Opinion: They Got Where They Were Going

A welcoming round of applause greeted Danny Glover and Roy Scheider as they stepped onto the Bay Street Theatre stage in Sag Harbor Saturday evening for a Hayground School benefit appearance. By the end of the show, however, the applause was as much for the people who helped make them the men who they are as it was for the performers themselves.

"Who's Gonna Be There?" a dramatic dialogue about mentors, was created by Mr. Glover, Mr. Scheider, and Belvie Rooks, who also directed the piece. Proceeds from the tickets, which started at $125, will go toward offsetting expenses at the fledgling Bridgehampton school. A dinner for contributors of $5,000 or more was held following the performance at Jayni and Chevy Chase's East Hampton house.

The Hayground School first opened for students in September in temporary quarters in the Bridgehampton Methodist Church. A permanent structure now is under construction on Mitchell's Lane in Bridgehampton. Fifty-five students signed up for the school's first year, ranging in age from 3 to 14 years. Two-thirds of the students are on full or partial tuition assistance.

Personal Stories

The spare set, on a black stage, consisting of two stools and two large easels, each supporting three rectangular, poster-sized boards whose flipsides would be revealed during the performance, helped focus attention on the actors. As befits an era in which introspection rules the day, the two men shared personal memories of the people who served as mentors in their lives.

Mr. Glover went first, describing his father, whose greatest gift to his child was a strong sense of identity. "He made me feel like a son," Mr. Glover remembered, "and this is something I am trying to pass on to my daughter - that she's my daughter." While he spoke, Mr. Scheider rose from his stool and turned one of the poster boards around. It held a black-and-white picture of Mr. Glover and his 5-foot, 2-inch father, dressed in shirtsleeves and ties, enjoying a smiling conversation. An audible sigh rose from the audience.

Carried With Care

Despite his small stature, the elder Mr. Glover would carry young Danny, then nearly as big as himself, on his back to Stanford Hospital from south Oakland in California on a series of bus rides to get treatment for his son's enlarged heart. "We'd ride one line to the end, then he'd put me on his back and carry me over to the next," Mr. Glover recalled.

Smiles were present in Mr. Scheider's first photograph as well; however, the picture was not of his father but of Friend Avery, the man who provided a sense of support and joy that Mr. Scheider said he never found in his own father. He recalled how he was able, in turn, to give Mr. Avery affection he was not able to show his father.

This early relationship, Mr. Scheider said, "helped validate me." The idea of validation resonated for Mr. Glover as well. "Validation is critical," he said.

In Second Grade

That he had worth in the world was a lesson Mr. Glover gained from the next person he described, one of his grade school teachers. He spoke about the difficulty he had in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia. His teacher saw that he was good at math and encouraged him in that area. Mr. Glover said that it was the first time in his life that he felt good at something in class. She also urged her students to be good citizens and taught them about responsibility.

Mr. Glover was appointed milk monitor, a job he described as a source of pride for a second-grader. He was also given his first theatrical role: one speaking line in an Easter pageant. But when the young Mr. Glover misbehaved and lost both the part and the monitor's job, he learned the meaning of responsibility. The actor said his punishment was was appropriate: "She's shadowed me all my life," he explained.

Key Professor

Mr. Scheider also had a teacher in his life that he considered a mentor, a college theater professor, Darryl Larsen, whom he fondly described as having "a grin like Jabba the Hut." From Professor Larsen, Mr. Scheider obtained "a good kind of arrogance" that helped him in a very difficult career later in life.

"Darryl was the first person who treated me like an adult," Mr. Scheider said. It had been planned that Mr. Scheider attend law school after obtaining his bachelor's degree, but near graduation he broke the news to his father that he would follow a different path.

"I'm an actor," he told his father, who replied simply, "You're a damn fool." Mr. Scheider then went to Professor Larsen's office, a cubicle off the university stage. "Darryl, do you think I can make a living as an actor?" Mr. Scheider recalled asking. "He launched into a long tirade about how I wasn't exceptionally tall, or handsome, or leading man material, and when he was done, I said, 'But do you think I can make a living?' and he said, 'Yes, I think you can make a living.' "

Mr. Scheider also described Harold Clurman, founder of the Group Theater, as a personal mentor and a mentor to American acting in general. Mr. Scheider's stage experience came to light as he walked through memories of early auditions, mimicking Mr. Clurman's accent and gestures.

For Mr. Glover, a most important mentor was Margie Wade, a friend and committed civil rights activist who introduced him, indirectly, to both his wife and the path his life would follow.

"I had a real anger inside about the things that were going on," he said, and "she helped me use these feelings in a positive way." At her urging, Mr. Glover became involved in a mentor project himself at a California university.

In The Spotlight

There he met Amiri Baraka (Leroy Jones), who gave him his first part in a play. During this period Mr. Glover discovered the work of Athol Fugard, who, he felt, "wrote just for me." "That's the good kind of arrogance I was talking about," Mr. Scheider interjected.

How appropriate that this discussion about mentors, the people who help young people develop and blossom, was created to benefit a school that is dedicated to a broad engagement of teachers, parents, and the community in students' lives.

At the evening's close, Mr. Avery and the elder Mr. Glover were invited onto the stage, major players in the lives of two impressive, inspirational, and generous actors and human beings. On Sunday, a special Mother's Day performance was presented for families in the area at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor.