The man backstage

SELF

PORTRAIT Date and place of birth: Oct. 6, 1953, New York. I have lived in North Little Rock since I was 16.

The menu for my ideal meal would be Greek salad, pasta, ice cream.

What do people always ask me at parties? “What are you working on?” One thing every man should know about women: Respect and humility. Women are usually smarter and far more humble than men. We should learn from that … every day.

The book I’ve read most: To Kill a Mockingbird My procrastination technique: [Late wife] Sally [Riggs] used to tell me that I was not born with an internal clock.

I’m not sure it’s a technique, but it works.

My favorite theatrical performance: In film, Meryl Streep, in anything.

Otherwise … Dan McCabe in War Eagle was extraordinary.

Something not too many people know about me is I’m a philatelist. I’m serious about my stamp collection.

I have two of the first stamps ever issued.

My next pick for president: Hillary Clinton, and I aim to go back on the road to help her get there.

One word to sum me up: PassionateNinety minutes into a six-hour-long Saturday rehearsal, Vince Insalaco and his company have a “What Would Jesus Do?” moment. Strains of rock opera overhead, the director and cast are “blocking” the scene where Jesus storms into the temple, furiously upends the signs of commerce and banishes the traders and moneylenders.

But would he knock things over before he rebukes them? Or would he speak first?

“How do you feel about it?” Insalaco asks the titular star in Jesus Christ Superstar. “Do you go berserk first, and then sing, or knock everything down first ?”

It’s one thing to inhabit the characters of Willie Loman or Blanche DuBois, quite another the son of God. They don’t settle on an answer right away.

Though he produced Cabaret last summer, Insalaco hasn’t directed a play in 30 years, and he seems contemplative. Fidgety. As the cast runs through “The Temple” number he paces back and forth, adjusting props so they would better face the audience, and giving feedback.

He reminds his cast that their version will have modern touches that might be confusing.

“This is the first scene since the overture wherewe’re adding some modern things. Remember T-shirts and sunglasses? Just bear that in mind,” he said. “It’s going to be weird for the audience, but we’re doing that deliberately.” MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Whether directing politics or plays, developing a candidate or a character, Insalaco has made a career out of knowing his audience, of seeing things from their perspective.

“He can feel out an audience, and he knows what’s on their mind,” said his neighbor and friend Dennis Jungmeyer. “He knows their hot buttons inpolitics, and it’s the same thing with the theater. … I think his success is evidence of his ability to motivate people and read them and promote them.”

He has managed political campaigns for mayoral, gubernatorial and congressional seats in Arkansas as well as the late Menachem Begin’s successful prime minister bid in Israel. He did advance work for the campaigns that sent Bill Clinton to the White House in 1993 and 1997. He persuaded North Little Rock residents to fund Dickey-Stephens Park and Alltel (now Verizon) Arena. He and business partner Judy Tenenbaum gave the Argenta neighborhood a community theater.

Insalaco has been presented with a couple of lifetime achievement awards - one from the Arkansas Arts Council and another from the Argenta Community Development Corp. - about which he usually jokes, “I’m not done yet. You should have given this award to somebody else.”

Though he’s usually behind the curtains, the stages - performance or politics - are more similar than you might suspect. And while he has often found the spotlight, he deliberately stays just outside its sphere. He prefers to let it shine on others, says his son.

“The people who are known for running the state, he’s always been right behind them guiding, leading, watching. And he is the last person to take credit for anything,” said Vincent Insalaco III. “He knows how to be in the spotlight, he just doesn’t like it.”

For the elder Insalaco, the reward is in the work. His mind is always in motion - he often jokes about and believes he probably has attention-deficit disorder - barely finishing a sentence before moving on to another thought. He’s prepared to give his full attention to whatever is in front of him, but his mind’s an airport terminal.

“People say you need to stop and smell the roses. I tell people I’m allergic to roses. To me it’s about the garden. The work. I get so excited and passionate about it, but once it’s done, I’m ready to go on to the next thing,” he said.

The next thing is Jesus Christ Superstar, the second musical to be staged at North Little Rock’s Argenta Community Theater. He’s planning seven shows beginning July 23, which means he has religion on his mind.

Midsentence, he interrupts himself to say, “Can I just give you 30 seconds about my faith?”

He gave us 10 minutes.

“I believe in Jesus. I believe in that whole story. Do I accept him as a higher power? Absolutely. Do I love the story of him being our savior? I’m perfectly fine to accept all that. But in the end, if we find out all we have is each other and all of that is mythology, the message he preached - work for all, bread for all, that we have to take care of each other - is at the heart of humanity, and that’s what I believe. That’s what motivates me to do everything I do.”

The other unspoken thing that motivates him is the memory of his wife. Ultimately, he’s directing this play for her.

“Jesus Christ Superstar was really special to her,” he said. “We talked more about this show than anything else she ever did.” THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE

When Insalaco met Sally Riggs, she was in her mid-20s and already an icon in her North Little Rock hometown. She’d been in a national tour of Hello, Dolly! with Dorothy Lamour. She had performed on Broadway in the original cast of Celebration. At the age of 19, she had an Arkansas day set aside in her honor. But her proudest moment was working as ballet mistress, choreographer and one of the three actresses to play Mary Magdalene in the very first production of Jesus Christ Superstar in London.

