THE WEATHERVANE PLAYHOUSE, NEWARK, OH, BOB STEGMILLER, PRODUCER

Every free moment I had from my duties at the dear old 3ACCS, I seemed to spend doing something theatrical. When I had a couple of weeks off, I ran back home and did shows with Bob Stegmiller at his summer theater, first in Coffman's amazing old cantilevered barn, then in a big blue tent. True to form, Bob was always kind enough to find something for me whenever I was off regardless of what show was playing. I saw the construction of a new steel frame building, but I never played there. I usually stayed with my folks in Delaware, but occasionally after a late tech rehearsal, I stayed in the house Bob rented for the actors and techies somewhere in Newark. Once, I even commuted from Peru during the run because I got called back to fly early in a week when we had a performance. Never a dull moment, and the work was surprisingly good. All told, I did three shows in three different seasons at Weathervane:

Story Theater in which I played, among other things, the donkey in the Brementown musicians sequence. The hottest show on Broadway last season was Metamorphoses, which was considered by everybody as positively revolutionary. It was charming, but it was, after all, just Story Theater with a swimming pool...

Diary of Anne Frank in which I played Peter van Damme with twelve sweaters, a winter coat, hat, gloves, mittens, boots and my big wooly cat in what turned out to be the hottest week of the summer. Fabulous reviews (now lost) could not lure people to a tent when the thermometer registered above 100! Alas...

These last two shows featured Mike Hartman, who was instrumental in getting me to look at the Hilberry, and who is now a mainstay at dear old CPH.