MY MOST ENDURING MEMORY of Standard 7 boy, Laurence Gien (1978), was him waiting for me at the old gates to the College one Monday morning, 19 September 1977, as I drove in to the grounds at about 7:30. I stopped and asked if he was OK. "Yup, apart for the hiding the Headmaster gave me yesterday. And you Sir, are also in trouble." As my eyes widened, he added, "Big trouble." It came as no surprise. I'd forgotten to tell the powers that be that the cast of "Captain Noah and his floating zoo" would be going to a cast party on the Saturday night after the last performance, and that they'd be out late. This may seem small now, but it seemed huge at the time. But Laurence, being Laurence, had decided not to go back to school after the party. So technically, he'd bunked. And with the shortage of that money-generating commodity called pupils, they were never expelled (as they do at all other schools or these days). They got a hiding and warned not to do it again.
Laurence writes: "I left St Charles in Std 8, where my dad sent me to Damelin College in Jhb to make a businesman of me. This plan needless too say was doomed to failure from the start. My stay there lasted about 2 months followed by my first small steps as a one-man band in the hotel scene in SA."
He then went off to learn to kill in the South African Defence Force in the name of "National Service." No one could phrase his stay with PW Botha and Magnus Malan's boys better than Laurence: "As to my time in the Army, I was sent to the 3rd South African Infantry Regiment in Potchefstroom. After I was found to be too dangerous to my own troops (swinging my rifle in all directions at the shooting range causing even the brigadier to dive for cover), I was sent in disgrace to the signal unit where I caused a major alarm by falling asleep at the radio. I was then sent to the neighboring artillery unit and found myself dragging an enormous canon around a field. By managing to plead mental illness I was posted to the South African Entertainment Unit in Voortrekkerhoogte (what a dreadful name!) where I went awol after a few months, and was promptly arrested (spending a delightfull week with a bald-shaven murderer in a cell) and posted to the 19th floor of the Zanzagebou (also a dreadful name!) where I was given the task of a filing clerk. We had mountains of files to file, and my fellow delinquent who came from a farm in the region one evening with his farm workers loaded into his bakkie drove off into the highveld night and burned the lot. ('Ek het die hele lot gebrand') as I remember. I was also witness to the most barbaric behavior and terribly sad fates of the poor generation of kids which PW sent off to fight his little apartheid war. I was finally released after bribing a drunk sergeant with a bottle of whisky."
After his two-year "military training", he joined various hotel entertainment organisations performing in Kimberley, Sishen, Richards Bay and Sun City. A girlfriend in Hermanus taught him the rudiments of music theory and, after an audition with the University of Cape Town Music School, he received a bursary from the Cape Town Opera. One year later with Cape Town in turmoil thanks to the excesses of the Botha regime, Laurence left for Germany with his girlfriend to begin studies in 1986 at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. There he met Gaby whom he later married.
His baptism of fire on the opera stage was as the barber in Rossini's "Figaro" at the Gärtnerplatz, Münich, where he went on to sing the lyric repertoire for five years. He writes, "Following that I did the same for another five years at the Kassel State Theatre and guested at all manner of opera houses from Stockholm to Istanbul. You name it, I have sung it. I later took the job of principal dramatic baritone in Braunschweig singing my beloved Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, etc."
"As a hobby I developed a passion for recording music, bought an Apple Mac computer and went on to learn Apple's "Logic".This led to a facination with graphic art on the computer, and so I mastered PhotoShop, Illustrator, In Design, etc. I started photographing in earnest and am a dedicated EOS 40D shooter, and make movies with a small company turned into a big company, with me doing more and more film stuff. I cut on Final Cut Pro, and do post in Apple's "Motion".
"We live in a beautiful house in Augsburg, my mammoth 90m2 studio is 100m away and I am surrounded by people who care about me. Anny, my dear 18-year-old daughter, Gaby my more than sweet Professor wife, William my hilarious son, Janosch our ginger cat, Jimmy our dog who does evil things to Janosch in the cellar when no one is watching, Feh, Janosch's wife cat who hates being touched, and Jany, Jimmy (the dog's wife) who is blissfully unaware of what her husband does to the cat."
I really enjoyed Laurence when he was at St Charles. Most of the rest of the staff didn't, Bro. Joseph particularly - nuff said. It never fails to amaze me that those rebels live by refining their skills on the run. Their education took place when they were deeply into their extra-mural activities. They swerve, side-step and charge and, when the wall is too high, leap over it.
This Laurence Gien was one such.
THE PHOTOS:
(1) Top: 1977 - the "Centenary" Choir - Laurence is the tallest boy in the photo. Justin Waldman is three figures to the right in the light shirt and hair - oh the hair!!!
(2). Hyping it up in the prefab (which Blignaut van Huyssteen and his mates demolished in about 1999 - next to the Champagnat Study Hall - now Prep Media Centre) is the Centenary Birthday Concert choir - Laurence is fifth in the back row between Ivan Millborrow and Rowan Wicks. Barry Beckley is pounding the piano and Brendan Wolff (still sorry I kept him out so late that September night, Melissa!) is last boy in the back row on the right. Brendan went on to be Dux of the College in 1981.
(3). Laurence as the Devil (in disguise) in an contemporary opera in Germany.
(4). Focussed on his Paulaner at lunch by the Chiemsee, Cheimgau, Bavaria.
(5). As the Devil, little horns and hair wigs on his arms. I suspect there are former teachers at SCC who'd agree he was typecast for this role.
(6). Shooting a scene from a movie with a sound and lighting crew.
And here are two sound bytes of him singing: (MP4 files - perfect for iPods)
a. Verdi: "Per me giunto" from "Don Carlo"
b. Schumann song series Op24:7 "Berg' und burge schaun herunter".
Justin Waldman | Pietermaritzburg | 2009 06 08 |
