Easy Street and its chief are on road to recovery

Todd Hancock got his first warning while onstage.

He felt a strange sensation in his right hand during a performance of “Putnam County Spelling Bee” last November.

Hancock, director of Easy Street Productions, was playing the role of the school principal in the musical-comedy at Ford Family Recital Hall.

As he grabbed the microphone, which he used to give the words to the students in the bee, his hand went numb. “I thought I had gotten a shock from the microphone,” he said. “For the rest of the play, I kept flexing that hand to make it feel better.”

As he found out a few weeks later, that twinge was a mini-stroke. It was the first sign of a problem that would put Hancock on a surgeon’s table a few weeks later with a left carotid artery that was 85 percent blocked.

A stent was placed in the artery Jan. 11 at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, and Hancock spent the next six weeks recuperating. Today, he is almost fully recovered and bears none of the physical after-effects that can result from a stroke.

Looking as youthful as ever, Hancock, 45, knows he got lucky. “The doctor told me, ‘That was your warning. Some people never get one.’” he said.

He has taken that warning to heart, kicking the heavy cigarette habit that he has had most of his life.

But there were two other contributing factors: a family history of arterial-plaque buildup and stress.

“I was definitely burning the candle at both ends,” said Hancock. “‘Putnam’ was going on, and we were also reorganizing ‘Miracle on Easy Street’ [the annual Christmas production] and rehearsing the 13 new songs we had added to it. Plus, I was handling all of the advertising end of it to save money.”

He figured the numbness he experienced during “Putnam” was carpal tunnel syndrome from too much computer work. “I wrote it off,” he said. “The last thing I would have thought was that it was a blockage.”

After “Putnam” closed, Easy Street went immediately into “Miracle” — a demanding show in which Hancock had multiple scenes.

On Dec. 22, the Monday after “Miracle” closed, Hancock went to Powers Auditorium to take down the set and return costumes. “Midway through the day, while I was driving the truck, I felt nauseous,” he said. “The weird feeling returned to my right side, only this time it ran all the way up my arm and all the way down to my foot.”

He had a hard time speaking and pulled over and rested until he felt better. “I felt discombobulated, and I thought I was dehydrated,” he said.

Hancock had let his medical insurance lapse 18 months before, but he went to a doctor the next day and soon learned he would need surgery.

These days, Hancock said he feels better than ever — although he admits he probably couldn’t sing for a whole show because the operation has left soreness in his neck, where the blockage was.

Easy Street was forced to take a short break, but Hancock is cranking things up again, raising funds and planning the next production (no details yet on what or when it will be).

The recession has hurt most theater companies, and Easy Street — which spends upwards of $100,000 to stage its large musicals — took a particularly hard shot.

“It was a one-two punch for me,” said Hancock about his health problem and the ticket slump. “But we’re getting back on our feet and hoping for a happy ending. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.”