- The early years
- Kenyon Players
- High School
- Foothills Playhouse
- The college years
- Foothills Playhouse
- Community Theater years
- Revelers
- Rahway
- Westfield
- Parish Players
- Unicorn Productions
- New Jersey Lyric Opera Co.
- Scotch Plains Players
- Blacksburg, Va
- Lake Worth Playhouse
- Palm Beach International Opera Co.
When dad married my mom that professional part of his life ended. He became active in community theater in Plainfield, NJ, with the Kenyon Players. The Kenyon Players was one of two theatrical groups in my hometown. They were associated with the Monday Afternoon Womens Club in town. The first show I remember anything about was a Melodrama, I cant remember the name, but my dad was the villain and they need a very young boy that could remember some lines who was kidnapped by my dad. Well, of course, he said my 6 year old son Dick can do the part. That was my introduction to theater. I had a few lines and can remember learning them with dad at the kitchen table. During the day, mom and I would work on the lines. Quickly I had committed them to memory and was ready for the first rehearsal. we rehearsed for about 4 weeks . I was ready for the opening night in a week. Then I started to feel sick, mom took me to the doctors and I had Measles. The piano player also came down with them as well. It seems that the son of another member of the cast had them and was contagious when he visited a rehearsal with his dad. So the week before opening the piano player and I were out. That was the fast beginning and end of my early introduction to my introduction to theater.
Well, not quite, hahaha, in first grade later that year I was chosen to be The Sun and sing Good Morning Merry Sunshine. In third grade I recited one of Lincoln's speeches. Just a side note here, my first grade teacher, Jane Smith and her husband lived behind my aunt and uncle and were friends with my parents. My dad passed away in 1972 and mom married Jane's former husband, Peter. My third grade teacher was Frances Nischwitz a long time friend and golf partner of my moms.
During the ensuing years i did a lot of singing, with school choruses and church choirs. My church, the Crescent Ave. Presbyterian Church had incredible choirs. The Chancel Choir was paid and had many members of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus. Our organist, Dr. Charlotte Garden, was the very first woman to get her doctorate degree on the organ. She was the first woman to play the organ at St. Peters in Rome. Dr Garden also was the consultant for the great organ in the new Lincoln Center's Philharmonic Hall. Every Christmas the church put on a glorious Christmas Pageant and in 1952 they started a new tradition of Menotti's Amahl And The Night Visitors. Tryouts for Amahl were held and all the members of the boys choir did their best. I got the part of Amahl and played it for 3 years. The first year, 1952, was the year after its debut in New York City for TV's Hallmark Hall of Fame . It was the first opera opera composed specifically for television. My mother was sung by the most incredible contralto I have ever heard, Louise Armstrong. Louise sang in the church choir but sang opera with many different opera companies and a few years later made her Carnegie Hall debut to great acclaim.
There was a hiatus until sophomore year in high school when I was in a one act play that competed with the other classes in school. We took second place but I won best actor award. The fall of my junior year I worked backstage on the Kenyon Players production of Ladies in Retirement. The following year the group held tryouts for Truman Capote's Grass Harp. Basically it tells the story of an orphaned boy and two elderly ladies who observe life from a tree hut. Colin was both the protagonist and the narrator . It was a beautifully written show as only Capote could do. The third act could stand on its own and we took it to the Union County Theater Competition and took first place. Then we went to the northern division of the state , won that ! Then on to the New Jersey Theater League competition. There were 12 shows competing over the weekend. They were cut to 6 then to 3. We were in the final three along with Westfield Community Players production of Medea. We took second place behind Medea.
Two months later Jane Inge, sister in law of William Inge and head of the Theater Department at Rutgers-Douglas. I will relay one of Douglas' well known ghost stories here. The theater at Douglas is said to be haunted by the spirit of Jane Inge. She was the theater's director from the early 1920's until the late 1950's. For her, the curtain never comes down. She often makes herself known during rehearsals. Yet, she never disrupts a performance. After all, the show must go on. (from Ghost Stories of Rutger University - Yahoo.) Jane was directing Romeo and Juliet for the Inge Players at our church. Many of the areas best actors and actresses were cast by Inge. I was fortunate to get a small role of a Page. Working with Jane was like taking a course in acting. I will never forget how upset she would if an actor did not hit his or her plosives. Plosives were the T, P and D's . If you were saying them correctly you would actually spit on your fellow actor. Just one of the lessons I learned from this incredible woman !
My Junior year in High School was filled with Chorus as were the past two, but again with the Plainfield Area Little Theater League Contest. This year we did a one act play titled A Wedding. I played Bobby, the groom, and designed the set. My set took first place and we took second place again that year. Later in the year I was in The Pirates of Penzance, a production directed by Charlotte Garden.
The summer between Junior and Senior year of high school, a friend of my parents, Norm Cary was cast as the lead at Foothills Summer Theater's production of the recent broadway hit Visit to a Small Planet. He and his wife Jane were at our house for dinner one night and Norm mentioned it to my folks and that there was a small role that was not cast yet and asked if I could do the part. He would pick me up and bring me home from rehearsals and performances. My parents agreed and that was the beginning of many years at Foothills and the beginning of my being cast in roles in various community theaters, without trying out ! I need to add here that Norm was an Ad Exec with BBD&O and also was a Marlboro Man and appeared in many Schwepps print ads.
Senior year in HS we did Our Town and I was cast as George Gibbs. Norm attended some rehearsals and at that time was taking some advanced courses with and he told him about our Our Town. He was direction a production of it at Circle In The Square in NYC with James MacArthur as George. He did come to one of our productions and I was asked to understudy the role for a 6 month stretch. I was actually called out of school three times to go on for MacArthur. What a thrill. That next summer I did another show at Foothills, Five Finger Exercise . This was followed by playing the role of Brutus in the Upsala College production of Julius Caesar followed by one of my all time favorite productions : Stephan Vincent Benit's epic theatrical poem John Brown's Body. I was cast as President Lincoln. One of my speeches was the very famous Lincoln monologue the Raymond Massey used to perform on TV on Lincoln's Birthday, it was 8 pages long. I read it through maybe 6-8 times and knew it. One of the nights of the show the President of the college had invited his friend Carl Sandburg to attend. Sandburg was probably the foremost authority on Lincoln at the time. After the performance they came backstage and Sandburg paid me one of the greatest compliments I ever received. He said, "I closed my eyes and saw Lincoln !"
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