Staging a Play While Raising a Family

Four year-old Olivia is singing and painting an acorn in the living room. Her 10-year-old sister Charlotte is vigourously attempting to lure her into the other room. Their six-week old sister, Lily, is just waking up, and she’s hungry. Their mother, Liz Valdez, is telling Olivia to listen to her big sister while brewing coffee and bouncing Lily on her hip. Her husband, Eric Hausknost, is picking up toys from the floor and simultaneously making sure Olivia doesn’t splash me with yellow paint.
It’s Saturday, and it’s the only day off for the parents of three. The couple is in rehearsals six days a week for the upcoming play Haunted House, a portrait of acclaimed Jewish Canadian poet Abraham Moses Klein. Valdez is the show’s director, and Hausknost is its star.
“Right now we’re not even husband and wife. We’re director and actor and then parents. That’s it. We don’t have room for anything else,” said Valdez.
Written by poet and playwright Endre Farkas, and presented by Tableau D’H