SAYREVILLE – Students and staff at Sayreville War Memorial High School (SWMHS) recently prepared a production that was a longtime theater teacher’s final play.
The SWMHS Theatre Society presented Neil Simon’s “The Good Doctor” Nov. 3-4 at the school. The production was the final play directed by Michael Piccurrio who, according to the theater society, has worked at the school for four decades and directed 73 productions.
Also his first production at the school, “Dr. P.” saw “The Good Doctor” on Broadway shortly before beginning his career as Sayreville’s theater teacher and director.
“When I first came to SWMHS, my very first production was Neil Simon’s delightful comedy, ‘The Good Doctor’,” he said. “This play is Simon’s adaptations of a series of short stories by the Russian author Anton Chekhov. I love this play and decided to bookend my career at Sayreville by directing it as my final production as well.
“When I first saw ‘The Good Doctor’ on Broadway in the early 1970s, I was captivated by the stories, the humor and the emotional drama of the text. The cast was small; about five or six people doubled all the roles. When I did it, I expanded the cast to 23 people.”
In addition to having large casts in his productions, Piccuirro explained that he also sought plays that had opportunities for female students.
“I always look for larger casts and especially look for plays where I can cast a number of girls,” Piccuirro said. “Theater was traditionally written by and for men, and I always have four or five girls auditioning for a play for every boy, so I have always made it a point to champion women in the roles of my plays. That meant having some of the brothers in ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ be girls, as well as some of the bottle dancers in ‘Fiddler on The Roof.'”
Following the conclusion of the play, Piccurrio will retire from the Sayreville School District at the beginning of 2018. His retirement was honored by the Board of Education in July.
“After 42 years of teaching and directing theater, it is with bittersweet feelings to leave and move on to a new chapter in my life,” Piccuirro said. “I will forever be grateful to the Sayreville Board of Education for allowing me to have the best job in the world for the past four decades.”
He noted that although he has had a lengthy tenure in the high school’s theater program, teachers and directors have come before him.
“SWMHS has always had a rich history of having an amazing theater program, but I didn’t create it,” he said. “There were amazing theater teachers and directors before me such as Charlie Cunliffe and Patrick Arvonio. I just kept it going and have had the good fortune to direct the past 73 plays and musicals here at Sayreville. Some of the things I am most proud of, that I added to the program, was founding the Sayreville Second City Improv Troupe and establishing the student director program.”
“As Sayreville War Memorial High School’s longest running teacher, I would like to thank all of the wonderful and talented students that I have been so very blessed to teach, direct and mentor over the years, as well as the amazing faculty, administrators and staff,” Piccuirro said. “I came to this school as a young theater teacher and play director in his twenties, and am now leaving as an older, but young at heart, teacher and director in his sixties. In all the years that I’ve been teaching and directing, the bottom line was that it is all about the kids.
He said he “just knew” that the time was right to retire.
“The years have gone by for me,” he said. “My kids are now in their 30s and 40s and I am blessed with six grandchildren, with a seventh on the way. Life has been so very good to me. I have told my students that my definition of a good life is this: If you can wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work because you love your job, and at the end of the day, you look forward to going home because you love your home, that’s a good life. That’s the life I have been blessed with and that’s the life I wish for all my students. Karma has been so very kind to me.”
Contact Matthew Sockol at msockol@newspapermediagroup.com.
