In Memoriam: Gary Douglas Wade

Posted by Bruce Miller

Gary Douglas Wade, 48, died of a heart attack this week. He was a respected theatre artist with CAT, Dogwood Dell, the Firehouse, Henley Street Theatre Company, Henrico County’s On-the-Air Radio Players, and the Jewish Family Theatre at the Weinstein JCC. I regret that I didn’t know Mr. Wade. Many of my friends thought highly of him. We will dim the lights of our theatres this week in his memory.

The following comments are pulled from this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“Gary Douglas Wade's enthusiasm was at its British best as he coached and played soccer, designed theater sets and acted in area productions. The lean, 6-foot-plus athlete played soccer Sept. 9, but became winded as he hiked with a friend in the Blue Ridge Mountains the next day. He urged his friend to continue while he returned to their car to rest. Mr. Wade, 48, died of a heart attack before he could reach the vehicle, according to his longtime friend Anthony "Tony" Grebas.

A celebration of Mr. Wade's life will be held Sept. 23 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Art Works Inc., 320 Hull St.

Most recently, Mr. Wade had designed the set for the Henley Street Theatre Company's upcoming production of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail. He also co-designed the set for the 2004 Chamberlayne Actors Theatre run of Blithe Spirit and did the set, as well as performing a role, in the 2005 production of Fools at the Weinstein JCC.

This week, he would have begun rehearsing for his role as a college dean in the Firehouse Theatre Project's upcoming production of Spinning into Butter. He also had performed and directed for Henrico County's On-the-Air Radio Players.

'Not only was Gary a talented actor but also a great carpenter and craftsman, designing many of the sound effects used for the radio shows,' said Marc Follmer, a Radio Players board member.
'People were immediately drawn to him,' said his friend Kathryn Dipasqua. 'He was so funny, engaging and extremely outgoing. He was tremendous at physical humor.'

Theatergoers might remember Mr. Wade as the stripper in the 2002 Dogwood Dell production of Legends -- especially the night he peeled down to a thong emblazoned with the Union Jack. That year he also appeared as a grieving husband in the Dell's The Bad Seed and as a con man in the Chamberlayne Actors Theatre thriller Wait Until Dark.

In his spare time, he loved to bring together the diverse friends he made as he acted, played midfielder with Central Virginia Soccer Association's Metro Sting team, coached the Chesterfield Flames in the Midlothian Soccer Association and served as a TV commentator for high school soccer.

Survivors include his mother, Muriel Wade, and a brother, Brian Wade, both of Worcester Park in Surrey, England.”

To all those who were Gary's friends, we offer our deepest sympathies.

--Bruce Miller

Catching Up with Caroline

Posted by Bruce Miller

In a previous blog entry (When Off Broadway Began, Barksdale Was There [Aug 5]), I wrote about the late, great Josie Abady, mentioning her as one of the Richmond connections to the legendary Off Broadway company, Circle in the Square. A thoughtful anonymous commenter subsequently wrote: “I am so sorry to learn of Josie Abady’s death. I knew her in her youth, and had no idea that she had died. What a wonderful and inspirational family. Such strong women. What’s happening with her sister Caroline, do you know? I appeared with her years ago in a Dogwood Dell production of Winnie the Pooh.”

I’m going to try to get in touch with Caroline, pictured above and to the left with co-stars Kevin Spacey and William Ullrich at the NYC premiere of Beyond the Sea, to see if she’ll write a blog entry to bring her Richmond fans up to date. I'm afraid I don't know or remember anything about this particular production of Winnie the Pooh, but if it's true, and I have no reason to doubt that it is, then here's a GREAT example of a Dell alum moving onward and upward to become a NYC and Hollywood success.

Until I'm able to contact Caroline (if I'm able), here’s what I know (sorta).

Caroline Abady was born and spent her entire youth in Richmond. If memory serves, she went to Douglas Freeman High School. I think I met her maybe once or twice; she's a couple of years younger than me, but we were teen theatre enthusiasts in Richmond at the same time. Kind of like Chase Kniffen and Gray Crenshaw about five years ago. As I've mentioned earlier, I knew her mother Nina very well.

Caroline has had the kind of long term career success that most actors only dream of. She may not be a household name, but she works constantly in high profile projects with our nation's top tier of theatre artists. Her professional name is Caroline Aaron. If you go to http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000715/ , you can access a complete list of her film and TV credits. Or if you go to http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?id=74908 , you can access a complete list of her Broadway credits.

The great news is that Caroline is scheduled to be back on Broadway this fall for the first time in 16 or so years, opening in October at Studio 54 in Roundabout’s upcoming revival of The Ritz, written by Terrance McNally and directed by Joe Mantello (pictured to the right). You gotta be impressed by the company she keeps.

Here’s more information that I pulled from Caroline’s bio on the IMDb site:

Caroline Aaron “performed a one-woman, two-character play, Call Waiting, in 1994 and again in 2001. She later filmed it in 2004. The 87-minute film won the Best Comedy Jury Prize at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.”

