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What is an ACTORR Production?
It all
started in Mrs. Murphy's 4th grade class at Albert Schweitzer Elementary
School in Levittown PA in 1964. I remember the day she announced that
the class had come up ideas for a Christmas play that would illustrate
the different Christmas traditions around the world. To my surprise, my
idea was chosen. I was equally surprised that I would head a writing
committee that would put dialog to my idea, "That Was the Night That
Was", stolen from a TV show.
The idea was that Santa gets ill and his
son, Willie Claus, has to deliver the presents. It's his first time out
so he gets things mixed up. Pinatas go to Holland, wooden shoes go to
Mexico, etc. Santa sends Willie out to set things straight, but the kids
are already enjoying what they got and learning about other cultures.
Seems I liked stories with a message even then. Being the tallest kid in
class, I was cast as Santa Claus, a big step up from 3rd grade and the
first play I was in: "Transportation" (I played a canoe).
The 5th grade music teacher had me
singing my first solo in front of the
whole school, "Fifteen Miles on the Erie
Canal." In 6th grade, in Mr. Whaling's
"Rapid Learners" class, we presented the
rather adult Noel Coward comedy, "Blythe
Spirit," for which I designed and helped
build the set.
In 7th grade Junior High, Mr. Wolfe
recruited me for chorus, and made me the
lead in the musical, "Where is the
Mayor?," a big honor that usually went
to a 9th grader. That summer, Mr. Wolfe
suggested that I take the "Summer Stock"
course at the High School. He explained
that it was 2 months of courses on
acting, singing, dancing, and
stagecraft, and the rehearsal and
presentation of a musical, and that I’d
learning from a great teacher, Mr. Ted
Kloos. The show was "Annie Get Your Gun"
and I landed a supporting role with a
song, against older competition. I never
attributed it to talent, guys being in
short supply, I figured I was already as
tall as the high school guys.
Peer pressure is a powerful thing,
however, and you can imagine how the
guys on the basketball team made me feel
about “play practice.” I grew up in a
sports family, and they didn’t quite
understand my desire to sing and dance
either, so by 9th grade I was
ready to give up on it, but Mr. Kloos
never gave up on me. He asked me to help
him with the lighting and scenery
painting. I could do that after
basketball practice, so soon I was at
school in the evenings helping Ted hang
lights from the ceiling and learning the
switches and huge levers on the
old-timey lighting panel.
By my junior year at Neshaminy High, it
was obvious that I was too thin and
gawky for sports, and that it was
theatre and Ted Kloos’ Concert Choir
that I really loved. Seeing my name
posted as “Cornelius Hackl” after the
auditions for “Hello Dolly!” changed my
life. I can still remember the curtain
coming down and our cast of 60+ cheering
and hugging.
Performing was it for me now, but I also
continued to help backstage with scene
painting etc. Senior year my friend,
John Moss, and I wanted to write a
one-act musical about Sherlock Holmes
for the school Arts Festival, truly an
ambitious undertaking. We had the first
scene done and even lyrics to the first
song when we realized we would never
finish in time. Someone suggested we do
the first act of the musical “The Apple
Tree” called “The Diary of Adam and Eve”
from a story by Mark Twain. I ended up
asking Jodi Gurwood, who had played
Dolly, to be Eve. I played Adam and John
played the Snake. We performed it every
period for a whole day, as a staged
reading in the music room, with most of
the school seeing it. It was the hit of
the festival with many moved to tears at
the end.
Continued Soon.... |