34
winter
|
spring
Junior High School under the inspired direction of Marj Luke,
Nancy
Keele, Donna Chaplin
and
Al Coffman
. Mr. Hall, who became a
successful writer, producer and filmmaker, is married to Golden Globe
and Emmy Award winning
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
(Seinfeld
and now
Veep)
. Brad was among the braver of Mama Luke’s students and was
one of the few who dared to traverse the perilous attic catwalks over
the auditorium. Brad grew up in Montecito and the couple share a
home in Montecito with their children.
Names and messages from theatre students from the ‘60s and
‘70s including
Darrock Greer
,
Ty Granaroli
,
Stuart (Eiseman)
Carey, Keith Melton
and
Mark Driscoll
(all of whom have forged
impressive careers) can still be found adorning the attic beams high
above the auditorium of the Marjorie Luke Theatre. A number
of these fellows came close to falling through the thin Masonite
ceiling panels; for many years after, foot holes could be seen in a
number of these stenciled panels some thirty feet over the heads of
audiences.
Lacking a real budget for such things, some of the stage crew
members jerry-rigged homemade flash pots for special effects. In 1973
,
on opening night of
The Wizard Of Oz
, a flash pot shot flames instead
of smoke to materialize the Wicked Witch of the West (played by
Sara Kass
) due to excessive use of gunpowder. The set caught on fire
and I missed my cue and singular line in the show as Coroner, while I
doused the fire with a bucket of water.
Dante DiLoreto, who was the Mayor of Dogpatch when I
played Abner in the SBJHS musical
Li’l Abner,
went on to a career
in acting and then producing, first in partnership with Anthony
Edwards. The two produced the Emmy Winning HBO film
Temple Grandin
. Dante went on to become Executive Producer of
the hit series
GLEE
and the first few seasons of
American Horror
Story
. Both shows have been showered with Emmy Awards. GLEE
also featured Santa Barbara’s favorite comedian
Carol Burnett
as
the mother of
Jane Lynch’s
character Sue Sylvester, and Dante
brought on another Santa Barbara native –
Eric Stoltz
– to direct
many episodes. Eric and Tony Edwards appeared in
Fast Times at
Ridgemont High
while they were still students at San Marcos High.
Eric is currently Co-Executive Producer and appearing in CBS’
drama series
Madame Secretary
.
THE MARJORIE LUKE THEATRE
LEGACY
I
was honored to serve as Board President and Development
Director for the renovation of the SBJHS theatre, which began
with a benefit event in 1999 attended by many SBJHS alums. My
first ask for the role of Lead Donor went to Tony Edwards. In his
humble and heroic style he accepted and earned the opportunity
to name the venue. In a touching and beautiful gesture he chose to
name it after Marjorie Luke.
Anthony Edwards
(right)
, already a major TV star (he
played Dr. Greene in the long-running
ER
from 1994 to
2008), joined his former drama teacher Marjorie Luke and
Rod Lathim to help renovate the renamed Marjorie Luke
Theatre at Santa Barbara Junior High in 1999
Once the $4-million renovation of this Spanish Colonial Revival
theatre was completed, I went back to my fellow thespians for their
support. Dante graciously agreed to facilitate a group of
GLEE
actors
and co-creator
Ian Brennan
for our
GLEE AT THE LUKE
benefit in
November of 2010 featuring cast members
Jane Lynch
, the late
Cory
Monteith
,
Chord Overstreet
and
Mike O’Malley
.
I asked
Brad Hall
if he would moderate the lively onstage
discussion with his fellow SBJHS alum Dante, before the boisterous
sold-out audience of
Gleeks
. The sound of the crowd that night
– ON THE ARTS
