THE MISER
A Play by Moliere
An Adaptation by Carolyn Ruth Hunt (1967)
This play was created to be a shorter, simpler version of the original “Miser” to be presented to high school students, acted by high school students.
It was put together, page by page, by working with 4 or 5 different translated versions, plus direct comparison, speech by speech, with the original French version.
Besides cutting out the 4th act, language was chosen to simplify and move the scenes rapidly forward. This version was presented at Courter Tech High School, 1967. This version was also the basis, with the 4th act restored, for a performance the following year by University of Cincinnati Dept of Drama, produced and directed by Paul Rutledge.
Bill’s life goes by
After college in the summer of 1953, Bill joined the army and was based in Anchorage, Alaska, where he sang in an episcopal church choir under Mary (a very famous choir director trained at a choir director college in New Jersey).
When he got out of the army, he married Jenny, who was going to school in nursing. She worked and raised Michael while Bill was going to school to get his masters degree. Then he got a job at St. Mary’s as a teacher. Then he got another teaching job in Toledo. By this time he’s singing and centering his life around singing and started to date again, Mary Stewart and Kate Frushour, girls that are 10 years his junior. That’s when Jenny decided, well, he loves children so much, maybe if I have another child, it will draw him home, and that kind of backfired on him. He’s got a new baby and no mother and it’s all up to him.
In Alaska he acted in plays with Robert Blake, formerly known as Bobby Blake
Mrs. Allen (Barbara Allen’s Mother) – Supporting Role – Fall, 1969-70
Spring 1970, Chorus
I met Bill Giles again at the Westwood Town Hall Auditions for Oklahoma! in November 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Spring 1971, Chorus
All the chorus got costumes and they were all of peasant style, except one, bright blue satin with rhinestones. I was the only one that could fit in it, so I was dubbed “The Town Whore”.
Winter, 1971 Stage Manager.
Roger Grooms was Director and as the rehearsals advanced, said to me “I messed up. I should have cast you as the lead.”
Slave-owner’s wife
1974 – filmed, 1975 – aired
| “‘America: The Young Experience’ is a series of six special one-half hour programs produced by Meredith Broadcasting Corporation and Avco Broadcasting Corporation. The programs are designed to explore a different aspect of life in the United States – historical and contemporary, fictional and real – as seen through the eyes of young people.”–1975 Peabody Awards entry form. “James Thomas, son of slaves Luther and Sarah, is an 11-year-old slave child who lives on a southern plantation. Unknown to the family, a slave auction is scheduled. Despite pleas not to be separated on the selling block, the family is sold, each to a separate master. ‘The Sellin” follows their endeavors to reunite and their flight towards a life together as free people. Filmed entirely on location in southern Ohio and Kentucky …”–supplemental material. Program ends with the runaway family hoping a hostile farmer will protect them. |
Winter, 1974 – Stage Crew
I met Pam Lockstead (Smith) who was an actor in the play.
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Open in new tab December, 1975
It hardly seems possible Christmas is here already – but it is. It’s been quite a year. Lots of activity, which (perhaps along with age) finally caught up with me.
I’ve done little acting this year, but had all 4 of my TV shows aired. In March, I was an “Appalachian mother” on Juvenile Court, a 15 minute simulation on TV of an actual court case. In July I filmed a Procter and Gamble in-house-commercial. A Girl Named Sooner aired on Wed. June, 18 and The Sellin’ on Nov, 28, both nationally. As things look now, that may be the meteoric rise and fall of my TV career.
School is really hard this year. Three separate new class preparations for 4 classes this semester and 4 different classes and preps – 3 new – for next semester. I can hardly keep up and it’s certainly not enjoyable. I’m also debate coach going to 3 or 4 weekend tournaments, as well as teaching my U.C. speech class.
The first half of this year I did much work on my house and “played carpenter” with Bill’s help. A new kitchen counter & sink, a ladder to the attic and a roof were put in by workmen. I am laying quarry tile over 1/2 my basement floor, since my housekeeper and I have both broken bones slipping on the smooth, wet cement. It’s really slow going so I’m only about 40% done so far. In added insulation on the entire attic floor, Then Bill and I together laid plywood floor and studding supports to partially finish the attic for storage space. Our biggest project, May thru July, was building 3 rooms and a bath, all by ourselves, in Ellyn’s clubhouse at the camp! I now have my own room and furniture there, fully insulated with electric heat. No more freezing in cold weather.
I guess it’s a good thing I have that room because – my most exciting news – in Sept. I bought 50 acres of farm and forest land right next to Ellyn’s camp. We had an unusually beautiful fall and I spent almost every weekend in Indiana tramping around my land!
