As his obituary put it, Boswell, who encouraged scores of Springfielders to devote their talent and energy to local theater productions, “left this world, stage right, on Feb. 3, 2022.”
The Springfield native was 84.
Born Sept. 24, 1937, he graduated from Springfield High School, served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and returned after a stint with Macy’s, Inc., to work in his hometown’s upscale department store, Wren’s.
As the successful director of sales, public relations and visual marketing, he regularly made buying trips to and took in Broadway productions. On those trips, he developed an eye not only for clothing but for the artistry of the world’s best dramatists and set designers.
Ann Armstrong-Ingoldsby, who worked for Boswell at Wren’s, recalls early involvement in revues Boswell organized and staged with store employees.
“He wrote most of it. And -- I’ve got to give her credit – his wife, Jerri Sue, was the arts, creative costume kind of person.”
At work and on stage, Boswell’s energy and creativity shone.
“He was always thinking, said Armstrong-Ingoldsby. “I can’t imagine living with him, because he was up half the night thinking.”
Boswell and his wife had adopted Korean-born Sunni Boswell after his service there, and from an early age, she took in “the nights of rehearsals, the sewing machine grinding, fittings -- parties, shows and his writing and direction.”
“He had a youthful quality to him, and he had a sense of fun,” she said. “And he gave a lot of people a lot of starts” in their theater lives and careers.
Out of the Wren’s shows grew the Potluck Players, actors from the store and larger community. They performed skits at the Bancroft Hotel, churches and local social clubs.
Nancy Mahoney joined that group in part because Boswell, who had once taught dancing for Arthur Murray Studio, taught her the dance steps for a Springfield Civic Theater performance of “Walking Happy,” in which both were cast.
“The choreographer would teach us a step, and I could not get it,” she said. Boswell “was so good at breaking down those steps for me into little pieces.”
In 1972, the Potluck Players began an 18-year run of Christmas shows, with radio personality Smilin’ Bob Yontz’s Breakfast With Santa at Wren’s.
The performances not only lit up the eyes of children but entertained their parents with slapstick humor. “Twas the Night Before,” the most frequently performed holiday show, included a scene in which an evil eye was cast at a certain rodent that continued to stir a bowl full of batter as a cast member insisted that “not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”
“Those little Christmas shows, I’m so proud of them,” said Rowe.
In them, as in so many productions in which Rowe was either a performer, co-director of set designer, Boswell’s ability to see the larger picture was evident.
“He could envision the whole show,” Rowe said. “He knew what it was going to look like before you even had a cast.”
The lighting, the costumes and the sets were all part of that vision, as were some of his best directorial decisions.
Actor Dennis Latimer recalls the dramatic ending Boswell’s envisioned for his directorial debut of the Springfield Civic Theatre’s sold-out performances of the musical “Cabaret.”
In a show that foreshadowed the brutality of the Hitler regime, the show did not end with the usual cast call.
“It was Jerry’s idea for somebody to pull a cord and this rolled up Nazi flag came down as we walked off the stage in dead silence.” The cast immediately proceeded to the lobby to greet the departing audience.
Another memorable choice, Latimer said, was Boswell’s decision to do “12 Angry Men” as a theater-in-the-round in the Springfield Art Museum, allowing the angered characters to mingle in the audience.
Boswell also gave memorable acting performances at the then Cliff Park Amphitheater, among them, as the devil “Applegate” in “Damn Yankees” and the lead in “Cohan,” about George M. Cohan.
He also directed Arts Festival productions in which he sometime was imperiously dismissive of actors whose notions about their roles ran afoul of his.
On the other hand, Mahoney said, “it was amazing the talent Jerry was able to coax out of those folks.”
All of his contributions were involved in his being awarded the Civic Theater’s award for distinguished contributions.
Boswell later went on to develop the talent of older Springfielders with the Spryliters and also showed his affection for seniors by working and performing in nursing homes.
No one, however, may have received more of his support than Rowe, whose life was changed when he stopped at Wren’s after being a clown in the 1976 holiday parade in which several employees took part.
Rowe, who plays piano by ear, was doing when Boswell asked him if he could accompany him on a tune, then asked if Rowe could change the key to fit Boswell’s voice.
When Rowe did, there began a decades long collaboration began which Rowe details in a moving Facebook post.
“We wrote songs together, we wrote the musical ‘The Big Game, in 1977, we wrote over a dozen of the Wren’s Breakfast with Santa show and published our favorite.
“For over three decades, he included me in so many, many theater projects, along the way indirectly teaching me so much. When I began performing in night clubs, (he was) often writing special material for me or giving me a little extra confidence when needed.”
The post concluded with these words: “I am so very fortunate that he shared his many gifts with me over the years, and I am beyond grateful. Rest in peace, dear friend.”
The family suggests that memorial contributions may be directed to the Animal Welfare League or the Alzheimer’s Association.
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