Tune into musicals during OLLI class

Special to the Green Valley News

The script of Robert Mounts’ life includes tractors, travel and theater. As it has played out, backdrops have ranged from corporate training sites to ancient Greek amphitheaters.

Recently this audio-visual entrepreneur and thespian has shared his theatrical know-how with members of the Green Valley affiliate of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Arizona. Beginning June 2 and continuing weekly through June 23, he’ll explore American musical comedy in a study group titled, “From Showboat to Spelling Bee.”

Mounts was stage-struck as a preschooler when he attended a grammar school play in Peoria, Ill. In third grade he was given his first speaking role in the school production of “Tom Sawyer.”

“I came out in a night cap and night shirt, waved my cane and said, ‘Drat that cat,’” he recalled. “It got a good laugh.”

From then on theater became a consuming passion and avocation. He acted in plays throughout grade and high schools and began directing as a high school senior.

“I liked both acting and directing because they feed off each other,” he said. “Directing makes you a better actor because you learn to think of the whole show instead of just your role.”

Mounts double-majored in English and Speech/Theater at Bradley University in Peoria and earned a master’s degree in theater at the University of Illinois.

During graduate school he acted in a contemporary adaptation of “Macbeth,” in which the Shakespeare tragedy was staged as if it had happened following the Kennedy assassinations and was subjected to television coverage, incessant probing and rumor mongering.

Following graduation and his marriage to Ruth, he began living two lives: Theater occupied his after-five time; writing training films for Caterpillar Tractor Co. was his day job. Caterpillar sent him to the corporation’s European headquarters in Geneva to be the “training guru” for its worldwide dealers. While there he found time to participate in readers’ theater.

“From the mid-’60s through the early ’70s, we traveled for Caterpillar throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, to 23 countries in Africa and to some of the Middle Eastern countries that are now troublesome,” Mounts said.

Returning to the United States, he accepted the position of senior vice president for an advertising agency that handled automobile accounts. In Detroit he acted and directed for community and dinner theaters and the Michigan Opera Theater at the Fisher. He also was president of Stagecrafters, a semi-professional theater in Royal Oak, and directed Ragamuffins, a theatrical venue for teenagers.

“I did ‘State of the Union’ at Greenfield Village Museum and played the Spencer Tracy role,” Mounts recalled.

“Tracy is my hero. He was a very subtle actor, but he always made you believe in the person he was playing. As he himself said, ‘Do your acting, but don’t get caught at it.’”

After 10 years with the ad agency, Mounts started his own company, which initially created corporate films and later taught computer art and prepress to newspapers, magazines, Yellow Page publishers, department stores and manufacturers.

“I got to know Arizona by coming out here to work with companies in Phoenix in the early ’90s,” he said.

A contract assignment for Caterpillar brought Mounts and Ruth to the corporate training center in Green Valley in 1998.

“We toured Green Valley, went home, put the house up for sale, called the real estate agent here and asked him to keep on the watch for us. In a month or two we had a place here,” he recalled.

Since then, Mounts has generously contributed his theatrical expertise to the community. For seven years he taught Shakespeare and Greek theater classes for Green Valley Recreation, and since October 2007 he has led OLLI study groups. Recently he addressed “2,500 Years on Stage,” which explored the evolution of theater during 14 key periods.

“We only got through the 18th century, so we’ll finish the 19th and 20th centuries next fall,” he said.

Counting corporate films as well as live theater, Mounts estimates he has either acted in or directed 120 to 130 shows, including one for the Arizona Repertory Theatre at the University of Arizona and another at Shakespeare in the (Reid) Park. The theatrical pinnacle, however, was when the Detroit Classical Company invited him to go to Greece during the summer of 1999.

“We played “Medea” and a musical version of “The Birds” all over Greece mostly in the ancient amphitheaters,” he said. “The fun of playing there and getting the sense of what original Greek theater must have felt like was the high point of my education.”

Mounts especially likes musicals. His favorites include the “Man of La Mancha,” which reinterprets heroism, and “My Fair Lady,” which explores the interpersonal relationship between the “know-it-all” and the “wants-to-learn-it-all.”

“Eliza Doolittle learns it all to the point that she outshines Henry Higgins, which is a bit annoying to him,” Mounts explained.

He’ll reveal more favorite musicals during his OLLI/GV study group, which will meet at Casa de Esperanza from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays in June.

To enroll in this or any of the 13 summer study groups, pick up a membership/registration packet at the Joyner-Green Valley Library, or contact Penny Schmitt at the OLLI/UA office (520) 626-9039 or ollimail@u.arizona.edu.

For more information, visit www.olli.arizona.edu.