BRATTLEBORO-Greg Lesch. the executive director of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, died Feb. 19, after a battle with cancer.
In this interview, which aired on Brattleboro Community Television on Dec. 2, 2024, less than three months before he died, Greg and I discussed his life and work and the changes that have taken place over more than a half century since he and his family moved to town in 1974 when he was 11 years old.
Prior to his career at the Chamber, Greg worked at Zephyr Design. He was an actor - one of Brattleboro's finest - who performed in countless productions of the Actors Theatre Playhouse (ATP) in West Chesterfield. He was also in a traveling cabaret group, which I heard was really fun and funny. And he was also a voice actor for recorded books.
A Mass of the Eucharist in celebration of Greg Lesch's life will be conducted this Saturday, April 26, at 11 a.m., at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, with Rev. Mary Lindquist, rector, officiating, followed by a reception at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center.
W.O.: : Greg, you caught the acting bug in high school?
Greg Lesch: I was in seventh grade at Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS). Just in little productions, but then the big thing at the time was the musical. They were doing Bye Bye Birdie, and I auditioned. I got to be one of the teenagers.
It was kind of awesome at the time for me, because I was given a line of my own. I was playing a reporter, among other things, in the production.
And I thought, "My god, while I'm speaking that line, no one else is talking. It's all about me for even just those few words."
But then the director said, "Well, I want all those lines to overlap one another." So I kept waiting for the pocket where I could sort of sneak my line in.
But it was at that time that I realized that I really love doing this. This is really fun to do! And I got more and more involved, and I got bigger and bigger parts, and I began to really sort of look at acting with an eye toward a career, ultimately.
And I did get to do it professionally.
W.O.: You studied acting. You went from from BUHS to the University of Vermont (UVM).
G.L.: I graduated from the UVM theater department with a degree in theater and won the top actor award given by the department. And then I went on and did some graduate work through Yale University with a program called BADA, which was the British American Drama Academy. Yale was the American part, and Queens College in London was, I think, the British part of it.
We studied in Oxford with some amazing actors. I got to do a scene with Rosemary Harris, did a master class with Prunella Scales, which some people might remember from the old British comedy Fawlty Towers. I worked with a bunch of amazing actors and really learned a lot about movement, about about different styles of production. I was just absorbing it all.
W.O.: You were working with really great people. Was it very different from American theater?
G.L.: From an American point of view, the theater programs tend to be about what's your resume look like, what your head shot looks like. Who do you know? Who do you contact? How do you get to that person? I found that the British system was more about craft, about learning the technique, learning how to be a good actor, learning how to flesh out the character, and learning how to really be able to jump from one thing to another.
There's sort of a cachet with British actors. If they're in a film or something, there's always a level of quality you expect from it.
I got a great education at UVM. It seemed more like they were preparing me for the next level, and I definitely got that in England.
W.O.: I wonder in American schools if that next level would be film necessarily, or would it continue to be theater.
G.L.: I think it all starts with theater. There was not a lot of push toward getting involved in film, although I was an extra. They'd shot a movie up at UVM, Exposed, in 1983 with Nastassja Kinski and Rudolf Nureyev. I'm on camera I think all of five seconds, probably, as they're panning to Nastassja Kinski. But it was a great experience.
And I got to do a lot of theater, a lot of films through the Marlboro College film department, because the students had projects to do, and they were always looking for actors. I think they were really happy to actually find people who had acting experience.
So I got to do two or three different films that way, and I loved it. I'd love to do more. My heart's for acting on stage, but there's something about the process and about the making of a film that is very intriguing.
W.O.: You were involved with Actors Theatre at the very beginning, I believe.
G.L.: Yeah, I did shows at the Latchis Ballroom [the original venue for the organization, then known as the Actor's Theatre]. And then one hot summer, [founder, producer, and director] Sam Pilo called me up and told me about this building, [Citizen's Hall, owned by the] Ladies Benevolent Society in West Chesterfield.
I think it must have been, like, 99 degrees. And we borrowed an old farm truck from one of the neighbors in Guilford, and we loaded it up with the theater seats from the [by-then-dormant Brattleboro Center for the Performing Arts] and platforms and anything else we could stick in there. And we unloaded all of those seats, brought them upstairs, two flights of stairs. Totally soaked by the end of it, but we did it, and we opened that fall with our first season.
W.O.: And what year was this?
G.L.: This would've been the late '80s. [Editor's note: It was 1987.]
W.O.: And many actors have been involved, and many of them have gone right alongside you through the years as well.
G.L.: Yeah, absolutely. I've always liked the Actors Theatre. They put a lot of focus on doing very little, sort of literary, plays. They don't do a lot of commercial plays - which are fine - but they try to do more sort of classic theater and more contemporary, sort-of-serious pieces.
