"We’ve lived in many other places that were one dimensional", he said, "For instance, Branson, Missouri in the Ozarks, where I had a theater for a while. Although it was an entertainment mecca, it was too whitebread. Virtually everyone was white and Protestant. It was not America."

"On the other hand", he continued, "Maplewood -- and South Orange -- are models of diversity." The Davidsons first came to know Maplewood while visiting Carol Dilley, who has been performing in CATS for years, and her husband Chris Jaudece, who then was playing lead trumpet in the pit orchestra of SUNSET BOULEVARD. The Jaudeces showed them their home and the town and told them about the com-munity. The Davidsons had by that time owned and sold houses for thir-teen years. Much as they liked what they saw about Maplewood, they decided to rent for a year. Davidson quoted his manager, "You never know about an area until you live there."

Now, after a year of renting, the Davidsons are looking to buy a house. "The more you live in Maplewood," the couple said, "the more you want to stay."

Knowing about Teddy Roosevelt increased Maplewood’s attractions. By the tune they discovered Maplewood, Davidson had al-ready discovered Jerome Alden’s play BULLY, An Adventure with Teddy, which is a funny and compelling portrait of a popular dramatic and energetic president. "Finding historical data about Roosevelt in Maplewood was "just the icing on the cake of my interest in this colorful, energetic man.

My father would be proud of my being in BULLY, "Davidson enthused. "This show can change people’s life. It shows them a man who said, ‘Life is a gallop We must either rust out our wear out. I prefer to wear out.’"

TR died at 60 after a life of physical and mental adventure. As a child, Roosevelt was sickly and spent many summers gaining strength at his uncle’s farm located at the corner of Ridgewood Road and Curtiss Place in Maplewood. The property ranged from Ridgewood Road up beyond Wyoming Avenue. Many hickories and chestnut trees graced the estate’s hundred acres, giving it the name "the Hickories." During the summer of 1872, young TR kept a journal in which he listed twelve animals and birds he had observed in the area. That interest in nature lasted his whole life and is evident in BULLY. How he manifested his interest would not be considered politically correct now.

Continue . . .

Brought to you by