Most of my life I was a victim of under-appreciation of theater, or at least the actual performance of theater. I have loved musicals most of my adult life. They were THE rage on Broadway the entire time I lived and went to school in the vicinity of NYC and I went to many of them. But I never had the slightest desire to be in one.

Our church started performing musicals after a member of the congregation wrote one, produced and directed it. I didn't participate. Then they did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I didn't participate. In fact, I never saw either of those two productions. I noticed that a lot of my friends had inside jokes now, called each other by their stage names, smiled knowingly about things I didn't understand. I didn't like being an outsider. Then I finally went to a performance of South Pacific. I sat amazed at the professionalism of my friends. I knew I had to be part of that.

Since then I have been in five Broadway musicals in some capacity. The first show for me was Fiddler on the Roof. I knew I would miss many rehearsals so I volunteered to take a part that would allow me to make a minimum number of them, the Russian tenor who, in essence, is in one scene and sings one song. Never mind that I hadn't been a tenor for years. No one else wanted the part so I got it. They tell me I actually was up in the correct range on the last two nights. Russian tenor 1994.

The next year we did Music Man, my favorite show of all time. I, of course, wanted to play the lead. They wanted me to form the barbershop quartet, and I did. The quartet outlasted the show by years. The greatest thrill in my short life in theater was the applause that broke out after our first song. Music Man 1995.

Now the quartet wanted to perform as a quartet, but we had already done the only known Broadway musical with a barbershop quartet. We volunteered to warm up the audience for Oklahoma and we all had bit parts in the show, too. Oklahoma 1996.

We did the same for Camelot in 1997 (no picture) except that none of us were in the rest of the show.

In 98 the show was Sound of Music. The quartet was no longer singing since our tenor had moved to Iowa. I was out of town and didn't even see the show.

Then came Guys and Dolls. No one could believe we were going to do that in church. It really is a sort of morality play, very appropriate to a church setting. I had the only non-singing role in the show, which should tell me something, I guess. I played the detective, Lt Brannigan. In this picture I have just conned Nathan Detroit into getting married. I'm happy, so is Miss Adelaide. Nathan isn't. Guys and Dolls, 1999.

There have been lots of other parts in smaller productions, all at Lord of Life Lutheran Church. I have successfully resisted Hollywood. Well, I was once asked to be a dancer, I'm not kidding, in a show after the choreographer saw me "dance" in Fiddler. I declined. I think I can sing but I have never thought I could dance.

That's my theatrical career. It has been more fun than I could ever have imagined, and more work, too. We put the shows on for four nights only. For that we have to build a stage, put up a set, learn our parts, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Costume. Makeup. All that stuff. No one can believe we do all of that for four performances. We usually sell out 2 or 3 of those, and have nearly full houses at the other performances. It is a tremendous thrill to play a full, appreciative house.

Check out the Lord of Life Players page to see more about this, also a few more pictures, some with me in them!!