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Paperwork: Playbill opens up some interesting history, memories of October 1969 · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Paperwork, Playbill opens up some interesting history, memories of October nineteen sixty
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  nine. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice brought to you by Everlit. Joe Mentegna. Wait, I know that
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  name. I could immediately hear The actor? Voice and picture the wavy
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  black hair and a mug that screams Italian. I began to wonder,
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  could this be the same guy, the well known actor? And did
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  I see him completely naked? Yes, so that was my train of
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  thought. It began when I came across a fifty seven years
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  old memory, a standard playbill that was handed to me by an
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  usher at the Schubert Theatre in Chicago on october thirteenth, nineteen sixty
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  nine. I was attending the premiere of the rock musical Hare. I
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  was twenty-one years old and editor of the campus newspaper The Northern
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  Star at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. My position earned me a
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  special invitation. I think it came as a phone call from the
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  office of NIU President Roten A. Smith. President Smith would like you
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  to join him to see the play hair at the Schubert Theatre
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  in Chicago, said the very pleasant woman who called me with all
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  the details. You don't say no to an offer like that. There's
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  so much I don't remember, including any serious conversation I might have
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  had with Smith. He was welcoming and kind. Smith became NIU's sixth
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  president on September first, nineteen sixty seven. He supported student rights and
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  involvement. He created the position of Ombudsman to help and advise students
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  with personal problems. I felt comfortable with him. Keep in mind this
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  was a time on campus when the Vietnam War was becoming a
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  burning issue. Literally. The war also
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  was the focus of the play we were attending. Hair was controversial
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  for many reasons. It delivered an anti-war message, ripping the draft and
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  the government. Drug use was celebrated, and there was plenty of profanity
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  and explorations of the free love mantra. And also, there was the
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  nudity which was shocking for many and led to walkouts, obscenity accusations,
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  and legal battles. A nineteen seventy-five US Supreme Court ruling allowed the
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  play to be staged in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I don't recall many of
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  the plot details, but I do remember the music and that nude
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  scene. At the end of Act One, the entire cast is on
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  stage completely naked behind a transparent sheet. It was clear they were
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  nude. I believe the message was about freedom and being natural. President
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  Smith was sitting to my right. I glanced to catch his reaction.
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  He showed no shock. No emotions at all, actually. I think the
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  reporter in me was a bit disappointed. But I'm more disappointed myself.
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  I don't think I grilled him on the play. I am wondering
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  now if I wrote about it. A short b a short bio
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  In the playbill, said Joe Mantegna, went from hot dogs to hair
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  with 35 other stage productions in between. A former Montgomery Wards copywriter
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  and Frank Furter purveyor, and an actor and rock musician, Joe is
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  rarely serious except when discussing hair and the new theater. He attended
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  Morton College and the Goodman Theater and School of Drama. In the
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  past few years he's been coming of Aquarious Age through such closely
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  aligned catalysts as the Fourth Force Experimental Theatre and the Apocryphals Rock
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  Group. My playbill had Mantegna cast as a member of the tribe
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  and playing roles as a principal and a young recruit. After deeper
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  online research I found Mantegna began his career on stage with the
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  Hare production and also played Burger, one of the lead roles. Now
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  many know him as FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Rossesy in CBS's
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  Criminal Minds. Or perhaps you recognize his voice as the mob boss
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  Fat Tony in The Simpsons. He also played Richard Roma in the
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  play Glengarry Glen Ross and won a Tony Award for Best Featured
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  Actor in a Play and a Joseph Jefferson Award. And, of course,
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  countless movies, including The Rat Pack in 1998 with his Emmy-nominated performance
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  as singer Dean Martin. I assume mister Mantena has a copy of
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  many playbills with His name listed. Mine is a keepsake for obvious
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  reasons, and who knows, maybe someday I can get Joe to sign
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  it for me. I will get his attention by shouting, Hey, I
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  think I saw you naked back in nineteen sixty nine. Lonnie Kane,
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  retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter
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  for the Herald News and Joliet in the 1970s. His paperwork email
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  is LonnieKane at gmail.com or mail the News Tribune, 426 2nd Street,
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  LaSalle, Illinois 61301.