Tom, as in Teti - Episode 108

Top image:  February 1977 - Tom Teti as Lenny Bruce in Julian Barry’s play Lenny at the Cobblestones Cabaret in Philadelphia.

Below: July 1974 - (Left) George Collins as the character Brutus Jones in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, the first play produced by Peoples Light & Theatre Co. (Right) Danny and Meg Fruchter pose inside the recently-built theater at Strode's Mill. In the background, Collins rehearses with Tom Teti, who was playing the character of Smithers.

Above, a newspaper story about the young company - Teti can be seen again in the lower left image, and founders Dick Keeler, Ken Marini and Danny Fruchter are upper right. (Clipping courtesy People's Light and Theatre Company).

Below, artistic director Danny Fruchter (left) and others posing triumphantly in the barn that would be converted into the company's new home in Malvern in the late 1970s, and (right) a group photo of the acting company and staff  outside of the front entrance after its completion.



But as we discussed with Tom, after the early years of his career he was not just working at People's Light - he was also joining the company of many other new Philadelphia area non-profit theater companies.

Below left, actress Helena Ruoti and Tom Teti the Philadelphia Company's 1982 production of Nuts, a play about a prostitute accused of murder. We learned about this show back in Episode 100 of the podcast, during our interview with Sara Garonzik, who was making her directing debut.

Below right, a newspaper photo of Tom Teti and the PTC cast of Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July. In the Philadelphia Daily News, critic Nels Nelson was especially thrilled by the on-stage reunion of Tom Teti and Pearce Bunting, who had first performed together in The Groves of Academe at People's Light in Malvern two years previously. "Once again they act and interact with utmost integrity to their characters."

Tom also worked with the Wilma Theater. Below, we can see him with Leonard Kelty-Young (playing the inner and outer selves of man cheating on his wife) in Peter Nichol's play Passion - a 1985 production at the Wilma Theater, directed by Jiri Zizka. 

Above left - Tom as Sweeney Todd, in the Arden Theatre's 1993 production of the Stephen Sondheim musical. Above right - Tom McCarthy as Fay Vincent, and Tom Teti as Bart Giamatti, in the play Bart and Fay, presented at the Walnut Street Theatre's Studio Three in March of 1996.

But now for a montage of photos and images of Tom in productions at People's Light in Malvern, beginning with the 1991 epic production of Louis Lippa's adaptation of Dreiser's Sister Carrie, directed by Ken Marini. Here we see Tom as the character Hurstwood, getting a shave in a Montreal barbershop. The actors are (left to right) Peter DeLaurier, Paul Meshejian, David Ingram, Tom Teti, and Frank Wood. 

Other images of Tom in performance over the last 30 years have been generously shared with me by People's Light & Theatre Company. The following photos are the work of the talented Philadelphia photographer Mark Garvin. (http://markgarvinphoto.com/)

Grimm Tales, 1995, with Mary Beth Scallen:

Below left: Louis Lippa's Sacco & Vanzetti: A Vaudeville, 1999 - with Stephen Novelli. 
Below right: Luigi Pirandello's Have It Your Way, 1997 - with Tess Kincaid, Rosemary l'Erario, Ceal Phalen, Ben Lloyd, and Mary Elizabeth Scallen.

Susan Bernfield's Stretch: A Fantasia, 2010 - with Alda Cortese:

And finally - Mark Garvin taking pictures of me and Tom playing two Florida codgers in a 2023 production of the comedy Boca, by Jessica Provenz. (Photo courtesy of Act II Playhouse, Ambler, PA.)