My heart skips
beats...the clock ticks erratically and nothing seems the same.
Our hearts were wounded upon hearing of the death of
Christopher Gaul. A beautiful man
inside and out. A gentleman, if such a
thing can exist in this day and age.
And a consummate actor....no, I should say chameleon who enchanted,
invigorated, annoyed, perplexed, and always engaged his audience. We will miss Christopher in so many
ways….ways that we cannot even imagine as we grieve his death today.
I first met Christopher just before he was to enter junior
high school…so he would have been about 12 years old. I was an ambitious college student who wanted
to think that I could actually make money in the summer teaching what I just
was taught in theatre to younger kids as my ‘summer job’. I had what was called “Diana’s School of
Theatre and Music” which was conducted for two summers at Grace United
Methodist Church in Morningside.
Christopher was one of the students that came into my life those
summers. I had written two musicals
(one for each of the summers) and cast Christopher as a Wad of Bubble Gum. That sounds insulting, but it wasn’t. I was amazed at his ability to BECOME a wad
of bubble gum. There was no doubt in my
mind what I was observing. As it turned
out, Christopher’s wad of gum genius would never be seen publicly as the role
of the King (the show was titled THE LITTLE PRINCESS WHO COULDN’T SMILE) became
available and I recast Christopher in that role. Even then his talents were so evident.
Christopher has been a very important part of the LAMB
family forever. I will always remember
his German Orchestral Conductor being interrogated by an American Captain
(Michael Vinson)in TAKING SIDES. Those
scenes were terrifying and so real….As real as scenes later in DIARY OF ANNE
FRANK (a show which I was fortunate to direct) where his Otto Frank dealt with
the harsh realities of living in hiding with his beloved family (Debra Marqusee,
Aubrey Sea, Emily Dorsett) and total strangers (Karen Sowienski, John Mangan,
Luke Saunders). Christopher was able to
morph himself physically, vocally and more important..he was able to
emotionally connect and completely embrace the essence of the character he was
portraying. In contrast to the
dramatic, he was just as comfortable and fluid with the comic and displayed his
spot on timing with the LAMB farce “team” of Karen Sowienski, Mary Madsen and
Michael Skaff. Farce couldn’t get any
better. Whether high drama or crazy farce to
heartwarming comedy (LEAVING IOWA with Debra Marqusee, Matt Rixner, Angela
Iversen, Melissa Hunt and Rick Myers) or musicals such as ANYTHING GOES (where
I was fortunate to play opposite him) or SWEENEY TODD (where we all learned how
low his singing voice could go as he enveloped the sinister Judge Turpin.),
Christopher was a joy to be onstage with, to direct, to just be around.
Our hearts go out to his beloved Cyle and to the rest of
Christopher’s family. His theatre
family will feel this huge hole for a long time. However, we can count ourselves lucky that
we were able to witness first hand the genius of Christopher Gaul. He was Sioux City’s Own and we all were the
fortunate beneficiaries.
CEO LAMB Arts Ltd
417 Market Street
Sioux City, IA 51103
712-293-0930
Keep current with LAMB--:www.lambtheatre.com
I am still unable to believe that one of the very best people I have ever known is no longer with us. Chris was such an amazing human being and a truly great friend. It is sad to know that we will never see him walk up on the stage and make us laugh, make us think, or make us cry. He gave every performance his best and made us believe in his words every time. I will miss laughing with him and recalling memories of theater and our crazy game nights. I am thankful to have shared the stage with Chris and have those memories recorded. My thoughts and prayers are with Kyle, Christopher's family, and his theater family. I will forever miss him. (To Chris...we did survive "Rumors".)
ReplyDeleteI am so very sad to hear of Chris' passing. I was only in one LAMB production with him, but that's all it took to make me aware of what a truly kind, sweet and talented soul he was. Performing next to him was an honor. The memory of his performance in Taking Sides still stirs my heart, and remembering his turn in Blithe Spirit still gets me giggling. I haven't been back to Sioux City in years, and it's heartbreaking to know I won't see him again. He will always be in my heart and my prayers, and I'll never forget all the wisdom and kindness he shared with me.
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