Sunday, November 27, 2011

Nature intervenes 32 1983

After a couple of weeks at wife's aunt, we settled into an apartment in Hollywood. The Gage Group was getting me out on several interviews but something unexpected happened that changed all priorities.

My wife had an appointment with a doctor and we were both suspicious of what it was. I waited in our car while my wife was seeing the doctor. She came out, sat in the car and said she was pregnant and what should we do? I asked why are you leaving it up to me, you're carrying it. She said it was mine also.

On our way back to the apartment, we talked about what this would mean for us, new to California and dependant on my acting career which was unstable at best. We had a choice and we decided to go for it ,no matter what. I was 37 years old at the time and this could be my last chance to be a father. So we chose to be parents.

I knew at this point my life would change dramatically. Up til then I had pursued my career with reckless abandon, not fearing the future because I was living in the moment, forgetting about the past and not thinking of the future.

That would all change now. I got butterflies in my stomach, it feels like stage fright. What if I failed? What would happen to my child? Can I handle the responsibility after leading a Bum's Life for the last 10 years? This put a pressure on me that I didn't have before. The stakes were raised  and I called the bet.

Luckily for all involved ,I was able to get guest spots on TV series. After Madam's Place I got a guest shot on The Jeffersons which was in it's final year after 200 episodes. The character was a thief who robs George Jefferson and on the first rehearsal, sitcoms usually rehearse for a few days before taping, I played the character like I was doing The Godfather.  Afterwards, I could feel that the producers were not that pleased in what they saw.

The next day I came into rehearsal and they completely changed my character. It went from a thief to a drunken bum which was much funnier. The taping went very well for me and now I had a good piece for my demo reel besides Baker's Dozen.

The two jobs that I got in Hollywood so far, Madam's Place and the Jeffersons insured that I would be keeping my SAG health insurance ,which not only would be covering me but my wife and my future child's birth.

IMDB The Jeffersons : Change of a dollar

Sunday, November 20, 2011

First score in Hollywood 31

The next month, July 1982, I took an old car, that was in the family, and took off for Hollywood. Driving across the country I felt a sense of freedom,traveling across the open road. You have to drive a couple of hundred miles west before you are free of the concrete jungle and out into the open country. I liked being on the open road and thought if I failed in Hollywood , I would drive one of those big rigs across the country.

Not that I had any doubt at all that I would make it big it Hollywood. After all, the first TV job I read for I got a TV series. Out in Hollywood where they produce tons of series, I would certainly get one right away. I needed to because the money was almost gone and now I was supporting a wife.

Day dreaming along the way, I planned to be bi-coastal. After making a couple of nice scores in La, I would return to New York and do nothing but Broadway plays and films.

When we finally arrived in La, after 12 adventurous days on the road, we crashed at Robert Pastorelli's apartment in the heart of Hollywood. I knew Bobby from New York, we were in Gray Spades together at the Ensemble Studio Theater directed By Risa Bramen.

We had the same agent , The Gage Group, and unwinding at his apartment, he received a call from the Gage Group to go on a audition. Bobby told them I had just arrived and they were able to get me in on the audition. I didn't expect any action so quick, my first day in Hollywood, but glad to see the move was already paying off.

The character I was reading for was a nervous guy and when I read for the casting director, Molly Lapata, I pushed and I could see the CD wince and I immediately pulled back within myself. I explained to her that I just drove in that day and was not ready to audition. I think she forgave me for my lousy reading as she had me in for other things ,which I got.

After a couple of days I had another audition for a show called "Madam's Place" , a show where the lead character was a puppet. I got the role and taped it and it went very well.

Off and running in Hollywood.

IMDB for Madam's Place

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Go West Young Man 30

After my interview with Laury Oppendum, the casting director of Hill Street Blues, I talked over her suggestion, about going to Los Angeles, with my agents at The Gage Group. They said ,why not? They indicated if I did well in Los Angeles, it would help me in New York when I came back, as actors with Tv and film credits were sought out to do Broadway plays. The Gage Group was very highly regarded in Los Angeles so I would have top notch representation there.

Since Sorrows Of Stephen , I had expected to get calls to at least audition for different plays at the other public funded equity theaters in New York besides The Public Theater. It was almost 2 years since I did Stephen, yet not one call from them. I was offered several Off-Off plays but I turned them all down. I wasn't ready to go backwards and I felt I would be selling myself short by working for nothing after the success of Sorrows of Stephen and my breakout in Tv with Baker's Dozen.

