A Merry Man

BY PETER SILBERT, TUFTS STUDENT 1965-1969, ACTOR MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER
These days, our use of the word "merry" is confined to the Christmas ghetto. We wish each other a merry Christmas and thats about it. And the English don't even use that construction, prefering "happy Christmas" instead. Rarely you might hear of merry olde England or Robin Hood's merry men. But the OED defines the word as it applies to persons as "full of animated enjoyment, joyous, mirthful, hilarious." When I remember my times with Tony Cornish I can't help thinking of him as a merry man. When Tony was enjoying himself he was full of glee, a wicked twinkle in his eyes. He was the cause of mirth in his audience and was himself overcome with mirthful chortlings at the wit of others.

I was part of the first Tufts in London program in 1967-1968 when Tony came to us to lead a Midlands tour and then stayed on as our acting teacher. As so many of you have said, that was the beginning of a long, fruitful relationship with Tufts. When Tony came to campus the next year to direct The Viper of Seville, I was his assistant director. William Hurt has written most amusingly of that show in his entry below. I can only say its all true, but William's balance has improved since. We worked together on a musical that summer at The Ledges Playhouse in Michigan, run by John Peakes, a Tufts faculty member. It was called She'd Rather Kiss and was the first time I saw Tony outside of the academic theatre arena. I suppose that was my first professional job and it seems fitting that it was in a Tony Cornish show, since he'd taught me everything I knew about "style".

A few years down the road and I found myself a member of the resident company at Seattle's Intiman Theatre, which billed itself as Seattle's Classic Theatre. The order of the day was Shaw, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shakespeare, Chekov and Wilde et al. When Tony came through town on a BBC radio project, I introduced him to Megs Booker, the artistic director. When they came back from lunch, Tony was signed to direct The Way of The World. Megan Cole was in that production too and we at last got to use the techniques we'd learned from Tony a dozen years previously in the St. Augustine's Church hall in London when he taught us Restoration theatre. The show was a huge hit, artistically, critically and at the box office. The company liked Tony so much that next season he was back to direct The Country Wife and he cast me as Pinchwife. Once again we had the pleasure of working with him on a challenging, rewarding piece of theatre. And once again, it was a triumph. One of the email entries below from Howard and Kate Janeway tells something of the time he spent as their guest in Seattle. Both those shows were the rarest kinds of experiences when not only does everything work, but the process itself becomes a joy, the merriest of meetings.

In the years since, I've met up with Tony in several cities, always with the greatest of pleasure. The phone would ring and the voice would say, "Peter... Tony Cornish" in that mellow downward inflection. The smile would break out on my face and we'd be making plans to meet for dinner. Only last spring he was my guest here in Milwaukee when Jonathan Abarbanel brought him up from Chicago. In retrospect, it was his farewell tour of the states and his chance, once more, to see so many of the students scattered all over the country to whom he had meant so much. Despite the physical challenges with which he was already beset, he was in the best of moods and as merry as ever. Before he went on to the next city, he left me his resume to deliver to the artistic staff here at Milwaukee Rep where I work. This to me was pure Tony Cornish. In the face of this horrible disease, he was making plans for the future and hustling work. I regret that he won't be coming here to school this company in Restoration mores and manners. I regret I won't ever again be reduced to helpless laughter by one of his arch turns of phrase.

I am fortunate to have known Tony for 37 years and to count him, as so many of you do, a teacher, mentor, colleague and friend. God bless him.