How Community Theater Changed My Life

When you watch a TV show like Grease: You're The One That I Want, you can see how influential community theater can be in a young person's life. Some of these hopeful young Dannys and Sandys got hooked when they saw their first Broadway show as children. Others grew up far from the Great White Way, but the theater bug managed to bite them just as hard.

I was almost one of these diehard theater people. When I was growing up, I saw my first play in sixth grade. It was a high school production of Oliver! I thought it was very cool, and I liked theater even more when my brother made his first stage appearance in Carousel.

Although I loved to play baseball, I knew I wanted to be in the theater as well. So when I saw an audition notice for a local theater at the age of 10, I went for it. The play was Oliver!, which was great because I knew the songs and the cast called for a bunch of youngsters to play British orphans.

My mom went to the library and got a record of the Broadway score, and we went over the songs. I learned "Consider Yourself" and "Food Glorious Food," and I was all set for the audition. I sang my heart out, and I got a part in the chorus!

Woohoo! It was one of the coolest things to happen to me in my young life. I looked forward to starting rehearsals after our family's vacation to Montreal.

When we returned, I got the bad news. The producers had decided to start rehearsals early, so they started without me. Even worse, they thought I would be too far behind to catch up. Rather than giving me a chance, they just dropped me from the production.

I was deflated. I never really got that excited about theater in the future. When I was a freshman in high school, I played baseball and did the paper route instead of going for a spot in Bye Bye Birdie. When my youth baseball days were over, I did appear in high school productions of South Pacific, Grease, Fiddler on the Roof and West Side Story.

I had fun but I never seriously considered going into the theater. This is notable because the theater is a huge part of my siblings' lives. My brother is an actor in several community theaters in Pittsburgh, while my sister is an award-winning playwright (and professor of play writing) in Denver.

So if I hadn't gotten bounced by a shortsighted director when I was 10, my life could be completely different today. I could have gone into the theater instead of sportswriting and broadcasting. I could have had a totally different life.