San Antonio Fine Arts Center

Standing L to R: Pammy as Mama Bear, next to her is the very talented and funny Christy Burch as Goldilocks, Selby Anderson as Papa Bear ( The best ever!). Kneeling L to R : Me as Baby Bear and Garrick Dabbs, our lighting technician, actor and all around nice guy in our goofy, knock about version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" 1992.


Hi kids. Have a seat and get comfy so I can tell you a story. Well, once upon a time, as the old timers like to say, there was a place that could only have existed in a fairy tale. Throughout the year the aroma of fajitas filled the air of this special place. Children and adults alike went about breaking eggs on the heads of friends and relatives but rather than containing a gooey mess the broken eggs were full of tiny, colored pieces of paper that rained down, carpeting the floor with the colors of the rainbow.

The denizens of this jolly hamlet went to work at 10:47 a.m. and took two hour lunches. And they worshipped something they referred to as SPURS, which most believed were enchanted giving the true believer the power of flight and caused endless whooping and hollerin'. You'd think you just stepped into the looking glass!

At the heart of this magical kingdom was an oasis of culture where actors were paid and rehearsals were only a month long...a place where a world- weary thespian could have fun again and love acting once more. Sounds neat, huh? Well it was a neat place. It was the old Woodlawn Theater on Fredericksburg Road. It's an old movie house where John Wayne's "The Alamo" had it's world premiere. After the theater closed down the upstairs balcony section was leased out to the talented folks of the Turners All Night Drugstore Theater who needed a new home. They proceeded to build a stage by hook and crook and the desire to do theater. It then passed hands to Bill and Madeline Copeland who made their contributions to the place. At its height, you could enjoy melodramas, children's theater, art exhibits and poetry readings too.

This was the place where Pam and I met. Pammy was with Turners and stuck around after the changing of the guard. She taught me how to act and clown. She also taught me how to do my first pratfall ( It was a backfall and I think that's when I fell in love with her. I know, bad pun but its late, you see.)which she had learned, among many other things, at the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Clown College and on the road with their circus.

There are pivotal events in everyone's lives and mine was quiting a painful but profitable teaching job which led me to discovering the joys of live theater.You tend to do the unexpected when you're unemployed and literally counting pennies for gas money but if I hadn't quit that job my life would be radically different and not really all that fun.When I walked through those theater doors I started act 2 of my life. A famous frog once said "Life's like a movie, write your own ending, keep believing keep pretending", and that's exactly what I intend to continue doing.