Long Day's Journey Into Light

Dr. Sidney Berger and Jose Quintero

I first met the extraordinary director and teacher, Jose Quintero in the late fifties. He had then just directed Long Day's Journey Into Night on Broadway and was conducting a directing studio in a set of dingy rooms across the street from the theatre where that great O'Neill drama was playing. I performed a scene from Robert Anderson's Tea and Sympathy for the class, which was greeted with the typical scathing criticism of the young and inexperienced. Jose then asked how many were moved by the scene. Reluctantly, several hands went up, then some others until the entire class balefully acknowledged the work as emotionally effective. "That's all I want to know," he said and moved on to the next scene.

We were all at the feet of the man who was to be O'Neill's greatest interpreter, one of the prime founders of the off-Broadway movement with his production of Tennessee Willams' Summer and Smoke at the Circle in the Square and surely one of the masters of the contemporary theatre. At that same session, one of the students, thankfully not myself, asked what he thought was a critical question, "How do you direct Frederic March?" March was then, of course, starring in Long Day's Journey Into Night. "Well," Jose murmured, "I ask him to be a little louder on this word, a bit softer on this." Heresy! We were all disciples of the Actor's Studio, the Method, Stanislavsky! Jose, seeing the look of astonishment on our faces, replied, with a smile and infinite patience, "I don't have to teach Mr. March how to act. He already knows that."

I invited Jose to come teach for us some ten years ago. When he accepted my offer he said, "You were my student, now you're my boss." Of course, I would always be his student and, in fact, attended his classes every semester.

At his initial class meeting that first year, he placed the palm of his hand on the stage, caressing its surface lightly and said, "This is my church; this is where I worship."

He was a master director and a master teacher. But far more important to me was that he was my teacher and always would be. I cannot quite reconcile myself to the fact that this fall he will no longer stand at the foot of the stage and say, "This is my church..." But then, perhaps, he will always be there for those of us fortunate enough to have had him as a mentor.

As long as I direct and teach, Jose's spirit and brilliance will be there to guide me. I simply know that.

Jose Quintero's papers are housed in the library's Special Collections and will be displayed in an exhibit this fall.

Dr. Sidney Berger