Parting Shots in Vero Beach

The last post ended in such a good place, I couldn't bring myself to finish out the first season in the new place. There's not much to tell, really. The fifth and last show was Charley's Aunt. Way back during early rehearsals for Damn Yankees, the director of Charley's Aunt asked me if I'd be willing to do the set. I said, you guessed it, "Sure." So by the time Damn Yankees had ended, I had plans to go out of town on vacation. I went, and somehow the set got designed and built without me. I felt just like Betty Abbott, but I didn't win any awards.


The summer of '86 was a whirlwind of romance. We camped on an island in the Indian River, she got a horrendous sunburn. We got married in September in the Vero Beach Theatre Guild green room with a throng of our theatrical friends. Carmen's mom came from New Orleans. My mom and dad and their next door neighbor were there. It was officiated by Patti, my first stage manager and our Notary friend. Our honeymoon was at the Disney campgrounds and EPCOT Center.

The next theatrical thing I did was a "cattle call" audition for the upcoming professional shows at Riverside. I did the first soliloquy of Edmond from Firesign Theater's Not Insane album, and sang Oh What A Beautiful Morning. I wasn't nervous, because I wasn't expecting anything. I must have done okay, because many months later, I was called to appear in Hello Dolly. I was paid two hundred bucks for the show - six weeks of rehearsals and three weeks of performances - about twenty cents an hour. I was an ensemble member, a waiter and the judge, all old guys. It was great fun. Carmen did props.



My dad had a deja vu moment in the fall of '86. I'm sure it reminded him of when his father tried to pass the farm to him back in the nineteen thirties, and he didn't want it. My dad tried to pass the art business on to me. I thought about it - my mom and dad added together were making minimum wage, so I would surely be taking a pay cut for a more nerve-racking lifestyle. The bottom line was that I didn't want to run a business. Carmen and I decided to move to the Orlando area for more and better opportunities as soon as the 1987 Dodger programs were finished. And we still had one more show to do for the Theatre Guild.

Mike the sound guy had some reason not to do sound for Once More With Feeling. I was asked, and I said, you guessed it, "Sure." Carmen was asked to be stage manager. I don't know what she said, but she was stage manager. I didn't enjoy this show very much. The director was unpleasant, the tape deck was cantankerous, the music was monotonous, the play was just okay, and we were in "short timer" mode.

In January and February we scouted out rentals in St. Cloud, thirty miles south of Orlando, and Carmen got a job lined up at a title company in St. Cloud. We moved in March, right after the Vero Beach Dodgers minor league program went to press. On April first, I got a job at a plant nursery, and our new life was in motion.