John Long graduated from Charles Wright in 1964 and returned to teach English from 1971 to 2005. John was a little older than his classmates in that first graduating class of students, so he is officially Charles Wright’s oldest living alum. John has many memories of the language and performing arts programs and he’s keeping a close eye on the new building project.

Over the years I was drafted into several school plays at Charles Wright when I returned to the school as a teacher. I played a drunken Pole sitting at a bar in Saroyan’s Time of Your Life, directed by Donn Laughlin. With few lines (Laughlin knew my limitations), I had to fill a couple of hours of stage time each night while resisting Lyle Peniston’s ’74 attempts to crack me up. This play was performed in the old bus shed next to the Lower School.

About the same time, I was cast in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, playing a psychiatrist, again with few lines. In the early seventies with stage makeup I could pass for an adult in low light. That play, with stunning lead performances by Kevin O’Rourke ’74, Mary Dupuis, and Don Dobler ’75, was performed on the senior stage in the commons.

My next play was Fiddler on the Roof, where I played a rabbi. I guess that director Ruth Palmerlee spotted a special spiritual quality in me that fit the role. The rest of the world has yet to spot it. That play we didn’t even perform at CWA; we rented the theater at Steilacoom High School.

Most recently I played a cross-dressing drama critic in The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth, directed by John Forier and featuring Andrew Evans. That play was done in what I still call the study hall but is currently the band room.

Of four plays in which I had a part, we were in a real theater only once and that was when we went to Steilacoom. Charles Wright has a proud history of theater, but has never really had the facilities to support the program. This campaign is an exciting time for many of us who over the years remember those great productions in those inadequate spaces. The same could be said for the music program. If they were to beg me to return for just the right role …. Just kidding.