The Passing of an Artist - Miguel Toruño

I have been struggling to process and put into words my thoughts on the passing of Miguel Toruño this past weekend.

It's hard to believe his work was done - it seemed in many ways he was just beginning again. No one person can be neatly wrapped up in a few paragraphs or pictures, and I know I will fail to do him justice; but it seems the least I can do is share a bit of my memory of him. While I can’t say that I knew Miguel for a particularly long time - I can say that in the time I did know him, he made an impact.

I was introduced to him through a mutual friend who took part in the first NYC reading of his play “Katie” in November 2016. I remember sitting in the audience and being struck by how thoroughly conflicted I felt when it was over. It moved me to debate, and argue, and question my own opinions of ethics and morality. Which felt profound, as someone who has and continues to see a lot of theatre. His play was provoking, and moving… and this was only his first one…

Several months later (summer 2017) Miguel returned to NYC to mount a larger scale production of “Katie". But he needed help getting the lay of the land. How did he find a stage manager? How would rehearsals be structured? What was our marketing strategy? Could I design a poster? We’d meet everyday over endless cups of coffee to tackle to-do lists, and then make new ones. Needless to say, it felt as if we were embarking on a journey to push the biggest boulder in creation up a mountain. But Miguel, formerly an attorney for the Manhattan DA’s office and the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics, was no stranger to adversity, or uphill battles. And throughout the course of funding and mounting his first play, Miguel never faltered. He was so driven and passionate and EXCITED about the work. And that was infectious.

I remember one instance in particular when his tenacity was rewarded: We had ordered a ton of post cards printed with the poster image on them, in hopes of passing them out to local coffee shops, schools, businesses, etc. On one particular day our mission was to visit as many hotel concierge desks in midtown as we could. So there we were - sweating in the NYC summer heat, beelining it to any concierge we could find and politely asking if they’d place our little postcard out next to the ad’s for other shows like Wicked, and Aladdin, and Miss Saigon. Some concierges put them in a drawer saying they would see what they could do. Others would lay out a small pile. A few flat out rejected us. Another didn’t speak English, which was no trouble at all as Miguel slipped seamlessly into Spanish. But if we’re being honest, most of those cards probably never saw the light of day. We both knew that. But no matter. A week later we circled back around, retracing our steps, to see if anyone wanted more (but mostly to see if they actually laid them out). We were frequently let down, hotel after hotel. Until finally we stumbled back to a certain concierge who immediately recognized Miguel, and before we could say anything asked him if he had anymore cards - she had run out! She mentioned she had been talking the show up and was looking forward to seeing it herself. - I’ll never forget the look on Miguel’s face. He was so proud. He had succeeded. And the size of the success was irrelevant. It might have only been one hotel, but his foot was in the door.

I had interviewed him once and asked - “Who did you write this play for and why?” In part of his response he said, “… I think law and ethics are more complicated than we like to think, and we don't have enough opportunities to really delve into where we stand on many important issues in these areas… Theater provides a perfect conduit for this. Theater allows audience members to examine these issues in a live setting and to be a personal part of a debate in a way that other entertainment formats don't allow. It's incredibly rewarding to be part of making that happen.”

I’m not sure I ever fully expressed this to him at the time, so I would like to say to Miguel now that it was also incredibly rewarding to be a part of helping him make it happen - of bringing his first play to fruition. And that I am so deeply saddened that we will never get to see what he could have done next. But I know he was proud.

Miguel was proof that humans are so incredibly multi-faceted, and capable of multitudes. We are driven by numerous passions, and we are fully capable of pursuing a myriad of paths at any one time. - We can begin again. Learn new things. Reinvent ourselves. Bring people together who would have otherwise never met. And I am eternally grateful for his example. And for "Katie". And for theater.