The letter from Michael and Lillian Andron

Dear Thespians, Alumni, and Beloved Parents (past and present),
It is with sadness (and as you’ll soon see excitement) that I compose this letter to tell all of you that Lillian and I are leaving Hillel. Don’t worry! There will be an easy way to continue doing theatre with us in a new and expanded way. Before I describe what lies before us, let me muse for a minute about the past… a post mortem like we do at the end of one show so we can move on to the next.
Just look at what we’ve done together! All of us! I am so proud of every actor, techie, parent volunteer and participant for the last twenty years. Fifty shows that touched every genre possible: Shylock, Les Misérables, Joseph/Dreamcoat, John Lennon and Me, Flowers for Algernon, Noises Off, Ballyhoo, Gamma Rays… and the list goes on and on. Just the tech alone: for Les Misérables: 75 set changes, 300 light cues; for Joseph, an uncountable series of costume changes; For Beauty and the Beast, even more changes… and more complicated, too. There’s no end to the great theatre that all of us created.
And we worked like a family to do it. Lillian and I have kvelled as we have seen high school students mentoring the elementary and middle school kids, or to see those same high school students being mentored by alumni and adult volunteers and performers. That inter-generational camaraderie – students, alumni, parents and faculty working together as a collaborative family to produce a work of art – has been a unique feature of our program and a personal source of joy for me.
Did it hurt your academics? Hey, almost every Silver Knight Honorable Mention to date (and our first winner, this year) was a Thespian. Almost every year, we had at least one Thespian speak at graduation as valedictorian, salutatorian, or class president. We produced the Number One Techie in the country as determined by the International Thespian Society. HCT has always had a large percentage of the “top ten” kids in academics, proving once again how right-brain stimulation enhances left-brain accomplishment, producing a more balanced human being.
Did it affect your personal growth as people and as Jews? No doubt! So many of you showed such amazing growth in absorbing HCT key lessons such as noblesse oblige, pro-active thinking on your feet, esprit de corps, self-esteem, true confidence from within and Torah centeredness. For twenty years, we have shared our lives with so many hundreds of young Jewish students and tried to ignite creative, spiritual sparks. I’m proud of our Judaic successes; so many of you were brought closer to your Yiddishkeit through this program. The classes in Jewish meditation and kavana were often a highlight of your days and mine.
We are equally proud of some of the fabulous theatre art that inspired dozens of budding careers in acting, directing, producing, the writing of plays and films, movie making, and technical theatre that all began on the Hillel stage.
But the nature of all things is “change” and for a variety of reasons, we both feel that now is the time. So with great excitement let me tell you that Lillian and I are accepting the positions as Artistic Director and Managing Director of J-CAT: The Jewish Cultural Arts Center (just a working title… maybe we should have a naming contest… hmm) located just 100 yards away from Hillel at the MAR-JCC!
So here’s the plan (still developing) of what’s going to happen:
We will be creating a mini-Black Box Theatre that will challenge actors and tech alike in new ways. (@120 seats).
We will be doing the same pre-announced four shows this year (although the musical may change because of the change in venue). Yes, competition may be tougher because students from other schools will be auditioning… but your training and experience and preparation should stand you in good stead.
The cast of The Good Doctor remains the same! Its opening night will be even more special because it will help kick off the fund-raising drive for the new Cultural Arts Center that is going to be built in the next few years. And we hope there will be extra performances. We will have after-school classes available with Lillian in acting for both Middle and High School.
We will be Re-introducing and overseeing the Summer Stock Camp program startingnext year. Some of you younger ones may want to be in it… some older ones maywant to be counselors (open to actors and tech).
What about the Thespian trips? We will be conducting theatre trips to New York or London (for teens, for adults, for families). Modeled after our famed Hillel Thespian trips, these include our seeing shows, having workshops, having talkbacks with actors, directors and designers… and sight-seeing when there are a few minutes left over.
Hillel Thespian Alumni! You’ll be welcomed back to audition for all plays (or for Tech) as will those who have gone to Krop and other schools…. we look forward to seeing you as more than just audience. We will be developing a Professional Repertory Company, a group of actors who will be working on both serious, comic and children’s theatre. And they’ll even be getting paid!
Rehearsal schedules will be somewhat different (easier for some… tougher for others) as will some participation fees (which can be handled, as in the past, by selling ads). All in all, we’ll still be doing excellent theatre as we swap one “empty space” for another.
The end-of-summer Shabbaton (Larry Silverberg’s Teen Actor Master Class, with this world-renowned teacher of Meisner Acting Method) will still take place but will no longer be sponsored by Hillel but by Kodesh. We are expanding its scope initially to include alumni of the last 3 years. Those interested must contact me immediately! Older alumni who are interested should contact me as well. (Those already registered who wrote their checks to Hillel… call me, or have your parents contact me.) This will be an amazing 2-day Shabbat-Sunday experience.
Please feel free to call us with any questions, but please don’t ask us WHY. The only explanation I can give you is better said with this wonderful quote: ‘whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should’.
Both Lillian and I want to thank you all: parents, students, alumni, friends and all the Hillel administrations throughout our history that have created a home for the HCT. You have enriched our lives so much over the last 20 years; we hoped we have touched yours. But this is not an end… it’s just a beginning.
We’ve raised the Hillel Bar as far as we can take it. You all made that happen and nothing will ever change that. Now with this transitional studio-theatre (and the amazing one still in architect’s blueprints… and it is amazing) the greatest age of our theatre work is yet to come. Be a part of the adventure.
We love you all.
Michael and Lillian