A King's Life

Hey All,
I hope the first week of March is treating you all well. Here in Green Bay we are actually feeling a bit of Spring, Which I welcome with great joy!

I think I have been pretty lucky to have great role models who have shaped my life. Of course the top of my list would be my wonderful parents and family. I was lucky enough to meet another person who I learned a great deal from and I want to share him with you. I often see on TV people asked if there is one teacher you had that affected you the most...Mr. King was that teacher for me.

While still getting acclimated to snakes and confederate flags during my first semester at college, I met my dorm neighbor Greg who was a Drama student. Being fairly shy, I didn't even realize that they had a Drama Program at the school. One day Greg asked me if I could help him learn his lines for the first semester show. I was eager to help so I sat in his room reading lines from two short plays they were performing. As we read lines, I was quite confused...The plays were quite bizarre, different from anything I had ever read. As time went on we began talking about the Director of the plays who was also the Director of the Drama Program and the Author of one of the plays... His name was Mr. King. Greg would tell me that he was quite an unusual guy. He was African American, had diamond earring as in both ears (unheard of at the time) and he wore a suit and tie every day but road a motorcycle to school that had a licence tag on the back that said "GOD'S SON".

During the semester I would see Mr King upstairs at the Student Cafe at 3pm every day when nearly the whole campus would gather to watch Luke and Laura on General Hospital. For some reason I was very intimidated by Mr. King. I finally got up the nerve to tell him that I loved theater and was wondering if I could help him with the box office for his upcoming performance.
I did just that and when it came time for auditions for the Parents Weekend Show the following semester, both Greg and I auditioned. That was the first of four Mr King shows that I was in during college. Now a Mr King show was different than any other shows I had ever done. First of all, Mr. King usually acted in all his shows. His job outside of school was as an actor we would later learn. The facilities we prrformed in were, let's say unconventional..our dressing room was the Catholic Chapel and if you wanted privacy, you used the confessional to change clothes. Unfortunately one student decided to use the holy water bowl as a ash tray...it was not pretty, but we made do.

When my Mom and Dad came to our Parent's Weekend performance they got to meet Mr. King. We were driving out of the school and onto the main road when all of a sudden we heard nonstop beeping behind us. Next thing we knew Mr. King was leaping out of his car and running out to our car in the middle of the street and introducing himself to my parents and blocking traffic on two streets. Lets just say he knew how to make entrance and an introduction.

Mr. King was an enigma. He was charming but brash, He was professional but playful. Nobody could ever peg him. We all gossiped that he was sleeping with this guy or this girl. As a teacher, he was great. I learned more about acting from him then ever before. When he left the school after my first two years...I was sad, but somehow I knew I would meet him again. Little did I know at that time that he would be an influence on my entire life. More on that in the next blog.

Be safe, Be joyful, Be Superb!
R