Teacher enters fourth decade directing shows
A good teacher only gets better with time, drama director says
BY MARLENE CANTY
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Sayreville High School drama director Dr. Michael Piccuirro jokes about a light across the stage with some students during Monday's class.

SAYREVILLE - For Sayreville War Memorial High School drama director Dr. Michael A. Piccuirro, the play has been the thing for over 31 years.

Fueled by a love of the concept of theatrical drama and the accompanying conflict, climax and resolution, Piccuirro has directed over 50 plays, most of them classics and nearly all Shakespearean, during his tenure at Sayreville. The plays range in tone and depth from the shrillness of "Macbeth" to the robust celebration of love and life in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

This year he will begin his fourth decade as drama coach with Sayreville's production of "The Taming of the Shrew."

"The wonderful thing about the arts is that there is more material there than you could ever explore in a lifetime," said the 52-year-old theater arts adviser, whose natural love of theater has only been enhanced by his discovery of the phenomenal talent of his students.

Dr. Michael Piccuirro, a Shakespeare devotee, talks about his lengthy career.

"There must be something in the water here. Of all the places I've taught, directed or advised, Sayreville has had some of the most gifted students I've ever worked with," said the proud teacher, who is at times himself a thespian. Some of his other directing venues include Glassboro, Montclair, Kean and Drew universities.

A founding member of Sayreville's Main Street Theatre Company, which he helped ex-students start, "Dr. P," as he is called by friends and colleagues, has directed productions of "Annie," "Fiddler on the Roof," "The Odd Couple," "George M" and "A Chorus Line."

Some of his favorite Shakespeare plays include "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet," "King Lear" and "Measure for Measure."

A forward thinker, he is already planning next year's production, which he said will be based on an adaptation of "Cyrano."

In addition to the classics and spring musicals, Dr. P, always looking for local talent, produces an evening of student-directed one-act plays each year, and is adviser to the Sayreville 2nd City Improv Troupe, which performs at special school events and programs geared to drug and alcohol awareness.

His approach to theater involves entirely student-run productions, including a student stage manager, crew and director. Sayreville seniors are even in charge of casting.

"The main reason our productions work so well is because I am really directing a team, not a play," Dr. P said. In addition to the students, that team includes other faculty who have been invaluable to the productions.

James Craft is the technical director in charge of the stage, light and sound crews; Gordon Inverno Jr., an experienced director in his own right, is both business manager and in charge of publicity; Carolyn Corvino, an art teacher, does stage design; Heather Walsh, home economics teacher, is costume designer; Jackie Farrell, math teacher and a Sayreville graduate, runs the make-up crew; and Eric Picklo, the shop teacher, is the master carpenter in charge of set construction.

"We've been blessed with a talented group," Dr. P. said.

Far from thoughts of retirement, Dr. P. said teaching is a cumulative activity.

"The more you do it, the more accumulated knowledge you acquire," he said.

He deems himself fortunate to be working in a field he enjoys so thoroughly that if he weren't teaching, he'd be pursuing it as a hobby.

A graduate of Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), Dr. P started out as a theater major but switched to psychology, later changing majors again to communications when he was given the opportunity to broadcast his own weekly radio show on theater.

Today, with master's degrees in both theater and counseling, and a doctorate in Shakespearean studies, Dr. P feels the disciplines of theater and psychology go hand in hand.

"A good counselor is like a good director: neither tells you what to do, but both use techniques for helping you find a way or a path that's comfortable for you," he said.

Once actors find that path, they are no longer acting - on some level, they have actually become the character, he said.

Dr. P's advice for aspiring actors in learning their craft - and his "biggest homework" assignment - is telling actors to go out and live a full life and to become acute observers of situations and of the individuals they meet. He believes it is those observations and experiences that help to give an actor's performance a sense of authenticity.

And who are his favorite actors?

"Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman, Nathan Lane - actors who, though established in movies, go back to the theater and put in the time, effort and hard work it involves to put their skills on view, live, for a younger generation to see," Piccuirro said.

"Acting is a tough profession," Dr. P said, noting that most true actors persist in their profession even though the large majority never make it and many live in poverty.

"I never tell anybody to pursue that profession, but a true actor can't be discouraged, because it's the focal point of their life."

Dr. P has alumni that have gone on to starring roles in community theater and college productions, and he says he has one student who has even started his own theater company.

Watching Dr. P rehearse with students, it is no wonder he chose a life in the theater. His techniques of loosening up students and getting them to shed inhibitions through theater "games" brings out the inner child of everyone in the room.

"That's what theater is," Dr. P said. "It's playing and using your imagination the same way you did as a child."

Piccuirro also finds ways to form bonds of trust between his actors so they will learn to trust one another on stage and work as a unit. One of those exercises, "trust falls," in which an individual falls backward, relying on co-players to catch him, has been a tried-and-true technique that he says has never failed to help create those important bonds.

The technique is the product of the interplay between his experience as a counselor and as a theater sage.

"Maybe it's got something to do with the magic of theater, but the exercise seems to work. In all my years as a teacher, I've never known one single instance when fellow actors let a student fall," Dr. P said.

"The Taming of the Shrew" will be presented Nov. 17-18 at 7 p.m. For ticket information call Gordon Inverno at (732) 525-5251.