By the fall of 1992, the school year started again for some, but I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do until I heard of a new course being offered for high school students. It seems Daniel Vecchio had started a Musical Theatre course back at North Peace and I was, of course, interested. However, since I was a graduate of NPSS already, I couldn't be a student anymore. But that didn't stop me from going back to school to get a few extra courses, including the Musical Theatre course. The musical they chose to do was Rogers and Hammerstein's, "Oklahoma!" Working together with musical teacher, Kathy Eades, they held cattle call auditions for the some fifty students registered in the class. There were actually three different auditions for the play: acting with Daniel Vecchio; singing with Kathy Eades; and dancing with dance instructor Noelle Jellison. The girls outnumbered the guys there by about fifteen to thirty-five which made us guys a whole lot happier. :-) To audition fifty people isn't the easiest thing to do. So the auditions were held on several days. Since Vecchio knew me, he said he knew I could act, and that I didn't have to audition. The dance audition was okay, but I wasn't exactly going to do the nutcracker or anything. Next came the singing audition, which made me really nervous. I liked this song by Blue Rodeo called, "After The Rain," so I sang this for the audition. While everyone else had their music turned way up so they could drown out their own voice, I had the music turned down when the singing started, and I nervously sang. I couldn't see the rest of the cast in the audition room (thankfully) but it didn't mean that I didn't know that they were there. My knees started shaking so badly and my stomach started turning... as soon as I was done singing I shuffled off to where I was sitting and laid down to stop the spinning sensation from spewing forth on the carpet. And the comment I heard a lot of was, "I didn't know you could sing?!" But the comment that really made my day was from Garnet Callison who said that he enjoyed Blue Rodeo and that, "You sound like the singer (Jim Cuddy)." I was the only guy who got a perfect singing audition score. Although I wanted the livlier part of Will, Vecchio wanted me to play the more vocally demanding role of Curly McLane. One of my friends wanted the part of Curly so badly, that he really made me feel like he should have the part. But it wasn't until I talked to Linda Fleming (my ex-girlfriend Jody's mother), that she said that I would be stupid for not taking the part, because she believed that if Vecchio thought I could play the part, that I should play the part. So I did... and it was one of the best decisions of my life. The play was only on for four performances, but there was a couple of nights before where we played to students from the other schools. But during the run of four performances, we played to sold out audiences that packed the four hundred seat Cultural Centre in Fort St. John. I was getting a lot of praise, and a lot of compliments during that time. I was also approached by June Ainsworth of Stage North on closing night just at the last curtain call, where the cast made on stage presentations to the directors and the crew. She asked me if I wanted to play the part of Seymour from, "Little Shop of Horrors." Thinking about the thirty pounds I dropped from the stress and the rehearsals of "Oklahoma," and just how plain tired I felt, I said no. Yes, I regret it now, but no use crying over spilt milk.

By the way, there were four people in the cast who were in "Alcan Craze of '42." These four people including myself made history twice in the North Peace Cultural Centre. We were in the first play ever in the center, and the first musical. Ironically, these four people are in the black and white photo. Jason Brekkaas is the second guy from the left in the back. While Craig Barteaux (L) and Garnet Callison (R) were holding me (center) in a scene from the play.

Funny stories from "Oklahoma." The near arrest for acting in public. Rehearsals can be exhausting and definitely build up an appetite. While rehearsing all morning, my buddies suggested that we go to McDonald's (by the way McDonald's, if you read this, do I get any free stuff for mentioning your name???) for lunch. We all agreed and went out to the parking lot to hop in Chris Sjonnesen's truck. As we were walking to the vehicle I noticed I was low in cash and told them that I was going to walk across the street to get some money from the bank. Well I jaywalked across the street to the bank, withdrew my money and found that the street had picked up in traffic. It was so bad that I decided to go to the crosswalk so I could get across. I crossed the street and saw on the other side that my friends had pulled out of the parking lot and were driving towards the corner. They stopped and I walked up preparing to get in, when my best friend Jason Brekkaas rolled down the window and said, "Hey, ya f****** Indian!" If this had come from anyone else I would be mad, but it's my bud and I knew he was just joking. So I pretended that I didn't know him and kept walking by. He must have got the message I was trying to send across because all of a sudden he jumped out of the truck and threw a fake punch to the middle of my back, and then threw me into the side of the vacant building nearby. I turned around and threw a fake punch to Jason's face knocking him back, only to find that 6'4 Kirk Titley came out of the truck at me, tackling me into the side of the vacant building. I sent a fake knee to his midsection where he fell to the ground, fake punched the again approaching Jason, and then was leapt upon by the driver Chris who held my arms while Jason and Kirk pretended to kick the crap out of me. They then hauled me into the truck, where we then looked across the street and saw that we had gathered quite a crowd who were looking across like there really was a beating on the street. Well, we all laughed and I waved at the people across the street to let them know we were only fooling and that I was okay. Well it seems that a concerned citizen called the RCMP a week later. He took down the license plate number and the RCMP had called Chris' dad because the vehicle belonged to him. When the RCMP asked him about the incident he started laughing because his son had told him all about the incident earlier. He tried assuring the officer that it was all a joke between buddies, but the officer still needed to collaborate the story with Chris. And Chris told him the way it happened and all who were involved. Next call came to Jason's house where his mom took the call and she went hysterical (and not in a funny way!) when they said they wanted to talk to Jason about a possible beating and a kidnapping of a Native man. But Jason collaborated the story. Next called was Kirk Titley, but his dad answered the phone. When the officer related what the call was about, Kirk's dad responded, "Stop wasting time--you have a lot more you could be doing besides chasing a bunch of actors!!!" Kirk's dad is a member of the RCMP detachment of high standing. Well, it seems the RCMP were thinking of mischief charges, but later dropped the whole idea. The one thing that bothered me was that the guy took a week to call it in, and the RCMP failed to call and talk to one important person in the incident--me. And by the way, the guy who reported it in was the mayor of Fort St. John (I won't name names, but he's still mayor today). Yes, Mr. Mayor, it was me!!! Moo-ha-ha! (evil cow laugh)

Deja Vu? It seems that when I was going to college for Theatre Arts, a college buddy, Mark Holmes, was working at Stage West in Calgary, AB. He works as a waiter (please, no actor's being waiter's jokes) and this one week there was a performance of "Oklahoma." Well, while he was working he got to talking to this couple and said that this was the second time they had seen it done by different actors. Keeping conversation Mark asked where they had seen it before. They replied that they had seen it in Fort St. John, BC. Mark asked whether the lead character was played by a Native guy? Yes, they replied. And was the part of Will played by a skinny white blond guy? Why, yes. It turns out that I was in the first year program at Mount Royal College in Theatre, while Chris Sjonnesen who played Will Parker was in the second year of the same program in the same class as Mark.

Powder Burns. During one intense scene, Judd Fry pulls a gun in anger and shoots in the air above his and Curly McLane's heads. Mark Peterson played Judd, and we were both given guns to use, his gun was bigger (Iguess I had gun envy). We had rehearsed the scene hundreds of times without the guns, but only a week before we got our guns. During one show, Mark pulls his gun out in anger but fires the gun between our faces. The powder actually coming from the chamber had enough tourque to flip my hat off my head, and speckle both our faces with small powder burns. With an actual audience attending, Mark and I were real troopers and carried on our scene... even though we couldn't hear each other very well with the ringing in our ears, and the burning sensation from our faces. I was lucky enough to exit the scene soon, that I could go wash my face and reapply make-up, but Mark wasn't so lucky having to wait about thirty minutes before he could get away. We never had that problem again.