I got bit by that bug in junior high school. Sang in choirs before that but drama was a different thing. Did skits in grade school, not the same...did the ninth grade assembly thing where we get to do our own writing, directing etc. and we did some rip-off of Saturday Night Live (I was Roseanne Rosanna Danna) and I decided I liked this being on stage thing.

Was in a Neil Simon play, a couple other plays and musicals in high school, decided I wanted to study acting in college, auditioned for SUNY Purchase and got wait-listed but not admitted. Went to the second-best of the SUNY schools (since I had no money for school and my folks did not quite get that I was smart enough--13th in a class of 365-- to get scholarships etc. to wherever I wanted to go, but oh well) for drama and dance, also studied voice.

Had a great time, did a wee bit of professional regional theatre after graduating...not much here in Boston, despite it's being a city that could easily support a decent and lively theatre scene...

High points/fun anecdotes on acting (warning: these are often about ego and receiving validation that you are good at what you do--hey I was younger!):

1) getting an offer at my first freshman college audition to play the musical lead in "The Beggar's Opera"; it actually went to the music director's daughter (a senior); which freed my up to get a lead in Picnic that many other females in the Department wanted...establishing me as a threat, in a good way...got raves from the other acting professors in the dept. who both cast me in great stuff.

2) Auditioning for the Bald Soprano. The director, unbeknownst to the actors auditioning, decided he wanted to cast the Maid (a great part) as a man in drag. So at thened of the night, without having had anyone read for the part, he said all the women could go home. So we figured it out and were understandably kinda pissed off. Some of the females did in fact leave, but of course some of us wanted to see how the men did... and they did okay. But I wanted this damn part! So at one point said director (a cool guy whose kid I ended up babysitting a few times) said "Any other men want to read?" and I cleared my throat and said in my lowest gruff voice, "Yeah, me!" He laughed and looked around and said "Oh, all right" to indulge me. I guess somethign worked, cuz next morning on the cast list my name was up there as The Maid...

2) playing Lucy in a dinner theatre production of "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" and deciding not to wimp out on the songs; they go to an "E" and it was right on my break and most young actresses I had seen do it could not get the proper amount of "Lucy" into their voices, shiftinginto head voice on the high notes...but I worked at it til I could sing everything in a loud brassy belt; boy what a lotta fun that show was. Despite its being kidstuff and having done some much more serious stuff, people still say this was their favorite thing they ever saw me do...

3) being asked after doing a staged reading audition in Rochester, NY if, as they did not have a role for me, if I wanted to audition for a professional production (A Christmas Carol)...did I! I took time off work to go. I read from the script with no one oppoosite, that "assistant in the chair" thing you see so often on TV portrayals. After a couple minutes the director said "That's fine." Okay I thought, don't call us, we'll call you. He had a sly smile on his face. "Sit down," he said. I did. "Where'd you learn to act like that?" he asked. I was pleasantly surprised. I knew I had read well but that doesn't always mean anything, tastes being what they are. I told him where I went to school. He said the part I read (Belle) was cast but he wanted to cast me as daughter Martha Cratchit and that, since the script was still being developed, he would put in a word for the part to have more lines added if he coudl look forward to someoen like me in the role...wow! I accepted. But later had to drop out before rehearsal started because, since there were kids in the cast, they rehearsed DAYS and occasionally NIGHTS and, since I could not figure out a way to quit my job and do something that flexible (I was just out of college remember and clueless about certain things like, oh, the fact that most professional actors wait tables)...oh well, blew that. Mr. Director was not pleased, I heard thru the grapevine. I heard in later years this director was a jerk to work with...

4) Same city: audition for Extremities. Lead already cast ( along haired brunette like me). Read for two other roles. Clear choice for one of them: another long haired brunette. Ran into the lead actress a week later after hearing a blonde (pretty, not anywhere near as strong an audition as mine) got the third female role. She said she felt bad cuz the director wanted to cast me but could not. Said she actually wanted to offer HER part to me! I thought that was damn sweet. Got a personal note from the director that week saying she was so sorry she could not use me but wanted a more visual balance in the cast (three brunettes of similar build and looks, too many). She had no reason to explain but she took the time to do so; I though that was pretty classy.

