Almost right after Earnest, WNMTC opened up their production of Fiddler on the Roof. I did the vocal direction and also played the role of Sasha, one of the Russians. I got to stand on a table and hold a high G for a long time during the song "L'chaim."
At some point during Spring Quarter 1996 during my first quarter of teaching Voice at Lake Tahoe Community College I met the full-time faculty member heading the Theatre Department, Dave Hamilton, who hadn't done a musical for about three years. Anyway, Dave would become a great friend and colleague, not to mention advocate for a full-time job, and we did numerous shows over the next decades, along with our choreographer, Rexanne Ring Harris and our tech director, Kurt Munger.
The first show we did in the Fall of 1996 was Fiddler on the Roof, and it would be the first show for which I conducted the orchestra. Stephanie had asked me to conduct a show, I don't recall now which one it was, but I think at the time I didn't have the confidence to accept her offer. Now I had no choice, I was it.
The first musical I ever did was Fiddler on the Roof during my junior year at Decorah High School. I played the role of the tailor, Motel Kamzoil, who marries Tevye's oldest daughter, Tzeitel. Somewhere they may be a photo from that, but I haven't come across it yet. I remember having to wear a scraggly fake beard along with dyeing my hair dark. I did come across some pages from the DHS 1975 Yearbook that had some pictures.
