What Might Have Been

(Above: Bret)

Over the last few weeks it's been my great pleasure to write about three teenaged prodigies - classical pianist Audrey Vardanega and jazz virtuosos Samora and Elena Pinderhuges.
It's exhilarating to behold so much talent in someone so young, especially when they're such nice kids, as all three are. And it's so much fun to imagine what wonderful things they're going to accomplish as they wend their way through life.
But that's why it's also so painful when a young person with such promise gets cut off before he or she has barely had a chance to begin. You're forever left wondering: What might have been?
That's how I've felt since March 21, 2005, when Bret Harte was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Highway 680 near Concord. He was only 25.
Bret - no relation to the 19th century author - was a theatrical wunderkind who had already directed several local productions, including "Inherit The Wind" and "The Man Who Came To Dinner."
"He was destined to be one of the great theatrical directors of his generation, said Davis Robinson, his theater professor at Bowdoin College in Maine.
Campbell Hunter, his history teacher at Miramonte High School in Orinda (where he graduated in 1998 with a straight-A average), went even further: "If I had a son, I'd want him to grow up to be just like Bret."
Bret's death devastated his parents, Dennis and Juanita Harte, two of the nicest people I've ever met. He was their only child, and they had a wonderfully warm, loving relationship. All their hopes and dreams were wrapped up in him.
Since then, they have tried to keep his spirit alive by founding an internship for up-and-coming young directors at Berkeley Rep, where Bret worked as a stagehand after college.
And their friends have rallied around them. Led by Greg Walker and Lee Bressette, whose daughter was one of Bret's closest friends, they hold annual plant sales to augment the internship fund.
This year's plant sale is taking place this weekend at 73 Coral Drive in Orinda, from 9 to 3 on Saturday and 10 to 2 on Sunday.
"We've never had such a diversity or quantity of plants," says Lee. "They are all looking their best and ready to go to new homes."
The plants include herbs, veggies, orchids, perennials, exotics, drought-resistant landscape plants and catnip, which I intend to pick up for my cat, Phoebe.
And it couldn't be for a better cause. There have already been two Bret Harte Directing Interns at Berkeley Rep - Marissa Wolf, now the artistic director of the Crowded Fire Theater Company in San Francisco, and the current incumbent, Mina Morita.
"I never met Bret; I only know what his friends here at Berkeley Rep have told me about him," said Mina. "There's an extreme sense of loss here, even now. He was well loved by everyone on the staff. It's really an honor to carry on his name in this way. I'll try to live up to it."
If you can't get to the plant sale, you can still contribute by sending a check to the Bret C. Harte Young Directors Fund, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley CA 94704.