PEOPLE OF INTEREST
BY SUE-ELLEN SANDERS
PHOTO BY ROBERT P. DUDLEY
Patrick Madden was a boy wonder. He began acting
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and singing at the age of 5, and with the encouragement
of the choir director at his church, he continued
on to community theater. By the time Madden was in sixth
grade, he was performing summer stock at the Pittsburgh
Civic Light Opera.
As expected, young Madden starred in high school plays.
He even appeared in a TV movie on PBS with actor Bill
Bixby, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.’’
Heading for college
at Ohio
University on an
acting scholarship,
he planned
a theatrical
career.
But on the
climb to his acting
career
Madden discovered
he loved to
teach. Madden
had started volunteering,
working with
junior high children
helping
them set up
their plays,
when he had his
own epiphany.
“I went home
and told my
dad, ‘I think I
want to work
with kids
instead.’ He
smiled and gave
me his blessing.
He told me, ‘If
you are a
teacher, you’ll never be rich; but you’ll always have a job.’
So, I interviewed for a position as drama teacher in a new
high school opening up in Port St. Lucie, and here I am 18
years later.”
For years, Madden was, literally, married to his work,
developing what may be the premier musical theatre program
on the Treasure Coast. He built the program from
scratch and became director, mentor and tour guide for the
high school students. The pressure is always on, though.
Each show produced at Port St. Lucie High, including wellknown
musicals from “Oliver!’’ to “Oklahoma,’’ from
“Gypsy’’ to “The Music Man,’’ is expected to be as good or
better than the last one.
Madden has his “children”— he takes his students to
New York City every year for a whirlwind multi-show trip
and with some of the box office proceeds, makes sure his
seniors have season tickets to the Kravis Center in West
Palm Beach. He also instills in his students the habit of giving
back to the community that first set him on a teaching
path — through volunteer programs at various elementary
schools where his high school students pass along their love
of theatre.
Yet something was always missing from Patrick Madden’s
life — or someone. “My friends told me, you’ll meet someone
one day, but there were days I never came out of the
auditorium,” he says. Finally, along came Laurie Glass,
engagement and a wedding planned for this June.
Meanwhile, thousands of high school students have lived
a piece of the Madden dream, some finding their way to the
The
Drama
Teacher
>>
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