Donnie/Don Horn

Storefront Theatre Company was, for 21 years one of the most influential theatre companies in Oregon and some say on the west coast of America. It sprung out of the 1969 Kent State riots that spread throughout all the major college campuses in America. The musical relives the beginning, the rise and the ultimate demise of this iconic theatre company. It honors the founders Tom Hill (Never Ending Story fame) and Anne Gerety along with the theatres contribution to American theatre. Songs range from “I've Been Waiting For Your Phone Call for 18 years” to a snippet of “Give Peace A Chance”.

This play is based on the life of George/Christine Jorgensen Jr. Ranging from 1945, when George Jorgensen was drafted into the military to 1952. It then moves to Denmark where George seeks and receives two sex change surgeries and then returns to America amidst much fan-fare.

Jim Pepper was the first Native American who fused Native American tribal chants with jazz music. Duke Ellington's sister Ruth had stated that most of the credit had been given to African American's for jazz, but she truly felt it should have been given to the Native American. This 45-minute piece takes the audience from the time Jim was a young man, visiting his grandfather in Oklahoma and hearing stories and chants to the end of Jim's life. Along the way the audience will experience stories of The Trail of Tears and songs such as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot to Amazing Grace sung in Cherokee. Jim was proficient on flute, saxophone and trumpet and his song, Everything Is Everything - Witchi Tai To is the only song of this type to reach Billboard's Top 100 chart (1969). In 2015, through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and local foundations, The Jim Pepper Project toured to the Nine Federally Recognized Tribes within the State of Oregon.

This musical honors Gracie Hansen from her days in a small town in Washington state at the base of Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens called Morton where she ran a liquor store and was the ring leader for the Morton Follies. After the Follies closed because of some logger's indecent exposure, Gracie went to Seattle in 1961 to seek fame (which she did) opening a 'night club' pavilion at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. After the fair closed she moved to Portland Oregon and ran a 5,000 seat night club entitled “Gracie Hansen's Roaring 20's Room”. By 1970 she got antsy and ran for Governor of Oregon where she came in third; wrote a book Horoscope for Swingers and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in television and movies.

The love affair between Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis and opera legend Maria Callas fills many pages in books, magazines and various movies, but never once on stage. This musical begins the night they meet in Milan where Aristotle is famously heard to say, “Ah, so the two famous Greeks meet” to the night Aristotle marries widowed first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy.

Time: 1969. The musical is a take-off on all the sex books of the day Everything you wanted to know about Sex to Coffee, Tea, or Me. It even spoofs the variety show Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. It all begins with a marriage in trouble – the husband brings the television into their bedroom and the wife wants sex – or at least no distractions to obtain sex. With all original songs and some even from songwriter Marv Ross (Quaterflash – Harden My Heart fame) this show is bouncy entertainment and a look back on the sexual revolution. [based upon the best seller "Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex"]

Time: March 1959 Event: Billie’s last recording session which was for the MGM label; less than five months later on July 17, 1959 she died in a New York City hospital room. Billie arrives late, knowing that she may get fired, thanks the engineer for waiting for her and through that session she records and reminisces about her life. However, her energy begins to wane and she leaves to go to the bathroom. When she returns she appears to have gained a new zest for the recording, but what gave her the zest was the hit of heroin in the bathroom. This is the last recording session Billie ever attended.

Harris Milstead has been offered the role to play Peg Bundy's “Uncle Otto” on the FOX television show Married with Children. Harris, better known under his drag name Divine had fought for years to be recognized as an actor, and he had begun to accomplish this by just appearing as a man in the movie Trouble in Mind. This play takes place right after the first rehearsal on the television show and Harris has gone to his hotel room to relax before tomorrow's big shoot. He recounts his life as an only child growing up in Baltimore (Maryland), being 'discovered' by film director John Waters and the fame that followed. Harris will die later that night of heart failure. The play was nominated for an Oregon Book Award for Best New Play and as well as a local theatrical awards for Best Original Play. The play was toured to San Francisco (Theatre Rhinoceros Studio) and Seattle (Velvet Elvis Lounge).

The final play in Donnie's trilogy of plays dealing with devastating health issues (After the Rain and “...tell momma, goodbye...” being the other two). The title is a bit disjointed as this play deals with Alzheimer's disease. All seem to be all right with grandpa until one day his granddaughter notices something – is she wrong? So, she asks him to play a game with her, counting backwards from 10 and when he can't successfully do it, she hugs him and says that everything is all right – but she knows it is not. Heart breaking and full of love, this play deals with a subject of Alzheimer’s way before it became headline news.

The final play in Donnie's trilogy of plays dealing with devastating health issues (After the Rain and “...tell momma, goodbye...” being the other two). The title is a bit disjointed as this play deals with Alzheimer's disease. All seem to be all right with grandpa until one day his granddaughter notices something – is she wrong? So, she asks him to play a game with her, counting backwards from 10 and when he can't successfully do it, she hugs him and says that everything is all right – but she knows it is not. Heart breaking and full of love, this play deals with a subject of Alzheimer’s way before it became headline news.

Premiering in 1990 at the Women, Children and HIV Conference in Portland Oregon with approximately 500 people in attendance, this two act play was written during the run of Don's first play, After the Rain in response to a woman who asked the playwright, “Why are all plays, movies, even books – in fact all media concentrate on men and AIDS. Doesn't anyone realize that women and children suffer from this disease as well?” Nominated for Oregon Book Award – Best New Play.

Year 1990. The AIDS crises is in full swing and the theatre brings it to the forefront with many plays, however, most dealt with those who had died; but what about the many left to deal with the aftermath? After the Rain sought to show the end of one life and how the balance of those left behind and how it affected their worlds. The parents who felt that they had been robbed of their son because of another having sex with him; the partner who struggles to find some solace in his own life and the 'fag hag' friend, Patti who decides the best way to live life is to celebrate it.