Theater gigs are certainly not the only thing I play, but certainly the only thing I’ve ever kept track of.  I suppose it’s easier to remember the shows I’ve done as opposed to great wind band pieces or orchestral pieces.  I got serious about playing when I was 15 (rather, I suddenly got good), and played in wind bands and orchestras a lot in high school.  But, as they say in A Chorus Line, life really began with my first pit.

Shows that I have done (and the number of times, if more than once):

  • Anyone Can Whistle
  • Anything Goes
  • Brigadoon (2)
  • Bye Bye Birdie
  • Cabaret (2)
  • Carnival
  • Carousel (2)
  • Cats
  • Crazy For You
  • Fiddler on the Roof (3)
  • Guys and Dolls
  • Hello, Dolly
  • HONK!
  • Into the Woods
  • Kiss Me, Kate
  • The Last Five Years
  • Les Miserables
  • Lil’ Abner
  • Mack and Mable
  • Music Man (2)
  • Oklahoma (2)
  • Oliver
  • Once Upon a Mattress
  • Peter Pan
  • Pirates of Penzance
  • Seussical
  • Singing in the Rain
  • South Pacific
  • Sweeney Todd
  • Sweet Charity
  • Three Penny Opera
  • The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
  • West Side Story (7!)
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Coming up:

  • Footloose
  • Once on this Island (tentative)
  • Kiss Me, Kate

Shows I really, really, really want to do (other than all of them):

  • Any and all Sondheim shows
  • Beauty & The Beast
  • Camelot
  • Chicago
  • Evita
  • Hair (the 2009 revival)
  • Man of La Mancha
  • West Side Story (can’t get enough of this show)

We’ve done some rearranging in the house, and now I have a combination office/music room.  I have tons of sheet music, concertos, method books, reeds, straps, cds of repertoire, excerpt books, and, most important, instruments.  The instruments I own are:

  • Piccolo
  • Flute
  • Alto Flute
  • Eb Clarinet
  • Bb Clarinet (two of them, actually)
  • A Clarinet
  • Low C Bass Clarinet
  • Soprano Saxophone
  • Alto Saxophone
  • Tenor Saxophone
  • Oboe
  • English horn
  • Bassoon
  • Keyboard

I also have access to a Bari Saxophone, which I play frequently.  I hope to get one next year or so.  I really need my own. I’d love to purchase Endicott’s, which is the horn I use, since I love it so much, but I doubt they’d sell it. However, once I get a bari, my collection will be complete!  I will own every woodwind!  Well, okay, not a contra-bass clarinet, and not a contra-bassoon. At some point, I will need to start upgrading my horns, starting with my flute, Eb clarinet, and bass clarinet.  They’re all good enough, but the flute is a student model, the Eb is the cheap plastic Bundy I purchased right before I got married, and I need a professional low C bass clarinet that can withstand the amount of playing I do on it. Oh I wish I could get top-of-the-line for all of them!