BROOKE HILLS PLAYHOUSE: A COLLECTIVE MEMOIR, Part 20-B, 1981

by Shari Murphy Coote and Friends

CONTINUED FROM PART 20-A, 1981

Front and back of the 1981 Playhouse Program Booklet

[NOTE FROM SHARI: If you’ve read the previous installment, Part 20-A, you have already read the memories of Amy Charlton Portale and Cathy O’Dell. Part 20-A got so long, that I moved Amy and Cathy to this part where you will also read the very funny memories of Ken Kasprzak and the touching memories Mark Poole.]

AMY CHARLTON PORTALE REMEMBERS

“I always loved to sing,” said Amy. “My mom was a church organist, and I think I sang my first solo in church when I was in second grade. I think it was my friend Beth Stiles and her mom who first took me to the Playhouse.  We would hand out programs and then watch the shows. And then when I was in the 7^th grade, I tried out for Fiddler on the Roof (1977) and was cast as Tevye and Golde’s next-to-the-last daughter, Shprintze. I was 13 years old, and I loved being on stage!

“I don’t know why I didn’t try out again for a while, but when I was at Brooke High, we only did a show every other year.  I wanted to do more, and so in 1980, I auditioned again and got a chorus part in Oklahoma! and a small speaking part in That’s No Excuse, so small I can’t remember the play! The next summer, 1981, I was cast as Jennifer Owens, one of the leads, in Babes in Arms, and it was my first Playhouse role with lines as well as singing and dancing!”

And then Amy took off and established herself as one of our leading ingenues. She graduated from Brooke High in 1982, and that spring she was one of the four cast members in a great little comedy titled Bubba, the first show we produced in downtown Wellsburg at the Brooke County Museum. AND it wasn’t a musical, so we quickly learned that Amy had great acting ability in addition to her musical talent.

At the barn that summer of 1982, Amy had major roles in three of the six productions—The Music Man (playing Ethel Tofflemeir, the jolly, friendly woman who plays the player piano!), Blythe Spirit (playing the mischievous ghost of the leading man’s first wife), and H.M.S. Pinafore where she played Josephine, the female lead requiring some vocal acrobatics that she breezed through.

That fall, Amy entered West Liberty State College as a music major, where she did several shows, and then she returned to Brooke Hills for the summer.

“1983 was my final year at the Playhouse. I had a fun part in the show at the museum in the spring. I played Zenda, a space alien, in Heavenly Body. Then, when the summer came, I played Annie in Annie Get Your Gun, my very favorite part. I got to sing some great songs and be a tomboy, always fun, AND play opposite my Brooke High Choir teacher, Rick Taylor. It was an all-around wonderful experience.

Amy went back to West Liberty in the fall of 1983 for her sophomore year and did Chicago that fall. Several of Amy’s friends from the Playhouse attended, and we all will tell you it was a fabulous production.  By the way, another Playhouse actress, Eva Fotis, also had a part in the show.

Instead of returning for the second semester, Amy did something very adventurous. She auditioned for the shows at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, and she was cast. “The show was called Hats off to Hollywood,” said Amy, “and it recreated scenes from Hollywood musicals. Rehearsals started in March, and we opened on Memorial Day Weekend. The show ran through the fall, and we performed 4 or 5 shows a day with two casts to allow for days off (Red cast, me, and Blue cast). In the fall, we just performed on weekends. It was a cool job. I worked with professionals and learned so much. And the theatre was HUGE, quite a change from the Playhouse and West Liberty. By the way, the award-winning actor of film, TV, and Broadway, Blair Underwood, was in the Blue cast. He was a student at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama at the time.”

[NOTE from Shari: There’s an online video of Amy performing in the Williamsburg show. She didn’t tell me about it, but I wanted to know what the show was about, so I Googled it, and bingo! I didn’t just find information, I found a video of the show with the Red (A) Cast, Amy’s Cast, from 1984. When I mentioned it to Amy, she sent me these time stops, so I could find her in the show. She has three solos! Here are the link and the markers from Amy:

 https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Hats+off+to+Hollywood%2c+busch+gardens&mid=3539BCEFCD32C5057D1E3539BCEFCD32C5057D1E&FORM=VIRE

– Opening – Amy in the gray dress with the suitcase
– 2:35 – Amy on the left, still in gray dress.  You can’t see the screen, but they’re singing about the silent movie era
– 8:35 – second girl out of the slot machine!
– 10:35 – second one to enter with dolls
– 13:20 – girl on the left singing about famous feet
– 21:15 – girl on the right
– 24:15 – second from right
– 25:55 – solo – Rainbow Connection
– 28:20 – quick speech
– 29:55 – solo – Goldfinger
– 34:25 – solo – Maniac
– 42:01 – Amy with feathers and clack board on the stick she’s holding
– 43:52 – on right, end up second girl from the right
– 45:09 – Amy

I loved watching this grainy, poorly lit video because Amy’s talent and fabulous voice jump right out at you! I was so proud knowing that she had started on our stage back in Wellsburg.]

