Theater teacher who influenced generations of artists at SCF dies

During his long career as director of the theater program at what is now State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota, John James influenced generations of future theater artists who are using his lessons in their work in local productions and around the country.

James, who died Friday in Bradenton at age 87, was co-founder with Ray LeBlanc of the theater department at what started as Manatee Junior College and later became Manatee Community College. He served as director of theater and chair of the performing arts program from 1967 until his retirement in 1998. For another decade, he stayed connected and worked as a guest director.

“He never really retired,” said Kenneth Erickson, a former student who eventually succeeded James before retiring himself in 2015. “He was always coming in and doing stuff.”

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Erickson described James “as a real mentor. He was the reason why I ended up doing what I did.” He earned a degree in design at the University of South Florida before returning to SCF as technical director. “The weirdest transition was going from calling him Mr. James to calling him John. There are people I went to school with who could never just call him John.”

James, who was born in Wayne, Michigan, directed about 160 productions at SCF, plus dozens more at theaters in California, Kansas and Illinois. When he retired in 1998, the college renamed the intimate Studio 84 performance space as the John W. James Studio Theatre. A decade later, it was rebuilt and expanded and named for the actor David S. Howard, who died in January, and his wife, Anne.

“It was a really proud moment for the family and just neat to know that the college recognized all that he did,” said Laura Grizzle, one of his four children. “It was for his dedication over the years and how much blood, sweat and tears he put into building that theater program.”

Grizzle, who performed in some shows and had her father as a teacher, said he instilled confidence in his students.

“I now have no trouble getting up and speaking in front of people. He helped me want to become a teacher,” she said. “All four of us are very successful. He passed along how important education was. It didn’t matter what you were doing, but get yourself some education and do your best.”

James Thaggard, who directed or co-directed many shows at the college over the years, said James launched what became an annual student trip to New York City in the 1980s as an act of rebellion. “He had held rehearsals over spring break and the administration told him he could no longer do that.” Instead, he arranged to take students to see shows in New York and meet actors, directors and alumni to better learn about career opportunities.

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James wasn’t an actor but Thaggard said “he knew how to direct actors. He was always very prepared. And he was just brilliant. There’s the old line that he had forgotten more about theater than most of us would ever know. In the pre-internet days, any article for new plays or musicals opening, he had a file for it. He was Wikipedia before it existed.”

Actor Dallas Roberts, who went on to Juilliard and a busy career in television and films, including roles in “Law & Order,” “The Good Wife,” “Rubicon,” “Big Sky,” “FBI,” “American Rust” and the current Netflix hit “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” said James “opened my eyes to stuff that I had no idea was even there.”

In an introduction to film course, Roberts said James was the first person who “suggested that there were ways to look at cinema and storytelling that I had never comprehended, that film was not just something that you let your eyes glaze over and walk out of.” He said James taught him “there are ways to study the craft of acting. There are ways to hone your abilities. That started a lifelong journey pretending to be other people.”

Many other former students have gone on to theater careers in the area, Peter Ivanov, who was the founding artistic director of Theatre Works in Sarasota before becoming a college theater professor; Steven Butler, the newly hired artistic director of The Players Centre; the late Allan Kollar, who was artistic director of Venice Theatre; Sandy Davisson, who is director of education at Venice Theatre; Candace Artim, a frequent director and actor in community theater, and Kelly Wynn Woodland, a busy community theater director.

Woodland, whose own father worked at SCF, said she was always a voracious reader, but James “got me to reading plays and interested in directing. He let me direct one play when I was a student.” She said she “learned a lot of strategies” by the way James worked as a director.

“We didn’t have a directing class per se, but I watched and paid attention. He was very methodical and very scientific in his approach and really fair in dealing with students, and I think the idea of the teacher/director I get from him.”

Survivors include his wife, Joyce, to whom he was married for 67 years, four children – Grizzle, of Boca Raton, and sons Gregory, of Largo, Jeff of Lithia and Christopher, of Palmetto – 14 grandchildren and 11 grandchildren.

Visitation will be at 1 p.m. Feb. 11, followed by a 2 p.m. funeral service at Palma Sola Presbyterian Church, 6510 Third Ave., West, Bradenton. Instead of flowers, the family asked that memorial contributions be made to the SCF theater department through scf-foundation.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Teacher of generations of theater artists at SCF dies at 87