Appreciation: Eugenia Giebel
I was happy to get to know Eugenia Giebel through the theater community.
Eugenia Giebel worked with my dad at the Rock Island Arsenal for many years. She once told me how happy my dad was when he came into work after I was born. We lost Eugenia shortly before New Year's Eve in 2021. She was only seventy.
I first remember meeting Eugenia in 2006. She was appearing as a nurse/caretaker in The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon. I remember her playing off of Ray Rogers and John Vandewoestyne, who were playing the role of an elderly comedy duo who were hoping to mount a comeback. I loved the intimate theater space. I remember it was the February show of that season. At that point, I was taking a break from graduate school. I was considering dipping my toes into theater again. I was twenty-four.
It would be three long years, though, before I finally came out to Richmond Hill to appear in my first show. But guess who was serving as stage manager for this production? Eugenia Giebel. We were well acquainted by this point. I had since seen her in Dearly Beloved. I think she had also worked on A Bad Year for Tomatoes as Stage Manager. So it was good to have a familiar face as I made my way to the actors' and crew's entrance in the rear of the Richmond Hill auditorium.
"You won't have to sing in this show, Greg," reassured Eugenia. She had mainly seen me in Music Guild productions.
This was not entirely true. Actually, we did as a cast get to sing Auld Lang Syne in a circle. I'm not complaining.
Over the fifteen years that I personally knew Eugenia, I grew to love her as a friend, actress, stage manager, and director.
Much as she stole scenes in the 2006 productions of A Bad Year for Tomatoes and the 2008 production of Dearly Beloved, I would have to say that my career favorite performance by Eugenia Giebel was in the Richmond Hill Players' 2012 production of The Curious Savage. Her character was an inpatient resident of a mental health facility. Her character was obstinate, oppositional-defiant, and wandered around giving an itemized list of everything she hated. But there is a new resident who gradually cuts a path to her heart. And she has this moment of character transformation, deep in the second act, which she set up so beautifully. She sets out on another rant of hating everything, be it peanuts, 7-up, snowflakes, board games, music, and her face softens in confusion as she realizes there is at least one thing on this planet that she does not hate. She relents and says she likes the said resident. And in reflecting on what a gift she was to the Richmond Hill community, it makes me extra sad that we have lost her. But happy that she has moved onto her eternal reward.
Another great thing Eugenia did, as a director, was cast my wife, Sara, in one of the lead roles in Murder on the Rerun in the fall of 2015. Oh heck, I'm already emotional from reminiscing about The Curious Savage, let's just go for broke here. I will tell Sara I like her in everything she does. And as husband, I have to say that. But I didn't love Sara's performance in Murder on the Rerun as a matrimonial obligation. Number one, because we were only just engaged in November of 2015, when they put up the production. Number 2, because it really played to Sara's strengths. Sara played sort of a Clarence the Second Hand Angel type in Murder on the Rerun. She was trying to earn her way into heaven, but there was some technicality that she couldn't. I think she jumped into a lake, stream, or river to steal a coin, left behind by a Yankee soldier, and then accidentally drowned. It was in the late 18th century. But she gets to come back to earth to help solve the murder of an actress. An actress who fell down a flight of stairs, but suspiciously. It's passed off as an accident. Sara's character got to follow the leads around, eating food for the first time in a couple hundred of years, hoping that in doing this good deed from beyond the grave, she just might earn her way from the bad place to the good place. Eugenia knew that Sara would be right for the part. And while auditions are normally a nerve-wracking affair, Eugenia absolutely made Sara at home at Richmond Hill with Murder on the Rerun. The exact same way she had with me in Laughing Stock. She gave the part to Sara after begging her to audition. And got out of Sara what I consider to be perhaps her career best performance. Thanks, Eugenia.
Oh how I wanted to see Doublewide, Texas in 2017. But I did make it to A Doublewide Christmas, and that was the last time I had the privilege of seeing Eugenia Giebel on the Richmond Hill stage. December, 2019.
Eugenia was the type of person who took the trouble and the time of day to come over to where you are and say hello. She came and spoke to me while I was at the Bride and Groom party table on my wedding day. Not that I was avoiding people, mind you, but I may have been experiencing a little bit of burn-out. But I don't mind the fact that in this moment, Eugenia took the opportunity to come over and congratulate me on the wedding nuptials. It was my dad who suggested to invite Eugenia to my wedding. I'm glad he reminded me. I was in one hundred percent agreement, given that at that point, she had stage-managed me, directed Sara, and worked with my dad. It was a natural choice.
The last time I saw Eugenia was at Richmond Hill during the summer clean-up day in July. We sat and had a nice long conversation at the kitchen table that they have set up in the Green Room. I love that table. I've sat there and had many a conversation with many a production staff and many an actor. And Eugenia talked all about her appointments, her medical procedures, the sons she loved so dearly, and past shows.
If only I could ever know that it was the last time I was going to see a person. I would have found something more profound or important to say. That's quoting Forrest Gump, or rather, paraphrasing. Eugenia was a great friend, and I could have done with having her around for a lot longer than we had her. I still feel like we had more shows to do, more work of each other's to pay a ticket to see. As they said at her funeral service, the pastor, that is, she always had everything in order. She would lightly scold me if I didn't have a prop in place during Laughing Stock.
Also, during this show, when I set a ladder for some of the other actors who were doubling as stage hands, and it was their assigned task on the white sheet of stage managing instructions but not mine, I famously remember Eugenia making them go to the north stage entrance and thank me. She forced them to thank me for doing that job. I just love Eugenia for that.
