I am a retired chemist. My first experience with the theater was in 1992, when a minister of our church asked me to be in a play that he had written. I had been shy most of my life, but with that experience in the church play I was bitten by the theater bug. That same year I auditioned for a role in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," and got the part! I was in two more plays before moving to Oregon. When my wife Betsy and I came to Eugene three years ago, I thought that my stage career would be over. Encore has given me another chance.