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In Broadway's halcyon decades, it was a wide alley-way bordering The Shubert Theatre where performers would come out between acts to escape the hot lights and lack of a/c, to talk and get some air and maybe have an ice cream on a balmy New York Summer day.

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Now, it's a meeting place for Theatre Geeks, a place where charities hold their theatre-related fund-raisers and a current snapshot of Broadway-at-a-glance. The side of the Shubert Theatre is lined with a poster for every musical on Broadway! And almost every one of our trips to NYC has a moment in Shubert Alley.

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But our L.A. theatre-buddy, Troy, coined the nick-name "Shubert Alley Shephard" because of my zealous pursuit of "what's new and what's coming" in musical theatre. It made me laugh outloud because it seemed to carry endearment and "You Geek!" at the same time.

I'm not a big fan of nicknames really (people DO NOT call me "Shep" -- it sounds like a name you'd give a faithful dog... and I'm clearly a cat person). But after Troy said it, I took it to heart becaue it gave me an odd feeling of belonging that I'm definitely not used to. And the more I thought about it, the more this alley came to represent something for me.

Now I certainly don't want or expect friends to call me that. It's a symbolic nickname, and a symbolic place where I am free to be me.

I grew up in a small, claustrophobic dull little town, and not for one moment did I feel "at home" there. But I eventually learned to ignore the the narrow-mindedness of geography.

"I am what I am, and what I am needs no excuses."

And Shubert Alley Shephard suits me just fine.

~Shephard :)