Acting start takes ambition

Metro Toronto, Canada
May 3 2005

photo: Eric Woolfe is starring in The Strange And Eerie Memoirs Of
Billy Wuthergloom.

photo: Hrant Alianak is currently co-producing The Strange And Eerie
Memoirs Of Billy Wuthergloom.

With over a hundred acting credits in television series, made-for-TV
movies and films under his belt, Hrant Alianak can be partly credited
with Canada’s entertainment industry being dubbed “Hollywood North.”

“I started in 1980,” says Alianak about his illustrious acting
career. “The first movie I did was Best Revenge with John Hurt and
Alberta Watson. I shot for a month in Spain. It was a great start to
the business.”

Among his television series credits are Robocop, More Tears, La Femme
Nikita and Nero Woolfe. He received a Gemini Award in the supporting
actor category for his role in the television movie, Family Viewing.
Alianak also appeared in the 1995 film, Billy Madison, starring Adam
Sandler and the 2004 HBO bio-pic, Going Down: The Rise And Fall Of
Heidi Fleiss.

So how did Alianak, who was born in Sudan to Armenian parents,
but came to Canada in 1967, get his foot in the door of such a
competitive industry?

“There was a wonderful teacher named Eli Rill who used to teach at the
Actors Studio in New York and he had his own acting school here (the
Eli Rill Acting School) where I went for several years,” he explains.

But Alianak was not satisfied with bringing someone else’s vision
to life. He mounted his first play, Tantrums, in 1992 at the Theatre
Passe Muraille in Toronto, under his then-newly formed company Alianak
Theatre Productions.

Now, in addition to writing plays, he also directs and produces them.
Alianak was never schooled in the craft of directing ~W he literally
learned on the job.

“I didn’t have that experience because someone else directed my first
play,” he says. “For a year, Paul Thompson, the artistic director
of the Theatre Passe Muraille, let me do these short plays that I
was writing so that I could learn how to direct. I did five or six
of them and then Paul let me direct my first full-length play. I
eventually started directing other people’s work.”

Other plays Alianak has written and directed include The Blues, Lucky
Strike and The Big Hit. He also produced the play Duse last year,
starring Nick Mancuso who also directed the play. In 2002 his play, The
Walls Of Africa was nominated for eight Dora Awards, which recognizes
achievements in theatre, dance and opera, of which it won three:
Best Actress (Tedde Moore), Best Production and Best Sound Design.

Currently Alianak is co-producing The Strange And Eerie Memoirs Of
Billy Wuthergloom written and performed by Eric Woolfe. The play is
a suburban-gothic horror melodrama about puberty and the supernatural.

Alianak Theatre Productions is in the business of spotlighting creative
minds who enjoy working on a small scale.

“I try to help people who are not being done by the major theatres,”
he says. “I give them a good production that is high profile, and
with proper advertising.”

The Strange And Eerie Memoirs Of Billy Wuthergloom runs till May 8
at the Cameron House. Call 416-703-1725 for more.

Terri-Lynne Waldron/for Metro Toronto