Matthew Tomlanovich (The Tomlanovich family)
Matthew Tomlanovich, a longtime professor, director, actor and mentor in the Dallas theater community, died Sunday, Oct.19, after battling complications ensuing from an MRSA infection that left him paralyzed and hospitalized in a Dallas facility since April 3. He was 54 and spent his last moments surrounded by his wife of 21 years, Claudia Stephens, a professor of costume design at Southern Methodist University, their sons Raisch, 19, and Eli, 17, and friends whispering love and encouragement.
The Michigan native, who had earned a masters from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and an MFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts, taught at SMU, University of North Texas and UT Dallas, and was acclaimed for his work with Junior Players, which began in 2000 and continued until he got sick this year. He also revived the Margo Jones Theatre in Fair Park in 2013 as a venue for emerging theater organizations.
“Matt and I enjoyed working in the theater, each in our own ways,” Stephens said. “I am a costume designer, he was everything else: actor, director, voice coach, playwright, mentor, teacher, father, producer and ultimately landlord or ‘chief cook and janitor’ at the Margo Jones Theatre. In all of his roles, he challenged his collaborators, students, other teachers, theater artists, children and yes, even me, to think intensely, to speak boldly, to discover new challenges, to experiment and to create without fear, to live, most recently one day at a time. Everyone he met had value in his eyes, always.”
John Michael Colgin, 25, was in high school when he met Tomlanovich in the Junior Players program in 2006. Tomlanovich cast him as an officer in The Comedy of Errors.
“He made me feel I had something worthwhile to offer. No one had ever made me feel that way before,” Colgin said.
Colgin, now an activities director at a senior care facility in Dallas, said Tomlanovich taught him to be a kinder person, to see the good in people and not to panic if he found himself in a situation on or off stage where he didn’t know what to do next.
“He would say the best part about being lost is that you’ve never been there before.”
Stephens and her husband enjoyed fly fishing, museums in Paris and hanging out with family and particularly liked the way their minds “intertwined,” as she put it, over crossword puzzles.
“Together, we could do every day of the New York Times crosswords. Truly, he was better at them than I, especially with the tricky Thursday puzzle. But we needed each other to finish Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I will be lost without him.”
A memorial service will be held Nov. 22 at 4:30 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Church, 9845 McCree Blvd., Dallas. The family requests donations in his name be made to the Margo Jones Theatre, 1st Ave. in Fair Park, Dallas.