Mother passes along love of stage to son

By Milan Paurich

One of the busiest and most versatile performers on the tri-state area community theater scene, Molly Galano knew that she wanted to act since the first grade.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Galano was exposed to a lot of theater — both community and professional — by her artistically inclined parents. In her 30-plus years of trodding the boards, Galano reckons that she’s appeared in more than 70 shows.

Since moving to the Youngstown area in 1999, Galano has performed at the Youngstown and New Castle Playhouses, Trumbull New Theatre, the Victorian Players, the Actor’s Project and the Oakland Center for the Arts.

This September, Galano had the rare opportunity to act alongside her youngest son, 18-year-old Youngstown State University student Cheney Morgan, in a New Castle Playhouse production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie.” Although Galano and Morgan had shared the same stage previously while playing dancing cutlery in the Youngstown Playhouse’s “Beauty and the Beast,” (“He was the fork, stage right; I was the knife, stage left,” Galano said with a laugh), it was the first time mother and son truly “acted” together.

As it turns out, Morgan’s casting in “Glass Menagerie” came as a bit of a shock to Galano.

“I didn’t even know Cheney was planning to audition. Needless to say it was a fun surprise for us to be able to act together in such a lovely show.”

Galano has always prided herself on being the antithesis of the classic “stage mother.”

“I can’t remember ever telling him, ‘Look, you’ve got to go out for this show.’ Or, ‘Why don’t you take a class?’,” she said. “I was happy just to have him involved in crew stuff. Just because I love it doesn’t necessarily mean that my children will. The spark has to be there to begin with; they have to feel it within themselves.”

In fact, Morgan initially resisted the idea of performing. “I had no burning desire to be an actor; I was perfectly content crewing,” he said. “But after working on several shows, I began thinking about what it would be like to be onstage,” he continued. “I was still a little iffy about it when my mom got a call from Candy Dillulo asking if I’d be interested in auditioning for ‘Biloxi Blues’ down at the Playhouse. So I showed up and wound up getting cast. It was through that experience that I discovered how cool acting can be,” he said.

While Morgan and Galano are eager to work together again, they don’t have any immediate plans for a reprise of their “Menagerie” experience. “He’s finding his path, I’m continuing mine and I’m enjoying watching his discoveries,” Galano said. “When and if we wind up onstage together again, it will probably be a happy accident in something that neither one of us expected.”

Which isn’t to say they aren’t busy thinking about possible future pairings. Not surprisingly, mother and son roles figure prominently on both their “wish lists.” Galano is particularly keen on Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” while Morgan leans more toward another Miller play, “All My Sons.”

“I’d love the chance to play Chris with my mom as Kate. I read the script for a scene at YSU and thought they were really great parts,” Morgan said. “I think Cheney could do some great work with either Biff or Happy,” Galano added. “The range is huge and the emotional content is exhausting, but the rewards are immense.”