A Taste of The Theatre

"Ah, the simple pleasures of the theatre. One relaxes at the theatre."
--Famous drama quote

Creativity is closely related to play, and the play's the thing! My family moved out to Suffolk County, Long Island when I was just starting High School. To help me find some friends, my Mom wisely signed me up for a summer theatre program, where there were few boys, and lots of girls. So I got lead roles, and met the drama teacher, which meant parts in every school play in the years to come! The Drama Club also travelled to The City once a year, to see a Broadway show. At school, I helped out behind the scenes too stamping tickets or building scenery.

Theatre developed from ancient religious pagents. The Greeks took an important step when they allowed an actor to stpe out from the chorus, and portray an individual. At some point in life, we all need to develop that ability. A spectator, safely anonymous in the crowd, might wonder "How can you dare to do that?" But how can you not?

One summer I attended Theatre Camp at a Long Island summer theatre, where I took classes like Acting, Singing, and Dance taught by theatrical professionals. We did our own student productions for audiences of parents, relatives, and friends. And once again, there were few boys and many girls. Very pretty girls. We had talks from the mid level celebrity actors who were in the summer shows (Dawn Wells, Hans Conried, Sherry Britton), learned improv, mime, and assistant directing, and swam in the pool. Pretty girls in bathing suits.

Back in regular school, I had started out as the Telephone Repairman in Barefoot In the Park, where I played chess during the many scenes I wasn't in with a pal who would become a lifelong friend. While our teacher yelled "I can't hear you! Project!" from the back row of the auditorium, I learned to drink coffee to stay awake. The group dynamics in putting on a play backed up the same cooperative spirit that allowed talented outcasts to have a life outside of normal occupations, and allowed my Jewish forebears to find niches to survive in a strange new country. As an outcast myself from the High School cliques, I found purpose and meaning in the amateur theatre. At home I played around with a new fangled thing called a tape recorder, which had been developed by Bing Crosby after World War II, and had just become available to the public. We did our own "radio" shows with this magical device. I took elective classes in Drama and Film.

I saw lots of shows (and movies) in New York City. Lee J. Cobb performing King Lear. James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope. Liv Ullman in A Doll's House. Jerry Orbach in Promises, Promises. I worked in ticket reservations at the Metropolitan Opera, and saw Peter Grimes for free.

In college, I did backstage stuff, supporting our Leading Man, who went on to star as one of two leads in a TV series later in life. Because I didn't get any parts, I helped put together an independent class where I and others did our own scenes. Later on, I'd actually appear in an Off-Off Broadway Manhattan show in a silent role, suggested by an actor I met while waiting in a doctor's office. In high school and college I was in the Music Department Chorus, and at college a policeman in The Pirates of Penzance. I directed a scene from The Seventh Seal in class, and analyzed treatments of the same story between media in a class called Fiction Into Film.

I did lots of role playing when Dungeons and Dragons came out. I wrote, directed, and performed radio plays, took storytelling classes, and told some tales in front of audiences. Once I started a screenplay which, taken over by another, actually resulted in an independent film, where I got screen credit as "Researcher," and saw my name Up There.

At work, after I went into Training, I starred in training videos, narrated others, and led all kinds of group interactive excercises during workshops. I made presentations to audiences from three to three hundred at meetings, events, and conferences, wrote educational material, and made such coherant contributions that people asked me if I was a show biz professional. Serving as the Foreman on a jury, I promised to organize our discussions to get the work done both right and quickly, and delivered on that promise.

They say that actors find themselves in their parts. I found intimate relations with the life I didn't have at home as a Teen Without A Clue. Most important, I found a confidence in myself that would serve me well when I continued to go my own way. Its quite possible to be strong without taking yourself too seriously, while respecting others. The perspectives of acting and studying history gave me that. And hey--sometimes being "pushy" is the only way to get anything done!