Edith O’Hara, NYC Uberchic for Mar 2011

Ask a New Yorker: From one Aquarian to another, Happy Birthday!

Edith: Yes, thank you, thank you. I love being an Aquarian. I love the water. How about you?

Ask a New Yorker: Yes, we are the water bearers and the trail blazers. Tell us a little about yourself. You must get asked that question a lot.

Edith: No, it’s fine, everybody is getting tired of hearing it around here. It’s interesting because I was born and raised in the wilds of Idaho. Now a lot of people, when I say I’m from Idaho, they say, “I have a cousin in De Moines”. They can’t tell the difference from Idaho and Iowa.

Ask a New Yorker: Potato versus…

Edith: Versus… I don’t know what Iowa has to offer (laughs). Idaho has beautiful mountains and the foothills of the Rockies, and a lake that is considered one of the most beautiful in the world, Lake Cour d’Alene. It winds in and out of all these mountains; it’s just wonderful. My father had a logging camp. We were in the mountains, no electric power lines, no modern conveniences, and no other people except two families. The on- room school had 8 kids who never heard the word theater or movie, didn’t know they existed because there is no outside world. I related to language, words, reading and spelling. I just loved all that. My parents bought a house in this beautiful town in Cour d’Alene and a teacher put me in a play. And I knew right then. I played George Washington! Little boys were not eager to get on the stage in those days. But anyway I just knew I loved that. What else can I do? What else can I do? Then I went on to study in college.

Ask a New Yorker: You got that acting bug.

Edith: I really did, I really did. What happened was, I went to the University of Idaho to study acting and then I went to UCLA. I hated UCLA. I was not accustomed to huge classes and crowded classrooms. You know, I had been in small venues like University of Idaho, we had maybe 8-10 kids interested in theater and we would do our monologues in the class room and so forth. So I decided that I would come to New York. One of the best things that happened to me was at the University of Idaho. One of my professors was involved in Summer Theater on the east coast in Rye Beach, New Hampshire. He arranged for me and some of my classmates to be apprentices. So this was a huge, wonderful thing to go all across the country and see the east coast for the first time and New York for the first time and the ocean for the first time. But the biggest thing about it, I know you know about The Group Theater. Lee Strasberg started The Group Theater with Harold Clurman. They would go away in the summer. He brought the Stanislavski method of acting, there was no method acting ever in New York before that. Well the Group Theater started in the early 30’s and in 1940 they disbanded. There was a controversy. Stella Adler had joined. They said that Lee was not teaching the method acting correctly as Stanislavski had planned it. I just found out in the last year that the reason really was that Stanislavski had changed his method, his approach a couple of times. And that is why it was different. One had studied one earlier and one later. Then they all left and The Group Theater ended.

Ask a New Yorker: I could have been a contender!

Edith: The thing about all this is, that after Summer Theater there were three actors who were really Group Theater trained and since they no longer stayed within the group they took an interest in us kids. Art Smith was a very prominent Group Theater person. He and I became buddies. He was from Washington State. So we remained very close friends all through the years. I really wanted to stay in New York and not go back but I had been accepted UCLA and I thought I should go. Otherwise I would have loved to stay. But I had classmates who had made the cross country trip with me. I had a little red convertible. Two reasons: I had my classmates needed a ride and I was supposed to go to UCLA. I went to UCLA and I didn’t like it. So I decided to go back to New York. I’ll finish a semester and then I’ll go. In the meantime this little red convertible, a Chevrolet convertible… I drove down to the campus with my girlfriend to see where I would live. Another red convertible pulled up beside me with a guy in it. So of course my girlfriend started talking to him. So that was John O’Hara, not the famous John O’Hara. But I wound up marrying John O’Hara instead of coming to New York. He was the first person I met there. So I dated him all semester. But I told him, “I’ll see you in New York”. He was a traveling salesman. In the meantime I had gone up to Idaho and spent some time with my Dad. My mother had died when I was 12. Then I’m going to New York. John said,”O.K I’ll see you in New York”, but next thing you know he is at my door step in Idaho. “Let’s get married, let’s get married”. So after about three weeks, that’s what I did.

Ask a New Yorker: What next?

Edith: Then we moved Warren, Pennsylvania , which is a very small town. I was working as a children’s librarian. The little kids would be asking for books. I realized that they needed so much help with their speech and diction that I started a little drama program. Then I started a children’s theater. I taught them how to act. I did plays and the PTA sponsored them.

