Above and beyond

Above and beyond McGill University

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Home > McGill News > 2000 > Summer 2000 > Newsbites > Above and beyond

Off-off-Broadway bound

Composer Svoboda hard at work and with collaborator May Cutler at Moyse Hall opening

It's unusual for a theatrical production to go on to New York following a run at McGill, but then Aah-pootee! That's snow! is an unusual play. First, there's the title. The two people who collaborated to create the musical fantasy might also be considered an unlikely match. The book and lyrics are by former publishing executive and municipal mayor May Cutler, BA'45, MA'51, while the music for the 16 songs and two dance numbers was written by Andrew Svoboda, BMus'00, when he was 19 and had just completed his first year in the Faculty of Music. Andrew, who graduated in June, was recommended for the job by one of his professors. He had already written a complete musical in high school, which he directed from the back of the auditorium with a flashlight.

"Aah-pootee" is an Inuit word for snow and the play is about a child who, feeling unloved, runs away into the snowy Northern night. There he encounters a moose, a dog, seals, bears and a phony lion, who try to persuade him to join them in their obsessions with work, fashion, play and power.

Intended for family audiences, the McGill production definitely turned into a family affair behind the scenes. Cutler's son Keir, BA'79, directed the show while another son Michael, CertEd'81, looked after stage design. Daughter-in-law Claudia was the choreographer and a couple of grandchildren played bear cub twins. One of them even illustrated the program.

Not all the family members are available for the New York run, which will be a co-production with The Theatre of the Riverside Church as part of their New York Family Arts Festival. The play will be performed 18 times between July 26 and August 6 at the Riverside Church's theatre at 120th Street and Riverside Drive. That may be seriously off-Broadway, but the out-of-town tryouts at Moyse Hall got pretty strong reviews.

Queen for a day

PHOTO: OWEN EGAN

The weather was unkind, but Jordan's Queen Noor took it all in stride during a visit to McGill in March. The widow of the late King Hussein was here to help raise funds for the McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building, launched by Social Work Professor Jim Torczyner in 1996. The innovative program brings Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis together in Montreal as graduate fellows at McGill for a year, and the students are then sent back to the Middle East to put what they learn into practice.

The queen had high praise for the program, noting it has helped to "effectively empower the most disadvantaged in the region." A cocktail reception and concert at Pollack Hall followed the queen's tour of the University.

Above and beyond

The plugged-in patient in this photo has good reason to smile. He's alive today thanks to Mark Klasa, BSc'91, MDCM'95 (right), whose medical heroics made front-page news in the Calgary Sun recently. Dr. Klasa saw 55-year-old Larry Culp at a clinic where Culp complained of feeling unwell. Klasa sent him for blood tests and promised to call later in the day if they revealed anything wrong. When Larry and his wife Jenny had heard nothing by 6:45, they assumed all was well and left to have a drink at the pub where their oldest daughter worked.

The test results,which had been delayed, told Klasa that something was very wrong, indeed. Culp's heart muscle was dying. "There was the possibility he could drop at any time," Klasa told the Sun. He placed a frantic call to the Culp home. The couple's youngest daughter knew where they were but not the telephone number. Klasa tried the phone book and 411 -- no luck. He finally jumped in his car and set off to find the bar.

"He came storming into the lounge and said, 'Oh good, I found you,'" Jenny told the Sun. "He said Larry could have a heart attack any minute and insisted we take an ambulance to the hospital." Examination there revealed that Culp had had a "silent" heart attack, and he had another one, more serious this time, after he was admitted.

Naturally the Culp family regard Klasa as a lifesaver, but the good doctor considered his quick action simply the obvious thing to do. "At that point, there was no other way to get hold of him."

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