It is truly a pleasure to serve on the SOPA Board of Directors. They are a small but extremely capable group dedicated to bringing a world-class live performance venue to our community. I hope I can keep up!

 

I’d like to tell you about some highlights in my own stage career. I began at the age of six, playing in recitals, then in Father Joe’s Boys Choir, in a folk group, and as student director of my high school musical. One of my jobs in that production was to read a little introduction to each of the four acts from behind the wings into a microphone, and everything went well at dress rehearsal. A pat on the back from my teacher delighted me because I had also written the narration. On opening night the light over me went out at the last second and I was unable to see my copy. A frightening moment to be sure! A second later, from over my shoulder, I heard a “click” and the beam from a small flashlight focused on my page. I never got a chance to thank that person whose quick and generous action saved me and the first act. I found a hero that night, right at the moment of truth, anonymous, and in the dark.

 

Later, I remember being invited to appear as guest mandolinist for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Vivaldi concert at age nineteen. I wore a pony tail and had to rent a tux. I was one of two mandolinists that night and we sat right under the stern gaze of the conductor. During the unaccompanied mandolin duet the other player, a long-time member of the orchestra, dropped out and I finished the passage alone. Afterwards, the conductor chided me for not providing extra tutoring for the elderly gentleman. That was a quite a lesson for this youngster.

 

As an adult, I interrupted college to tour the Midwest with my own band and came to Denver in 1972. I kept the musical instrument shop at The Denver Folklore Center, seriously began repairing stringed instruments, performed in the local Bluegrass scene and was soon picked up by the Kingston Trio as a supporting musician. For the next twenty-eight years we toured the world playing every concert venue imaginable.

 

After spending a brief time in New York City I met my beautiful friend, Breeze Edwards, on the road in Nevada. We married and came to Estes Park twenty-seven years ago.

 

I left the Trio in 2002, became a certified repair person for the C.F. Martin Guitar Company and opened a nice little teaching and repair studio above the Indian Village called Schubert’s Music Service. I still receive guitars from all over the country. I owe a good part of my talent to the fine instruments that have come my way.

 

When I learned that there were plans here for a performing arts center, something in me jumped. Then I saw Greig Steiner’s column where he described the role of technical director. I felt like he was describing me because he was describing my experience exactly. I could stand back no longer.
It seems all my life there has been a stage. I have been in countless production meetings, rehearsals, sound studios and dressing rooms. I often found myself fixing something at the last minute or, just as often, staying out of the way. But always there was that mystical moment when something in the air changed, when the house went dark and the stage lit up.

 

I’d love to see it again, from behind the wings of the new Estes Park performing arts center. Even with the best staging equipment, I prefer to watch from that anonymous vantage point , in the dark but with a small flashlight.