HAL J. TODD – MAN
OF THE THEATRE
“The
phrase, ‘Man of the Theatre’, is tossed around somewhat lightly
these days, but, in my own personal experience, Hal was always ‘The Man
of the Theatre’. A superb actor, director, teacher, and writer, he devoted
his entire life, his considerable talents, and all his energies to the art
of the living stage.” These words from Producer George Eckstein, a close
friend of Hall J. Todd for more than sixty years, were heard at a celebration
of his life held at the Todd home on November 18, 2007. Hal Todd died on November
4, 2007 at his home in Los Gatos. He was 84 and the cause of death was respiratory
failure.
Dr. Todd
came to San Jose State University in 1964 as Professor of Theatre and Chairman
of the Department of Drama. He held that position for eighteen years during
which time more than 25,000 students studied and majored in Theatre Arts. During
his administration Dr. Todd kept a full teaching load and directed four or
five plays a year (including the summer repertory program, children’s
plays, and rehearsal/performance productions. Students majoring in Theatre
Arts during this period often participated in more than 30 productions during
their four-year course of study. The department was considered one of the top
ten schools in the country. Dr. Todd’s specialties were acting, directing,
and the seminar in Comedy.
Dr. Todd
came to San Jose from Hollywood where he had been invited to act, write, and
direct for the television series “It’s a Man’s World”.
He also acted in other television series and film, he also ran a theatre of
his own, Marketplace Productions. Dr. Todd was a founding member of the San
Francisco Actor’s Workshop, and he directed for Shakespeare festivals
in Maine, San Diego, Colorado, and Ashland, Oregon (where he directed their
first production of Titus Andronicus). He also served as a director
in summer theatres in Maine, Connecticut, Yosemite, and Glacier Parks, as well
as at community theatres in Palo Alto and San Francisco. He also played Giles
Corey in ACT’s production of The Crucible. He led two USO productions
to the Pacific Theatre as well as touring productions of Bus Stop and
Moliere’s The Miser to New Zealand for the State Department.
During his
career Dr. Todd was Director of Theatre at Idaho State University and at Northwestern
University. He also taught at Montana State University in a summer repertory
program with Carroll O’Connor. This is where he met his future wife,
Joan, who was acting in the company. Dr. Todd taught acting and directing in
the professional program at Carnegie Mellon, and at the University of Colorado.
He was awarded a Ford Foundation directing grant to work with Harold Clurman
on his Broadway production of Shaw’s Heartbreak House. Dr. Todd
was president of the Rocky Mountain Theatre Association, a member of the Board
of Directors of American Theatre Association, and was affiliated with The Children’s
Theatre Conference, Director’s Guild of America, Writer’s Guild
of America, and the Screen Actors Guild.
Hal Todd
was born in Denver, Colorado and was educated in the Denver Public Schools.
He attended Colorado Schools of Mines, then joined the Navy V12 program in
civil engineering corps during WWII, being commissioned a lieutenant. In 1946
he began graduate studies in Drama at Stanford University. His master’s
thesis was a production of Moliere’s The Miser with Richard Egan
in the title role. He later received a Phd. in Dramatic Literature from Denver
University.
In his more
than sixty years in the theatre, Dr. Todd worked on more than 400 productions.
He favored the classics, especially Shakespeare, Moliere, Chekhov, Shaw, Pirandello,
as well as the great Irish writers, Sean O’Casey and Synge. He also enjoyed
staging Arther Miller and the American realism of Dead End, Of Mice
and Men and Tobacco Road, where he played the role of Jeeter Lester
in three different productions. His first production at San Jose State was
Aristophanes’ anti-war comedy, Lysistrata. Stanley Anderson, a
leading actor for many seasons at the Seattle Rep and the Arena Stage in Washington,
D.C., and now working in Hollywood, recalls playing the President of the Senate
in that production and working for the first time with Dr. Todd as a director: “At
times, over the last forty-two years, it has been my pleasure to teach as well
as coach acting and Hal was part of every moment of that work. Listening, and
really hearing the students, and not just looking at but really seeing the
other person are just some of the traits I inherited from Hal. When an actor
wanted to ‘try something’, the question of ‘why not’ came
from him, with the awareness that not-knowing a result is likely more interesting
and more personal than knowing… I am unable to delineate where my knowledge
and Hal’s teaching begin and end. They are forever interwoven and were
passed on to the students with whom I worked.”
From 1983
to 1993, Dr. Todd continued to teach and direct and was a part of the MFA program
faculty. In 1994 the Hal Todd Theatre at SJSU was dedicated to him. In 1985
he was a Fulbright professor of Theatre Directing at the professional drama
faculty of the University of Belgrade, in the then Yugoslavia. Discovering
the directors had never studied acting for themselves, he developed a course
in Acting For Directors and directed them in a Chekhov comedy. Going back to
Belgrade to meet theatre colleagues again in 2006, he found the class still
in the curriculum. One of his children’s plays, Rumplestilskin and
the Witches was translated into Serbo-Croatian and is part of the permanent
repertory of the National Children’s Theatre in Belgrade. At the time
of his death, Dr. Todd was editing his Hal J. Todd’s Four Plays for
Middle-Aged Children. The book will be published next year.
At the gathering
at the Todd home were the founders, directors, and affiliates of more than
seven Bay Area Theatres, including San Jose Stage, City Lights, Saratoga Chamber
Theatre, Teatro Campesino, Western Stage, The Independent Eye in Sebastapol – all
former students of Dr. Todd. Interestingly, also represented were more than
a dozen theatre marriages from the department (still intact!) and more than
forty people working as actors, teachers, designers and technicians, stage
managers, and business managers in live theatre.
Dr. Todd
is survived by his wife of 53 years, Dr. Joan Todd, a historian, sister
Wilma Todd Bergheim of Gresham, Oregon, two nieces and a nephew, his very good
dog, Logan, and a thousand students. Donations may be made in his memory to
the live theatre of your choice or to his two favorite charities, The Salvation
Army (Hal was involved in five different productions of Shaw’s Major
Barabra!) or the Second Harvest Food Bank.
