Dinner Theater 101: About Us

In our family, we don't do dinner — we do dinner theater. Come over to our house and inevitably you'll get a show of some kind.

I'm not sure when this started, except that I can't remember a time when it hasn't occurred. All four children have the performer gene.

By way of introduction, let's provide you with cliff notes on how we got to this point:

Jill and I met in 1994 when I spoke at her Career Day at Reidsville Middle School, where she was the counselor. We became friends, and did a show ("Annie") for the local community theater group. I was nearing the end of a five-year marriage/seven-year relationship that had produced a son (Nicholas, the now 16-year-old); Jill was living with someone and engaged.

Later that year, she married (I was, ironically, the wedding photographer). The following spring, I divorced. That fall, she divorced. The next year, we got married.

Several months later, we had Katharine (now 12). Just 11 1/2 months after that, Ben and Emma (now 11) came along. And we haven't stopped since...

We moved to the Washington, D.C., area in 2001 and work for associations that support K-12 public education. Emma and Kate live for dance, while Nicholas is a singer/actor/emerging artist in North Carolina.

Ben? We'll leave that for another posting.