Monday, May 24, 2010
Written for High School Class Reunion Bio Book by JP
Mark Richard Voland passed away on January 13, 2010 from a heart attack. Friends and family have posted a blog spot to honor their love of his friendship. He is survived by his niece Hayley Voland. I'm JP Denyer, a former Grant HS alumnus (1971) and life long companion to Mark; we met in 1969 in the lunch courtyard and never lost touch. I truly miss him and know he was needed for better things.
More Photos (from JP)
Rehearsing for the Pirates play he did here in 
A few years back when our good friend Kandice Marshall graduated from CSUCI with her Bachelors; this was quiet a feat as she is a single mom with three children, we met her when Mark joined a Company and she was his training partner. We all became good friends and she also attended his memorial recently. The other person in the photo is my daughter Abby.
Tears Like Wine - An Elegy of Sorts
(For Ben, Mark, Mary Jane, Kathleen, and My Old Man)
midnight is bleak
the mountains barely visible
through the rain
and then I remember all those
who have departed but left behind
their wit and generosity of spirit
the wind filling the street
feels warmer and the rain streaming
down my face tastes like wine
Michael L. Newell (via JP)
midnight is bleak
the mountains barely visible
through the rain
and then I remember all those
who have departed but left behind
their wit and generosity of spirit
the wind filling the street
feels warmer and the rain streaming
down my face tastes like wine
Michael L. Newell (via JP)
Big Read
I was going through some stuff and found this book that Mark asked for me to read, it was his favorite book and he had given it to me as a gift so I could read it. When I began to read it I found I had to stop as I found it reflected so much of the Mark I knew in the main character, that I had to put the book down. Now that he has passed on, perhaps I can read it, but I thought others may get a joy from the book! (from JP)
Friday, March 19, 2010
March 15th, 2010
To all of you who were able to join us at Chili’s it was a great time to share stories and give hugs to each other for our fallen friend, Mark. I would like to thank every one who was there, those of you who called and to every one who couldn’t make I know you were there in spirit.
I have learned that it is possible to get a copy of Mark’s blog spot so if this is of interest to you, please contact Jim Cubbage, Mark’s cousin (Jimc(change this to 'at')workingsystems.com) on how to get one.
I brought what is the beginning of a lengthy project, a memorial photo album of things and photos near and dear to Mark which he kept close to him over the years. It will be filled with much of his history and then passed on to Hayley, Mark’s Niece (the original) and I hope to have copies available to those who have interest. For those interested in a copy of his photo album, please contact me at drawisaid(change this to 'at')sbcglobal.net and I will make one available as soon as I am done.
Thank you again, we all miss Mark in our own little and big ways. It was great to meet you and spend time on Sunday.
Jenny
To all of you who were able to join us at Chili’s it was a great time to share stories and give hugs to each other for our fallen friend, Mark. I would like to thank every one who was there, those of you who called and to every one who couldn’t make I know you were there in spirit.
I have learned that it is possible to get a copy of Mark’s blog spot so if this is of interest to you, please contact Jim Cubbage, Mark’s cousin (Jimc(change this to 'at')workingsystems.com) on how to get one.
I brought what is the beginning of a lengthy project, a memorial photo album of things and photos near and dear to Mark which he kept close to him over the years. It will be filled with much of his history and then passed on to Hayley, Mark’s Niece (the original) and I hope to have copies available to those who have interest. For those interested in a copy of his photo album, please contact me at drawisaid(change this to 'at')sbcglobal.net and I will make one available as soon as I am done.
Thank you again, we all miss Mark in our own little and big ways. It was great to meet you and spend time on Sunday.
Jenny
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Noteworthy Photos
via Dread
with Dread (David Read)
with Gary S. Martinez
With Hyam and Terry in Jazz Nativity (listen to the band in earlier posts)
With a little help from his friends
Mark's Last Home
This is the Apartment I found for Mark and where he spent his last days (in Ventura). He had been there since about August 2009. The apartment was the one on the corner on the second floor. It faced North at the corner, was filled with light during the days and the streets were filled with people the day I went there for the last time. Below is the classic record shop, Buffalo Records, a place Mark liked.
The apartment was very nice according to what Mark told his friends from what I understand and he was happy here. Sadly it is also where he died, however it is comforting to know he liked the place. (from Jenny aka J.P.)
The apartment was very nice according to what Mark told his friends from what I understand and he was happy here. Sadly it is also where he died, however it is comforting to know he liked the place. (from Jenny aka J.P.)
