Savage God’s The Shakespeare Project
Documentary/ 24 mins/ 2004
Format: MiniDV
Screenings: YouTube Re-Premiere (Oct. 15th, 2021 at 7pm), The Celluloid Social Club (March 24, 2004, Savage God Day in Vancouver)
October 13, 2021
Savage God’s The Shakespeare Project had only two screenings prior to this week, and they took place in 2003 and 2004.
The first screening was of an early cut of the documentary that I had arranged at the CBC building in Vancouver on October 6, 2003, just for those involved in the rehearsed reading of Othello that had been directed by John Juliani. He had passed away in August, and a celebration of his life had taken place at St. Andrew’s Wesley Church on September 1, 2003, which must have been fresh in mind for those attending the screening. It was good to see it projected on a screen, in that quiet world of the studio floor.
The next screening was at a monthly installment of The Celluloid Social Club, hosted by Ken Hegan, and organized by film producer Paul Armstrong. Paul had arranged with Donna Wong-Juliani to put together a screening of several excerpts of films that John Juliani had acted in or directed. This was a special tribute evening on March 24th, 2004, a year after Gabe Khouth and I had started rolling MiniDV tape on rehearsals for Othello and attended John Juliani’s 63rd birthday with the cast. March 24, 2004, which would have been his 64th birthday, was declared Savage God Day by the City of Vancouver. Film excerpts for the evening, chosen by Donna, included those from the 1978 film Marie Anne (for which John received a Genie nomination for his acting), and Latitude 55 which was released in 1982 and received eight Genie nominations. Actor Mackenzie Gray gave the reading of the speech from the Chorus of Henry V (O for a muse of fire…) that John had given before every rehearsed reading of Shakespeare’s work during The Shakespeare Project. After screening John’s director’s reel, Ken Hegan introduced myself and Gabe Khouth and we spoke a few words on making the film, before the documentary was shown for the audience assembled at The Anza Club on West 8th Avenue.
But since then the film, both in MiniDV form, a master on Beta and a few DVD copies sat in a storage box, with other films I made. I had considered submitting it to film festivals, but life and work kept me busy, and it stayed in storage. I had provided a copy to the Juliani family, and I was quite proud to have not only witnessed the process of John Juliani’s project but also to have collaborated with his family for a time.
I hope now that the film will have an audience again, one that will no doubt appreciate the work of this extraordinary Canadian actor and director.
September 23, 2021
We called ourselves The Garden Gnomes in the credits. Gabe Khouth and I had been two small figures lugging lighting cables, camera equipment and microphones from one side of Christ Church Cathedral to the other, trying not to take a chunk out of the woodwork in the historic place of worship in downtown Vancouver. We also felt diminutive because of its vaulted, cavernous interior towering above us. But mainly we felt tiny in comparison to the man whose project we were trying to capture on video: Savage God’s The Shakespeare Project. It was an ambitious attempt to present, in rehearsed readings, the entire Shakespeare canon to pay-what-you-will audiences. John Juliani had been executive producer of radio drama at CBC Radio in Vancouver. He was, in 2003 when we were documenting his production of Othello, the president of the Union of B.C. Performers, the provincial branch of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists. A staunch advocate for actors, an actor himself and a nationally-respected director, it was hard not to feel miniaturized in his presence. As he directed the actors assembled in the church, we realized they were working for no pay, merely for the love of the work and the experience of being directed by Juliani. Many of the actors regularly appeared in big ticket stage events such as productions at Bard on the Beach, or one of the increasingly-many film and television productions filmed in Vancouver. Donald Adams and Tom Pickett, playing Iago and Othello, worked on a scene, with Juliani interrupting at times, getting up from his desk where his eyes observed the action over spectacles, and walked onstage to physically demonstrate the action he wanted Tom to do. He scrunched up his face and wrung his hands, taking on the role for a moment to present anguish and jealousy.
Gabe and I were simply honoured to be watching the process. As actors, he and I had worked opposite each other on the CBC TV series Northwood in the 1990s. We knew something of the sometimes difficult life actors led, and could sink our creative teeth into what John Juliani told us in the interviews he gave for us: one at his UBCP office, one at the church. With a Sony PD-150 miniDV camera, microphones and lights rented from Cineworks, we set out to capture this midway point in the project, not knowing then that we were capturing some of the last images of John Juliani at work as a director. He would pass away in August 2003.
But what we witnessed in March of that year was a dynamic man, belying his 63 years, passionately directing a work of Shakespeare, in a place of worship. In an interview he told us about how churches are what gods, or God, is all about, and that Shakespeare was a god of the written word, so what better a place to have a rehearsed reading from a work of one of the greats?
It was not difficult to surmise why actors from all over Vancouver were keen to be part, despite no remuneration, of a project where they would be directed by Juliani in a rehearsed reading of Shakespeare’s work. As Tom Pickett, who played Othello, put it, the project was “one of the foundations of Shakespeare in town.” He was putting a lot of pressure on himself, regularly seen when off stage poring over the text. As an accomplished singer, Tom was applying his musical ability as well as powerful voice to not only find the rhythm of iambic pentameter, but also to create the authoritative character of Othello.
As The Garden Gnomes scrambled to capture rehearsals and the eventual performance, we also were fortunate to be present to record a celebration; a surprise party for John Juliani’s 63rd birthday with family and the cast of Othello.
We were lucky garden gnomes indeed.
