Stone: I love sports. I love theatre. Here are my top 5 in both.

Theatre and sports are similar. They are live. They unfold before an audience. They are dramatic. You are not ALWAYS sure what is going to happen next. Now, some of you may say but plays and musicals have scripts and scores with music. Trust me, you don't always know what is going to happen next.

These are my top 5 sporting and theatre experiences.

5. 1979 Supersonics
I've said it before and I'll say it again, being a kid in the 70's was awesome and different. To remind you, there were no cell-phones or computers and the TV had maybe 5 channels. We were encouraged to get outside, ride a bike, build a fort, stomp through streams and play make-believe and it was pretty close to pure. Sometimes when I ponder those times I hear Daniel Stern's voice in my head, other times I think about Gus Williams...The Wizard.

Video of some Gus Williams Game 5 hi-lights

It was the first time in my life I saw grown-up people lose their minds; cheering, whooping, honking their horns. I recall the profound effect that collective group of adults celebrating had on me. I felt joy and a sense of community.

5. Ragtime @ Papermill Playhouse 2005

First of all, we rehearsed in 42nd Street Studios...if you ever get the opportunity to rehearse there I suggest you consider it greatly. It's a little like musical theatre heaven. You have to wear a name-tag for security.
Here is a picture of 42nd Street studios. Casey Marino is making a deal with his agent in the foreground. Scott Sussman is having a moment. I am in the distance looking off-picture right.There is a spider child on the floor.

The show was special. Stafford Arima cast me as Willy Conklin, the racist fireman. It was a challenge.The score moves me still.

Greg Stone and Matt Scott

4. Mariners vs NY Yankees game 5, 2001, ALCS.
I am a huge baseball fan. There are so many things I love about the game. When I was a little kid I was a Big Red Machine fan and then in 1977 Seattle got its own team and we were terrible. I loved my team still but we sucked for a long, long time and then in 1995 things changed and then in 2001 we matched the best record in regular season play with 116 wins. 116! This team was so much fun to follow and obviously so damn good. I thought we were going to win The World Series. First though we had to win the American League Championship series vs the New York Yankees. I watched the the game at BLONDIES NY with Julia Haubner. I was the only Mariner fan in a Yankee bar in New York city. Of course I was razzed and harassed. And you must know that I have always despised the Yankees. I hated their corporate buy all the best players mentality and the whole we're the best evah thing. So, when I tell you that after the Mariners lost that I ended up singing New York, New York and hugging people and even shedding a tear you MUST remember this was October, 2001. The city and its' people had taken an unfathomable gut punch just the month prior. Ground zero was still smoldering. When the bar exploded with joy and revelry it resonated in me and despite the loss by my beloved Mariners I was happy for this throng of New Yorkers that were celebrating, well, anything. Once again I was part of a community, a rival team perhaps yet still part of that community.

4. Jesus Christ Superstar...Village Theatre...there and back again.
Sometimes if you are in this business long enough you do a show more than once and perhaps play different roles.

One time Jesus

the next time Pontius Pilate.

Jesus Christ Superstar was my first major role in the Seattle theater scene in 1993. Upon moving back to the Pacific Northwest it was my first show back at Village Theatre in 2011. I loved both experiences. More than once an usher approached me to say that someone had seen the performance 19 years ago and still remembered it. That's something.

3. Huskies win National championship with a perfect season in 1991.
This was the year I graduated from UW. Talk about a fun time to be on campus. Here is a picture of Eric, Dan and I when we road tripped to the game on The Farm. We whooped on Stanford that day.

We played #3 Michigan in the 1992 Rosebowl. I watched it in Eric's basement in Lynnwood with his Dad and brother Alex and delicious food provided by the beautiful Sue Emme.
1992 Rose Bowl recap...Washington dominates

Before the game Eric told me he had a dream that THIS would happen.

It did. After intercepting Elvis Grbac, Walter Bailey did the Heisman pose to mock Desmond Howard and Michigan.
Or was it THIS Heisman pose by Mario Bailey? I'm not sure. Both were awesome.

