NR: Where did you grow up?

DS: St. Louis, Missouri.

NR: I understand your mom is a piano teacher?

DS: Yeah, my mom is a piano teacher. That's kind of how I got into all this. Instead of Little League and stuff, she was teaching me piano and music. I did community theater and I started doing professional theater when I was ten at the St. Louis Muni. I did Hans Christian Anderson and later on that year, I did what was at that point the longest running Equity show in St. Louis. It was The Sound of Music. Peter Palmer, who was the original Little Abner, was our Captain Von Trapp. Then we had a lot of great people. There was a lot of regional theater in St. Louis awhile ago - good theater. I did commercial work. I did McDonald's commercials as a kid, Parker Brothers commercials - all of this stuff filmed out of St. Louis, but then it just all kind of dried up.

Later I started singing with the St. Louis Symphony. I started doing classical work. My mother would say, "This theater is great but I don't want him to be one of these theater brats." She's definitely not a stage mother. I started doing symphony work. I started doing work as a boy soprano. After doing a couple of solo gigs with them at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis, they allowed me to come into the Symphony Chorus as a child in the soprano section. This had never been done before, and has never been done since. I stayed there till my voice changed and I started growing up and basically getting away from it all. High school hit and I said, "Enough's enough - forget it - see ya." Then high school was done and I sort of floundered around and didn't know what I was going to do. I thought about being a disc jockey so I was working at a couple of radio stations. I was interning at a classic rock station in St. Louis and I was deejaying weddings and proms. Then, Les Miz came through town. My friend dragged me to it kicking and screaming. I'd heard the music. I'd listen to Terry (Mann) singing "Stars" over and over and over again. I loved that song but I didn't really listen to much more of it. We went to go see it and I was just floored. I said, "OK, there's my direction. This is what I need to be doing." So, I went back to the Symphony and I said, "Listen, I want to come back. I want to start singing again." They said, "You're in." They checked my vocal type and put me in the tenor section. I sang with them for about a year and we came here to sing at Carnegie Hall, where I understudied one of the soloists. They really said, "You've got to stay here. This is where it is."

NR: "Here" meaning New York?

DS: Yes, once we were here and I sang at Carnegie Hall. I was about 22 at the time. I remember going back to the hotel and I just sat there on the bed, almost in tears, looking at my parents, and I said, "Look, I've got to stay here. I don't even want to go home." This was before Christmas. I said, "I'm afraid if I don't stay here now, I'll just end up in St. Louis not doing anything with my life." That year for Christmas, my parents gave me the best gift I've ever gotten. They said, "We will help you move to New York. We will setup an apartment. The first six months there, any classes you want to take, and your rent, that sort of thing, is on us. Your second six months is a loan and it will be paid back when you get your first big job." Well, four months in the city, I wasn't in the union. I didn't know which way was up. I was taking some classes down at HB Studios. I didn't see anything in "Backstage" for Les Miz and that was really all I wanted to do. So, I just got fed up and I wrote them a letter. I just wrote them a letter and I said, "Listen, I've only been here four months and I really want to be in your show. I'm not in the union or anything like that. Could I please have an audition?" I dropped it off by hand at about five o'clock at night at the Cameron Mackintosh office and another one at their publicists' office and the next morning I got a phone call saying "Can you come in tomorrow?" So, I went in the day after that and sang "Anthem" because I didn't really know any musical theater songs but I'd read in "The Making of Les Miserables" that Colm Wilkinson had gone in and sang "Anthem" from Chess. I also sang "Giants in the Sky" from Into the Woods. They were loving me and everything. I left the audition high on life and I didn't hear anything for a couple of months, so I thought I must have blown it. I talked to the people like Tim Shew. Anybody with a Les Miz cast jacket I would stop on the street. Now people do it to me with my Pimpernel jacket, which is really kind of cool. So, I always try to be really nice to anybody who ever stops me because I remember when I was doing that. At any rate, all the people I would talk to would say, "Listen, I had to audition so many times."

Then I saw in "Backstage" that the casting director and the producer were giving a "How to audition" seminar, so I thought, "I'm going to take that seminar so that the next time I go in to audition, I'm going to know better what to do." Well, the first day of the seminar, Richard J. Alexander said, "I'm sorry to be taking up class time folks. I kind of know Doug here. As a matter of fact, I'm ready to give him a job - he just doesn't know it yet."

