The Zizkas Surprise Themselves - Episode 105

Header image, above: Blanka and Jiri Zizka at their new theater space on Sansom Street, 1983. 

Above and below: Production photos from the Wilma Project's Animal Farm, 1979 - adapted from George Orwell's 1945 novel. The figure in the mask represents a human, Farmer Jones, whom the barnyard animals drive out of "Manor Farm" during the initial rebellion. (Photos courtesy the Wilma Theater)

Above: The cast of Animal Farm at a street festival in Philadelphia, promoting the production. "The creature leading the pack is me," admits Blanka Zizka. (Photo courtesy of Blanka Zizka)

Below: Blanka Zizka as "Lais" in Fernando Arrabal's The Garden of Delights, 1980.

Above: In 1983, Jiri Zizka staged Peter Weiss' 1963 play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (usually referred to by the shorter title "Marat/Sade").

It was the first show that the Wilma performed under an agreement with Actors Equity Association. The first two Equity actors hired were Kenneth Talberth and James McConnell, who played "The Herald" and "Mad Animal," respectively.

Inquirer theater critic William Collins wrote that the show was strengthened by the two actors' presence. "What impressed me most was that, artistically, the Wilma is plainly ready for the greater challenge of professionalism. . . The Wilma is small, in space and in budget, but the artistic credo is of high order."

Below: Local actors Ron Morici, Deborah Benner and Floyd Green as some of the inmates in Marat/Sade.

Below: Local actor Tim Moyer with Michael Cerveris in Jiri Zizka's 1984 adaptation of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Above: (Left) Blanka Zizka during rehearsals for Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape, 1985 - photo by Greg Laner for the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

(Right) The actor Harry Bennett as "Yank" - photo courtesy the Wilma Theater.

Below: (Left) Jiri Zizka prepares to take the Wilma Theater's production of Orwell's "1984" to the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. - photo by Shayna Brennan for the Inquirer.

(Right) The poster for the original production in Philadelphia. - courtesy of the Wilma Theater.

Below: Production photos of "1984. Evan Thompson as O'Brien, and John Shepard as Winston Smith. (Photos by Stan Sadowski)

Above: A montage of images from the Wilma's 1987 production of Ionesco's Macbett.

To cast the show, Blanka Zizka had auditioned nearly 300 actors in Philadelphia and New York. The problem, she explained to reporter Robert Baxter in the Camden Courier-Post, was that most American actors were trained in a “naturalistic” acting style which did not suit the play. She had selected Stephen Temperly, an English actor with experience in British-style comedy and farces, to play the title role. (Poster courtesy the Wilma Theater)

Allen Fitzpatrick (shown up right carrying Lesley Vogel as Lady Macbett), played the role of Glamis. Also in the cast were James McCrane, Richard Holmes and Donna Browne. Joe Coogan played a "Lemonade Man".

Zizka invited the playwright Eugene Ionesco, then 77, to the opening night. In a letter from his home in Paris, he sent his regrets, but promised to come in October if he could. He wished the company "beaucoup de succes."

Below: A montage of images for the June 1989 Wilma production of Vaclav Havel's Temptation at the Zellerbach Theatre. Top left is a photo of Priscilla Shanks and Michael Butler. To the right is a photo of the entire company in the "Witch's Sabbath" scene.