Leo Sears: Curtain Going Up

By Catherine Tarleton

Little did Leo Sears know, back in Kansas, that his first onstage experience in a local high school play, Curtain Going Up, would be an appropriate title for his own life drama and career. Even though his leading lady proved uncooperative, it was his first appearance in the limelight. “I was supposed to sweep my love interest off her feet and carry her offstage,” said Sears. “And I was also supposed to kiss her, but she said ‘No way!’” said Sears, recalling merciless teasing from his buddies.

Nearly 50 years later, Sears has been a decorated U.S. Marine, acted in theatre and movies, published plays and screenplays, directed 65 plays and produced 90 plays. He was a high school drama teacher for 27 ½ years, ran a successful dinner theatre in Phoenix with his wife Jan, moved to Hawai‘i and created the Big Island Film Festival, now in its seventh year.

“It started when we went to Maui Film Festival, and at a breakfast reception chatted with [then Film Commissioner] Marilyn Killeri,” said Sears. “I asked her ‘Why don’t we have something like this on the Big Island?’ and she said ‘It takes somebody to make it happen.’” The wheels started turning for Jan and him.

“I had been to film festivals as both a patron and as a filmmaker, and picked elements I liked, and tried to avoid elements I thought were problematic with other festivals,” said Sears. “When I grew up watching movies, the storytelling was what I liked most. That’s why our focus is on narrative films and on the filmmakers.”

The first BIFF was in 2005. “Everything was well planned and ready to go on the two driving ranges at Kings’ Course and Beach Course,” said Sears, “Until hurricane-force winds hit and we had to move it all inside.” Still, the show must go on, and that first festival shared films with 425 attendees in the Hilton’s ballrooms.

Sears’ stint in the US Marine Corps was good background for handling that kind of logistics with short notice. It’s also a reason he always makes sure that BIFF includes a benefit for veterans. Critically wounded in Viet Nam, Sears was evacuated by medevac to a hospital in Tokyo, with shrapnel injuries in 33 places. “I spent three days not knowing if I was going to live or die,” he said, “and thinking there was a whole lot I still wanted to accomplish.”

After his honorable discharge, a short time in Chicago and a stint as a California beach bum, Sears settled in Arizona to work for American Express and met Jan, whom he married in 1972. Son Jeff was born three years later. Leo then worked as a high school drama teacher, while Jan was a counselor and administrator.

Though passionate about the stage and screen, Sears never played the role of “starving artist.” “I started teaching because it was a way I knew I could make a living for my family, and still be involved in the arts. Teaching was a career—and the other stuff was gravy.” The “other stuff” included roles in a number of different movies shot in the area.

“I was in one of the worst movies ever made,” said Sears. “It was called Thunder Warrior 3, made by an Italian film company with an Austrian director who didn’t speak English… In one chase scene, we were cruising through the desert in a car with the lead actor,” said Sears. “Then they stopped the car, took him out and put in stunt men and a stunt driver with us—no seatbelts, no helmets. We did this crazy, wide fishtail and stopped right next to the edge of a huge cliff!”

Sears appeared as an extra in Waiting to Exhale, (an executive bar patron), the TV series American Girls (the sunburned guy on the beach) and a movie called Tank Girl, starring Lori Petty. “I was one of the patrons in a nightclub where they had topless dancers,” said Sears, “and Lori Petty’s best friend Sharon Stone came to visit the set one day. Lori went into this big speech about ‘these women are not meat—keep your eyes off the girls.’ How were we supposed to do that?”

In between movie opportunities and work at school, Leo and Jan launched and operated the Metro Playhouse, a dinner theatre in Phoenix. “We created it,” said Sears. “I directed most of the plays there – wrote some, acted in a few.” Sears put up four shows a year at the high school and five or six at the Metro every year. One of those plays, Once Is Enough by Jack Sharkey, introduced Sears to his future writing partner.

“I got a message from the bartender that Jack Sharkey called and said he wanted to come to our opening night,” said Sears. “Well, opening night was April 1, so I figured it was one of my buddies playing a trick on us.”

