Couple give back to Footlight

Alan Hawes
The Post and Courier

Dr. Carl Korn, an actor in plays at the Footlight Players 40 years ago, has returned to Charleston with his wife, Sandra. Holding the carefully treasured playbills from the shows in which Korn acted, the Korns have contributed $5,000 to kick-start the new Footlight Players Endowment in memory of Emmett and Pat Robinson.

In the summer of 1968, Dr. Carl Korn was a young naval officer serving as chief of dermatology at the Charleston Naval Hospital. A native of Los Angeles, he knew no one in Charleston, and during his free time roamed the streets searching for a distraction to fill the empty hours.

One day, he saw a notice for auditions for a Footlight Players' production of Frederick Knotts' drama, "Wait Until Dark." He walked into the theater and met director Dottie D'Anna, and told her, "I'm from Hollywood and I can act," recalls Korn, who had appeared on television in roles in "The Virginian" and "Mannix." D'Anna said the play had just been cast, but for him to read for her anyway in case a role became vacant.

Two days later, he received a call saying that he was cast in the show.

"Life was never the same for me after that," says Korn. "I became such good friends with Emmett and Pat Robinson and, through volunteering at the theater, began meeting all kinds of people in Charleston; I truly felt at home." In May 1969, before he was reassigned by the Navy, Korn appeared in William Goodhart's play, "Generations."

Meanwhile, back at his job at the Naval Hospital, Korn was working in the emergency room when a young woman named Sandra was brought in by her husband because she had an earache.

Twenty-three years later, Korn met the same woman when he was visiting his mother in a Los Angeles nursing home, where Sandra was a geriatric social worker.

"We started talking about places we had lived, and I remembered him because he didn't want to give me an antibiotic, and I persuaded him to, and he remembered me because he thought I was a little Italian girl who gave him a hard time," recalls Sandra Korn.

As both were single again, they began dating, and after marrying, often took vacations in Charleston. Last year, the two retirees purchased a home downtown.

"We feel we have now returned home," says Korn. "And we love being here."

To show his appreciation to the Footlight Players for getting him through a rough patch, Korn and his wife have donated $5,000 to kick-start the Footlight Players Endowment in memory of Emmett and Pat Robinson, who were mainstays of the theater for many years where they directed, acted, built sets and wrote plays.

Now retired after a career in medicine, Korn says, "Acting in those two plays meant more to me than any of the number of recognitions associated with the medical world I've received over nearly 40 years. And I want to make sure the Footlight Players is always around to impact the lives of thousands of more people."

For information on contributing to the Footlight Players Endowment, call 722-7821.

'Baring Body and Soul'

"Baring Body and Soul," an exhibit inspired by the Footlight Players' musical "The Full Monty," is on display at the theater, 20 Queen St. The exhibition will run through May 11, with the musical concluding that day with a matinee performance.

An example of how two local arts groups, the Charleston Artist Guild and the Footlight Players are working to promote the arts, the exhibit features the fine art photography of Olli Wendelin. The photographs are images of the cast members from "The Full Monty," along with several other models.

Elaine Hruska, president of the Charleston Artist Guild, invited Wendelin to show some of his work in the lobby of the Footlight Players' theater.

"I have always been interested in theater, and so I thought it would be nice to incorporate the cast members into the exhibit," says Wendelin, who adds he has often been asked what differentiates nudity in art from nudity representing baser themes.

"I feel I capture not only the body but also the soul of my subjects," he says. "People are infinitely more interesting than objects," he says. "When you dehumanize the person, you create something shameful; however, when you celebrate the individual spirit, the personality and the body beautiful, you create a work of art."

"The Full Monty" is about a group of former employees of a closed steel mill in Buffalo, N.Y. The men turn to dancing as male strippers to make some badly needed money. The women in the cast are their wives and girlfriends.

Director Robert Ivey says, "Mr. Wendelin came to the theater and gave a presentation to the cast. He then set up times for some of the actors to come, individually, to his studio on James Island to be photographed." Wendelin's collection consists of about 25 photographs with some showing isolated body parts such as an actor's feet or torso and some full-bodied, like an actor doing a backbend.

Born in Finland, Wendelin moved at age 2 with his family to the United States, where he studied photography at the University of Miami. As a scuba diver, he began taking underwater photographs of marine life and had his photographs appear in Skin Diver magazine. He has called Charleston home since 1961.

The past 34 years, Wendelin has traveled the world photographing such exotic places as Greece, Italy and islands in the Caribbean. Having worked with all types of photo media, in the past five years, he has gravitated toward digital photography and seeks perfection through the camera lens.

"A photographer should spend more time behind the camera than in front of the computer," Wendelin says, referring to a current photographic catch phrase: "I'll fix it later in Photoshop."

CSO Chamber Singers

The CSO Chamber Singers, accompanied by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, will perform Arthur Honegger's "King David" at 7:30 p.m. May 11 at Citadel Square Baptist Church.

Honegger (1892-1955) originally wrote "King David" as incidental music for a production of the play "Le Roi David" by Swiss playwright Rene Morax in 1921.

The work is based on the life of the biblical King David and was expanded to 27 different episodes. Honegger combined the music with a narrative by Morax linking the musical numbers. He presented "Le Roi David" as a symphonic psalm in 1923, the form in which it usually is performed today.

Tickets are $15 for the general public and $5 for students and senior citizens, and are available at the door.

Reach Dottie Ashley at 937-5704 or at dashley@postand courier.com.