5) Same city: played Young Mona in Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean...several gay women and one gay man in the cast. We had a blast and the production was great. Perhaps because I had been in a dateless slump for several months (I was not far outta college and did not know many people in this city) I developed an inexplicable crush on my young gay male love interest; he even had a steady boyfriend...we played opposite each other so maybe that is just what happens...we remained friends and I even took dance classes with him. I later (many years later) heard that another young woman in the cast was extremely jealous of and threatened by me because I was not in awe of her. A friend of hers told me once she figured out how we knew each other...I found this fascinating since this young actress seemed to have the world on a string. Go figure.

6) As a result of being in a college production of Hair the year of its 20th anniversary, our cast got invited to sing back-up and dance at a revival performance at the United Nations in NYC, with many of the original cast members from the stage and film versions, as well as international stage productions with big stars when they just started out (like Donna Summer, who was in the German cast of Hair). Met some big stars, some of whom were nice. Some were not. But the whole thing was outrageous in so many ways: censorship, corruption, ego, embezzlement, etc. It's a long story, one I may tell some day...

7)Years later in graduate school: Once had to choose between playing a fabulous part (Widow Quin in Playboy of the Western World) and starting a job at a proessional regional theatre as a literary assistant. I told the director I wanted the part and would find a way. One of the guys in charge of hiring at the theatre (the Dramaturg) said I could not do both as he would need me the nights of the performance, etc. Mind you, I still did not have the job but was competing against one other guy. (He was from Yale as was the Artistic Director; I was at UMASS as was the Dramaturg). I spent the whole day at work one day on the phone back and forth trying to find a way to do both. Took the birds in the bush instead of the one in the hand...Of course the Yale guy got the job, and was fired six months later. (The Dramaturg was perplexed as to why did not reapply for the job!) I had to tell the director I could not play the part and he was very disappointed but he understood it was a career move (not that it ended up being one, but...). He cast a young woman who was a very attractivce and consummate actress, but, in her words, she would play the part "as someone who would have sex with Christy just to get what she wanted; Your Widow would have sex with him cuz it's fun to roll around on the barn floor." My brogue was better than hers, too, but she did do a very nice job. The production went on to win first place in the regional College Theatre Competition, and was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. One of the cast members (Christy) has a pretty nice TV career going on...I also played opposite him in Marat/Sade (he was the Marquis de Sade with padding and ugly make up, and I was Charlotte Corday).

8)At least one of my fellow actors from college days is now doing rather well for himself. Liev Schreiber (now up for an Emmy for his portrayal of the young Orson Welles in an HBO special), who starred in Jakob the Liar, A Walk on the Moon, Sphere, Walking and Talking, etc etc. We were in "The Merchant of Venice" together: he was the merchant. My part was complicated to expain but suffice to say it involved a total costume change in less than thirty seconds (from a Joan Jett clone in a skin-tight black leather dress and combat boots, to Marilyn Monroe in a silver lame evening gown and heels--oh, and singing to sound like them) and I got to come and go through a trap door in the stage floor...

9) In college, did a bawdy rendition of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, borne of a late-night, last-minute rehearsal for a Shakspeare "seminar" a few of us more industrious and good-hearted students wre putting together for a local high school. We knew we didn't know all the lines for the mad scene from Hamlet, the confrontation in the Scottish play, etc. but we did know that balcony scene cold. We saved it for last, so we could end the rehearsal on a high note. We were punchy, it was late, the security guard came by and inplied she wanted us to finish up so she could lock the building. Not sure which one of us started doing it, me or Romeo, but we started reading as much bawdy innuendo into the dialogue as we could, and started acting it out...our pals and colleagues went nuts and, while we could not do such a thing before the innocent high school kids the next day, we DID work up a version to be performed before a more adult audience at a monthly variety thing we did. (We were busy little beavers in those days; I used to run three miles a day and maintain a 3.4 average, too) It was a hit; particularly with the Bald Soprano director, who, halfway through the scene stood up and pointed and laughingly scolded "Now stop that!" (He believed in encouraging audience/performer confrontation and in fact almost produced Peter Handke's Offending the Audience there, but met with resistance because of its politically-volatile content)

Oh, there's more but that is enough for now...

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