed 'The Gin game,' you missed a landmark performance that will long be remembered.
The beautifully sustained, riveting performances of Jeanne Sanner and John Perak gripped the audience from the first word and never let go—eliciting laughter, tears and every emotion in between. This was acting at its finest and would have been rated spectacular for the Broadway stage let alone any regional or community theatre. Yet here they were on the CH 3 auditorium stage in our very own Village. And their expertly directed performances weren't the only professional thing about The Gin Game. The finely detailed set and furnishings elicited opening applause; the sound effects were realistic and the smallest whispered words could be heard; the lighting enhanced the mood; set changes appeared like magic by a silently skillful backstage crew; every aspect of the production came off without a hitch.
This performance was a gift to Laguna Woods Village—to see a performance of this caliber without paying ridiculously high prices, without driving some distance, without paying for parking—so it was sad to see the small audiences that attended. There are sure to be more professional performances by The Old Pros in the future. But, if you missed 'The Gin game,' you missed a landmark performance that will long be remembered.
--by Ellen Van Houten
Old Pros in Rehearsal for 'The Gin Game'
March 08, 2010 08:35 PM
Since its multiple Tony Award-winning premiere on Broadway in 1977, 'The Gin Game' has been performed in many languages in virtually every theatre going country in the world, revived on Broadway and on television, and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1978.
The enduring quality of the play comes from its perceptions about male/female relationships. Director Sheila Bialka sees the play as "a metaphor for life, contrasting what others see in us as opposed to how we see ourselves. On the surface, we see a lonely man and woman, hoping for a last comforting relationship, playing gin. But the gin game is a dramatic catalyst - gently at first, then as ferocious obsession it draws both characters into a virtual death-spiral of revelation that reaches to the core of their beings. Yet, as the author says, 'the play is billed as a tragi-comedy because most of the play is funny. We laugh with pity at the vanity of the human will.'"
--by Ellen Van Houten
Broadway Bound Tom Sullivan's 'Adventures in Darkness' at CH 3
February 07, 2010 01:37 PM
Being born blind has not stopped this amazing man in multiple careers, all sports participation and being a most sought after motivational speaker. As in his best-selling book, 'If You Could See What I Hear’, Tom takes his audiences to a new world of sensory experiences.
Admission is FREE with most tickets available from the following clubs: The Old Pros, Theatre Guild, New Jersey, Writers, Rock & Rollers, Baby Boomers, Camera, Friends of the Village, Bocce, Democratic, Hikers and Walkers, Daughters of the British Empire, Denny Welch for the Sight and Hearing impaired, Concerned Citizens, Sewing Supers, Tony @ Security Officers, and a very limited amount at the CH 3 office.
For more information about Tom, please visit his web site at sullivanspeaks.com.
--by Ellen Van Houten