Today is my last day as a reporter for The World newspaper, so I’m feeling a little nostalgic. I’ve written a lot of articles and met a lot of interesting people in my time here. I could recount many of them, but this is a blog about acting, so instead I will give you my top five experiences in the local theater.

5. I love baseball, so it was a natural that I would go out for Damn Yankees. But as much as I enjoyed playing Joe Hardy, the more memorable experience was getting to perform Abbott & Costello’s Who’s on First routine for the Little Ole Opry comedy team last summer with Tim Novotny. 

4. Performing before sold out crowds is not unusual for Little Ole Opry, but Little Theatre on the Bay hadn’t seen a sell out for a musical in 18 years until our second-to-last matinee with The Wizard of Oz. Then we did it the following week. Standing backstage waiting for the shows was electrifying.

3. Before the last show of Anything Goes, we crammed the entire cast into the women’s dressing room (don’t worry, everyone was dressed) and we had a champagne toast. Jim Kemp had the most memorable line, saying it felt good to be part of a hit show. After the curtain fell, I got to tell the audience what a great guy our director Byrell Justice was. And how much he yelled.

2. The night before we closed, my parents came to see the show. I hadn’t told them I was playing the lead role of Billy Crocker, so the look on their eyes when I came out after bows was priceless. I didn’t know my mom could hug so tight.

1. Laughter on the 23rd Floor was a great show, especially because it involved co-director Anna Weidemiller. But the most memorable experience I’ve had in local theater came the fall of 2008, when she returned to the stage after a serious neck injury with Little Ol’ Big Band. She couldn’t dance any more, but she could still sing. And of all the singers in the group, I was the one who got to sing a duet with her. It was awesome.