It’s been quite a while since I wrote an entry here. It
isn’t like I have abandoned this blog – it just appears that way. To be honest,
I have been pretty busy. Some of those activities will be fodder for future
entries. This one is a bit more serious, since it is a memorial.
Most don’t memorialize someone they have only known for a
couple of months. This is especially true if one met the recently departed
through a hobby. However, this is the case here.
After directing high school musicals as part of my job, I
decided to audition for a community theatre production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. I auditioned for and was offered the
part of Maurice, Belle’s father. This was the perfect part for me, since my
character sings solo on a beautiful song early in the show; my character was a
good guy (though a bit eccentric); and my role called for me hugging a pretty
girl four times a night. Sweet!
It was during rehearsals that I first met Jared, who played
the role of Beast. Jared was a young man who proudly proclaimed that he has
seven kids! He really didn’t look old enough to have that many children. He and
his wife had four children, two boys and two girls. They also had three foster
children. He talked about his family a lot, so I felt that I knew them before I
ever met them.
Two of Jared’s daughters wanted to be in the show and
auditioned for parts. The girls were the ones that asked daddy to try out for a
role with them, which he reluctantly did. Jared had been in musicals back in
high school, but that was back in 2001. To me, 2001 wasn’t that long ago. However,
Jared’s arm had been twisted, and he auditioned. His singing and acting talents
earned him one of the lead roles, that of Beast.
Early in the show, Maurice is terrorized by Beast. This was
kind of funny during rehearsals, since I was several inches taller than Jared.
Still, Maurice is sitting in a chair as Beast, in full costume with menacing
claw held high, growls, “I’ll give you a place to stay!” During the show’s eight performance run, we
were both back stage following this scene. Once, Jared apologized if he had
inadvertently spit on me during the scene. “I drank Gatorade before I came on
stage.” he said. It was important that
he kept hydrated during the show, since he was wearing 20 pounds of heavy
costume during the show. Jared also had to change clothes while wearing the
base of padded fur. He sweated a lot! He would apologize if he missed a line,
but the few times that happened we kept going without missing a beat.
During rehearsals, Jared would pull Maurice from the dungeon
cell after Belle volunteers to trade places with Maurice as Beast’s prisoner. Once,
as Jared pulled me from the cell, which was located in a small area under a
flight of steps, I whacked my head on the stringer. He was appalled and
apologized profusely. He later asked that the caryatids pull me from the cell
so he wouldn’t accidentally cause injury during a performance.
I really got to know Jared during the performances. We would
talk backstage between scenes. He sometimes shared some pretty personal
information. Jared had served two tours of Iraq during his time in the US
Army. In one conversation, Jared mentioned that he lost 47 men during his
service. This clearly haunted him. Another time, we were discussing pregnancies.
I don’t recall how we drifted to that particular subject, but somehow we did.
Jared mentioned that he knew of enlisted females who would deliberately become
pregnant to avoid deployment to Iraq
and Afghanistan .
When Jared discovered he was going to be deployed for his
second tour, he decided to audition for one of the Army choruses instead. He
was accepted. However, one of the women in his unit during his first stint in Iraq begged him
to deploy with her again, since he was the only current member of the unit she
knew. Jared finally relented, forgoing his new career in the chorus, and deployed
with his friend to Iraq .
It was discovered in less than a month of their deployment that the young lady
was pregnant, so she was sent stateside. Meanwhile, Jared spent the next 15
months in Iraq .
Despite his war experiences, Jared was a fun-loving guy.
Cast members who were not on stage during the big production numbers sang
offstage to help reinforce the sound. On “Be Our Guest,” several of us were
backstage, directly under the orchestra, singing our parts. Jared was always very
animated during these backstage scenes, usually performing the same as those
onstage, even though he was wearing that heavy costume. There was one section
in the song where the ladies sing harmony backups to the gentlemen singing the
melody. We referred to these as the “ba-da-bup-bahs” since those are the lyrics
they were singing. Jared would join in with the women, singing falsetto –
pretty well I might add.
At the end of Act I, Jared’s character has a big song
lamenting his misfortune wooing Belle. He often stressed himself out before the
song, so sometimes things would go slightly awry. After the curtain closed,
Jared would go up to the orchestra and thank them for saving him. Really, Jared
was just like that. He was always appreciative of anything someone did for him.
A few weeks after Beauty and the Beast closed, I ran into
Jared at a local high school musical. We talked during intermission. Later, I
posted some glowing comments about the high school show I had seen. Jared
posted that he agreed, and that it was great to see me again. I replied ditto.
That was the last time I heard from Jared.
A couple of Saturdays ago, Jared collapsed at his home. He
was unresponsive, but breathing. The local EMS
took him to the local hospital. From there, he was lifeflighted to another
hospital. His blood pressure was critically high – as much as 212/150. A CT scan revealed
a brain bleed. His treatment for the final days of his life consisted of trying
to stop the brain bleed and keep his blood pressure under control. Jared was declared
brain dead the day after a last ditch brain surgery. It was also one day after
his 10th wedding anniversary, which he spent sedated in ICU with his
distraught wife at his bedside. Jared was an organ donor, so eight other families
will have a loved one live because of him. Jared was just 33 years old.
You didn’t have to know Jared long to become his friend.
Some people are just like that. Yesterday was his funeral. The overflow crowd
at the funeral home spilled out into the foyer.
It was an honor for the Beauty and the Beast cast to sing at
his funeral. Our cast still considers itself to be a family. As family members,
we were all there to say goodbye.
