Memories of Sister Leonilla Barlage, OP

By Jennifer Hamlin Church

Life upon the wicked stage ain’t nothin’ for a girl,” according to the Broadway musical Showboat. But Siena’s Little Theater stage? Now that was something else!

Students at Siena Heights from the 1940s through the ‘60s found inspiration, encouragement, hard work, even careers
in The Little Theater in the basement of Sacred Heart Hall. And also in the classroom, in the radio and later TV studio, and on the Walsh Hall (now Sage) stage—all under the direction of speech and drama teacher Leonilla Barlage, OP.

The late Betty Theisen ’44, a pillar of the SW Michigan arts community as the St. Joseph High School drama teacher for 40 years, found her life’s work on Sister Leonilla’s stage.

Virginia Robertson Buckle ’53 did, too. Under Leonilla’s demanding direction, she appeared in almost every Siena production including the annual Passion Plays (right). As seniors, she and fellow thespian Phyllis Coscarelly ’53 co-starred in “Their Hearts Were Young and Gay” and in the senior drama recital. But even the stars shared in the hard work of theater; Sister Leonilla made sure of that. “We would sit in a circle with the huge, black velour theater curtain on our laps re-hemming or repairing rips in the heavy fabric—then lug it back to Walsh Hall to rehang it,” Virginia remembers. With Leonilla’s recommendation, Virginia received a scholarship to the University of Michigan, where she earned a master’s in radio and television. Almost six decades later, she continues to act on stages near her home in Ventura, Calif.

“Sister Leonilla was ahead of her time,” says Bette Lucas-Stepek ’54 of Sandpoint, ID, who remembers classes in choral speaking, radio, drama and puppetry.

Mary Ann Corley ’61 agrees. “Sister was innovative and encouraged us to be inquisitive.” In radio class, “she had us learn Morse code so we could be tested for a ham operator license. Since there was only one mechanism we could use to practice, we memorized the code by speaking it—dit, dat, dat, dit—and practiced talking to one another in code.” Writing from Albuquerque, NM, Mary Ann notes that “I still have my license to this day (not in use, however).”

Anne Birnbryer Eichman ’67 of San Diego, Calif, was a few years behind Mary Ann. As a freshman in Leonilla’s Speech 101 class, she learned two “life lessons that I have carried with me every day since: Know your audience. And be prepared.” (Anne later shared those lessons with her inner-city high school students—then with the writers and art directors she supervised at an advertising agency.) By the late ‘60s, Leonilla was too ill to attend class, Anne recalls, “but she tasked Kitty Kelley Metzger ’67 and I to collaborate on a project of our choosing. We chose to make a satirical film called “Springs of the Mattress” about campus life at Siena. I think we did her proud.”

Sister Leonilla retired in 1969.