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Musical offers history lesson
archived from: 2009-10-12
by: Patricia Bartos

Play continues the celebration of St. Mary in Glenshaw’s 175 years

How better to share St. Mary of the Assumption Parish’s 175 years of history than by staging an original play?

And let’s also make it a musical, of course.

That was the thinking early this year as the Glenshaw parish planned another event in its year-long series of celebrations to mark the anniversary.

The parish will present its creation, a musical-historical play, “Neumann’s Dream Lives On,” on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m. in its new activity building at 2510 Middle Road.

It all started with the idea of a “little play, to build up the spirit of the parish,” said Father John Marcucci, pastor, and soon evolved into, “Let’s write a musical.” He was drawn into becoming a lyricist and playwright, working with parishioner Tom Politylo, director, and Bob Kardasz, the parish’s director of music ministries, as musical director and composer.

“It’s been tremendous,” Father Marcucci said of the experience.

The all-volunteer production drew on the parish’s drama club members, children in the parish school and CCD programs, cantors and other performers.

Politylo originated the idea of creating a play to tell the story.

Soon, Father Marcucci suggested adding music. And he and Politylo eventually created the play’s dialogue and the lyrics to 16 of the production’s 18 songs, set to music by Kardasz.

“His music is exceptional,” Father Marcucci said.

Politylo, now retired, worked in theater for much of his career, staging shows at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, Beverly Hills Playhouse, and radio and television productions, in addition to productions at St. Mary.

Seminarian Rob Fleckenstein, assigned to the parish, also has a background in theater and helped with the production. He plays St. John Neumann.

The production opens as immigrants from Germany and Ireland arrive to settle in the Pine Creek area. They enter singing “At the Post” and hymns from their native countries. Soon they’re building a log cabin church, establishing the fourth oldest parish in the diocese, while singing “Log Upon Log.”

They celebrate the fact that 10 parishes were to spring from that little structure, singing “Ten Around Us.”

The parish’s rich history continues through three acts, with four scenes in the first act, three in the second and four in the last.

And through 87 parts played by 53 performers, of whom seven are teens, 13 are younger children and 33 adults, 10 of whom are soloists, while 32 sing in the chorus and dance.

Dramatic action includes the arrival of St. John Neumann, who, because of his German background, stopped often to care for the spiritual needs of those early settlers as he traveled from the Redemptorists’ St. Philomena Parish in Pittsburgh’s Strip District to Philadelphia.

In the play, the missionary priest “dreams about what could happen on this mountain and it shows the reality of what did happen, suggesting this was his dream,” Father Marcucci said.

This is an all-volunteer and amateur production, with no great emphasis on costumes or design, he said. “The emphasis in on reliving our history.”

Politylo said the stage will feature a backdrop of digitized sets, including photos of the original log church, topographical maps from the early 1800s and today, and others locating the 10 churches that originated from St. Mary.

Politylo’s late mother, Alexandria, wrote the production’s other two songs — “Lonely Nights” and “Across the Miles” — years ago to honor parishioners’ efforts during the war years.

St. Mary’s cemetery holds the graves of 493 veterans and “we wanted to recognize them,” Politylo said. “It emphasizes that we owe everything to our forefathers.”

Several scenes feature parish children. In one, as they learn in class about Jesus dying and rising, the adults are shown outside planning the cemetery. They join in singing a song.

Working on such a large scale was “a lot more work than I expected,” Politylo said.

He praised the work of Kardasz. “Bob’s music is tremendous. He’s a genius when it comes to music.”

Kardasz said that, “As it went along, Father Marcucci kept coming up with more and more songs. It’s light-hearted and upbeat, covering the parish’s history all the way up to the present.”

Politylo added that, “Once we got rolling it stretched out for months. More importantly, people were having a lot of fun with it. It’s a nice way to commemorate the anniversary.”

Father Marcucci agreed. “It looks to me like all involved are enjoying it. We think this is the first time a parish has written its own play.”

The play ends by looking forward to an illustrious future for the parish of some 2.400 families, through the finale, “Sail on a Dream.”

Admission is free and all are welcome. And to continue the parish’s rich history, the production will be videotaped for future viewing.

The parish’s phone number is 412-486-4100 and its Web site is www.stmaryglenshaw.org.

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