Laugh through it

'Lawyer struggling with cancer finds salvation in theater -- that's the headline of my story," said David Goldstein, 57, after a Monday rehearsal of his musical, "Skating on Open Water."

Goldstein has made his career as a litigator, but he's always loved theater. And humor.

Several years ago, he flew with his partner to New York to celebrate his birthday. They were on their way to a Broadway show when Goldstein collapsed, suffering a fractured back.

The doctors found that he had multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells.

The illness has given the Minneapolis native an urgency to get his thoughts on paper. And he has a focus that was unlike his earlier life. Goldstein studied theater and psychology at the universities of Minnesota and Utah, where he left the graduate directing program. He worked on shows at such extinct venues as the Cricket and Actors' Theater of St Paul.

"If you want your theater to close, just let me get onstage," he said with a laugh. No such curse was felt at the Guthrie, where Goldstein served as a board member for five years.

He once contemplated a career in dentistry, enrolling in dental school for two years in the late 1970s.

He attended law school and has practiced for more than 20 years. "In the courtroom, you get to design the costume of your client and witnesses, and perform for the judge and jury," he said. "It's just like theater."

Goldstein has found plays to be therapeutic. "When I was going through the treatment regimen for cancer, I had a horrendous stem-cell transplant that did not work," Goldstein said. "Plays got me through all the vomiting and nausea. They bounced me out of it."

As he felt better, he also began to get back to his first love. "I remember seeing Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst in 'A Moon for the Misbegotten' in the mid-1970s on Broadway," he said. "I just sat in my seat and wept. I couldn't move. I had never seen anything that powerful before."

While he has written some scores and bits for shows, he has not done a full-length show since college. "Skating on Open Water," his musical, gets a staged reading Monday at the Jungle Theater.

A Cinderella story with a twist, it centers on a 22-year-old who leaves the farm for New York and falls in love with a fast-rising corporate executive. Choosing his career over his heart, the exec dumps the younger man, who, in his despair, finds his inner strength.

"At this point in my life, if this thing really sucks, it's only one night of humiliation out of a lifetime of humiliation," he joked.

Goldstein, who also works as a Hennepin County small-claims-court judge a few times each month -- "Judge Judy without the pearls" -- said he is savoring life without fear. He quotes a lyric from the show: "There are places that I want to explore; maybe there are dangers, but I won't know until I open some doors."

"You gotta live," he continued. "And I love living at the theater."