Finding success behind the scenes

Cabrini graduate John Doyle has made his way from Xavier Hall to the cuckoo's nest, and through it all he has found his niche.

by Jennifer Nespoli features editor

It is 7:55 p.m. The theater is dimly lit. There is no curtain to raise; the stage is exposed, waiting for the characters that will soon bring it to life.

There is a man in brown corduroy pants and a white shirt bustling_ around with a walkietalkie next to his ear. His face is creased in concentration. There is a look in his eyes of one who is doing a delicate balancing act in his head. You can almost see all the notes rushing around in his head of all the things he has to remember and all the things that have to go right before the lights go down and a new world emerges from the darkness. His pacing doesn't seem to have any direction, just back and forth across the stage from one end to the other. But he is the director; it is his job to see that everything is running smoothly before his actors take the stage. Besides, stress is no stranger to John Doyle. He seems to thrive on it.

You'll be hard pressed to find John Doyle outside of a theater. He directs show after show, always ready to dive into another project, never hesitating when presented with a challenge. But that is not his only occupation. The Cabrini graduate also teaches literature and journalism at Norristown Area High School, and advises the school newspaper.

All in a day's work.

It may seem like an impossible feat, teaching by day, putting on a production by night, rehearsing, grading papers, doing promotion work and his family. He couldn't forget his family. His wife and two young daughters require his attention as well. Are there enough hours in the day?

One would think Doyle would be going cuckoo right now, juggling his teaching job, the theater and his family, but he seems practiced at the balancing act. Perhaps his inspiration comes out of the pressure.

Doyle graduated from Cabrini in 1985, but, ironically, while here he did not do any theater work. By the time he had graduated from high school he had completed 40 plays, most of which were musicals. He had participated in his high school plays and in community theater, doing plays one after another.

In college, he backed off theater, having had his fill for a while in high school. He concentrated on radio and video and photography, but never took a journalism class. Back then, he recalls, the radio station was not FM, and the TV studio was just getting off the ground.

He was a four-year resident, living in Counsel Hall, which is what Grace Hall was before it was closed off and made into offices. It was a very different school back then. Only 50 residents in a building, 500 students on campus. Doyle loved it.

He loved it so much that he became the Resident Life Director. He and his wife lived in Xavier Hall. In fact, when he and his wife got married, they had a giant reception in the basement of Xavier.

He went to graduate school at Villanova at night and worked at Cabrini in the daytime. Eventually his daughter was born, and the three of them lived together at Cabrini. It was a job that he would have loved to keep all his life.

"I loved having the ability to create a better life for the residents," he said. "I enjoyed the job immensely."

It was the connection to students that would soon lead him to teaching. But first, the theater called him back. This time, he dove in without restraint.

At Villanova he received his masters degree in a program that tied theater and literature together.

It was there that he met Randall Wise, his business partner, and the two teamed up together to create their theater company, Iron Age Theater.

One of their first shows was at Eastern State Penitentiary, held amid the crumbling jail cells and haunting old legends. Wise wrote the script for the show "Tunnel" and he and Doyle produced it. It served as the "inaugural event" for the two, according to Doyle. What would come next was a whirl of plays, producing, directing, writing with Wise and looking for new and powerful material. But something was missing. Namely, money.

"I had to feed my family," Doyle said.

That's where teaching came in. At Norristown Area High School, he could once again be engaged in the development of young people.

"I dig teaching," he said. •'I love every minute of being here. I can be a part of the development of the race."

Besides teaching British literature and journalism, he also serves as the adviser for the student newspaper, the "Wingspan."

"[Dr. Jerry] Zurek taught me well," he said. Although he never actually took a journalism class, as a communications major he knew Zurek and learned the finer points of journalism from him.

Amid teaching and advising, Doyle stayed committed to theater. He had been looking for a play that was well known and had strong issues. The play that they found was "One Flew Over the

Cuckoo's Nest," which debuted as a novel by Ken Kesey in 1962. The story was made into a movie in the '70s, and there had been a theater interpretation of the book that had premiered and failed.

They began rehearsals in October, and the show debuted at the Montgomery County Cultural Center on Nov. 27. When they began rehearsals, the 18 actors in the play barely even looked at the script. The first two weeks of rehearsals were improvisationalbased. This helps the actors get into their character and interact with the other characters.

When Doyle works on a project, he tends to dive in 2,000 percent. He is intense. Even when he's teaching, he puts everything into what he's doing.

"I live what I'm doing. When I teach romantic poetry in my literature class, I'm a romantic poet," he said. "There's some John Doyle underneath. Everything comes out of me."

Of doing Cuckoo, he says, "I put so much into the show and I get so much out of it that I figure I come out even."

When he does have free time, he likes to watch science fiction TV and read. He sleeps "once in a while." He loves playing with his daughters. His family does things together, so when his daughters want to paint, they all paint together. When they want to walk around the mall, they all walk together.

He loves going to New York, for theater reasons and because it's a "hopping town." He also enjoys going to Annapolis and is planning a trip with his kids to Wyoming, where Wise lives. He believes that "you have to schedule life to have some sanity."

This from a man who is producing a show about mental patients.

1be audience is finally seated, and lights begin to dim. A hush goes through the crowd, and someonewaJJcsonto the darkened stage. The spotlight finds him, turns himshadesof red and green. He tneds down. Takes a breath. And begins to speak.

The new world has awakened. of DoJlt's play on page 7