In 1972 when I directed Teahouse of the August Moon for the first time, I was teaching at Catholic Central High School (now St. Mary Catholic Central) in Monroe, Michigan. My initial inspiration for choosing this play came after I saw the 1956 film starring a very young Marlon Brando as the impish Okinawan translator, Sakini, and Glenn Ford as Captain Fisby. Both the play and the screenplay were adapted from the 1951 Vern Sneider novel of the same name. My second reason for producing the play was that Vern Sneider lived just six blocks from the high school. He allowed me to meet with him and gave me some valuable production tips.
Set in World War II on the island of Okinawa, Captain Fisby (Ryan Gibson ’18) is a good-hearted, bumbling soldier who believes that everything he has been assigned to during the war has misfired. Fisby has been transferred from so many outfits, that as a last chance for any kind of success, he finds himself in the office of the blustery Col. Wainwright Purdy III (Giovanni Palmero ’20). The Colonel needs a man in the village of Tobiki pronto to firmly establish the notorious Plan B for Democracy! Fisby embraces the assignment in hopes that he can salvage something of his tattered reputation and leaves for Tobiki with the sly and mischievous Sakini (Joe Soulsby ’18). They are off on an adventure where a proposed pentagon-shaped school house morphs into a lovely chaya (teahouse) complete with a Geisha (Svea Hall ’18). The Tobiki villagers embrace democracy with a hilarious enthusiasm that transforms Fisby from a US Army failure to a successful “entrepreneur” in this “land of adventure…a land of jade and spices….” Along the way Fisby is joined by psychiatrist and gardening enthusiast Captain McLean (Jerome Hume ’18) and an island radical Ms. Higa Jiga (Autumn Naragon ’17) an unleashed feminist who demands that all women will have the same rights as the Geisha.
Any dramatic production, especially one in high school, ultimately finds its way onto the stage opening night because of the collaboration of so many folks: administrators, faculty, students, and parents. Special thanks goes to Dr. Swede and Ms. Howard for support from the wings—unseen, yet so appreciated. To Mr. Tym Taliaferro, jack-of-all-trades and master of most of them who not only designed the sets but organizing the construction too. It is his hutzpah that got the jeep onto the stage! To all of the student actors and crew members, a thunderous bravo! They were pulled together by stage managers Julia Susany ’18 and Chris Woods ‘17 when the pulling got really tough. And no high school show can happen without parents trucking kids back and forth to rehearsals, and the mothers who do everything from selling tickets and popcorn to shedding tears of joy for lines well delivered by their aspiring Obie award winners. A final word of thanks to the men of maintenance who do the laborious task of preparing the gym floor with tarps and seats and then take it all away when the show is struck.
From the early days of rehearsal chaos, to the mid-weeks of “looks like it might happen” to dress rehearsals where make up and costumes and stage paint and sound and lights and jeeps and goats all come together to mesmerize and enchant – this has been one of my fond memories for close to 50 years. Allow your imagination to enter into the magical place of the stage and join us in Tobiki.
-Brother Phil, CSC