“Next, a friend and I auditioned for Busch Gardens, Tampa,” said Amy, “and we were cast there, too. It was another fun show, but this time we were performing outside, and it was HOT! We also had to deal with lightning strikes, not so much fun.

“After Tampa, I moved to the Philadelphia area, and from 1987 to 1999, I worked for General Electric in a variety of positions, and I still performed.  I sang with an orchestra at a lot of weddings and bar mitzvahs.  When I changed careers and went into real estate, I would sing the National Anthem at our yearly awards banquet.  Then, sometime in the mid-2000s, after singing the National Anthem again, I returned to my table and realized that I was sweating like crazy. I also realized that I hadn’t enjoyed the experience in the least. I lost my nerve for performing.

“I had married Joe Portale in 1994, and when I went on maternity leave for the last time from GE in 1999, my brother-in-law suggested that with my personality, I should go into real estate. I told him I would never work at a job that only paid on commissions. I’m not sure why, but I took the courses and passed the exams, and then I sold my first house and never looked back. I loved selling back in 1999, and I continue to love my job today.

“I have so many wonderful memories of my time at the Playhouse. It was a sense of family…a close-knit group of friends and fellow thespians!  It was such a comfortable group of people to be around. I remember wanting to arrive early for rehearsals because we played volleyball out in the grass next to the barn. Or if you were on a break from some scenes, you could join in a volleyball game.  I remember the dressing room at the base of the steps and how we waited in the wings behind the black, dusty curtains before going on stage.  I remember Shari sitting in the audience as we rehearsed.  I remember her moving around to test our volume, making sure every audience member could hear us.”

“Phew! I remember how so darn hot it was upstairs in the barn on stage at times!  As I got older, I remember staying around after the shows and hanging out in the lobby with cast members—having a beer.  I remember near the end of one summer, when Al Martin was going back to Cleveland because the show he’d directed had closed, I played the piano and sang a song to him.  It was the song ‘My Buddy,’ but I changed the words, of course.  Instead of the last line being ‘Your buddy misses you,’ I sang, ‘Al Martin, we love you!’

“I helped in the box office several summers when I wasn’t in a show. I just loved being at the barn, so I filled in here and there—sold tickets, took tickets as patrons went up the stairs, helped out where I could.

“I remember many Playhouse regulars, some were so funny on stage and off, from Rich Ferguson to Rick Call.  I didn’t try out for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, but I remember watching the rehearsals and seeing the show almost every night.  I thought it was so damn funny! I can’t remember any specific times when someone forgot a line or a prop didn’t work, but I know it happened, and we just worked ourselves out of the jam. I always felt confident on stage because of my fellow cast members, because there was so much talent around me.  I have absolutely wonderful memories of my times at Brooke Hills.

“Life is good! I loved growing up in Wellsburg, and I still love to visit a few times a year.  I’m lucky to still have my mom, who just turned 90, and my sister, Mary Ann, and her husband, Dave, as well as my brother, Matt, and his wife, Joyce, and nephews and families who all still live in Wellsburg. Joe and I love to travel, and we had a great trip to Scotland this spring (2025).  We do lots of projects around the house together, everything from gutting our primary bath and remodeling it to installing hardwood floors in all the bedrooms.  We run most mornings and walk at night.  Joe is a golfer, and I’m trying to become one. We both still work, and I guess I’m happiest when not sitting still!”

Today, Amy and Joe live in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania and are empty nesters.  Their four children are grown, and they have three grandchildren with one more on the way.

CATHY O’DELL REMEMBERS

The summers of 1980 and 1981 that I spent at the Brooke Hills Playhouse were two of the best summers of my life.  Kendra Stingo, Don Reed, and I were theatre students at Fairmont State College (now University). Kendra knew someone who suggested we might want to do some shows at Brooke Hills. We sent in our resumes, and apparently, our theatre professors gave us good recommendations. All three of us were accepted as company members. We were all involved with an early summer production with the Fairmont State College Town and Gown Players, so we didn’t arrive at Brooke Hills until the second set of auditions.