Sears called publisher Samuel L. French and confirmed that it really was Sharkey, made arrangements for him to stay in a local hotel and excitedly told the cast. “They thought it was a joke too,” said Sears. “I couldn’t convince them he was real till he showed up. The funny thing was, for a while there, they were planning to have their own ‘Jack Sharkey’ in the house!”

The Sharkeys and Sears became friends and enjoyed seeing plays together. At one point, Leo asked Jack if he’d ever thought about writing with a partner. “He didn’t say anything,” said Sears. “But two days later he called me up and said ‘I have an idea.’” That idea turned into 100 Lunches, which the team collaborated on, along with two other scripts, all published by Samuel L. French and two premiered at Metro Playhouse.

“That was before computers,” said Sears. “Jack operated off a manual typewriter. He would write one section, put it in the mail. Then I would add to it and mail it back. The amazing thing to me is you can’t tell where one of us stops and the other starts. Our styles blended well.” Their Christmas comedy, Sorry! Wrong Chimney! is still being performed in community theatres around the world.

Jeff Sears, 37, is a highly successful strategic account director for Global Programs at DWA Healthcare Communications Group, based in Indiana. He remembers growing up in the family dinner theatre, and acting in plays and movies with his dad, including a small role in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

“Bill and Ted’s was a family affair of extras,” said Jeff. “Dad filmed his segments in the Old West a few days before my scene at the waterpark. Though it was Arizona, it was still winter, and cold, and the water was NOT heated. Giant lights made it appear like daytime [when it was still dark out]… Though I may be easier to locate in one specific scene at the top of the waterslide with Napolean, Mom’s foot was also easy to identify, with her rainbow-strapped flip-flop in the background of a scene at the ticket booth.”

Leo and Jan retired and moved to the Big Island in 2001, after almost 20 years of long, annual vacations in the islands. “We were in a hotel in LAX with a cat and a dog, ready to fly out on September 11,” said Sears. “Then we got the news, and we waited, not knowing what was going to happen next.” On the 15th, they were on the first flight that left Los Angeles for Hawai‘i.

Within a few months of moving, Jan felt rundown, saw a doctor and was astonished to learn her kidneys had stopped functioning. With Jeff as her donor, kidney transplant surgery took place on March 5, 2002, near the anniversary of Leo’s 1968 wounding in Viet Nam. Following another surgery on March 2 of this year, she is a cancer survivor with an iron will and positive spirit, continuing to work side-by-side with Leo on the Big Island Film Festival.

This year, BIFF will host close to 2,000 participants over Memorial Day weekend, May 24-28. In addition to free family films at The Shops at Mauna Lani, daytime movies, nighttime double features and other events at The Fairmont Orchid, Hawai’i, there will be two screenwriting workshops on Thursday, and celebrity receptions on Friday and Saturday. BIFF’s final night “Best of the Fest” stars Kohala in concert and audience-voted Best Feature and Best Short of BIFF 2012. Best of the Fest is also a fundraiser for Hawai‘i Food Basket, and includes a silent auction for the Tripler Army Medical Center Fisher Houses.

“We are making exceptions and including two exceptional documentaries this year,” said Sears. “One is the story of the Beamer family, Nona Beamer – Mālama Ko Aloha – Keep Your Love, which screens on Thursday.”

“The other is Family of the Wa‘a’ on Sunday, said Sears. “This is the story of an amazing canoe voyage of 1,750 miles across the Hawaiian archipelago. The Fairmont’s General Manager Chris Leudi was one of those paddlers, and we are excited to bring it to the property.”

As for all those things Sears wanted to accomplish as a young Marine, there are a few still on his list. “I have a couple of feature film scripts I want to get made,” he said. “And I’d love to have one of my plays performed by one of the local theater companies.” What about acting? “I have an agent in Honolulu and I want to be on Hawaii Five-0,”said Sears. Good guy or bad guy? “I don’t care,” he says, “Villains are more fun.” ❖

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Contact writer Catherine Tarleton: catherinetarleton@gmail.com

For more information about Big Island Film Festival, visit BigIslandFilmFestival.com