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Available now: Sign up here<\/a> for the best food, drink and entertainment coverage in Stanislaus County. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you\u2019re telling the story of Modesto Performing Arts<\/a>, a community institution for five decades, you\u2019re really telling the story of Paul Tischer.<\/p>\n Because Paul Tischer is Modesto Performing Arts.<\/p>\n But the story didn\u2019t start out as one might expect for a theater company. It started in wood shop at Modesto High School.<\/p>\n Yes, wood shop.<\/p>\n Tischer, 84, majored in drama at San Francisco State College, graduating in 1965 with a minor in wood shop. He said he went that route so he would know how to build sets in his planned future career of leading stage productions.<\/p>\n But finding a job as a drama teacher wasn\u2019t easy because schools wanted people who also could teach English classes \u2013 not an option for him.<\/p>\n So when the San Francisco native found a job listing for a wood shop teacher in a town he\u2019d never heard of, he applied. \u201cI took a Greyhound bus to Modesto\u201d to interview, Tischer said.<\/p>\n Days later, he started his new job at Modesto High School at the age of 27. But he told the principal he would stay only one year because teaching drama was his goal.<\/p>\n During that year, Tische was called into the principal\u2019s office, where he was offered something unexpected and life-altering \u2013 the opportunity to take over the school\u2019s drama department the following spring, 1966.<\/p>\n \u201cI was there for a very long time and I enjoyed it,\u201d Tischer said of his 45 years before retiring from Modesto High.<\/p>\n Teaching drama at the school led to the establishment of Modesto Youth Theater, the precursor to Modesto Performing Arts.<\/p>\n \u201cBy 1968, a number of students had graduated … and they said they wanted to do shows in the summer,\u201d Tischer said. Once he got the OK from the administration, MYT put on its first production, \u201cThe Boyfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was supposed to be a one-time-only summer thing,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter the performance, they came to me and said, \u2018Mr. Tischer, what are we going to do next year?\u2019 So we did \u2018West Side Story\u2019 in 1969.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a hit, he said. \u201cAt the end of that show, they said, \u2018Mr. Tischer, what are we going to do next year?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n So he sought shows with a lot of children in the cast and decided on \u201cOliver!\u201d for 1970.<\/p>\n And on it went.<\/p>\n For the first three years, MYT did one show a summer. But by 1971, there were so many people who wanted to perform, Tischer decided to present two productions each summer. \u201cAnd that\u2019s pretty much the way we\u2019ve kept it through now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n A change in summer school in the 1970s, he said, meant MYT no longer could be an educational program.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we had to be out on our own,\u201d Tischer said. So the nonprofit Modesto Performing Arts was born in the late 1970s, open to people of all ages.<\/p>\n \u201c(MPA) became a full amateur theater with kids and adults,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Shows still were performed in the Modesto High School auditorium, which opened in 1953 as a voter-approved civic auditorium seating 1,200 people, according to Tischer. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so large.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s since been renamed the Paul F. Tischer Theatre.<\/p>\n MPA moved its productions to the Gallo Center for the Arts<\/a> in 2010 and became a resident company there.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Gallo Center has been a wonderful place to perform and their staff has been so helpful,\u201d Sheri Stambaugh, current president of MPA, said.<\/p>\n Stambaugh called Tischer \u201can incredibly gifted director. … I\u2019ve learned a lot watching the process … from audition to end product. It\u2019s just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s also \u201cvery, very good with children. He\u2019s very patient with them, she said. \u201cHe enjoys that enthusiasm that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n Tischer is hands-on with the entirety of MPA productions, Stambaugh said, including lighting, sound and sets \u2013 but also gives others opportunities to learn.<\/p>\n Modesto Performing Arts has collaborated with other local companies over the years.<\/p>\n Central West Ballet<\/a> Artistic Director Rene Daveluy has done choreography for MPA\u2019s \u201cWest Side Story,\u201d \u201cA Chorus Line\u201d and other shows.<\/p>\n \u201cRene is just outstanding, he\u2019s very talented and wonderful to work with,\u201d Tischer said.