Ms. Aaron is an “earthy, plump-figured stage actress of Broadway (Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean; Social Security; I Hate Hamlet) who appeared as a character actress on film and TV. She was a main ensemble player in several of Woody Allen's films during the late 80s and 90s, essaying many of his typical Jewish relatives, neighbors and/or friends in traditional New York settings.

Her late mother, Nina Friedman Abady, was a Selma, Alabama civil rights activist who walked with Martin Luther King in the 60s. She had to endure cross-burnings on her Virginia front lawn. More tragically, the family suffered the loss of their husband and father when he was 38.

Her older sister was Josephine R. Abady, a prominent artistic director of the Cleveland Playhouse (1988-1994) and Circle in the Square Theater (1994-1996). A noted stage producer, director and theater owner, Abady resisted employing her younger sister because they were related. This caused resentment and sibling friction for a period of time until Abady was diagnosed with breast cancer. Abady battled the disease for several years and died on May 25, 2002, at age 52. The Los Angeles-based Caroline returned to New York frequently to aid in her sister's illness.

Aaron did appear under her sister's stage direction in The Boys Next Door, co-starring David Strathairn and John Amos. Abady also cast Aaron in To Catch a Tiger, a 1994 AFI film which told the story of their mother's civil rights work. Caroline played their mother in the film and Abady's husband, Michael Krawitz, wrote the screenplay.”

For those who share my penchant for exploring connections, it's fun to note that not too long ago Caroline starred at George Street Playhouse in a reading of Spine, one of the new plays by Bill C. Davis (pictured to the right), playwright of Austin's Bridge.

I hope this helps inform Caroline’s childhood friends of her current success. As I mentioned, I’ll try to contact Caroline and see if she’ll give us more information. Along with Emily Skinner and Blair Underwood, she’s one of the Richmond theatre alum who has earned a lifetime of national success.

Thanks to our anonymous commenter for prompting this post.

--Bruce Miller

Bidding Bye Bye to "Birdie"

Posted by Bruce Miller

I was sad to be out of town (or otherwise engaged) during the recent run of Bye Bye Birdie at Dogwood Dell. The original "rock ‘n’ roll musical" was performed six times from August 3 until 11 as the grand finale in the Dell’s 51st annual Festival of the Arts, produced by Richmond’s Dept. of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. From all reports, it was a huge success, attracting, I’ve been told, the largest Dell crowds in a decade.

Bye Bye Birdie won the Best Musical Tony in 1961, and put Charles Strouse on the road to earn the Broadway legend status he enjoys today. Charles has quite a few Richmond connections, and that’s one reason I really wanted to see Birdie. But more about that in a future blog entry.

The main reason I wanted to see Birdie was to enjoy the work of all of my friends who were involved in the production.

The show was directed by Tony Sharpenstein, a fine fellow who co-starred in a production of The Prince and the Pauper that I directed years ago at Theatre IV—a production I remember fondly. It would have been my first time seeing Tony’s work as a director, so I’m really sorry that my schedule didn't allow me to attend.

I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know who choreographed, music directed and/or designed Bye Bye Birdie. The press releases that I can find on line simply don't list that information. If someone wants to leave me that info in a comment, I’d appreciate it.

Among Birdie's adult cast, Robert Fuhrman is an alum of Barksdale’s Where’s Charley?, David Janosik appeared as a child in Theatre IV’s Charley and the Chocolate Factory, Dee Lynch co-starred in Theatre IV’s production of Cowgirls and music directed Barksdale’s productions of The Full Monty and Anything Goes, and Terri Moore was wonderful in that same production of The Prince and the Pauper that I mentioned earlier.

Among the young people in the Birdie cast, Charlie Dacus recently dazzled me with his backbends in Theatre IV’s The Wizard of Oz; Ryan Lynch, Hannah Martin and Liz Van’t Reit were a joy to direct in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (also at Theatre IV); and Sarah Pruden, Robert Watkins and Chris Withers simply knocked my socks off in last summer’s Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical, Grease, co-produced by Barksdale Theatre and The Steward School.

I'm told that Robbie Fuhrman and Sarah Pruden were terrific as the leads in Birdie, playing Albert Peterson and Kim McAfee, respectively, so I’m especially sorry to have missed their performances.

Anyway, I’m proud of all our Theatre IV and Barksdale veterans, and look forward to the next time when I’ll be able to catch them on stage. If Birdie was half as good as friends told me it was, you all did a GREAT job.

--Bruce Miller

Greater Richmond H S Musical Returns

During the first year of Theatre IV, 1975-76, our nonprofit company took in either $14,000 or $17,000 during the entire 12-month fiscal year. For some reason I can’t remember which of those two figures is correct. What I do remember is that every penny of that gross revenue went to pay bills, including very meager salaries for everyone except Phil and me. Phil and I didn’t earn any salary from Theatre IV for the first three years.

