"Mouseketeer Role Call count off NOW!!"

LISA! JEFF! JANELLE! BRAD! PAULA! STEVE! TINA! JAKE! AMY! JOE! JUNE! DAMON! BRIANNA!

Bottom row, left to right: Lisa , me, Paula, Jimmy, Brianna.Top row: left to right: June, Amy, Janelle (right over my right shoulder), Tina, Brad, Joe, Steve, Jake.

It's the Mouseketeers! Well, Cedar Rapids' version of them anyway. My very first performing experience came with the Cedar Rapids Follies show - a fundraiser sponsored by the Cedar Rapids Symphony that's been a CR institution for over 25 years. Bob Geuder and Damon Cole write the entire show, which is a cross between Ziegfeld's Follies and The Lawrence Welk Show. Thousands of "blue-hairs" from 4 or 5 states (as well as local theater patrons) converge on the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids for three weekends of fun and frivolity.

The above picture was taken at a weekend event about a month after my first Follies in 1994. The CR Symphony was doing a "Salute to Disney" and Damon, my musical theater director/mentor (is that OK to say, D.?) picked this lucky group from the Follies cast to perform - complete with Mouseketeer ears and name shirts (yes, I still have them).

As the years pass and I look back on this photo, I'm extremely honored to have been a part of the Disney/symphony event - and Follies - considering I was almost scratched from the Follies list all together.

But that's another story. Say "hi" to Damon. He started Follies with Bob. Damon's a wonderful pianist (classically trained) and a wonderful friend. He can play anything and if you say, "it sorta goes like this", he'll figure it out. Amazing. I worked with him on four Follies and all the musicals I did at Theatre Cedar Rapids. Damon's a very hip guy, wry sense of humor - people LOVE to be around him...so much so that the orchestra pit at the Paramount Theater is named in his honor.

Seriously. I would love to have Damon work with me on my Frank Lloyd Wright musical. Or Tony - another musical theater friend from high school. Maybe both. They're both talented.

Back to the cast photo above. I lost track of Brad, Steve and Brianna, though I seem to recall Steve being in Minnesota. Everyone else I'm in touch with. Lisa lives in Seattle - we date for about 2 years. Jake's in Chicago and engaged and everyone else is in Cedar Rapids and I usually see them all whenever I visit once a year. Jim and Joe are still close friends - I don't see them nearly as much as I would like. I see Damon but not enough either. I don't see ANY of them as much as I'd like, quite frankly. Thanks for the photo, Jake. I do have a copy of this but it's framed and in storage.