As an actor, writer, director, sound manager and in other behind-the-scenes roles, he devoted many more hours to local theater.
Schwartz died Saturday, shortly after suffering a massive stroke. He was 61.
“San Antonio actors, techies and audiences have lost a great talent,” said theater owner Steven Stoli.
At age 11, Schwartz won a talent contest at the Woodlawn Theatre by playing “Malagueña” on the harmonica. He learned how to play from his father, who had played in a harmonica group in New York that later became The Harmonicats.
The following year, he directed a play for his sixth-grade class that his father wrote, a parody of “Cinderella.”
Years later, after attending St. Mary's University for a couple of years, he began his first career working as a software developer and doing accounting.
Then in 1992, his wife, Sandy, joined the local theater company Steven Stoli Productions. It didn't take much to rekindle Schwartz's interest in performing.
“It was always there,” she said. “I'm so grateful that we were able to spend so many years doing something we loved.”
He filled in as a sound designer on a production, and quickly moved to engineering the sound for more of the company's productions.
He also started the company's Web site.
“When I see people leaving our theatre with smiles on their faces or joyful tears in their eyes, I know that in some small way I've entertained them,” he was quoted in a theater company bio. “I've made a difference.”
He directed his first show for Stoli in 1997, and over the following years directed more than 40 productions. Many of those featured his wife.
“In a way, it was really good because we were able to talk on two different levels,” Sandy Schwartz said. “We were able to communicate as director and actress and also as husband and wife.”
In recent years, Schwartz moved away from the theater as it began to wind down its operation. It closed at the end of January and is reopening later this month under new ownership as the Rose Theater Company.