And Now a Little About Me

    I've been an actor in the Inland Theater for a few years now. I have enjoyed working with and learning from all the fine actors and directors in the area. I thought I might put a few of my pictures on the net for you to see.

         "The Boys Next Door"

        This is a picture of Norman. He's the donut man from "The Boys Next Door." Norman was a tough one to do as were all the characters in that play. I had hoped, for a long time, to have the opportunity to play a developmentally disabled man. I was raised around my Uncle Buddy who had downs. Buddy had heartbreaks and joys just like the rest of us. In other word even though he was different in some way, he was as human as we "normal" people are. That's the truth I found in this character and what I wanted to bring to the audience of "Boys." I think the whole, wonderful cast wanted to express basically the same thing and we succeeded beyond our wildest imaginations. "Boys" was for me one of those magical plays where everyone gets along and everyone works their butts off to make a great great show.
    At the ITLs "The Boys Next Door" collected seven awards. The headline in the Press-Enterprise reads "'Boys Next Door' dominates awards." The best thing about it is that we clearly touched our audiences and showed them the pure humanity of the characters we all portrayed. This was one of those plays for which we, as actors, all wait. The cast was great, the director wonderful and the material deep yet entertaining.
    Winners were Tony Quinn as Barry Klemper, Jeff Richards as Mr. Klemper (He played a real SOB in this play but is great to work with in "real" life.), William Eric Burton as Arnold Wiggins, Marvin Carter as Lucien P. Smith. (As an aside I was watching a PBS special on the sinking of the Titanic and Lucien P. Smith was on the list of  passengers. I wonder if the author knew that and if so is it where he got the name.), Melodie Narramore Yocum as Sheila (She had to put up with my "dancing" and she did so with such great patience and bruised toes.), Lynn M. Ennis as Director (Her clear vision of the play and her faith in us as a cast carried us all through.) and lastly Marty Hiebert for his role as Norman.

  "Mr. Roberts"
    This was a show that promised to be a disaster from the very start. I mean we're talking about 26 guys on stage, a very small stage, one girl and a goat. But I wasn't about to turn down the role of "Doc" regardless of what might or might not happen. As it turned out, thanks to the able direction and hard work of Phil Homer, our director, we all had a hell of a good time and our audiences loved the show.
    That's me as "Doc" with the rather large belly and the very small bottle. Seated beside me is John Medburry who played "Pulver" and behind us Kelton Tobler who was our "Mr. Roberts." Missing from this shot is the cast of thousands and the goat. Still, I know none of us will ever forget that dear, dear goat who made herself the star of the show one night. During a scene with the three of us the goat decided this would be a good time and place to make goat droppings on stage (Ah, yes. Animals and children). Throughout the remainder of the scene, regardless of the lines or how big we played them, the audience saw or heard nothing but the goat droppings and comments from other audience members about the goat dropping. It made for a very long scene but the audience did enjoy it. I think there is a lesson to be learned here. Should you ever get stuck for laughs, bring in a goat and let it do it's thing.

"Aspirin & Elephants"

    This was another one of those plays where everything came together through the hard work and energy of everyone involved. I got to work with some old friends in this play. Bob Miller was with me in the first play I ever did, "A case of Libel." Bob was the assistant Director in this show. Jim Craw and Joe Camp were the two men that encouraged me to audition for that very first show.  I got to work with Joe on stage for the first time and Jim directed. Mickey Miller was in a previous play with me, "Social Security," as was her husband Bob. This was a show with a lot of old friends and some new ones as well. It was in this show I meet one of the most talented actors in the area, Joe Musil, and we've been friends ever since.
    The story behind this one is very exciting. Jim Craw went to the Santa Monica Playhouse to see this play, liked it and asked the author, Jerry Meyer, if he would consider letting our community theater playhouse put it on. Mr. Meyer agreed. When he came to see the show I'm sure he was just wanting to get it out of the way and trying to be polite. Midway into the first scene he took his notebook out of his pocket and began furiously scribbling notes. After the show he told us he had no idea of the talent in community theater and later asked us to do his next play. Unfortunately it was a bit too racy for our audience.
    I had the great pleasure of playing the writer in this semi-autobiographical play and won my first Inland Theater League award.

A Short List of Work I've Done

 
 
 
 

"A Case of Libel"	The young slimeball lawyer.
"Silver Whistle"	Emmett and never got out from behind an onstage fence.
"Social Security"	The son-in-law. Fun play.
"Solid Gold Cadillac"	The chairman of the board. I had two weeks to get ready.
"Arsenic and Old Lace"	Triple role as Harper, Gibbs and Witherspoon.
"Flowers for Algernon"	The father.
"I Hate Hamlet"	Gary, the producer.
"The Elephant Man"	Dual role as the bishop and the keeper of the pinheads.
"Allocating Annie"	Jake Putnam, the slimeball lawyer.
"Absurd Person Singular"	The british banker, Ronald.
"Return Engagement"	The 19 year old ex-hockey player, later he's in his 50's. A real tearjerker.
"The Merry Wives of Windsor"	George Page.
"Twelfth Night"	Malvolio, by far the most interesting part in the play.
"The Tempest"	Gonzalo, a very old man, I put on a new gray beard every night.
"A Christmas Carol"	Bob Crachet for three years running.
"Great Expectations"	Another slimeball lawyer, Jaggers. I've got to stop doing that!
"The Dining Room"	We all played about seven roles in this one.
"Music Man"	Marcelous, the side kick.