John Filgas died last night.
I can't say that John and I were extremely close, but I did count him as a friend and as a collaborator. John was not only deeply committed to improv and theatre, but was also one of the most resilient, kind, and helpful people I've ever met. He was always there to help, doing box office or helping with concessions or anything else that he could do. He performed with Pharmarsupial once, and was a frequent artist at the SFIC Monday Night Jams back when I was on the board there.
I could talk about his long struggles with health, never complaining, and always looking for the joy in his situation.
But I think I want to remember one particular event. The Darkroom Theatre was just discovering the market for stage productions of classic geek movies. He was cast as Prince Humperdink in The Princess Bride and got to strut as swarthy, delicious evil before enthusiastic houses to great reviews. He had been off stage for a while due to health reasons, and watching him during that period was like watching a man reborn to the delight of life. John was a man who loved his art, deeply.
I'm going to miss you, John.
I wish I had spent more time with you, and not been quite so caught up in my little whirlwind.
We'll catch each other next time around.
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Hello, my name is Penny and I am one of what John referred to as his "breeder" friends from Maine. I was pulling some wonderful information off the internet to use as memorabilia at a Remembrance Celebration of John's life that we are planning for August 19th here in Maine and found your site. Perhaps you were not close as you say, however, you captured his spirit perfectly. John was truly one-of-a-kind. Through a life filled with adversity from childhood to adulthood he perservered with a smile on his face, an impish glean in his eye and a humorous quit wit. He touched the lives of many from the east coast to the west coast and will be fondly remembered. Thank you for "Remembering John".
I am another of the "Bangor Breeders." Penny and her husband, Mike, along with my wife, Darlene, and I met John back in 1986 in that production of "Man of La Mancha" Mike spoke of. He was in-your-face gay, and I think he was testing us to see if what our reaction was. Well, we immediately knew he was wacky, but it had nothing to do with is sexual orientation. (You should have seen him trying to do the muleteer walk!) As Mike said, the five of us, were were fast friends for the next 20 years.
John was in dozens of shows here in Maine, and if you knew him, you can guess that two of his favorites were Charley in "Charley's Aunt", and the M.C. in "Cabaret."
For someone with the health problems he had, John was amazingly upbeat and an eternal optimist. As my oldest daughter grew up, she and John developed a close relationship, which, as a father, scared the heck out of me;)
Writing this post brings both a laugh and a tear to my eye. We'll miss him greatly.
Hi everyone. I'm glad that my small tribute was fitting. I, like all of us, really liked John. He helped out at a few of my shows, and I helped out at some of his as well. There's a picture of him in the Pharmarsuial Gallery at http://www.cassandrascall.com/pharmarsupial_gallery.html
He really was one-of-a-kind, and it's hard to believe that he's gone. I just kind of assumed that he'd rally again. He was an amazingly resilient person.
I wish you strength and joy in memories. I'm enjoying learning more about his life in the East.
Hello, My name is Shirley Barnhouse. I am Johns sister. I only heard about this link after talking to Mike tonight. I cannot describe the emotions I am encountering right now. Being brother and sister we didn't always get along. I have to say though for the whole world to hear that I always loved him. He was so out there and despite the major pitfalls he stood up and said no I can do this. I admire him so much because I always back down and then regret it. My son Derek is and was the apple of his eye. We went out to Oakland and when we got there they said he is too young to see him because he is 8. He said in a very Johnlike voice I acme all the way from Maine and I want to see my Uncle John. He sang to him and I tell you if anyone could have saved him he would of. He has tryed to explain to me that it is better that he isn't laying there on machines and that same day my Aunt Muriel died and he told the Doctor that thier souls would meet and go to heaven together. The wisdom of a child. I hope and pray that John knows that he is in our hearts forever.
I hope that people come to celebrate his incredable zest for life and give my brother THE DIVA the send off he deserves. YES I'M READY FOR MY CLOSE UP NOW! DAMN THAT WAS HIM!!!!!
just recently got the Bangor Daily News obit....and it just makes this song run around my mind!
Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.
Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead!
She's gone where the goblins go,
Below - below - below. Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
Let them know
The Wicked Witch is dead!
Jonathan, is that you? Little Jonathan from Bangor? I am very confused by the comment/lyrics you have left on this site, can you explain please? Penny
Hi Penny,
I'd be glad to explain my comments. I was John's boyfriend from September 1983 to December 1984. I met him at UMaine at Orono my frosh year. I lived with him my sophomore semester.
He was a horrid, abusive, despicable excuse of a person at his core and played the part of a cool 'in touch' guy to the rest of the world. It makes sense that he took to acting, as that is all he could do. His real self was rotten.
I'll just tell you about the last night I spent at 70 Court Street, Apt3, in Bangor. It started at work around 5pm. I was going to be late taking him to dinner at BCC (we were both on the UMaine meal plan at the time) so i telephoned to tell him. He answered the phone and cussed me out for interrupting his shower (I wisely had put telephones in EVERY ROOM including the bathroom). So i simply told him to go back to his shower, and left out my message. A co worker overheard a bit of the conversation, and we talked a bit about the 'relationship'. I then decided to take my dinner at Stoddard Commons on the UMaine campus and let John go to BCC himself, as if i'd driven back to bangor by this time i would miss dinner entirely. Because he was so horrid to my first call, i did not give him the courtesy of telling him he'd have to go on his own to BCC by his own means.
So I ate dinner and drove home. I got in and he was LIVID. He missed his dinner entirely. He proceeded to beat me up physically (not the first time, not even the first time that month and probably not the first time that week). John was shorter than me but much stronger. He was shouting and ranting and raving and punching and kicking and pulling my hair. I tried to escape the apartment, but he was so sadistic that he would not let me escape. This went on a couple hours into the late evening. I finally escaped John's grip into the bathroom which had a lock. I went in and locked the door and picked up the phone in desperation to call my co worker at UMaine. I was a mess from being beaten up but managed to wail into the phone, "Rory!!! DON'T LEAVE WORK TILL I GET THERE!!!"
I continued to hide in the locked bathroom for about an hour until John had stopped screaming. I waited for a quiet moment and made a mad dash for the door and got OUT OF THE APARTMENT and to my car. I drove back to work where "Rory" (name changed for privacy reasons) was waiting for me.
When i got there I had a fat lip, a bleeding welt on my foredhead and bite marks on my arm from where John in his fit of abuse had BITTEN ME.
Rory was a few years older, and immediately could see what was going on in this relationship and in that apartment. He cleaned me up and asked that I spend the night at his place, "Just for tonight". So i arrived in the safety of Rory's rescue around 2AM, and got some sleep.
Rory was smart and talked to me about the unsafe situation and that it would be best for me to not contact John at this time, and to just stay, "one more night" at his place.
Rory "one nighted" me for about ten days until I could also see that I could not return to 70 Court Street. I eventually saw what was going on with John in this miserably abusive (both mentally and physically) relationship. Rory's landlord was kind enough to let me stay safe at Rory's place until the end of the semester. And that's how I got out of my abusive relationship with John Filgas.
I don't take kindly to people who beat me up. So when I got his obituary all I could feel was relief that this miserable, horrible, disgusting excuse for a person was gone. And in celebration all I could hear was the song I posted to this blog.
P.S., Penny, no, i am not "little Jonathan". I don't know who that is. The name i post under is real.
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