Everett man retires after 51 years in school and theater

Published 9:29 am Friday, January 15, 2010

In theater, patrons applaud to show their love. One of director Bob Henry’s patrons loved his plays so much she bought him a theater.

Years later, Henry’s former students formed a theater company so they could once again be those drama geeks known as “Bob’s kids.”

After 51 years of directing plays, 24 of those spent as the Everett High School drama instructor, Henry is retiring.

The proverbial curtain is dropping on a theatrical career that included bit parts in major films and 19 years as a commercial actor doing television ads, voice overs and modeling.

Then, yes, landing that one shot at fame: the lead in a TV series that got dropped after the first episode.

Now, at 85, what does Henry take away from such a stellar career?

“Riches, I guess.

“That would be the best word for it,” Henry said as he sat reflecting in his Everett home. “What a great life to be able to have.”

With the riches, however, came one haunting regret: He left the kids too soon.

Henry met his wife, June Condit, when both were 15 at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane. They married in 1945 and he studied English literature at the University of Washington. The couple bought a small houseboat and rowed across Portage Bay to class.

After graduation, Henry taught English in Montana and in Blaine. He was hired to teach English at Everett High School in 1955 and, in 1957, replaced the outgoing drama teacher.

When Henry started, there was one drama class. In four years, there were five. The popularity of the program grew in part, Henry said, because of the shows they did.

Henry’s first production was “The Curious Savage,” performed at the Civic Auditorium.

During the production of “Time Out for Ginger,” one of the Bortner twins, Tim or Jim, said to Mr. Henry: “Why don’t we bring the audience right up on stage with us” during the performance?

Henry adopted that stroke of genius, and for the next eight years, the audience sat in risers on the stage during Henry’s plays.

The students performed two shows a year, selecting classics such as “The Miracle Worker,” “You Can’t Take It With You,” “Harvey” and “The Teahouse of the August Moon.”

“Bob’s kids” gained a reputation for putting on top-drawer productions. Dorothy Baker, a school district administrator in the facilities department, was an East Coast transplant raised on Broadway shows. She championed the drama students, extolling their talents in the district newsletter and occasionally asking: “Isn’t it time this man had his own theater?”

Henry took a sabbatical to earn his master’s in drama. When he returned in 1966, Baker had bought the Lutheran Church at 2331 Hoyt Ave., for $75,000. Another $100,000 was invested for a stage and Everett High School’s Little Theater was born, Henry recalled.

“That was a dream come true,” he said.

All totaled, Henry directed 39 full-length shows at the high school, and for 15 years his students participated in statewide one-act competitions, earning state awards, Henry said.

“The kids loved it,” he said. “We were kids together.”

Some of those kids never forgot.

In one of the many letters Henry saved, former student Maggie Rowley wrote that getting the part of Wilhelmina in “Dracula” was angst-ridden.

“You made a comment during rehearsal one night. I was struggling with my lines. You said, ‘Don’t make me regret my decision.’

“I did not want to disappoint someone who believed in me. So I started believing in myself … to me, it was life-changing.”

In 1979, Henry walked away from those kids at the age of 55.

In a voice tinged with regret, Henry recalled that he was no longer able to do the big shows. He justified his early retirement with the allure of stardom. He shunned any ceremonial goodbyes.

“It was a grave mistake,” Henry said. “I missed the kids so much, and I should have stayed on. I just sneaked out the back door.”

What followed were 19 years acting in many community theater productions and lucrative jobs as a commercial talent.

Inside Henry’s thick portfolio are pages of Henry’s face framed in a variety of different disguises. In one shot, he’s a headhunter. In another, he’s a firefighter. In another, Norman Rockwell.

“I have a rubber face,” Henry said.

He modeled for clients such as Holland America, the Seattle Mariners and Children’s Hospital, and scored bit parts in two films, “Waiting for the Light” with Shirley MacLaine, and 30 seconds as a doorman in the “Fabulous Baker Boys” with Jeff Bridges and Beau Bridges.

But his big break came, and went, when he was cast as the lead in an NBC drama series about horse racing that never aired past the first episode.

“I got as far as Seattle on my way to Hollywood,” Henry said wistfully.

In 2003, about 200 of Henry’s former students organized an all-decades reunion held at the Little Theater.

That occasion spoke volumes about the impact this iconic drama coach had on his students. But what grew out of that reunion became the true tribute.

Some of the students formed the Reunion Theater Group. They could once again be “Bob’s kids” for another 10 shows.

“In high school he was a perfectionist, and he put us through the hoops,” said Janine Snavely, president of the Reunion Theater Group. “We put on a damn good show, and he knew we could do it.”

Henry’s last play as director for Reunion Theater was “Exit Laughing,” which closed Dec. 13. June joked that Henry, too, was exiting his career laughing.

Reunion Theater will go on, and the group is in the process of selecting its spring show.

“It was sad to see him go,” Snavely said. “But it’s time for him to watch what he created.”

Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424; goffredo@heraldnet.com.