Zoren: Wishing a happy retirement to CBS 3’s Jim Donovan

Years ago, Channel 3 morning news anchor Jim Donovan taught me something I do this this day.

No, it isn’t good moisturizing. I’ve been doing that since before Jim was born.

(The secret to maximizing moisturizer, this one taught to me by the late Edie Huggins, is to put it on while you’re face is still a bit moist. The goop is meant less to hydrate than to hold moisture in.)

Back to Jim. Before he earned his wings on television, he was a flight attendant.

He said the first thing he does when he boards any airplane is to count the rows between his seat and the nearest exit.

That help, he said, to strategize in case there’s an emergency, and you have to get off the plane fast.

Thank you, Jim. It’s been about 18 years since I’ve boarded a plane without counting the intervening rows and figuring how to move myself closer to safety if, heaven forbid, a move was necessary.

I’ll be thinking of you and your words when I take my next flight in December.

During 39 years in broadcasting, 21 of them at Channel 3, Jim has given useful advice to a lot of people. When he arrived at Channel 3, he was hired as a consumer reporter and advocate and assigned a daily feature spot called “On Your Side.”

Twelve years later, in 2016, Ukee Washington moves from mornings to Channel 3’s primetime newscasts, and Jim, in a move that was surprise at the time, becomes the lead anchor of shows airing from dawn to noon.

That means a 2 a.m. alarm and being moisturized and ready to present any headline a given day brings, whether a major event or a giraffe’s birthday party.

Last week, at the end of a 4 to 7 a.m. show, Jim Donovan announced the morning hours were getting to him and he’d decided to see what part of the day he had to sleep through were like.

Jim said he would be retiring from Channel 3 and television news, “jumping off the news roller coaster to see the world from a different vantage,” his last broadcast being set for Friday, Dec. 19.

Donovan is the second major longtime news anchor about to leave a station after a significant tenure. Channel 10’s Tracy Davidson announced in August that she would be leaving this month to pursue another of her passions, helping people realize their ultimate potential.

Tracy’s last day is Tuesday, Nov. 25. Like Jim, she spent hours of time on the air helping people with consumer issues.

Just this summer, before Tracy announced her retirement from TV, I invoked her name while haggling with the water company over an installation it insisted on doing at its convenience: “I think there’s a news story in this; I think I’ll call…” I said. It worked.

So, two stations will soon be replacing anchors who have become, more than most, part of the fabric of the community.

Jim made an impact as a consumer reporter. He developed a following as a morning anchor in an era when more and more people are rising and beginning their days earlier.

In his 21 years at Channel 3, he solved many a consumer problem. In his nine years helming the morning anchor desk, he introduced countless stories.

Donovan also makes a lot of public appearances. He will be with broadcast industry folks on Friday, when he is master of ceremonies, along with Scott Palmer — once of Channel 6 now with the Phillies — for this year’s Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame induction.

I have a feeling, Jim, in his regular-hours life, will be calculating a lot of distances between his seat and an airplane exit.

He is an avid traveler who has been to 55 countries, mostly via cruises which he enjoys solo. At least in the beginning of a voyage.

He once told me about the people he has met and stayed in touch from his excursions.

Oh, and all the talk about the moisturizer. In his Channel 3 farewell, Jim talked about looking too young to retire and credited good moisturizer and good lighting.

Good luck and bon voyage, Jim.

Berkman, ‘Christmas Carol’ at People’s Light

Charles Dickens has been part of Zak Berkman’s life since childhood.

Not only was the People’s Light producing artistic director drawn to the way Dickens depicted and wrote about children — Oliver Twist, David Copperfield — negotiating an often unfriendly adult world, but he and his older brother, children of a theater professor at Smith College, would enact stories by Dickens and other writers in their Massachusetts attic for fun.

Speaking by telephone from Malvern, Berkman said he had read most of Dickens before he entered his teens.

Now he’s adapting Dickens, specifically his beloved “A Christmas Carol.” Again.

