Charles Gerard O'Connor

"Playwright and Evanston resident Charles Gerard O’Connor lost a life-long battle with depression and anxiety on Friday." (http://perform.ink/playwright-chuck-oconnor-dies/)  Wow. Tough to believe this charming fellow is no more.  I had the wonderful opportunity to work with Mr. O'Connor on an amazing production of the award winning play titled HOUSE FIRE at what was then known as the Performance Network in Ann Arbor, Michigan, back in 1992.  Chuck played my very over-active son in an absurdist presentation of a family struggling with what to do after their television was destroyed (along with their entire house) in a fire.  It was a very fun theater piece produced by the Serpent's Tooth Theatre Company.  In the show the family was born out of a oversized television screen to a song that announced the fact that their house had burnt to a cinder and nothing was left for them to understand.  Most of my early dialogue in the play questioned my son (Chuck) on what to do... To which his character deferred to the knowledge he had gained by watching PBS.  A wacky, brilliant play, all four family characters dressed in primary color body suits, with Kate Peckham, as my very young daughter drawing the "fire" event in her coloring book, the point of view, from which, the staged story was voiced.  Strange, fun, wacky, absurd.  Michael Geiger, and Kenn Peirson (Serpent's Tooth) were audaciously presenting a most peculiar reality.  The audiences that showed up really seemed to enjoy the show.  I remember one night a young Keegan Michael Keys showed up and I got to do my break-the-forth-wall bit to him and I swear he gave me a slight-bit more than a faux laugh.  Regardless, I ramble.  I met Mr. O'Conner as a fellow actor on this unusual show, and, after the struggle of preparing the show, we made it to

House Fire promo shot.  Chuck is the one in red.

mates.  Dudes.  Fellows.  After the show, I would bump into him at bars (usually after attending plays at the Attic) and he would bum smokes from me.  At the time I typically smoked my girlfriend's cigarettes because I was constantly trying to quit, and, she smoked Virginia Slims.  And so I'd lend him a smoke from my pack, which was my girlfriend's pack - Virginia Slims - and he would bust my chops for smoking "chicks" cigarettes, then, we would talk remote/removed theater stuff that didn't matter to anyone by Chuck and me...  And, of course, argue the less-than-fine points.  He was a good guy.  It is tough to believe he is no more.  My best to you fallen brother.  Tears to your family.