Theatre TJC’s upcoming spring musical, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” marks the end of an era for director and professor Dr. David W. Crawford, who will retire in May after 49 years.
The show runs 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, Feb. 18-22, in Jean Browne Theatre on the TJC central campus.
Crawford chose the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice rock opera as his swan song because, he said, “It had never been done on the TJC stage, and it was something I always wanted to do since it first came out in about 1970” — which, coincidentally, was around the time he arrived at TJC as a student.
A 1969 graduate of Chapel Hill High School, Crawford came to TJC for the same reasons as many college freshmen: it was close to home, and he was undecided on a major.
As an All-East Texas right guard, left tackle and kicker in high school, he entertained scholarship offers to play football at West Point, the Coast Guard Academy, the University of Houston and many Texas junior colleges.
“Even then, I knew that I would eventually get hurt, plus I wanted to be able to walk when I got older — so I decided against football,” he said. “And I figured if I was going to a junior college, I should come here. I could always talk a good game, so I fell in with the speech and theatre crowd and never played football again.”
His first role at TJC was as Topper in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” directed by revered professor Dr. Jean Speller Browne, the namesake of TJC’s Jean Browne Theatre.
“Dr. Browne held auditions the first week of school, we rehearsed for three months and then performed it at Christmastime,” he said. “When it was over, you had no idea what to do with your life, so you auditioned for the next play and started all over again.”
Such is an actor’s life, always on to the next role.
After graduating from TJC in 1971, Crawford continued his studies at then-North Texas State University in Denton and earned his bachelor’s degree in secondary education with a teaching field speech and drama.
His next stop was graduate school at Stephen F. Austin State University. “At SFA, I learned the technical aspects of scene design, lighting design and makeup,” he said. “I also had my first course in playwriting. I had always written little stories for fun in high school but never thought much about it. That interest resurfaced during that course, which introduced me to what I didn’t know about playwriting — which was everything.”
After teaching speech and drama for a year at Winnsboro High School and another year at then-East Texas Baptist College in Marshall, Crawford came home to TJC in 1976 at the request of his mentor, Dr. Jean Browne.
“Dr. Browne was an encourager, a builder, a cheerleader and a queen mother,” he said.
Over the course of several years, Crawford continued teaching at TJC while chipping away at his doctorate from Texas Tech in Lubbock, where he delved heavily into playwriting.
“I had my world turned upside down with form and structure of playwriting, drama, Aristotle, the six elements, the philosophy, aesthetics, the form and structure of drama as an art form — the whole thing just wasted me. Through those eight years, it changed me completely. I wrote my first full-length play, ‘Tangled Garden.’ We put it on at TJC in 1987, and my Texas Tech professor came to see it and passed me on it for my doctoral dissertation.”
TJC has also been a family affair for Crawford. His father attended TJC in 1939. He met his wife Toni when she was a student. Their three sons, Clint, Cody and Caden, are all TJC alumni who were active in the theatre scene.
In fact, his youngest son, Caden, is playing the role of Judas Iscariot in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
Even with retirement on the horizon and the requisite “lasts” that accompany it, Crawford remains pragmatic. “I grew up and grew old here; but I am enough of a realist to know that, in two years, the student body here will likely have no idea who I was,” he said.
“But the students who do remember me will take pieces of me with them. I see myself as having three blood sons, but the rest are also my children. The legacy is 49 years of students and any truths that I have passed on to them — anything that changed the way they thought or added to their lives or what they learned.
“It’s not about a gold watch or a plaque on the wall. It’s about how you played out your life.”
There’s no rocking chair in Crawford’s retirement plan just yet, but there are grandchildren to entertain and ski slopes to tackle — and a few more plays to write.
“I have a page of ideas I want to play with that I’ll probably never finish,” he said. “It’ll be a race to see how much I can get done.”
‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ details, cast and crew
Performances will be held 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, Feb. 18-22, in Jean Browne Theatre on the TJC central campus.
Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for seniors ages 65 and up, students and active military. The TJC Box Office hours are 3-6 p.m. weekdays. To purchase tickets online, go to TJC.UniversityTickets.com. For reservations, call 903-510-2212.
Theatre TJC’s spring musical, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” runs 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, Feb. 18-22, in Jean Browne Theatre on the TJC central campus. For tickets, go to TJC.UniversityTickets.com.
The cast includes: Caden Crawford, 2011 TJC alumnus, of Tyler, as Judas Iscariot; Kayden Loudermilk of Forney, as Jesus of Nazareth; Riley Thornburg of Melissa, as Satan Figure; Robert Boren, TJC music faculty, as King Herod; Samira Hutson of Houston, as Mary Magdalene; William Kinsel of Lindale, as Caiaphas; Preston Clark of Tyler, as Peter; Archer Schodowski of Tyler, as Pontius Pilate; Nathan Hill of Tyler, as Simon the Zealot; Stanford Smith of Houston, as Annas.
Ensemble members: Tristan Bowser of Tyler; Halle Dunn of Yucaipa, California; Abigail Gipson of Tyler; Kyler Littlejohn of Union Grove; Jay Stevens of Forney; and Bailey Thornburg of Melissa.
Orchestra: Jane Allen Millner, piano; Jabryn Carston, synthesizer; Caleb Fisher, TJC music faculty, guitar; Charles Praytor, bass; and Corey McCowan, drums.
Student crew and production staff: Kema Amine of Forney, stage manager; Riley Thornburg of Melissa and Abigail Gipson of Tyler, dance captains; Tuong Do of Forney, assistant director; Rey Marton of Athens and Jay Stevens of Forney, costume masters; Soda Walker of Tyler, Lexi Brines of Troup, Hallie Line of Whitehouse and Ash Fisher of Forney, dressers; Josh Ortiz of Lindale, head usher; Tuong Do of Forney; Soda Walker of Tyler and Hallie Line of Whitehouse, makeup and hair; and Amaya Perkins of Kaufman, sound.
Faculty production staff: Dr. David W. Crawford, production director; Robert Boren, music director; Lauri Davis, choreographer; Jacob L. Davis, lighting design; Denise Weatherly-Green, costume design, makeup and wigs; Ryan Stewart, scenic design; Ethan Beam, facility director and box office manager; Hilary Baltz, house manager; and Lara K. Smith, theatre department chair.
For more information on upcoming events, go to TJC.edu/CulturalArtsDistrict.