Better Together: SJP and METG Celebrate 50 Years

The Guild’s Golden Anniversary with METG is proof positive that the show must go on

Celebrating anniversaries is tricky. 

The practice is dangerously susceptible to slipping into sentimentality or an idealized view of the past. And the very act of marking milestones carries an almost preternatural human impulse to dissect the occasion’s chronological framework to death. In other words, storyboarding a watershed moment too often becomes the thing it’s not meant to be: unoriginal and devoid of freshness. 

When the casting call went out to alumni and friends of the St. John’s Drama Guild to reflect 50 years of METG participation, the players hit their marks. Thoroughly sifting through five decades—the shows and silver cups, the run-throughs and curtain calls, the dialogue and ad libs, the props and flops—is a process which shakes out clear and incontrovertible threads.  

“The Guild taught me that I needed to have theater in my life,” says Cam Cronin ’08. “Not just because I liked it, but because it was something that had some sort of higher purpose or was more meaningful. Plays are trying to communicate something that needs to be communicated to the people who are seeing it.”

Adds Patrick Flynn ’05, “Since my days in the Guild, I’ve always thought of theater as the medium where you can convey a message through willful suspension of disbelief when someone who’s receiving that message may not have been receptive in any other way.”

Odd thing: everyone interviewed for this story hit on that theme; the notion of a communal and, yes, performative space that feels like home. And at the risk of drifting into the chronological, only by going back to the beginning can this be fully fleshed out.

“I’ve always believed that one of the key elements of the Guild’s power and longevity is community,” says Brother Ron Santoro, who led the Guild into its first formalized competition in 1974. “You could see it happening and it showed itself even more at the end of rehearsals. I used to have a terrible time getting those kids to go home. They just wanted to hang around. 

“They spent all their time together,” he continues. “They ate lunch together during the day. They rehearsed together all afternoon. After I turned the lights out and locked the doors, they’d hang around by their cars to interact more. You could tell right away that for these kids, theater was a real sense of belonging to something that they loved being part of. I’m still fascinated by that to this day. That strong sense of wanting to be together in the Guild.”

Clearly, there’s a sound rationale behind the pointed characterization—offered by Head of School Ed Hardiman P’19 ’21 ’26—of the Prep Drama Guild’s secret recipe: “They support each other, challenge each other, grow with each other, and rely on each other.”

MORE THAN A KINSHIP

Without question, personal bonds are the metaphysical mortar of magical creations. Yet human connection—in and of itself—fails to explain the mystery of the Prep Guild’s unmitigated success spanning multiple generations. For those keeping score, the record reflects 43 state final appearances and 20 state titles since Br. Ron debuted the program with an adaptation of Moliere’s “The Doctor In Spite of Himself.”

The seniors in that first cast and “kroo” were born in 1956. The seniors who just won the state championship with the original production “Nothing/Something” were born in 2006. The trajectory of life and times in American society across that span could (and does) fill volumes. The Prep’s 1974 thespians wrote in cursive, wore shoes with buckles, were taught on chalkboards, and faced the military draft. Today’s seniors, meanwhile, are widely unfamiliar with bygone U.S. high school traditions that were alive and well once upon a time; relics like Glee Club and Key Club or pep rallies. 

So how does passion, pride, and success bridge such a massive generational and sociological divide?

“I think what sets a good high school theater program apart is its ability to raise the floor,” says Alex Johnson ’06, who majored in Fine Arts at NYU and has an MA in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford. “By that I mean making sure their worst production is still going to be really competent and really worth doing. The ceiling of quality is going to fluctuate based on the kids who are coming through the door in a given year. As a high school director, the best any performance can be is going to be determined by factors outside your control … so you have to deemphasize the performance.”

Surely, Shakespeare would take issue with that, having once written, “The play’s the thing!” Johnson, who directed Prep summer theater for several years in the 2000s, explains. 

“When you’re in an educational setting, the rehearsal process is what matters, it’s where the teaching and creation happens,” he says. “I think Alicia and Brother Ron before her have done an excellent job of communicating the importance, value, and fun of rehearsal. The performance is very much the goal. You’re working towards it, you’re going to do it, it's exciting, and it’s great, but what matters and what makes the difference is rehearsal. Rehearsal is where you’re going to learn the most, try the most, discover the most.”

Cronin, now a human capital consultant at Ernst & Young in Manhattan, takes the point a step further. 

“It’s not just about competing,” says Cronin, who earlier this year reprised a one-man show he co-wrote, performing it at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn. “There’s something about the idea of coming together and producing something. When I talk to kids pursuing theater in college, I tell them my work [in theater] prepared me so well for the work I do today. And not just because I’ve performed in front of a ton of people.

“Accountability really is in your hands as a student in the Prep Guild,” he continues. “I feel like I grew my skills there. I certainly developed as a performer, but you learn that you have to be present and aware and build up enough trust with the people around you so you can take a risk and pivot and change something to meet the need of the moment. It’s about getting in a room with people who have different opinions than you, listening to those people, trying to understand their perspective, understanding your own perspective, and most of all, understanding what the project or task in front of you is asking of you, both as a collective group and as individuals. [My Guild experience] prepared me in ways that I certainly was not aware of when I was doing it, but it aligns with the kind of work I’m doing now in a really substantial way.”

For his part, Flynn says the way of the Guild isn’t so much a part of his life as it is, well, who he is. 

“It’s never really left me—I do it every day,” says Flynn, who owns and operates Patrick’s Pet Care in Northwest, D.C. (See Fall/Winter 2019 prep Magazine cover story). “I think about [how it informs my professional life] all the time. I do it in staff meetings. I do it in budgeting. I do it when ‘this dog has to be groomed in 60 minutes or less.’ It’s the same thing as, ‘the prop broke, the light didn’t come on, the microphone battery died.’ It goes back to being able to adapt to the circumstances you’re presented with. It taught me that you gotta be able to roll with it.”

