Photo courtesy of Choate Flickr
By Steven Ke ’27
On April 9, Mr. Thomas Viertel ’59 returned to Choate to receive the Choate Alumni Award and share his experience as a Broadway producer with students. In addition to giving a speech and answering questions during School Meeting, Mr. Viertel spoke with students during a luncheon at the Sally Hart Lodge and watched a spring musical rehearsal for Into the Woods, a show that Mr. Viertel produced on Broadway.
Every year, an alumnus is awarded the Choate Alumni Award to celebrate their accomplishments in their respective fields. This year, the Development Office invited Mr. Viertel to honor his remarkable achievements in theater.
As a former member of the Board of Governors of the Broadway League and longstanding Chairman of the Board of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Mr. Viertel has proven himself a luminary of the theater industry. “He’s had such an outstanding career. Forty years in any business is really impressive and also, he’s so vivacious,” Director of Development Communications Mrs. KeriAnne Tisdale said. “His work with the O’Neill Theater is really outstanding. To be the chairman of a board for 24 years [is] quite a lot of your personal dedication and selflessness because that’s not a paid position.”
In his speech at School Meeting, Mr. Viertel spoke about his experience at Choate and reminisced on former traditions, such as the compulsory attendance of football games and daily chapel gatherings. He highlighted Choate’s role in shaping his values, crediting the School’s honor code for shaping his strong moral compass. “The theater business is renowned for crooked producers. For me, that was never, and it hasn’t been true at all. I think I came into this [industry] with a strong sense of integrity,” Mr. Viertel said. “That was something that Choate said; it was important that whatever you do, you do it in a way that’s forthright, honest, just transparent, and people will come to trust you.”
After School Meeting, Mr. Viertel attended a luncheon at Sally Hart Lodge, where he conversed with Choate students in a smaller, more personal setting. Leanne Parks ’25, who attended the luncheon, gained new insights about the theater industry and found his advice reassuring. “I gained a new sense of understanding for [the role of a] producer. I didn’t realize they were so connected to the actual production. He just grounded me because I want to be in the theater business, and seeing someone who would like to make [shows] happen and seeing someone so kind just comforted me,” Parks said.
Arts Concentration student Jordan Dodd ’25’s most memorable takeaway from speaking with Mr. Viertel at the luncheon was the importance of creating shows you enjoy watching and that are truly authentic to you. “He simply said, ‘I go with what I like even if it is a flop because I know I’ll be able to sit through it 100 times’ … Even though we do a lot of things for money, it’s also important to do a lot of things for yourself,” Dodd said.
Mr. Viertel’s visit gave students a look into how Choate has shaped his success and reminded students of the extensive alumni network they will eventually become a part of: “I hope that students left feeling like ‘Wow, I’m tied to this person because we’re both going to be Choate alumni,’” Mrs. Tisdale said.
