Category: In Memoriam

In Memoriam
Honorary Member Jean Navassardian

Posted onAuthorGEDS

Jean Navassardian   16 July 1935 – 1 January 2024

Jean arrived in Geneva with her husband Tigran in 1962 and left to return to the UK in 1991, she was made an honorary life member for services to the society at the AGM just prior to her departure.

Jean was involved in most of the productions from the mid 70s to the end of the 80s and served on the committee from 1976-1988 in a number of different posts during that time, business manager, secretary, publicity manager and also vice chair, she was very efficient in all she did.

She co-directed 5 shows, and directed 3 others, Butley (1977) Home (1981) Table Manners (1986). In 1983 after recasting one of the male roles, Home was taken to FEATS in Monchengladbach where it won 1st price and also took the Best Actress and Best Actor awards

She was the production assistant for 11 shows, production manager on another and production advisor for a couple of others. I recall the occasion when she was production assistant and I was props for Entertaining Mr Sloane (1976), she insisted on coming round to my flat to check that I had collected enough junk to build the large rubbish dump visible through the living room window that was necessary for the play.

Jean was the ticket sales controller for 9 shows, this was prior to the existence of the Theatre In English ticket office set up to sell tickets for both GEDS and GAOS. In those pre internet days ticket sales controller was quite a task and all done with telephone calls and ticket requests via post office BV payment slips.

For other shows she took on furniture and set décor (2) costumes (1) stage manager (1) ASM (1) and props for 5 shows and at FEATS in 1988 when GEDS took Bazaar and Rummage to Brussels received an honorable mention from the adjudicator for managing so efficiently the shear volume of props used, knowing what to give to whom as the cast prepared for the rummage/jumble sale. The play also won 1st prize and took the Best Actress award (no men in the cast!)

Jean was a regular attendee of FEATS festivals even after her return to the UK and came to Geneva to support GEDS when it hosted the festival in 1999 and 2011.

Back in London Jean became engaged in teaching children with difficulties at a primary school for about 10 years and then went on to become one of the school governors.

Though no longer active with GEDS she always took a great interest in the society’s activities, regularly reading the newsletter, the GEDS at a Glances and the annual committee report, she even attended the AGM on a few occasions.

I was very sorry to receive the sad news on New Year’s Day, we have kept in contact over the years and just 6 weeks ago when speaking with her on the phone she said that apart from being somewhat deaf, she was otherwise well.

Condolences to her three children, John, Jenny (who lives in Geneva) and Helene and to her grandchildren.

Jane Easton

 

Jean was a dear friend who I knew almost from the time I arrived in Geneva in 1970. I visited her and Tigran often while she lived here, she was excellent company and a delightful hostess. I appeared in a number of productions that she was involved with, and especially remember the fun we all had in “Table Manners.”  We spent so many hours talking about the theatre and life, rearranging the world. I was sorry when she moved back to London, although I stayed with her there a number of times in later years, sharing good food and good plays. Rest in peace, dear Jean, I shall always remember you with love.

Frances Favre

Productions

One-Act Plays 1974, The Secretary Bird 1979, Present Laughter 1982, Death of a Salesman 1987 Bazaar and Rummage 1988 – Props

The Merchant of Venice 1974, Move Over Mrs Markham – 1975, JB 1975, The Rape of the Belt 1975, Marat/Sade 1975, The Crucible 1976, The Last of the Red Hot Lovers 1976, The Changeling 1981, Enter a Free Man 1987  – Ticket Sales Control

Entertaining Mr Sloane 1976, The Crucible 1976, One-Act Plays 1978, Barefoot in the Park 1979, The Circle 1980, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton 1980, Bedroom Farce 1980, Uncle Vanya 1982, The Deep Blue Sea 1982, The Country Wife 1984, Private Lives 1989 – Production Assistant

Hotel Paradiso 1976 – Production Manager

Butley 1977, Home 1981, Table Manners 1986 – Director

Blithe Spirit 1977, Richard III 1978, Bingo 1978, The Royal Hunt of the Sun 1983, Old Times 1985 – Co-Director

The School for Scandal 1979 – Assistant Stage Manager

The Secretary Bird 1979, Habeas Corpus 1984 – Production Advisor

Absent Friends 1989, Watch It Sailor 1990- Furniture and Decor

Antigone 1979, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton 1980, The Old Country 1984, Bazaar and Rummage 1988   – Stage Crew

Lloyd George Knew My Father 1987 – Costumes

Private Lives 1989 – Stage Manager

Committees

Business Manager 1976-8, 1980-1,1982-3

Secretary 1978-80

Publicity 1983-4, 1985-6

Vice Chairman – 1987-8

In Memoriam Max Wenner
23 July 1926 to 1 September 2022

Posted onAuthorGEDS

Many of us were saddened to learn of the passing on 1 September 2022 of life member Max Wenner, at the age of 96, GEDS oldest member.

Max was active in GEDS for many years acting in 35 plays. After arriving in Geneva in 1964 his first performance was in 1965 in Yes and No and his last stage appearance was in Shakespeare’s As You Like It in 2012 in the role of Corin. One of his most memorable performances was in the title role of Hadrian VII when he bore an uncanny resemblance to Pope John Paul II. After this date he remained a loyal supporter unfailingly attending all GEDS plays as an audience member until leaving Switzerland in March 2021 to go and live with his daughter in Brighton, England.

He also directed 2 plays for GEDS, On Stage 1972 and in 1973 The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet.  He served 6 seasons on the committee, three of them as publicity manager.

He was also no stranger to GAOS audiences having appeared in several musicals, pantomimes and music halls.