CAUSE AND EFFECT

It was the 18th century French playwright Voltaire who penned the axiom, “Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.” That sentiment, according to former St. John’s Middle School Drama Teacher Brit Barone (née Christopher), syncs with a phenomenon that explains the Prep’s 50-year legacy within the realm of the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild. 

“I think a part of it has to do with theater itself as its own, self-sustaining thing,” says Barone, now the Director of Summer Programs Student Life at Berklee College of Music. “That part isn’t unique to St. John’s. But then, I think there’s the Prep Guild. There’s a level of success perpetuating success. There’s a reputation dating from the era of Brother Ron. When kids come into the program, Alicia says to them, ‘You need to be the nicest, most humble people. You need to be so kind, because we have a reputation (of winning) that precedes us.’ So, the kids want to match that reputation because it already exists, but they also are doing that under a leader who’s saying, ‘If we compete and do well, but our reputation is we do well and we’re unkind, then why do it? That’s not the goal here.’”

A certain dignity, then. Positivity born of prestige.

“I think Guild members take a lot of pride, collectively, in what we’re trying to produce,” says Cronin. “A lot of it is how both Ron and Alicia set up the ethos of the Guild. You’re developing deep relationships and the collegiality and friendship that comes from doing hard, good work together. I don’t think it’s particularly different from the bonds that get built in any sport at St. John’s. 

“Sportsmanship has always been a core value at the Prep,” he adds. “And while the broader cultural ideas around us have shifted over these 50 years, I think the Guild has always tapped into a way that young people—because we’ve had great female talent in that span, too—take real pride in the work we do. The pride that the current Guild members have, and my peers and I had, and the Fred Sullivan’s (Class of ’78) of the world took from doing that work helped us all feel more connected to who we were and who we’ve developed into.”

Sullivan, a senior lecturer of literary arts and studies at the Rhode Island School of Design, is also a resident actor/director with the Trinity Rep Company in Providence. He’s performed in over 120 productions in 32 seasons. CJ DiOrio ’15, a New York-based, SAG-eligible actor almost 40 years Sullivan’s junior, knew he might end up in the business as early as his preparation for a role in the Guild’s 2012 performance of “Macbeth” his freshman year.

“Seeing how the seniors were setting the example of leading us and being super detail-oriented and fixated on every little thing while still looking out and caring for others … That’s when I was like, ‘Okay, (the stage) is a place I want to be, and this could be something I want to do in life.’”

Conor Sweeney ’14 is an actor and writer also based in New York City. His credits include “Don’t Look Up” (Netflix) and a guest spot on “Law & Order: SVU.” He can next be seen in the TV pilot “This Really Happened,” which premiered in June at the Tribeca Film Festival. Sweeney’s backstory is not unlike that of DiOrio.

“The Prep Drama Guild is the reason I’m acting today,” he says. “In rehearsals and performances, I learned how to let creativity flourish while maintaining a strong work ethic. Alicia Greenwood, along with (former Guild co-director) Catherine Bertrand and Brother Ron Santoro gave me the tools I needed to take this acting bug seriously, with many life lessons along the way.”

It won’t surprise anyone who knows her to learn that Greenwood, who is also Chair of the Fine Arts Department, deflects credit for the fruits of her 21-year association—and her commitment of inconceivable hours—with the Guild. “Ed gets it. Keith [Prep Principal Keith Crowelly] gets it. The people around me get it. The parents get it. And as long as there are kids who need this home and this space and the School believes in that, the Guild will be here. After all, it’s the kids who buy in.”

Fortunately, Johnson doubles-down on the power of Greenwood’s example.

“Frankly, I think the Prep got super, super, super lucky that Alicia happened to be interested and available when Brother Ron started to transition out,” he says. “She’s such a critical piece. She’s priceless.”

“Think about the role of leadership in any successful organization and you’ll get a sense for how crucial Alicia’s presence in the program is,” adds Barone.

Of course, some Guild alumni have already scaled Hollywood’s highest heights. Bo Burnham ’08 has won a Grammy Award and three Emmys. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Brian Currie ’79 co-wrote “Green Book,” which received 16 major nominations in 2019 and won eight awards, including three Oscars and a trio of Golden Globes. 

“I was in a lot of plays while I was at the Prep and … I remember designing, building, painting, directing, and acting,” says RISD’s Sullivan. “I even did the program covers—all because I was encouraged. The Drama festival was the equivalent of a championship game. Br. Ron produced Aristophanes, O’Neill, Shakespeare, Robert Bolt, Stoppard, Anouilh, Peter Schaeffer, Beaumarchais, and Beckett while I was there. That’s unique for a high school program. My favorite memories of my four years were in the auditorium, rehearsing, learning, discovering. I’ve spent my professional life as a theater actor, director, and teacher, and the Guild instilled most of the good lessons and habits I benefit from to this day.”

Putting aside for a moment the astonishing alchemy behind where the St. John’s Drama Guild finds itself at the age of 50, it is arguably DiOrio, nearly a decade on from leaving the Prep, who shines the purest light on that path from Prep to pro in the performing arts.

“Yeah, I think it is very hard,” he says. “If I could be happy doing anything else, I would totally be doing anything else. But it’s my calling. It’s a lot of constantly going on job interviews. It’s a lot of surprises, a lot of waiting, a lot of stuff going on all the time. 
What helps is being resilient and being open to what’s around you. And that’s something I learned at the Guild. Just the resilience to push through and do the show and be with everyone in this space and be with the community. Keep your head down, do the work, and just keep pushing. Something good will happen.”