My only vacation was a week in Aug going to Michigan Upper Peninsula, the Soo straits and across to Canada, again with Susie Giles along. We had a great time, I guess I should have taken more vacation and rest and done less carpentry work. Sept. thru Oct. I got more and more exhausted and fatigued and unable to get anything done. I missed over a week of school and was really ill, but it took me until Nov. to discover (and convince the Doctor!) that I had anemia again. A month of B12 shots and anemia pills and I am just now getting back to feeling well and normal. I have curtailed my many activities and am really taking it easy these days.
My Dad is still going strong at 84 d Brownie bulldog, at age 2, is still lovable and playful, and Bill & I continue our friendship as usual. I look forward to catching up on picture printing and sewing this spring and enjoying my land next summer. I hope you too can look forward to a very happy new year.
Eliza Gant – supporting role as Mother of Lead (Eugene Gant)
Winter, 1976
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Christmas, 1976
As the Christmas season once again arrives, it comes time to share a yearly “visit” with far flung friends. As I look back on my year, my events and activities seem somewhat less exciting, my life more mellow.
Last year Bill’s daughter, Susie, flew up from Florida the day after Christmas and lived here at my house for 6 weeks during her school inter-term. She especially wanted snow for her visit and she got it! Our first snow of the season was falling as her plane flew in and we had several 4 to 6 inch snows in January – to Susie’s sheer delight. Our summer visit together was a short 2 weeks when Bill and I drove to Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia and Huntington, W.Va. to visit his family and then had Susie in Cincy for 10 days. Now a teenager, she will probably be with us again this January.
For my theater activities, I played a small character role in Look Homeward Angel last January. Susie thoroughly enjoyed attending the rehearsals, seeing the play develop to its final form, and knew most of the lines! In May I got 2 more TV jobs. I filmed another Juvenile Court segment for local TV and got a small cameo role on Tom Robertson’s MGM Young America Experience Series. In January or February, watch for “Nightmare”, the story of 2 Jewish children escaping from the Warsaw Ghetto to America in WWII. I play the Salvation Army lady offering refreshment to the children. Also, The Sellin‘ won several national awards last year and will probably be re-run this year.
The rest of my “theater work” has been with photography. I do all the lobby display photography and “shoot the shows” for Drama Workshop, I did wedding pictures for a friend this summer, and do some other “group” work as well as my own creative type personal pictures.
School has been terrible this year. My 2 American Humor classes are fine, but I again have 2 other new courses to work up from scratch. I’m getting a little tired of always having to build new courses. I don’t really mind the Composition for College Bound, but 9th grade English I (repeaters) started out as bad as Courter ever was 6 years ago. There are 17 “boys” (several 17) & 2 girls, several taking this for the 3rd or 4th time, and all with mild to serious psychological as well as learning problems. In Sept & Oct., 6th Bell was a nightmare. The combined efforts of the English Supervisor, counselors, parents, and three principals working since mid-Sept are slowly bringing some semblance of order out of chaos. It’s a shame one hour a day can make you hate teaching. Fortunately, for some balance, I’ve had a perfectly marvelous Effective Speaking class at Univ. of Cin. this fall.
I also taught a speech class at UC this past summer and will teach speech there 2 terms this next summer. Tues. eve. to Thurs eve., (2 days) doesn’t tie me down that much, the extra money is great, and hall the time Cincinnati Summer Opera is on Wed. nights anyway. Add long weekends in Indiana at the camp, living out of my comfortable new room, and on my farm across the road, and you have my summer, last year and probably next year. Last summer, Bill and I built an outhouse on the farm – first things first! In Sept. I discovered a small lake buried deep in my woods. Deer abound on my land. One Sept evening, we saw SEVEN deer, 3 adults, 3 yearlings, 1 fawn, there at one time!
In May, Bill had an operation removing a granuloma from his vocal cords. For 2 weeks he could not utter ONE SOUND! As a person who’s very being seems an extension of his voice, it was an impossibly frustrating time for him. He is fine now and his singing voice is slowly coming back. He is singing King Melchoir in another production (his 4th) of Amahl and the Night Visitors on Dec 9-12, as well as doing his usual King fol. in the Christ Church Boar’s Head Christmas Pageant.
My father is fine as usual at age 85. still active in Masons and driving thousands of miles each year near and far around the country side to Texas, Arizona, W.Va., Cleveland, etc., etc. Brownie is truly a dear, sweet dog, but we have just discovered she has a degenerative disease in her back knees, hips and lumbar joints – and she is only 3 years old! At present she is not bad at all and asprin solves the problem, but I hate to think of the future.
And thoughts of the future call to mind the coming new year. it is one filled with happiness for you.
Director
Fall, 1977-78 – The Drama Workshop
The show won the 3rd Place ACT Award for best show of the year!
