My time in Los Angeles was not all work. I also found some good time to “play” as in, theatrical play, which had been my “first love” from way back in both high school and college.
When I came back to California after having helped open Walt Disney World, I was assigned to work at the studio in Burbank on a traveling arena show called “Disney On Parade.” One of my jobs was to oversee the translation of the show’s soundtracks into eight foreign languages so I spent hours and hours in the main recording studio on the Paramount Pictures lot. The chief engineer was a wonderful and lovable guy named John Neal. One night, he invited me to stay late and listen in on a little outside-of-work-side-project of his. He was recording an album for a band of other Church members who called themselves the JustUs Brothers.
Dan Whitley was the lead singer and guitarist, Bobby Morphis was the drummer who also sang, and Nick Peper was the keyboard player who sang the third part.
(Side note: if you look back thru my articles, you will see that they performed at our wedding reception so you have to know that we also became really good friends as well).
What I heard that night was absolutely wonderful. These guys were very, very good.
Here’s the title song…”Open Any Door”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lww9ubSCWog
But it is what they were recording that caught both my heart and imagination with equal force. Dan and his wife, Bonnie, were Sunday School teachers who wrote one original song for every lesson in the 14-year-old church manual and they were creating an album for all of those songs.
I was totally knocked out! As musicians, Dan and Bonnie were using that talent to enhance the gospel message of their lessons. It was absolutely terrific.
I went home that night with my mind racing about what might be done with this fantastic collection of songs that delivered the gospel message in one complete round, touching, as it did, the full year of spiritual lessons that are laid out so beautifully so a class would receive the Lord’s message to his children in its entirety.
Since all of their music already told a story, I started making notes about how to tie them together into a narrative flow. I couldn’t sleep and worked on my outline all night. It worked beautifully with maybe a couple of additional songs to fill in some missing links, at least in my outline.
The next day, I called my good friend Gordon Jump, the wonderful television actor, and invited him to lunch that same day.
(Side note: Gordon was really quite famous in the television industry having been the long-time “Maytag Repairman” in their very funny commercials, as well as one of the stars of the hit comedy show “WKRP in Cincinnati”).
I couldn’t wait to get him involved as he and I had been looking for something creative that we might do together. This was perfect.
He agreed. The JustUs Brothers were recording over at Paramount that same night so I called John Neal and he got Gordon and I past studio security to observe their session.
After another amazing night of recording, we sat down with the guys and laid out our thoughts about what we might do together and how we would showcase their fabulous music.
We were all very excited about what this project might turn out to be. What we agreed to was for Gordon and I to create a script and a production budget. We went to work immediately and the boys got back to finishing their album.
“Open Any Door” was born.
Well, just barely conceived maybe...now we had to get this production up on its feet.
All of us were quite missionary-minded and wanted this show and the message it contained to touch as many lives as possible, and perhaps, to also introduce the truth of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to individuals through the words and music of this play.
Gordon and I wrote lyrics to a new song to which the JustUs Brothers wrote the music. That song helped fill in a key missing piece in our story line and was included on the album. It’s called “Heavenly Express” and tells of us coming down to earth to gain a body.
I put on my Producer "hat "and went to work designing the production, finding the stage technicians we would need, building the set so it would travel well, started the casting and scheduled the rehearsals.
We also needed a venue...somewhere to mount this theatrical production along with the necessary publicity to spread the word and gain an audience for which to perform.
We tried something new and different. We contacted regional Church leaders, Stake Presidents and Mission Presidents in particular, to sponsor the show in their area. We sold advanced tickets to help us pay for the set construction and buy costume materials. And...amazingly- our plan worked!
We performed the show about twice a month all over California and drew ever larger audiences as the word-of-mouth spread that this was a show worth seeing. I guess you could say we had a minor “hit” on our hands...at least within the Latter-day Saint community.
But, as I look back on the missionary focus we had at the outset, we were thrilled to discover that for every time the curtain went up, at least one person was prompted to take the missionary lessons and, eventually, join the Church. We were using the talents with which the Lord had blessed us to hasten His work and help build His kingdom on earth. We were doing our part.
What a magnificent blessing that turned out to be for all of us - cast and crew alike. And, what an absolute joy it was to perform it! I even wrote myself into the show as Arnold the Computer/Brain. Yep, back on stage at last, even if the costume made me look like a chunky Tin Man (remember, this was a really, really low-budget show).
