By Kim Fletcher
Actresses Ann Foskett, Elizabeth Davies and Suzanne Rankin dressed in costume pieces worn onstage in shows directed or costumed by Sue Ghoreyeb. People at the celebration of her life on Saturday arrived in everything from furs to frock coats and feathers. (Eleanor Cade Busby photo) |
The Second Congregational Church was crowded with family and friends Nov. 8, brought together to celebrate the life of Susan Elizabeth Ghoreyeb, a presence in the Midcoast
theater community for more than 40 years.
In mid-September that same community was rocked by the news that Ghoreyeb, 61, was seriously ill, and just a little over one day after friends held a dinner and
silent auction at Lincoln Academy on Oct. 25 to support her needs, she passed away.
Ghoreyeb, known affectionately by so many as “LaSuz,” helped grow up entire generations of theater-goers and performers, on stage and behind the scenes, many of whom
are now peppered across the country, continuing the theater tradition.
She did this arm-in-arm with her lifelong friends in the theater, Aaron Robinson, Eleanor Busby, Nancy Durgin, Griff Braley, Sean Fleming, Rory and Luci Craib,
Debbie Beam, Dan True, Laurie Brown, Steve French, and many others.
At the commemorative service written and arranged by Robinson, French, a former student, headed up the celebration welcoming the large crowd with “gods of the
theater, smile on us! We offer you lights, jokes and insults … bless our celebration, and smile!”
French said, “Applause was the sweetest sound Susan Elizabeth Ghoreyeb ever heard,” French said. “It warmed her heart and made her smile inside. It filled her world
full of ‘faith, and trust, and pixie dust.'”
The sanctuary was bedecked with Ghoreyeb’s costume creations, set pieces and her beloved “coat of many colors” from one of Ghoreyeb’s favorite musicals, which she
also directed: “Joseph, and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
Knowing Ghoreyeb would want laughter and a fun theater atmosphere, Robinson and Ghoreyeb’s older siblings Albert and Debora, encouraged those attending the
celebration to wear costume pieces created by Ghoreyeb.
Actor Ann Foskett wore furs and beads; Busby honored her friend with a beautifully trimmed Victorian hat; Heidi Kopishke sported a lavish fall of banana curls; Teddy
Howland had his feather-trimmed tricorn hat, and still others were adorned in boas and crowns.
With her musical director of many years, Sean Fleming at the piano playing favorite show tunes, Beam, Albert, and Debora Ghoreyeb welcomed guests with handfuls of
Twizzlers and Dum-Dum lollipops.
Inside the sanctuary, friends of LaSuz could choose a special tie, costume bauble, scarf, paper flower or star wand to commemorate her life. Many were ushered to
seats by Nick Azaretti as the Roman slave Pseudolus from “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum,” directed by Ghoreyeb at Lincoln County Theater just a few years ago.
Though she never married, Ghoreyeb nonetheless had thousands of children – all hers through her years working with Mainely Kids and the Mid Coast Children’s Theater
in Waldoboro, heading up the Lincoln Academy Drama Club and originating the Winter Drama Adventure at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta.
Busby remembered that any child wanting to be in the Winter Drama Adventure got a place on stage. She also remembers Ghoreyeb made every single child, through
costuming, feel special. “Sometimes what Sue made for them was the most beautiful thing they ever wore,” Busby said.
Many former Lincoln Academy students can remember Ghoreyeb taking them to see their first Broadway show in New York City, and as they grew to adulthood they advanced
from students to friends and co-creators.
French, Erin Blomquist, Howland and Kopishke were taken under Ghoreyeb’s wing, learning the ropes, and years later, were either cast or dressed by Ghoreyeb in her
productions. Howland and Blomquist shared special memories and laughs with the audience about the mentor they miss.
French said, “From A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh:” “‘Some people care too much. I think it’s called love. You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for
others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.'”
Ghoreyeb’s costuming talents and creativity were not exclusive to Lincoln County. In the late 1970s and mid-1980s, while working at Camden Hospital, Ghoreyeb worked
with Camden Civic Theater, bedecking hundreds of actors while simultaneously stage managing shows.
The standing room only crowd offered a “jazz hands” salute to honor Sue Ghoreyeb at the close of her memorial service Saturday. “Jazz hands” were a particular bugaboo of Ghoreyeb’s as a director, but she always knew what a crowd liked, and used them anyway. A kickline and jazz hands often bring down the house, and the joyful tribute was an SRO crowd with a standing ovation for the long time costumier and director. (Eleanor Cade Busby photo) |
Locally, she also lent her creativity through costume designing, stage managing, producing and directing to Lincoln County Community Theater, the Waldo Theatre, Heartwood
Regional Theater Company, River Company and, generally, any theater group that asked for her help.
She had friends and colleagues everywhere who produced and directed shows at Medomak Valley High School, Lincoln Academy and Wiscasset High School. Ghoreyeb’s
costumes appeared on stages throughout the state and beyond, including Maine State Music Theater in Brunswick.
One of her closest friends, conductor, Emmy-award nominee composer, musician, and author, Aaron Robinson remembered meeting Ghoreyeb for the first time.
“It was really uneventful,” Robinson said. “We met through Peter Robbins at Medomak Valley High School. Dominic Garvey was directing ‘Most Happy Fella’ back in ’92,
or whenever it was … and Peter had been telling fun stories about me, and Sue bolted up to Peter and said, ‘So, this is Aaron?’
“We met again later when we were doing ‘Once Upon A Mattress’ with Ellie [Busby] who started Mainely Kids 88 and was directing with Sue stage managing. I was musical
director and Sue was trying to calm down the kids, and turned to me and said, ‘You, too!’
“She put me in my place. I thought, we’re either going to be best friends, or I’m going to hate her forever,” he said, laughing.
Their humor and love of the arts was at the deep root of their friendship, and the two just did “everything together,” Robinson remembers.
“We just jabbed at each other. We used to say, ‘we were lovers for years; we just never fooled around.’ Everybody throws around the term best friend, but we shared
moments with each other I could never share with anyone else,” he said.
Aaron and his wife Kristen Robinson have a 2-year-old-son, Andrew, a child who Ghoreyeb loved as deeply as if he were her grandson.
Robinson said he remembers Ghoreyeb was satisfied with how she’d lived her life and her only regret was to not see Andrew grow up.
“I laughed and cried on her shoulder, and she laughed and cried on mine,” Robinson said. “But the greatest gift Sue gave me was sharing her last breath; her last
moment with me.”
Of the first and last show she directed, “The Secret Garden,” was her most beloved, French said and the theme of her commemorative celebration.
“And now she has stepped into her final garden, where she will forever tend and blossom and make grow,” French said.
