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Theatre arts had drawn him as a young man. He saw, among many others, the original production of West Side Story during its first weeks on Broadway. "The music was new, the performance was electrifying," he recalls. Like much ofthe theatre of the late fifties and early sixties in New York, it drew him and convinced him that he wanted to learn this craft and art.
At the same time his love for poetry and the writing of it also grew.
Yet, despite his interest in and talents for theatre, teaching, administration, and poetry, the religious life called him, as it had from his high school years. He answered "Yes!" And he answered "yes" to the call he felt from the Vincentians, perhaps because he went to St. John's, one of their universities, and admired so many of the Vincentians he encountered there.
What happened next surprised him. In the seminary he learned much about prayer, about the many ways to pray alone and in the middle of things. Useful lessons, these, because soon his order asked him to continue his education, to teach, and to continue theatre work. He was first of the brothers in the Congregation of the Mission in the United States to teach.
"In general," he says of his life, "it's almost too good to be true!"
After more than thirty years at Niagara University, where he serves as Professor of Theatre Studies and Fine Arts and Director of the University Theatre, teaching teaching remains "one of the most important things to me. I always wish I were better at it, because it is gratifying to reach more students."
He also reaches students by his work with many student casts. Memorably, a student production of King Lear allowed him to collaborate with a director from the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has also directed widely and has written plays. His own acting "ebbed away," he notes, "but that's okay. Other doors opened." Indeed, the doors that friends such as Jack Gilford, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Charles Strouse, and other theatre notables have opened.
Volumes of his poetry have been published and a poetry reading has been released on compact disc, Waiting for Snow in Lewiston. "Life as a poet is scattered," he observes. "Poetry wants time to write. I write very much when I am inspired to, often beginning the process of a poem at one sitting."
Call him "Bro," as his students, associates and many friends do. His life has taken "a circuitous route in a certain sense," he explains. Still, "life developed wonderfully."
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