In 1974, after years with the cast of Superstar, working with Andrew Lloyd Webber and performing for the queen of England, Riggs returned home to be closer to her mother, who was ill. Insalaco was directing a production of Funny Girl and in need of a choreographer. A mutual friend set up a lunch where the two could meet to discussthe position.

“What I remember most is I showed up 20 minutes late, which I am notorious for being late. She looked at me and she said, ‘Mr. Insalaco, don’t ever do this to me again. Ever. Do you understand me?’” he said.

Their relationship recovered quickly, but it wasn’t romantic right away. He was in another relationship at the time.

“I just have great respect for and get along really well with strong women,” he said. “But that’s how we met, and within a year she was my closest friend, and I so admired her … but I loved her before she did me - I just never told her.”

Overloaded with work, he was invited to the Riggs’ family cabin in Hot Springs over a Fourth of July weekend for a break.

“Obviously she was having feelings for me, too,” he said. “We got down there and after a few bottles of wine, that was the end of that. We were together every day since, until she died.”

Sally died of cancer in 2006 at the age of 58, and the loss was devastating to him, his son and his daughter, Elizabeth. After 32 years of marriage, Insalaco will be one of the last to let her go.

“My children, six years later, are just now beginning to move on, which means maybe I can,” he said. “Because I knew I could not even begin to move on myself until my kids did.”

Vincent Insalaco III says his parents had a bond like he has never seen before, and when his mother died,the family lost its center.

“My dad lived for her, if that makes sense,” he said. “She was really the glue that held everything together. He always called her the rock of the family and now I’m very blessed that he’s calling methat to people whenever he talks to family. She had a way of bringing people together, and when she passed we didn’t really know how to live without her.”

He knows his mother continues to influence his father’s actions nearly every day, but especially when it comes to the arts.

“It’s almost like he’s continuing her dreams because now those are his. Whatever was important to her is important to him. And it’s almost like a constant. She’s always there and she will always be there,” he said.

As for the elder Insalaco, when he thinks about Sally, he’s still amazed she chose him at all. “What’s she doing kicking out with a guy like me?” he wonders aloud as we walk through a room inhis home with memorabilia of her life on the stage. He considers himself lucky to have known her. Lucky to have her strong influence in his life.

“People say you create your own luck, and I think I work really hard, but I also think I got lucky. I know too many people that work really hard,” he said.

“It all started with her.” THE HOUSE THAT VIDEO BUILT

It was Sally who prompted Vince to open a line of video stores.

“On Saturdays, which was my only day off, I took my kids to the local video store and there’d be Debbie Does Dallas next to Cinderella. Then I’d go home and complain about it to her, and she said, ‘Well, why don’t you open one of those stores ?’Because I was a theater freak and a film freak.”

He put an ad on the newspaper’s movie page that simply said, “Family Entertainment. Open Christmas Day from 12 to 6,” and arrived after church - his usual 30 minutes late - to find a line of people a block long. That was in 1984. The year everyone got a VCR for Christmas.

“That was the big present, and it was like getting a toy with no batteries,” he said. “The next thing you know I had 10 stores and went to work full time at the company and built it to 51 stores in three or four states.”

He sold the business in 2002 when Sally got sick. Incidentally, the video subscription service Netflix enrolled its millionth subscriber that year and went public.

Today, Insalaco lives in “the house that video built.” Framed photos, posters and collections of Renaissance art adorn most flat surfaces. Then there’s photos of Insalaco with known liberals he calls “walls of fame, if you’re a Democrat, and walls of shame” if you’re not.

“I never had photos until she died, and then I went through and started putting pictures up everywhere because every time I look at one of these pictures it reminds me of her and what we were doing and what I was doing,” he said.

Insalaco’s home was built for the purpose of hosting fundraisers and gatherings. An impressive marble staircase, a hand-painted mural and a large mirror dating back to the Duchess of Orleans meet visitors at the front door. The home’s interior is the exquisite work of a decorator, but Vincent’s contribution is in the backyard - lush landscaping, a rock waterfall and a koi pond full of beloved, fat fish. The house was completed in 2005, a year before Sally died, and she worried Vincent might not stay rooted to the home without her.

“Before Sally died, she went around to all my closest friends and made them promise that I wouldn’t sell it until we raised a million dollars for charity,” he says. “We’re now over $2 million.”

He keeps a little book, a “Sally book,” where he lists each event, its associated charity or organization and how much it raised. One of the first events was for the Historic Arkansas Museum; he sits on the board. Then followed functions for CARTI, The Arkansas Repertory Theatre, the THEA Foundation and Easter Seals. Charity-based events are punctuated with political fundraisers for members of the Democratic Party.

“[Fundraising] is a promise I made to her, and it’s not worth much if you don’t keep your promises,” he said.

He passed $2 million and stopped his tally.

He has met and passed that goal, and he’s not inclined to discard his home at the moment. He’s comfortable, but not tied to his possessions because he says people are the most important things in this world - and that reminds him of his latest project again.

“If you’ve been through enough trauma in your life, you learn that things don’t matter, that people do,” he said. “I think when Jesus said, ‘Sell all you have and give it to the poor,’ he really meant it. And I certainly don’t have the courage to do it. I’m not nearly that brave. I think the bravest people in the world are the ones who really did that.”

What religion should do, he says, is prompt people to change their surroundings for the better.

“What matters is, does your religion affect you in a profoundly positive way that makes you want to change your community? Because that’s what it’s supposed to do,” he said. “And if the only thing you’re changing is yourself, then you’ve missed the message.”