Ellie Punkay was one of those people you meet one time and never forget.
Here are some rememberances of her.
Dear Friends,
We’re not the Goodman…
… or the Steppenwolf, or Victory Gardens for that matter. We do not have an audience base of subscribers that numbers in the thousands. Our subscribers are not nameless faces lost in the crowd as they sit in the theatre taking in one of our productions. Our subscribers are a part of our SSP family; and that family is once again mourning the loss of a dear soul, Eleanor “Ellie” Punkay.
Ellie never missed an S.S.P. production, she usually attended our openings and loved to talk with the cast and company members at the opening night reception. This past July she was emailing me asking when her ballot for our Sebastian awards and season subscription flyer would be arriving. She once cancelled tickets to a Goodman production in order to attend one of our one night only murder mystery fund-raisers. She saw more theatre in this city than any person I know and always spoke with great respect and fondness of our productions. We are not any of the marquee theatres I mentioned but Ellie always rated our productions in their company often criticizing that the Jeff Committee should see an SSP production. Last year when we faced an uncertain future with the possible loss of our home here at St. Bonaventure, Ellie was suggesting we talk with her parish in Rogers Park as a possible new home.
I had nicknamed Ellie “Flipper” because of her wonderful guttural laugh that sounded like a cross between Beavis and Butthead and Flippers cackle. She was never afraid to laugh or get drawn into a production and the actors always knew when she was in the audience enjoying their performance. Our annual banquet was held on September 8, 2007 and Ellie, who had reserved a ticket and submitted her ballot, was not with us that evening as she had suffered a heart attack at her apartment on September 5th and passed away. We will miss this dear lady of short stature that in our, and many theatre companies’ eyes, towered in the respect and admiration we all felt for her.
Jonathan "Rocky” Hagloch, President, Saint Sebastian Players
And from Cyberspace-
I just received this very sad news.
I apologize that this is a mass, mass email, and I believe
there are some
recipients that will receive this that have nothing to do with the Theater
Community in Chicago. I merely grabbed all the email address that I could
and put them together. I am sorry if this email does not relate to you.
Hopefully your SPAM filter will work well enough to ignore me.
I don't know that it has been known or publicized, but I do feel a slight
responsibility to make this known as my life bridges both the theater
community and the Catholic Church.
I serve in a parish in Chicago and one of my Parishioners is Ellie Punkay.
Who is Ellie Punkay?
Well, most of us know her, because she was a determined veteran audience
member of Chicago theater. She was a short woman, with a humped back, who
was relatively poor. She loved the theater, and would volunteer at any
theater company that would allow her to usher, in order that she could see
the shows that many of us performed in.
Can't remember her?
Then you would definitely remember that she was always the LOUDEST person in
the theater, who was the MOST generous, and LAUGHED at everything, with
enthusiasm, even at shows that were bombing. More than one Green Room
Discussion that I have had over the last several years in Chicago has
started with the words "Who is that loud lady in the third row?"
That was Ellie Punkay.
More than one performer recognized that she enjoyed the shows we performed a
little too much.
She will now be watching us from a little bit farther from the third row,
maybe the third light, I don't know.
I regret to pass along that she died last week from a heart attack and was
found dead in her apartment.
She didn't keep a lot of close associations, so I don't know that the news
has spread, but she is a woman who effected every one of us in the theater
community of Chicago. Take a moment or two, if you will, and if you feel
comfortable, to just remember her.
I look forward to returning home. I hit the United States in 3 months and 4
days. I usually sign my correspondence "-peace" but today, from Bolivia,
that takes a special meaning,
From La Paz
David Heimann