Professionally he worked at CERN, though a couple of times took off time to do humanitarian work. In the early 80s, during the war in Cambodia, he worked for the Swiss International Red Cross as an international delegate based in Thailand in a refugee camp on the border of Cambodia and Thailand.

The funeral will be taking place on 27 September in Brighton. Max’s family are hoping to hold a memorial in Geneva at a later date.

Our sincere condolences go to his daughter, two sons and their families.

Any tributes to Max for inclusion in this post can be sent to chair@geds.ch

Jane Easton 

Max was a part of my GEDS experience right from the start, over 50 years ago.  In October 1969 I was drafted in to make up the cast for a joint GEDS venture, “The Right Honourable Gentleman”, and there first met Max who, as usual, had a fairly major role.

Max was a man of modest mien, though he had little to be modest about.  His parts ranged from GAOS Music Hall chairman to his much-hailed and challenging role as the eponymous pope in “Hadrian the Seventh” – at the age of 75.

His Anglo-Swiss nationality enabled him to make occasional forays to zones of conflict for the Red Cross.  But he was also fond of telling tales about his service in Burma in the British Army in World War Two.

GEDS has lost one of its most accomplished, as well as longest-serving, members.

David Stieber

 

 I was very sad to learn of Max Wenner’s death. 

 Max was an admirable and friendly man whose active life and philosophy were well portrayed in the BBC programme Young at Heart. (I was delighted to listen to this for the first time, and to hear his voice again; I urge everyone to click on the button and listen.)

As someone very keen on the theatre but unable to learn lines, I seized the chance of a non-speaking role as a cardinal in the GEDS production of Hadrian VII.  Alas, even though I had nothing to say, I managed to forget my moves as I processed around the stage in robes, swinging incense behind Max as the eponymous Pope. (Max, of course, managed to memorized reams of text at the age of 75.)

A couple of years after that, I encountered Max on the ski slopes. Though a couple of decades older than me, he was far better at that too.

 I got to know Max a little at playreadings in the English Church Hall, where he encouraged my attempts at acting with script in hand. We would also chat when I  sometimes gave him a lift back to his flat in Grand-Saconnex. He had a regular lunch date with the late Nic Sommer, another much lamented GEDS member.

 Max’s recipe for staying young, as he says in the Young at Heart programme, was to maintain physical and mental interests and be open to new things and new people. Lessons for us all!

 My sympathies to his family.

David Lewis

 

Dear Max,

We first met at your flying saucer landing, in our… “Salad Days”.

We last met at your arrival in Malta airport. You laughed out loud when I asked if “your saucer had a good flight”.

Between those two encounters, we had years of a special stage-friendship. I was one of your fervent admirers and you always had a kind word for my performances.

As glaring on stage as you were discreet in life, your presence is missed.

Faithfull to our inside joke, I will continue to picture you flying, somewhere, somehow, on a Flying Saucer. Bon voyage, mon ami.

Frou-Frou

 

Despite the numerous plays that we were in together, my abiding memory of Max was his fantastic performance in LTG’s production of ‘Insignificance’ directed by Walter Acosta. 

He played the part of Albert Einstein which was about the size of the Book of Genesis, an absolute gargantuan role and he played it brilliantly with absolutely no fuss as if he’d been playing it all his life. 

When he was cast as the Pope in ‘Hadrian VII’, another huge role, I remember thinking that Max was going to have no problem; his only problem was dealing with actors like me who was always getting his lines back to front, producing a look of Papal concern on Max’s face such that I’d remember to get them the right way round the next time.

What a lovely man!

 

In fond tribute,

Julian Finn

 

Sometime in the middle of 1996 or so, I read aloud my first words in any kind of GEDS event. It was playreading of Much Ado about Nothing and I was a very late replacement to read the part of Verges to Max’s Dogberry; the comically officious watchmen, full of malapropisms. I was fairly terrified but what a piece of luck to have Max next to me. He was that day, what he always was, a great acting technician and a generous co-performer. He always had a few but nonetheless really helpful words and tips which he imparted with kindness and no hint of superiority.

Likewise the first production I performed in was Ayckbourne’s A Chorus of Disapproval and again here was Max forming a beautiful husband and wife team with Wendy Grey. Tight on lines and cues and extracting all the humour from the lines without ever milking it. His character was a confused simple type but Max was, of course, someone with a very sharp and keen mind.

We shared the stage again a couple of years later as a pair of mobsters in another Ayckbourne, Communicating Doors, where I had the pleasure of reading a bedtime story while I was wearing a long blond wig, me centre stage alone, Max in the wings. His skill at serious drama was showcased in the production of Hadrian VII leading as a medieval English pope with his fine performance in the lead role. Of course, he did so much for GEDS production decades before even my time from the mid 90s.

I also recall how well Max understood non-vocal stagecraft, which he brilliantly demonstrated in a GEDS newcomers evening, showing how stature, posture and position conveyed so much about a character and their relationships and statuses in the piece. I learnt a great deal from Max and any play, reading or just just chatting to him was always truly pleasurable. One always had a sense that there were so many unspoken layers to Max. So much he seems to have done in a long life.

Outside of theatre, Max was always great to talk to, his passion for outdoor activities, even later in life, were inspiring. Very much one of a kind and much missed.

Malcolm Grant

All

BBC Sounds inteview in 2001 for a BBC WORLD series on Young at Heart

Max Wenner is 74 years old and lives in Geneva. In one day he enjoys a spot of skiing with his son on the French Alps, then nips back to Geneva for play rehearsals. Keeping fit is a priority.