W.O.: They're more innovative as well, you know, things like they've done Spotlight, which is a literary variety show, and 10-minute plays.
G.L.: I've always liked the idea of them, and I always thought that they should have a 10 minute play festival where you have a corps of actors doing all the plays, so you have maybe six or so actors who are in all of those shows.
I'd rather do a full-length production and really dive into it. It's a lot of work to do a show, and I have a full-time job on the side on the side - my day job! - which is supposed to be the main part of my life.
W.O.: I don't know when you were doing this, but you had a little cabaret group that you took on the road.
G.L.: It was Paul Dedell and Karla Baldwin and Christopher Wesolowski, who are all sort of known people in the community, and we put together this show called It Isn't Nice. It was basically satire and social commentary.
We did serious pieces. We did a lot of Tom Lehrer, sort of satirical music. We did Hanns Eisler and [Bertolt] Brecht, which is much more serious pieces written during the '30s and the '40s. We did it at the Latchis Ballroom, and then we were asked to do it at the Mole's Eye Café. We did a weekend down there, which was totally fun, and we decided we wanted to keep going with it.
And so we we kept the group together. Paul is a composer, and he wrote a lot of the music, and then I started writing the lyrics for him. It was a really wild ride. We played in New York, we played in Boston, and we were in Portsmouth. We were in Rhode Island. We took it all over the place.
We recorded a CD down at the Sound Design studio that Billy Shaw had on Main Street. T-Bone Wolk was a local musician, but he was also Hall and Oates' bass player for most of their time touring and doing concerts - and he happened to live in Brattleboro with his wife. He saw us somewhere and said, "Hey, I'd like to produce an album for you guys."
So we went into Sound Design, and in one weekend, we came up with this album. And he was amazing. He was in the original Saturday Night Live band, and he could play anything. He could pick up any instrument and play it.
And so he was laying down all these tracks. "Oh, I think this song would be better with a with an accordion," he'd say, and he'd lay down a track of an accordion.
W.O.: And you probably all had day jobs and you were doing this on the side, which kind of brings me to downtown Brattleboro and the Chamber of Commerce.
I came here in 1980. Around that time, if you looked at Main Street, there were so many businesses that were being owned and run by really young people - people in their 20s and 30s. You realize how things have changed. You had Candle in the Night with Larry and Donna Simons. You had Captain Bullfrog's, Llama, Toucan, and Crow, The Good Life, Via Condotti (on Elliot Street - that counts). Brown & Roberts, of course.
The Common Ground. That was another one.
G.L.: I still get calls at the Chamber office looking for the Common Ground. It's long gone.
W.O.: It is such a fabulous space.
G.L.: The old fire department building. And Everyone's Books is currently in the lower portion, but the upper section, to my knowledge, is empty,
W.O.: It was just amazing to me to realize that difference that you could come to to this town and make a living. You might have some other side things going.
G.L.: And you could also buy pretty much everything you need here. We're always talking "shop local, shop local." But you really could shop local then, and we didn't have the internet to find everything else that you didn't realize you needed, right?
You could buy everything. You could buy your clothing at Sam's, and there was a [man's] department store. I think there was a [supermarket] downtown.
W.O.: Kate Trazaskos, who is the head of the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, was very helpful in turning me around in terms of how I look at downtown. Downtowns across the nation are changing. It's not all about retail. It's not all about having the kind of businesses that we're used to.
So how do you see it, Greg?
G.L.: I think the shops that survive offer unique products, offer things that you maybe can't find anywhere else, although I think there's still a case to be made for carrying items that you use every day, that people could buy. There's a lot of things you can't buy in Brattleboro.
I think the thing that that makes local businesses more viable is the customer service, because that's something you don't get on amazon.com or any of these other online shopping places. It's the experience. You walk in the door, someone greets you ("Hey, how are you? Thanks for coming in. Let me know if I can help you.").
It's very simple. Customer service is not difficult, but I think there are businesses in Brattleboro that … do it better than others, let's put it that way. And I think everyone could improve to make that experience more compelling.
W.O.: Downtown has always been changing, absolutely - and we've always had empty storefronts, and it changes to something else. As I said to Kate, downtown is kind of emotional. It's a bit of a little roller coaster.
G.L.: Yeah, absolutely. And there are still some shops in town that were there when when my family moved to Brattleboro.
I worked for Zephyr Designs for a number of years, and they were down at 51 Main St., across from the Latchis. But John [Clements], who's the current owner, his brother, Robert, started that business in the '70s. He bought it from a couple who had created the shop, and he took it on and expanded it and sold art supplies and picture framing. They're still in business. There are others. Woody [Woodworth], who just recently sold Burrows to Pete Case - he'd been in business almost as long, maybe even as long. [Editor's note: Woodworth bought the sporting goods business from its founder, Pliny Burrows, in 1993.]
