The Piano Man's Daughter

Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Summer, 1997 by Iris Winston

Prima ballerina Veronica Tennant recently embarked on "an extraordinary experience, a real adventure". As part of the cast of The Piano Man's Daughter...and Others, the former ballet star played roles that "an actress would die for".

It began with a call from author Timothy Findley in 1995. He wanted to make the launch of his novel, The Piano Man's Daughter, a special event and asked her to read with him. "That was pretty exciting in itself," Tennant says, "but what developed is far more exciting."

By the time the performance launching of Findley's novel was announced, it included "some really cheeky" choreography by Danny Grossman. Jazz pianist Joe Sealy and country-folk singer Sylvia Tyson had joined the team.

"Everything blended," says Tennant, her rapid-fire comments reflecting the initial excitement of the May 1995 launch. That one-hour show "was supposed to be a one-night thing." But the enthusiastic response of the public, who were "lined up around the block" in Toronto waiting to buy tickets, and the performers' own elation afterwards, was enough to convince them "to take this special blending further".

"We just didn't want it to end," she says. Two years later, The Piano Man's Daughter...and Others grew into a full-length show directed by Paul Thompson, "who has woven in, but never imposed, his own vision". The expanded cast included actor/musician Jack Nicholsen and dancer Michael Sean Marye. Two more of Findley's works, Dust to Dust, a new collection of short stories about death, and You Went Away, a novella of love, were added to a celebration of literature intended to lift the words off the page.

The show, a one-night-stand, has now travelled across Canada, making 18 stops and visiting almost every province. Said Tennant in a telephone interview from Saint John, New Brunswick during the tour, "...we find that it works in any venue. We can adjust (to the space) and, so far, we've had a standing ovation each night."

An amorphous plant that grew from a book tour with a difference - the show was variously called "literary vaudeville", a "modern Canterbury Tales" and the "Kama Sutra of the book". Performance art held together by its literary centre, it showcased the combined talents of dancers, singers, musicians, actors and author and, incidentally, promoted the books. (A book-signing followed each performance.) In a synergetic collective of original music and songs and Findley's words, performers reached beyond their recognized area of expertise - dancers sang and acted, actors and musicians danced. The author, a former actor, acted and dabbled on the piano.

"...everything centres around Tiff's (Findley's) work, with Tiff as the central performer," said Tennant. "It's all about books, reading and reactions to literature. And what a well-spring good writing is."

It's also about enriching one discipline by employing another. Findley said he learned more about, and gained greater confidence in his story Americana by the way that Nicholsen characterized the wounded soldier in the short story.

For Tennant, the most rewarding aspect was in breaking down the boundaries between artistic disciplines. "...for me this is so exciting because it is an expansion," she said. "It's a great challenge for me as an actor. I can't remember when I've looked forward to performing so much. I've had a lot of wonderful artistic experiences in my life, but it is so wonderful to hear the audience listening, to give them a theatrical evening that is different."