A Summing Up
My Career On The Stage
Some time ago Mary O'Leary obtained a list of all of the roles that I have performed under the jurisdiction of Actors' Equity in the United States for pension purposes. This is perhaps the best summing up of my career available, so I thought I would share it with all of you.
Producer: Williamstown Theater Festival/Williamstown, Massachusetts
Play(s): Time of the Cuckoo/Light Up the Sky
The Crucible/Tovarich
The Late George Apley/The Rainmaker
Dates: June 1955
Type: Summer Theater
Producer: American Shakespeare
Festival/Stratford, Connecticut
Play(s): King John/Measure for Measure
Dates: Summer 1956
Type: Summer Theater
Producer American Shakespeare
Festival/Stratford Connecticut
Play(s): Othello/The Merchant of Venice
Much Ado About Nothing
Dates: June-August 1957
Type: Summer Theater
Producer: American Shakespeare Festival
Play(s): Much Ado About Nothing
Dates: Fall 1957 – Winter 1958
Type: National Tour
Producer: The Poet’s Theater/Cambridge, Mass.
Play(s): The Scythe & the Sunset by Denis Johnston
Dates: March-April 1958
Type: Regional Theater
Producer: Robert Kalfin/George Morfogen
St. Mark’s Playhouse/NYC, NY
Play(s): The Golem
Dates: February-April 1959
Type: Off Broadway
Producer: Robert Ludlum/New Jersey
Playhouse/Fort Lee, New Jersey
Play(s): Macbeth
Dates: April 1959
Type: Regional Theater
Producer: Robert Ludlum/North Jersey
Playhouse/ Fort Lee, New Jersey
Play(s): Julius Caesar
Dates: Fall 1959
Type: Regional Theater
Producer: Phoenix Theater/NYC, NY
Play(s): Henry IV (Part 2)
Dates: April-May 1960
Type: Repertory
Producer: Phoenix Theater/NYC, NY
Play(s): Henry IV (Part 1)
Dates: Spring 1960
Type: Repertory
Producer: Phoenix Theater at the Boston Arts Festival/Cambridge, Mass.
Play(s): Henry IV (Part 1 and 2)
Dates: July 1960
Type: Repertory
Producer: Dorothy Chernuck
Play(s): Auntie Mame
Dates: Summer 1960
Type: Summer Theater Tour
Producer: David Fulford
East End Theater/NYC, NY
Play(s): The Moon In The Yellow River
by Denis Johnston
Dates: 1st run: February 8 – March 5, 1961
2nd run: March 14 – March 23, 1961
Type: Off Broadway
Producer: New Repertory Theater
Masque Theater/NYC, NY
Play(s): Don Carlos
Dates: February-April 1962
Type: Repertory Off Broadway
Producer: New Repertory Company
Masque Theater/NYC, NY
Play(s): The Storm (in rep with Don Carlos)
Dates: March-April 1962
Type: Repertory Off Broadway
Producer: Corning Summer Theater/Corning, NY
Play(s): Under the Yum Yum Tree/ The Best Man
Dates: July-August 1962
Type: Weekly Stock/Summer Theater
Producer: Vanguard Theater/Pittsburgh, PA
Play(s): “The Theater Looks At Love”
Dates: February-April 1963
Type: High School Tour
Producer: Pittsburgh Playhouse/Pittsburgh, PA
Play(s): The Taming of the Shrew
Dates: March-April 1963
Type: High School Tour
Producer: Edwin Wilson
York Theater/NYC, NY
Play(s): The Burning
Dates: December 1963
Type: Off Broadway
Producer: Fanny Bradshaw
Stage 73/NYC, NY
Play(s): The White Rose and The Red
Dates: March-April, 1964
Type: Off Broadway
Producer: Fryer, Carr & Harris, Inc.
Booth Theater
Play(s): Roar Like A Dove
Dates: May 1964
Type: Pre-National Tour/Broadway
Producer: Front Street Theater/Memphis, Tennessee
Play(s): Midsummer Night’s Dream
Dates: April-May 1965
Type: Stock Jobbing Contract
Producer: Penn. State University
Summer Theater Festival
Play(s): Richard III
The Skin Of Our Teeth
Room Service
Dates: June-September 1965
Type: Minimum Contract for Stock
Producer: The New Theater/NYC, NY
Play(s): The Waters of Babylon
Dates: Fall 1965
Type: Broadway
Producer: Theater of the Living Arts/Philadelphia, PA
Play(s): The Critic
Dates: November-January 1965
Type: Minimum Contract for Stock
Producer: Old Globe Theater/San Diego, CA
Play(s): Romeo & Juliet
The Tempest
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Dates: June-September 1966
Type: Regional Theater
Producer: Jay Julien & Andre Goulston
Play(s): Hostile Witness/Ray Milland
Dates: September-February 1966
Type: National Tour
Producer: Little Theater on The Square/Sullivan, Ill.
