Wednesday, June 5, 2002

Family shares lifelong love of arts

By JANET McGREGOR
snippets@bellsouth.net

Walk into the home and lives of the Steadmans and you'll find yourself immersed in a world filled with music, arts and theater. Between the four members of the artistic family are more musical instruments and college degrees than you might expect to find in a school. And there are more degrees to be added. And more instruments.

Bill and Susan Steadman, along with their two children 25-year-old Jeremy and 20-year-old Paige all play musical instruments ranging from piano to cornet to dujo. A dujo, in the world of music, is a cross between a dulcimer and a banjo.

Two have written, and published, a book. Three play in a band. All play at least one musical instrument and participate in theater, two have written a play and one has directed and seen her own play on stage.

The list of locations family members have lived in rivals the list of musical instruments they own. New York, Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Louisiana, New Jersey the list doesn't include the places they've visited or worked.

Bill, 70, was born in Madison, Wis., growing up in a family of educators and musicians. "I swore I'd never teach, but I played music and sang since grade school," he said.

Although he may have been able to stay away from teaching, the attraction to music must have permeated ever part of his psyche given the number of musicians he was surrounded with. His mother taught music, his grandmother was head of the music department at Mansfield State Teaching School, now part of the University of Pennsylvania system, other family members sang professionally and played instruments. The Gracie Steadman Performing Arts Center at the University of Pennsylvania is named for his grandmother.

Bill put his musical calling on the back-burner during a portion of his major bread-winning years as he concentrated on keeping his family well taken care of. However, a little over ten years ago, he picked up an instrument and rediscovered the joys of music.

Until recently, his large extended family of 200­250 gathered annually for a reunion centered around his mother's birthday. "They were all performers, singers and musicians," he said.

For his mother's 100th birthday, Bill, Jeremy, Paige and their cousin, Tyson, formed a brass quartet and played a number they'd composed for her. She directed.

Growing up with so many musicians, it would seem logical for Bill to have made it his profession. However, he was drawn to geology and sports. He has a geology degree from the University of Wisconsin, where he played a number of sports. After school he played competitive volleyball into his 50s, finally stopping when he broke a foot.

During college he met and married his first wife and, after graduation and a brief forays into a family business, began a long career as a manufacturer's agent. Through the years he has worked independently, formed a partnership, and worked for various companies in numerous states, ultimately lighting in Peachtree City over ten years ago.

He has three children by his first marriage Gus, Wendy and Katen and five grandchildren: Margaret (Maggie), Elisabeth (Lis), Tod, Tyson and Trey.

While Bill was raised in wholesome farm country of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Susan, now in her mid-50s, hails from the Bronx. Her parents were first generation Americans, children of Russian and Polish immigrants. She jokes that her parents were 'bipolar' "My mother was an artist and sculptor, my father was a CPA."

She said with regret that she didn't inherit her mother's talents in drawing, painting and sculpture, but she does "sculpt figures in space on the stage."

Susan lives and breathes the theater, from acting to directing to writing. She is an outstanding photographer, an avocation she would have considered if she hadn't been drawn to the theater so strongly.

One of Susan's biggest gripes while growing up was she didn't have a piano or a dog. Today she has a piano ... and a cat. At 14 her parents finally acceded to her wishes and got a piano, but she began college at the age of 16 and left the piano and lessons behind. She discovered another arts-related avenue in college that filled her creative niche. She majored in English at William Smith College in New York, "thinking that someday I'd write THE great American novel," she quips.

She explored a number of artistic outlets while in school including radio, theater and writing. After graduation, she went to work for Fawcett Publications and continued her education at the New School for Social Research in the evenings. She took classes in drama, acting and other related avenues. After a year with Faucet, she returned to school at New York University for her master's in educational theater.

She married her first husband during this period, spending a "good deal of our honeymoon working on a play and drafting a project." After attaining her master's degree, she worked a number of temporary positions while taking professional acting and singing lessons, and auditioning for parts. Or for 'a part' she landed a part in an off-off-Broadway play on her first audition.

When her husband took a job in Baton Rouge, La., Susan put her acting career on hold to follow him. She took a job teaching the deaf at a state school and quickly learned it was not her forte. She worked for a period of time with an advertising agency that, as "a child of the 60s," had her feeling as though she had "sold out." It didn't take long for her to elect to further her education, struggling between French, psychology, or theater. No surprise, theater won.

During her last year of school, the marriage ended, leaving her in Louisiana in to complete her dissertation alone. She took a job in Michigan, where, on a blind date, she met Bill.