We earned our living during those salad days waiting tables and acting (I mention waiting tables first cause that’s where the money was) at the Haymarket Dinner Theatre and Swift Creek Mill Playhouse. We talked about waiting some at Barksdale, but, if memory serves, we never actually did. We acted there, but I don’t think we waited there.

We also worked the midnight cash control shift at King’s Dominion during the summers, collecting and counting money, mostly late at night. And I worked as the Drama Director at Collegiate Schools. I didn’t teach any classes, but I directed Barefoot in the Park, Carousel, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, As You Like It, No No Nanette, and Seven Keys to Baldpate. Phil and Lynn Keeton helped with choreography on the two musicals.

There were several wonderfully talented students who played major roles in more than one of those plays, including Page Bauder, Beth Freeman, Meg Hardt, Bill Hickock, Tommy Kastenbaum, Steve Kelly and Mary Lloyd Sinnott.

I remember all of them loving theatre and wishing there were some summer opportunities. In 1977, the Richmond Department of Recreation and Parks provided just such an opportunity. They produced the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical at Dogwood Dell. In ’77, it was Kismet. It starred Steve Kelly. I remember that Phil and I went to see it, and we were so proud of Steve we could hardly stand it.

Immediately after that summer, I stopped working at Collegiate (my Theatre IV responsibilities were getting to be too much), and the Dell stopped producing the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical. The two stoppages were not related.

Throughout the nearly 30 years that followed, Phil and I wanted to start once again a summer program that allowed high school drama kids from throughout the entire community to have the chance to audition for and work together on a summer musical that would showcase all their talents. We wanted to revive the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical, that terrific community-wide program from the past.

Until last summer, the only similar opportunities that existed were available only to those kids who could afford to pass on a summer day job to attend daytime rehearsals, and, in most cases, pay several hundred dollars in tuition to be in the show. And many of the leads in the shows that existed were actually played not by high school kids, but by adult professionals and/or college theatre majors.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the programs that existed, and everything right with them. They were terrific programs. But they weren’t free, community-wide programs like that fondly remembered production of Kismet at Dogwood Dell.

In the fall of '05, Chase Kniffen and I met with a group of high school drama teachers from throughout Greater Richmond and asked what Barksdale Theatre could do to support their students. No surprise, the number one unfilled need mentioned by these teachers was this: as Metro Richmond’s major professional theatre, wouldn’t it be great if Barksdale could produce a musical every summer in which high school kids could all act together free-of-charge, with evening rehearsals so that kids who needed to could hold down day jobs.

Two days after this meeting, Craig Smith and Andy Mudd, who head the great theatre program at Steward School, called Chase to ask if Barksdale would be interested in filling this unmet need by starting exactly such a program in partnership with Steward School. Barksdale would fill the production responsibilities, and Steward would provide the facility.

That’s how Greater Richmond’s High School All Star Musical came back into being. Last summer we produced Grease at Steward’s fantastic Cramer Center--show photos are included above. This year we will be producing Disney’s High School Musical, opening day after tomorrow, with a cast of 38 wonderfully talented high school students from 20 different schools. Two supporting roles will be played by adults—Kathy Halenda and Michael Hawke.

We hope you’ll support this vital, community-wide program. In many ways, it’s a dream come true. We’re proud to be partnering with Steward School, and we hope you’ll join us at the theatre to see many of Richmond’s finest kids in action.

--Bruce Miller

Unexpected Co-Star Joins Dell Performance

In Genesis 3:14, God says to the serpent, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman.” When God said “the woman,” the particular woman He had in mind may have been Kesha Afrika Oliver, one of the leading lights of African American Repertory Theatre (formerly the Living Word Stage Company). Kesha HATES snakes!!

Can I hear an "Amen" somebody?

More’s the pity, then, when during one of last weekend’s outdoor performances of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, the late great August Wilson play presented by AART at Dogwood Dell, Mr. No Shoulders himself decided to make a surprise appearance with Kesha onstage in front of a live audience.

Kesha was just beginning the “shout” section of the play, when she bowed her head to become one with the Holy Spirit, and found herself foot-to-fang with a wholly disgusting serpent instead.

“People must have thought I was really in touch with the Almighty,” Kesha said. “I shouted ‘Jesus!’ and jumped up, clapping my hands and tears flowing down my face.”

Other cast members said afterwards that they saw Kesha step on the snake, and then saw the snake slither out from under her skirt. After enjoying his few minutes of stardom, the serpent calmly returned to the wild, but not before inspiring one of Kesha’s more powerful and moving performances.

“I was saying prayers on stage that night, and really meaning 'em,” Kesha said. “That wasn’t acting. That was real. And the good Lord saw me through.”

For the latest on the newly-named African American Repertory Theatre, check out their website at http://www.livingwordstage.com/ .

--Bruce Miller