March 11, 2011
Since joining the Players’ Guild of Leonia (PGL) in 1959, Chris Watson has had the lead in 10 musicals and directed 19. She is currently directing her 20th Guild show, “High Society,” (based on the movie “Philadelphia Story”), which features 18 Cole Porter songs, at the Drill Hall Theater on Grand Avenue. It opens March 11 and runs for three weekends. For tickets call 201-947-9606.
Q: When did you move to Leonia?
A: My husband Bill and I moved here in 1955 and raised four children. Bill grew up in Palisades Park and graduated from Leonia High School, as did his parents. Several of our grandkids are fourth generation Leonia High School grads/current students. We met at Syracuse University, where I was a music (singing) major.
Q: Have you always lived on Park Avenue?
A: We lived on Lakeview Avenue for 25 years before moving to lower Park Avenue (the Seal House). We lived across the street from Davidson Hall in All Saints Church, which was the Players Guild home for many years. At the time, Park Avenue was the “theater district” of Leonia and home to many members, including former mayors Dudley Allen and John Stenken. Park Avenue resident Bunny Giordano is a longtime producer and Richard Stenken does the sound and lighting. We now live on “upper Park.”
Q: Did you have any famous Park Avenue neighbors?
A: Alan and Arlene Alda lived next door to us for many years. We often played tennis on their backyard court. We’ve been told Phil Jackson rented our current house while he played for the Knicks between 1967 and 1977.
Q: Did you study to become a director?
A: No. I learned from watching others and knew what I liked and what I didn’t like. At one point I said to myself, “I can do this.” The first show I directed was “The Fantasticks!” as a benefit for the Leonia Public Library cast with Guild members and promoted by a poster from artist Diana Soorikian. The first play I directed for the Guild was “Lion in Winter.”
Q: What were your most challenging shows?
A: “My Fair Lady” was the first musical performed in the Drill Hall Theater before its present addition. Creating scenes for the famous big show with fashionable racetracks, grand gardens and London settings within limited space was daunting but fun. As a community contribution, posters were painted by professional Leonia artists, including Marsha Heller, Harold Lehman, Roe Ruane, Diana Soorikian, Elaine Van Ost and Ann Winfield. Certainly “Oklahoma!,” the first summer musical, and seven others I directed in Wood Park, were especially challenged when temperatures soared above 90 or an unexpected thunderstorm struck in the middle of a performance. One show had to be finished in the Rec Center. Each year sell-out audiences rose above adversities in spirited bonding with casts, orchestras and crews working on lighting towers above and around bleacher seats.
Q: How many hours, on average, do you devote to directing a Guild musical?
A: Preproduction is 3-4 nights a week for two months. I don’t keep track of the hours, but it’s easily 300.
Q: Have you ever directed a non-musical for the Guild?
A: I directed “The Lion in Winter” twice, in 1975 and 2006. The first production featured longtime Leonia High School librarian Mary Connor as Eleanor, Wally Wangenheim as King Henry II and Billy Youmans as his youngest son John. Bill, as you may know, was in the original Broadway production of “Wicked.”
Q: Have you ever done high school theater productions?
From 1975 to 1984 fellow Guild membeA: r Helene Marshall and I ran the theater program at Leonia High School when nobody was teaching it. That helped gifted singers like Ann Brown, who performed in both a PGL “Sound of Music” (as Maria) and the Broadway production, start theater careers.
Q: Your husband Bill was president of Raymond and Whitcomb, the oldest travel company in America, for 40 years. Did you work with him?
A: Not with his travel company, but we did work together on local theater. In 1982, we co-founded Longaker Benefits with neighbors and fellow Guild members Colin and Sidney Unsworth. We began by mounting the London hit musical “Robert and Elizabeth” based on the “Barretts of Whimple Street” romance of the poets, as the first fully staged musical in Englewood’s John Harms Theater. Until then the former art deco movie was a concert house. We needed to convince management it could be used for musicals. We did and I directed annual benefit productions there for 13 years. Proceeds went to Englewood Hospital, Tomorrow’s Children Fund of Hackensack Hospital, the Van Ost Institute, John Harms Theater and other worthy non-profit organizations.
Q: Did you ever work with Alexander Wyckoff, who co-founded the Players’ Guild in 1919?
A: Yes, Alex was a professional designer who created wonderful sets for the Guild, New Jersey’s oldest continuing community theater now celebrating its 91st year. Bill drew Alex’s portrait for the 75th anniversary of the Guild. Many Guild members work behind the scenes – doing costumes, lighting and set design – creating memorable performances. As we speak Leonia artist Steve Swank is painting the set’s background including the “yar” sailing yacht True Love for our current production of “High Society.”
Q: What’s your favorite store in Leonia?
A: My favorite was Hilgens Ice Cream parlor, where I often met my children for lunch. Now it’s Moore’s Hardware.
Q: What’s your favorite vacation destination?
A: Mantoloking, and our Jersey Shore house.
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