Becoming involved with CCCT when I was 15 years old was nothing less than transcendent. My life changed. Being in the first production at the "new" theatre site on Pomona (a teen production of Rally Round the Flag, Boys) before the building was complete; working to help build the theatre (painting louvres; refurbishing seats purchased from a theatre in Oakland, climbing the scaffolding outside to the top of the fly-space to see the roof and the San Francisco Bay Area); learning to work lights and sound; learning some tricks of set-design and building; designing and constructing costumes; directing "Pocket Theatre"; working as musical director for one Christmas show; -- these are but a few of the experiences that, during my adolescence and young adult years, provided challenge, opportunity, and appreciation for community.

And while my community has changed (I now live in Duluth, MN), my appreciation for theatre remains. I continue to be an avid theatre-goer; I support community theatre (both locally AND CCCT); I audition for parts when I can, and volunteer in the making of costumes and designing publicity.

I have been rendered breathless watching performances in professional, community, and school theatres. There is little that compares to the kind of feeling I had seeing Wicked for the first time in Los Angeles, seeing The Crucible at the Duluth Playhouse, or The Laramie Project at Duluth's Central High School in 2003. These experiences could not have been so powerful had I not been in the chorus for My Fair Lady at CCCT in 1972, or watched Louis Flynn block the complex scenes for The Sound of Music.

CCCT was, for me, in short, transformative. Who I am today is in no small measure an extension of my CCCT experiences.

I am, therefore, eternally grateful to CCCT, to the Flynn family, and to the community that supported and continues to support this sublime enterprise.

Congratulations on the first 50 years! Let's hear it for the next 50!