Two Words of Advice

Two Words of Advice

I was 32, and I was invincible! I had my MFA. I had done 20 some professional plays, and I had been the Junior Mr. Goodwrench.  I’d sold groceries, Chevys, and Wesson oil in other commercials.   I had filmed several movies and even completed my first stint on a Soap. Nothing was going stop me!

Then, cancer tapped me on the shoulder.  Believe me, everything stops when that happens.  I ended up in the hospital for 5 months.  I lost all my hair, and I lost 50 pounds.  Couldn’t eat for 3 months, because I couldn’t stop vomiting.  I needed chemo, 5 surgeries, platelets, blood transfusions, scans, catheters, IVs, stitches, staples,  wash cloths, dixie cups, and all the machines that blinked and went ping! I benefited from nearly every medicine known to man, and eventually, I got better.

I think this experience gave me the right to dispense a little bit of advice. Mind you, very limited advice. In fact, I’ve only got two words for you. Here they are:

Health Insurance.

21 years ago I had it, and I’m still here.  I’ve lost a substantial amount of hearing, I can’t always feel my feet, and I have a body full of scars, but I’m still here.  It’s really hard for me to consider the alternative of not having it. So, once again, here’s my two cents:

Health Insurance.

SHARKY

I remember being in 8th grade in Victor swimming on the Junior High Swim Team.  Our season had just ended and somehow the word got to me that Mr. Shields wanted to see me, and I think, Billy Glitch.  The Varsity Swim Team had two more meets that year and Mr. Shields wanted us to swim in them, even though we were not officially freshman, yet!  It was, probably, the most exciting thing that had happened to me in my 14 years of living at that point!!!  I remember the meets in the big pool up on the hill, and I remember I even beat some guys that were in High School!  In retrospect the most important part of that exciting event was meeting and getting to know Mr. Shields.  

I swam for him the next 4 years and we won a lot of meets and went pretty far in sectionals. I was co-captain of the High School Swim Team both my sophomore and Junior years.  Yes, we had before school practices. (6am) These were voluntary, but we always went because Coach Shields wanted us to!  After school were “dry land drills” for an hour, and then a good 3 hour practice in the pool.  Coach was there for all of it.  Every single school day, and of course, we had Saturday practices, too. We happily, eagerly, did all of this, because Mr. Shields was in his quiet, funny, and lead by example way, the most inspirational person I have ever known. 

Mr. Shields was, also, my water safety instructor. This allowed me to teach swimming to younger kids during the summer at Victor, and kept me employed as a lifeguard at the school and around town for years to come as I moved toward college.  You see, Keith Shields was everything aquatic at Victor Central.  Everyone knew him, everyone liked him, and quite simply we would have walked through fire if he had asked us to.  Thankfully, he just asked us to swim our butts off and beat most every team we swam against...

I’ve been gone from Victor for a long time.  I live in Los Angeles, now, and I rarely swim anymore.  I’m an actor in TV, Movies and Commercials.  It’s a hard profession.  It requires incredible dedication, self motivation, perseverance, and luck.  Coach Shields taught me all of these.  Coach Shields put me here, and the smile that I get when I think of my Victor days and all those countless hours in the old pool with Sharky looking out for us, keeps me here.

I think it is so darn awesome that Victor built a new aquatic center!  In these days of cuts for cuts sake, it’s a brilliant move that will put smiles on the faces of Victor youth for ages to come.  Thank you tax payers!!  But, “Taxpayer Aquatic Center,” just doesn’t have much of a ring to it.  I don’t know the Victor Board of Education.  I couldn’t tell you the name of anyone on it.  I’ll bet they are great people, and I really don’t think this is a case of doing the right, or the wrong thing.  If they don’t name the Center after Keith Shields I think they are simply missing an opportunity. An opportunity to forever tie the past, right through the present, and into the future. An opportunity to forever tie that beautiful new building to the man that was everything aquatic at Victor Central for so many, many years.  An opportunity to forever tie Victor to the name of the most inspirational person I have ever known.  

“Keith Shields Aquatic Center.”  Now, that has a ring to it...

What I did on my winter vacation...

Stephen Boyer is a 17 year old film maker who asked me to be in his movie "Opus".  He lost his lead actor just before the shoot to a family emergency, so he played the lead, Michael - as well as wrote, directed, edited and produced! I made him promise to attach me to every project of his for the next 50 years.  

