Riders to the Sea

By Frank

Anger is not something I would normally associate with my sister but I remember the time she was hotter than a tea kettle. The year was 1967. Pat loved the theater and she longed to be a director. Her opportunity came when I reached 9^th grade. St. Casmir had a teen club and my sister became an advisor to that teen club. The teen club sponsored a few dances during the year and took some field trips but Pat introduced the idea of a play. 

Her first foray into directing a play with the teen club was You Can’t Take It With You followed by And Never Been Kissed the next year. Both comedies were fun for all involved. After the second production the CYO in the archdiocese of New York sponsored a one act play contest. Pat was all over that.
She chose the tragedy Riders to the Sea. It’s a sad tale of an Irish family whose sons and brothers try to make a living fishing. Each in turn drowns. It was a great play and our cast was first rate as were the costumes and the set--my dad had something to do with that.  Its main competition was a comedy called Dismas Did It. Dismas is the patron saint of thieves or so the description will lead you to believe. This really wasn’t competition. They had no set to speak of just some tables and chairs from a church hall. The costumes were street clothes and Pat was very, very confident in her production.

Unfortunately, the judges didn’t see it her way. Dismas stole the prize.  I guess one could call that irony. Oh, she was hot. She didn’t see the irony, well maybe she did but she vowed to produce a winner next year that would blow them all away!  Marriage and a move to Barstow, CA got in the way of those plans. I know her marriage and family came first after 12/2/67 but can’t help thinking she might have really liked to have had another whack at Dismas.