As soon as our show in Fairmont finished, we headed to Wellsburg. Doing theatre at Brooke Hills allowed me to perform in great shows and create fun roles, but I also learned how to rehearse one play in a short period of time while performing in another. I had been cast in the last three shows of the season, so I learned these lessons pretty quickly.

In addition to acting, I also loved building sets, painting, and doing Foley (sound). I was totally immersed in all aspects of theatre, and those skills have been a big part of my discipline in theatre, teaching, and life! I have strong memories, outside of the productions as well, especially volleyball and the Fourth of July picnics. To this day, I think of Brooke Hills every Fourth of July, and it is one of my favorite holidays because of it. I also remember Al Martin’s wit and wisdom in work and fun.

I remember one of the summers, I moved in with a cardboard box of belongings. I set it in the barn. Later, I came to retrieve something, reached my hand in the box, and felt something weird. It was a snake! It was harmless, but it still makes a great story when friends bring up snakes.

That first summer, we were housed in the dorms at Bethany College.  The second year, Bill Harper and others had built us a “dorm” that was on site. It was great being on the property. I was always in awe of the “can-do” spirit of Bill, Shari, Al, and many others.

The productions were always top-notch. I remember thinking, “This is how Stanislavski started, in a barn!” We had great costumes, sets, directors, and acting. Erich Zuern and Cathy Gaines were so cool. I still remember a T-shirt that Cathy G. had. It said, “Perpetual Virgin”!

One morning Erich and I were doing work on a set, and we were listening to National Public Radio. The announcer was sharing the news that Andrew Lloyd Webber was announcing a new play called Cats, based on T.S. Elliot’s poems. I did a spit take with my coffee and said, “That will last two weeks!”

It’s hard to put into words what having the opportunity to work in and on the productions was like. I guess, simply magical is a good term.

1980

Kendra Stingo, Don Reed, and I came in the second half of the summer. The trip from Fairmont, W. Va. north to Wellsburg was a beautiful drive. I have little memory of auditioning, but I was cast in the final three shows. The first play that I cast in was Wait Until Dark, a mystery/thriller. I would play Susy, a woman recently blinded who had unknowingly come into possession of a doll stuffed with drugs that was wanted by some bad guys. Bill Hossack, John Touloumes, and Skip Roberts were very menacing as the bad guys. Hilary Depolo (then Depolo-Ayers) was the director. She had gone to grad school with Bill Harper at Wayne State University in Detroit. Even though she was now living and directing in Denver, she came to the Playhouse to direct the one show when Bill invited her.  

The next production that I was in was A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, playing one of the Geminae.   Shari directed this, and it was so much fun! The other Geminae was another redhead, Cindi Belardine. We wore amazing purple harem costumes with mirrored-imaged ponytails on the top of our heads.

We closed the season with Going Ape. I don’t know if it was because it was the end of the season, but I don’t remember much about this production! But in the article that I found, it got good reviews.

I have a memory of being outside the barn with others one afternoon, and I saw this tall man walking toward us from a distance. As he came closer, we realized that it was John D. “Jay” Rockefeller IV, then Governor of West Virginia. He was exploring the park and was interested in hearing about our theatre.  

[NOTE FROM SHARI: In 1979, Joe Thomas, the Brooke Hills Park Manager, had secured a grant from Gov. Rockefelller’s Discretionary Fund to pay for the ramp at the Playhouse. Joe was anxious for the governor to see how his grant had added handicap access to the upstairs theatre.  Of course, the ramp also made moving scenery, pianos, and furniture between floors much easier for the crew and volunteers as well!]

1981

Godspell was another great production. I can’t sing, but the number that I had to perform as Reggie allowed me to talk/sing it!

Playing Corie Bratter in Barefoot in the Park was probably my favorite role at the barn. The cast was great. I remember looking forward to watching and acting with Judy Hennen as the Mother every performance and trying not to crack up. Her performance describing her character’s night out was brilliant. To this day, this remains one of my favorite plays that I have ever been in. Joe Tribbie played Paul, and he was outstanding. We formed a bond that lasted until his untimely death a few years later.

Not Now, Darling ended the season.  This was such a fun farce. What I remember most about it was that Kendra and I had to wear underwear only onstage. We were allowed to pick out something that we felt comfortable in. I don’t remember a lot about the play, but I remember having a good time.

