For those attending the 2013 Toronto Jewish Film Festival, they will be able to see the documentary Joe Papp in Five Acts (2010) which is to be aired as part of the PBS series American Masters back in 2010. The story is as educational as the man who decided to bring the plays of William Shakespeare to the masses by orchestrating free stage performances. “I believe that great art is for everyone–not just the rich or the middle class,” stated Papp. “When I go into East Harlem or Bedford-Stuyvesant and see the kids who come to see our shows, I see nothing so clearly as myself.”
Not only did the theatre company on wheels entertain audience members it also proved to be a fertile training ground for developing actors, playwrights, and future Broadway productions. The multi-tasking duo of Tracie Holder and Karen Thorsen who produced, directed and wrote the project have assembled a high profile cast of former performers who have gone on to become Oscar winners and nominees such as Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter), Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck), and James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope) as well as Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now), Mandy Patinkin (Homeland), and Ntozake Shange (For Colored Girls).
Television interviews have been inserted to allow Joseph Papp who died in 1991 an opportunity to give voice to his passionate pursuit of theatrical excellence which led to the making of Broadway hits Hair and A Chorus Line but also resulted in four marriages and him being a neglectful father to his own children. Joe Papp in Five Acts is in fact constructed in five segments with each beginning with a Shakespearean quote, four of which are spoken by Kevin Kline; the life-long exploration takes a linear path of discovery from the poverty of childhood to the theatrical legend having to fatally deal with the prostate cancer and the death of his son Tony from AIDS. The well-constructed and researched documentary certainly deserves the opportunity to be rediscovered like Papp himself.
Joe Papp in Five Acts will be receiving two screenings at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival with the first being April 15, 2013 @ 6:45 pm at Innis College and the second April 16, 2013 @ 4 pm at Sheppard 5.
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.
Originally published April 4, 2013. Updated April 14, 2018.
