Day 15 of 60 Days ‘til 60 Years is dedicated to “Paul Bunyan, the Musical” at Amherst College. This was an original musical written by Don Howard as his graduate thesis. He was Ken (“1776” and “White Shadow”) Howard’s younger brother. Don went on after Amherst to do Broadway – he was in ”West Side Waltz” with Katharine Hepburn among others. Sadly, he passed away in 1999 at age 47. In 1974, I auditioned for him and was cast as “Soudough Sam,” who (as everyone knows) was Paul Bunyan’s cook! Sam used to strap bacon fat to the bottom of his shoes and skate all over the giant skillet to prepare for flapjack makin.’ So yes, my solo “I’m Sourdough Sam” was sung while on roller skates. To make matters even wilder – the deck of the stage was shaped like a map of the United States and was “raked” (slanted) toward the orchestra pit – which was easily a 10 foot drop. So I had to learn to roller skate first and then to skate on a steep rake. Back in the dorm you would often see me skating around the study room at the end of our corridor. In the show, my entrance was upstage right (the highest part of the deck). I skated down, split my legs and went right over another actor downstage left - who ducked as I passed over him. It was quite an entrance!!! Doing that show was a wonderful experience all around. Amherst College has a magnificent campus and I felt privileged to be working in their Theatre. The cast literally built and painted the set and jumped in wherever we were needed. I learned then and there that theatre people do whatever is asked of them – always. We were a family and a great team. Also in the cast was Jodi Hingle (actor Pat Hingle’s daughter), my friend from Patterson, Alan Campbell played “Big Swede,” and the choreographer was Karen Meister– who went on after graduation from Smith to star as Cassie in “A Chorus Line” on Broadway. I know I have pictures from this show and Ill scan and post them – they WILL make you smile, I promise. And thus continued my life in the The-a-ter!!!
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 13:09:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015