Listen to the interview here!
Larry Fecho
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I am happy to be in front of Larry Fecho. Larry, welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Larry Fecho: Thanks for having me.
Toni: Larry, let’s have you tell us a little bit about yourself.
Larry: I have a company called LetUsEnterTrainYou that does teambuilding games for corporate companies, as well as Entourage Entertainment, which does entertainment for corporate involvements. In addition, I’m the artistic director/producer at Genesius Theatre in Reading. We’re a nonprofit theatre that’s been around for 42 years now.
Toni: So you’re a busy guy.
Larry: Very busy.
Toni: Let’s get to the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
Larry: I think inspiration is a number of different things that all come together. What I love about the theatre, which is where my background is, is that inspiration comes from several sources. Let’s say inspiration is collaboration to me; it’s several different groups working together, because you can never do a theatrical presentation by yourself. Even a one-man show has several elements. In order for inspiration to blossom and happen, it has to happen with other people, and I think that’s the best way for it to happen.
Toni: I can tell you that I have asked that question many, many times, and that is the first time collaboration has come up as far as the meaning of inspiration. That’s pretty cool. How do you put that into practice here in Berks County?
Larry: Again, with Genesius Theatre, we do six to eight productions a year. Many times, we use young people. We have an education element to what we do. It’s constantly learning, re-teaching and growing with those people. Again, with a theatrical production, you have to have your director, your actors, your set people, your costume people. If one thing doesn’t work, the whole thing lessens. That’s how I put it into perspective. My inspiration comes from those other people. You’ll be talking, “Why don’t you do this with the show? Why don’t you do that with the show?” Then somebody will say, “Did we ever think to do it this way?” All of a sudden, you have something so amazing that you can't believe. Some of the craziest ideas come out of situations you never expected them to come out of.
Toni: If a collaboration goes bad, does that impact inspiration?
Larry: A little bit, sure. Why not? If a collaboration is not going well … every production, when we do a production has a different dynamic. I think that’s the other thing. It’s progress not perfection I think is the way to put it. When we do a production, each dynamic you have to look at it and say, “This is what we have to work with. These are the problems. Somebody’s not pulling their weight.” We have to now as a group push that person or actually make something else happen. That happens all the time.
Maybe it’s not so bad. You have to punt. Like in life, you have to be able to make things happen. Maybe that actually creates more inspiration.
Toni: I was listening to you and I was thinking that myself, wondering if a collaboration which was the spark of inspiration goes a different way, I would imagine listening to you that it inspires you to even be more creative.
Larry: I think you’re right. My initial thought was no, but then when talking about it, you’re right. That’s exactly the case is that you now have to really get creative and inspired, because you have a deadline. That’s the other thing. You’re in a deadline business. That show is opening. That train has left the tracks. You can't just say, “Oh, we’re going to cancel because we didn’t get it happening.” There’s always this pressure that is a good pressure.
Toni: You mentioned at the top of the interview that you also do training, you have teambuilding, and that’s collaboration. Do you get to witness people being inspired as they’re going through a team building activity, a collaborative activity? Do you see inspiration taking form that way as well?
Larry: For sure. Teambuilding games are awesome for that kind of concept. It takes people in a corporate group to get out of their regular routine and work together in a very different way. You really do see inspiration, you’re right. Today I just did a small team game for my Leads group with the Chamber of Commerce. We get together all the time and we know each other very well, but there was a very different dynamic happening today. You’re right, that’s a good way to put it.
Toni: So you saw the inspiration in action this morning.
Larry: Definitely. They were a little tired at first. “Oh, we have to get up.” But then they got up and they built this whole mousetrap kind of thing, and it was really neat.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Larry: I would say it’s the youth that we work with at Genesius. I was a kid in the theatre. I started when I was 12 years old, many moons ago. I was inspired by a lady by the name of Jane Simmon Miller, who has since passed a long, long time. She instilled that in me, that group of people, that kids are the future and they are the magic. She always felt kids were sponges and were willing to do anything. If you said, “Go do this,” they wouldn’t say, “Oh, I can't do that.” They’re the first to say, “We’ll do it. We’ll make it happen.” I think the youth at our theatre – meaning 21 and younger – are the people that really show me that it can still happen.
Toni: Do you inspire them?
Larry: I think so. I think I have an inspirational way. Sometimes it’s heavy-handed, but yes, I think I can inspire them and have inspired them. I think the very nature of doing theatre is good for anybody. I think it’s inspirational in a very … it starts off kind of crazy and there’s this family dynamic and there’s these ups and these downs and then opening night hits, and it’s very exciting. All of a sudden, it all comes together, and everybody’s happy again. It’s a really love-hate relationship over that time, which you’re aware of, because you’ve done it. It hasn’t changed. It’s the same.
Toni: Thanks for the heads up.
Larry: You keep coming back for more. At least for me, it’s this thing where you keep saying, “You know what, this does work.” All the pain, all the craziness, and all that goes into it is what needs to be for it to be successful.
Theatre is the ultimate teambuilding game, it really is. I would love to take a corporate group and say, “Do this for a while. See what this is like.” You know what? It seems to be everywhere. Broadway – when I talk to professionals doing different things, they may be getting paid or they might have some other nicer situations, but it’s still that same dynamic. It has to go through this hills and valleys thing for it to be inspirational at the end.
Toni: That’s right. What do you want your legacy to be, Larry?
Larry: I think that people know that I did the best I could. That I did the best I could, and that I gave back because I was given so much. If I can have that as a legacy that I did the best I could and I gave back in big ways, in the ways that I could give back, I think that would be a good legacy.
Toni: So you’re demonstrating that by a living legacy at this moment, aren’t you?
Larry: To some degree.
Toni: Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
