'Sound of Music' director has long list of experiences

Veteran community theater actor and director Bill Slicker sums his life on the stage in one short, powerful line:

"It is ecstasy."

Slicker has been strutting the boards since he was a young man back in Missouri. But it's perhaps these latter years as a director in community theater productions that he's finally finding his greatest role.

As an actor his reward was "applause," while these days his heart is warmed by the beauty of something in the bigger picture: "a successful production."

"For a director, it is wonderful to see the finished product, how the actors grow as they come together," Slicker said, smiling. "To see all of that is personally satisfying."

That satisfaction is what fuels Slicker, 77, to keep going, too. At an age when some folks opt for ease and quiet in their retirement, the has-to-move Slicker is directing a 35-person musical production of "The Sound of Music."

"I'm not limping or walking with a cane! I just wouldn't be able to put up with myself if I had to sit still. Watch your health, stay active and you don't have to worry about your age."

Slicker and his wife came to Yuma in 1995 to retire, but it didn't take long before the acting bug caught up and gave him another good bite.

He began by teaching classes ranging from theater arts and crafts to theater production at Arizona Western College. Then he hooked up with Yuma Community Theater and began directing shows, though he hasn't yet appeared in front of the lights.

"There aren't many roles for old men," Slicker said.

His love for theater actually began as a passion for music. Since his high school in Jefferson City, Mo., didn't have a drama club, he didn't play his first role until college. In the meantime he played piano, sang in the choir and played trumpet in the band, a flourish of musical talent that came as quite a surprise to his nonmusical family.

"I was the weed in the cornfield!"

But it was during high school that Slicker got his first taste of the power of theater from a seat in the audience when he would travel to St. Louis to catch a big, glitzy show. His favorites were numbers like "The Chocolate Soldier" and "Desert Fire."

"That was my impetus to get into theater," he said, striking his chest for emphasis. "I just thought it was neat. It was what I wanted to do."

But first, there was a war to fight - World War II. Slicker graduated from high school in 1945 and promptly enlisted in the Army.

"I was going to have to go anyhow. I was proud - ready."

But when the military realized his musical talents, instead of being sent to the front lines, the much safer assignment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point came Slicker's way. Slicker said he thinks that stroke of luck probably saved his life, too.

"Maybe I don't want to admit it, but yes, I do think that," he said. "I didn't have any fighting."

Slicker performed with the academy's Army band for a year and a half, with a highlight being a trip to Philadelphia for the Army versus Navy football game. Another honor, although not as exciting to Slicker, was the band's frequent performances for President Harry Truman.

"It was like an everyday occurrence. We were trained to play and march."

Slicker attended what's now known as Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo., where he earned a degree in music education and a master's degree in fine arts. That began a long series of jobs taking him all over Missouri and Iowa as a high school music teacher.

Slicker said bringing music into young people's lives was a "tremendous feeling" for him.

"I think music fills a void in their life that they would have if they didn't have music or some other kind of art. Mathematics and that kind of stuff is okay, but students need something creative in their systems, too."

Slicker's greatest frustration as an educator, however, is something that has only worsened with the passing of years.

"Drugs and prolific sex," he said. "You know it's there and you know they're doing it. I also can't accept their present-day language - the cursing and the foul language, as I call it."

But getting along with young people, he added, has never been a challenge.

"For me that was always easy. It still is. I can relate to them, although it is a little more difficult in this day and age than when I first started."

Slicker said he missed that direct connection with students when he earned a master's degree in school administration and began a new career as a principal and then superintendent for various small-town schools in Iowa.

"It was lonely and hazardous at the top," he said. "Anything that goes wrong, it's your fault. Plus, you try as much as you can to involve yourself with students, but it's just not there."

Slicker returned to the classroom before retiring in 1995.

In all, he taught for 42 years, during most of which time, he also was performing or directing with community theater groups. For three years he also owned his own dinner theater in Ft. Madison, Iowa, where The Paddlewheel Players put on three big shows a season.

"My wife was the producer and I was the director."

While theater circles in Yuma rejoiced in getting a guy with Slicker's experience, he insists that he was the one celebrating. That's because he was blown away by what he found.

"If I could sing the praises of a local community theater, it's at AWC. I think it's just great. All the instructors are not only professors but mentors to their students."

Slicker also gushed about Yuma Community Theater, an organization that he said boasts professional-level talent from folks who do everything but perform as their profession.

"I've overwhelmed with the talent here," he said, smiling. "There's more talent out there than people realize."

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Darin Fenger can be reached at

dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860.