Westside Story – Guys & Dolls

Indeed, retirement is an adventure. Remember my sharing with you that I divided my life into three chapters? Chapter I – Business. Chapter II – Deputy Sheriff. Chapter III – The Arts.

Recently while on the East Coast a long distance phone call brought a Chapter III opportunity my way. I was invited to join the Young At Heart Players for their current production which is the eternally popular play, Guys & Dolls. Director Julie Halpin thought it would be fun to have a retired cop play Lieutenant Johnny Brannigan of the New York Police Department. I am now living Chapter III. How could I say no?

When I was a deputy sheriff friends were always asking me when I was going to promote beyond my chosen and coveted rank of corporal.

While I had over 23 years service, I was never promoted for two essential reasons. (1) I was never willing to participate in the promotional testing process, which was, after all, a reasonable basic requirement for upward mobility. (2) I asked and answered an important question everyone considering a promotion should ask themselves. My answer was an emphatic, “No”. The question was, “Would I want to work for a guy like me?”

Even though I never made lieutenant with the sheriff’s department, at long last, my friends can now call me Lieutenant.

Because I was late in joining the cast, missed rehearsals and was going to be even later since I was not returning to the West Coast for a few days, I received my script in Delaware via FedEx.

Studying script in front of the Amity Coffee Shop & Roasters, Greenwood, Delaware. Anything worth doing well is worth doing with an espresso beverage. Photo by Kjeri Boyle.

The Tacoma Musical Playhouse, located at 7116 Sixth Avenue, Tacoma, Washington 98406T: 253-565-6867 / WEB: www.tmp.org / EMAIL: boxoffice@tmp.org, is in its 22nd Season (2015 – 2016).

The Young At Heart Players is a free program for people ages 50 and older. They meet for 8 weeks and then perform a fully staged musical.

Our own City of Lakewood’s much loved actress, Ms. Les Watts, plays a lead roll as Adelaide. It is a fun play. We want our audiences to have fun watching, so we are working hard as we fight the rehearsal clock.

I am obviously taking a gargantuan risk by stepping out of my comfort zone to play Lieutenant Brannigan without any training as an actor. This is one more example of my life management principle, “I can do it because I am short on brains, long on courage”.

I am adding to my risk by telling you what I am up to ahead of time. I thought about sharing this, or not, after the adventure was complete.

If you decide to watch the play, remember, I am a neophyte actor, so please do not toss rotten fruit at me.

My daughter told me on Father’s Day to “break-a-leg” which I understand is a good luck wish in the world of theater and not anything like my cop days when criminals told me to “pound sand”. Two different sayings, indeed.