Michigan Days
Mystery group in Kalamazoo. Mark on top.
Production of Grease
Kalamazoo Playhouse
Three Penny Opera
Three Penny OperaMore Images from Gary S. Martinez
A bunch of us Californians stranded in Michigan during Christmas of 1977 or 1978 decided to put together a condensed version of A Christmas Carol and tour it to various malls in the area. Mark's acting and guitar underscoring were brilliant! Nobody was doing what we were doing that Christmas and we got a lot of notice.
Cover picture from the Lansing, MI Paper Sunday enterainment section advertising our show at Michigan State University. Gary S. Marinez at the top as the Barber and Mark and his then-wife Juliette as the lovers.
The Performing Arts Company at Michigan Statue University in 1977. Mark and Gary S. Martinez are in the middle row towards the center.Monday, February 8, 2010
Late 70's Photos
Mark and Gary Martinez in the early days at Michigan State University ala summer of 1977.
Hope Summer Repertory Theatre production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1979. Mark is playing Pseudolus and Gary Martinez is playing Erronius. (from Gary S. Martinez)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Mark Playing Classical Guitar
David Read writes "This recording is a classical guitar session that Mark recorded for a public TV program, I think. The date of 6-30-84 (on the cassette), however doesn't jive with the time he was at Michigan State and I thought that's where he recorded the pieces. Although I listened to the recording again (really good stuff), I don't have the titles of each piece, but I remember them all."
To download a complete mp3 for your ipod click on the link below.
Download Mark on Classical Guitar
To download a complete mp3 for your ipod click on the link below.
Download Mark on Classical Guitar
Recordings of Mark on Bass
Below are two tapes of Mark playing in his band from high school. The band Jazz Nativity featured Terry Trepper on keyboards, Glenn Luxembourg on guitar, Hyam Sosnow on drums, and Mark Voland on electric bass. They included original pieces, cover of Sunshine of Your Love, and We Gotta Get Out of This Place. They were made in 1969 and 1970 and come to us from David Read.
Jazz Nativity 1
Jazz Nativity 2
If you want copies of the mp3's for your own, please download from the links below, otherwise you can listen to them with the links above.
Download complete Jazz Nativity 1
Download complete Jazz Nativity 2
Jazz Nativity 1
Jazz Nativity 2
If you want copies of the mp3's for your own, please download from the links below, otherwise you can listen to them with the links above.
Download complete Jazz Nativity 1
Download complete Jazz Nativity 2
Friday, February 5, 2010
Tweet from Niece Hayley
im gonna (re)read Shadow Kiss and then go to bed. this weekend has kicked my ass.. [R.I.P. Mark, im sorry.] 9:02 PM Jan 18th (Hayley Voland)
Monday, February 1, 2010
Gary Martinez Remembers
I met Mark in the state of Michigan. We were both members of the Performing Arts Company as Michigan State University. It was a consortium of scholarshipped students in the MFA and Ph. D. programs. Mark had been there a year or so by the time I got there. I had joined the program a few months before the classwork to begin in September of 1977. I had been offered roles in the Summer Circle Free Festival held on campus during the summer. When Mark and I first rubbed shoulders in the company it was all too clear that we both shared the California experience and a sick sense of humor. We appeared in a few shows that first summer including The Barber of Bombay, As You Like It, and a series of One-Acts. We laughed, ate, drank, and smoked through that first summer. Then the school work began. Mark and I were in some classes together, but mainly our time together was spent onstage. We performed together in Much Ado About Nothing, The Threepenny Opera, and The Time of Your Life to name only a few. While it could clearly be said we were both partiers, it was also very clear that we were very professional in our approach to the work onstage. In addition to Mark’s acting skills, he was a very accomplished classical guitar player. I recorded about a half hour of his playing one dark and stormy night (no joke) in a classroom with clear sound and minimal echoes. I ended using his music in a production of As You Like It I directed for Idaho Summer ’78 in Moscow, ID. And, of course, many many nights we were singing everything from Neil Young to Simon and Garfunkle to Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
I got to know Mark’s first wife, Juliette Gay and their dog Phoebe, an English bulldog they both loved and cherished. After the first year in school together, we went on to another Summer Circle Free Festival the second summer. When that gig was over, we loaded up his VW van and took the jaunt to my farm in Northern MN about 1,000 miles away.
