Christopher was my closest friend, my mentor, my advisor, therapist, shelter, and the big brother I never had!

We met in December 1994 when he first produced Rock Nativity at Mnt. Carmel and my high school friend was one of the wisemen, so a bunch of us went and saw it opening night, I went every single night after that! It drew me, I couldn't stay away, there was something different about this show. The difference was the director, obviously Christopher. He had a way with productions like no one else. I believe 100% that his entire heart and soul went into each musical he directed. So after attending every show for Rock, I was invited to the cast party and i never laughed so hard with all the amazing D'itri clan, which later we referred to it as the D'itri Cult for humorous reasons. It was a family and nothing could come between them. Well it wasn't long after that, I was driving down Bridge Street late one night as he was closing up the Leeward bar where he was bartending (the only gay bar in Ashtabula) and saw me pass and with his bellowing tone yelled "HEY!" I nearly wrecked from the echoing voice bouncing off the buildings and I looked in my rearview and he's waving me to come back, which I did. Scared to death to be seen going into a gay bar, since I was raised very strict Pentecostal and was told I couldn't be gay, I quickly ran into the bar ahead of him, where he poured me a drink then himself, as I sat down at the long bar that was toped with the words The Leeward written out in coins. That night he and I became best friends when he sat there and said to me "You know, you'll never be truly happy in this word until you live your life for you Michael!" to which I quickly tried to disapprove of his accusations of insinuating that I was gay. And that's when I heard it for the first time "REALY????" If you know D'Itri or any of us cult members, you've heard it and you know what it sounds like. And from that day forward I started living for me, more and more. I was practically at his house every night after work.

A few days had passed and I was told, not asked, but told by him that I was going to be in his next show "Tony & Tina's Wedding" as the grooms best friend and best man Barry and I would be opposite Carrie Northrup.

I never stopped from that moment on. Every show I could do I was in it. I was hooked. He always started way early to prepare for a show, I remember when it was mid July that i got a call from him and he told me I was being casted that Christmas as ........are you ready????? Joseph in Rock Nativity. I screamed! I accepted it and I was ready! He called me a few weeks later and he talked about how many different ways he's produced the show, the original in overalls, the tuxes, traditional Bible time garb, but he said "This time I want to show everyone that Jesus could have came at anytime to be born, what if he was born today?" I thought for a moment and he answered "What if he was born to two bums on the streets in New York City? It wasn't a few weeks later I was on my way home from work with Cathy Chmielewski because our job closed for the day as my phone rings and its him. I answer and he says "REALY????????" it was 9/11. He was doing the story of Jesus in NY city the Christmas after 9/11 and he said "I'm so glad I told someone because now no one would even believe this! This is confirmation that we have to do the story this way!"

It was during this production while giving my thoughts on some issues we were facing during a tense rehearsal, a moment i should have stayed silent, he yelled "Who's the Director???" and he never yelled at another cast member again from that day forward. Opening night began and we did it. We had a show that had the message of Christ birth but also a message to have a giving heart and to understand that the perceptions we have for others isn't always the right one. As people walked in from the cold, there were many of us cast members outside huddled around a barrel fire and begging for money, and most of the time we were turned down and often yelled at to get away or get a job, but then, as they entered the old church sanctuary they were quick to realize that the people outside were actors as they see more bums covered up with newspapers sleeping under pews and in the aisle or around the stage area that was made to look like an alley in NY. Lives were defiantly changed that Christmas season, not just ours but our audience's as well!

From there I hit the stage with him and for him in some of the most amazing roles I have ever played like, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, Sister Hubert in Nunsence Amen, the list goes on and on until his last show we were directed by him, and that was RENT. I was cast as Mark, alongside Rob Covert who played Roger, and we ROCKED IT! I asked him one day, "Christopher, why do you always cast me in the best roles? (and as he and I would always joke about everything I continued with) I mean I know I'm good but really?" He replied with "Honey, I cast you in the roles that I would cast or would want to be cast in because I can't get up on the stage anymore (since M.S. had enforced a change in his life and he was bound to a scooter) and I know when I put you in those roles, you portray them the way I would." I cried, I grabbed him and hugged him and pushed back and told him that it was the biggest compliment anyone could ever give me, and it still has been!

It wasn't but a few weeks when that final curtain call had closed that I went to his house for the last time, the day before he passed, had dinner, laughed, watched the Golden Girls, talked about the next show. When Cathy called me that morning I remember screaming NO! and tears flooded out of my eyes, my heart fell to the floor, and I asked where everyone was going, to Linda's (Fundis) she said. We all went, even those like Jordan Malin who lived in Cleveland and brought a box of Taco Bell to share, we were there. I still miss him after 13 years, its not real still, I wait for his calls, I wait for his laughs, and I wait for his hugs! The hugs that could stop any hurt, any pain, any disbelief...anything!

I love you Christopher!