Ivory and ebony, better known as Iago, left, and Spitfire.

Showdown! Draculas's (Darrell Parker)enemies confront him, with Michael Norman as Van Helsing, Mike Warthen as Dr. Seward and John Spicer as Jonathan Harker. Darrell sprained his ankle on opening night. Zac Landolt took the role of Dracula for the newt two shows, until Darrell's ankle healed enough for him to regain the role.



"Anybody wot wants my job, sir, can 'ave it!" I tell Van Helsing (Michael Norman) right after intermission.



"I ain't no bloody mountain goat!" I shout as I quit my job as the attendant. My closing line.



The male cast poses with backstage assistant Kate St. John (third from right) at the end of one of the shows, before she heads off to a special party. Also pictured, from left, are me, Mike Warthen, Michael Norman, John Spicer and Daniel Samuelson.

Dracula (Darrell Parker) puts the bite on leading lady Lucy Seward (Juliet Blanks).



That's no hickey Lucy's about to put on Jonathan Harker (John Spicer)!

Butterworth (Bill Lindau) takes advantage of a little solitude with Wells the chambermaid (Marty Rasums) in "Dracula". She rebuffs him. He shows her his pet rodent and she freaks, telling Butterworth to put the mouse back in the house (so to speak, with apologies to "Friends").
All still photos from "Dracula" by Doug Fry.

"Any more o' yer tricks and I'll take yer new spider away," Butterworth the attendant (Bill Lindau) tells phychiatric patient Renfield (Daniel Samuelson) in "Dracula," which played Oct. 26-Nov. 4 at the Sunrise Theater, Southern Pines, N.C. Presented by the Sandhills Theatre Company of Southern Pines. Dr. Seward (Mike Warthen) watches Butterworth try to control the fly- and spider-eating inmate.

Don't have a cow, Homeland Security!



Or: "I'm not a terrorist. I just play one for the Army."
I've worked as a civilian role-player for U.S. Army exercises at Fort Bragg. Some of us play middle-eastern insurgents. We all wear the clothes of Middle East civilians. I'm wielding an AK-47 that shoots blanks, without the magazine. Behind me is one of the other so-called COBs (civilians on the battlefield). Ideal for an actor between shows.

Fred Morsell, the venerated actor who goes round the country playing Frederick Douglass in a one-man play, came to Sandhills Community College. He was another one of the top acts I saw. I got some people sore at me, including him, when my cell phone went off, playing that stupid ice-cream truck tune that I eventually changed. There's another one in this post, of Morsell with my old friend Mitch Capel.



Prize-winning novelist Jill McCorkle, in the red dress, with her sister, came to her birthplace in Lumberton in May.

Frances "Bunny" Wilson, longtime music instructor at Sandhills Community College. One of the most popular instructors in the school, and one of the best I've ever had. I love you, babe!

Here are some of the performances I covered in 2007. Among them are Barry Saunders at Sandhills Community College; Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Percy Sledge at Pembroke, seen with local divas Charly Lowery, left, and Erin White, center.

I call this picturesque scene Lowery's Pond. I was on the property, getting standalone photos for the Robeson Journal. Then I spotted the name Lowery on it, with a no trespassing sign. I thought better of putting it in the newspaper, but not of saving it to this blog.

They're gonna put us in the movies!
Phyllis Dowdy and Seth Buchanan have their scenes shot for an indie film by Bart Ely titled, "This is DNN..." filmed entirely in Moore County, North Carolina. Joy Karcher, dramatics and speech instructor at Sandhills Community College, holds the microphone. Seth shot his scene outside an ice-cream parlor in downtown Southern Pines, while Phyllis shot hers at the train station. I did a scene in the movie that day, too, at Bart's aunt's house off Midland Road. When I got there I didn't have the presence of mind to take my camera in, or I'd have gotten some of myself as a curmudgeonly character named Georgio Soreass (modeled on liberal activist George Soros). Ely shot this movie in June 2006. It was slated for release later that summer.

These choppers belong to a timberwolf, one of several wild animals that this dude keeps on his buffalo ranch in the Uwharrie Mountains of North Carolina. This male wolf is as affectionate as any dog. I even let him lick my face. Now his mate, a female tundra wolf who has just had pups, was a different story. This farm also featured bison, deer and a seven-foot Siberian grizzly bear.