I talked to my new wife about La and she mentioned she had an aunt in La and we could crash there until things began to roll. Actors that had been to La always talked about how much they hated Los Angeles and missed New York . Their main complaint was the isolation. You could work with someone in La, develope a relationship during the shoot and when the project is wrapped everyone goes their seperate ways ,scattered all over Los angeles, and never see them again unless you crashed into them on the road.

In New York, you kept in touch with people by just walking down Broadway. Even when I still lived in Queens, I would take the subway to the City and get out on 57st. and Broadway. I would walk from 57st to the Equity lounge on 46st and Broadway. On the way I would run into actors that I had worked with and we would stop and gab for a moment. Up at the Equity lounge, actors would hang out and use the phones. It was fun and very social.

I had one good friend in Los angeles, Robert Pastorelli who was in Gray Spades with me at the Ensemble Studio Theater. He had gone out there after Gray Spades and had already done a couple of guest spots on Tv. He said , come on down, you will get more work than you can handle.

The agents said if I go I should leave soon, it was June 1982, and the hiatus would be over after the 4th of July and the tv production would begin for the new season.

Everything seemed to be pointing west. I got an old Toyota that was still in the family and at the end of June we drove out of New York toward Hollywood.

This ends the first chapter of my life as an actor. In looking back I think I succeeded in my gamble. I went from a totally green actor who was in the first play I ever saw, in 1973, to going to Los Angeles as a working actor with a substantial resume and great representation in 1982.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Feast and famine 29 1982

We finished the back order 5 episodes and I felt I did well. CBS scheduled "Bakers Dozen" to start airing in the spring of 1982. This was not a good sign as it was not picked for the fall season . The producers said it was because there was a change in leadership at CBS, during the strike, and the new bosses at CBS favored shows that they had a hand in producing. It still had a shot to make it on the fall schedule if the ratings were exceptional. If picked for the fall would mean another 17 episodes would be made.

The day came to air the first episode on TV and I sat with my new wife and friends to watch. I was disappointed in what I saw. In my opinion, the two negative choices the producers made was to put in a phony sounding laugh track and casting a connected but untalented actress in the lead female role.

Although the show was a cop comedy, it was shot on film on the streets of New York and I thought the laugh track cheapened the show. When the ratings came out, the show did not do well and was cancelled after the 6 episodes.

That is the nature of this business, feast and famine. I went from a series regular on the brink of stardom to just another out of work actor.

That was depressing enough but I received a bill from my former manager, Lyn Kressel for 25% of the last 5 episodes. Now, I paid her 25% for the pilot but then she was accused of a conflict of interest and quit managing. I thought, why should I pay her for the last 5 episodes when she wasn't my manager anymore, which meant she wasn't trying to get me more work and advance my career.

Lyn claimed it did not matter that she wasn't working for me , the contract I signed with her stated that I had to pay her for any work I got from the pilot.

I got a lawyer and fought it and never paid her any more money. Of coarse I had to pay the lawyer which was almost as much as her bill. I didn't care as I felt I was being screwed.

Was this a mistake? It probably was as she went on to become one of the leading casting directors in New York. My new agents, The Gage Group, did not want to get involved and gave me no guidance in this matter.

Every actor I talked to, said I was crazy for going against Lyn Kressel as she would black ball me.I didn't listen to them as my experience with most actors was they are a bunch of wimps and would wash Lyn Kressel's dirty underwear if she asked them.

I still had enough money for awhile ,even with a new wife, but something had to happen soon or I would be broke again.

One day, my new agents sent me on a interview with Laury Oppendum, the casting director of Hill Street Blues, a hit cop Tv series shot in Los Angeles. When I went into the interview with Laury, she said that she and all her co-workers in La raved about my performance in Baker's Dozen.

She said I would be perfect for all sorts of guest spots on Hill St. Blues but unfortunately, she can't hire me from New York, but if I was in Los Angeles, she would not hesitate to have me in to audition.

I went home thinking about what Laury had said. I never to this point considered going to La but I was not getting any calls from the other Equity houses in New York and I had burned a few bridges.

My mind raced as I walked home. La,La, should I go?

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Sag strike stops streak 28 year 1981

I completed "Baker's Dozen", a CBS pilot for a TV series, and it couldn't have went better. Everyone was pleased with my work including Ron Silver, the lead. A couple of days after we wrapped the pilot, CBS announced that "Baker's Dozen" would be picked up for another 5 episodes. This meant that in the next few weeks I would make more money than I had made my whole life up to that point.

I was nervous, it was to good to be true, something would go wrong, and it did. Screen Actors Guild picked this time to go on strike. This meant that all union film and TV projects in America had to stop production.