I’ll never forget the time spent in East Lansing before and after the performances. Amidst the 3.2 beer bars on the main drag was an establishment named The Peanut Barrel famous for peanut shells on the floor and a regular weekly Trivia Night where the host posed questions to the unruly crowds screaming out answers. For each correct answer, the host tossed a chip good for discounts on the already-low priced pitchers of beer. Everyone screamed, ate greasy burgers and fries, munched peanuts to their hearts content, drank beer, and laughed. I remember that the host had put together questions that only Mark would know, such as “Who played General Clayton on MASH?”. Of course the answer was Herb Voland, Mark’s Dad.
When our time at MSU came to an end, we tearfully departed with big hugs all around and well wishes for the future. It was hard to say goodbye to such a close friend. Lo and behold! As fate would have it, both Mark and I were hired at Hope Summer Repertory Theater in Holland, MI the summer of 1979 and we were reunited. That summer we performed in Twelfth Night (I as Feste and Mark as Toby Belch), The Rainmaker (I as HC Curry and Mark as Noah, my son!), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (see pictures!) (I as Erronius and Mark in the Zero Mostel role). He was fabulous-singing and dancing even! Needless to say, as Mark was at this time separated from his wife, we got into lotz of trouble in the Holland area—swimming at the beaches, eating in the restaurants, drinking in the bars, and spreading ourselves thin among the womenfolk.
After that, I lost track of Mark for awhile only to be reunited when I ventured down to Los Angeles years later. We reconnected and partied together off an on for the next five years or so. Sometimes he would venture north to the Bay Area and I would put him up for a few days before he would venture home again. I could tell he was troubled. His excesses were beginning to catch up to him and he was moody and argumentative at times.
We always kept in touch though. He was a veracious writer and very politically aware. He would send me articles on the foibles of the Republican party and politics in general. Of course, most of his concerns were way over my head, but I respected his views and his persuasive way of speaking about them.
And as Mark continued to expand his career from performances in Topanga Canyon to television work (Hill Street Blues, Colombo, General Hospital, Dallas, Murder She Wrote, Max Headroom, and a great guest appearance on Cheers), I envied his career and his ability to earn money at a pretty good rate. Whenever I visited him in LA, he lavished me with debauchery of both the liquid and solid kind. He could drink me under the table and his use of other things far exceeded by abilities. Long after I was waving off another “bump”, he was right there indulging deeper and deeper in his excesses.
After a few more years----well really about 12---I heard from him that he was beginning to have problems with his ability to memorize lines. Then came the seizures. Then came the accidents. Then came the medications. Then came the confusion. Then came the resolution that he was unable to care for himself.
I last saw him in the flesh a couple of years ago when I joined him in LA at Camp Jenny in Oxnard to help him sort out things a bit after his Mom’s death. We spent about three days laughing and running errands. He would repeat himself constantly and I could see that his mind was on the wane. But then we’d begin thinking about days past and I could sense a clarity in living in the past. Mark could remember such details! It was great to be with him and it was tough to leave, but we both knew that our lives were on different tracks and I always had a gig to return to in the Bay Area.
I spoke with Mark on Saturday—four days before he died. We spoke of getting together soon as I was going down to LA to secure a place to stay to begin my chasing the media a bit as an actor. I apologized that I wasn’t going to be able to see him on the current trip down South as I was not driving down myself, but with a friend. Mark was upbeat, glad to be living in his own place, was satisfied with SAG and AFTRA and their treatment of him in terms of getting his pensions to him, and was looking forward to seeing me in the near future. His last words were about making sure I phoned him before I showed up as he couldn’t trust his mind anymore to remember when I was coming. He wanted to be sure he was home when I knocked on his door.
Mark and I wrote each other back and forth for years. We didn’t see each other that much, but when we did it was as if ZERO time had passed between us. We were truly brothers.
I loved him like one. And will think of him often.
Gary S. Martinez
I got to know Mark’s first wife, Juliette Gay and their dog Phoebe, an English bulldog they both loved and cherished. After the first year in school together, we went on to another Summer Circle Free Festival the second summer. When that gig was over, we loaded up his VW van and took the jaunt to my farm in Northern MN about 1,000 miles away.
I’ll never forget the time spent in East Lansing before and after the performances. Amidst the 3.2 beer bars on the main drag was an establishment named The Peanut Barrel famous for peanut shells on the floor and a regular weekly Trivia Night where the host posed questions to the unruly crowds screaming out answers. For each correct answer, the host tossed a chip good for discounts on the already-low priced pitchers of beer. Everyone screamed, ate greasy burgers and fries, munched peanuts to their hearts content, drank beer, and laughed. I remember that the host had put together questions that only Mark would know, such as “Who played General Clayton on MASH?”. Of course the answer was Herb Voland, Mark’s Dad.
