What an amazing, whirlwind day I had on Sunday. I felt like Cinderella going to the ball!

Apparently, there isn't such a thing as a direct flight to Oklahoma City from anywhere on the planet! My mother-in-law, Genevieve Conn, generously drove me to Buffalo in the wee hours of the morning so I could catch a Southwest flight to Chicago (Southwest has a sit wherever you want policy, which is kinda cool and laid back!).

Then I hopped on another flight to Kansas City and then on to Oklahoma City. When I arrived at the airport I was warmly and excitedly greeted by Roy Lightner and PLANE CRAZY cast members -- my first posse! I was presented with a vase of roses and a wonderful note welcoming me to OCU and Roy's mom drove me to my hotel to freshen up. The weather was sunny and in the 80s!

Roy picked me up an hour later to go and see the final performance of PARADE put on by the OCU students on their mainstage (seats 1,200!). Again, I was warmly greeted by Dan Meagher the student producer of "Stripped". He had done such a great job I thought he was a full-time producer but he is also a performing arts student, graduating this year! There I met the writers of FLYER, THE MUSICAL, Diana Belkowski and Dan Tramon, as well as Carl Tramon, who had directed it previously.

PARADE, with book and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, and book Alfred Uhry, revolves around the murder of a young factory worker, Mary Phagan, in Atlantic Georgia, in 1913 and the sequence of events that followed this tragedy. This a very dark story, but with moments of humor and it was beautifully sung and superbly acted by the student cast. This production was directed by David Herendeen, and musical directed by Mark Parker.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show! The entire cast was really wonderful but there were a few standouts for me -- John Jacob Lee as the reporter Britt Craig (who reminded me of a young Ray Bolger!), Solomon Johnson as Jim Conley, Tim Hausmann as Leo Frank and Tiffany Borelli as Lucille Frank. Boy, I'd love to come back next season to see the school do THE MUSIC MAN, which is scheduled for September 2006.

Then it was off to a wonderfully catered Italian dinner with my fellow writers and Dr. David Herendeen, the Director of the Opera and Musical Theater Company since 1997.

It was so much fun to chat about musicals, OCU and their plans for the future. Not only are they finishing up a $38 million expansion with amazing rehearsal and performing facilities, but they are also becoming an Apple campus, completely wireless and Mac-based with all the latest streaming capabilities.

All the textbooks will be downloaded to laptops. I guess the new pick up line will have to be, "hey, can I carry your laptop home from school for you?" Next season, OCU will be hosting and participating in the workshop of a brand new re-working of URBAN COWBOY The Musical, in preparation for a tour. This new version will follow the movie storyline very closely, done in the jukebox format.

Then it was off to the Petree Recital Hall where we had reserved "guests of honor" seats. All the wonderful publicity Dan did generated a whopping 476 people in the audience! Wow -- PLANE CRAZY's biggest audience yet! Act 1 included WYATT EARP, and FLYER, THE MUSICAL which were awesome. The directors did such imaginative things with movement and choreography, using basic chairs and blocks as sets. And the voices and comedic talents were amazing.

Act 2 started off with THE GIFT, and last but not least PLANE CRAZY. I was so curious to see what Roy Lightner, our director, and the cast had done! Roy came out and gave a brief overview of the show's storyline and then the vamp started and the cast launched into the opening number, "Plane Crazy". Roy's imaginative staging was fantastic, funny and definitely very groovy! He managed to find new things in the show. I must say I will never forget the sound of 476 people laughing at my jokes!

The segment song selections were introduced by narrations, and the cast continued with "I Wanna Get Married/Mr Right Now", "Turbulence", and finished off with "That Was Then This is Now", which had the audience clapping along. The cast and direction was superb -- everyone had great voices, and found new stuff in my material so even I laughed at bits I had seen a hundred times! And kudos to the band and musical director, Jonathan Hill!

At the end everybody stood up and gave a very loud standing ovation (no, I didn't start this one...). After the show there was a VIP reception where I got to meet the University President, Tom McDaniel, and his lovely wife. Everyone was snapping pics of me I felt like a real celebrity. It was great to chat with the cast and meet other OCU students and parents. By 11:00pm my ego had inflated to twice its original size, and I was afraid I might not fit into the car/pumpkin, so it was time to call it a night...

Thanks to everyone at OCU for such extraordinary hospitality, and a special thanks to Dan Meagher and Roy Lightner, and the great OCU cast of PLANE CRAZY:

Faith: Lizette Cruz

Janet: Selena Rosanbalm

Trio: Heather Lilek, Sarah Moore, Kate Runnels

Ensemble: Amy Collins, Shauna Hagan, Deven Kolluri, Sam Prince, Rachel Rhodes-Devey, and Josh Weschler

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