Vacation: Part 12 - Iowa and Theatre People

I absolutely love going to Iowa to reunite with my theater friends-in-crime. We usually have a party at Megan & Steve's or Bob & Alo's OR we meet at Xavier's - our Hole-in-the-Wall hideout sort of. These pictures are not up to my usual standards - these indoor shots are a pain in my ass. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. Though I could look at the Nikon manual...

Jan, Shannon & Jim and Amy. Shannon's married to Jim - but not an actress. Amy was a world champion figure skater. Jan's an attorney who will hopefully be playing the part of Mama Rose in TCR's run of Gypsy soon.

Joe, June, Nina and David. June and Joe used to date. Nina's Irish whose laugh can be heard two blocks away and Dave is a laugh-riot.

Shannon and Jim at home. Jim, his dad, Dean and I always slam back a few bourbon and Mountain Dews, get the guitars and sing three-part harmony tunes. We're good. Seriously - we are. Dean had pneumonia though and was out of commission. Next year, boys.

Janelle and Ichabod Crane. I mean, Joe. I had my first stage kiss with Janelle in the first show I did at Theatre Cedar Rapids in 1994. I wish I could go back to that...the show, I mean. Joe, Jim, Todd Peterson (lives in Phoenix) and I were pretty much inseparable. Trouble from the get-go. Whenever the four of us hung out, people whispered. T-R-O-U-B-L-E!!!

Bob and Alo. Bob was my first director when I began performing in theater in 1994. Both retired from Follies after this year's show - 29 years later. I almost didn't make the cut thanks to musical director Damon Cole (a close friend) but thanks to Bob's intervention - well, the rest is history. Alo was in charge of all the costumes.

Nicole and Heather - used to work with them at Parson's Technology (Bob Parsons now owns Go Daddy.com). Two beauties, don't you think? Hmm. Heather was at Xavier's as well. So were Nick, Leslie and Scott but I didn't get any snaps of them there.