NR: Wow! That's incredible!

DS: He said it in front of the whole class. Everybody was just amazed - me too. I almost fell on the floor. So, for the next six weeks of this class, I was the example. It was crazy pressure because one time I got up and I sang "Maria" from West Side Story and I FORGOT THE WORDS. There's only one word in the song! I don't know what I was singing. I think it was "Cindy...Mary...Jenny...Julie." After it was all over I thought for sure he was never going to hire me now and I just felt like the biggest fool. He stood up and he said, "You see - that's the sign of a true professional. He just kept on going even though he forgot the words!"

Well, the class was over and I got a letter from him saying, "I meant what I said. You're going to have a job. We just have to wait for the right position to open up." Almost a year to the date after I had my first audition I got the phone call which said, "You're going to go out on the tour and you're going to understudy Enjolras." To top it all off, my first performance as Enjolras was in Springfield, Missouri, three hours away from my home town.

NR: Oh, how wonderful. Did you have enough time to tell your parents?

DS: Oh, yeah. All of my friends from college and high school, everybody that I knew, all of my mom's piano students, all of my family were there the first time I ever went on as Enjolras. We were kind of joking the night before. None of my buddies were into theater at all. They were just thinking, "Storm's in some play." They asked, "Can we all scream STORM when you come up for your bow?" Well, when I came up for my bow afterwards, they had made signs on poster boards with each letter of my last name and they held them up. The last two guys forgot to hold up the R and the M so it came out STO. Everybody in the cast was saying, "What's STO? Is that some kind of weird nickname?" It was like a football game.

NR: What was the difference between doing the tour and the Broadway version of Les Miz?

DS: None.

NR: You just didn't have to stay in a hotel?

DS: Yeah. I got to go home at night. That was an amazing experience. Every day was such a blessing and I never knew when there was going to be some kid up in the balcony that was seeing this thing for the first time and was going to have his life changed like I did. It was so amazing to see grown men in the third row just weeping, and you could tell they had been dragged there by their wives. There they were just so incredibly moved.

NR: I always wondered about the part of Enjolras. You've got to hang upside down for a long time.

DS: Oh, yeah.

NR: How awful is that?

DS: Oh, it's great. It's one of the best deaths in the show. Everybody dies in that show and everybody has a grand, beautiful death. I don't know which is better - Javert jumping off the bridge or Fantine bathing in that white light or Enjolras doing the "knee hang."

NR: So, then you got to Pimpernel. First of all, you came in in a kind of freshman class last October. You didn't come in one at a time. Was that a bit strange in the beginning?

DS: No, because I knew everybody in the show already. I had done the readings of Terry's Romeo and Juliet. Eric Bennyhoff (Timothy Eric Hart) and I had been out on the road together. Ron Sharpe and I had been out on the road together. I knew Clem (Dave Clemmons). I knew all these guys. Plus, I'd done the reading for The Civil War. I knew (Tim) Shew. Even though most of them were leaving as I was coming in, I felt a part of that "Wildhorn family." It wasn't really weird at all. The weirdest thing was coming in and all of my friends were gone. (laughs)

NR: If you could play any other Bounder, who would it be?

DS: If I could play any other Bounder...I don't know, each Bounder is so much fun. They're so individualized. I don't even think I could play another Bounder. Swinging is such a hard role. Drew (Geraci), and Jimmy (Van Treuren) and Stephen (Hope) have all the Bounders down pat. I don't know, you just see all of the individual things that Russell (Garrett) does or that (Tom) Zemon does and it just seems to me that even though Stephen and the swings all do a great job, I don't think that I could do the same job that these guys do.

NR: Oh OK, so you just like your character? There's not another one you would like to play?

DS: I like mine. I like Leggett. I'm happy with Leggett.

NR: And you get to wear that "green lizard" costume in "The Creation of Man." (laughs)

DS: (laughs) Yeah, I like Leggett.

NR: Which part of the show do you like doing the most?

DS: I love the little bit of sword fighting that I get to do in "Into the Fire." But, "Creation of Man" is just out of control.