I remember a few of us that year (I believe) went to a midnight showing of the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  It was my first time seeing it, and it was complete with audience members throwing “props” at the stage, and I believe there were live performers. Again, I always think of Brooke Hills when anything Rocky Horror comes up.

I don’t remember what summer it was, but we all went out to a bar one evening. We (or some of us) were drinking bourbon and smoking cigars. I didn’t know one shouldn’t inhale. It was so much fun, but later it turned into a not-so-great night for me. Also, not a good night for Bill Hossack as he was kind enough to nurse me through it. My sincere thanks and apologies to him. To this day I cannot drink bourbon!

Joe Tribbie and I made plans to move to New York City that fall. Joe had previously lived in New York, and he found us a great apartment and helped me in navigating the city. The day we stepped into the city that September was the first time that I had ever been to the Big Apple. I loved it from day one. Bill Hossack stayed with us for a while, as he said in his memories in the prior post, Part 19. We stayed in touch for a while, and I have lovely memories of our friendship.

Joe moved to Los Angeles shortly thereafter. Don Reed moved in for a while. Joe encouraged me to move to L.A. I came back home to West Virginia, regrouped, and headed west. I had a layover in Las Vegas that lasted a year and a half, then made it to L.A. I had a hard time landing a day job, and Joe’s health was declining. (This was around 1985). I moved back home and found a day job, and then I got married in 1987.

Not only did we lose Joe Tribbie too soon, but Don Reed also passed away in the late 80’s. I felt that I lost a big and little brother.

In 1993, I decided to audition for West Virginia University’s MFA acting program. I graduated in 1995 and signed with an agent in Pittsburgh. Ironically, when I decided to give up my dreams as an actor and pursue teaching college, I started to land acting and voice-over jobs.

I worked as an adjunct professor at WVU and in 2008 became a full-time professor of Theater. I feel lucky that I am still able to both teach and act.  I became certified as a teacher of the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique and use it in the classroom.

A couple of highlights of my acting jobs include a small recurring role on the MAX series Banshee, Season Four. Later I worked with the film director Richard Linklater who cast me in a small role in Last Flag Flying.

The next year, Richard asked me to be a rehearsal partner with Cate Blanchett and Kristen Wiig for their film Where’d You Go, Bernadette. I read Cate’s role with Kristen, and Kristen’s role with Cate as they could not be in the same place at the same time.

My first marriage ended in 2018, but in 2021 I married the love of my life, Joe Olivieri. Joe taught acting at UCLA for 25 years and is a professional actor. We traveled back and forth from Los Angeles to Morgantown for a few years. Joe retired from teaching, and we have a beautiful life in Morgantown. Joe and I still act, I am still teaching at WVU, and Joe teaches part-time there, also.

It’s hard to describe what my time at Brooke Hills Playhouse means to me. It was a wonderful theatre and personal experience. It shaped my life in so many ways, and it is always swirling in my head. The people were not only wonderful theatre practitioners, but amazing people. Thank you, Shari, Bill, Judy, and John, for creating a very special place. Oh, and I still recycle.

KEN KASPRZAK REMEMBERS

Ken Kasprzak grew up in Weirton, West Virginia. “When I was little, I always wanted to be on stage. I was the ‘Introduce me! Introduce me!’ kid and could actually sing before my voice changed. I got a song in the kindergarten graduation show and did the usual Christmas stuff and pageants in elementary school. I had been in some unremarkable plays in high school (Our Miss Brooks and The Beverly Hillbillies), and the high school’s annual variety show Stand Up & Cheer with Weir.

Shortly after graduating from Weir Sr. High School in 1979, Ken had a few odd jobs and took some classes at West Virginia Northern Community College (WVNCC). After about a year, he got tired of school and got a job as a stock boy unloading trucks at Fisher’s Big Wheel, a department store in Weirton. It was while attending WVNCC, he met Jim Matterer and his girlfriend Kathy Hill, both of whom had worked at the Playhouse. By that time, Ken had done one or two shows already with the Steubenville Players.

“I’m sure it was Jim and Kathy who told me about Brooke Hills Playhouse,” he said. “And it was probably Jim who suggested I audition when Arsenic and Old Lace was scheduled for production in the 1981 season. During that round of auditions, I was cast as Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace. Later, at the second set of auditions, I was cast in Everybody Loves Opal and GASP! A MUSICAL! Babes in Arms. I knew my limitations, and singing was now one of them, but I was happy to be onstage and flattered to be asked (and I’m sure they needed another body), so I took the part.” 

