My wife, Jovanka, passed away in 2006. She died in my arms, after a lengthy battle with cancer. "Dr. Bach," was both a physician and playwright, who managed to successfully write over a dozen plays, short stories, and two novels, while working as a full time medical practitioner in Los Angeles. I first met her at the Coronet Theatre in Hollywood, in 1977, where I was performing my one man show An Evening With Stephen Leacock. She came up to me after the show and said I gave her a lot of laughs and wanted to know about my background, and why my name was Stark, when in fact the program stated I was of Yugoslavian background. I quickly retorted with: " when I was in elementary school in Canada, the kids couldn't pronounce my real name, Starcevich, and called me "Son of a Bitch" instead, so I immediately changed my name to Stark. She laughed and said she had changed her name too, from Bachevich to Bach, but she wouldn't go into why she changed it. We got married shortly afterwards and spent our honeymoon in Dubrovnik. And so a lifelong relationship began with me staging her plays. The most satisfying moment for Jovanka was when we went to New York to see the opening of her play Name Day. She was very ill and weak and could hardly manage to get on the plane. When she saw the off Broadway New York production, which the New York Times compared to the best works of Arthur Miller, tears came to her eyes and she said, "thank you, John, thank you so much for what you have done for me." At last she had gained the recognition she so deservedly needed. I went on to stage many of her works at the Odyssey Theatre. Her " Balkan Trilogy," an ambitious undertaking covering three plays that chronicle the rise and fall of Yugoslavia both under Tito, and the present regime, has been widely acclaimed with successful productions at the Odyssey and off-Broadway at the Barrow Group Theatre. Her play 'O'Neill's Ghosts' has been likened to 'Long Day's Journey Into Night', by Eugene O'Neill, and is in fact a sequel to that play about the O'Neill family. I revived an early play she had written entitled "Sylvie" at the Odyssey, and successfully staged it in Las Vegas. I also revived "Mercy Warren's Tea" which was chosen Best Drama when it was originally broadcast on American Public Radio in 1977. Just before passing away, Jovanka completed a beautiful trilogy of children's short stories entitled "Paddy The Flat-Footed Platypus" and two short stories, "My Mother's Hair" and "Where The Wildflowers Blooms." I found them on a dictating machine she kept in her hospital bed and I managed to retrieve them. They have just been published and are avilable at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com and Xlibris.com. Bach's latest play, Nightsong For The Boatman premiered at the Odyssey Theatre in 2010, and then opened in New York at the off Broadway Barrow Group Theatre, Jan. 6th for a limited engagement and received a positive reception. Her play Chekhov and Maria, which won rave reviews from all the New York press when I staged it there in 2006 prompted me to make it into a motion picture and it is now airing on Super Channel Canada, PBS TV and Russian TV. A novel by Jovanka Bach entitled "A Little Death" is a fascinating medical investigation by Dr. Jocasta Rex, into the causes of enhanced erectile function from a mysterious herbal plant that one of her patients had taken but died from. After travelling to South America, she locates the source of the plant and is handsomely rewarded. It is now published by Kindle and I now adapted it into a screen play. It is available at Inktip.com together with my screenplays Sons of Freedom, Death of Angelique Vitry, and June Street. Recently discovered is a one-man-musical play by Jovanka Bach. The piece is set in Canada, and entitled Johnny Canuck. It chronicles a wandering folksinger whose wife has deserted him and taken up with drug addicts and prostitutes. Again directed and produced by John Stark. John DeYoung who stars as Johnny Canuck, composed all the music. His portrayal of the Johnny was highly praised at the University of New Mexico opening recently. The Canadian premiere was at the Waterfront Theatre in Vancouver, Sept. 1 to 4, followed by performances in Montreal at the Crowley Arts Centre and The Factory Theatre in Toronto, in October. The internationally acclaimed Croation dramatist and novelist Miroslav Krleza, who was twice nominated for the the Nobel Prize, has been translated into English by John Stark and adapted by Jovanka Bach. The Krleza play In Agony was successfully staged off Broadway by Stark at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre and praised by Mel Gussow of the New York Times. Upcoming productions will take place at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago and the Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans. More information, film clips & press : www.JohnStarkProductions.com John Stark Ph. (818) 222 6031
