Doug Yetter: Life Imitates Art and Vice Versa
People love to blame stuff on their mothers. But Denver-born Doug Yetter proudly credits his mom for his fulfilling life in music and acting. For his fourth birthday, she presented him with a piano and lessons; often working one-on-one with him to expand his musical abilities. Doug’s talents have certainly enriched our lives in Rehoboth Beach, and we all get to blame her. But before you get too warm and fuzzy, keep reading.
Young Doug joined his high school orchestra, becoming skilled on the viola (bigger than a violin, but smaller than cello). It’s said that success comes from being in the right place at the right time, and his career was indeed jump-started by his music teacher—but not in the way you might think. You see, the instructor was a notorious alcoholic, and on the night he was to play in a local theater production, he did a bit of overindulging and was a no-show. At the last minute, his star student—scared to death, but confident—was called in to substitute. Henry David Thoreau once said, “Misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.” The music teacher’s unfortunate choices formed the silver lining of Doug’s success. Such is the way of the music business (and mixed metaphors).
It wasn’t long before he was hired by The San Marco Strings to stroll the über-posh dining room of Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel. This brought him even more work, including arranging for local dinner theaters and playing in the orchestra for the first off-Broadway production of Godspell. Oh, by the way, he wasn’t even out of high school yet.
Young Doug was completely comfortable with his same-sex proclivities. Sadly, that was not the case for his mother. Though I sung her praises above, mom had her own brand of instability; particularly regarding her son’s boyfriend. Yetter sums it up: “My mother was a bigot.” In the midst of a spectacle worthy of a made-for-Logo TV drama—complete with entrances and exits through a bedroom window—she had Doug arrested and sent to a mental institution. The entire episode unfolded between acts one and two of The Unsinkable Molly Brown as Doug was escorted from the theater in costume, full makeup—and handcuffs! Her antics backfired, however. During his stay at Bethesda Mental Hospital, he reports that “I spent four fun-filled weeks having the best sex of my young life.” Doug’s court-ordered but enlightened psychotherapist agreed that this was mom’s hang-up, not his. Again, Doug delivers the perfect dénouement: “I could hear her screaming all the way from Denver when I signed her up to receive PFLAG mailings.”
Undeterred, the 22-year-old landed himself a job at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. After the show room morphed into a buffet, he played in the lounge at the Dunes, where he was accused of not being “blonde or tan enough.” The best revenge is living well, so Yetter took up card counting (mentally keeping track of the deck to increase your advantage in Blackjack). Casinos take an understandably dim view of this, and, barely in his mid-20s, Yetter was summarily tossed out of pretty much every gaming establishment in Sin City.
So, back to Denver. By this time, he had been through three bad relationships with men, and needed a change. He confided in a woman friend, “I’m gay, but I’m in love with you,” and they married and stayed that way for 14 years, with two children to show for it. The couple moved to Virginia Beach where Doug worked as the entertainment director for Phillips Seafood in Norfolk and Baltimore. In 1991, they moved to Maryland where they ran the Annapolis Dinner Theater. Even after their divorce in 1996, they still worked there together. His son is now 21 and his daughter is 24.
In ’98 Doug was playing piano at the Phillips restaurant at Baltimore’s Harbor Place when a cute couple approached the stage and started to sing with him. The male half was Baltimore native Ken Skrzesz, a professional actor and dancer working in New York. Shortly thereafter, he and his wife separated after 19 years. After Yetter left Annapolis, he and Ken connected once again at Baltimore’s Central Station bar (now Grand Central) where Doug was playing in the lounge.
Skrzesz was an instructor at the High School for the Performing Arts in Towson, but when Doug applied there for a teaching job, he was informed that he had to have a college degree. At 42-years-old, Yetter enrolled at University of Maryland Baltimore County, completing his undergraduate work in just six semesters. As part of his degree program in Music Composition, Doug created an opera that was a smashing success. He graduated summa cum laude.
The men moved to New York City where Doug became involved with the Encore! Program at City Center, working with a long list of luminaries that included Doris Roberts in Bye Bye Birdie and Patti LuPone in Can Can.
Ken and Doug eventually moved to Rehoboth Beach, and Ken started a little acting class in which eleven people initially enrolled. Increasingly frustrated with Yetter’s commute back and forth to the Big Apple, he told Doug, “You need to clear space in your life for me and Rehoboth Beach!”
And thus was born Clear Space Theater Company.
In ’05 the troupe was incorporated as a non-profit, with their first production, Oklahoma!, barely breaking even. Things have changed since then: Clear Space is now approved for a budget of $1,105,000, has nine full-time employees and over 200 volunteers and part-timers. Just last year they staged 166 performances. They’ve sold 75,000 tickets and have taught over 4,500 students. In fact, their recent production of My Fair Lady was nearly sold out for every performance.
Ken recently accepted a position as Performing and Visual Arts Coordinator for Bates Middle School in Annapolis which resulted in him and Doug living apart.
In the words of the newly single (and enjoying it) Doug, “The show must go on!” Clear Space Theatre Company runs six nights a week for 10 weeks every year. Yetter’s acting and playing is one of Rehoboth’s greatest natural resources.
Bob Yesbek is a Rehoboth Beach resident. Email Bob Yesbek