John Monaghan

Special to the Detroit Free Press

Marilyn McCormick was in her principal’s office last month when she learned she had won this year's Excellence in Theatre Education Award, an honor bestowed by the Tony Awards in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University.

Though it is hardly the first recognition McCormick has received in nearly 40 years as drama instructor at Cass Technical High School, it is the first to require that she accept it — complete with a speech — live on network TV. The Tonys, which honor achievement in Broadway theater, air at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

“The hard part was, they told me I had to keep it a secret from everyone for the next two weeks for a formal announcement to be made,” says McCormick, who announced last fall that she would be retiring from teaching at the end of the current school year. “I didn’t even know I had been nominated, let alone made it to that point. It was pretty surreal."

The education award was launched last year to recognize a K-12 theater teacher in the U.S. who has had a positive effect on students. McCormick, who was nominated by former students via written testimonials and a video presentation, was chosen from a pool of more than 1,100 entries.

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The honor comes with a trip to New York, including accommodations for her and a guest and a pair of seats at the the Tonys. McCormick will also receive a $10,000 grant for the Cass Tech theater program. (But, no, she assures, she won't be getting free tickets to “Hamilton,” the red-hot musical hit that is expected to rule Sunday's awards.)

Crystal Williams, a 1988 Cass Tech graduate who is part of a nationwide network of former students of McCormick, or MC as they have nicknamed her, credits her former teacher with instilling in her a love of the arts and a strong work ethic. “She is incredibly rigorous, tough, loving and really smart,” says Williams, now a poet and educator who works at Bates College in Maine. "She knows the theater arts inside and out.

"Her expectations are high. She has this ability to see a person’s characteristics and how they might be best suited to directing or stage managing as well as performing onstage. ... She makes you want to be better because she believes so strongly in what you can be.”

A business start

Born in Pittsburgh, McCormick moved with her family to Detroit when she was in high school. A 1972 graduate of Cass Tech, she didn’t have much to do much with theater during her school years, choosing instead to focus on business. She continued business studies even as she began to pursue education and theater at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and later Wayne State University.

“That was during that time in the 1970s where women had to be ready to go into the job force,” she says. “My parents were supportive, but they said I needed to learn a real job skill. I needed to type or something in order to be employed.”

McCormick began teaching English and speech at Cass Tech in 1977 and began supervising the school’s drama department in 1979. Over the years, she has seen former students go on to work on the stage and in movies and TV, including Cornelius Smith Jr., a regular on the ABC hit “Scandal."

Past graduates also include Terence Archie, who played Apollo Creed in the “Rocky the Musical” on Broadway, and Daniel Bellomy, who appeared last month in the Lifetime movie “The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story.” During the 1980s, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was in one of McCormick's debate classes.

McCormick has typically overseen three productions a year, including a nonmusical play in the fall, a musical in the spring and a third project that combines student and off-campus talent. Last year, she teamed with metro Detroit professionals to produce “Sunset Baby,” written by former student Dominique Morriseau, the playwright whose “Detroit ’67” just finished a run at Detroit Public Theatre.

Though she has trouble picking favorites among the 50 or so productions she has led, there are some she is especially proud of. These include a production of “Julius Caesar” that was staged with help from the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2006. She also was thrilled that Cass Tech was among the first schools in the country to do student productions of “The Color Purple” and “In the Heights.”

McCormick says her biggest accomplishment as a theater teacher was “The Experience Up from the Ashes,” an original musical inspired by Detroit’s Heidelberg Project. The show, which featured text, music and choreography by McCormick and her students, was filmed for PBS television and aired in 2014.

New York-bound

McCormick was spared having to make a difficult decision about who would accompany her to Sunday's Tonys. She's heading to New York trip with son Michael because daughter Melanie, who's expecting a child in a couple of weeks, is unable to travel.

She has already submitted her acceptance speech to Tony officials, and she'll read it live off a teleprompter. “It’s different for me, of course," she says, "because I already know that I have won the award.” The speech will focus on the importance of theater education, “especially in Detroit where so much of the arts are rooted,” she says.

“Theater is important because it gives students a chance to express stories that they often don’t have the opportunity or vehicle to use. It allows them to explore worlds that they may not otherwise get a chance to see. Theater causes students to be more observant to life around them. It just makes you a more well-rounded person.”

McCormick has continued to stay in touch with former students, and sometimes mentor them, long after their graduations. Several have been in touch with her since news of her award began trickling out.

"Two of my former students called me this afternoon to tell me they are coming over to take me shopping for a gown for the Tonys,” she said with a laugh. "I was just going to wear something I already had.”

Contact John Monaghan: madjohn@earthlink.net

70th Annual Tony Awards

8 p.m. Sun.

CBS

Performances from nine new and revival musicals, including "Hamilton," "Waitress," and "Bright Star," are on tap for Sunday's show. "Hamilton" is widely expected to dominate the musical categories. "The Humans" is a favorite in the best play category.