Play(s): Dial M for Murder
Dates: September-October 1969
Type: Stock Jobbing Contract
Producer: Robert Teuscher/
Central Church, Park Ave., NYC, NY
Play(s): Murder In The Cathedral
Dates: March 1971
Type: NYC Off Broadway
Producer: Windmill Dinner Theater/Forth Worth, TX
Play(s): Wait Until Dark
Dates: August-September 1971
Type: Regional Repertory Dinner Theater
Producer: Penn. State Festival Theater
Play(s): Royal Family Of Broadway
Dates: June-July 1977
Type: Minimum Contract for Stock
Producer: Chelsea Theater Center/NYC, NY
Play(s): Alpha & Omega
Dates: April 1986
Type: Staged Reading Agreement
Producer: Clunes Associates
Play(s): Jonathan Frid’s Fools & Fiends
Jonathan Frid’s Shakespearian Odyssey
Jonathan Frid’s Fridiculousness
Dates: October 1986-November 1993
Type: Readers Theater/US-Canada
College/Art Centers
Producer: Eliot Martin
46th Street Theater/NYC, NY
Play(s): Arsenic & Old Lace
Dates: December-Jan./Broadway 1986/87
January-Dec./Broadway National Tour 1987
Type: Standard Minimum Production Contract
Producer: Zev Bufman Partnership/
Florida/New Orleans
Play(s): Arsenic & Old Lace
Dates: Febrary-March 1988
Type: Unit Contract For Stock
Sympathy For the Undead
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The McGregor Connection
The following revelations are about my grandfather Dr. John O. McGregor and his ancestral line which was abruptly passed over in My Fridean Connections with a "...but that's another story." My grandmother, Liza MacKenzie and her connections were featured in the "Fridean" gig. Liza had married John Owen McGregor in 1877 approx..
There are pictures of two homesteads coming up that have been witnessed to many of the events touched upon in the following articles. The first to appear is Limestone Hall built in 1853 in its very 20th century "restored" condition. As kids back in the 1930's, my cousins and I bicycled many miles to find this house in a very derelict condition (chickens strutting in and out of the kitchen door etc.). The "depression" years had taken their toll on the old house. The owners at the time were poor as their co-habiting "field" mice. What you see here is the house restored by wealthy patrons of the arts later in the prosperous years of post World War II.
The second picture is of the house which my grandfather bought in the 1860's at the time he married Liza Mackenzie as a home for his own future family. It reveals me along with my grandfather when I was 3 years of age.
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In a book entitled "The Governor's Road" by Mary Byers and Margaret McBurney, a short history of our McGregor line is revealed as going back to Captain Duncan McGregor. The following is a quote from that book.
"Captain Duncan McGregor, 42nd Highlanders, was left for dead on the battlefield at the battle of Brandywine in 1777 during the American Revolution. Living to tell the tale, he returned to his native Scotland with his wife, Judith, and his son, Peter, the latter born while the captain was stationed in Pennsylvania during the war. In 1812 Peter McGregor, then aged forty-nine and like his father a captain in the 42nd Highlanders, returned to North America, and also like his father he came back to fight for Great Britain. He was stationed in Quebec in charge of transport. Now one year away from discharge, McGregor had attained fame while serving with the black regiment during the Peninsular Wars. He saved the life of the prince regent, later King William the 4th.
After the war of 1812 McGregor returned to Scotland for his discharge and then came back to Upper Canada, this time to settle and farm. In recognition of his service to the prince regent he was granted 500 acres, a larger than usual amount. He took up the land in Nelson Township, Halton County. Peter was accompanied by his second wife, Anne Urquhart (his first wife, Jane MacLean, had died in Scotland in 1806). The family located on lot 8, concession 4, Nelson (Walkers Line). The farm was prosperous and at his death in 1827 McGregor was able to leave Anne and his four sons, who had the fine Scottish names of Lachan, John, Duncan, and Donald, about 100 acres of good land each. Peter was buried at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church on Dundas Street. In his will he left instructions for his funeral, which was ‘not to be extravagant but a decent and becoming my rank.’"
