Boughter says he dabbled in acting in high school but took a long break from the art until he moved to South Padre Island with his wife and two children in 2001 to work as a golf course superintendent. This was four days before the collapse of the Causeway Memorial Bridge, which provided quite the shocking start in the Lower Laguna Madre, according to Boughter.
It wasn’t long before Boughter became a youth pastor again, this time in Laguna Vista at what is now known as Cross Church. According to him, then it was known as Christ Harbor Church. He also operated a youth church catered to junior high and high school-aged kids, for nearly ten years with the help of Julie. Door Youth Church was located in the Shell Harbor Center in Port Isabel and was funded by local businesses. They had nearly 100 kids involved and even had their own band, says Boughter. Nowadays, he’s the full-time pastor of Chapel by the Sea, and has been for the last four years.
El Paseo Arts Foundation came into his life after Julie, who has an extensive history with theater, auditioned for a play with her friend Brenda Bailey. The following year he took the stage in the melodrama Curse You, Otis Crummy.
He returned to the stage again in Marc Camoletti’s farce, Boeing-Boeing. Since then, he’s had parts in many musicals, including David Nehls and Betsy Kelso’s The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Peter DePietro’s Clue: The Musical and Rachel Sheinkin’s The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. According to Boughter, his biggest role was Vanya in Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Boughter estimates he’s done about 15 total productions with EPAF. He says it’s been great.
After some encouragement from his friends and his wife, Boughter presented the idea of doing the one-man play Ain’t Nobody Like Yogi to EPAF president JoAnn Evans as the board drafted the 2024-2025 season over the summer. Evans is directing this production. According to Boughter, he’s been studying the 60-page script for a month as of the time of writing. The story chronicles Berra’s return to Yankee Stadium, 14 years after being fired by George Steinbrenner, to throw the opening pitch.
“It’s the story about when George Steinbrenner fired Yogi Berra…He had come back as a coach and was coaching his own son, Dale Berra…Steinbrenner was Steinbrenner…he was ridiculous. It was always a drama. They would always call it ‘the circus’…He’d hire managers, fire managers, and hire them back. There’d be big screaming matches in public,” explained Boughter. “Yogi Berra swore that he’d never go back to the stadium. Ever. Never set foot in Yankee Stadium again. For 14 years, he stayed away. This story is about Yogi Berra, when he came back after he and George made up.”
To Boughter, the story’s message is all about redemption and forgiveness. Set in a locker room as Berra tells his story, it also reflects on the history of Yankee baseball.
“It’s a play about reflection. It’s about reflecting back on the greatest Yankee players of all time,” said Boughter. “It reflects back on Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio and all these different players.”
Boughter says what drew him to the script was Berra’s sense of humor. According to Boughter, he’s been a Yogi Berra fan for quite some time.
“I’ve always loved all the Yogisms…He’s a really unique character,” said Boughter. “This is someone all the Winter Texans are going to know.”
According to Boughter, he most resonates with Berra’s relationships with his parents and children. The scene where Berra describes being at his dying mother’s bedside hits a soft spot for Boughter.
“Three years ago, I was at mom’s bedside when she died. That part of it is really reminiscent,” said Boughter.
Boughter has been putting in the time for this production, rehearsing five days a week for two and a half hours. He says he’s looking forward to seeing the audience’s reactions, but in this crunch time, he’s definitely feeling the pressure. Last season, Andrea Wright starred in the one-woman show Bad Dates by Theresa Rebeck, spending two months memorizing the 40-page script. She describes it as “one of the hardest things [she] ever did.”
To purchase tickets, visit elpaseoarts.org or pop into SOS and the Art Business Incubator.
