2022 Theatre Hall of Fame

On April 22, St. John’s College High School honored five individuals who have demonstrated outstanding talent in the theatrical arts. We join their families, friends, and classmates in congratulating them on this achievement and on the excellence displayed in their craft. In each play and musical, the inductees expertly portrayed the drama and resilience of the human experience. This tradition continues as today’s theatre students participate in the performing arts at the community, college, and professional level. The theatre program at St. John’s is founded on the principle of collaboration—memorable ensemble productions are the culmination of remarkable talent, dedication, generosity, and teamwork.

JAY HOLLOWAY ’69

Among the first graduating class of The Mask & Wig at St. John’s, Jay Holloway has been working in the entertainment industry as a stage technician for the past 56 years.

In 1966, he joined St. John’s Theatre Department in their second season as a properties hand for Oliver and The Music Man He was later promoted to props department head for performances including My Fair Lady, Damn Yankees, Fiorello, and Little Mary Sunshine. During his senior year, he was awarded the Outstanding Crew Member Medal by a jury of his peers. His 53-year pursuit of technical theatre excellence would not have been achieved without the exceptional guidance and leadership of The Mask & Wig’s first director and producer, Gene Morrill.

After graduating from St. John’s in 1969, Holloway attended Fairfield University on a theatrical scholarship as playhouse manager and technical director, working on 16 productions. The summer between his freshman and sophomore years, he worked as the technical director for Rockville, Maryland’s, Recreation and Parks Summer Theatre Program, the youngest person ever appointed to that position.

Holloway left Fairfield to pursue an opportunity with a documentary film production company as unit manager, camera operator, lighting director, grip, still photographer, and audio director. Additional productions included television commercials for Save the Children Federation in the Andes of Columbia; a series of documentaries for the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; the prison reform system in Pennsylvania; and Dick Gregory’s bicentennial run in Chicago, among others.

Anxious to get back into technical theatre in 1975, Holloway was initiated into the Connecticut local of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada (I.A.T.S.E.) as a 35mm film projectionist. He later pursued regional theatre assignments at the Westport Country Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Darien Dinner Theatre, and Levitt Pavilion, working as a stagehand, follow-spot operator, and lighting technician. He was later elected to the I.A.T.S.E. Executive Board as president and then business agent, responsible for negotiating contracts as well as filling labor calls. He has been a member of the I.A.T.S.E. for the last 47 years.

During the next 30 years, while performing his duties as a theatrical union representative, Holloway was a high school audiovisual teacher and theatre director, as well as a systems programmer for General Electric and IBM. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Iona College in 1995. In 1997, he and his wife Denise and sons Jason, Daniel, Matthew, and Andrew relocated to Atlanta, where he continued his theatre career with a new I.A.T.S.E. local working for the Atlanta Ballet, the Atlanta Opera, Family Feud with Steve Harvey, Wild ’N Out for MTV, Sunday Best for BET, Cirque du Soleil, The Weather Channel, BET Hip Hop Awards, MacGyver, All My Children, New York City Dance Alliance, Joyce Meyers Ministries, Live Nation Amphitheaters, Junior Theatre Festival, City Springs Theatre Company, and the Fox Theatre, among others. In 2019, he was in the audio department for the Super Bowl LIII pre-game and half-time shows at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

PAUL SCHOMMER ’70

Paul Schommer came to St. John’s in 1966 and began his musical theatre career in 1967 as the assistant rehearsal pianist for The Music Man. Inspired by the exceptional leadership, charisma, and urgings of Eugene Morrill— SJC’s theatre director and producer from 1965 to 1975— Schommer continued as the rehearsal and orchestra pianist, and later musical director for My Fair Lady, Damn Yankees, Fiorello, Little Mary Sunshine, The Happy Time, and Man of La Mancha. He also served as president of The Mask & Wig during his senior year.

After graduating from St. John’s in 1970, Schommer went on to Harvard University, where he was the musical director and orchestra conductor for various shows including She Loves Me, The Most Happy Fella, and Kiss Me Kate. During summer break, he worked professionally with fellow SJC alumni at a dinner theatre in Ocean City, Maryland, presenting The Drunkard and The Fantasticks.

After graduation from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in biology, he went on to earn his medical doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco, where he was the pianist and musical director for the medical musical satire Scar Wards, performed with his fellow doctor–thespians.

Schommer practiced family medicine and obstetrics for 35 years in Visalia, California, delivering more than 2,500 babies. He retired in 2017 and spends his time gardening, golfing, enjoying his four grandchildren, and getting back to playing the piano.

TIMOTHY S. EMERSON ’84

Timothy S. Emerson ’84 spent 29 years as the managing director of St. John’s Theatre.

During his time as a student and production stage manager at St. John’s College High School, Emerson got his start in the dramatic arts under the tutelage of his teacher, mentor, and friend, Mr. Howard Dent (SJC Theatre Hall of Fame ’18). After graduating in 1984, Emerson matriculated to the Catholic University of America, where he was the director of the Centerstage Theatre Company and a stage manager at the Hartke Theatre. There, he directed the first non-professional production of Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? and his first production of Godspell, performed in the round. Emerson also appeared as Maryland delegate Samuel Chase in Hartke’s 1776.

During his time at CUA, Emerson began working with the Wildwood Summer Theatre (WST) where he was an actor, director, costume designer, stage manager, producer, and chairman of the board. Emerson has also worked with the Trinity Players, the Arlington Players, the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, the Paradigm Players, and the Maryland Traveling Repertory Company. He also spent one semester directing at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School.

In the summer of 1990, Dent asked Emerson to take over as director of St. John’s Drama. Under Emerson’s leadership and by vote of theatre members, the name of the organization was changed to St. John’s Theatre. A student board was created, the St. John’s Theatre Organization, to advise on matters of procedure, and a student constitution was written to run the organization.