A mutual friend tried to set up a Thanksgiving dinner date between Bill and Susan. Bill was reluctant to commit a holiday date to an unknown, so opted to take Susan's phone number and set up a light first visit. Against her better judgment, she met Bill at 10 p.m. for coffee after one of his volleyball competitions. The pair were inseparable from the start, ultimately attending the Thanksgiving dinner.

Susan is understandably proud of her accomplishments during her tenure at the University of Michigan. She implemented the school's first theater program. Starting with no venue, tools, costumes, lighting or sound equipment, she built a successful program with a budget of only $800 for the year.

Once again life threw a curve which interfered with her theatrical and artistic endeavors. This time, the art-stopping curve was pleasant ­ the birth of her first child, Jeremy.

Susan's 30th year was a busy one. She got married, finished her Ph.D., got pregnant and had her first child, got a house and directed a play. After resigning from the University, Susan freelanced with a number of agencies until taking a visiting professor's job. Bill was traveling with his job. Susan began writing plays, a creative endeavor that became much easier with the purchase of their first computer.

In 1982, Paige was born to complete the family. The family made a few more moves, following Bill's career path from Ohio to New Jersey to Texas. In Texas the economy was in a serious downward spiral, resulting in some financial difficulties for the family.

Thinking of Bill's eventual retirement, Susan returned to school for a master's in library science at the Texas Woman's University. Before she could complete the degree, Bill found a new job in Peachtree City. Susan completed her degree long-distance. She also signed a contract to write a book.

The year the family moved to Peachtree City turned out to be a very life-defining year. Susan's book was published. Jeremy was in an accident that turned his life, and his family's, completely around. The company that brought Bill and the family to Peachtree City folded, leaving the 60-plus-year-old out of work with a mortgage, rising medical bills from the accident and all the financial responsibilities of day-to-day living.

Music, the theater, and the wonderful people of Peachtree City who pitched in to help the new community members got them through it. At 14, Jeremy was the victim of a serious hit-and-run accident while on a band trip. The family spent three months traveling to and from Scottish Rite Hospital each day, then six months traveling to the north side of Atlanta for rehabilitation. He had to learn to do everything over again, from brushing his teeth to dressing.

Music was one tool the family used to help him recover. During the early period, when Jeremy was still in a coma, a friend gave him a small keyboard, which the family brought to his room. One day Bill laid the instrument on Jeremy's bed and began playing a tune Jeremy had written. Jeremy reached over with one hand, brushed his Dad's hands off the keyboard and began playing the song. As the short keyboard didn't have the same number of keys as the piano he had previously played the tune on, Jeremy's hand continued to play down the keyboard, off onto the bed where the piano keys should have been, then back again to the keyboard. It was the first of many steps that brought Jeremy back.

Things have taken a strong upturn for the family in recent years. Bill works for Low Temp Industry, Inc. in Jonesboro. He speaks highly of the company and the personnel, and is appreciative of the value they gave to his experience in the industry. He is the national sales manager, a position that involves some travel ­ and teaching. The person who in his younger days swore he would never teach not only teaches in his job, but is also happily substitute teaching in local schools.

Susan does some freelance writing and has returned to her first love. She and friend Susan Dolan started Offshoot Productions, Inc. in 1993. The popular group continues to entertain crowds of children and adults with plays like the upcoming "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Jeremy today works for Ruby Tuesdays as a host ­ many in Peachtree City are familiar with his smiling face as they enter and leave the restaurant. Many have also seen him in some Offshoot Production shows or as he plays one of the family's brass instruments in the Peachtree Wind Ensemble. He has a degree in French from Berry, is working on his second book and is contemplating returning to school for a master's in library science.

Paige was harmonizing with Mom by the time she was three. She was in preschool when she first managed to coax a note from a trumpet. By the age of five she was taking acting and piano lessons, and within three months she was transposing in three keys. Until the age of 12 she was a competitive gymnast.

Paige loves theater, according to Susan, and is an "exceptional writer." She has composed music for numerous Offshoot productions and is currently working on a children's play. Paige attended Gordon College last year and will be attending Berry in the fall where she is considering a musical theater degree. Those attending the Renaissance Festival this year and the past year may have been enjoyed a tune or two played by Penny Whistle, a.k.a. Paige, on her recorder (which to many may resemble a flute).

Bill, Jeremy and Paige all play with the Peachtree Wind Ensemble. Bill just finished building his first dulcimer. Susan is busy trying to find space for rehearsals for "A Midsummer Night's Dream." All find time to enjoy music together, considering it one of the threads that binds the tight-knit family together.

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