Above: John Frank '71, center, in his role as Fr. Greavy in The Institute. 

John Frank '71 Debuts Play Based on Xavier

Forty-five years after his Xavier graduation, 16th Street still looms large in John Frank’s life. “I’m sitting here wearing a Xavier sweatshirt,” he told the Xavier E-News from his home in Evanston, Illinois. “It’s been the most unique aspect of my life.”

A former reporter for Businessweek and Reuters who got his start in journalism editing the Xavier Review, Frank now runs a non-profit theater company outside Chicago, the 2nd Act Players, with his wife, Carolyn. On October 21, he’ll debut his fourth play, The Institute: Coming of Age During the Vietnam War, based on his years at Xavier.

The play opens at Xavier’s 45th reunion, a milestone Frank just celebrated, then returns to 1967, following the story of four friends through their graduation in 1971. “We were at a military school at the edge of Greenwich Village at the height of the Vietnam War,” said Frank, whose plays always document events in his own life. “Being assailed by protesters as we got off the subway was commonplace.”

The JROTC program became optional for Xavier students in 1971, but the heart of Frank’s play is not the turbulent era in which he was educated. “What’s really at the heart of it is the friendship of the four main characters in the play,” said the Brooklyn native and Marquette University graduate. “My most lasting friendships were formed at Xavier. Those friends have been with me through good times and bad.”

Influential teachers play a role in The Institute as well, Frank said, with various Xavier legends making an appearance. The character of Fr. Greavy (played by Frank) pays homage to Edward Heavey, S.J., Xavier’s Prefect of Discipline during his time on 16th Street. “He was an icon in my days there,” Frank recalled. The character of Pater Lingua is a composite of the many “amazing language teachers” he experienced at Xavier.

Mr. Donlan, a history teacher in the play, is based on a Xavier teacher of the same name, James Donlan, as is SGT MJR Carney, based on the real-life SGT MJR Raymond Carney, USA (Ret.), the former X-Squad moderator and member of the military science department. The character of Ms. Salvati also honors its real-life namesake, Linda Salvati, Xavier’s long-time librarian and first full-time female staff member. “I actually went to her funeral,” Frank said. “She’s just legendary. I couldn’t make up a name for her.”

Above: The promotional poster for The Institute.

Frank said several Sons of Xavier, including his cadet colonel, Bob Meissner ’71, are planning to travel to Illinois to see The Institute. The play’s promotional poster, which features a photo he took of his fellow cadets when he was editor of the Xavier Review, has become popular with former classmates near and far. (It was designed by another graduate of a Jesuit school—his daughter, who attended Loyola Academy, just north of Chicago.)

“I’ve never made friends like the ones I made at Xavier,” Frank said. “I hope this play does justice to the place. It really formed the person I am today.”

For more information about The Institute, click here.