Meet Claudia Galup

Director Claudia Galup smiles as she watches a rehearsal of 'A Life in the Theatre.' Photo by Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post.

Claudia Galup compares notes with Christin Duncan during the Lee Street Theatre production of 'A Life in the Theatre.' Photo by Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post.

Claudia Galup leads her beloved Norwegian Fjord horse, Rosan. Photo by Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post.

Claudia Galup helps trainer Barbara Black put a Norwegian Fjord horse in harness. Photo by Katie Scarvey, Salisbury Post.

By Katie Scarvey

kscarvey@salisburypost.com

If central casting had to come up with the perfect candidate for a game show, they couldn't do much better than Claudia Galup, who is beautiful, blonde, brainy and about as effortlessly charming as any one person has a right to be.

Claudia — who has been cast in plenty of roles during her lifetime — got her game show opportunity in 1976, when she not only appeared on "The $20,000 Pyramid" but emerged after a dramatic 60 seconds $15,000 richer.

Claudia, who was living in the Washington D.C. area at the time, had enjoyed playing the home version of the popular game show with friends. She was so good at it that a friend encouraged her to try out for the show.

Intrigued, Claudia took her young children (Katie, 2 and Tom, 5) and went to visit a friend in Connecticut, who helped her get to New York for the interview, along with about a hundred other people.

She made it into the group of 16 semi-finalists and then ... she waited.

She didn't hear anything for two months.

Finally, she got the call: "Can you come to New York?"

She didn't have much money back then, she says, but she wanted to look good.

"I wrote a bad check for 26 dollars to buy a pair of shoes," she says.

They were white, wedge sandals from Loehmann's, and while they were cute, they gave her blisters, she recalls.

The day of the taping, Claudia was the very first contestant selected out of the 16 who were there.

She started out playing with comedian Jo Anne Worley.

"We didn't click very well," Claudia says.

She then changed partners and got Tony Randall, famous among other things, for his role in the TV show "The Odd Couple."

Their chemistry was good, and they breezed through the first round and then proceeded to the big money pyramid round.

Claudia easily worked her way through the first five categories: "Things in King Kong," "Things You Push," "Things You Fire," "Things That Roll."

On the last category, Randall gave Claudia the clues: "Shirts ... stuffings in little bottles of pills ..."

"Things made of cotton!" Claudia exclaimed — with five seconds to spare.

And just like that, she was $15,000 richer. (If hadn't won right out of the blocks, she'd have had a chance to win the $20,000.)

Claudia says she was crazy about the intelligent, courtly Randall.

"He was adorable," she says.

She also remembers Dick Clark fondly. "He would rub my shoulders between takes," she says.

Claudia hadn't thought much about her appearance on "Pyramid" for years until last spring, when she got a phone call from a friend in Florida. Her friend's nephew was visiting her and had been watching YouTube.

"Aunt Tanya, I see someone I know," he told her.

Turns out he was watching Claudia Galup's winning turn on "Pyramid." A Pyramid buff had posted an old episode.

The money proved to be a boon for Claudia and her husband, Bob, an oral surgeon who was making about $7,000 a year at the time, she says.

They used her winnings as a down payment on a house in Concord, N.C.,and another chapter in Claudia's life began — a chapter that would again feature being in the spotlight.

After moving to Concord, Claudia wanted to meet some people, so when someone suggested she volunteer at the Old Courthouse Theatre, she readily agreed and began helping with props.

She got her first opportunity at acting when they needed someone to play a nurse.

That was a natural fit, since Claudia had been a nurse in a surgical intensive care unit in Washington, D.C.

Claudia remembers that her character spoke seven words — although she doesn't remember now what they were.

She does remember, however, that she enjoyed the experience so much she wanted to repeat it.

That marked the beginning of Claudia's love affair with the theatre.

She became active in Piedmont Players, and in 1990 was cast in "Dangerous Liaisons." She also had parts in "Run for Your Wife," "Rumors," and "Little Foxes."

Her all-time favorite role, she says, was Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire."

Another opportunity came later when the St. Thomas Players asked if she would direct "Agnes of God."

Although she'd never directed before, she agreed, mainly because she had been in the play before; her familiarity with it gave her some degree of confidence.

Directing became her new passion.

"I really loved directing," she says. "More than acting. I love watching the actors through rehearsals."

Since then, she's directed many plays.

"I have loved all of my casts so much," she says.

This past fall, she directed David Mamet's "A Life in the Theatre."

It featured two actors: Brian Romans and Craig Kolkebeck.

Kolkebeck, a stage veteran and director himself, says he was happy for the chance to work with Claudia.

"When I saw her production of 'You Never Can Tell' (with St. Thomas Players), I thought she had a good eye with a very difficult piece," he says.

Romans agrees that she's a good director.

"As petite or diminutive as she appears, she has no problem telling us what she needs," he says. "She has absolutely no fear of directing."

"She's kind of like Julie Andrews," says Christin Duncan, stage manager for the production. "She's so elegant all the time. And she can keep those guys under control. She's wonderful."

"Elegance" is a word that comes up frequently when people describe Claudia. And yet at the same time, she has no problem fitting in with the often rowdy world of theatre.

While directing "A Life in the Theatre," Claudia's life changed dramatically. While the play was still in rehearsal, she started to feel bad. First, it was just fatigue, which she chalked up to a recent bout with the flu.

She noticed that her knees were buckling when she walked down stairs. Then, she noticed numbness, first in her hands and then in her feet.

After one rehearsal, she was feeling so bad that she finally had her daughter take her to the doctor.

In a stroke of luck, her primary care physician was familiar with a rare immune disease called Guillain-Barr syndrome because he'd had a patient with it. He immediately recognized the symptoms in Claudia: awkward gait, distorted sensations in hands and feet.

In Guillain-Barr syndrome, the body's immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system. Because nerves are damaged, the disorder can cause a lot of pain.

In extreme cases, the patient may be almost totally paralyzed.

Claudia's doctor referred her immediately to a neurologist, who had her admitted to a hospital. That was in early October. She would spend the next eight days there.

She was treated with immunoglobulin I.V. therapy, she says, but her condition continued to worsen initially, to the point where she couldn't even feed herself.

Gradually, she began to improve as her nerve coverings began to heal.

When she got home, she had to use a walker to get around for about a month. Her condition has improved, although she's still not at 100 percent. She's been told that she should recover fully, she says.

She's happy these days to be well enough to see her beloved horses.

Claudia, who lives in Concord with her husband, boards four horses at Paradox Farm in Mocksville, which is owned by her friends, Dr. Nancy Faller and Dr. Joe Martin.

She spends a lot of time at the farm on the weekends and when she can find time during the week.

Claudia got interested in horses after a bout with breast cancer in 1994. "After something like that," she says, "you start thinking about things you want to do. It seemed like the time was right."

Not long after her surgery, she got her first horse, Odin: a Norwegian Fjord Horse. She later got another, Rosan — or Rose, for short. They are Viking horses, she says, and they also happen to be blonde — like Claudia.

She doesn't ride much. She prefers driving Rose, and she owns several carts and carriages for just that purpose. Part of a local driving club, she participates in driving competitions with Rose when she can.

She likes Norwegian Fjords as a breed because they're gentle. Rose she says, is "a very good citizen" and a good worker.

"I don't need any drama," she says. "I like it compartmentalized in the theatre."

On the mend now, Claudia is looking forward to directing a St. Thomas Players production this summer.

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If you'd like to see Claudia winning "Pyramid" on Youtube, go to Youtube and search for the terms "pyramid" and "a tense match." If you look closely, you can see the white wedge sandals.