Beloved Director Back After Cancer Battle: 'I Wasn't Finished'

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — It is sublimely fitting that beloved East End director Michael Benton Disher marks his return to the artistic canvas in Southampton with a production this December of "Miracle on 34th Street, A Live Musical Radio Play."

Disher, who has shaped the artistic vision of scores of young performers at the Southampton Cultural Center, was paralyzed after cancer and brain surgery. He worked tirelessly for months to walk again —and his return to the theater he has long called home is his own self-professed personal miracle.

His return to the theater is a testament to his inner strength — and the love of a community that buoyed him during his darkest hours.

"It's been a long road to recovery since 'Mamma Mia' and the mayhem that followed, but I am happy to announce I'll be back at Southampton Cultural Center for the annual holiday show - Miracle on 34th Street, A Live Musical Radio Play," Disher wrote in a release.

Disher explained why he chose that particular show to mark his return: "I am a huge fan of the radio show format, the holidays, and their tethered nostalgia. I couldn't think of a better time and title to return to the reins of a production."

"Miracle On 34th Street, A Live Musical Play," will take place at the Center Stage Theatre at Southampton Cultural Center's Levitas Center for the Arts December 3 through December 12.

Miracle on 34th Street (initially released as The Big Heart in the United Kingdom) is a 1947 American Christmas comedy-drama film released by 20th Century Fox, written and directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valentine Davies.

"The story takes place between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day in New York City and focuses on the effect of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real Santa. The film has become a perennial Christmas favorite," the release said.

“I am thrilled to be returning and continuing this holiday tradition that has always been very special to me,” said Disher. “The holidays are a gift, particularly this year, and the opportunity to sit, smile, and laugh together is a miracle. Featuring our greatest technology — imagination, the story transports us to a humbler and more innocent time through sounds and spoken word.”

Reflecting on his journey and what it means to return to the theater, Disher was candid.

"I'm equally frightened and ready. This will indeed be a new act — one whose outcome I cannot predict. I know, and knew, I wasn’t finished. I have more tales to tell. I have more stage pictures to create."

His own rebirth comes at a time when live theater is once again seeing a resurgence after the pandemic.

"Audiences need live theatre; I do, too. I’m hoping for a greater understanding. I know why I chose theatre. I hope to someday learn why it chose me," Disher said. "The game has changed, the rules will be a bit different, but I hope the recognition of the value of theatre increases — and the demand for excellence of and by we who direct."

Disher's battle was arduous: His second brain surgery was supposed to be simple, an easy convalescence and 9 to 10 days in rehab.

"I awoke from the surgery without the use of my left arm and leg. Paralyzed. I had little hope," he said in 2019.

After about two weeks of no food, no water, tube feeding and deterioration, Disher said he was moved to Grimes Rehab.

"I had no skills," Disher said. "I couldn't walk, talk, focus, read, sit and barely swallow. Personally, I had lost hope. My life was a hospital bed, bedpans, wonderful nurses aides and a PT/OT team, one hour a day. Like Shakespeare's seventh stage of man, I was at the seventh stage: second childishness and mere oblivion. Luckily, my brain and memory were still sharp."

Disher said he memorized the names of every nurse, aide, custodian and therapist.

"Each became my teacher, providing a puzzle piece of my recovery," he said.

Cards, notes, emails and visits fed Disher's determination to regain life as he knew it. Each card and note was hung on the wall, a living testament to the community of friends and colleagues he amassed over a lifetime of dedication to his craft.

Perhaps nothing expressed Disher's feelings about the lives he's touched more beautifully than a post he wrote before he stepped back from SCC to focus on his health.

"Since 1983, I have always had a show in production, a class to teach or a theatrical avenue to present some well-written words and/or music, presented with the hope of bettering a couple of our hours with that greatest of gifts — communication," Disher wrote. "Sadly, this will not be the case this year . . . Calendar and cancer now demand my complete and undivided attention. My focus must be one of aggressively tackling every available avenue of self-preservation and re-creation, if you will."

However, at the time he said life had taught him "cautiously, to never say 'never again.'"

Indeed.

Because now, Disher will return to the audiences who've become close as family — to create the art as integral to his survival as his very act of breathing.

And for all the many who've rallied beside him, the rising of the curtain on this next act in Disher's life is, indeed, a miracle to rival any that ever took place on 34th Street.

Disher said he started a project called "My Last Ten Years" a while back. "Partly reflective and partially reasoning my highs and lows, I wrote a simple straightforward introductory line: 'Without passion and purpose, I am nothing' This, I know to be my fundamental truth. I have learned I am certainly not a quitter. I can’t. My being will not allow anything other than my best — in every facet of my life and work. As long as I breathe, I will teach, create and, most importantly, learn."

"Miracle on 34th Street, a Live Musical Radio Play" is sponsored in part by Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

Performance times are Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Amanda Jones musically directs; the show is adapted from the 1947 Lux Radio Broadcast and adapted by Lance Arthur Smith with original lyrics, music, and arrangements by Jon Lorenz. SCC presents through special arrangements with Stage Rights.

The show features Daniel Becker, Mary Sabo-Scopinich., Jack Seabury, Susan Cincotta, Joey Giovingo, Christopher Tyrkko, Michaal Lyn Schepps, John Lovett, Amanda Jones, Michael Casper and introducing Emma Hand.

General admission tickets cost $30 and children’s tickets (under 21) are $20. All tickets are available at www.scc-arts.org or by calling 631 287-4377.