“The Jonathan Brewster part in Arsenic was great!” said Ken. “He’s a psychopathic murderer who keeps getting plastic surgery so he can’t be recognized by witnesses. He’s hiding out in the Brewster house with his elderly aunts, who also happen to be murderers. The part was fun. The cast was fun. The play was funny. 

“Jean Carlson played one of the sweet, but murdering, old sisters. She was super talented, and her acting was effortless. Jean lived in Cleveland and was a friend of Al and Betty Martin. They had talked about Brooke Hills, and Jean decided she wanted to come to Wellsburg and do a show. Al was directing Arsenic, so he cast her before auditions. Jean and I became good friends that summer, and she mixed me my first Manhattan! We kept in touch for several years.”

“Babes in Arms wasn’t nearly as enjoyable. I knew I couldn’t sing, and we had to dance as well. We went to C.R. Wilson’s studio in Steubenville for dance lessons. It was awful! I could not pick up the choreography. It seemed like there was some tension in the cast. I don’t know. The singing and dancing made me crabby, and I was only on stage in crowd scenes. But they needed a body on stage, so I tried to deliver.”

Right off the bat, Ken was cast in the opening show of 1982, another musical, The Music Man. “Oh, my gosh,” said Ken. “When I was cast, it was as a townsperson. Then you, Shari, put me in the ‘train’ scene, which wasn’t really singing, just talking in rhythm. Then every so often in that scene and in others, you’d say, ‘Ken, you do that’ or ‘Ken, you take that line.’ Before long, I was in a lot of scenes, had several costume changes, and a number of random lines but never had a script in my hand!

“One of my most memorable moments happened in The Music Man. Just about everybody was on stage singing ‘The Wells Fargo Wagon’ as the Act I finale, but Jeff Lilly and I were the only ones who could see what was happening off stage. Rick Taylor, playing Prof. Harold Hill, the lead, was in the wings along with some crew members struggling with the ‘wagon,’ which was full of musical instruments for the kids. The wagon had broken down and wasn’t going anywhere. It started literally falling apart before our eyes. Right on cue (or maybe a beat late), Rick grabbed a trombone from the wagon and entered triumphantly to the cheers from the good folks of River City! Jeff and I, who had felt helpless, may have cheered loudest of all!

“I did three other shows that summer,” said Ken, “Blythe Spirit, Not in the Book (I remember that I played a blackmailer!), and U.T.B.U. (Unhealthy To Be Unpleasant) where I had the lead—a maniacal, aging actor and a really rotten person! What fun that was! Four shows that summer.”

“Playing J. Francis Amber, the crazy actor in U.T.B.U. was work, a lot of hard work, because there was so much physical comedy! In the show, there’s a bust of J. Francis on the set when he played Caesar. This necessitated you putting moulage on my face, Shari, to make a cast, so we could make a plaster bust of me as Caesar. I had two straws up my nose to breathe, and I sat in a chair in the lobby. You brought the goo in a saucepan from the kitchen and started applying it to my face.

“Right before you slapped it on you said, ‘Let me know if this is too warm.’ You put it pretty much over my whole face, and I kind of harrumphed and groaned in discomfort.

“You said, ‘What?’

“I then shaped the letters H – O – T with both hands. I couldn’t see you (eyes covered with goo), but I heard you say, ‘H. O. T.’ and then suddenly shout, ‘HOT!!!’ By then it was too late, and you slapped on another layer.

“I don’t remember how long I sat mute and blind till the stuff was set and able to be pulled off. The best facial I ever had!”

“I also remember the original director, but not his name. He shouted incessantly at his wife explaining, ‘If I don’t yell at her, I’ll yell at you’, meaning the cast.

“One day just before rehearsing, he sat down next to me and started bitching about something. I was only half listening because I don’t like complaining. Sometime during the rehearsal, which was during the day, so it was on the weekend, things started to go south with the director, and the rehearsal stopped.

[NOTE FROM SHARI: I think the guy, who shall remain nameless, was completely out of his element. I think he had lied about his directing experience on his resume because he was making up stuff as he went along. Directors don’t have time to do that in summer stock. They plan every move ahead of time and block those moves out during rehearsals. In addition, he really didn’t want to build scenery, paint, run props, or do anything other than direct, which hadn’t been the plan.

