Well first and foremost allow me to apologize for not discovering the spell check on my first bloc entry. Oh well, such is life. Yesterday, I was telling you just how I started as a song writer.. That was way back in 1980. It was an exciting time. Well, I did write a complete libretto and twelve original songs. Of course, time being a factor here, I couldn't complete the entire score for the production and The Gallery Theatre had to use songs from Charlie Small's production of "Thr Wiz" and even a couple of Sherman Brothers tunes. But I did manage to write a song for the Munchkins, a song for Uncle Henry and of course for the Scarecrow, The Tin Man and The Lion. And we did one song that really embraced the spirit of the original work entitled "Show Me Some Of Your Wizardry" As most of you true Oz fans must know by now, the MGM version shows the Wizard only as a "Giant Head". In the original book written by the late great L. Frank Baum, the "Great Oz" actually appears as several personas. To Dorothy, he shows himself as "The Giant Head". To the Scarecrow, he shows himself as a beautiful lady. To The Tin Man he is a terrible beast. And to the great Cowardly Lion, Oz appears as a massive ball of fire. At one of the first rehearsals, the director Mark Shipley tells everyone "Mike is going to write a song that will encompass all of the manifestations of the Great Oz" "I am?" I asked. Well, dear friends, I did. The result was the grand song that I describe above. I remember coming to one of the first rehearsals and hearing a most incredible voice by a young boy by the name of Greg Lastrapes. I can not tell you in mere words what a magnificent incredible voice young Greg possessed (and still possesses to this day) I was simply blown away! The voice was pure and clear and rich in tone. Greg became a very important part of my life. He went on to become the lead in "Skylark" -- a very important musical milestone in my career. I remember too some wonderful actors who brought my script adaptation to life. Mike Sosha was the Cowardly Lion. He was simply incredible and I can only wonder if he is performing somewhere on Broadway today. Bob Meisha played the Wizard and Laurel Shipley played Dorothy. The production was very successful for the Gallery Theatre and got some pretty incredible reviews-- even though they said "Over The Rainbow" was missed. Good grief, I guess that's a compliment. But overall, it was a wonderful show. It had all of the Shipley children in the musical playing Munchkins. I remember Jared and Josh and Laura and wonder where they are today or even if they are all performing still. Can you imagine how unique and wonderful it must have been to be in a family where you literally grew up performing and singing in classic plays and legendary musicals as part of your everyday life. Where your family's livileyhood depended on the continued success of these plays and musical;s going on-- as scheduled! You helped build sets, paint, do props-- everything needed. My theatre roots go back to the San Gabriel Little Theatre in San Gabriel, California where I grew up. Those were incredible days in the 1960's with incredibly wonderful people like Elizabeth Gregory, John Higgins, Ruth Ballan, David P. Klain, Sylvia Boone, Gary and Linda Hamner, George Von Ravensburg, and Jay Buck. God rest them all. I miss them. Well, that's how my songwriting began. I should point out that very early into this, I had decided to persue this full time and had placed an ad for collaborators at Cal State Fullerton. I am sort of like an Irving Berlin sort of musician. I do not read music. I compose the music in my head and write the lyrics. In fact, I found that the piano simply got into my way. I rely on arrangers. The first one I found for "The Wizard of Oz" production was dear Elaine Fullerton in Ontario, California. The only problem? She transposed everything into "F Sharp" -- just as Berlin did. Irving Berlin could only play the black keys of the piano. And so we had to transpose everything. We had an incredible arranger for the production. I can only remember that his first name was Joel and he could literally play something from scratch after looking at the music-- only once. The first person who answered my ad was a college student with whom I have written some pretty incredible songs with. His name is Randy Ames. We formed a partnership and eventually took on a third arranger- musician by the name of Eddy Magee Clement. I simply would never have written the number of songs that I have today without the incredible contributions of these two gifted musicians. Eddy was a master of the French Horn and a incredible arranger, himself. But I will tell more in my next entry here. Yesterday by the way (June 8th) was Cole Porter's birthday. I sang Porter songs all day. What an incredible songwriter he was. He had much pain and suffering in his life but wrote some of the most beautiful and incredible songs in the world. God rest you Cole Porter. He passed away in 1964.