Willow Glen Resident

News

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Act I: Gavin Coffing (right) is the director of 'Stages of the Moon,' a citywide theater program offered through the San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department.

For Coffing the whole world is a stage

By Lisa Sibley

At 24, Amy Shackelford is bursting with enthusiasm and exuding confidence, a far cry from the quiet and shy 10-year-old she once was. Gavin Coffing has a little something to do with that change.

Her mother found a community brochure for a theater program and enrolled her in it, and Shackelford performed in her first play at age 10. That was the end of her bashfulness, and how she first met Coffing.

"Gavin has this way of drawing confidence out of people without being intimidating," she says. "He just knows what each kid needs to grow--to grow as a person, instead of an actor."

Coffing, who lives in San Jose, is the director of "Stages of the Moon," a citywide theater program offered through the San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department. During the summer, he leads a four-week children's theater summer camp. Young adults such as Shackelford and Julia Weiland, who were once participants as children, now staff the summer camp using everything from leadership skills to their vocal chords.

"Gavin basically is the heart of this program," says Weiland, a Willow Glen resident. Weiland, 24, is a University of California-Berkeley graduate who is headed to law school in the fall.

The summer theater camp is held in Bramhall Park, on Willow Street between Lincoln and Meridian avenues. For the next few weeks, children will romp through the park, participating in improvisational theater, games and crafts. The grassy park and the shade of the trees become their stage.

The culmination of the camp is the presentation of an original play written by Coffing and performed in the park's outdoor, forest-like amphitheater for parents, family and friends.

The energy Coffing has poured into the theater program has not gone unnoticed.

San Jose City Council members recognized Coffing on June 27 with a commendation for more than 38 years of outstanding service to the city. He has more than 50 years of theatrical experience.

"It was really wonderful," Coffing says. "It was the support of parents and the community that made it happen. I was really very grateful."

The play's the thing

Coffing was asked to direct his first play at age 20 in Marin County with the Ross Valley Players. He earned his master's in theater from the University of California-Los Angeles. He was hired by the parks and recreation department in 1968 as the junior theater director. The program was later discontinued due to Proposition 13.

In 1988, he began the Willow Glen Children's Theater Program, which operated out of Edwin Markham Junior High School--the school changed its name to Willow Glen Middle School in the 1980s--and the Willows Senior Center. He has also worked as a youth services supervisor for District 1 and 6.

Although he retired in 2004, Coffing, 72, continues to direct the theater program year-round as a volunteer, touching thousands of local children in the process.

"I retired two years ago because they couldn't afford to keep me," says Coffing, who is hard to miss in his signature attire, a "Stages of the Moon" shirt, khaki pants and a cap. He sports a collection of hats.

An added benefit of being a volunteer, Coffing says, is that he no longer has to submit time cards or staff reports, or attend meetings.

Coffing describes his directing style as one that isn't big on interference. He doesn't participate in the acting.

"They are not going to learn anything if I do it," he says, later adding, "It's not humility that keeps me out of being in the spotlight. It's the way I like it."

Coffing teaches his students by making sure they don't play a role as he would play it.

"I take a very indirect approach," Coffing says. "I try to make things happen without intruding. I've just evolved that technique over the years."

He doesn't give them line readings or instruct them by "blocking a play," which means telling the actors where to move when he is directing.

"Gavin is open to letting the actors find their characters on their own," 20-year-old Chris Cardenas says.

Coffing teaches students to act, but he doesn't necessarily encourage them to pursue acting as a career.

"This is a very family-orientated program," Coffing says. "We get a kid, and then a couple years later we get their brother or sister."

Coffing has become more than just the program's director to several of his former students; Cardenas, a New York University student home for the summer, helps staff the camp. Cardenas grew up as a participant, and has been working at the summer program for seven years. The two have become good friends, even frequenting comedy clubs together in their spare time.

Other staff members, such as Weiland, have a tradition of taking Coffing out every year for his birthday to see a silent movie. Coffing will often reciprocate by inviting staff members to parties at his house.

"The effect he has on people's lives goes beyond the program," Weiland says. "I just think Gavin, in a huge way, has contributed to the person that I am."

For more information about the children's theater program, call the Willows Senior Center at 408.448.6400.