Friday Five’s Late Night Show

Here are some extra tidbits I found while researching for my answers …

Interview with Gary Gisselman. He was my department chair back at good old Olaf, and a pretty important guy in the Children’s Theatre scene. He’s part of the reason I wanted to work here.

Erik and Nickie. Erik Wallin was the tall skinny frosh that we all adopted. He was the fop in The Illusion my senior year, and with his heeled shoes he was 6’5” or something. The other guy in this pic is Nickie McKeever, who used to date one of my roommates. He was such a sweet boy, and he was always so good to me - you know, the cute and sensitive and talented all-around good guy. The anti-Peter in many ways … but I won’t talk about him now or I’ll just get angry. I hadn’t seen or thought of them in a long time - but here they are in Haugen, the blackbox where I spent so much time during college.

Big D, who once did a strip-tease outside my window for my suitemate’s birthday. He had little horns on and a collar and cuffs and a tail and he did the whole spankin’ stripper dance while Glo and Ariane and Julie Shmoolie and Dian and Anne and I just about wet ourselves. That was a good night. Kristina Mitchell, another student in that Non-Majors class. Gorgeous and smart and very intuitive about what acting was all about.

Then, here’s Alexa and Jesse (in pic #7, which is inconveniently not labeled so that I can link directly to it). Alexa was another adopted freshman who’s apparently making a big name for herself, and Jesse St. Louis was the theatre department’s prodigal son. Kept leaving and coming back and leaving again - not just the department, but the college as well. He was in The Heidi Chronicles with me my junior year, but dropped out midway through - and was replaced by Nickie McKeever, of course. Alexa and Kristina Mitchell and Liz Simmons and I were the “Altoid Bitches” during Our Town, by which I mean we were all nonspeaking townspeople and had way too much free time on our hands. Next, here’s good old BK - the tall dude second from the left. He’s a damn good playwright for someone of his age, and will be a real force to be reckoned with in a few years.

Here’s Adam Hegg playing Caliban. He also played the narrator when we did Our Town and is better at dialects than just about anyone I know. And here’s my darling Kater Patater Skater Fellater … she’s the feathered one in the middle of picture #7 (also NOT labeled). It just makes me feel very old and far away to see these people that I used to be so close to going on with their college careers and spending time in those theatres which used to be my home. I barely communicate with any of them anymore. Of course, that’s probably my own damn fault.