While I lived in Chicago trying to make it as a singer/actor, I did singing telegrams for a company called Sgt. Yukon Singing Telegrams. I also taught private voice lessons at a few of the suburban high schools. One I remember was Palatine High School. Through connections I heard about a theatre group in Wilmette called Unicorn Theatre and auditioned for one of their shows, Girl Crazy.
I was cast as Samuel for a June 1983 production of The Pirates of Penzance with Light Opera Works based in Evanston, IL. Met some great people who I got to work with in later productions. The company has now evolved into Music Theater Works, however, someone has put up an archive of a lot of the old material from Light Opera Works at LightOperaWorks.info. They even had a page for Pirates from which the two pictures below were "borrowed." And yes, the Pirate King was that tall.
Obviously if you're going to be auditioning professionally you need professional quality headshots. When we got to Chicago someone recommended photographer Tom Fezzey. I'm glad he or she did.
Amy and I continued our relationship long distance in the Fall of 1982. I proposed to her around Thanksgiving. She was going to be finished with her undergrad at WIU by the end of that semester, and we were going to move to Chicago to pursue our dreams. We got married in a civil ceremony on January 8, 1983.
That fall after I got back to Iowa City from Macomb, I took a few classes at the University even though I was finished with my Master's. I also auditioned for the University Theatre Department's musical, Leave It To Jane and got the part of Stubby Talmadge, a frat boy mover and shaker.
We got a couple of nice reviews from the local papers.
The last show for the SMT season was Oklahoma! Again I was fortunate enough to get cast in the lead role of Curly, my second time playing the character. Amy had mentioned that some of the other actors were a little miffed I was getting the lead roles. Here is a page from the program and another ticket. I remember the girl that played Laurey opposite of me, Michelle Sarkesian, had a beautiful soprano voice.
The second show we did for SMT was Once Upon a Mattress. I auditioned and got the part of Sir Harry and played opposite Jane Petrongelli as Lady Larkin. Interestingly there was a ticket I had forgot about stuck inside the program. I'm sure my parents came down from Iowa City for the show.
Below is a cute photo of Jane and I as the lovebirds.
Meanwhile I had met this girl named Amy Farwell who had done SMT the last summer and knew several of the cast members who either went to school at WIU or had also done it before. One thing led to another and pretty soon we were an item.
In the Spring of 1982 I auditioned for a summer stock company called Summer Music Theatre based out of Macomb, Illinois and associated with Western Illinois University. I was fortunate enough to get hired and I accepted a position in the company without really even knowing what roles I would play. The first show they were doing was West Side Story and apparently because I wasn't a good enough dancer I got the part of Tony (at least according the choreographer).
The following photos are of Kate Gengo (Maria) and me first in the balcony scene and then the "One Hand, One Heart" duet.
I was fortunate enough to get a nice review from a writer for the WIU paper.
On 15 May 1982 I earned my MA in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the U of IA.
January of 1982 was cold. I remember going to a rehearsal for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Iowa City Community Theatre and it was something like 20 below zero. Not a good time to be wearing a toga. It was fun getting to play the character of Hero. A young Michael Crawford plays him in the movie. What's kind of funny is that Amy McDonald, who was playing Philia opposite me, had dark hair and wore a blonde wig, while I had blonde hair that I dyed dark.
In the fall of 1981 I auditioned for the Iowa City Community Theater production of Oklahoma! and got the part of Curly.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen had the publicity shot below.
The following reviews were excerpted from the Press-Citizen and Daily Iowan respectively. They got it wrong as I had only been the understudy for Papageno.
I got to understudy the role of Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (sung in English) for the U of IA's Summer Rep program. Even though I didn't get to perform the role, it was great to learn it for later, and also great getting to work with my voice teacher Albert Gammon who sang the role of Sarastro.
While working on my Master's degree at U of IA I sang with their choral group Kantorei. Here are a few of the programs. The Madrigal Dinners were always a fun event.
