A Silly Walk

BY DOUG VERMES, TUFTS STUDENT 1994-1998
I had the good fortune to be in two of Tony's classes during my time at Tufts. It took me a while in the beginning to get comfortable calling him Tony, but I learned a lot from him about acting. Tony was the only person I know who was able to verbally distinguish the name Aron from the name Aaron. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to see him at a Drama Department alumni gathering in NYC a bunch of years ago. I have many happy memories from his class, such as his "silly walks" acting warm-up exercise. I can still hear him saying to one of my classmates: "Craaaaaaiggg... A silly walk!"

During my junior and senior years in college, I had been considering going into acting after graduation. I vividly remember a discussion I had with Tony during his office hours about acting, where he caught me off-guard with the following exchange:

Tony: Would you ever act nude?
Me: What?
Tony: Naked. Would you ever act naked?
Me: Umm. No.
Tony: That's what I thought you would say. You see, acting is about being able to be vulnerable. You have to be vulnerable on the stage.

Even though I ultimately went into teaching, I still learned a tremendous amount from Tony Cornish. He will be missed.