I was watching this horrible rehearsal where he kept changing things and getting madder and madder and louder and louder. I don’t remember if he called a break or if I did, but he and I went downstairs and had a conversation. The staff pretty much stopped whatever they were working on and came to watch this “new show.” At some point, his wife got involved, but he was ugly to her, and she quickly went to their car.

The conversation soon went downhill and ended with him yelling at me and me firing him! It wasn’t pretty, and I was never so happy to have the Wilson twins on the staff as I was that day. John and Jim Wilson were 6’2” (at least) and recent high school grads who were the young sons of Henry and Dolly Wilson. The Wilsons owned and ran Wilson’s News, across from the post office in Wellsburg for decades. The fired guy started walking away, but he turned around and came charging back screaming profanities at me with raised fists.

The twins quickly walked between us to protect me from the lunatic. The twins backed him up to his car where his poor wife was waiting at the steering wheel with the engine running. Jim opened the car door, and John took another step to back the guy into the passenger seat. The wife put the car in gear, and we never saw them again. I think we all felt sorry for her, but we were also relieved with them gone. Meanwhile, I got to direct a show that I loved!]

“Shari had to go into high gear to prepare for this unexpected directing gig, so rehearsal was cancelled, and the cast ran lines. From then on, the cast actually enjoyed doing the very funny show, and the audiences loved it.”

In 1983, Ken did three more shows at the Playhouse, and two of those were musicals! We wouldn’t let him escape them. That summer he was in Annie Get Your Gun (musical), The Solid Gold Cadillac, and a zany, mystery musical titled Something’s Afoot. Ironically, as much as Ken purports to dislike musicals, he declared that he “loved Something’s Afoot.”

The plot of Something’s Afoot spoofs the 1939 Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None. The licensing company describes it thus, “Ten people are stranded in an isolated English country estate during a raging thunderstorm. One by one they are killed in mysterious (and hilarious) ways as they try to discover the murderer’s identity. The situation is complicated by rising floodwaters, power failures and suspicious behaviors carefully noted by Miss Tweed, an elderly amateur detective.”

Ken said, “I have so many memories from that show. We all know the barn isn’t air-conditioned, and it often gets really hot on stage under the lights. I played the caretaker in Something’s Afoot, and my character has to enter in a crazy way. Brooke Hills doesn’t have a front curtain, so at 7:30 p.m., right before the audience was allowed to come upstairs and find their seats, I had to lie down on the desk on stage and be covered with a tarp like the rest of the furniture in this dusty, old mansion where only the caretaker and maid are living.

“When the other cast members begin to arrive, my character is discovered sleeping under the tarp, supposedly shirking my duties. It was a good comic bit, but, God, it was hot under there! I was dripping wet before I even said a line!

“My character was also a gripper, someone who enjoyed grabbing ladies’ asses. One night before I took my place under the tarp, Sherry Ruschel, who played the ingenue, said to me, “My husband’s going to be here tonight. Don’t really touch my butt. I don’t know what he’d do!” Well, that wasn’t a very pleasant thing to have to think about for that half hour while sweating under the tarp!

“There was one scene where the cast has to pass around a chamber pot, supposedly full and in need of being emptied.  One night someone in the cast put a big, unwrapped Tootsie Roll in the pot! We all had to try and keep our composure, first when we saw that turd-like thing and then as we watched the reactions of the other cast members discovering it! I can’t remember if anyone broke character or not, but I know I came very close!

[NOTE FROM SHARI: I recently discovered that Mary Freshwater was the culprit. Mary was the show’s stage manager and a high school student at the time. The following year she joined the staff.]

“One last story from that crazy, fun 2-week run,” said Ken. “I was driving to the Playhouse one evening for our 7:00 p.m. call. I already had some of my butler costume on—shirt, vest, and pin-striped pants. (I had to take it home and wash it each night. Remember, the sweat!)

“Somewhere between Weirton and Follansbee, my car stalled out, and it refused to restart. I knew I had to get to Brooke Hills, so I left the car sitting along Route 2 and stuck out my thumb. Some skinny redneck with no teeth picked me up, and asked, “Where’re ya goin’?” Looking over at him with his one hand on the wheel and smoking a joint with the other, I said, ‘Follansbee.’

“He gave me a good look then asked, ‘What line a work you in?’ I tried to explain I was a caretaker in a formal, British mansion in a play. He may not have understood me or maybe didn’t believe me, but he got me to Follansbee.

