Going through a box of keepsakes a few weeks ago, I found a picture from the mid-1990s: The actor Jeff Norton and the sometime actor, Paul Wilborn, posing in costumes that are a little bit Shakespeare and a lot more like 1950s sci-fi spacemen.
We were doing “Return To the Forbidden Planet” at the Jaeb Theater. Rosemary Orlando, Jeff’s one-time girlfriend and lifetime friend, was the director. Every night, to restart the show after intermission, Jeff and I stood on opposite platforms on the space ship set and improvised jokes about the show and the audience.
With Jeff, it was effortless and easy. He loved to riff and take his character into ever stranger places. The audience loved it and the high-wire improvisation got me charged up every night.
And I was comfortable playing on stage with Jeff, who had been a friend and beer-drinking buddy since we first appeared together in the Alice People’s big production of “Cabaret” in the early 1980s.
Jeff was the real deal. An actor’s actor. A guy with impeccable comic timing and a face and body that contorted into whatever shape he wished. He worked for everyone for over 20 years. For many springs, he starred in American Stage’s Shakespeare in the park productions in one comic role or another.
I moved away and we lost touch for a while. But in my second year at the Palladium, we revived Bill Leavengood and Lee Ahlin’s musical – “Webb’s City.” Jeff played newspaperman Nelson Poynter. We laughed a lot during rehearsals and caught up, standing outside the stage door while Jeff finished a cigarette.
He was working at Shorecrest in St. Pete and life seemed good and stable. With a lot of younger actors on stage for “Webb’s City,” Jeff was a steadying force and, of course, memorable in all his scenes. It turned out to be his last professional gig.
Most of us still can’t quite come to grips with how his life ended. A senseless murder – now, over a year ago. I still expect to see Jeff at our stage door. Or running up to my car when I pull into the parking lot at Shorecrest.
Monday night at the Palladium, the theater community will honor my old friend with an event that bears his name. It’s fitting that the event will take place on the stage where he made his final entrance. And that the awards for local actors will be named after one of our very best.
Hope to see you there.
1 comment
Fantastic memories. Thanks for sharing them Paul. I saw that production of “Return to the Forbidden Planet”. I laughed so hard! It is true. Any moment I expect Jeff to come around the corner smiling.