Unless there’s a career renaissance for me as a grandparent in on-screen roles, I don’t expect to have the chance to win an Oscar and publicly thank all the people that made my creative career possible. So before senility (real or assumed) kicks in, here goes…
Although neither of my parents had vocations in the fine arts, genetics created a winning formula. Ma and Pa accepted, encouraged, and endorsed my steps and choices along the way. I am most grateful for the freedom and love.
Excluding the wonderful stars I saw in movie and television shows at their peak (Carol Burnett, Red Skelton, Johnny Carson), it’s the personal encounters that made the biggest difference.
Between 5th & 6th grade I took a summer school package that included a course with Michael Hennessy. All the kids were of an age, the age where art was only important if it was on TV or the big screen. Then Michael “introduced” himself non-verbally and proceeded to enact a safe-cracker’s worst nightmare—entirely in pantomime. We were enthralled, entertained, and hooked on the idea of telling a story without words.
Michael was inclusive in his teaching, and guided us toward staging a little haunted house adventure we produced for our families (I was the floating skull). Since then, he’s trained with Marcel Marceau, clowned with the New York Goofs, performed at the Guthrie Theatre and San Francisco Opera (among other prestigious venues), and gone on to produce mime plays designed for educational and social justice messages. And at age 64, he’s now heading “Actions Speak Louder”, a group consulting corporate employees’ use of body language and non-verbal expression.
I thank him for fanning my creative spark into a flame.
In the fall of 1979, I enrolled at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. A year later, I jumped into their speech--aka forensics--team. Greg LaPanta was the head coach. I had only participated in three plays in high school, one category (Discussion?!) of speech competition, and felt pretty nervous about ‘having what it takes’ to meet the ARCC record of forensics success.
Greg had coaching conversations, not lectures. He was Socratic in questioning, used peers as performance models--but didn’t like ‘cookie cutter’ styles, and encouraged best efforts. He even had fun! Due to his influence, the team succeeded nationally during my time at ARCC as well.
When I moved on to a four-year school with new coaches, I had a track record prompting arrogance. Since two-and-four-year schools competed on the same Midwest circuit, we saw him frequently. It didn’t take long before he called me out on my attitude and reminded me of what was important (best efforts, fun, the social atmosphere). I thank him for that. He used a position of power to empower young people. The forensics organization Phi Rho Pi recognized this when they gave him a national service award in 1984; the state of Minnesota’s college speech students and coaches value this as they honor teams with the Greg LaPanta Quality Award.
Greg passed away in 1985 as I graduated into the “real” performance & education world.
If I was ever hesitant and insecure professionally, my first year out of college was the time. No scholastic teaching positions fell in my lap, no real-world employers would look twice, so I jumped at the chance to do some non-traditional theatre with an educational company called CLIMB (Creative Learning Ideas for Mind & Body).
CLIMB’s mission is to create and perform creative works that inspire and propel people toward actions that benefit themselves and the community. They started in 1975 as a company mostly serving disabled groups and audiences. Peg Wetli & Peg Endres gave me a new skill set and confidence that I could work ‘magic’ in any theatrical or educational setting. Doing school residencies or working with those special groups showed me the possibilities for more than one career.
I have been fortunate to work with a LOT of talented personable & intelligent people. Their influences guide me every day. I single the few out because they met me at a crossroads and pointed out the path I needed.
And now, the band is playing, oh crap! I also want to thank my pet turtle-----!?
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