Emerson also directed the occasional third production during the school year, most notably Waiting for Godot, starring MacArthur Genius Grant winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ’02 (SJC Theatre Hall of Fame ’16) and Christopher Wilson ’03 (SJC Theatre Hall of Fame ’18); The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged); Of Mice and Men, starring Helen Hayes Award nominee Vincent Kempski ’09, and A Separate Peace.

Hallmarks of Emerson’s tenure include a Holocaust studies program under the guidance of the Archdiocese of Washington’s Bearing Witness program. Created with his friend and teacher Dr. Raymond Nighan, the program was offered with several productions that dealt specifically with the subject: The Diary of Anne Frank, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, Number the Stars, and And Then They Came for Me (Remembering the World of Anne Frank), among others.

Emerson started an annual student trip to New York City in 1997 and ran a production of Godspell at least once every six years, believing it to be the perfect musical for a Catholic secondary school. Personal highlights as managing director include directing his dear friend Charles McNamara ’85 (SJC Theatre Hall of Fame ’16) as Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol; spending time with his colleague and set/lighting designer Mel Colvin ’81; watching Mel’s wife Chris teach the theatre students how to hail a limousine in Times Square; and all the time spent from 4:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. with SJC’s amazing thespians!

Emerson hails from a family of singers, dancers, actors, and athletes. He has collaborated with three of his siblings as choreographers and directed another three siblings while with WST. He attributes his on-stage, “Let me show you how to do it,” tendencies to his father, the late James O. Emerson, and his backstage “taking care of business” tendencies to his mother Noreen Casey Emerson.

NATHANIEL P. CLARIDAD ’00

At St. John’s College High School, Nathaniel P. Claridad began pursuing his theatrical career when he was cast in I Never Saw Another Butterfly, directed by Tim Emerson ’84. Throughout high school, he continued to grow under Emerson’s direction with shows such as Godspell, Pippin, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

After graduating from St. John’s in 2000, Claridad went on to study theatre performance and English literature at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2004, he took a leap of faith and moved to New York City, where he soon appeared Off-Broadway at the New York Musical Theatre Festival and with The Awesome 80’s Prom. He also returned to DC occasionally to perform at the Folger Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre Company of DC, Imagination Stage, and The Kennedy Center (with whom he also toured the country).

In 2011, Claridad participated in a workshop of David Byrne’s new musical, Here Lies Love, directed by Alex Timbers at the Public Theater. He was accepted to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he developed his love of directing, producing, and teaching. He also joined the original Obie and Lortel—winning Off-Broadway cast of Here Lies at the Public Theater during the summer of 2013, a year before graduating with his MFA and moving back to New York.

Claridad continues to perform in New York City, regionally across the United States, as well as internationally at venues such as the Sydney Opera House. His proudest achievement as a producer is co-founding Broadway Twisted, a fundraiser for North Carolina AIDS Action Network, and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, for which he earned a UNC Impact Award. As a director, Claridad’s work has been seen in New York City and regionally, and he was named a Drama League Resident in 2016 and 2019. In the summer of 2022, he returned to the DC area to direct Mr. Popper’s Penguins for Imagination Stage.

Jon Dowd

Born in Lithuania at the dawn of World War II, Joné Dowd and her family left their homeland when she was five years old. In their effort to escape communism, they found refuge in a post-war Germany displaced persons’ camp. It was there that seven-year-old Dowd began her dance training with a Latvian ballerina who was also seeking asylum. In 1949, she and her family arrived in the United States under the sponsorship of family in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

As her family assimilated to their new home country, Dowd continued her dance training at a local studio until her teacher encouraged her to travel to New York City for more advanced instruction. Due to her family’s limited finances, she was resigned to sporadic trips on weekends and intermittent instruction. After high school, she dreamed of pursuing a career in ballet but did not have her parents’ support unless she went to college. She matriculated to Southern Connecticut State University, where she majored in physical education and was invited to join the gymnastics team, and put her dance training to work.

Upon graduation in 1961, Dowd was approached by the head of the Physical Education Department who asked if she had secured a job. He suggested she contact the athletic director, Edmund La Fond, at Catholic University in Washington, DC, as they were looking for someone to implement a female physical education program. A short trip and an interview later, Dowd was hired and moved to the nation’s capital.

It wasn’t long before she met the charismatic Fr. Gilbert Hartke, who was then the head of the Drama Department. During this time, Dowd was performing with the Washington Ballet in addition to pursuing her graduate degree at the University of Maryland. Shortly after arriving at CUA, Fr. Hartke asked if she would choreograph the Drama Department’s annual musical, Good Going. There, she met Gene Morrill, who quickly pulled her into the St. John’s orbit. Over the years, the two collaborated on South Pacific, West Side Story, The Music Man, How to Succeed in Business, My Fair Lady, Oliver, Fiorello, and Little Mary Sunshine.

Dowd continued her work at CUA, where she established a program for women’s athletics, founded and coached the women’s tennis team for 34 years, created the CUA Dance Theatre program, started and managed the CUA Leisure Studies program, and continued working with the Drama Department. She worked with graduate students in the Master of Fine Arts acting program, the summer acting program of the Hartke Conservatory, and regularly choreographed the annual musical production. Dowd also worked with the Benjamin T. Rome Music School, where she choreographed and performed in several opera productions in addition to producing and directing the Evening of Broadway annual production.

Dowd retired from CUA in 2008 but was regularly consulted on Athletic Department and Drama Department matters. She was married for more than 53 years to the late Martin Dowd (CUA ’60). They are the proud parents of four children, Dana, Jennifer, Michael, and Tara. Dowd currently resides in Arnold, Maryland, where she encourages a life of dance and health to her five grandchildren.