Bob took a chance on me when no one else did. He gave me my start in community theater. I remember so distinctly, when I was not cast in his production of Hot L Baltimore at BC in late 2017, sending an email and asking if he needed help backstage. I got back an email – that I still have to this day – that simply asked: do you want to be the stage manager? I had never stage managed before, but I said yes. Eventually, through another actor dropping the show, I ended up not only as stage manager, but in the show. A few months later, he was directing Two Gentlemen of Verona at The Empty Space. At the time, I was working backstage on a show at BC, when I got a text from Bob, asking if I wanted to be in Two Gents. I wanted to say yes, but the show I was working on ran concurrently, so I sadly turned him down. That’s when he asked me, point blank, “you want to be an actor, right? You want to be onstage, not backstage.”

I said yes, I do, and my career in community theater was born.

I would not be the actor, nor the person, I am today without Bob Kempf. He was my director, my professor, my mentor, but most importantly, he was my friend. I will always cherish the gifts he gave me over the years, and the time he lent me his DVD of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” and when I asked if I could keep it, I can hear his voice indignantly say “no!” I reluctantly gave him his DVD back, but we both laughed. The last time I spoke to him, a week or so before his passing, he made me promise to audition for Merry Wives of Windsor. I was so excited to see him in the director’s chair again. I was excited to have more time with him. In the end, it turned out I was a part of the last show he ever directed – a silent film and socially distanced version of “The Comedy of Errors” for KSF 2020.

I will remember always when he came to see me perform in Fefu And Her Friends at Stars Playhouse, and he sat in the front row, and in one of my scenes he sat so close it felt as though we were in conversation. My father got the chance to speak with him after the show, and told Bob that I thought the world of him. He told my dad that he thought the world of me, too. I raise a parting glass to my dear friend, the inimitable Mr. Bob Kempf, and wish him safe travels in the stars. I will always think the world of you.