Leo Orenstein; writer and playwright (Globe and Mail)
Hyfler/Rosner
CAROLINE ALPHONSO
February 14, 2009
TORONTO -- The dining room of Leo Orenstein's one-bedroom
Toronto apartment doubled as an office. Almost daily,
surrounded by his paintings and a brimming ashtray, he wrote
and revised his plays - typewriters or computers were never
used; all was written in long hand. Even as his health began
failing and his eyesight weakening, he maintained his
routine, completing his last play in December, two months
before his death.
"The writing kept on," said his oldest son, Paul.
Mr. Orenstein carved out a long and impressive career as a
producer, director, artist, playwright, novelist and
teacher. The charming yet outspoken man produced and
directed more than 150 television dramas for the CBC.
Born in Montreal to Max and Minnie Orenstein, he moved to
Toronto early in his life. His household was a lively one,
where dinnertime conversations revolved around politics and
religion. Mr. Orenstein carried that verbal dexterity into
adulthood.
What he wouldn't take with him was his father's desire to
find a serious career. Instead, Mr. Orenstein wished to
emulate the lives of Gauguin and Diego Rivera, move to
Mexico and paint. He didn't travel that far, but he pushed
horizons with his art.
After graduating from Central Technical School in Toronto,
he studied at New York's American Artists School on a
scholarship. During this time, and for a period after, he
changed his surname to Orr, because he thought being Jewish
could be held against him, his son recalled.
Mr. Orenstein bounced between Toronto and New York, at one
time in 1946 writing for a nightclub group called the
Skeptics. He married Lucille Kallen, who found success as a
writer in the early 1950s sketch comedy television series
Your Show of Shows, which is now considered a classic of
television's golden age and included writers such as Mel
Brooks and Carl Reiner. The marriage failed because of
career stresses.
Mr. Orenstein returned to Toronto, and his big break came
when his play The Big Leap, a comedy about a man going over
Niagara Falls in a barrel, debuted in 1953 at the Royal
Alexandra Theatre. It was so successful that it was adapted
for television and produced on the CBC.
Hired by the CBC, Mr. Orenstein went on to produce and
direct more than 150 television dramas, including
adaptations of works by such authors as Chekhov, Shaw and
Ionesco.
Never one to keep quiet, he campaigned for television to be
more like real life. He was upset that advertisers were
interfering. "Anything that is the least bit controversial
is considered dangerous," he said in a 1959 interview with
the Toronto Star, according to a CBC report.
"The agency men are always worried that some group is going
to holler. As a result, real conflicts are missing from TV
drama and instead we have cardboard figures in implausible
situations and a tremendous emphasis on violence."
Around this time, Mr. Orenstein married Yukie Kadoguchi, a
Japanese woman. It was a controversial union, because
society at the time did not approve of the interracial
marriage. Neither did Mr. Orenstein's parents, for a while.
The marriage was passionate but rocky, and produced sons
Paul and Norman. In the early 1960s, the couple separated.
Mr. Orenstein left the CBC in the mid-1960s. He worked on a
number of projects and tried to produce a feature film,
finally landing a teaching position at Ryerson Polytechnic
Institute. During this time, he published a book, The Queers
of New York. He hated the title, but his publisher thought
it would sell copies.
Mr. Orenstein wasn't shy about sex. After surviving a major
operation in 1979, he had a burst of joy, painting 31 erotic
epiphanies. They were shown at a local Toronto restaurant.
Soon after his separation, Mr. Orenstein found domestic
bliss with Olive Mark. They never married; she kept her own
apartment nearby. He would remain with her till she died in
2004.
Mr. Orenstein never lost his passion for writing. He was
recognized in 2007 for his work by winning Theatre BC's
national Playwriting Competition for Homeless Hannah, a
story of a street woman who gets a job as a housekeeper to
three anxious and needy men.
"To get a play accepted now at my age is very affirming to
me, because it's like, 'Gee, I'm a writer again and I'm
being accepted again,' so it's a real feather in my cap that
somebody would recognize me," he told The Canadian Jewish
News.
LEO ORENSTEIN
Leo Alan Orenstein was born in Montreal on July 24, 1919. He
died Feb. 5, 2009, of complications after a heart attack. He
was 89 and is survived by sons Paul and Norman.