No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on December 1, 2017

This is not one I was expecting to write. I expected that now Bob had retired that we were going to find that darn time when I got down to Atlanta to see Bob and Anita and catch up since they would have a little more free time from running Georgia Ensemble Theater. He was going to have more time with his grandchildren and his daughters.

Bob Farley was a theater person through and through. He loved the theater and lived the theater. He gave many of my friends’ opportunities that they might not have otherwise. He gave me a job at his theater that I really did love most of the time. He helped not only actors but directors, writers, designers, and the tech crew to become the best at their art form.

Bob came onto my radar when he took over as Artist Director at the Alliance Theater having established the Alaska Rep Theater. We ended up working together at Theatre Emory on a new Frank Manley play. We had a common experience that came from the Alliance that we would joke about over the years. He invited me to become his stage manager for this new theater he was starting called Georgia Ensemble Theater that was to be both a theater and an academy. His idea was to establish a place where when actors were not working on a show, they could be earning a paycheck teaching so they would have some consistent money coming in.

I spent four seasons as a member of Georgia Ensemble Theater. I was the stage manager on some truly wonderful work from the classics to new plays. I also taught puppetry in the conservatory. It was after the fourth season that Peter and I started dating and I moved up to New York and at the time long distance stage managing wasn’t a thing.

Through Bob I met his family. His wife Anita was the general manager of the theater. We became friends. I also met his two daughters Laurel and Heather. Both were involved one way or another with the theater. I taught both in the summer conservatory. I watched them mature into the lovely ladies that they are today.

And that is, as they will tell you, unusual in theater. We became a conservatory and big weird family at the same time. We had our in jokes and our own superstitions including the crew writing a phrase on every one the sets and I had to find it before the show closed. Our swear was the nonsensical phrase Sudder Fusty which came out of my bad handwriting.

I remember once Bob and I were butting heads over something and he stopped and said to me, “You know why I push you so hard? Because even if you don’t, I know you can do this job better than anyone.” That stopped the argument cold and gave me something to think about.

I remember during rehearsal for Servant of Two Masters, the actors were having a hëll of a time getting the choreography for a bit with the precise timing of opening and closing doors along with entrances and exits. I had what we did all written down as you do as a stage manager. I said following my lead and then pointed to people as they had to enter and exit. We finally got the monster up to speed and it was brilliant. We finished it and there was applause from the onlookers. Bob came over and put his hand on my shoulder and said quietly, “I knew you were good at this. This is why I hired you.”

And that was Bob. Always there encouraging or cajoling to get the performance he knew was there. He could be hard and he could be brusque but he knew what he wanted to see.

I know there are a lot of people who are processing today that there is now a Bob sized hole in our universe. I am still processing it.

Someone once asked me who was the first puppet I made of a person that I gave to the person. That would be Bob Farley and then I went and made a puppet of each of the family on their birthdays for a year. I remember when I gave it to him and he figured out that it was him. He gave me such a hug and thanked me for it. He was amazed that I had made it for him.

(For the VI: This is a photo of the Farley Family and their puppets. From left to right Bob Farley wearing a white baseball cap holding his puppet. He has the right hand of the puppet up like it is waving. Next is Heather with her puppet. Both have glasses. Next is Anita hiding behind her puppet. Next is Laurel smiling with her puppet. She has the arms set under the puppets chin)

Rest In Peace Bob. You were one of the good ones. I figure about this point you and Frank Manly have a new play half way up and running in heaven.

I am grateful that I could call Bob a friend.

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