Impressionist set for return to ‘Saturday Afternoons @3’

Historical impressionist Peter Small is returning this weekend with another character for his “Sunday Afternoons @ 3” presentation.

Small, who last performed as the late President Harry S. Truman for the Ed Brown Senior Center’s series, will return as the late Golda Meir, Israel’s first woman prime minister, who held the office from 1968 to 1974. She died at age 80 in 1978.

The hour-long performance will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 12 in the center, 18402 W. Bernardo Drive in Rancho Bernardo Community Park. Tickets, available at the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under.

Small, a Costa Mesa resident, has been taking on the personas of others for his performances for more than 20 years. In addition to Truman and Meir, his repertoire includes Thomas Edison and former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He has performed across the country, including at several presidential libraries, and as part of the educational program at Knotts Berry Farm.

For the Meir performance, Small said he will portray her as an older woman, so he can talk about her entire lifespan, from childhood to retirement.

“She is an interesting political figure, a woman prime minister,” he said. “There had been very few (women) in power in the world (during her time).”

Small said there are many reasons he was drawn to portraying Meir, including her voice, which he described as a “nasal, Midwestern accent” due to her living in the United States — mostly in Milwaukee — from age 8 to 23. Having lived in Israel from 1979 to 1985 himself during his 20s, Small said he could also relate to her making the move from the U.S. to Israel. In addition, he is also Jewish and grew up during some of Israel’s key historical events, such as the Six-Day War (Arab-Israeli War in 1967). He also learned Hebrew later in life, like Meir did.

“I emotionally connected with what she stood for,” Small said, adding many issues she dealt with while in office — including terrorism and threats by some in the name of Islam — are still relevant to issues world leaders are dealing with today.

“She was one of the very dominating personalities on the world stage,” Small said.

Because he heard Meir speak many times on television while he was growing up, and later watched film footage of her, Small said imitating her is not any more challenging than his other contemporary characters, even though Meir was a woman. He said portraying Washington and Jefferson are more difficult since there are no audio or video recordings of them, so those characters require him to use his imagination.