He attended an Easter Vigil service in 1970 at Pittsburgh"s Saint Paul Cathedral, wearing his usual overalls and T-shirt. I went home, took out my manuscript, and worked it to completion in a non-stop frenzy." Though he never completed his coursework at the university, Carnegie Mellon nevertheless awarded him a degree.
He was most famous for creating the musical Godspell based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew. The music was by Stephen Schwartz. Some of the lyrics are original, with others taken from either the Bible or traditional hymns in the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal.
Tebelak originally produced Godspell at age 21 as his masters thesis project, under the tutelage of Lawrence Carra, at Carnegie Mellon University in December 1970.
A police officer frisked him for drugs after the service. He wrote of this experience, "I left with the feeling that, rather than rolling the rock away from the Tomb, they were piling more on.
Subsequently, Tebelak directed productions of Godspell at Louisiana MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, the Cherry Lane Theatre, the Promenade Theatre, and on Broadway. He was named Theatre Manitoba of the Year by Elliott Norton of the Boston-Record American, and Most Promising Director of 1971 by the New York Drama Desk.
He was also named an Outstanding Ohioan by then-Governor John Jay Gilligan.
John Michael Tebelak graduated from Berea High School (Berea, Ohio) in 1966. After Godspell
In 1972 Tebelak directed the Broadway play Elizabeth I, the off-Broadway play, The Glorious One in 1975, and Ka-Boom in 1980. He also directed Lope de Vega"s Fuenteovejuna in Madrid in 1975.
He co-wrote with David Greene the 1973 film version of Godspell.
He was dramaturge for the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York and staged liturgical drama there. According to Review James Parks Morton, "whether it was a sermon series or a two-day conference on the environment, he turned it into theater."
At that time, Hannum was represented by famed divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson and was working with noted writer Norman Mailer on a stage adaptation about Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe called Strawhead.
The lawsuit was an early effort to define the rights of cohabiting homosexual couples. John-Michael returned to his native Berea, Ohio, to direct the 10th Anniversary production of "Godspell" at the Berea Summer Theater, Summer of 1980.
He subsequently directed "Cabaret" there, Summer 1981.
Tebelak died on April 2, 1985, of a heart attack in New York City at age 35.
