Faeries, Saints, and Sinners

Before I got married, I had a hobby which was a good creative outlet for me, and tons of fun. It all started when I was eight years old.....

Leona Lipton was casting a play about the valiant struggle of the Maccabees against their oppressors, and I was cast as Judah Maccabee (a.k.a., "Judah the Hammer", one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history). Now if you remember anything about Leona Lipton, at the time she was a very attractive young woman barely out of high school who could convince any guy to do just about anything. I was only 8, I'd never thought about being in a play before, but I was so awestruck at being asked and so willing to please this babe that I acquiesced. With wooden sword in hand, and with a costume made of plastic and rubber and old cloth, I spent my few minutes on-stage flailing away in mock battle with other 8 year olds and saying lines I could barely pronounce about topics I barely understood.....

In junior high school I did the lights and backstage work at the school's drama club. I remember Monty Swiryn directing me and Elliott Morabia, Richie Dayan, and Elico Musry in a 15-minute video segment called "The Man from T.E.M.P.L.E.", a parady on the television series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.". That was too funny and very silly, but what do you expect from 12-year-olds with a 17-year-old director? I cringe when I think about the hammy acting, but still and all, I wish I had a copy of that 8MM film to show my kids how silly their dad could be..... In the drama club, I remember being up in the rafters operating the spot lights watching the older kids like Phil Pratico and Les Kayanan perform in "Damn Yankees", and "The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd". I remember being in the stage crew, and watching Sue Samara, Judy Chimento, Ann Mitchell and Marian Claassen practice for "Annie Get Your Gun". Then I played the never-seen, off-stage voice of Clifford Beers in the play "My Name is Legion", based on his ground-breaking mental health work "A Mind that Found Itself". Soon after I directed a one-act play for the drama club called "N for Nuisance" - I don't know if Hank Wasiniak will ever forgive me for that last performance, I hope he's not scarred for life..... And then there was "The Drunkard", or as it was formally known " The Drunkard or, The Fallen Saved, A Moral Domestic Drama in Five Acts". I played the leading man, the hapless Edward Middleton - an alcoholic who is egged on by the villainous Lawyer Cribbs and goes to the brink of losing family and fortune before being brought into the fold of sobriety by the virtuous Mr. Rencelaw. Under the watchful eye of director Barbara Lawrence, my fellow castmates Erin Arp, Lee Cafege, Joe Dykes, Claire DeMyer, Debbie Hugel, Reg Maloney, Larry Jones, and all the rest of the cast and crew - we really had a memorable experience. From the barbershop quartet to the singing waiters, we really tore it up at the Army and Navy Club main theater pavillion. Some of my best high school memories are from those experiences with "The International Makati Players"..... Later we had a Russian drama teacher and director Vanya Avelino, who cast me as the Duke of Warwick in Jean Anoiulh's "The Lark", a modern version of the story of French heroine and later saint Joan of Arc. I fondly remember my castmates and crew - Debbie Guardian, Debbie Hugel, Kurt Baker, Freddie Gleeck, Maggie Wakeman, Kenny and Lori-Ellen Liss, Akbar Kazmi, Kenny Greenfield, and of course Lee Cafege and leading lady Erin Arp. I thought the material was kind of serious for a bunch of high-schoolers, but we went with it because that's how we rolled..... Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night Dream" was next, where I can honestly say I had the weirdest role as "Flute the Bellowsmender". What the hockey-puck is a bellowsmender, anyway?!? Faery queen Sharon McClatchy was the hottest attraction of the show, although the other faeries, elves, and assorted mystical woodland creatures were just as interesting (if not quite as fetching)..... Playing the role of Nathan Detroit in the musical "Guys and Dolls" was a real challenge for me, because I couldn't sing or carry a tune to save my life, so director Ruth Butler asked fellow classmate, pianist and musical virtuosa Martha Shaffer to spend extra time with me learning my songs. I don't know if it helped or not, but I belted out "Sue Me" and "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" at the top of my lungs at the Philippine Cultural Center's main amphitheater in front of God and everybody and somehow managed to survive. Working on that play with Mary Jane Bruce, Tom Larson, Maggie Wakeman, Peggy Sullivan, Felino Menez, Barney Carville, Eric Moody, Phil French, Aldo Garollini and dozens of other castmates and crew was a tremondously fulfilling experience for a senior in high school that I still cherish today.....

I did some dinner theater and community drama groups, acting in the midwest and overseas, playing Tom Wingfield in Tennesse Williams' "The Glass Managerie", Dr. Bradman in Noel Coward's "Blythe Spirit", several parts in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town", Tony in Tad Mosel's "Impromptu", Noah Curry in Richard Nash's "The Rainmaker", and even the sherrif in a low-budget b-movie called "The Kid". Then I went ahead and got married. My future wife had watched me act in plays, even saw me direct one, and was always very encouraging. But after we got married she told me she preferred if I gave this hobby up, because she didn't want me hanging around with alot of pretty women and (God forbid) kissing one on-stage. So after much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, I decided to respect her wishes, and I haven't participated in drama activities since. I get my fill now by taking my wife and kids to the theater, and watch vicariously the actors and actresses exercise their craft.....

Drama for me was a hobby, never a serious professional pursuit, and it got my creative juices flowing. It was tons of fun, I met lots of interesting people, made many good friends, and I have many fond recollections to cherish. Those twenty years were great, from Leona Lipton and Judah Maccabee, to Noah Curry and The Rainmaker. Before I got married, I had a hobby which was a good creative outlet for me, and tons of fun. Although it all ended before I was twenty-eight years old, I have no regrets, just good memories and a loving wife and kids with whom to enjoy them.....