The play that changed my life was a local community theater production of The Sunshine Boys in 1998.  The last time I had any thought of theater was some 30 years earlier when I was in our high school production of You Can’t Take It With You. At that time I fell in love with the theater and acting. It was a dream of mine to be an actor on stage.  The paths we take in life however are full of twists and turns, and as it was, the path I took was dark and led me down the road to alcoholism and drug addiction.  By 1987 I had lost everything, my wife, my home and my job.  But I believe God had other plans for me, for before I could kill myself with booze and dope I went through rehab.  For the next 10 years I rebuilt my life.  But I kept feeling something in my life was missing. One day a friend of mine asked me to come down to the local community theater where he was directing The Sunshine Boys. Perhaps there was something I could do to help with the production since I knew all about music and sound systems.  As it turned out there was something I could do. I designed and recorded all of their sound effects, and even found myself on stage as an extra stage hand.  I was mesmerized. Watching the actors perform, the lights, the audiences. It suddenly brought back all the lost feelings about theater I had in high school.  I stayed.  I found my calling. Since then I have been involved in over 100 productions. Playing every role from walk-ons to leading men and have directed and produced several productions. It is in the theater that I met and married my new wife. My life is full now, and as for stopping, well. I just completed a run of The Fantasticks where one of the actors was 87 years old.  That’s where I want to be at 87, on stage having a blast.

David Bayles – Mechanicsville, MD

First Prize Winner in the Play That Changed My Life Contest