<\/p>\n Tischer himself has been part of Central West Ballet, playing Drosselmeyer in productions of \u201cThe Nutcracker,\u201d according to Daveluy.<\/p>\n \u201cI first collaborated with Paul on the MPA production of \u2018Billy Elliot\u2019 in 2017, which was a first for MPA that year,\u201d Daveluy said in an email interview. \u201cThe experience was wonderful and Central West Ballet provided the students necessary for the school scenes in the production.\u201d<\/p>\n Daveluy performed as Mr. Braithwaite in that show. He had the lead role in MPA\u2019s \u201cA Chorus Line.\u201d<\/p>\n Working with Tischer \u201ccan be an intense experience,\u201d Daveluy said. \u201cPaul is very specific about the way he runs rehearsals, and when you are a performer in his productions, you are handled with enthusiasm but also with an iron grip. Paul expects a lot from his performers, but that is because he expects a lot from himself.\u201d<\/p>\n Daveluy noted Tischer\u2019s impact on many performers who have gone on to careers in entertainment \u2013 including performing on Broadway.<\/p>\n MPA also has collaborated with Opera Modesto<\/a>, now led by General Director Roy Stevens, a professional and international opera singer who performed under Tischer.<\/p>\n Stevens \u201cwas a former student at Modesto High,\u201d Tischer said. \u201cI trained him well.\u201d<\/p>\n Stevens said he was a fifth-grader for his first show with MYT.<\/p>\n When the company produced \u201cOliver!\u201d it \u201cneeded a lot of boys,\u201d he said. \u201cI started doing shows each year, every summer … 14 shows over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n But MYT never gave Stevens a singing role because he didn\u2019t have the voice for it, he said. What it did give him was a Modesto Youth Theater scholarship at the end of his last year with the company.<\/p>\n The $50 scholarship could be used only for fine arts lessons, Stevens explained in an email. The money paid for his first voice lessons, which he \u201cwould never have taken without that scholarship because I had no overt talent or interest in a performing arts career. But I found out that my not good natural voice could be trained, and that unexpectedly became my personal Mt. Everest.\u201d<\/p>\n He eventually performed leading roles in more than 20 countries in 14 languages, from Italy\u2019s La Scala to New York\u2019s Metropolitan Opera.<\/p>\n Stevens called Tischer \u201cthe king of his domain, a benevolent dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI love how he\u2019s touched the lives of tens of thousands of young people here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Stevens produced a 50th-anniversary concert for MPA, and \u201ceveryone who got on stage wanted to talk about how life-changing the experience had been for them,\u201d whether with Modesto Youth Theater or Modesto Performing Arts, he said.<\/p>\n Stevens has performed once with Modesto Performing Arts \u2013 the lead male in \u201cSouth Pacific\u201d in 1997.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was great,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a real coming-full-circle moment for me\u201d because Stevens was in the chorus for a Modesto Youth Theater production of that same musical.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a fun process being the little punk in \u2018Oliver!\u2019 and then growing to being respected by Paul Tischer and then becoming friends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Other notable people who passed through MYT or MPA also have had successful careers in the arts.<\/p>\n Jeremy Stolle went on to perform on Broadway, including the titular role in \u201cPhantom of the Opera.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s very talented and just a wonderful person,\u201d Tischer said of Stolle.<\/p>\n In a 2017 story in The Bee, Stolle noted the importance of MPA in his life: \u201cWhen I started performing during summers at Modesto Performing Arts, I knew this is what I wanted to do and I worked every day to get it.\u201d<\/p>\n Modesto native Tricia Paoluccio, who also has performed on Broadway and recently wrapped an international tour starring as Dolly Parton in her own production<\/a>, said in a 2025 interview that she performed with MPA in the 1980s.<\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.modbee.com\/public\/latest-news\/c3u6uf\/picture314406286\/alternates\/FREE_1140\/DN%20Tischer%20Paul%201.JPG\" "\\"DN")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.modbee.com\/public\/latest-news\/8jsg1e\/picture314406687\/alternates\/FREE_1140\/AM%20Beauty%20and%20Beast%206.JPG\" "\\"AM")
Community collaborations<\/h2>\n
![\"Drosselmeyer](\"https:\/\/www.modbee.com\/public\/latest-news\/ym66cm\/picture314406335\/alternates\/FREE_1140\/ADM%20Nutcracker%202.JPG\" "\\"ADM")
\u201cTouched the lives\u201d of many<\/h2>\n
![\"Director](\"https:\/\/www.modbee.com\/public\/latest-news\/pn6zlj\/picture255721711\/alternates\/FREE_1140\/AA%20MPA%20Christmas%20Carol%2004.JPG\" "\\"AA")
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