For years, the holiday season at People’s Light meant a British-style panto, a high-concept, low-comic interactive version of a fairy tale, legend or favorite story.

When Berkman took the company’s helm from Abigail Adams in 2022, he and others, with the support of Adams, decided to annually alternate the panto and “A Christmas Carol.”

Though many adaptations of Dickens’ piece are available, Berkman, a produced playwright, decided to have his own go atone.

His was successful with the People’s Light audience, many of whom brought their children and grandchildren to see a show that impressed them in their youth, and with critics, but Berkman thought his approach, having a troupe of actors relate Dickens’ tale while taking various parts, was missing an element.

Molly Rosa Houlahan, assistant producing director at People’s Light, director of the company’s rousing “Little Shop of Horrors” this summer, said she knew what that element was.

That sent Berkman back to the drawing board with a new adaptation, including new songs that he composed. Houlahan directs the production, which runs from Nov. 19 to Jan. 4.

“The challenge was to make a version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ that felt like it was made for People’s Light.” Berkman said.

“At first, my rebellious side kicked in, and I contemplated doing an adaptation that undermined Dickens. That impulse didn’t last long.

“For a couple of reasons. That wouldn’t totally suit People’s Light. We also have a lot of schools coming to our holiday shows. Different schools preferring ‘A Christmas Carol,’ a panto, or vice versa is how the idea of alternating them began.

“In re-reading Dickens with the task of adapting it, I saw themes in the story, particularly the grief Scrooge feels at the losses he’s suffered. He shared a home and business with Jacob Marley.

He keeps Marley’s name on the shingle and on his desk. Like Dickens, Scrooge loses his mother at a young age while his father tends to be unsuccessful and inattentive. She depends on his sister, Fan, for emotional support, but she died young in childbirth.

His one love, Belle, leaves when she can’t compete with business for his primary affection.

“Grief and loss are everywhere, and I wanted to bring that out, along with the forgiveness that comes with Scrooge’s reformation. He is welcome in the Cratchit home. The community he shunned and scorned accept him as an active member.

“Community is important at People’s Light. It was a thread to develop. The grief story was dramatic and palpable. The return to community is essential to People’s Light values. I saw what to emphasize, what to stress.

Ian Merrill Peakes, who can bring out the sadder, thoughtful, and redemptive aspects of Scrooge will play him again this year.

“Something else important to me was adapting a 19th century work to our times. The music helps build that bridge. Using some of Dickens’ language does also.

“The company that relates ‘A Christmas Carol’ fits People’s Light’s idea of a ‘kind chorus,’ storytellers who show their understanding for a young person who is struggling to understand the world, as Scrooge is shown to be in his travels with the Christmas spirits.

“We show what it’s like to for a young man to be overlooked, left to find his way in the world. Scrooge’s early life has the adventure young people seek.

“That’s what Molly brought to my attention, to see and present Scrooge’s story more from the eyes of a child. That idea informs this completely new adaptation.”

Even though he was brought up in a home that was visited by some of the great names in theater, including some who stayed overnight, and which was filled with lively conversation about theater, Berkman did not expect theater to be his career.

“I wanted to be a diplomat. I studied Russian for six years. I wanted to change the world through policy.

“Then, as I was looking for a way to begin, someone set up a job interview for me with a Broadway producer, Margo Lion. I never thought I’d get the job, but Margo saw something and hired me.

“She produced ‘Jelly’s Last Jam’ and “Angels in America.’ She brought George C. Wolfe to Broadway, and she showed me, a snob about commercial theater, what commercial theater can accomplish. It was a great and lasting lesson.”

Berkman, a fan of soap operas, wrote briefly for NBC’s “Days of Our Lives.”

That taught how to turn around a script and write to character.

Berkman arrived at People’s Light as a production assistant and moved into higher positions to becomes the producing artistic director. He has also written new works and directed for the company.

Stevens, ‘Elf’ at Bucks County Playhouse

Chris Stevens double majored at De Sales University. One of his degrees is in communications, so he could satisfy his parents he’d have some practical skills to fall back on if his other major, theater, did not pan out.

