Oklahoma! 1993

I had met a local piano technician, Tom Johnson, who introduced me to Stephanie Arrigotti, who at the time was the Music Department Chair at Western Nevada Community College in Carson City. Stephanie had been looking for adjunct instructors and also for a vocal director for the musical theatre productions she had been producing for the college.

So instead of doing Oklahoma! with Tahoe Mountain Musicals at the end of the summer of 1993, I accepted Stephanie's offer to teach part-time and also become Western Nevada's vocal director which allowed me to perform in their shows as needed. Both Stephanie and Bob Grant, the stage director, were trained as musicians, so they would take turns directing the orchestra, and I would work with the chorus and leads on vocals. And it just so happened they were doing, wait for it, Oklahoma! I auditioned and got the part of Curly, my third time playing him.

Stephanie, Bob, and Cassie Brockway, the choreographer, would become good friends, and for several years and many shows we made a great production team. Also many of the cast would become long-time friends. Lynne Heller and Scott Anderson played Ado and Will and were featured on the poster doing their famous "Oklahoma Hello." Lynne's husband, Dean Heller, would later be a Representative and Senator from Nevada. He also often did cameos when he was in Carson City.

Bob and I talked Stephanie into letting us use a live horse for the production, one of the reasons this production became legendary. The horse was named Buck and belonged to Barbara Andrade. I even took riding lessons from her. However, there was one show where I rode in on the horse singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" while Aunt Eller was churning the butter. I was supposed to stop, then dismount, and slap the horse lightly on its flank so it would go offstage to Barbara who was waiting for it.

That night for some reason, I pulled the reins to stop the horse, but before I could dismount, he started side-stepping toward the orchestra pit. I must have been slightly pulling the reins that way without realizing it. Stephanie started to panic and yelled out to the musicians, "Run!" Fortunately Barbara was able to run onstage, grab Buck, and prevent a disaster. From then on she dressed in black and walked alongside us. You can see her in the picture below. Buck also decided to relieve himself on stage one night which was hilarious.