Perfect Pitchford
Saint Louis alum Dean Pitchford, whose credits include Footloose and Fame, returns to his alma mater this week to produce the stage version of Footloose. So kick off your Sunday shoes
By Darlene Dela Cruz
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Saint Louis grad Dean Pitchford returns to his alma mater to produce the stage version of Footloose, the film that made him famous
Dean Pitchford was born in the same hospital as Barack Obama, exactly 10 years and a week before our nation’s new leader.
It’s a random bit of trivia Pitchford is particularly proud of as he recalls his childhood in Hawaii. Yet when the Saint Louis School alum is told that he might have more in common with Obama than just a birthplace at Kapiolani hospital, he’s quick to laugh at a notion so seemingly crazy.
“Oh really?” he asks, incredulous that a mere songwriter/screenwriter/author like himself can have any correlation to the U.S. president. “How so?”
Pitchford, like the Island-bred politico, is a gracious, well-rounded individual who has always recognized his humble Hawaii roots, even while achieving dream-defying success.
The 58-year-old is the name behind several of pop culture’s most universally recognizable songs and movies. He co-wrote Whitney Houston’s No. 1 song
All the Man that I Need, and earned an Oscar and Golden Globe award for his collaboration in Irene Cara’s title number from the musical Fame. He earned a 2008 Grammy nod for the young adult audiobook The Big One-Oh, and continues to grace stages and studios in Hollywood, New York and internationally with lyrical contributions sung by everyone from Hugh Jackman to Hilary Duff.
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But it’s his fame, if you will, with the classic dance movie Footloose that brings him back to the Islands this week. Pitchford will join the Saint Louis Center for the Arts in celebrating the school’s production of Footloose - The Musical at Dr. Richard T. Mamiya Theatre, opening Friday (March 6). Pitchford also will gather with fellow Saint Louis alums Jim Nicholson (former NFL star), Buddy Los Banos, Russell Siu and Chris Pablo for the eighth annual Drama Gala Premiere Night Saturday (March 7), which will benefit the school’s Fine Arts Drama Program.
“I’m looking forward to reuniting with old classmates and making plans to ‘talk story,’” Pitchford says. “I’ll also be teaching a class in communications for two weeks at Saint Louis. It will be conducted like an audition, with 10 juniors and 10 sophomores.”
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Helping Saint Louis students discover an effective approach to communication and auditioning is a fitting full-circle return to Hawaii for Pitchford, himself once a Honolulu youngster with an inherent desire to find outlets for self-expression and artistry.
Pitchford spent his formative years at Star of the Sea grade school in Kahala, and it was there that his knack for performing first came to light.
“(At Star of the Sea) I discovered the universality of music,” he says. “All the girls took hula, and all the boys played ukulele. Every time there was a pageant, everyone danced and sang.”
Inspired by that, Pitchford’s first steps toward what would be an illustrious musical career were taken at the piano at a young age. He then would move on to do vocal shows with Honolulu Theatre for Youth at age 9. Pitchford continued to foster his creativity by buying a guitar at age 11 and getting involved with the University of Hawaii boys choir and Diamond Head Theatre as well. He maintained this intense set of extra activities with the support of his family, but acknowledges that his own sheer enjoyment of the arts was the prime motivator driving him to take all the initiatives possible to continue his pursuits.
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“My mom said that I could do anything as long as I could get there by bus,” Pitchford recalls. “I’d look at the papers for any openings, and I would sit down and figure out bus routes. And I’d get home pretty late at night.”
Despite a heavy extra-curricular load, Pitchford says his schoolwork never suffered. He earned a full scholarship to Saint Louis and graduated near the top of his class in 1968.
“I think I needed the extra activities to blow off steam,” he says. “I’d look at it like getting my homework done so I can get to ‘the fun stuff.’”
All the “fun stuff” in which he’d partaken as a youth became intertwined with his college studies, as he was accepted to Yale and ultimately earned two degrees there - one in English literature and one in dramatic criticism. His experience in performing made a serendipitous return when in the summer of his junior year in college, he auditioned for a role in the off-Broadway production of Godspell - and got it. He moved to New York to accommodate the new gig, and once again got back into the groove of a gnarly schedule melding school and stage.
“Three mornings a week, I’d take the 6:30 a.m. train to Connecticut to my classes,” he says of the long commute from Manhattan to the Yale campus in New Haven. “But for me, it was about performing. I could sing, dance and act - and that was fun for me.”
Shortly after, Pitchford met Peter Allen (known for songs like I Honestly Love You and Arthur’s Theme), who would mentor him in songwriting.
“Peter Allen was a lovely man,” he says. “He was generous to me when I had no standing in the songwriting commu-
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