An old high school friend found The Wheezer Society whilst surfing around the tangle web we weave. Jan Powell was not only in "The Baby Blues" our sophomore year at Grant High, but she was in the cast of The Mikado our freshman year (1969-70), double cast as Katisha Yum Yum with Sally Wheeler (who I also recently heard from). Jennifer Nesheim Moellenkamp played the role Katisha.
It's worthy to note that this was one of the first times that some of The Wheezer Society members started working together, including Mike Murnin, who directed and also starred as "The Mikado", Scott Leverenz as Pooh-Bah, Tom O'Brien, Steve Lindstedt and Doug Byers among "The Townspeople of Titipu".
Several years ago, I digitized the only known recording of our fine work from an old crumbling cassette tape. I've been meaning to make it available. Here's a snippet of "The Lord High Executioner" with Ed Fitz as KoKo the Tailor.
Updated
And yes, Jan Powell definitely understudied Yum-Yum. Lorna Mumford and Jennifer Nesheim traded off playing Katisha - both of them beautifully and with great vigor. Sally and Jan were lovely as Yum Yum. I can't believe that Ann Brownell is gone. So sad to die so young.
Posted by: Ed Fitz | September 21, 2009 at 11:16 PM
I am stunned - yes stunned to find this on line. Someone on my facebook page told me that they ran across a recording of me in "The Mikado". My God, I don't think my voice had even changed! Truly an unbelievable discovery!
Many thanks to the Wheezer Society for bringing back a piece of my, or more exactly, a piece of all of our youths - which were not so terribly misspent. Is there a full recording, and could I obtain a copy?
And if anyone is in the Los Angeles area, please say hello. It would be great fun to reminisce.
Posted by: Ed Fitz | September 21, 2009 at 11:12 PM
Through the dimmest of memories, I believe I was double-cast as Yum Yum with Sally Wheeler, not as Katisha. I remember that Sally got the "best" performances, because she was a mighty sophomore and I was a mere freshman and she was dazzlingly good and simply lovely and I was way too tall for any normal purposes.
If I played Katisha, then the 70's were even better to me than I realized...
Dimly yours,
Jan
Posted by: Jan Powell | February 25, 2009 at 02:10 PM