The Psychiatrist – Supporting Role
Fall 1980-81
This role was the reason for me changing my hair color from Auburn to strawberry blonde. I was running out of the hair dye that I had been using for 20 years and couldn’t decide what to do. The director asked my if I would dye my hair blonde for the part, and I thought “why not”?
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1981
Christmas has crept up on me and I’m going to be as late with my cards this year as I was early last year. And what a year it has been! My usual one page letter will grow longer as I share with you my experiences this year and especially my joys in visiting with so many dear friends and relatives from coast to coast (Florida to Calif)
Last Christmas was a truly unique and fun experience. Bill Giles and I joined the Detroit to Florida I-75 moving parking lot — 2-3 lanes of solid bumper to bumper cars for 1200 miles to get to Florida and visit his daughter, Sue, and the “Florida Giles’,” in West Palm Beach. We enjoyed the mild weather and traveled all over Florida during the 2 weeks we were there. On Christmas Day in Gainesville, as the Giles’ opened all their gifts, I recorded the whole proceeding with my new color Video camera and recording unit. Then Bill, Sue & I went south to Bonita Springs to see 2 of their relatives, and discovered that my cousin, Geraldine Rusk, also of Bonita Springs, and Bill’s aunt and uncle had been close friends (totally independent of Bill’s and my friendship) for 25 years! It’s a small world! And how wonderful, as Geraldine and I talked and visitéd, to discover an awareness and a true sense of “family,” though we had hardly known each other. On the drive down to Fla, I called and talked with Leah Melton (a College Hall friend from Marshall University). Then, going from the west coast back to West Palm, we quickly drove through Clewiston and I thought of Dot and Bob Stacy — but there was no stopping since Sue was about to be late for a BIG DATE for a rock concert. We enjoyed several more sunny joyous days on the beach and a jaunt down to Miami before heading back to the frigid North – spiritually and physically rejuvenated. I could get addicted to that 2 week mid winter break in the warm, sunny South!
This has been “The year of Sue” — and I have suddenly had “instant motherhood” thrust upon me. Years ago I made the offer for Sue to use “her room” at my home, that she has used on visits here for the past ten years, as a base to go to the University of Cincinnati. To make a long story short, On February 1, she took me up on the offer and said, “I want to go to U.C.” Two weeks later I had her enrolled and mid-March she moved up here to start spring quarter. It was great fun sharing her joy of discovery of a whole new world different from Florida, a complete new and necessary cold weather wardrobe, the ballet and Barysnikov, the symphony, and especially the challenge and excitement of learning in college in contrast to highschool.
After our wonderful spring together, at the end of June, Sue and I started on a 6 week, 10,000 mile trip through southwestern United States. The day before we left, we packed my blue Pontiac Firebird for the trip. It was jam-packed especially the trunk. That night Bill Giles and I went to the opera and parked Taft High school parking lot because it was so well lit and thought we were safe. When the opera was over and we came back to the parking lot, we saw a crowd of people and police and a young man in his late teens, dressed “cool, man”, complete with dark sunglasses. He had backed his car into the center of my Firebird and jammed the trunk lock so that it would not open. Talking with the police, his biggest comment was “Hey, man,they need more light around here”. The damage was so bad we had to call a locksmith at midnight and didn’t get home until 3 a.m. After only 4 or 5 hours of sleep, we had to take the car to the Pontiac dealer and get the whole thing fixed before we left.
Our first adventure was a 4-1/2 mile, 4 hour hike through Mammoth Cave, we traveled through Nashville, Tulsa, Santa Fe, Mesa Verde, Colo., and northern Arizona. Especially exciting was a one day raft trip down the Colorado River through Glen Canyon (no white water!). Then we drove on to Bryce (snow in July!) and Zion Nat’l Parks, Las Vegas, Death Valley (120 degrees +) Sequoia and Yosemite Parks, Lake Tahoe and Virginia City, Nev., San Francisco, down the Pacific Coast past Monterey and Big Sur to rest and recuperate in Los Angeles. The homeward leg of our journey began with the Wild Animal Park in San Diego, on to Joshua Tree Nat. Mon., then to Palm Springs, Cal. and Phoenix, Ariz (really the pits in the heat of summer). In contrast, Sedona, Ariz. and Oak Creek Canyon was beautiful, as was Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest, El Paso, Texas (and Mexico for one hour), and Carlsbad Caverns and the bats. San Antonio Texas was a refreshing oasis in the eternity of driving across Texas. Baton Rouge and New Orleans, La. broke the long drive across the Gulf to Gainesville, Fla where I let Sue off for a short 6 week summer with her family – and I headed for Cincy to “rescue” my poor beléagured Brownie Bulldog. She had a wonderful home with a good friend, but shared it with 2 other rambunctious male dogs. Bored she was not!
