Auf wiedersehen, Herr Donald Erb

When I was a child, I identified myself as a theatre person.

But when I was a little girl, I went to church once a week, and the Cleveland Institute of Music three times a week for Dalchroze Eurhythmics. The pinnacles of C.I.M. as I understood it as a four year old were the director, Arthur Loesser, (Frank Loesser’s older brother), and the composer Donald Erb.

I knew Mr. Erb, but I knew his daughter Stephanie very well. Mr. Erb died last Tuesday. I liked his music a lot; I liked the fact he had light-up plastic geese in the front window of his house (and used that in a play of mine in 1985).