Shannon Rose
Photo: Lucas Chartier
Victor Knight has always had acting on his mind. He has shared that passion with Dawson students for a quarter century. “Victor’s 86. The man’s been around and he knows what he’s talking about,” said Kyle Pelletier, a third year student of Knight’s. He’s one of the older teachers at Dawson who is able to communicate with the younger generation.” “My family was in show business,” said Knight, a teacher in the professional theatre department since 1974. “I was the eighth child, so my mother certainly was no longer a dancer. My father had been an entertainer in London.” Knight explained that when his father returned from serving in World War I, he chose to drive a taxi. Knight speculates that his father no longer had the stamina to be an entertainer. “Very frequently he would get calls from his old friends in the business that would say ‘we need a couple of kids for a film next week,’ I would go trotting off and do extra work, small part stuff.”
he enrolled in the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England. He never completed this program. “After I graduated — well I didn’t graduate, I got kicked out.” He explained that a lot of his classes got cancelled and he and his classmates were frustrated. “The whole class got mad and they said ‘go and tell them.’ I was fool enough to do that.” He said he was labeled a troublemaker and was asked to leave.“I didn’t make the trouble, they made the trouble.” This bump along the road didn’t phase Knight one bit. “I immediately got work so it didn’t matter.” It was a job at the Kew Theatre in Kew Gardens, in London.“The week that I got kicked out of school, I got a job there and I worked there for three years. “One day, a friend of my fathers called me up and said ‘Victor, my niece is coming down from Montreal and is interested in the theatre. Can you take her?’” This call altered the course of Knight’s future. “I said I would try to fit her in somewhere and I did. I later followed her to Montreal and we got married and had a child.”
Victor Knight’s students on the Romeo and Juliet set Gabriela Saltiel, a second year the“I wish he had told you the story of atre student, has obviously heard how he got engaged,” said Saltiel who about Knight’s beginnings in the the- had been eavesdropping. “The first atre world. “He was born into the play that they saw together was business and it shows because it’s so Twelfth Night and when he proposed in him.” to her he took this quote from the Like Knight’s father, his acting ca- play and it goes on and on and on reer was put on hold due to serving about how he could love her and in a world war, but when he returned, how he would show his love to her.
Shannon Tosic-McNally, Victor Knight and Gabriela Saltiel It’s the sweetest thing ever.” be at Dawson College. Sister SaintAlthough Victor and Helen Knight Laurent was working in theatre at are no longer married, they share Marianopolis College. “She got into grandchildren in England. trouble with a play that she was diWhen Knight arrived in Montreal, recting. The sexual parts were getting he began working in radio. He worked embarrassing so she asked me to finat a daily soap opera called Laura Lim- ish the play for her.” He did the same ited. “Your mother may know about it, thing the following year. you wouldn’t though,” said Knight, After she joined Dawson College, addressing one of his students. Knight said she called him up and He also worked on a national broad- said, “You’ve got to come here now.” cast every third or fourth Sunday. He Knight began his career at Dawson explained that the pay was lucrative teaching pre-university courses. for the time. For the two gigs, he was Shortly after, he was approached by making well over a hundred dollars a members of the administration to deweek doing what he loved. velop a program for professional theKnight explained that he did not atre with the help of Bert Henry, a originally plan on becoming a long-time colleague in the department. teacher. He was working on a play at Knight wanted the students to have Sir George Williams University that a venue for their plays. “I was walkthe Chief of Studies was directing. ing along Notre-Dame street and I “He was directing the play but I saw this empty cinema and I called ended up doing a lot of the directing Bert and I said, ‘Come with me, I’ve for him because I’d been in the busi- got to look at this place.’ It was in apness a little bit longer than he had. At palling shape but it was perfect. It the end he said ‘You’re a born teacher.’ had romance written all over it.” This I didn’t believe him and I said ‘I did- became the original Dome theatre. It n’t even finish high school.’” He was was 1974. “I’m making new friends every year assigned two courses. “What I like about the way he di- with these students. I tried retiring. I rects is he lets you do what you want took one semester off. I felt like I was first,” said Bineyam Girma, a third waiting to die and I don’t like waiting year theatre student. The third year to die.” “I wish he was my grandpa,” said students are currently working on Romeo and Juliet. “I had an idea of Shannon McNally, one of Knight’s how Tybalt should be and I brought students, as she walked by. “I’m doing exactly what I want do,” it to the stage. He doesn’t tell you, he said. “What possible reason could ‘play it like this.’” Knight explained how he came to I have to retire?”
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www.theseniortimes.com December 2008 THE SENIOR TIMES 15
Photo: Scott Philip
eatre legend invites students to bring ideas to the stage