An Homage to a Past Life.
Bonner, Prendy, Upper Darby and Summer Stage
Schedule note: MARK YOUR CALENDAR! This Thursday, 3 July, Don Mann will be in the Free Zone! Don is a former member of SEAL Team 6, author of 23 books and host of Surviving Mann on Prime. The show is a hit and is now in its 4th season. Don is a great guy and has a whale of a personal story. I’ll pick his brain about the Teams, war stories and testing our physical limits in order to grow, physically and mentally.
Don’t miss it!
In the evening of my life I shall look to the sunset
At the moment of my life when the night is due
And the question I shall ask only God can answer
Was I brave and strong and true?
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?
Fill the World With Love by Leslie Bricusse
Most of the finest memories of my teen years were the times I spent on and behind the stage, and the great people I shared that with, at Bonner and surrounding high schools. In fact, at one time, acting was going to be my life. But I let life get in the way.
A father at 18, I decided (probably poorly) that trying to pay for Fordham University or starving in New York were not among the options I could responsibly take. I made my career in the Navy. Don’t feel sorry for me. That was the second coolest thing I ever did. And now I have four AMAZING sons and eleven of the finest grandchildren Pop could ever dream of having.
But I often do miss those countless nights rehearsing, preforming, building sets. It all started with Joe Hayes. He was a real character. The last of the great vaudevillians, Hayes made part of his living as a director of High School plays. And his influence over the lives of MANY kids is beyond measure.
When you worked on a Hayes production, variety show or musical, you were expected to turn out more than the typical school play. Characters learned how to really ACT! The chorus better belt out their the tunes IN TUNE! Dancers, especially lead dancers had to do more than move. They had to be a force onstage.
The kids who really stood out got work at Joe’s summer theater on the Jersey Shore.
At the keyboard for endless rehearsals, and for all performances, was Harry Dietzler and/or Frank Jackson. I’ve written about Harry before. He is a musical genius.
Joe was equally demanding with the stage crew (where my stage interest began). He had connections. He’d send me and my partners in crime, Rick Shaw, Art Shaw, Ed McCutchen all over Philadelphia to acquire materials that would become complex, sometimes “flying” sets1. Augustinian Brothers, Jack Stagliano and Rich Cannuli2 not only painted life-like sets on the flats we built, they patiently taught us how to do it.3
Our experience on stage in the 70s was so engaging, so rewarding, that we were no longer content to wait for Joe Hayes to come each year to do the “big” show. We wanted to do real acting. Frank Jackson kicked that off with The Crucible at Archbishop Predergast (Prendy) High school. He turned out to be a great director as well as a pianist. Mary Ann Dietzler and Pat Walsh were a smash in that play. Not a dry eye in the place.
More. We wanted more. So I got together with my friends, John Berry and Tom Dalton to form The Guild of the Performing Arts at Bonner. I believe the group still exists. I did see a banner in front of the School for Fiddler on the Roof after the turn of the century.
Doing Guild shows is where I met Ed Fiscella. He directed a few of our first plays. Among those were The Zoo Story and David and Lisa. Not your standard high school fare. Ed taught us all the real acting took commitment.
In 1976, Harry Dietzler took the idea of “starting an acting group” and blew it up 1000 times over. While still in college, he met with Upper Darby Parks and Recreation and enlisted their support for Summer Stage at Upper Darby High School, adjacent to Bonner and Prendy. The idea was to introduce more kids to the performing arts and give them something to do over the summer.
Little did he know…
Harry and Ed and countless other parents and older kids did the real grunt work to put on a smash opening variety show. The kids loved doing it and the township embraced the project. It grew every year. The productions became more numerous and complex, and VERY professional. Childrens’ theater was part of every season. Before long serious talent began to emerge. Many kids who got their first taste of preforming, thanks to Harry, went on to become wildly successful.