I hope you enjoy Stephen Boyer's:    "OPUS"

"OPUS" Click here

My Aunt Mary

Nearly everyone I know has an Aunt Mary.  Mary seems to be a very popular name for Aunts.  But, no one I know, has an Aunt Mary like my Aunt Mary!  

My Aunt Mary lives in Ohio, which she always told me was round on the ends and hi in the middle.  She, also, told me that she’d been born Wright, but she hadn’t been Wright in a long time.  I didn’t get either joke till I was around 20 or so, so I’m glad she kept telling them.  Most of the jokes she told were short like that, except for the one about the snake that needed a pot to hiss in.  That one took my Aunt Mary a little longer to tell.  

There were other really cool things I learned about my Aunt Mary growing up.  She could burp and say bow wow, at the same time.  I’ll bet your Aunt Mary can’t do that! She also married a man name Pink.  How cool is that?  

My brother, Doug, and I loved going to visit the Kohrings. (Uncle Pinks last name) They lived on their own road.  Really, they lived on Kohring road!  No one else I have ever known has lived on their own road, but my Aunt Mary did.  Also, Calvin and LouAnn were the cousins closest in age to us, so we had great fun.  I remember once, Calvin couldn’t stop laughing for an entire day!  We just kept on making him laugh...  Steve was there, too, but he was older and stayed away from us. I think he thought the four of us were crazy.

In later years I went to Michigan State, and spent several Thanksgivings at my Aunt Mary’s. It was always a blast.  I remember laughter from the time I pulled up the driveway, until I had to get back for classes.  

In even later years, I went through my cancer experience, and wrote a play about it called With Flying Colors.  I had been asked to perform it in a banquet hall over looking the Silver Dome in Pontiac, MI.  At that time, I hadn’t done the play that much, so I was pretty nervous about the performance.  Well, the first time I looked up into the audience, there was my Aunt Mary sitting with a big smile on her face, right in the front row.  She had brought some of the gang up from Ohio to Michigan to see my show. 

She must have liked it, because she pulled the same stunt just two years ago when I got a chance to perform the show in La Peer, MI.  There she was, my Aunt Mary, 86 years old at the time, sitting right there in the front row, again, with that big ole grin on her face... 

Just a couple weeks back, I read on LouAnn’s Facebook page that my Aunt Mary was in the hospital and not feeling well. I got status reports over the next days from LouAnn, Mom, and Dad.  They weren’t good.  And when my Mom called me early last Saturday morning with the news, I knew there was a little less laughter in the world.  

My Aunt Mary is now in heaven, and I know if she has anything to say about it, she’s living on her own road up there, too.  When they have heavenly events, she’ll go, and sit in the front row, and she will laugh, and when the Angels are feeling down, she’ll do the bow wow thing and crack them all up!  

I know you belong to God, now, but in my heart you will always be, my Aunt Mary...

Do me a favor, (oh, kind blog reader) first chance you get, go catch up with your Aunt Mary, and give her a great big hug...

ALUMNI UPDATES
VCS Alum, David Grant Wright ‘79 Reflects on His Life and Career

. . . From Victor to Hollywood

David Grant Wright never did any acting when he attended VCS in the 1970s. Back then, he was more interested in sports. During his time at VCS he played baseball, soccer and was the captain of the swim team for a couple of years. It was not until he went to Michigan State University that he discovered his love of acting. “Toward the end of my junior year I went out for a play. I had taken a couple of acting classes, and it sounded like fun at the time. I was cast as Lysander in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After that, I never looked back. I knew what I wanted to do.” 

Wright, who resides in Burbank, California, says he really enjoys his profession because it is always something new and different. “It’s not always easy as I don’t really know where the next pay check is coming from, but I’ve done it for a long time, now, and it has become a big part on my identity,” he said.

As for his most memorable acting experience, Wright says several come to mind.
”Very early on, in my late 20’s, I got cast in a movie called Writer’s Block. It filmed down in San Diego, and my character was a detective. At one point we were shooting a scene on the wharf of San Diego Bay. It was midnight and they had watered down the deck like they often do on night shoots, so, everything shimmered. I got to drive the cop car down the wharf, (lights flashing, and siren going) slam on the brakes, jump out of the car, pull my revolver, and run into the warehouse after the bad guy. I remember thinking, ‘This is cool!’ It didn’t look too bad in the film, either. 