But, the regional church-focused theater bug was about to bite me yet again...stand by.
When I came back to California after having helped open Walt Disney World, I was assigned to work at the studio in Burbank on a traveling arena show called “Disney On Parade.” One of my jobs was to oversee the translation of the show’s soundtracks into eight foreign languages so I spent hours and hours in the main recording studio on the Paramount Pictures lot. The chief engineer was a wonderful and lovable guy named John Neal. One night, he invited me to stay late and listen in on a little outside-of-work-side-project of his. He was recording an album for a band of other Church members who called themselves the JustUs Brothers.
Dan Whitley was the lead singer and guitarist, Bobby Morphis was the drummer who also sang, and Nick Peper was the keyboard player who sang the third part.
(Side note: if you look back thru my articles, you will see that they performed at our wedding reception so you have to know that we also became really good friends as well).
What I heard that night was absolutely wonderful. These guys were very, very good.
Here’s the title song…”Open Any Door”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lww9ubSCWog
But it is what they were recording that caught both my heart and imagination with equal force. Dan and his wife, Bonnie, were Sunday School teachers who wrote one original song for every lesson in the 14-year-old church manual and they were creating an album for all of those songs.
I was totally knocked out! As musicians, Dan and Bonnie were using that talent to enhance the gospel message of their lessons. It was absolutely terrific.
I went home that night with my mind racing about what might be done with this fantastic collection of songs that delivered the gospel message in one complete round, touching, as it did, the full year of spiritual lessons that are laid out so beautifully so a class would receive the Lord’s message to his children in its entirety.
Since all of their music already told a story, I started making notes about how to tie them together into a narrative flow. I couldn’t sleep and worked on my outline all night. It worked beautifully with maybe a couple of additional songs to fill in some missing links, at least in my outline.
The next day, I called my good friend Gordon Jump, the wonderful television actor, and invited him to lunch that same day.
(Side note: Gordon was really quite famous in the television industry having been the long-time “Maytag Repairman” in their very funny commercials, as well as one of the stars of the hit comedy show “WKRP in Cincinnati”).
I couldn’t wait to get him involved as he and I had been looking for something creative that we might do together. This was perfect.
He agreed. The JustUs Brothers were recording over at Paramount that same night so I called John Neal and he got Gordon and I past studio security to observe their session.
After another amazing night of recording, we sat down with the guys and laid out our thoughts about what we might do together and how we would showcase their fabulous music.
We were all very excited about what this project might turn out to be. What we agreed to was for Gordon and I to create a script and a production budget. We went to work immediately and the boys got back to finishing their album.
“Open Any Door” was born.
Well, just barely conceived maybe...now we had to get this production up on its feet.
All of us were quite missionary-minded and wanted this show and the message it contained to touch as many lives as possible, and perhaps, to also introduce the truth of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to individuals through the words and music of this play.
Gordon and I wrote lyrics to a new song to which the JustUs Brothers wrote the music. That song helped fill in a key missing piece in our story line and was included on the album. It’s called “Heavenly Express” and tells of us coming down to earth to gain a body.
I put on my Producer "hat "and went to work designing the production, finding the stage technicians we would need, building the set so it would travel well, started the casting and scheduled the rehearsals.
We also needed a venue...somewhere to mount this theatrical production along with the necessary publicity to spread the word and gain an audience for which to perform.
We performed the show about twice a month all over California and drew ever larger audiences as the word-of-mouth spread that this was a show worth seeing. I guess you could say we had a minor “hit” on our hands...at least within the Latter-day Saint community.
But, as I look back on the missionary focus we had at the outset, we were thrilled to discover that for every time the curtain went up, at least one person was prompted to take the missionary lessons and, eventually, join the Church. We were using the talents with which the Lord had blessed us to hasten His work and help build His kingdom on earth. We were doing our part.
What a magnificent blessing that turned out to be for all of us - cast and crew alike. And, what an absolute joy it was to perform it! I even wrote myself into the show as Arnold the Computer/Brain. Yep, back on stage at last, even if the costume made me look like a chunky Tin Man (remember, this was a really, really low-budget show).
But, the regional church-focused theater bug was about to bite me yet again...stand by.
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