Olympia Dukakis brings story of pain and hope to Buffalo
Olympia Dukakis recently had a shock, and it had to do with Buffalo.
Her memories of the city have, until lately, had mostly to do with a visit she made here in the 1960s, when she played Serafina Delle Rose in a production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo.” Among her favorite recollections: Buffalo’s Italian neighborhoods, which served dinners Dukakis still salivates over. As she puts it: “Those were some good restaurants.”
Imagine her surprise, then, when she discovered that Buffalo has become, according to the U.S. Census, the third poorest city in the country.
“Buffalo?” declaimed Dukakis, on the phone from the stage set of her current play, “The Singing Forest,” at New York’s Public Theatre on a recent weekday morning. Her voice rises in disbelief. “Buffalo has the third highest poverty rate? It’s almost like I couldn’t put it next to the picture I had of Buffalo.
“I never thought of it as a terribly affluent city – but I never thought of it as a poor city either, where one-third of the people are living in poverty.”
PREVIEW: The inaugural "Signature Event" of the Western New York Women's Fund will take place from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Wednesday in Kleinhans Music Hall. Tickets are $100. Attendees will be invited to write a tribute to a special woman in their lives. More details about the tributes and the event can be found on the Web site of the Women's Fund. www.wnywomensfund.org, or by calling 887-2621.
These dual emotions – love for the gritty little Queen City, and concern over its place in national poverty rankings – will fuel the Academy Award-winning actress’ message on Wednesday, when she speaks to a local audience inside Kleinhans Music Hall, at an inaugural “signature event” of the Western New York Women’s Fund.
The event is intended to raise funds for, and awareness of, the fledgling group that aims to work in targeted ways to improve the economic condition of women and girls in the region.
“We wanted to find someone who really fit our mission and values,” Brigid Doherty, executive director of the Women’s Fund, said of Dukakis’ appearance. “She’s multigenerational in her appeal – and she’s really got an interesting story. Her personal story ... is really representative of what a lot of people [in Buffalo] are going through.”
That’s true. Dukakis, in more than a few ways, couldn’t be a more suitable choice for an event intended to draw attention to the plight of people – particularly women –living in poverty in Buffalo.
After all, she and the city have more than a few things in common.
For starters: a strongly ethnic and immigrant heritage and identity. Dukakis, 77, the daughter of Greek immigrants and the cousin of former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, grew up in Massachusetts in a family that taught her lessons she now credits with shaping her approach to work and family life.
“The work ethic was very strong. Education was very [much] touted,” said Dukakis, recalling her childhood. “Like most Greeks, they were very good at parties. We would have wonderful times. Then there would be the times when you buckled down.”
Dukakis – again, like Buffalo –got off to a scrappy start. She attended Boston University and earned two degrees in physical therapy, a career path which she fell back on in ensuing years while trying to subsist with her husband, Louis Zorich, on the wages they both earned acting in theater – wages which were minimal then, as now.
“Things were very hard for us for a long time,” she recalled, of the marriage that began in 1962. “We scraped by. Theater doesn’t pay a living wage at all.”
Times got particularly hard in the 1970s, when Zorich was badly injured in an auto accident, so badly that for a while it seemed he might not walk again. The couple came close to losing their house.
Dukakis became the sole breadwinner in the couple’s household –which had grown to include three children, Christina, Peter and Stefan – and found herself struggling to balance heavy workloads outside the home with her role as mother within it.
“The kids had a really difficult time,” she said of that period. “They had a father who was struggling to walk, and a mother that was busy doing three different things at once. The family unit shattered, almost broke. I can still see the effects on them.”
Then, in 1987, came the job that changed Dukakis’ life – her stand-out performance in her first juicy film role, as Rose Castorini, the mother of Cher’s central character in “Moonstruck.” She won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for her work. She was 57 years old.
“‘Moonstruck’ actually changed our lives,” said Dukakis. “Talk about getting a whole revitalization. I don’t wake up worried about money anymore.”
Which isn’t to say that she doesn’t wake up worried about others enduring the same economic deprivations she did, for so many years. Dukakis said that the plight of poor women in Buffalo is much on her mind these days.
She plans to tie her story to that of the region’s struggling women when she comes to town.
“There’s no better way to be involved with the next generation,” she said, “than to be involved with people who are trying to educate and raise awareness.”
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