I remember when they were talking about putting in the Walmart and we didn't want it in Vermont. They found a location just over the bridge, where Runnings is now.
W.O.: Literally, over the bridge.
G.L.: People were worried. Oh, my god - there's gonna be tumbleweeds going up Main Street. It's gonna be a disaster. And you know, it really wasn't. I think people got their act together, and they said, You know what, we offer something special. We offer something that you can't find at Walmart. And I think it worked out fine.
W.O.: And people really appreciate that.
Tourists really appreciate Brattleboro. They come here because they like the fact that it's idiosyncratic, it's a little bit gritty, it's got a big array of things that are available and a lot of cool things, like, for instance, our murals. And you folks have collaborated with ArtLords, among other people.
G.L.: And we have a new mural on our wall now on the wall of the Chamber on the other side of Windham Flowers. It's a mosaic, and it's quite lovely. It's got all kinds of sparkly things in it, and it was fun to watch that being created.
And the community got involved in a smash party. People brought their stuff to break, and then they sorted the [pieces into] colors. And it was really quite a community effort. We could use another one of those.
W.O.: The Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit and started in 1906?
G.L.: We are only two years younger than the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital - they just celebrated 120 years and we just celebrated 118. It was started in the Brooks House by local business leaders who felt they needed a place to talk about problems they were having. They met at the Brooks House on a regular basis.
It was originally called the Brattleboro Board of Trade. We've been in our current building since [1964].
Chambers help businesses find solutions. Hey, you need work on that? We know this great business that just joined, and that's what they do. Let me put you in touch with them. And it's people coming to the community, getting relocated, trying to set up a business. How do I start? Where do I start? And we connect people to people who can help them with that.
W.O.: You've collaborated with the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, Heart Rose Club, ArtLords - so many different kinds of organizations.
G.L.: Yeah, absolutely. I think by collaborating, you have more resources at your at your fingertips, and I think it just engages the community in a more meaningful way.
Chambers of Commerce have a brand - they're known for giving information. We don't always know the answer to what they're looking for. But we certainly try.
When the Hermit Thrush Brewery first came to town, the first place they came was the Chamber of Commerce, and we were so thrilled. I think we hugged them - we were so excited to have them.
They were coming from Philadelphia, and they chose Brattleboro to set up shop. And so we helped them find a space. We're sorry they're gone, but they had a good 10-year run, and I think they made a difference in the community.
There's a new business going in there now that makes hand-dyed yarn.
W.O.: That's very cool, because they're right across from the HatchSpace, which filled with all kinds of different people making things. And that's a real switch in downtown.
G.L.: We're really talking about trades in a way, and I think that's an area of the workforce that has been long overlooked. And anyone who's tried to find a plumber or an electrician to come to your house to do something knows how challenging that can be, and how sometimes you have to book, you know, months out to get to get some work done.
The Chamber saw the need for that, and we have the Skills for Success Scholarship Fund started by Jerry Goldberg, the executive director at the time, who saw this need. We give scholarships to students who are graduating and going on, not to a traditional four-year college program, but into a trade.
We gave a scholarship recently to a young man who wanted to learn how to weld, and so he got accepted into this welding school out West.
We work closely with the Windham Regional Career Center.
W.O.: You also do annual Community Awards, which is a very cool thing.
G.L.: We have three major awards: Person of the Year, which is the oldest award; Entrepreneur of the Year, which is the newest award; and then Chamber Member of the Year, given to acknowledge the hard work that goes into creating, maintaining a business, and also for those businesses that do a lot of outreach and do a lot of community service.
I think people are really engaged and compelled by learning about who these people are, how these businesses came to be. So many people think of businesses as just being a store. These people who own these businesses are your neighbors, and these businesses are staffed by your neighbors and your friends and your family.
It's really important for the community to learn about the people who are making things happen and get up every morning and open their shop, even though it may be a slow day.
W.O.: And it's getting to know each other. You know, you and I have seen each other for 40 years, right? This is the first long conversation we've had.
G.L.: I love storytelling. Everyone's got a story to tell - at least one - and even if you don't think they do, sit back and listen.
You'll find you learn things about people that you've known for years. And I think the board is interested in that. It's telling the stories of our businesses and how how they came to be.
Wendy O'connell hosts the award-winning series Here We Are: Brattleboro's Community Talk Show, which airs weekly on Brattleboro Community Television and features conversations with a very wide variety of local people of all ages.
This News item was submitted to The Commons.