A Tribute to My Theatre Mentor, Gerry Cullity

I wrote the first version of this tribute 20 years ago, when I received the news that Gerry was unexpectedly taken from us by a heart attack at 52 years of age.

Gerry Cullity (1953-2005)

Mentor. Friend. Actor. Writer. Director. For most of his life, Gerry brought theatre to young people and adults alike. His talent was matched only by his passion for the work. I was lucky enough to meet Gerry right out of college and that was when my advanced education in theatre began. Over the course of 5 memorable years we collaborated on over a dozen shows—musicals, dramas, comedies—for children and adults. 

Gerry and his wife Laurie, a talented triple-threat performer and choreographer, founded Actor's Cafe in Bradley Beach, NJ, where I first worked with them. I did my first children's theatre show there, "Androcles and the Lion." We also did several musicals, including Sweeney Todd. I played Toby to Gerry's frightening, tormented Sweeney. 

My wife of 27 years, Tonya, worked with Gerry as well, when he and Laurie founded Desert Stages Theatre. He introduced us after I saw her headshot hanging in the theatre lobby in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1997 and asked, "Who is that?" A blind date, a whirlwind romance, and we have been married ever since.

                                          

Gerry was the best man at our wedding (beside him is Kenny Brodie, one of the funniest and kindest actors I ever worked with. We lost Kenny a few years before we lost Gerry).

                                                   

I was honored to direct Gerry when he played Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha.

Gerry’s influence, especially as a director, informs everything I have done as a professional in the theatre. His dictum to “raise the stakes” in all aspects of life, his continuous reminders that “Nothing matters. And Everything matters” and that “All things being equal, nothing is ever equal” continue to resonate in my personal and professional endeavors. Perhaps most important was the rule that rehearsal was for physically and mentally working the script, not sitting and talking about it for hours. 

When I opened my own acting school and formed my theatre company in 2005 (prodded by Gerry to do so), Gerry's photo, surrounded by dozens of children, hung in my classroom/rehearsal space. It now hangs in my writing room. Hundreds of my students and colleagues have heard Gerry's words of wisdom over the years from me, and I know they have been shaped and motivated by them as well.

Gerry was also a talented writer of musicals. He is best known for "Butterfly's Day." If it was not for Gerry, I may never have been inspired to write musicals and stage plays.

In 1998, Gerry and I were approached by a large health care system about writing a musical to bring awareness to the teen pregnancy rate in Arizona, which was one of the highest in the country. Gerry wrote the music and lyrics and I wrote the dramatic scenes. We called it  “The Think it Thru Revue,” and, after a high-profile debut at the Orpheum Theatre in Phoenix, introduced by the governor, with the mayor and many dignitaries and media in attendance, the musical went on to make a considerable difference about not only teen pregnancy prevention, but HIV/AIDs awareness. It won a Phoenix Kids Award, special recognition from the American Medical Association, and has the distinction of being one of George Bush's Thousand Points of Light.  

When I started New Mystics [which became Seven Stories] Theatre Company in New Jersey in 2005, I rewrote the script to be a non-musical under the title “Thinkin’ it Over.” It toured for several years, with ongoing edits based on feedback from Company members, requests from hiring organizations, and the ever-changing times.

With every performance dedicated to Gerry. 

In June 2022, Laurie joined Gerry in a no doubt better place. This was my message to her upon hearing of her passing, while I was on tour in Oklahoma portraying Allen Ginsberg:

Oh, my beautiful, generous friend and fellow performer. News of your passing has left me heartbroken, but I also know in my heart that, after seventeen years apart, you and Gerry are dancing together again. Tonya and I will always be grateful for your introducing us 25 years ago and for being there for me in one of the darkest periods of my life just prior. Sharing the stage with you for so many years was one of the greatest privileges of my life.

                                         

Laurie (on the right, as Roxie Hart) and me as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago.

Gerry’s work and legacy live on at Desert Stages Theatre, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

https://www.desertstages.org/