Cover Story

Jean Maday '62

Chuck & Marilyn '62 Dause

Mercy College's theater & choral groups lifted spirits

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, some students on the Mercy College of Detroit Campus took a classic break from classes by joining the choral group, theater group or both.

Jean Maday ’62 sang alto in the choral group, which then had 25 members. She and her classmates looked forward to the Christmas program and other annual performances. Ten members of the Mercy choral group also sang for the USO.

As an English/Theater major earning a secondary education degree, Maday reveled in behind-the-scenes work as  stage manager, set builder, and costume procurer. She also enjoyed some acting roles and chorus work for musicals.

For the male parts, the College (which at the time was an all-women’s college) sought actors from the Van Guard Theater in Detroit and professional troupes. The College also tapped into the talent of local high school and college students for certain roles.

Performances included “The Diary of Ann Frank,” “Oklahoma,” and “Kiss Me Kate.” The Mercy Theater also did a Mark Twain series and brought in guest speakers, singers and dancers for an Artist Series. Mercy students did the lighting and staging for these performances.

Marilyn (Kozara) Dause ’62, a Speech, Drama and Education major, had lead roles in several musicals and in the opera, “The Bohemian Girl.” She played one of two Kates, along with Carol Jackson ’63, in “Kiss Me Kate.” Chuck Dause played Petruchio, which enabled their romance to bloom on stage and in real life. (They had met the summer before when both worked on the SS South American, a vessel that cruised the Great Lakes.)

Mercy professor Jim Foote taught speech and directed plays. His colleague Al Zolton worked on the musicals with Anthony Marlowe, a famous operatic singer from New York. Marlowe was Mercy’s musical director for the major performances and gave voice lessons to the college singers.

“He was a pro,” Dause said of Marlowe. “But, he could make you cry on stage if you weren’t doing the right thing.”

Theater work launched these graduates into productive careers. Maday directed performances at Catholic high schools in Detroit and Monroe for several years while working at a local college. She then moved to Lansing and worked for the Michigan Department of Education, where she advanced to director of scholarships and grants before retiring in 1997. Her entertainment now focuses on antique cars. She can be seen around town on warm days driving her pink 1957 Ford Thunderbird.

Chuck Dause retired recently after serving 45 years as a professor, associate dean and debate coach with UDM’s College of Liberal Arts & Education. Marilyn taught “Auditorium” at Detroit Public Schools. The Dauses, who reside in West Bloomfield, have four children (all UDM graduates) and eight grandchildren.