It was a fantastic trip and I loved it – the scenery, the experiences, and especially the marvelous opportunity to renew friendships and visit with family & friends. In Tulsa we stayed with Jeanne Munier and attended the rehearsal dinner for Dean Munier and his bride, Pam. We left the next morning just missing my cousin, Fred Munier and his wife Robin, by a few hours because no one would admit they were coming. I was not happy! In Pasadena California we stayed with Morris (Dick) & Ellie Dent. I had last seen them in 1967 when I flew out to a speech convention and saw the Rose Bowl parade. Myrian Baker from Dayton Ohio and my Northwestern University roommate had bought a small cottage a few blocks from the ocean in Santa Monica, so Sue and I got to spend a day or two in the rich enclave on the beach. She also gave us a tour of Hollywood, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the sidewalk. On our swing through northern California we stayed in Sacramento with Bill Lovett and his wife, Harriet, who is totally blind. They were professors of philosophy at Skidmore College.
On our drive south from Sacramento, the expressway went through a part of the Mojave Desert. I suddenly slowed down and pulled off the side of the road, then I started backing up, with Susan shouting “what are you doing?” — in 1940, when I was 10 our car got stuck for 3 days at a desert mechanic’s place. He drove us out to a part of the desert that had this wonderful rock formation — I said “THAT’S THE ROCK!” Forty-one years later an expressway went right by that beautiful rock. I have a picture of my mother and me at 10 in front of the rock and I got a picture of Susan and me in the same spot 41 years later.
From there we drove south. At San Diego we went to Sea World and saw the whales perform. Then on to The San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. We got a bite to eat at the park and then drove north thinking we’d find a motel. It was nothing but mountains, so we finally pulled over to the side of the road and went to sleep in the car. Little did we know that just a few miles away lived my cousin, Fred Munier, and his wife Robin, whom we had missed in Tulsa. We could have stayed with them! And so on to I-10 the next morning.
It was a very exhausting trip with all the driving —- and especially the constant daily planning. I came home physically and mentally drained as much as I was mentally and spiritually fulfilled from the trip. Then the 3 weeks before school started were crammed with house cleaning, sorting and labeling the 1000 slide pictures I had taken (I’m only 1/2 done) and stripping and re-wallpapering my large kitchen. I really was not ready for school to start – and 3 weeks later Sue returned to start fall quarter. She arrived with a completely different attitude and I ‘ve had to contend with some of the “typical teenage” problems that normally occur in growing from H.S. to college and eventual maturity that occur about this time, I have thought so often of the many times my dear friends with growing families would write (with obvious envy) — “HOW do you do everything you do??????? I can TELL you how I did it — I did not have children to raise!!!! Now I know! Frankly, I have done nothing this fall but work at school (including UC), keep house and be a parent of sorts. I feel I am never caught up and always tired. But things look to get better. The life of a commuting student – off campus – especially in a strange town is not the best situation and this is part of Sue’s problem. So she is going to move on campus. Fortunately she also has a really terrific boyfriend. All this promises to lighten my load.
And so my year seems to have come full circle. Last year this time I was leaving with Bill for Florida and so began my year with Sue as friend, travel companion and instant parent. This Friday (Dec 18), Bill and Sue will leave for Florida as I stay here and cherish the 2 weeks alone to rest, renew , and regroup for the year to come. It has been an enriching and educational experience. I am glad I could help Sue make the transition and get established here, but I also have the satisfaction in knowing it is time for her to move on and out on her own. I am reminded of Gail Sheehey’s Passages and feel that Sue and I shared a year of transition, each to a new stage of our lives that was additionally enriched by new and renewed friendships and family, like John and Bonnie Bowyer dropped in to visit in Nov with their son who is also a Freshman at UC.
Some things seem to stay the same. I still do the photography for our theater group; still teach at UC; still change rooms “travel” & get new courses at Oak Hills; still do make up and attend the Boar’s Head Christmas celebration each New Year’s weekend; still have my farm and camp in Indiana; still marvel at the energy and endurance of my father — now 90 years old and actively attending Masonsic Lodge, driving to Tulsa, Cleveland, etc, and playing 9 or 18 holes of golf – WALKING !! Heaven forbid he should ever stoop to riding in one of those silly carts.
To all with whom I’ve been lucky enough to be in touch and share some moments of this year; to the rest who have been more strongly in my thoughts because this year was unique and special, I send my love, my blessings, and my hope for joy and happiness, for equanimity, for courage and strength when it is needed in your daily lives. This is my wish to you not only for the Christmas season, but for the coming year as well.