Tina Fey, writer, actress and producer
David Corenswet, star of the upcoming Superman film
Monica Horan, Everybody Loves Raymond
Terrence J. Nolen and Amy Murphy, co-founders of Arden Theatre Company
Gianna Yanelli, currently starring in Broadway's Six
Josh Young, Tony-nominated actor
Jeremy Morse, Waitress on Broadway
Alyse Alan Louis, Mamma Mia on Broadway and Teeth (Lucille Lortel Award and Outer Critics Circle nominee)
Marie Eife (Wicked) and Kait Kerrigan (The Great Gatsby)
Ed would take the Summer Stage concept to New Jersey, where for more then 35 years he led the Main Stage Center for the Arts. That too, would become a town favorite, shape more young people, and launch more careers.
1976 was my only season with Summer Stage before leaving for Recruit Training. My big contribution was a jitterbug number I had learned from Karen Toto (Hockenberry) from the Tri-State Ballet Company.
Over the years I saw a few performances when I was in town. The nostalgia for me was so thick I could taste it. That’s only slight hyperbole. I can still remember the smell of the Bonner electrical loft, the feel of the old floor of the Bonner stage beneath our feet, performing in the round at Upper Darby. I remember the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd, as the saying goes. I know I am still very much the guy Joe Hayes, Harry Dietzler, Ed Fiscella, Rich and Jack, and my friends in all these groups helped to make me. Whenever I see pictures of their work the memories come washing back.
So you might imagine my disappointment at missing the 50th Anniversary of Summer Stage. My connections back home are thin. Spending my entire adult life elsewhere, I don’t have the ties my brothers and sons enjoy, still spending time with kids they’ve known since kindergarten in some cases. I didn’t know the 50th was happening until I saw the videos.
Harry will tell you otherwise, but while these events are great reunions for everyone, they are almost always a tribute to Harry and the now 50 years he has dedicated to the casts and crews of countless shows. When the gang gets together, all the old songs come out, often with Harry at the piano playing tunes he might not have heard heard in 20 years, as if he had the sheet music in front of him. I made it to one celebration, I believe it was the 25th anniversary show.
Ed has experienced many such love-loaded moments for his work in New Jersey as well.
After a lifetime of pursuits that can tend to make people cynical (military and politics); and yes, I can be pretty damn cynical, I have never lost touch with the lessons learned 50 years ago. One thing that stands out is a voice in my head that says, “Damn, that was fun!” and “Next time, we’ll do something even bigger!” No one ever said those words to me. It just worked out that way at Bonner, Prendy and Upper Darby. No idea seemed to crazy. We just wanted to preform.
Embedded below is a song that has become emblematic of Summer Stage and reflects the work and example of all the people that make it happen. Consider it an aspirational guide to living a good life. I sometimes fall short of that lesson. In fact, cynical old bastard that I can be, I often fill the world with KISS MY ASS. But I mean well. [innocent grin]
Anyway, despite the phone mic, they sound as wonderful now as the first time we sang the song.
Ed Fiscella is the guy you see waving in the video. Harry (Upper Darby’s own Mr. Chips) is conducting, of course.
Source: Chuck Niccolls/Facebook
There are faces in this video who weren’t born when Summer Stage started. Now they have kids in the program. Some of the original folks likely have grand kids in Summer Stage. That’s the kind of impact people like Harry and Ed have in this world.
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In a production of No Time For Sergeants, a Bonner faculty production, two full sets hung in the rafters above the stage while a third was being used. They were switched out with pulleys. We were kids! We hung those sets! But Mr. Selfridge and Father Spanelli trusted us enough to stand under all that weight and perform. And their shows were always hits. Wally Selfridge (English and Journalism) was a really good actor.
Stage Crew moderator. Both Cannullli and Stagliano went on to get their MFA. Brother Jack became an associate Professor of Art at the University of Villanova. Brother Rich was ordained and went to Villanova as Art Director and Curator. Many area churches feature his unique iconography. The Augustinians even made a gift of one of his icons to Pope Francis. You can add that to the list of talent that emanated from these schools, along with John Cappelletti.
I know they must have known about the drinking in the electrical loft and our pursuit of young actresses. But it was all kept to a dull roar, knowing Rich would have kicked our asses if it got out of hand. I am no longer a Catholic, but if there are two people who should be beatified, if only for their forbearance, it’s those two guys.