Ask a New Yorker: So you were doing your thing.

Edith: Yes, I was doing my thing. Art Smith and I remained friends all through the years. I would visit him in New York all the time. And one time when I came he said how much he missed doing Summer Theater. I said maybe I can find a theater somewhere. I drove around and went up to Bushkill, PA. There was a theater sitting there, Summer Theater. So I signed the lease and we ran the theater. It was wonderful. This leads how I got back to New York. I went back to Warren and said I thought we should have a summer theater here. So I got people together and we bought a farm and we converted the barn. It was a perfect barn to convert. The actors were from New York. The Director was from New York who formed this new company. It was just going great. On dark nights I was watching the actors as they were doing their own thing, making up stuff, very creative. I realized we really have a lot of talent right here. So I said to them maybe you could work together in the winter and create an original production and if it’s good and it works we will put it on. I didn’t go near them. I said, “I’m not going to be involved, I want you to do what you can do”. We will bring it to the theater, if it works out we’ll put it on. I didn’t even know that it was a musical. So they came and they brought it. It was the most beautiful musical you could imagine.

Ask a New Yorker: What was it called?

Edith: “Touch”. This was in 1968 or 69. So people came up to Warren and loved it. One person I met said they had a theater on East 4th Street, the Village Arena Theater, and if I wanted to bring the actors down we could put it on together. So in 1970 I brought “Touch” to New York and it was a huge hit. It ran for a whole year. That brought me to New York. And so I decided that I’d find a theater in New York City. It took a whole year. And one day there was an ad in the Village Voice that said “Building for Lease – contains small theater”. I walked in and signed the lease, moved in, and I’ve been here since. We only do original things here. We want to help play-writes and directors. That’s our whole purpose. Everything we do is original.

Ask a New Yorker: How does Israel Horovitz fit into the picture?

Edith: Isreal Horovitz is a very famous play-write. The person that helped make “Touch” a big success was Albert Poland, a general manager. When “Touch” closed, Israel was just opening “Line” off Broadway. And Albert was the general manager for that. He invited me to the opening night of “Line”.

Ask a New Yorker: And it’s been playing at The 13th Street Repertory Company?

Edith: Yes, for 39 years.

Ask a New Yorker: Do you have a favorite actor?

Edith: My favorite actor was Art Smith. He was separated, but not divorced, so we didn’t go further. That was before I met John O’Hara.

Ask a New Yorker: So why do this?

Edith: When I had my children’s theater I realized that I like that better than acting, to know that I could help these kids. To do something that would benefit them their whole lives. Not just for a week or a day or a month. The children spoke better, they learned better. On top of that if they found out that they had an artistic skill that they didn’t realize that made me very happy.

Ask a New Yorker: 50 West 13th Street has a lot of history.

Edith: This building is tremendously important. We traced it and they told us it could be the oldest brownstone in the village. On top of tha,t it was an Underground Railroad stop. There’s a trap door behind the stage where they hid the slaves. It’s a very important building and I’ve been fighting a battle to keep it. I leased it for 10 years and then it came up for sale. We raised money and bought stock. I’m a part owner now.

Ask a New Yorker: It should be a Historical landmarked building.

Edith: We tried that. That went on for a long time. But they finally said that they didn’t feel the exterior looked proper enough for it. That’s understandable. We have an awning. But they didn’t give us a chance to do something about it. I don’t know.

Ask a New Yorker: Let’s switch gears. Do you have a favorite food?

Edith: I like Chinese food. When you hear people from Idaho people say, “Oh, Idaho potatoes”… that’s all great. I like Chinese. I used to cook huge turkeys every Thanksgiving and every Christmas for everybody in our company and anybody else who wanted to come. I don’t do that anymore. I don’t go near my kitchen. So I order in.

Ask a New Yorker: Is there anything else we should know about you Edith?

Edith: I drink one beer before I go to sleep at night, Coors light.

Ask a New Yorker: You are Uberchic! Thank you Edith and Happy, happy birthday.

http://playingwithblocks.blogspot.com/2007/03/edith-ohara-and-13th-street-repertory.html

Edith O’Hara, “Creativity in the world is so important,” O’Hara said; so many people in the world have “creativity in their souls and it’s suppressed and not given attention and they don’t even know they have it.”