Capping a 64-year career, Larry Cervi directs Gateway's 'The Glass Menagerie'

Capping a career directing plays spanning 64 years, Larry Cervi helped put on “The Glass Menagerie” from Jan. 6-8 at Gateway High School.

Cervi, 86, had directed productions at local high schools since taking his first teaching job as a 22-year-old in 1958. For more than two decades, Cervi has served as an adjunct helping direct plays at Gateway.

“I’ve been doing musicals and plays there for, I think, 23 years,” Cervi said. “ At my age, this is the time to hang it up. This is my last play. And the musical, once we decide what it is, will be the last musical I direct there.”

Hoping to walk away with a work he finds special, Cervi chose the memory play from Tennessee Williams.

The protagonist, Tom, serves as a somewhat autobiographical stand-in for Williams. Tom, aspiring to be a poet, works at a shoe department to support his family, which includes a disabled sister, at the height of the Great Depression.

“If I was going to direct, I wanted something that had substance,” Cervi said. “Something that was a classic. “The Glass Menagerie” is that. It’s been done, first of all, on Broadway many times, and universities all over the place. I don’t know how many high schools do it.”

The play also serves as a farewell for the male lead, Heath Chase, a 17-year-old Gateway senior. Through the covid-19 pandemic, Chase has worked with a monologue coach to send clips to colleges. There is no intention to send recordings of this play because he would like to keep the performance personal.

“For me, you have to sympathize with my character of Tom wanting change,” Chase said. “I’m at the point of my life where I’m going to college next year. That’s going to be a pretty significant change. So, I can see where he’s wanting this change and is expecting it, but at the same time, change is something that is scary and can be negative.”

Kylie Edwards played Amanda, Tom’s mother. Becca Whealdon and Matthew Alexander filled out the rest of the cast.

Chase, hoping to transition into television or film acting, has interest in attending several universities, including Seton Hill, Northern Illinois and Pace. Before moving on, he thought of what it might be like to leave Gateway with “The Glass Menagerie” serving as one final play.

“It’s probably going to be quite difficult, to be honest,” Chase said. “As hard as it’s been, it’s still going to be an experience that I care about. These difficult hours, late nights at the high school on the stage, running lines, working on memorizing, it’s something special that I get to share with my peers for one final time.”

Cervi said, “I’ve been working at various high schools, mainly at Churchill Area High School, which is now Woodland Hills,” Cervi said. “I started a drama department there. Not many high schools have drama departments, but I convinced the principal that if I was going to be doing plays, I wanted to start a drama department. So, it was one of the few high schools that had a drama department.

“Now, we have CAPA (Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts) and Westinghouse Academy. We have these performing arts high schools. Back then, in the ’60s, there were no schools like this.”