for dear josh

every day i pass this door on my way to my dressing room.

tonight i'll bring flowers.

my heart's salute to all who are thinking of him today.

i miss him so much i stop in my tracks and get lost in it. then remember to keep walking.

one breath at a time.

i heard someone say once that grieving is praising.

josh, you are missed. you are loved.

The Rest of The Adventures of Amyman and the Amazing Men

Here we go with the rest of the show

Scenes 4, 5, & 6



Scenes 7 & 8



Scene 9



Scenes 10 & 11



Scene 12



-Swinebread

More of Josh as Gilbert

Here I've posted the third scene from The Adventures of Amyman and the Amazing Men. It has a bunch of wonderful Josh moments and that great Josh stage presence we love so much.

There is a scene 2 (of course) with the supervillan The It From Otherwhere, wherein she hatches her plans against the Amazing Men, but this scene does not have Josh. If you'd like to view this before you watch scene 3 check it out here

This is the third scene


-Swinebread

Josh as Gilbert the Sidekick in The Adventures of Amyman and the Amazing Men

The Adventures of Amyman and the Amazing Men is a one-act play written by Joseph Limbaugh. This play was performed in the Mago Hunt Center on January 31st and February 1st in 1992 in Portland Oregon as part of Joseph's senior project.

Josh was wonderful in his role as Gilbert. You can see all things we loved about him in this performance. He always had a special place in his heart for this show as he would often included it on his acting resume'.

In this 1st scene we are introduced to the Amazing Men.




More Amazing Men as I upload the videos.


-Swinebread

Jen has uploaded all the photos from Josh's memorial service to a picasa album.

Please go and Check them out here

Thanks Jen and thanks to all who submitted photos in memory of Josh.

Jen also would like to add more Photos too.


-Swinebread

Images from True History of Coca Cola in Mexico

The True History of Coca Cola in Mexico was one of my favorite shows that Josh performed in. I went and saw it four times at the Miracle Theater. Never was there a better laugh riot to grace a Portland stage IMHO. I sure hope somebody recorded one of the performances. Both Josh and Rafael were fantastic and very, very funny. At Josh's remembrance ceremony I said, when speaking about this show, "You haven't seen theater until you've seen Joshua Westhaver as Hitler." I should have also said seeing Josh in a dress too.






-Swinebread

Josh's Memorial Video Now On Youtube

Thanks to Pigletinjuly for uploading





-Swinebread

More Shots of Josh at University of Portland

First things first, if you have not seen the video from Josh's memorial please click here

Now to continue with our regular post.
These pictures below originally came from Jeanne (thanks!). They show Josh during his first years at Universty of Portland.


Josh, Jeanne, and me backstage during Mother Courage.


Josh and Jeanne having fun backstage.



Jeanne, Josh, Me and Trish Egan during Mother Courage and her Children.

Josh and Wes backstage

Josh and Andrew in the scene shop. You can also see David poking his head in from the main stage area.



-Swinebread

Some Photos from Josh's Slideshow

These are some of the images I submitted to remember Josh.


Here is part of the cast of from the 5th of July which we did at U of P. The play takes place in 1977 so we had to get our hair cut and styled accordingly. This snapshot was taken right after the haircut session. The thing we are all touching in the middle is a ball of our our cut off hair.

Another shot of Josh after he got his 5th of July haircut. I believe that this is from 1993.


Josh liked to wear all sorts of funny hats and here he is in October 1996 sporting a Cat in the Hat.

Here is Josh as Eilif in Mother Courage From I think 1992. Mother courage was played by Trish Egan. I played his brother Swiss Cheese.

Josh played the main character (middle) in the Actor's Nightmare. One of the most fun an creative shows I was in with Josh while at University of Portland.


Overdroid wrote and directed a fun little superhero show called The Adventures of Amyman and the Amazing Men in 1992 for his senior project. Josh played Gilbert, the lone sidekick for all three heroes. This was a really hilarious show and Josh put Amyman on his acting resume for years. I have video of this someplace and will eventually post it.




-Swinebread

I don't know where to start...

I've spent a lot of time pondering how to even start, what possible story I could tell. But really, I can only start at the start. So at least for now, I'll tell you when it was that I knew that I loved him. I met him doing a show at Tygres Heart Shakespeare. The play was Much Ado About Nothing. He was "Head Butler" and I was Ursula (?). Needless to say, we both had a lot of time on our hands. His job was to stand center stage in the back for nearly the whole show. I didn't know him at all, but whenever my character (also standing around a lot) landed upstage, I'd hear these completely ridiculous, absurdly funny comments coming out the side of his mouth. Made me smile ear to ear.

In recent years, Josh had shorter hair. But when it was long, he had the most beautiful hair I've ever seen, man or woman. I noticed that immediately, I'm sure most of you knew that too. Because of the show, he was told he had to cut it - not just a little, but from the middle of his back to about an inch above his ears. Our hair/makeup designer took him back to the prop area, and we all knew it was "The Day." Most everyone was on stage, but I was free. And so it was that I sat backstage with him, holding his hand, and I cried as they cut his hair. He was very brave about it (all for the sake of ART), but I knew it was so hard for him. And at that moment, I knew absolutely that I would love him forever, in whatever way that meant.

I still can't explain what it was about that haircut.

The world, the Portland theatre community, many people I care about, and I lost a singularly wonderful person from our lives yesterday. Joshua was a smart, caring guy who truly invested himself in the work he did and the things he believed, and he deserved nothing but the absolute best the universe could muster for him. That, unfortunately, was not what he was given in the last, shitty hand dealt to him. There are reams of people who were far, far closer to the man than I was, and my heart goes out to them and especially to his family in this time of shock and sadness.

I was about to write that it was impossible to not be happy to see Josh, but that's not quite right. It wasn't possible to not be happy about things in general when you saw Josh. For my part, I could be having a ridiculously bad day, and could indeed be immersing myself in the ridiculousness of my bad day by venting about it to him in some histrionic manner, but even that was always laced with a certain unexplainable joy of commiserating with him. I'd be happy to have had a crappy day, essentially, because Josh turned complaining about it into such a joy.

None of that really covers it. As an example of what I'm trying to get at: on the last day Josh was really with us, I regret to say that I didn't see him - but I heard what I've overheard lovingly described in recent days as "that ridiculous laugh" elsewhere in the building, and even just that cracked me up and kind of made my day. Even before everything that happened in just the hours after, and somehow even despite that, too. I wish it could cover the next many, difficult days as well.

[crossposted]