"It was Peters second son, John Charles James McGregor, who was responsible or the construction of Limestone Hall (lot 8, concession 5, Nelson). John had received the patent for the land in 1846 but it was not until 1853 that the outstanding dressed-stone house was completed. By that time the McGregors’ needed the spacious residence. They had ten children when the 1851 census was taken (aged 17, 16, 15, 13, 12, 10, 8, 6, 3, and 1), and another child was born in 1854. At the census-taking the family of twelve was living in very close quarters in the building which forms the rear portion of the present Limestone Hall. John was an eminently successful farmer, for the agricultural census lists a wide range of grains and livestock on his 307 acres of land. Perhaps because of the size of the family farm the children tended to remain at home for many years. In 1871 John, then aged sixty, and his wife Phoebe Zimmerman, fifty-nine, were still surrounded by eight of there offspring (ranging I age from 17 to 34). One of the McGregors’ six sons, John, became a doctor, practicing first in Dundas and then in Waterdown, where, according to his obituary, he was for more than 50 years ‘a much loved physician of the old school.’
When John McGregor died in 1879, he and Pheobe had been living for some time in Hamilton. Pheobe was left their house in that city ad Limestone Hall was sold, with the proceeds divided among the widow and eight of their surviving children as well as their niece. Sons Peter and James, who had previously received financial assistance, were left with their father’s ‘blessing only.’"
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The following is an article published in the Hamilton Spectator October 2nd 1998. It is a photo of Dr. J.O. Mc Gregor with myself beside him. I'm not quite sure if this is the first time you veterans of the site have seen this photo. For newcomers, it will certainly be new.
"Trying to Top Grandad's Act"
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A Special Document
Here is a "statement of policy," if you will, which I have tried to follow ever since it was drawn up in New York City a decade or so ago for what was then known as Clunes Associates. It was authored by one of our colleagues at the time. Unfortunately, I can not remember who it was. It certainly wasn't authored by me. It is a clear and inspired statement, I feel.
As you know, I am slowing down these days in retirement in Canada, with the odd venture or two into the world of entertainment. Still, I want to share with you my surprise at finding this interesting document from the almost forgotten past.
Clunes Associates
Part I
AN INVITATION TO IMAGINATION
A production of Clunes Associates is not a visual spectacle - - though it is indeed visible. It is quintessentially a mind experience - - the spoken word made manifest in a myriad of dazzling visions that excite the viewer's imagination. They are as various and exciting as those conjured by the many brilliant writers whose works we have chosen - - writers from Europe and the Americas, past and present.
In our theatre the proscenium is the human voice and our audience is of people engaged more in the act of listening than of viewing. The enviroment is intimate and personal, inducing a one-on-one relationship. It is a kind of theatre that is most truly "live."
Part II
A MULTICIPLICITY OF OFFERINGS
A production of Clunes Associates can now be custom-made. Recently we have grown and expanded from a single offering, JONATHAN FRID's FOOLS & FIENDS, to a repertoire of three programs as listed in our newest brochure. We are now evolving a more flexible policy of producing tailor-made shows to suit the special needs of individual presenters. Thsis idea has emerged as we have been called upon to create shows for situations ranging from high school classes in Greenwich, Connecticut, to a pre-dinner entertainment in a Park Avenure salon; from a library association in Seattle to a country club in Ontario.
These shows are now being adapted from our three basic scripts, as outlined in our brochure, to include an occasional prose piece or poem added upon request. As our repertory of materials increases the more flexible our offerings will become.
Part III
AN ECLECTIC CATALOGUE OF AUTHORS
It has been Clunes Associates policy from the start not to limit a program to the works of one author or to any one category of literature.
We make strange bedfellows of Guy de Maupassant and Groucho Marx. We have juxtaposed the sassy wit of Ogden Nash's fourliner verses with the terrible passions of Edgar Allan Poe's tales of the macabre. Our programming aims at variety and surprise - - ribald humor from Britain, dry wit from America, and tragedy from both. To paraphrase our brochure, all is deftly "pieced into a colorful mosaic ... along with Jonathan Frid's lucid commentaries."
Part IV
AN INVITATION TO LEARNING
Any production of Clunes Associates is intended to be a learning experience in and of itself, as well as an entertaining one.
In addition, however, we provide lectures, workshops, and seminars upon request.
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