{"id":720,"date":"2011-04-25T16:37:04","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T20:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=720"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:19:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:19:03","slug":"mcglones-curtain-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2011\/04\/mcglones-curtain-call\/","title":{"rendered":"McGlone’s Curtain Call"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThe Theatre-in-the-Round\u2019s \u201cDoc\u201d era ended quietly on a Sunday afternoon at the end of October, when the final lines of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cKing Lear\u201d were met with thunderous applause.<\/p>\n

After the curtain call, Henry Lague \u201909\/M.A.\u201911 beckoned James P. \u201cDoc\u201d McGlone \u201954 to the stage to join the students in a final bow. Lague presented the retiring director with a framed T shirt signed by the cast and thanked him for his dedication to Seton Hall.<\/p>\n

Usually unflappable, McGlone \u2014 my father \u2014 was visibly moved by the moment and by the affection from his student cast.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are the theater,\u201d he said, looking directly at them, seemingly unaware that the audience was standing and applauding in his honor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them, \u2018all of you are a part of who I am,\u2019 \u201d McGlone, 78, said later. \u201cI love the place because of them.\u201d For generations of Seton Hall graduates, the feeling is mutual.<\/p>\n

My father\u2019s love affair with Seton Hall began in 1950 when he enrolled as a freshman from Morris County. He returned as a faculty member in 1965, and since then has taught and directed thousands of students.<\/p>\n

When he retires in May, he leaves behind a legion of fans. Some have achieved success as artists, but most have made their mark in other ways, in classrooms, courtrooms and newsrooms, in politics, churches and businesses across New Jersey and around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a people shaper, in the best way possible,\u201d says Jane Waterhouse \u201974, a writer who lives in Fair Haven. \u201cMy life changed when I met (him). I\u2019d never had a teacher who posed big questions, who expected me to think things through, expected an opinion. He valued it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waterhouse says the best teachers can expect to influence 5 to 10 percent of their students. \u201cBut his figure is much higher,\u201d she says. \u201cIf anybody was lucky enough to have wandered into his group discussion class, it would make them look at things differently. Something would come out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doc McGlone is a bundle of contradictions dressed in a tie and cardigan sweater. He\u2019s a conservative Catholic who can talk about Lil\u2019 Kim and Lady Gaga, an old-school professor who never refers to himself as \u201cDoctor McGlone.\u201d (His nickname, Doc, evolved during rehearsals in the early \u201970s as a middle ground between the too-familiar \u201cJim\u201d and the too-formal \u201cprofessor.\u201d)<\/p>\n

He has hundreds of friends on Facebook (where he signs comments with \u201cthe ol\u2019 fella\u201d) but doesn\u2019t have a cellphone or use a bank card.<\/p>\n

He plays up his old-fashioned persona, but he\u2019s frequently ahead of the professional theater world. He produced \u201cThe Tempest\u201d with a female Prospero years before Broadway decided it was a neat idea. He introduced American audiences to Irish actress Anna Manahan more than a decade before she earned a Tony Award for her work in New York.<\/p>\n

No two of his classes are ever the same, but he ends every one with \u201cIt\u2019s been a little bit of heaven right here on Earth, being here with you today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students want their parents to meet him at graduation, where he happily poses for pictures. He\u2019s been invited \u2014 and has attended \u2014 hundreds of weddings, baptisms and ordinations. He\u2019s the one who slips quietly into the back at wakes and funerals.<\/p>\n

Deirdre Yates, professor of communication and a colleague since 1992, says his influence is deep, and that he teaches more than students realize.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is teaching life, how life is viewed by playwrights, how he embraces life, how the world sees things. How to learn about life and how you fit in through great works of literature,\u201d says Yates, whose younger daughter Emily, a freshman, made her Seton Hall debut playing Cordelia in \u201cLear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is so willing to share of himself,\u201d Yates continues. \u201cHe\u2019s opinionated, but you know, what a wonderful thing, to put yourself out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Boonton, N.J., in 1932, my father graduated from Seton Hall in 1954 and then attended Catholic University in Washington, D.C., where he earned a master\u2019s degree. He was drafted into the Army, and after \u201ctwo of the unhappiest years of my life\u201d (as he always describes his service), he returned to the New York-New Jersey area. He enrolled in NYU\u2019s doctoral program and began teaching at Manhattan College. He returned to Seton Hall in the fall of 1965, and earned his doctorate two years later.<\/p>\n

His work in the Theatre-in-the-Round and in the classroom has always gone hand-in-hand. Some students auditioned for plays after taking one of his courses. Others enrolled in a class after working with him in the theater.<\/p>\n

While he acknowledges the difference in students \u2014 and in the world \u2014 since he first began teaching, he says his work is remarkably unchanged. \u201cIt\u2019s my job to talk to students,\u201d he says. \u201cA college education is a conversation. I show them I\u2019m interested. I ask a lot of questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the discovery. It\u2019s like watching a light go on,\u201d he continues. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other time in growing that you\u2019ll see such a dramatic change. They are less prejudiced. They take criticism well, especially if you let them see you like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephen Smith \u201992 is one of many former students who credit Doc with influencing their lives. Smith \u201cmaxed out\u201d at five McGlone classes and performed in many student productions as well as in plays produced by the nonprofit Celtic Theatre Company McGlone started.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat connection with (him), that was everything,\u201d says Smith, an executive recruiter living in Orlando. \u201cYou take him out of that equation and my life is radically different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith says Doc was always teaching \u2014 whether they were walking across campus, driving to see an actor in a non-university performance, or talking after rehearsal. \u201cIt was, \u2018I\u2019m not going to tell you what to think. I\u2019m going to teach you how to think,\u2019 \u201d Smith says of the McGlone philosophy. \u201cI learned to use my mind muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Roger \u201982 says it\u2019s hard to imagine the theater without Doc. \u201cHe has been the heart and soul of that place and so near and dear to my heart that on some level I thought he would always be there,\u201d Roger says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been the heart and soul of that place and so near and dear to my heart that on some level I thought he would always be there,\u201d Roger says.<\/p>\n

Many of Doc\u2019s former actors recall his old-school directing style: \u201cHe\u2019s an X\u2019s and O\u2019s guy, a \u2018know your lines and don\u2019t bump into the furniture\u2019 type,\u201d says Rich McNanna \u201900, while others remember his boundless energy. Many note that he was dedicated not only to the shows, but to the community of artists working together to put them on.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves the camaraderie, loves the company of people,\u201d says Smith. \u201cAs much as he loves the productions, I think he loves the ham sandwich and glass of red wine at Cryan\u2019s afterwards just as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

My father has worked with many talented artists, many of whom have had successful acting careers. And while he has had his pet peeves (\u201cI could drive a train through that cue\u201d), he has always been concerned with more than what\u2019s happening on stage.<\/p>\n

The theater teaches discipline and commitment, he says. \u201cYou learn to rely on others, and you learn that things end,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd the ritual of the whole thing. And that opening night comes \u2014 ready or not.\u201d<\/p>\n