Influential Teachers: Stage Manager
Posted on: March 19
Justin Schmidt ’88 offered this story about his teacher, friend and mentor Bob Farley:
I need to tell you about Bob Farley. I got to know him in 1984 when I volunteered to help with the stage lighting for a production of Snow White. He has been my friend and mentor ever since. We worked together on every play from then until I graduated, producing them in either the (then) Upper School courtyard or the old Metter's Gym. The week between Christmas and New Year’s 1987, he took a group of us kids to New York City where we saw nine shows in seven days and had a wonderful time seeing the Big City. He handed me my diploma when I graduated.
He is a big reason I pursued a degree in technical theatre at college and was a tremendous help and support in getting into Santa Clara University. We kept in touch the whole time I was away at school. In fact ,when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area in 1989, I called Bob and Carmen as an emergency contact because my parents were on the road, ironically coming down to the Santa Clara to visit me.
I returned to Spokane in the Fall of 1993 after graduating and working around the country, staying in touch with Bob the whole time. I took my grandmother to a Spokane Civic Theatre production of A Child's Christmas in Wales where I saw this beautiful young woman I didn't recognize on the stage. So later that week I called Bob and asked if he knew her. Well, yes indeed, he had done a show with her a year earlier. I then asked if he could introduce us. Of course he said yes, and that woman, Janean Jorgensen, is now sitting behind me typing on her laptop because we got married in 1998, five years after that introduction. By the way, Bob was the "stage manager" at our wedding.
I just talked with Bob yesterday to update him on what's happening with Spokane Children's Theatre, as Janean and I are both on the board of directors now and he is a past president. So regarding teachers and mentors from Saint George’s past, I think someone who has affected nearly every major aspect of my life would make a great example.
- Justin Schmidt '88