In my memories, Victor, now, seems like a magical place. I was only there from 8th grade through my senior year, but it will always be home. I carry the people I knew, and the lessons I learned there with me every day.

The second was much more recent. I got cast in an episode of ‘House of Lies.’ My character was having lunch with Don Cheadle’s character in this fancy restaurant in downtown LA. Since it takes several hours to film anything, I got to just sit and have lunch with Oscar

nominated Don Cheadle for about six hours. He’s a very funny guy!

Wright says other more memorable acting experiences include doing a movie with Mike
Farrell, BJ Honeycutt in the old MASH series and , a lesser known actress, Natalie Martinez, with whom he did Saints and Sinners (30 some episodes) and Sons of Tucson. Wright says the Criminal Minds cast were all terrific, too. “I must say, I have worked with very few difficult people. The entire industry is full of nice folks,” Wright said.

When asked how VCS helped him secure such a high profile career, Wright simply said he was prepared. “When I went to Michigan State, I was fully prepared. Without my five years in Victor Schools, I would never do what I do today. I think I was the beneficiary of an absolute, first class, education.” Wright says his experiences outside of the classroom were equally important to his success. “I want to give credit to my extracurricular activities, as well. Victor sports and clubs are a big part of me. So, to all my teachers and coaches, thank you!”

While Wright has had the privilege of playing many interesting roles through the years, one role he was not prepared for was that of cancer patient, in real life.
Continued on next page

vcs fall 2012 e-alumni newsletter • 6

ALUMNI UPDATES

David Grant Wright

Today, this 19 year cancer survivor can only say he is grateful. “I can’t begin to codify how my cancer experience changed me. I tell people that it was the worst and the best thing that ever happened to me. Medical folks are very dear to me. It’s a part of life that you just don’t think you will ever go through, but if you do, there are some amazing people to take care of you. I wrote my one man show, With Flying Colors, that chronicles my cancer time and I have performed it all across the country. That has brought me a whole unique, wonderful set of experiences, too.”

From VCS student to actor and cancer survivor, David Grant Wright has found success on many levels, both personally and professionally, but when it comes right down to the art of acting, Wright says you must be good at one thing; you really need to be able to read. “I would suggest that you read everything that you can get your hands on. I think that how well you develop your reading skills will be directly proportional to how well you succeed as an actor. Back in Victor, I think I might have had the most used library card in town. I loved that little library on Maple Avenue just down the street from my house,” Wright said.

When he was really young, Wright said his mother used to tell him, “Go to your room, and don’t come out till you know how to act!” “That was pretty good advice for an actor,” Wright said.

Cool. I have Fan Mail!

Eva called and left a message.  “You have fan mail at the office and you can come by anytime you want and pick it up...” 

Cool.  I have fan mail!

It was a nice excuse to walk over and see my agents, so I went.  We chatted, and Eva handed me an envelope.  I noticed that the postmark was from England, before I popped it in my pocket and headed out.  

Now, I have received fan emails, and Facebook friend requests, and even a few attaboy friend texts, but this was an actual piece of mail!  When I opened it there was a hand written letter, and the above picture enclosed.  I won’t use the last name, but Lee lives in London and is a big fan of Torchwood, and I have no idea where Lee got it, but Lee sent me this pic which I had never seen before.  (I keep using Lee, because I don’t know Lee’s gender - Lee can be male or female, right?) The letter asks very nicely if I would be kind enough to sign the face of the pic and send it back in the self addressed envelope that Lee had, also, included in the envelope. 

Cool.  I have fan mail!

The picture is signed. The envelope is sealed and it’s all ready to go out in tomorrow’s mail to make it’s way back to Lee.  Thank you Lee! Fan mail is...

Cool. And I have it!

"To all my high school friends- everyone has to be from somewhere, but that somewhere is not just a place, it's people. I realized sitting under the big lofty trees of Powder Mill Park, yesterday, that I am from all of you. I think that's a pretty great place to be from! So, thank you for being my back home. Miss you already...David"

(I combined two different trips "back home" to create this blog entry - but you get the idea...)