I will miss you Eugenia! Do rest in peace!
Eugenia Giebel worked with my dad at the Rock Island Arsenal for many years. She once told me how happy my dad was when he came into work after I was born. We lost Eugenia shortly before New Year's Eve in 2021. She was only seventy.
I first remember meeting Eugenia in 2006. She was appearing as a nurse/caretaker in The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon. I remember her playing off of Ray Rogers and John Vandewoestyne, who were playing the role of an elderly comedy duo who were hoping to mount a comeback. I loved the intimate theater space. I remember it was the February show of that season. At that point, I was taking a break from graduate school. I was considering dipping my toes into theater again. I was twenty-four.
It would be three long years, though, before I finally came out to Richmond Hill to appear in my first show. But guess who was serving as stage manager for this production? Eugenia Giebel. We were well acquainted by this point. I had since seen her in Dearly Beloved. I think she had also worked on A Bad Year for Tomatoes as Stage Manager. So it was good to have a familiar face as I made my way to the actors' and crew's entrance in the rear of the Richmond Hill auditorium.
"You won't have to sing in this show, Greg," reassured Eugenia. She had mainly seen me in Music Guild productions.
This was not entirely true. Actually, we did as a cast get to sing Auld Lang Syne in a circle. I'm not complaining.
Over the fifteen years that I personally knew Eugenia, I grew to love her as a friend, actress, stage manager, and director.
Much as she stole scenes in the 2006 productions of A Bad Year for Tomatoes and the 2008 production of Dearly Beloved, I would have to say that my career favorite performance by Eugenia Giebel was in the Richmond Hill Players' 2012 production of The Curious Savage. Her character was an inpatient resident of a mental health facility. Her character was obstinate, oppositional-defiant, and wandered around giving an itemized list of everything she hated. But there is a new resident who gradually cuts a path to her heart. And she has this moment of character transformation, deep in the second act, which she set up so beautifully. She sets out on another rant of hating everything, be it peanuts, 7-up, snowflakes, board games, music, and her face softens in confusion as she realizes there is at least one thing on this planet that she does not hate. She relents and says she likes the said resident. And in reflecting on what a gift she was to the Richmond Hill community, it makes me extra sad that we have lost her. But happy that she has moved onto her eternal reward.
Another great thing Eugenia did, as a director, was cast my wife, Sara, in one of the lead roles in Murder on the Rerun in the fall of 2015. Oh heck, I'm already emotional from reminiscing about The Curious Savage, let's just go for broke here. I will tell Sara I like her in everything she does. And as husband, I have to say that. But I didn't love Sara's performance in Murder on the Rerun as a matrimonial obligation. Number one, because we were only just engaged in November of 2015, when they put up the production. Number 2, because it really played to Sara's strengths. Sara played sort of a Clarence the Second Hand Angel type in Murder on the Rerun. She was trying to earn her way into heaven, but there was some technicality that she couldn't. I think she jumped into a lake, stream, or river to steal a coin, left behind by a Yankee soldier, and then accidentally drowned. It was in the late 18th century. But she gets to come back to earth to help solve the murder of an actress. An actress who fell down a flight of stairs, but suspiciously. It's passed off as an accident. Sara's character got to follow the leads around, eating food for the first time in a couple hundred of years, hoping that in doing this good deed from beyond the grave, she just might earn her way from the bad place to the good place. Eugenia knew that Sara would be right for the part. And while auditions are normally a nerve-wracking affair, Eugenia absolutely made Sara at home at Richmond Hill with Murder on the Rerun. The exact same way she had with me in Laughing Stock. She gave the part to Sara after begging her to audition. And got out of Sara what I consider to be perhaps her career best performance. Thanks, Eugenia.
Oh how I wanted to see Doublewide, Texas in 2017. But I did make it to A Doublewide Christmas, and that was the last time I had the privilege of seeing Eugenia Giebel on the Richmond Hill stage. December, 2019.
Eugenia was the type of person who took the trouble and the time of day to come over to where you are and say hello. She came and spoke to me while I was at the Bride and Groom party table on my wedding day. Not that I was avoiding people, mind you, but I may have been experiencing a little bit of burn-out. But I don't mind the fact that in this moment, Eugenia took the opportunity to come over and congratulate me on the wedding nuptials. It was my dad who suggested to invite Eugenia to my wedding. I'm glad he reminded me. I was in one hundred percent agreement, given that at that point, she had stage-managed me, directed Sara, and worked with my dad. It was a natural choice.
The last time I saw Eugenia was at Richmond Hill during the summer clean-up day in July. We sat and had a nice long conversation at the kitchen table that they have set up in the Green Room. I love that table. I've sat there and had many a conversation with many a production staff and many an actor. And Eugenia talked all about her appointments, her medical procedures, the sons she loved so dearly, and past shows.
If only I could ever know that it was the last time I was going to see a person. I would have found something more profound or important to say. That's quoting Forrest Gump, or rather, paraphrasing. Eugenia was a great friend, and I could have done with having her around for a lot longer than we had her. I still feel like we had more shows to do, more work of each other's to pay a ticket to see. As they said at her funeral service, the pastor, that is, she always had everything in order. She would lightly scold me if I didn't have a prop in place during Laughing Stock.
Also, during this show, when I set a ladder for some of the other actors who were doubling as stage hands, and it was their assigned task on the white sheet of stage managing instructions but not mine, I famously remember Eugenia making them go to the north stage entrance and thank me. She forced them to thank me for doing that job. I just love Eugenia for that.
I will miss you Eugenia! Do rest in peace!