I'm thrilled that my old pal Peg O'Keef, whose is one of Orlando's true acting treasures, will be treading the boards once again at Sleuth's, as part of their Not-A-Mystery-Show Series

Meanwhile, on the other side of the tracks -

I'd like to offer my congratulations to Frank & Fran Hilgenberg and Aaron Babcock at Theatre Downtown. These three intrepid souls have been at it for 20 years this month! Though there have been many emergency pay-the-rent parties, periods without air conditioning, and constant rumors of the lease not being renewed, Theatre Downtown has weathered the winds of change and economic hardships, rising like a phoenix out of the ashes again and again, enduring as the little theater that could. Many of this community's finest actors earned his or her chops (and many an aspiring director has honed his or her skills) at Theatre Downtown. Many of those now well-established actors and directors ply their talents there still, attracted by the fact that the appliance-store-turned-theatre is a true "community" theater in every sense of the word and of the highest caliber; also a place where great friendships as well as professional relationships have been forged.

Many years ago, Margaret Nolan (now of KangaGirl Productions) and Miriam Saunders and Peg O' Keef were among the brave souls who began, what at the time was called Tropical Theater.

Tropical made it's home in a rathskeller space that no one even knew existed, located on an alley way that runs along the railroad tracks where they cross Church Street, now called Gertrude's Walk. The space Tropical Theater occupied would later become Daisy's Basement - home of Daisy's Basement Vaudeville Shows, and later, live jazz. I worked as a cocktail waiter for  both the Vaudeville company and the jazz club for brief periods of time. The space was infamous owing to the weight-bearing support post, that could not be removed, which was almost dead center stage.

I well remember seeing the wonderfully warped BABY WITH THE BATHWATER, directed by Paul Wegman and featuring Paula Pell (who is now the head writer on Saturday Night Live) at the old Tropical Theater at the Gertrude's Walk location.
When, in early 1989, Tropical Theatre changed it's location to the abandoned appliance store on the corner of Princeton and Orange Avenues, it also changed it's name to Theatre Downtown. A curious name for a theater that bore no resemblance to one at the time and which was clearly not located downtown. But that was the beginning of a 20-year residency at the very same location under that misleading name. It was also the beginning of a 20 year long commitment of tireless dedication, time, talent, and sweat equity on the part of Frank & Fran Hilgenberg and Aaron Babcock, who are the only three people who have been involved with Theatre Downtown, in an ongoing day-in-day-out capacity, from that moment in time till this. Not only have all three directed shows and run the box office there, they also bartend, build and paint sets, barter for furniture, food and publicity, manage the business end of the theater, as well as mop floors and clean toilets.

Also there at the beginning was actor James (Jazz) Zelly, who appeared in the very first-ever Theatre Downtown production (David Mamet's AMERICAN BUFFALO). Twenty years later, Jazz is currently appearing there in the Arthur Miller classic - DEATH OF A SALESMAN (see listing in The World In Brief section above).

I have many great personal memories connected with Theatre Downtown. One of the earliest co-productions at Theatre Downtown was in conjunction with a little entity Rich Charron and I operated under at the time called Skin Of Our Teeth Productions. The show was what went on to become LIZZIE The Musical. In it's first incarnation at Theatre Downtown, the Charron/Wanzie musical was entitled LIZZIE BORDEN: A Musical Tragedy in Two Axe (we thought we were so clever), which bore little resemblance to the present day LIZZIE. The original version starred B.T. Bauer as Lizzie, my cousin Janet Liversbeger Lawton Sawyer as Emma, Frank McClain as Andrew Borden, and Paul Ryan as the singing narrator - newspaper reporter Joseph Howard.

The first revival of the Charron/Wanzie musical MONORAIL INFERNO was presented at Theatre Downtown and featured such notables as Doug (who actually went by Bowser at the time), the now opera star Wren Griffin, Mary Lou Kleiman, Tim Debaun, Mary Higgins "of Sanford Florida", and now Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson, to name just a few.

At Theater Downtown I appeared as the title character in THE HEAD, sharing the stage with Rich Charron as the hunchback lab assistant and Doug as the evil vixen. I also played roles in LEVITATION (opposite David Lee, with Pumpkin Reid Loveland making his theatrical debut), MONORAIL INFERNO, TWO MEN TRAPPED IN WOMEN'S BODIES, TRAILER TRASH TABLOID, and THE ARTIFICIAL JUNGLE (opposite the very sweet and studly David Halstead). The revival of my Vietnam War drama IN CLOSE QUARTERS also played at Theatre Downtown, and I was very pleased to have choreographed the amazing SEX PAINT there, created and directed by performance/paint artist Mitch Calhoun and featuring video segments taped by John Sullivan.

Theatre Downtown hosted a fund raiser for Rich and I to be able to go to New York for an extended period of time to work on the re-writes for LIZZIE. It was a wonderfully supportive evening of great talent emceed by Paul Wegman.

No one who saw him in the role will ever forget Mr. Wegman's amazing performance as Scrooge in the first of what has now become a beloved annual tradition - A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Theatre Downtown, directed by Frank Hilgenberg.

Among my favorites, I will never forget the stellar performance of the afore mentioned Peg O'Keef in DANCING AT LUNASA, as well as in THE UNDOING, or David Lee's appropriately demented direction of PSYCHO BEACH PARTY, which again starred the wonderfully gifted Peg O'Keef as the B-movie star opposite Miriam P. Saunders, who was perfect as the ever dutiful Chicklet.

The wonderful acting couple Ted and Gerri Mansfield, Mary Lou Kleiman, Peg O'Keef, Paul Wegman, Tom Sheroman, Joyce Gier, John Long, Jack Swanson, and Jan Peterson are but a very few of the old guard acting alumni whose performances I enjoyed many times over in the early years of Theatre Downtown.

THE WIER and SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION (both directed by Tim Muldrew), THE GLASS MENAGERIE (directed by John DiDonna), RED SCARE ON SUNSET, DANCING AT LUNASA, THE UNDOING, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, and BLEACHER BUMS are just a few of the many fine TD productions that stand out in my mind.

>From it's most humble beginnings right up through it's recent block buster presentation of ALTAR BOYZ (under the most able direction of pianist & musical director Steve MacKinnon) Fran, Frank and Aaron have provided a steady rudder guiding the little-theater-that-could through all types of obstacles and making it one of our theater community's true success stories.

BTW - did you know that Theatre Downtown steeply discounts the first Thursday evening performance of every single show it presents?

Well they do!