 Just
by virtue of his name, Douglas Love naturally loves Valentine’s Day.
But he’s especially pleased with what he’s doing with his life.
How could he not be enthusiastic about
his career … all that theater, plus television, books and games
geared to youngsters. Love realized long ago that thinking out of the
box encourages kids to dream, create, react, reach out and learn.
Being creative is simply a typical day’s
work for Love, 40, who now calls Mequon his home after two decades of
wandering nationally from troupe to studio to author’s keyboard and
around again. He grew up on Milwaukee’s West Side, but has
subsequently lived in New York, Denver, San Francisco and
points-between as a producer, writer and idea guy for HarperCollins,
Disney and World Book, among many others.
There’s corporate experience in the
mix, as well, including casting youngsters for Oshkosh B’Gosh ads.
Plunging deeper into the business milieu, Love helped develop an Earth
Day meal project in 2006 for Organic Valley Foods, a cooperative of
about 1,200 farms based in LaFarge, Wis. The co-op’s National Earth
Dinner campaign included media, art, free samples, recipes,
fundraising teasers for regional environmental organizations, outreach
to restaurants and lots of public education.
Among Love’s cornucopia of ideas for
Organic Valley was development of a colorful deck of 49 cards used as
a dinner table game. The pack encouraged Earth Dinner guests to be
aware of where food originates and to connect with the Earth, as well
as to those around the table.
While on this journey across many
creative disciplines, Love’s work has won three coveted Parent
Choice awards. In addition, he’s a regular speaker at educational
conferences, affirming his Web site’s mantra, "Think it. Make
it. Be It."
With all that background under the
proverbial belt, Love is particularly happy now to be back in the
heartland. "The best part of coming home is having a history with
people who are here. It’s being with my family and friends. I’ve
finally plunked down," he chuckles, sweeping his hand around his
condo’s comfortable living room and pointing outside to a small lake
behind his house. He waves toward his beached yellow paddle boat and
expansive lawn, admitting relief that he didn’t have to mow.
It’s a bonus that dad Martin Love,
former head of the Milwaukee unit of the state’s public defender’s
office, and mom Beverly, a former MATC English teacher, also live in
Mequon. In fact, Beverly has long been the major proofreader for Love’s
work.
"It’s nice to have someone on
hand who really knows grammar," Love says. Occasionally when the
younger Love would be in an intense writing session at some
highfalutin studio, he got his mother on the speaker phone to
straighten out errant verbiage.
Love’s older sisters are close, as
well. Artist sibling Darcy lives with her husband on 55 forested acres
in central Wisconsin and Lauren is in Chicago, finalizing a doctorate
in theater history. "We all had a lot of support from our folks
when growing up," Love says gratefully.
Although he now calls Milwaukee his
home again, it’s no problem for this always hustling multitasker to
get around. As a diehard fan of Midwest Airlines and its direct routes
to both coasts, Love is regularly jetting off for on-the-scene work on
behalf of numerous clients. Yet, as icing on the cake, Love has landed
projects in his backyard, too.
He’s now working closely on a museum
project for children titled HIstory in Motion, spearheaded by Michal
Dawson, former mayoral aide and Milwaukee Department of City
Development honcho. Still in the early planning process, the program
might eventually expand to other cities if successful in Milwaukee.
"It goes behind being merely hands-on," Love hinted of the
exciting undertaking.
Another plum assignment is producing
and directing a film that will play for visitors to the Jewish Museum
Milwaukee.
"It’s not enough to have static
learning experiences. I want to turn that into an active
endeavor," he says. "My goal is to edify my audience,
putting out educational opportunities that are not only entertaining
but also inspiring."
As a kid, Love organized plays in his
family’s basement, charging admission to the parents of his youthful
actors, much to the initial embarrassment of his parents. "Then I
showed my mom all my nickels that I earned and it was OK," he
smiles.
Love regularly appeared in numerous
productions around the greater Milwaukee area, as what he called
"the resident kid." He was in numerous shows with such
companies as the old Milwaukee Players, including appearing in 20
productions at the Pabst Theater. Then he grew taller than some of his
female co-stars and subsequently edged into dancing and producing.
Love put on his first musical at 13, staging "You’re a Good
Man, Charlie Brown" at the late, lamented Century Hall and using
professional actors and crew. As a teen, he even became a dedicated
Equity member.
Graduating from Rufus King High School
at age 16, Love immediately enrolled at UW-Milwaukee. "I wanted
to get on with my career," he says. "Besides, mom wasn’t
eager for me move out of town for college at that age."
Love’s career really took off after
writing a stage adaptation of the children’s book, "Free to Be
You and Me," by actress/education activist Marlo Thomas, who
wanted a road show of her work. Several other attempts to capture the
mood of the life-affirming production aimed at youngsters had failed,
but Love figured he’d try.
He showed his story to Letty Cottin
Pogrebin, founding editor of Ms. magazine, whose foundation owned the
rights to the book. Pogrebin then passed along Love’s manuscript to
Thomas, who loved his theatrical version of her theme. At age 20, in
1987, Love began working with Thomas on the production. The process
from start to finish for "Free to Be" wasn’t easy,
however. It took about two years before its world premiere in Chicago
in 1989 with Love as director, who stood nervously at the back of the
house on opening night.
With that break, Love made press in all
the trades as the "guy from ‘Free to Be You and Me.’"
From then on, whenever he called an agent to see about other jobs,
Love received priority.
The ball kept rolling. In 1993, he went
on a book tour. "I was the wholesome Jewish boy from the Midwest
who was teaching the world to imagine," he says, noting that he
still exchanges cards with store owner friends he met back then.
His "Imagination Station"
game book for HarperCollins in 1995 was another smash hit. With such
successes, Love attracted the attention of the Disney Channel, which
had him create "Out of the Box," a children’s show
targeted to 4-to-8-year-olds. Action took place in a playhouse shaped
like a box in which youngsters sang, made arts and crafts and played
games. The highly touted program, which had 100 episodes, ran from
1998 to 2005.
For several seasons, Love was producing
artistic director of Walden Media’s Family Playhouse in Denver. Love
used a core of experienced performers and musicians he had known at
other venues. Grammy, Emmy and Newbery winners, as well as a writer
from "CSI," the popular television series, worked with him
to create productions that resonated with young audiences. This was an
incubator project in which new story ideas were tried out to see what
could go on to become movies or television specials.
"All my buddies came to
help," he says. "They were at the top of their game, from
such backgrounds as working with Bruce Springsteen and the Tom Tom
Club."
This led to work for HarperCollins,
World Book and other publishers, where Love created content that was
readily applicable to educational uses, a fact appreciated by
teachers. Many of his first books were actually theater kits, where
kids received the scoop on everything from story lines to making
costumes. One of his most recent projects was an Internet program
called "World Book Kids" that now has more than 15 million
subscribers. He also developed Atlas, a stuffed toy dog that serves as
the site’s iconic mascot.
"I love kids. I see potential in
every one of them. And I love the idea of being able to perhaps make
some impression on them. Who knows where they will go in their
lives," Love says.
Just like Love, these youngsters may
eventually spend a lot of creative time out in the wide world. And
then come home again.
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