“I knew where Jim Matterer and you lived in Follansbee, Shari, not far from Rt. 2. The guy let me out, and I walked up Mark Avenue. Neither you nor Jim was home, but the people across the street let me use the phone, and I called the barn. Cast member, Caroline Watson, came from the theater, picked me up, and took me back with her. Luckily my car started later.”

At the end of the 1983 season, Ken moved to Morgantown, West Virginia where he lived and worked before returning to Weirton and enrolling in a trade school in Wheeling. The school turned out to be a bust, so he withdrew and enrolled in a school in Pittsburgh for the fall term of 1986.

Having a whole summer to kick around, Ken was considering getting a job when his mother said, “Why get a job when you’re going to have to quit in a few months when school starts? You don’t really have to work. Why don’t you audition for something at Brooke Hills?” Around the same time, a friend of his was moving to Los Angeles and asked Ken to keep his jeep for him, so he had wheels.

 After a two-year hiatus from the Playhouse stage, Ken returned for one last show, The Good Doctor, by Neil Simon, directed by Al Martin in 1986.

“That fall I went to the Wilma Boyd Career School in Pittsburgh, said Ken, “and received my certificate in Travel Administration. I started in the airline business in 1987 at Regan National in Washington, D.C. Over the years, I worked for Henson Regional Airlines, a Piedmont commuter carrier which was bought by USAir, which changed its name to U.S. Airways and has since been absorbed into American Airlines. I started out driving the shuttle bus between the main and commuter terminals at Washington National Airport, but I ended up doing everything from ramp to the ticket counter to supervisor and eventually to corporate.”

Ken met Bob in 1992, in D.C.  He was a Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy. They bought a house in Silver Spring, Maryland in 1996 where Ken did some shows.

“Bob was a little socially awkward,” said Ken, “but he loved coming to shows, and he especially liked the cast parties.  (LOL). My last show was Six Degree of Separation. I played both the South African in the first act and the Detective for the rest of the play. That was 2005, the year Bob died, after we’d been together for 13 years. That kind of took the wind out of my sails for a long time.”

“In 2007,” Ken said, “I was about the last one left at Corporate HQ when US Airways was acquired by an airline headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. I turned off the lights and closed the door on the old HQ.

Ken still lives in Silver Spring and has worked for the American Psychological Association for years. He now enjoys going to plays and movies, especially horror movies. His nickname on Facebook is the “Hepcat of Horror”!

“My mom, who was my biggest fan, died in 1994,” said Ken. “My sister now lives in the house we grew up in.”  I loved my days at the Playhouse, and I’ve always been grateful that my mom pushed me to my last audition. I did 11 shows at the Playhouse, and she never missed a show I was in. She and my aunt Virney would often make a big night out of it, having dinner at the Drovers’ Inn before the show. The Playhouse was the most professional place I ever acted at, and my greatest theatre experiences were in that old barn.”

MARK POOLE REMEMBERS

[NOTE from Shari: This is why getting involved at Brooke Hills Playhouse matters. Mark’s one show, 44 years ago, made a lasting impression on Mark Poole, and it can create a great memory for you, too!]

“I believe Jane Paull, the Godspell pianist, asked me to play drums for Godspell,” said Mark Poole. “I assume I was asked to play drums at the Playhouse because someone saw the Brooke High production of Guys and Dolls in the spring of 1981 and thought I did a decent enough job to ask me to play for Godspell.  I do remember that I was really excited to do this because I enjoyed playing for Guys and Dolls so much. I had seen Oklahoma in the previous summer at Brooke Hills, and now, here I was, getting the opportunity to play drums for a show at a great, local, community theater!

“Bill Stephens was asked to play guitar for the show, and we were each given a copy of the original Broadway cast soundtrack to listen to, along with our respective score. Then, the Saturday before rehearsals at the Playhouse started, Bill and I went out to Jane Paull’s house with our instruments, set up in her living room, and Jane walked us through each song. We actually learned all the music that day in her living room. Then, when our first rehearsal with the cast happened at the Playhouse, we were fairly well prepared. Everything just took off from there!

“When I played drums for Godspell at the Playhouse, it was the summer after my sophomore year at Brooke High School, so I was pretty young. I truly enjoyed playing drums for Godspell, and I remember being so very impressed with the high level of performing.  The cast was really talented.

“I was a part of that exciting environment for just over five weeks that summer. Our little band rehearsed with the cast for about three weeks and then there were two weekends of performing, and I loved every minute. Sadly, those few weeks were it for me, but what a wonderful experience it was!!!

