Lyn and Richard sometimes see Wild Hearts as the "wild card" on the local theatre scene. With their wonderful vocal harmonies and easy-going friendly banter, they are often called to fill in -- "Our show is not ready to open yet -- could you come and fill up a weekend?" They consider themselves continuous performers, singing all the time -- in churches, coffee houses, at outdoor festivals, in musical reviews, and in theatre productions; they are also very accomplished actors.

Lyn Whiting has worked in theatre since she was eight years old. She wrote her own plays on her dad's old typewriter. Then she cast the plays from her school classmates. She began piano lessons in the third grade in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and continued studying classical piano for seven years. She also has sung since childhood with school choruses, church choirs, and the Girl Scouts, and accompanied a variety of choral groups over the years.

She arrived in California in 1980 and was hired as Musical Director for the Studio Theater's production of DAMES AT SEA as well as playing the role of Joan. Her next role on the Monterey Peninsula changed her musical life; she replaced the vacated role of Ginny Brewster, and was soon to be known as one of Brewster Sisters, in the Wharf Theater's original musical ON THE AIR. The Brewster Sisters continued for five years, singing Andrews Sisters favorites from the 1940's. Lyn has also performed in many local theatre productions (her favorites include A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, DANCING AT LUGHNASA, QUILTERS, and NARNIA) and is currently director for the Monterey Choraleers.

Richard Boynton grew up in Monterey. He started teaching himself the guitar when he was in the 9th grade and studied classical piano for five years. Eventually he entered Monterey Peninsula College where he majored in drama and began acting in local community theatre -- doing musicals, classical, and contemporary plays. He was the lead musketeer in MAN OF LA MANCHA, Perchik in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, Horatio in HAMLET, and narrator-singer and musical director for GRAPES OF WRATH. One of his favorite roles was Eugene Marchbanks in CANDIDA and he comments, "I received more direction and training from Marcia Hovick in that one meaty role than any other in my memory. It was marvelous, and so is she." Of course he continued his singing and guitar playing, performing at various coffee houses, bars, and at the Cabaret at the now defunct Barnyard Theater.

Lyn and Richard met in November of 1992 at a Friday Karaoke Night at Tony Roma's on Monterey Wharf #2. Richard sat in a vacant chair next to Lyn; they perused the song list and began singing "The Rose" together. They found they could harmonize well together and spent the rest of the evening singing, getting acquainted, and making plans to continue singing together in the future. By December, Lyn was singing with Richard at O'Shea's Bar and Grill. And thus began their duo singing career.

Before their professional debut at Portofino Cafe they spent hours trying to come up with a name for themselves. They wanted something romantic; Richard came up with Wild Hearts (they still often introduce Richard as "Wild" and Lyn as "Heart"). For their debut they sent out post cards and lots of people came. So they began performing steadily -- at Portofino Cafe, River Rock Cafe in Carmel Valley and Coffee Express in Salinas, until the ASCAP scam closed down so many small venues for non-payment of fees.

In 1994 they started providing music for local theatre productions, eventually putting together their own musical revues. In the summer of 1994 they joined GroveMont's Theatrefest with WILD HEARTS CELEBRATES THE AMERICAN MUSICAL; others in the revue included Kimber Pryor, Peter Eberhardt and John Rousseau. MaryAnn Schaupp was director of the musical and they credit her with helping them polish their presentation.

Also in 1994, Lee Brady approached them with the possibility of performing SOUTHERN LIGHTS. In August they approached California's First Theatre as an ideal venue for the production. Richard provided six additional songs to supplement the original songs written by Julie Jackson (Lee Brady's niece). SOUTHERN LIGHTS was presented at California's First Theatre in October and November of 1994. Richard comments, "One of my favorite projects was SOUTHERN LIGHTS, the only non-traditional piece to be staged at California's First Theater in the last sixty years. Being a play about two generations of singer-songwriters and their life stories, it is not a typical musical where people burst into song in the middle of some incident in their lives. The music is integral to the story, is part of the lives of these characters, and I was audacious (or arrogant) enough to write and use some of my own songs for the purpose of the show."

Then in the spring of 1996 they decided to take Lee Brady's play-writing class at MPC. It was during that class that Richard wrote, with Lyn suggesting ideas and editing, what would be their Theatrefest production for 1996 -- OUTLAWS. In addition to being staged at Theatrefest, they also did a shortened, edited version at the Wharf Theater for First Night Monterey on New Year's Eve.

They next went to see Joanie Morris's Patsy Cline Tribute and decided to create a duo show, A TRIBUTE TO TWOSOMES, performing it as a fundraiser at California's First Theatre in May of 1997 to fund replacements for equipment stolen from them in January. It featured songs and scenes made famous by performance duos including Abbott and Costello, Audrey and Seymour, and Jenny Lind and P.T. Barnum, as well as a two-character play written by Linnet Harlan. Each scene was directed by a different local director.

And then, for Theatrefest 1997, Richard wrote ORPHANS, with Brianne and Brigitte Bogle (ages 7 and 13) playing the orphans. Both OUTLAWS and ORPHANS were directed by Michael Lojkovic. And their most recent performances were in SHENANDOAH for MPC.

Lyn and Richard really enjoy performing. As Lyn describes it, "We created this Burns and Allen, Smothers Brothers sort of persona - sometimes we take turns being the straight man. If we have to apologize to each other on the way home, then we do."

For the future they would like to take a show on the road, maybe OUTLAWS or ORPHANS, maybe THE TRIBUTE TO TWOSOMES, maybe a "couples country thing." Lyn continues, "We like people to enjoy what we do. We like to laugh and joke and leave people feeling 'Now that was a good time!'" And Richard remarks about performing, "I love singing and playing with the great and talented Lyn Whiting and/or solo." Speaking of singing and playing, Richard The Wild-Hearted appears live at Eddie's, 2200 North Fremont, Monterey, Sundays 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm. Karaoke to follow.

ORPHANS -- Wild Hearts & friends