You're Not Funny! Get Off the Stage!

I have this friend. His name is David, and he is the most talented person I know. We met each other as freshmen in high school back in 1979. He, like me, was a theatre geek. Even as a 9th grader, he was a phenomenal actor! We met when we were both cast in "Godspell" in our freshmen year. In the next 4 years we would do 8 shows together. I've played his wife - Pippin, his ex-wife - Play It Again, Sam, his love interest - Little Mary Sunshine, his mother twice - Dark of the Moon and Butterflies Are Free and his victim - Doing a Good One for the Red Man. David is someone I always had chemistry with on stage. I remember I used to love doing improv with him. We knew exactly how to feed each other and play off one another. We had drama class together in our sophomore year, and we were given a situation to play out. Only we knew the situation, the audience (the class) just watched what we created. The situation was this. You are husband and wife. The wife has convinced the husband to kill his boss in order to take over the company and you are leaving the scene of the crime...GO! Every improv I had ever done before had always been silly or funny...not this one. I still remember it. It was like we were performing a scene written for us. It was really powerful! Recognize the plot? It's "Macbeth." We didn't know that when we were given the scenario, but we pretty much played it just the same. Of all the roles I played with David, my favorite had to be as Florence Baker, mother to the blind Don Baker in "Butterflies Are Free" It was the fall show of our senior year. If you don't know the play, Florence is pretty much of a bitch and insanely overprotective of her blind son who moves into his own apartment for the first time. Flo is the villain of the piece until the very end, and there is this incredibly touching, revealing scene where she explains to her son why she is the way she is, and we realize it is all out of love. This will sound corny, but every time I played that scene with David, it was like magic. The timing, the takes, the pace...perfect! We took that particular scene to competition and won 1st every round, and actually won fifth place as a team in the Forensics competition. The other teams there had at least 20 people or more competing. David and I were it for our team. He competed in Forensics in high school, and he went to Nationals every year! He is extremely adept at drama, and his comedic skills are superb. He is quick witted and sarcastic and so, so funny! Whenever we are together I spend most of my time laughing. He's also smart as a whip! He graduated from William and Mary, and shortly after moved to New York. He has been a New Yorker since then. At present, he is a published playwright, and has received numerous accolades - all well deserved. His most recent accomplishment? An original opera will be performed later this year at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for which he was the librettist. I am so proud to call him my friend! We see each other about once a year, twice if I'm lucky, and I look forward to those times, and I am always sad when they end. Why have I chosen now to write this tribute to my dear friend? On July 19th he turned 50, and I was getting ready to go into tech for 42nd Street, so this is the first free moment I've had to walk down memory lane and tell the world just how much I cherish our friendship. Happy birthday you sweet, wonderful man!