The Godspell Band, 1981, Bill Stephens, Jane Paull, Mark Poole

“The cast and crew made me feel like family from day one, and none of it felt like work. It was all just a great time for me, every single rehearsal and performance!!!

“My most vivid recollection is of Sue Price. I picture her at the back of the theater at the opening of the second act, singing “Turn Back, O Man” in a long black dress, slithering down the aisle and up to the front of the theater as she sang! She was a knockout!

“I also remember that Bill Hossack was incredible as Jesus. His kind and genuine demeanor flowed from the stage out to the audience, and the crucifixion scene was devasting—every single night.

“Being in the orchestra was wonderful, not just because I was a part of such a memorable show but because I got to watch the show every night and experience the excitement of the audience as the cast wove their magic onstage. 

“I saw one other show that summer at the barn, Arsenic and Old Lace, and the following summer I went out to see The Music Man. Sadly, I never did another show at the Playhouse (although Shari has been encouraging me to get out there!). Life got very busy. I graduated from Brooke High in 1983 and received my B.A. in Music in December 1988 from West Virginia University.  I became a teacher, and I married and had a family.  My wife, Debbie, and I have two daughters, Abbey and Audrey.

“Today, I teach Music K-5 in Washington, Pennsylvania and live in Weirton, West Virginia on Marland Heights, 8 blocks from the house where I grew up!”

SHARI WONDERS, “WHAT DO WE DO NOW?”

On July 5, 1981, I filed for divorce from Bill Harper, and he moved back in with his parents in Chester, W. Va.  Under the terms of the divorce, which would be final on October 6, 1981, among other things, I would be allowed to stay affiliated with the Playhouse, while Bill was out.

Bill generously continued to run the Playhouse through the end of the season, but when the final show closed, he left with all his personal equipment which the Playhouse had been using free of charge for 10 summers. The heavy black curtains which masked the backstage area belonged to him personally as did the majority of the lighting equipment—dimming system, ellipsoidal spotlights, Fresnel spotlights, miles of lighting cable, and many tools.

At the end of August, I went back to teaching as usual, and one Saturday in September, I hauled my unbalanced, very pregnant body to the bank to ask for copies of the Playhouse transactions for the past three years. I had been co-signing checks with Bill, but I never was involved with or interested in the Playhouse accounting.  Not very smart in hindsight.

In 1972, Bill, John Hennen, and I had originally incorporated the Brooke Hills Playhouse, Inc. as a for-profit corporation. I can still remember when our binder of very official-looking stock shares arrived, and we divvied them up.  33 shares each to John and me, 34 to Bill.

Now, nine years and ten seasons later, I had no idea where that book of shares was, but after receiving those bank records, it was obvious Brooke Hills Playhouse, Inc. was never going to make a profit.  I had never been repaid for my initial investment of several thousands of dollars. I doubt that John had been repaid either. According to an old letter from Bill to John and me, Bill’s investment was not cash but rather the use of his equipment. Now, all these years later, we were nearly back where we had started, broke!

When I looked through the records, nothing looked too much out of line.  There were some larger checks, but this wasn’t unusual as several of us would spend our own money for props, costumes, whatever, and then turn in receipts to be reimbursed. Since I could only see the bank records, deposits and withdrawals, and no receipts to back up the withdrawals, I had to assume that all was in order. 

When I looked through the records, nothing looked too much out of line.  There were some larger checks, but this wasn’t unusual as several of us would spend our own money for props, costumes, whatever, and then turn in receipts to be reimbursed. Since I could only see the bank records, deposits and withdrawals, and no receipts to back up the withdrawals, I had to assume that all was in order. 

Of course, it would have been easy to deposit only the checks from the box office each night and keep the cash, but I had enough to worry about, and I knew that we never had much money at the end of any season. The last several summers, however, we ended the season with enough money to reopen in the spring, around $3000.  Now the bank balance was less than $1000, not enough to put season or audition announcement ads in the papers or on TV or radio or pay royalties or order scripts, let alone meet the first few weeks’ payroll for our college staff members.  It was not a pretty picture.

On the positive side, we didn’t have to transform a barn into a theatre this time around. We had tools and hardware. We had a stock of scenery, costumes, props, makeup, and some lighting equipment, and most importantly, there were a lot of local people who cared deeply for the Playhouse. We all wanted to carry on, but September was when we recouped from the just-finished season, when we rehashed what we had loved about the shows, when we told “Remember When” stories of the goings on backstage and onstage. The 1982 season was out of sight and out of mind.

TO BE CONTINUED…