The Boys Next Door

When I first got back to Tulsa, I was living with Bob Fultz at the Villa and looking for a place while waiting for my first payday. Sally drove me around to look at apartments when she was able, and we found this great place called the Brownstone Apartments that were both among the most lovely apartments that I have ever lived in, and practically right on top of Platt College where I worked.

I also checked in with folks at the Tulsa Center for the Physically Limited where I had been doing theater. The moment I walked in the door, Cyndi Vetter greeted me with some exciting news. Cyndi Vetter was the head of the Theater program at the Center. She encouraged me, and taught me all about community theater, and is to this day one of my favorite people in the entire world.

Cyndi told me that the founder and executive director of Tulsa's American Theater Company, Kitty Roberts, came to the Center asking for me personally by name. This was apparently a really big deal. Cyndi gave me the card that Kitty had left with her phone number. I called Kitty that night, and was fortunately not too late. Kitty wanted me to audition for an upcoming production for her theater company, a play called, "The Boys Next Door."

  

  

They had not actually set a date and time for the auditions just yet, and Kitty took my information. She told me that they would call me to let me know so that I could go to the auditions. And, for the next few weeks. I forgot about it. I worked my job. I moved into my apartment at the Brownstones. I ran a Champions game for a dozen people every Wednesday at World of Comics.

Then the call came. I got a call from the director of the play. His name was Tom. He asked me to come to the auditions, and even offered to give me a ride. I went to the auditions and I did really well. A few days later I was informed that I had been cast in the role of Arnold Wiggins. Arnold was a fantastic role and I got many accolades for my performance, both from the review in the Tulsa World and just from random people who would come up to me in a restaurant or grocery store.

Going into rehearsals meant that I couldn't run the Champions games on Wednesday anymore. One of the other players, Dave stepped up to take the mantle of GM and I went off to become a Boy Next Door. On opening night of the play, Dave came to the performance with his new wife Nancy. To my knowledge Dave was the only member of the Champions group to come to the play.

Maybe others came, but didn't stick around after? I don't know, but Dave and Nancy stayed around to greet me after the performance and the three of us went to Village Inn to chat afterwards. (I'm always starving after a performance.) We sat and talked and I enjoyed some food. (I can't remember if they got anything.) We talked about fandom things. Dave knew that I liked Doctor Who because the Doctor made an appearance as an NPC (non-player character) in the Champions game.

We talked about Doctor Who and they told me how it was Doctor Who fandom and a group called Starbase Tulsa that is how they had met. Nancy asked me if I had ever watched a series called, Blake's 7. I had not. They invited me to come to their house on Friday evenings after work to watch Blake's 7. The play would be over in a week. So, I would have the time. I went over to their house to watch Blake's 7 and we watched the whole series over the next several weeks.

That's how my oldest adult friendship started. Dave and Nancy are still my friends today. In fact, we are playing D&D together tonight over video chat.