Why I Love My Producer

If you look under my mug shot over there on the right you’ll see that I’ve directed eight local community theatre shows. I’ve worked with a lot of talented people in those shows, but I want to take a moment to recognize someone very special.

Six of the shows I directed were produced by the same person - Jeanette Rowsey. In my humble opinion, she’s the best community theatre producer in the area.

There are lots of reasons why she’s the best, but perhaps the most important one is that she's incredibly organized, which is probably the most vital skill a producer needs. In local community theatre, the producer handles hundreds of different, mostly behind-the-scenes tasks, including: organizing workers and volunteers; making the arrangements for a rehearsal space for the cast; finding a stage where the group can put on the show; making sure the set, costumes and props are being put together; organizing fundraisers; overseeing the promotion of the show; soothing bruised feelings; answering dozens of questions at once; and generally tackling any other jobs that might appear.

It’s a difficult, stressful and often thankless job - but no one manages the job better than Jeanette. She can quickly organize a team of parents to tackle any job, from assembling programs to building a set or planning a cast party.

It’s always amazing to me how calm and collected she is, no matter how stressful the situation - she’s always in control and ready to find the solution to any difficulty.

Those skills are just a few of the reasons why I love her. Of course, there are other reasons - for one thing, more than 24 years ago she married me, and I’ve always been grateful to her for that. Together we’ve built a home, faced life’s obstacles and joys, including raising two wonderful sons - both of whom were (and are) active in community theatre.

I knew I was in love with her the first time I saw her, and I’m blessed to have been able to find someone so special to share my life with.

I bring all this up not just because she produced the just-completed High School Musical, or because she’s so wonderful to be around - but today is a special day.

It’s her birthday! (I won’t say how old she is - I am a gentleman, after all - but I will say that she’s still just a baby next to me.) So if you see her, wish her a Happy Birthday!

As Jackie Gleason always said, "Baby, you're the greatest!"