Gratitude & Memories

I just recently learned that my high school drama teacher, Hilda Imhoff, died. She was 86 and still living in Baltimore. I had looked her up a few years ago when her husband had passed and knew she was at an assisted living home. One of the most important things she ever did was NOT cast me in the spring play during my freshman year at Friends School. Within my high school experience, theatre-making has an impressive legacy: Rob Berman & I graduated together, Michael Rhod was a senior my first year and is an absolute change agent doing good, deep applied theatre & community work (and his gifts as a listener and facilitator were already apparent as he made space for a super awkward 9th grader), and Kate Devore a Chicago based voice & speech coach all stayed in theatre. There are others too- Laura Smith, Dasha Snyder, as well as others who landed in TV & film production. Not everyone was a theatre kid those years, or intersected directly with Hilda, but our school definitely incubated something and she was a part of that.

Me “lost” on stage in the one-act festival

You Can’t Take It With You (I was one of the FBI agents at the end)

If my math is correct, Mrs. Imhoff was a few years younger than I am now when I graduated from high school. Because she lived around the corner from me in Bolton Hill, there were many Saturdays when she would give me a ride in to rehearsals.  I thought she was so wise, and witty, and patient. I mean… I was in HS when Cats won all the Tonys and everyone could sing (and dance) One from A Chorus Line. I can imagine that would get pretty old pretty quickly for any HS drama teacher in the ‘80s. Her love of theatre, words and Shakespeare was contagious. While I found my footing trying on a bunch of different roles backstage (and even a few small roles onstage), it was when she gave me the key to the attic costume storage that I found my place in theatre. Rob & I went back to Friends years ago to celebrate her retirement and I think that was the last time I saw her. As I think about the adults in my life (other than my amazing and supportive parents) who influenced me most, it is crystal clear why I landed where I am today.