Well, this is the first entry in my journal as a songwriter. It all began twenty- six years ago by pure accident. There was a local theatre called "The Gallery" operating in the city where I was working at the time. A gentleman by the name of Mark shipley was running a theatre in an old building that had served as a Baptist Church in years past. He actually was using the proceeds of this community theatre to raise his Mormon family. This family had a wife and six (yes six) kids who were all recruited (not really by choice) to act, do props, build sets, etc. So this theatre decides to do a production of "The Wizard Of Oz" (The MGM Musical version) Now what everyone should know before they decide to open a theatre is this: whatever production you decide to put on, you must pay 100% of the royalties for all planned performances in advance. This theatre made the awful mistake of announcing auditions for this musical BEFORE contacting the folks who owned the rights (in this case Music Theatre International) and BEFORE paying them the required royalties. Of course, I knew about none of this before I went to that audition on my one hour lunch break on a May afternoon in 1980. It was incredibly well attended. I was wotking for Ritz Camera back then just as i am working for them now. (Funny how events in your life tend to repeat themselves) At about fifteen minutes before I had to return to work, there were still forty people ahead of me. For some unknown reason (but I'm sure this was God's doing) I got the courage to go to the front of ther line and tell them I had but fifteen minutes for lunch and could I please have a tryout right then and right there. For some reason, they agreed. I got the part of the scarecrow in the musical and this was to become a most fateful day. So I re-arranged my vaction and planned to play the Scarecrow in the Gallery production of "The Wizard Of Oz". I went to the first rehearsal as scheduled and received a rude awakening. I was the only person there besides the director, Mark Shipley. Well of course, I wondered just what the hell was going on and was soon told the answer. The theatre had finally contacted Music Theatre International and had been quoted the royality rate: $295.00 for the first performance and $195 for each additional performance after that payable 100% in advance. Now remember, this was 1980. That was a lot of money back then. So there I am standing there and being told that they can't afford the royalties and might have to cancel the show. I had already postponed my vacation. Trust me, I was not a happy camper at this point. But then the director says to me "But it says on your audition sheet that your hobby is songwriting. Well it had been briefly. I think I had written song ideas out for about six songs at this point. So he turbed and said to me "Well, young man, I have a challenge for you" Well, good friends that challenge turned out to be writing a brand new libretto and twelve songs for a brand new version of the "Wizard Of Oz". Thank goodness rge story itself was in the public domain, having been written in the year 1900 by the great L. Frank Baum: a pure genius in my opinion. Omagine if you will trying to write a replacement song for "Over The Rainbow" Now trust me, nothing, not any song in creation can "replace" "Over The Rainbow" but i had to come up with a song that Dorothy would sing to her dog in Kansas. The song I eventually wrote was called "Somewhere" and it it really turned out to be a most beautiful song. So with apologies to the great harold arlen, I did write a song that at least was respectable enough to stand in "Over The Rainbow's" shadow. It was interesting. The second song I wrote was for a character that had never had a song in any musical treatment of the story-- and that character was Uncle Henry. His song was "I Stopped Dreaming Ling Ago". It was a nice song, but today I would have made it a lot stronger. Well, next time, i will continue this little saga. That's all for today!