By Clark Nicholson
David Newhouse, who passed away March 4, was a most admired journalist and newspaper professional, as well attested by the fact that he received the Pulitzer Prize for his work.
The impact he made on the Central PA region, as well as the world, is immeasurable. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you stories of his other work: that of the theatre.
I first came to know David, his first wife Katharine, and their lovely daughters, when his youngest child, Magdalena enrolled in classes at Gamut Theatre.
It was evident to all of us at Gamut that the Newhouses were champions of the work of the stage. They were so invested, not only in the development of their children, but in the perpetuation of live performance in their adopted community of Harrisburg. I’ll never forget when Katharine invited me to Mechanicsburg Little Theater to watch David in the energetic and silly farce, “A Tuna Christmas.”
In the Tuna plays, two actors are called upon to play all the citizens of the fictional town of Tuna, Texas. Knowing the script, I was prepared to be amused. I was not prepared to be amazed. For the next hour and a half, I witnessed this man, in a flurry of silly creation, embody a country music DJ, a faith healing preacher, a malevolent grandmother, and many others.
And, as I watched, I thought, “Wow. This guy isn’t just good . . . He’s better than me.” As a producer and director of professional theatre, this realization didn’t inspire jealousy; it made me know that I had to work with this fellow.
David Newhouse, who led The Patriot-News and PennLive to a Pulitzer Prize, died Thursday, March 4, 2021.
And, work together we did, in so many different shows. Our first was my company, Gamut Theatre’s, Free Shakespeare in the Park production of Shakespeare’s “Henry V.”
David and I got to know one another during this particularly challenging production. It was conceived in a Suzuki style, a Japanese production aesthetic that demands extreme mental and physical focus and concentration.
None of the cast ever left the stage, and when onstage, were called upon to sit perfectly still. My “home base” was a stool directly to David’s left, and over the course of a month of rehearsal and another month of production, David and I logged many, many hours of total stillness. Like crafty kids in the back of the class, he found we could talk to one another, ventriloquist-like, and comment on what was going on how we were holding up under the physical demands of the rigorous Suzuki style. Just like a couple of kids, we could also try to crack one another up and get each other in trouble.
David Newhouse, was both an actor and a patron of the arts. He died March 4.
David was a pro, but he was also a pal, and this approach was essential to getting the two of us to the other side of this hot, regimented, demanding production. The experience made us friends. David found out that I had a great interest in formal training in Improv Comedy. I told him that I wanted to study at the Upright Citizens Brigade in Manhattan, but had no idea how I might be able to afford lodging in addition to tuition.
To my great surprise, he told me at the very next rehearsal that he had arranged for me to stay for a month in New York. I was floored. This was an unbelievable generosity, the likes of which I had seldom experienced in my life. I eagerly thanked him, and went off to my training.
When I returned, I brought back the knowledge and training that the Newhouses had allowed me to gain through their generosity. And, because of this, our in-house Improv Ensemble, TMI, was born, and flourishes in Harrisburg to this very day. Later, Gamut was mounting our production of George Herman’s “A Company of Wayward Saints”, a modern fable about a dysfunctional Italian Commedia D’el Arte theatre company.
I cast David as Harlequin, the beleaguered, earnest, frenetic leader of the troupe, a character that I have often identified with throughout my professional life. David and I had long conversations about building this character: about the difficult balance of being a leader, and the head clown, both at once.
David Newhouse, who led PennLive & The Patriot-News as chief editor for many years, died on March 4. He performed in many plays in the Harrisburg area.
I have often found that my job, as Artistic Director of Gamut, is exactly this sort of seemingly opposed dynamic. David took what I said, added his own experiences as a leader in the newspaper business, and came up with exactly the right combination of gravitas and scamp. I always felt that his embodiment of this role was a sort of gift to me, and I am forever grateful.
Eventually, David would also play the title role as the mad king in Shakespeare’s “Richard III”, directed by our own Jeremy Garrett. I took a break during this production, but watched it, as so many others did, and marveled at how such a good and decent man could come to play such a corrupt and malign figure. But, David played the part with glee.
Every actor loves to play a good villain, and David loved it and, onstage, lived it. I will also never forget sharing the stage with David in Gamut’s Stage Door Ensemble Production of “Dracula.” I played the vampire hunter Van Helsing, and David played the Count’s maniacal acolyte, Renfield.
David did a great job, but what sticks in my mind about this production is that, when he was onstage, he was Renfield, but when he was offstage, something of great weight seemed to burden him.
The next month. the Penn State/ Sandusky scandal broke, for which David and the Patriot would receive the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. During this, David had been the consummate professional at both of his jobs. My final stage memory of David is the fondest and the most resonant. Local director Dan Burke was hired by Gamut to direct Ronald Harwood’s play about a tattered Shakespeare company in Blitz era England, “The Dresser.” I had long been a fan of the film version starring Albert Finney and Tom Courtney, and, as it turned out, so was David.
David Newhouse, who died March 4, was both a dedicated journalist and an accomplished local actor.
I was to play the senile and desperate leader of the company, known only as “Sir”, and David was to embody the part of Norman, Sir’s long-standing dresser and personal assistant. The story is a varied and subtle one, highlighting the cruelty and odd comradery between a tyrannical company leader, and his often-unappreciated assistant.
David and I threw ourselves into these parts, dissecting the many layers of alternately loving and borderline abusive co-dependent relationships. The play was, by turns, hilarious and heart wrenching, ending with the death of my character, “Sir.”
As I lay still after my “passing” each night, he would lament my death, and cry, giving the wrenching final line “I had a friend.” It was all I could do to keep from tearing up myself as I lay under my sheet, centerstage, mourned by my friend.
That’s how I remember him, a pillar of the community with a mischievous child hiding behind his eyes, an award-winning journalist who told jokes through clenched teeth to crack me up and get us both in trouble. He was all those things, and more.
And, finally, he was a patron and a practitioner. His gift to me, my endeavors, and the entire Central PA region was this: 6 years ago, when my wife, Gamut Executive Director Melissa Nicholson and I set out to raise funds for the purchase of the new Gamut Theatre at 15 North 4th Street in Harrisburg. The first donors and supporters of that endeavor were our friends Nicholas Hughes and the dearly departed Ellen Hughes, and Katharine Newhouse and David. They gave the first gifts that continue ‘til this day.
That’s David. “I had a friend.”
Clark Nicholson is founder and artistic director of The Gamut Theatre Group.