When our time at MSU came to an end, we tearfully departed with big hugs all around and well wishes for the future. It was hard to say goodbye to such a close friend. Lo and behold! As fate would have it, both Mark and I were hired at Hope Summer Repertory Theater in Holland, MI the summer of 1979 and we were reunited. That summer we performed in Twelfth Night (I as Feste and Mark as Toby Belch), The Rainmaker (I as HC Curry and Mark as Noah, my son!), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (see pictures!) (I as Erronius and Mark in the Zero Mostel role). He was fabulous-singing and dancing even! Needless to say, as Mark was at this time separated from his wife, we got into lotz of trouble in the Holland area—swimming at the beaches, eating in the restaurants, drinking in the bars, and spreading ourselves thin among the womenfolk.
After that, I lost track of Mark for awhile only to be reunited when I ventured down to Los Angeles years later. We reconnected and partied together off an on for the next five years or so. Sometimes he would venture north to the Bay Area and I would put him up for a few days before he would venture home again. I could tell he was troubled. His excesses were beginning to catch up to him and he was moody and argumentative at times.
We always kept in touch though. He was a veracious writer and very politically aware. He would send me articles on the foibles of the Republican party and politics in general. Of course, most of his concerns were way over my head, but I respected his views and his persuasive way of speaking about them.
And as Mark continued to expand his career from performances in Topanga Canyon to television work (Hill Street Blues, Colombo, General Hospital, Dallas, Murder She Wrote, Max Headroom, and a great guest appearance on Cheers), I envied his career and his ability to earn money at a pretty good rate. Whenever I visited him in LA, he lavished me with debauchery of both the liquid and solid kind. He could drink me under the table and his use of other things far exceeded by abilities. Long after I was waving off another “bump”, he was right there indulging deeper and deeper in his excesses.
After a few more years----well really about 12---I heard from him that he was beginning to have problems with his ability to memorize lines. Then came the seizures. Then came the accidents. Then came the medications. Then came the confusion. Then came the resolution that he was unable to care for himself.
I last saw him in the flesh a couple of years ago when I joined him in LA at Camp Jenny in Oxnard to help him sort out things a bit after his Mom’s death. We spent about three days laughing and running errands. He would repeat himself constantly and I could see that his mind was on the wane. But then we’d begin thinking about days past and I could sense a clarity in living in the past. Mark could remember such details! It was great to be with him and it was tough to leave, but we both knew that our lives were on different tracks and I always had a gig to return to in the Bay Area.
I spoke with Mark on Saturday—four days before he died. We spoke of getting together soon as I was going down to LA to secure a place to stay to begin my chasing the media a bit as an actor. I apologized that I wasn’t going to be able to see him on the current trip down South as I was not driving down myself, but with a friend. Mark was upbeat, glad to be living in his own place, was satisfied with SAG and AFTRA and their treatment of him in terms of getting his pensions to him, and was looking forward to seeing me in the near future. His last words were about making sure I phoned him before I showed up as he couldn’t trust his mind anymore to remember when I was coming. He wanted to be sure he was home when I knocked on his door.
Mark and I wrote each other back and forth for years. We didn’t see each other that much, but when we did it was as if ZERO time had passed between us. We were truly brothers.
I loved him like one. And will think of him often.
Gary S. Martinez
Sunday, January 31, 2010
JP Remembering
My long term friend, lover and life partner died of a heart attack recently and my days are filled with our memories.
The steps I take in my day to day are now without him, something that was 41 years strong. We were able to spend the last eight years together, because even with our shift in our day to day, we were always closest to each other.
In the words of Bobby Darin:
Somewhere beyond the sea
somewhere waiting for me
my lover stands on golden sands
and watches the ships that go sailin'
Good-bye old friend, see you on the other side,
Jenny
The steps I take in my day to day are now without him, something that was 41 years strong. We were able to spend the last eight years together, because even with our shift in our day to day, we were always closest to each other.
In the words of Bobby Darin:
Somewhere beyond the sea
somewhere waiting for me
my lover stands on golden sands
and watches the ships that go sailin'
Good-bye old friend, see you on the other side,
Jenny
Friday, January 29, 2010
Mark's Keepsakes
From the bulletin board
Birthday card from niece Hayley (both sides)
at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum
Poster from one of his plays with the 1/2 Measures Troupe
Condolences from Julliard about his Mom.
Obit for his father.
Baptism
Birth Certificate(all from JP Denyer)
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