3. Seeing True West at Circle in the Square
Insightful and penetrating acting made it a potent experience. Getting to see them switch roles and do it again was magical.

2. Seahawks win the Superbowl as we perform Les Miserables @ Village Theatre.

The Seahawks 2013 season was amazing. I even went to a game thanks to my brother from another mother, Eric Emme. This guy.

Also, in 2013 Village Theatre did Les Miserables where I reprised the role of Jean Valjean. It was a wonderful experience. The show was beautiful, the cast was spectacular and everyone involved was committed to excellence.
Also, we had fun.

Let me give you another example. A tradition at Village is the "Babe of the Day." This happens before every show. I believe it originated with Michael Cimino and Eric Jensen the guy in this video.

When I was sick and out of the show they sent me the "Babe of the Day." It cheered me up. I love these people.

Superbowl XLVIII coincided with a performance of Les Miserables on Feb. 2nd 2014 and for this event Javert and Valjean were on the same team!

The game was on and the show was on. Just before I made an entrance on the stage the Seahawks punted the ball to Denver. I told Paleka Pinard (our head carpenter) to signal me if something happened and I crossed to stage left to make my entrance.
While singing, "Not another word my son, there's something now that must be done" I looked off-stage and saw Paleka leaping up and down. My eyes widened and he nodded vigorously and began jumping again and in that moment I knew we had intercepted Peyton Manning AGAIN and for a touchdown. Without a word being said, I knew.

That, my friends, makes for a very, very good day.

1. Oklahoma! Men's dressing room and the Broadway Show League. Combo.
The show itself was good but the men's ensemble dressing room was the best. The conversations were lively and debate was prevalent.
There was a lot of talent and testosterone packed into that room at the Gershwin. I saw dancing cowboys get into a fight because someone did chair-ography incorrectly.
We invented a warm-up game called Hackey-Tennis.
We played practical jokes on one another.
We had Kevin Neal Bernard and Michael X. Martin two of the best conversationalists in the world.

Kevin Neil Bernard and Jack

You want to see Michael X. Martin, Rommy Sandhu, Harvey Evans, Aaron Lazar, Merwin Foard and Tyler Hanes in long underwear wearing hats holding a beer bottle? BOOM.

photo by Michael Thomas Holmes

How about some amazing dancing cowboys?

Chris Holly, Jermain Rembert, Kevin Neil Bernard and Matt Allen

There was lassoing.

On Sunday nights we'd have a party in the dressing room. It was called CLUB OK!

Danny Paul, Chelsea Stone, Lauren Allison, Harvey Evans

It was fun!

Jess and Matt Bogart, Laura Shoop, Kathy Voytko

People would come...lots of people.

You might recognize a few.

You name them:)

WE FIELDED A TEAM FOR THE BROADWAY SHOW LEAGUE

Tony Yazbek, G. Stone and Stephen Buntrock

Sometimes we practiced in the hallway. Notice the lights on the entrance to the dressing room.

Elizabeth Loyocano

We played in Central Park on Thursdays.

Catherine Wreford, Patrick Wilson and Shuler Hensley

And we were good.

Greg Stone, Stephen Buntrock, Nicolas Dromard, Enrique Brown, Kathy Voytko and Patrick Wilson

We were inexperienced but athletic and enthusiastic. The majority of our team were performers. It was summer in Central Park with friends and colleagues and my favorite take away from New York City.
As a first year team we made it to the championship game against The Producers. We didn't like them (isn't that funny) but they were good. The temp. was in the high 90's. It was brutally hot. We were down.
Then this happened.

It remains a moment that I play back in my head. We lost the game in the end but that season will forever be etched in my being. I played for eight years in the Broadway Show League and have many fabulous memories but that first season was magical.
I actually injured my knee coming 'round third there. In the heat my leg buckled but I didn't care...hurt for about two months though. And that was a terrible slide at home. One of our crew guys played for The Producers and said I should have been out but I wasn't.