I previously wrote about the importance of volunteers in all aspects of the arts. In light of that article, I want to share with you my gratitude for one volunteer in particular: Dr. Samuel Lewis, a former Lafayette pediatrician whom I had the good fortune to meet approximately 15 years ago. He has proven over and over again how incredibly valuable a good heart can be.
Dr. Lewis saw musical theater as a wonderful activity for some of the young people who were not particularly adept at sports. As an alternative, he wanted to provide opportunities for kids to get involved in theater. Plus, he thought of theater as an amazing opportunity for an entire family to experience the enjoyment of theatrical entertainment. With many parents so committed to keeping their children in sports activities, they don’t even think about the beauty and excitement of live theater. Some parents have confessed that their child is not an athlete and did not have the co-ordination or interest in sports. Yet their child was ambitious, strong, active and alive with energy. Some love to sing and dance as well, but just cannot perform as an athlete. Some of these non-athletic kids seem to have a natural stage presence. Even those who are extremely shy and seemingly non-ambitious can learn to come alive and grow more secure in a non-competitive environment.
In the mid-80s, when Dr. Lewis’s son, Rob, was at Happy Valley School, there was a talent show in either his 3rd or 4th grade. Rob tried out and performed well, but the overall general experience was not very good. Then, three young girls came on stage and did a number from The Wiz that was truly amazing; in fact, quite spectacular. After the show, Lewis sought out and conversed with the girls’ families, asking about their training. They said they were working with “this guy called Crazy Eddie” and his Dance Company called “Crazyatrics” in Walnut Creek, which in turn, eventually became Eddie Belasco and the Belasco Theater Company.
After Lewis’s son, Rob, was introduced to “Crazyatrics,” Dr. Lewis began to experience the incredible skill and talent that Eddie Belasco had in inspiring these young people to play any parts given them. However, everybody was frustrated in that the only people who came to shows seemed to be the parents and family friends of the kids in the shows.
Dismayed by the fact that this little theater company was producing superb theater and few were coming to see it, Dr. Lewis decided that he had to find a way to open up the opportunity for all kids, especially minority kids who had not been exposed to theater. It cost $1,200 a year at that time, per child, for classes, rehearsals, and the support they were given. Lewis worked tirelessly to get donors for scholarships.
Oakland-based Dryers ice cream donated $3,000, but as more talent flooded the stage, the need for more donations became quite evident. Dr. Lewis established the Belasco Theater Company’s Outreach program in 1981, a program that has provided free show tickets and transportation to underprivileged kids all over the East Bay for 14 years.
The children who attended the musicals were asked to write a letter to the Belasco Company expressing what they did and did not like about the shows, and one letter in particular from Oakland student, Matthew Martin, left a very important program-changing thought with the producer. “Thank you for letting us see Guys and Dolls,” he said, ”but they should have used real dice and when Big Shirley pulled out a gun, it looked like it was made from cardboard,” he added. He also mentioned a few other thoughtful criticisms, one which he reiterated twice, even in capital letters, “WHERE ARE ALL TH EBLACK PEOPLE?” Consequently, Lewis’s program doubled down on raising money for scholarships, enabling all kids to participate in the acting classes and to perform in the shows.
Through his Outreach program, plus finding deals like free student transportation in a Dryers Ice Cream Company provided bus, he made it possible for thousands of kids to see the shows for free. One of Lewis’s brilliant ideas was to sell blocks of tickets to his medical peers and other business professionals, who in turn donated the tax deductible tickets to schools and students all over the East Bay.
When I started writing a theater reviewer’s column in 1986, I had not even heard about the Belasco theater company. My wife and I were called by Barbara Galla, the costume designer for The Lafayette Dramateurs, the resident theater company of the Town Hall theater in Lafayette at that time. Barbara asked me if I had been out to see the Belasco theater company productions in the Del Valle Theater on Tice Valley Boulevard, next door to the Rossmoor community, for whom I wrote my theater columns. I explained that I had never even heard of the company. She said, “I’ve been doing their costumes for a number of years, and this guy Belasco is a truly brilliant 70-year-old former musician and nightclub-performer-turned-producer; a tough but brilliant director.”
So we made arrangements to go and see their production of How to Succeed in Business without Even Trying on May 14 of that year, 2004. Both Karen and I were blown away by the talent, and near adult acting capabilities of this young cast. It was in this production for the first time that I met the 12-year-old actor Dave Abrams, and my quote in my column (which I have retained to this day) said – – “Young Abrams is an exceptional young actor! He can sing, he can dance, he can act, he can do it all, and he can do it extremely well for such a young man. You simply have to see Abrams in action to begin to comprehend just how good, how exciting he really is!” This was not his first show. Young Dave Abrams performed in his first Belasco show production when he was only eight years old. Now as a grown man, I have commended Abrams for receiving the coveted Theater Bay Area (TBA) award for Outstanding Male Actor in a featured role in a musical, for his performance in June of last year for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. In addition, he recently earned the prestige of becoming a burgeoning member of the Actor’s Equity Association (AEA), an equity professional theater performer.
Yes, Eddie Belasco was, at times, a difficult, yet a caring and obsessed director of children’s theater. But he came to create an atmosphere that inspired many children to become passionate about musical theater and eventually, for some, becoming professional actors and actresses and teachers of theater. For 26 years, it was said that Eddie Belasco brought “Broadway to the Burbs,” because the musical productions he produced with these children from ages 8 to 20, were the well-known hits from Broadway, not musicals written specifically for children.
However, while Eddie Belasco could inspire kids to play adult parts in mature musical productions, he couldn’t do it all by himself. In fact, even though the parents of the children paid for their instruction, there was never enough money at the beginning to make the company either profitable or capable of getting Belasco’s message of theater for children, into a broader platform as he wanted.
Dr. Lewis was an eminent physician who became a generous theatrical benefactor, not only providing his son the opportunity to experience musical theater, but he intently watched what was going on, making important personal suggestions and came up with ideas that he thought would provide more children the opportunity to be able to come to Walnut Creek and participate in what he felt was a tremendous opportunity. Lewis has invested immeasurable time to benefit youth all around the East Bay area for years.
His son, Rob, worked hard to perform and learn his basic skills in that same Belasco Company and today is a proud instructor of the Theater Arts in Southern California. Lewis has given close personal support and advice to many of Belasco’s protégés, and probably none more than the very talented Dave Abrams(who is shown in the attached photograph) while meeting with the Doctor recently to discuss upcoming auditions and shows on his schedule this fall.
My purpose in introducing you to this fine gentleman, Dr. Samuel Lewis, is not only to play homage to a man who acted strictly and competently as a volunteer, but like so many people in our communities, he has given back and paid forward to the youth in the East Bay. Further, my purpose is to also celebrate those of you who are willing, and wanting, and proud to be part of the good will that truly makes this country great.
As I espoused in my July article entitled “The Backbone of Community Arts,” please explore with your friends and family the wonderful contributions that you and they can make, and the joy we can have as volunteers in the world of theater and arts. Today, one of my volunteer jobs is as a member of the Eugene O’Neill Foundation Board and I am proud to do so.
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