"Hey, kids! Here's an old barn..."

Director’s Credits
In my youth, there was a time when I was floating in anguish. I was lost, directionless, doing drugs, constantly in trouble, contemplating suicide etc. In other words, just another teenager.
What changed was one day, on a whim, I auditioned for a school play called Up The Down Staircase and somehow landed the plum role of the school bad boy. Probably type casting at the time. However, it is what that play led to that changed my life the most.

A friend and fellow thespian, Arlene, asked me if I would like to come be in a show for the local recreation district teen theater group. They were doing Inherit The Wind and needed me to help fill a small role and as a townsperson. I said yes and thus stepped into the world of the Carriage House Theater gang under the direction of Darryl Ferrara.

Darryl was a well-known local actor and, along with his then-wife, Sally (who ran the puppet theater) had taken over the task of shaping a bunch of teens into a well-rounded theatrical troupe. He taught us how to build props and sets, hang lights, run a light board, stage crew, stage manage and when we were done, clean the place up. He imparted skills in stage direction, movement, acting, and singing.

Yet, most of all, he was the epitome of a mentor. He gave us a sense of belonging, of community, and of pride in what we did. He took a bunch of kids at the height of teenage angst and taught us how to live a life full of possibilities.

Remembrance of Things Past…and Yet To Come
Picture this. An old stable and carriage house on the grounds of a post-civil war mansion; dusty, full of various and asunder little critters, cramped, seating 50…well, 48 actually. We took out two seats to put in a spot light.

Within this humble setting magic happened. Peter Pan flew, Cinderella became a princess, fairies protected Babes from Toyland, Mary Poppins popped in, Dorothy found the Wizard, and seven kids as tall as six feet turned into dwarves to romp with Snow White. All this and much more. We would run around the surrounding park drumming up business for a matinee of Comedia Del Arte (Carriage-House Style) or a fractured fairy tale that would entertain the adults as much as the children (though the adults were loath to admit it). For fifty-cents, it was a hell of a deal.

We would then pack the show up into a van and take it on the road to schools, parks, recreation centers, wherever. We toured with Cinderella off and on for two years, and at least once a year it seems we would mount a production of Much Ado About Magic.

The productions became events and an event could become a production. Many times, we would gather around and “write” a script for a musical we wanted to do. It would go something like this:
“So, who saw the Wizard of Oz last?”
(Many “I dids!”)
“Okay, so what happens in the first scene? Next scene?”
(Lots of calling out and writing down.)
“How much can we do here?”
(Lots of mumbling and discussion and editing)
“Okay, we got it. Rehearsals begin tomorrow.”

And that is the way you make a show.

Most actors today do not get that kind of experience, that sense of theater as a whole and we did learn it all. One day the star of the show, the next day sweeping out the stables, and the next selling tickets and running the spot light.

Our theater troupe and our program grew with us and in 1978 our dreams were realized when the Hayward Area Recreation District (HARD) built the 250 seat Little Theater; an accomplishment that took all of us (and many more) to get the project through the tough budget times of those days.

Requiem
Darryl passed away recently and I feel a part of me is empty, and yet fully satisfied. It is difficult to express what has happened. You see Darryl will never die. I suppose it is because he continues to live in the so many kids whose lives he touched during those years.

Here’s a quick look at just a few of us. Penny Hamilton, who originated the role of Snow White in the long running Beach Blanket Babylon, took her career to Los Angeles, had a successful nightclub act and wrote for other performers. (Penny passed away far too young a few years ago.)

Arlene Hood (who started me on this journey) is a dramatic arts teacher at Moreau High School in Hayward. She is also a successful director, taking shows to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. She has received a coveted invitation from and is taking a show to the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre.

Nancy (McCullough) Engle took over from Darryl at the Little Theater when he moved to Los Angeles with his wife Cindy (another Carriage House Alumni) to pursue a full-time acting career. Nancy has been the Director of the Theater program for HARD for nearly 25 years and I’m proud to have acted in many shows she has directed. Oh, in her spare time she got her law degree and passed the Bar.

Ross Buffington brought his skills to many theaters in the Bay Area while building an impressive resume at some Bay Area banks. He is now the COO for Zero G Software in San Francisco.

Jay Clifton has sung for the San Francisco and San Jose Opera Companies and has played Daddy Warbucks at just about every theater group in the Bay Area. As asideline, he works for UC Berkeley.

John Marchand is a Senior Chemist for the Alameda County Water District and has sat on the board of Zone 7, Alameda County Flood Control and Water Quality for 14 years. He has also been the Keynote Speaker at many industry conventions across the country.

His wife Sue Marchand (AKA Cinderella) is an accomplished Bay Area artist whose murals decorate the walls of the Hayward Library and many other buildings in the area. She recently returned to school to garner her teaching credentials and now teaches grade school in Livermore.

Not bad for a bunch of misfit kids who liked to dress up and put on make-up.

What? Me? What have I accomplished? Well I’m just proud to be living a life that includes a wonderful wife and daughter and allows me to watch my grandkids taking up acting, seeing them on stage…and loving it! Oh, and to be able to write these essays of mine, especially this one.

So you see, I owe Darryl. I owe him…a life.

Fini