Personal Anniversary

Today marks 25 years to the day that I started at Market House Theatre.

At this moment in my history with MHT I'm currently acting in the show High School Musical as Coach Bolton; I've designed the scenery and the lighting for the show as well; I'm directing Doubt- A Parable which opens Nov. 13 along with designing the sets and lights for that production; I'm designing the sets and lights for the play Greetings which open Dec. 4; and I'm still working up the sound equipment for The True Story of the Tortoise and the Hare which starts touring 3 states Nov. 7.

Yesterday morning as I was pulling the curtains open to start the school matinee performance of High School Musical I was thinking about standing in that corner of the stage next to the same brick wall in the theatre 25 years ago looking at the same broken brick in the wall that hasn't changed. I've changed in many ways. On my first day I was single. I was getting married two weeks later. I had a full head of hair and a full beard. Life was stretched out before me and it was a new adventure in something called community theatre. I planned to stay in Paducah maybe a year or two before taking another theatre job on my way to what I thought was going to be a career in professional theatre.

My first play at MHT was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I designed the costumes, sets, lights, and sound for the production. It was also my first children's theatre production that I had designed. Next March I will have worked on over 400 productions at MHT since that first day.
Those 400 shows have taken a toll in the lines around my eyes and the gray hair in my beard. My back goes out more often than it did when I first started. (It was just out this past Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and just started to feel good again Thursday.) I wear glasses now with bi-focals so that I can see my script and see the stage sitting in the audience. I've lost the extreme high end of my hearing so that very high pitches are unheard by me. My hands and knees ache from arthritis when the weather is changing. After climbing ladders hanging lights I wake up in the night with leg cramps more often than I used to. I can't blame all those things on 400 productions, but they certainly contributed. But despite the aches and pains I still find myself thinking about the same things that I did that first day at MHT on Nov. 1, 1983. How to make Market House Theatre a better place. I also find myself constantly refreshed by the really wonderful people who volunteer at this place. Many of the adults who now participate in the theatre and grew up doing shows at MHT have never known the theatre without April and Michael. Having been here for 25 years now I know that someday April and I will move from making history at MHT to being a part of its history along with all of the others who gave of themselves to make this theatre something special. We will be in good company.

As I mark this anniversary I look back at all the people who I've had the great gift of knowing. Some of those people have passed away and others are young kids just starting out in the world. All I can say is that there have been great times in my life in Paducah as well as really tough times. But through it all it were the people who made this place special. It is only fitting that my first show at MHT was a show with youth acting in it (Jeri Ryan, Patrick Kerr Jr, Glen Denton were all elementary school kids) and this show today has over 30 middle and high school students. I never ceased to be impressed with the talent and dedication of the kids and adults who work on the shows here. Twenty five years ago I thought I was stopping off in Paducah for a brief time before heading off to New York and a professional career. The people who I have had the gift of getting to know at MHT have made my 25 years something more precious to me than any career in professional theatre ever would have given me. With time comes wisdom and that is something I know is true. Thank you to all of you who have given me a life in the theatre and in a community that I am truly grateful for.