Know Your Neighbors: Meet Jane Treacy, a Theater Producer, Author, Philanthropist and Dog-Sitter, Going Strong at 85

Jane Friedlander Treacy is a tough cookie. Now 85, she’s a bundle of energy, even after surviving cancer, a broken femur and a near-fatal car accident.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Treacy’s interest in theater started early. Her parents attended the theater often, and her mother bought every original Broadway cast recording as soon as it came out. Mother and daughter would sing along to them often, to the point that Treacy memorized the lyrics.

When her parents took her to see Oklahoma! when she was 3, they sat in the front row. Treacy sang along to every single song, thinking that’s what you did at a show. Afterward, Celeste Holm, who played Ado Annie, brought her up onstage and said, “This little girl has done this whole show with us!” (Treacy met Holm years later, and she still remembered the incident, Treacy said.)

Treacy began working in theater as a teen. An older cousin who worked for legendary Broadway producer David Merrick hired her to run a little off-Broadway theater called the 41st Street Theatre. “Off-Broadway was very new back then,” Treacy said. “Nobody knew anything about it, so by the time I was a senior in high school, I was the resident expert.”

She promised her parents she’d have a backup plan in case theater didn’t work out; Treacy graduated from Barnard College with a degree in English, and got her teaching certificate.

Treacy produced her first off-Broadway show at the age of 20—the revival of Anything Goes. Treacy and her partner had little money and planned to raise $30,000 to produce the show; they only managed to scrape together $10,000, but managed it anyway. Treacy’s mother and her partner’s mother pitched in, sewing costumes, etc.

“It was kind of like that old Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney movie—‘Let’s put on a show!’” she said “But we did it, and it was a big hit!”

Then Treacy and her partner met Paul Gregory, who was getting ready to produce a show called Lord Pengo, starring Charles Boyer and Agnes Moorehead. Gregory took them on as associate producers. That show was not such a hit.

Treacy’s partner went back home to Atlanta, so she put together her own company, Touring Theatre, which produced touring shows all over the U.S. and Canada for the next 20 years. Those shows included Zorba and The Odd Couple with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. Treacy’s two employees kept things going at the office while she flew all over the country, checking in on the actors. At one point, there were five different shows out, each in different cities. Treacy remembers once waking up in a hotel and calling the front desk to ask: “Where am I?”

Things did not always go smoothly. Treacy said that during a tour of H.M.S. Pinafore with a Canadian company of actors, an assistant stage manager fell in love with the first flautist, who did not return his affections. At one point, Treacy was called in Montreal at 2 a.m., because the stage manager was accused of sexually assaulting the flautist. Though the allegation proved to be untrue, Treacy had to remove the man, because the company refused to perform with him. At first, Treacy said, Actors’ Equity demanded that Treacy pay the man two weeks of salary, because the alleged assault did not occur on company time. The powers that be eventually realized the absurdity of that reasoning, and the matter was dropped, she said.

Shortly after that, Treacy got married and moved to Indianapolis. She starting two nonprofit theater companies and returned to her second love—writing and editing. She edited Indianapolis Woman Magazine for five years, and then started Teen Track, a nonprofit newspaper totally run by teenagers. 

During their marriage, Treacy and her husband, Jim, traveled a great deal—to China, Ireland, Paris, Finland and so on. They also expanded their family, adopting an 8-year-old girl from Korea they named Mara.

The cold, rainy weather in Indianapolis aggravated Jim’s health issues, so in 1998, the family moved to Palm Springs. Jim continued practicing law part-time and taught at College of the Desert. Treacy went to work for The Valley’s Promise, a program to give teens a boost toward higher education and success later in life.

But the theater bug is persistent. Shortly after her husband passed away, Treacy put her producer hat back on and created Cabaret Theatre West, a local musical cabaret company. It was similar to a group she’d worked with in Indianapolis—but this time, she got to do things her way. She joined forces with her friend Audrey Reed, who had lots of technical experience.

Their first show was Decades, which featured popular music from the 1890s to present-day. The shows, put on at the Hyatt Grand Champions in Indian Wells, were quite successful, and often sold out. But the huge production expenses took their toll, and after five years, Treacy and her partner called it quits.

Then came her first book, Cinderella at 70. The idea came one night after she and a group of friends, all women, had a few cocktails, and wondered what would happen to the women on Sex and the City when they got older. Treacy ran with the idea, and three months later had a manuscript, filled with humor about dating and finding oneself at the age of 70. She found a publisher, and the book was soon for sale.

Treacy’s next book, Cinderella for President, has already been written; she’s just waiting for the perfect time to publish it, she said. A third, I’ve Had It—Have You?, about the frustration older folks have trying to navigate the tech world, is percolating in her brain.

Six months ago, Treacy got married again. Her new husband, Jim Hite, is also in his 80s; he’s a retired psychologist and teacher. They travel a lot and run a successful dog-sitting business in their home.

A car crash a few years ago that nearly killed her reinforced Treacy’s life view: “Always wake up in the morning and just be glad that you’re here!”

Bonnie Gilgallon also writes theater reviews for Independent and hosts a weekly radio show, The Desert Scene, on Mutual Broadcasting; it can be heard at thedesertscene.com. Her website is www.bonnie-g.com, and she can be emailed at BonnieGnews@gmail.com.