Gene as actor
Hey All - You know, Gene and I started our theatre careers together in Junior high school -we both surprisingly ended up with the leads in "All American" in ninth Grade. He was then, and continued to be through out high school and college, a very generous acting partner. With Gene, there was no worry about being upstaged by him, or getting tense over who was doing what, or arguing over how to do a scene. He always focused on the show as a whole
and making his acting partner happy - a talent I didn't appreciate until
college.
In "The Man Who Came to Dinner" Gene was such the professional. He knew the whole show rested on him, and it made him nervous sometimes, but you'd never know. I only knew because I wasn't actually in that show (I'd been in France with the French Class) and I talked with him about it. Gene was always so comfortable onstage that it never occurred to me that he could be
nervous, but there you go. So, the show starts, and you hear this huge voice offstage yelling and complaining, and finally the door to the living room opens and here comes Gene rolling that wheelchair around and wearing a red velvet smoking jacket and he had the audience completely in his hands. In the surprise scene of the play when the character Whiteside reveals that
he can still walk, the audience actually gasped when he got out of the chair and started sneaking around the stage. I was glad then, and I'm glad now, that Mr. Tabish did that show for Gene - because of his size, he usually got the supporting fun roles, but rarely the lead.
One of my clearest memories of being onstage with Gene was our final show in high school - The Pajama Game. We were doing this scene when the phone was supposed to ring and my character got some important information about the upcoming strike that I was supposed to share with the rest of the people on stage - only the phone didn't ring. I turned to Gene expecting to have him help me cover, when I saw something I'd never seen from him before onstage - absolute panic. He didn't know what to say. It freaked me out a little because Gene was such the professional for years! I got through the scene with the help of Jane Weiner, and afterward, Gene spent about five minutes thanking me. He really felt that he had let me and the show down. I don't think I really realized at the time how much theatre meant to him - how much being a part of Sendracs was vital to him. He loved what he did, and he loved all of us for being his friends in an environment that wasn't always kind to short, funny-looking guys with mustaches.
And you know - he lived way out in the country, and his mother was deathly ill with cancer much of that time, and yet he never missed a rehearsal. And as far as the class of 1980 goes, Gene was the only one with a perfect record - he did all 12 shows.
- submitted by Anne K-M
and making his acting partner happy - a talent I didn't appreciate until
college.
In "The Man Who Came to Dinner" Gene was such the professional. He knew the whole show rested on him, and it made him nervous sometimes, but you'd never know. I only knew because I wasn't actually in that show (I'd been in France with the French Class) and I talked with him about it. Gene was always so comfortable onstage that it never occurred to me that he could be
nervous, but there you go. So, the show starts, and you hear this huge voice offstage yelling and complaining, and finally the door to the living room opens and here comes Gene rolling that wheelchair around and wearing a red velvet smoking jacket and he had the audience completely in his hands. In the surprise scene of the play when the character Whiteside reveals that
he can still walk, the audience actually gasped when he got out of the chair and started sneaking around the stage. I was glad then, and I'm glad now, that Mr. Tabish did that show for Gene - because of his size, he usually got the supporting fun roles, but rarely the lead.
One of my clearest memories of being onstage with Gene was our final show in high school - The Pajama Game. We were doing this scene when the phone was supposed to ring and my character got some important information about the upcoming strike that I was supposed to share with the rest of the people on stage - only the phone didn't ring. I turned to Gene expecting to have him help me cover, when I saw something I'd never seen from him before onstage - absolute panic. He didn't know what to say. It freaked me out a little because Gene was such the professional for years! I got through the scene with the help of Jane Weiner, and afterward, Gene spent about five minutes thanking me. He really felt that he had let me and the show down. I don't think I really realized at the time how much theatre meant to him - how much being a part of Sendracs was vital to him. He loved what he did, and he loved all of us for being his friends in an environment that wasn't always kind to short, funny-looking guys with mustaches.
And you know - he lived way out in the country, and his mother was deathly ill with cancer much of that time, and yet he never missed a rehearsal. And as far as the class of 1980 goes, Gene was the only one with a perfect record - he did all 12 shows.
- submitted by Anne K-M
posted by The Noogerator at 11:38 AM
1 Comments:
"I'd been in France with the French Class..."
Post a Comment
<< Home