NR: Yes it is. And you especially are out of control.

DS: Yeah, that's my favorite. "Creation of Man" is my favorite because it's just so way over the top. And I'm not exactly the most reserved person in the world. (laughs)

NR: (sarcastically) You look so shy up there, Doug.

Is there any part that you're just not crazy about doing?

DS: Not really, I love it all.

NR: Since you knew everybody, they told you about the League before you got here, didn't they?

DS: Oh yeah.

NR: Were there any surprises?

DS: Oh no. Well, the first flower shower that I saw was pretty cool. That was wild. I never expected anything like that. It was like, "Good Grief!" But, that was pretty cool. That was definitely unexpected.

NR: Did you expect anyone to actually find your Rent Karaoke cd? And buy it too?

DS: Oh, I'd hoped not. (laughs)

NR: Actually, somebody told me they loved it. Is it one of those credits that you hope to drop off your resume as soon as possible?

DS: Not really because it was really fun and I had been up for that role. I had been in for the role of Roger 13 times, and at this point, I'm over it. I don't care if I ever go in and audition for the role again, because they do that to almost everybody. Everybody I know that has gone into that show has auditioned into the double digits.

NR: I heard that you were one of the ones who was real close on Armand. Is that true?

DS: In the very beginning, yeah.

NR: How do you handle disappointments like that?

DS: That's the business. You can't take it personally, because it's not a personal thing. It's always a director's vision. And especially, you find yourself up against the same guys for the same roles all the time, so you can't get really bitter because most of the time they're your friends. Sometimes your friends get it, and sometimes you get it. I'm just a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and that timing is everything. I wasn't really disappointed. If I was in St. Louis, I wouldn't even get the chance to audition for a Broadway show, and to even get close is an accomplishment in and of itself.

NR: And it did get you the part eventually, because they knew who you were.

DS: Yeah. And always with casting directors, one thing can always lead to another. You can go in and audition for one show, and they'll say "Oh well you didn't get that, but you know what? We'll bring you in for this."

NR: What do you like to do for fun when you're not here, other than trying to weave in and out of traffic on roller blades?

DS: That's always fun. Just escaping death on any corner in New York City. I love to roller blade in the summertime. The biggest thing I like to do is spend time with my daughter - every minute that I can. That's a blast because she's my best buddy in the whole world.

NR: How old is she?

DS: Three. Well, I've got two daughters, ages six and three.

NR: What do you want to do in the future?

DS: Not wait tables. (laughs)

NR: "Remain employed in your chosen profession." (laughing) That sounds good.

DS: Exactly. I just don't want to ask some Yuppie how they'd like their fish. (laughs)

NR: No major dream roles? You just want to have a job?

DS: Oh sure. Everyone's got dream roles.

NR: So, what are yours?

DS: Dream roles? I want to play Mozart in Amadeus. I want to play Freddie in Chess. I'm going to get to do Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar (Doug will be performing on May 7th and 8th.). The bit of it. It's not going to be the full Superstar, but I'm going to get to do a lot of it, and that will be a lot of fun. I would have liked to have done Roger in Rent, although I think I wouldn't have had a voice to use afterwards. I don't know - anything. I don't care what it is, as long as it's in theater and as long as I'm getting the work. You can't be picky. Heck, I'd understudy any of those roles - just to get to do it once. Somebody asked me one time if it was frustrating being an understudy for Enjolras and I said "What's frustrating? You get to perform the role. Are you frustrated because you can't tell people `I was Enjolras' or that you can't put it on your resume? That you have to put that you were an understudy?" I happen to think that being an understudy is pretty cool too because you get to do those things. I don't care what I do. As long as I can continue to work and pay the bills and make a living.

NR: Great! Thank you.

DS: Your welcome.

I'm so glad I've had a chance to get to know Doug. He's a true professional on stage and a very nice guy. I'm sorry I never had the opportunity to see his "knee hang." I wish him the best of luck in the future.

Questions suggested by:

Pat Collins, Colleen Rosati, Josie, Lindsay Ribar, Renee Girard, Meg Deans, Joanna Bell, Nesha Sellers, Lois and Elizabeth Colpo, Mandy Shekleton, Ann Teitelbaum, Stephanie Henkin