Everyone involved knew which course represented Stevens’ first love. He was performing while his age was in single digits, earned leads by junior high, joined every community theater and choir that would have him, and was the star of high school productions.

At DeSales, he performed several seasons with the prestigious Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, doing everything from musicals to Irish classics, and of course, Shakespeare.

“It was clear to me I had to give performing a shot,” Stevens says by telephone from New York, where he is rehearsing the role of Buddy the Elf for the Bucks County production of “Elf: The Musical,” that runs Nov. 21 through Jan. 4.

Consider how you usually picture one of Santa’s elves. Now consider that Stevens, a native of Somerdale, Gloucester County, N.J., is nearly 6-4 and solidly built.

“Buddy is an adult but only knows the North Pole and the way things are in Santa’s workshop. He comes to New York, and he’s a big kid who doesn’t know quite how to behave in a big city.

“The best part about being loud and silly in Manhattan is no one may notice it.”

Stevens has played Buddy before, in Syracuse in 2018, and he credits his director at Bucks, John Tartaglia, who has made his own name as a dynamic performer (“Avenue Q”) and director of a marvelous “Mamma Mia” at Bucks, with bringing something different to the New Hope production.

“John wants to heighten Buddy’s size and how different and outgoing he is compared to the people around him. He’s stressing reality in the people Buddy encounters, which is good for me because I share Buddy’s enthusiasm and habit of acting out.

“In any role, I look for the part of the character that is also part of me.”

Stevens finds that trait with which he can identify. It’s why he can be so versatile.

The last time he performed in the Philadelphia area, he played the subdued obsessive-compulsive member of the “Four Seasons,” Nick Massi, at the Walnut Street Theatre.

“With Buddy, I share his spirit, his joy of life. With Nick, I shared his love of routine. When I got to the Nick monologue about he likes towels folded and how Tommy disrupts his sense of order, I knew I found my key to the character.

“‘Elf’ is very different. Egged on my John, I can be big and brash and go past boundaries.”

Stevens speaks more about routine and how much it matters in his personal life. He know how he prefers his general day to go.

He also likes family. He’s particularly happy that his nieces and nephew, whom he likes spending time with, will get to see him as Buddy in New Hope, something they couldn’t do when Stevens did “Elf” in Syracuse.

It was family that got him started in performing. His cousin, Jennifer had a distinctive singing voice: “She sounded like Patsy Cline,” Stevens says.

“She would do a song, then I’d sing it. My aunt told my mother I had talent, and the next thing I know I was taking voice lessons.

Then came the acting in school, Triton High in Runnemede, then DeSales.

“I had a dream from the very beginning. I wanted to play on Broadway. The irony is I’m 36, I’ve made a living in the theater, I work constantly, I did ‘Jersey Boys’ off-Broadway, but I’ve never made it to a Broadway house yet. That dream of a 12-year-old awaits.”

Well, Chris, playing the regional houses you have, like Bucks County Playhouse and the Walnut, in leads is plenty of testament to your talent.

Just remember Broadway and you live on. And your nieces and nephews won’t have to travel far from South Jersey to see you there.

MLSO to perform in Elkins Park

Philadelphia Orchestra performers appear further afield than Marion Anderson Hall at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center.

While attending an enlightening Orchestra program about the valuable instruments its musicians use, Don Liuzzi, the orchestra’s principal told me about a concert he was performing at Keneseth Israel, a synagogue in Elkins Park.

Liuzzi is also the music director of the Main Line Symphony Orchestra, and their program at KI includes a piece in which he will be the timpani soloist. Another orchestra member, Jack Grimm, the assistant principal trombonist will also solo in a piece for trombone and ensemble.

The MLSO concert includes “La Grande Serenade for timpani” by Randy Navarre, “Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra by Ferdinand David,” and “Symphony #2” by Tchaikovsky.

It takes place 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at Keneseth Israel, Old York and Meetinghouse roads in Elkins Park.

Students 23 and younger can attend for free. Call 215-887-8700 for more information.