Why do actors strike? Yes, there must be some protection for actors, such as: safety on the set, keep track of residuals and carry the health plan. These are good things that the union does for us. But when they opt to go on strike, then it had better be a life and death situation.

The rich actors that make millions of dollars don't care, they already made it and can rest comfortably in Malibu , until the strike is over. Or they may go out of the country, away from SAG's jurisdiction, and make a couple of million doing a foreign produced film.

But what about actors like me? What we need is opportunity to show the world and the industry that we can contribute. Who cares about the nickles and dimes the union is fighting over, such as: more money for extras. I don't think serious actors, that work hard for years to develope their craft, should have to have the rug pulled out from under them so some housewife in Long Island can make extra money and have an exciting day on the set.

The strike went on for 6 months. I received a few offers for plays during that time and I turned them down until I received a offer to a play at Ensemble Studio Theater. The play was Gray Spades and I had done the play in the past. (see chapter 16).

I really didn't feel like doing a play while I was waiting for the SAG strike to end. I was having a great time around town. It was great, I would walk down the street or go into Jimmy ray's and you could see it in their faces, the respect, awe and of coarse envy, all at once.

What convinced me was the director, Risa Bramen. She was young, smart and aggressive. Risa went on to become one of the top film casting directors in the business. She picked it to do something edgy and to impress people with her versatility. A couple of other cast members were Robert Pastorelli, who went on to be a regular on Murphy Brown and Sam McMurry who also was a regular on Baker's Dozen.

When the play opened, for it's short run, the audience was filled every night with agents and casting directors. After the run I received a call from The Gage Group a top talent agent in New York and Los Angeles. I had a interview with this agent a couple of years previous and their attitude, at the time, was very dismissve. They asked me to forget about that and swore they would work for me diligently. So finally I had a agent. Not just any agent but one of the best.

Finally the actor's strike was over and I would be shooting the other 5 episodes. I was riding on cloud 9. All my life I have been broke. My father was a gambler so my family lived just above the poverty line.

Now, I would live the good life. I was so happy that I went out and got married again. I am not going to talk much about this marriage as it resulted in a beautiful daughter and her privacy should be maintained.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Bitter sweet success 27

The shoot, for the pilot on CBS, could not have gone better for me. I had one scene where I pick the pocket of another character and the actor playing the role didn't realize what I did and it was all caught on camera. The producers and everybody involved thought it was great and my position was secure.

There was a particular incident that I remember. We were shooting a scene inside a bar and an actor I knew from Jimmy Rays came in to do extra work. Now this particular guy would tell me that I was a fool for working for no money when I was doing Off-Off Broadway. When he saw me , he came over and congratulated me for being smart and to do some extra work. I didn't say anything but as the day went on and he saw that I was not only a principle but a regular, he asked to be excused saying he was sick.

This actor could not accept that someone he thought was inferior to him, rise to the top while he languished doing extra work which is the dregs of show business. I never saw this actor again.

Getting this job changed my life, mostly for the better but there were some negative consequences. Up to this time all my close actor friends were struggling, working as waiters or cab drivers like my self. We would comfort each other in our misery of the struggle.

Now I went from a struggling actor to the fast track of the business. Friends that I got drunk with, friends that I performed plays with me in the outer reaches of off off, shunned me and treated me with suspicion as if I had betrayed them. They assumed that I had changed so they beat me to it by not saying hello when we ran into each other, unless I acknowledged them first.

I should have been more understanding. I felt they were not happy for me so I retaliated by walking away from a lot of old friends who I felt were not true friends but jealous of me.

In looking back, I am sorry for the way I acted to their insecurity. I know how painful it can be to give everything you have to make it as an actor and get nowhere. How painful it can be to see some one that you think you are better than, all actors think they are the best, have some success while you languish in shit jobs. Laying awake at night, worried that you will end up in poverty with no children, alone and broke.

I know because I felt that way.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Filming on the Streets of NY 26

The day came for the first day of shooting for "Baker's Dozen"TV pilot  for CBS Television. I was nervous as this was my first job on film to be shown across America and  possibly a life changing venture.

The first scene I was to shoot was the scene I had auditioned . I was determined to play moment to moment and create the illusion of the first time. This is essential in film, to be spontaneous and in the moment.

So here I am in my own trailer on Broadway and 45th Street waiting to be called to the set. I looked over my scene and was sure of all my intentions and what my character wanted. The knock at the door came and the ad escorted me to the set, passing onlookers behind barricades. I felt like a star, as the spectators looked at me with respect and awe. I got hold of myself and not let it go to my head. After all, I haven't shot anything yet.

We shot the first scene and it went great basically because I was working with a great actor, Ron Silver. We hooked into each other and created a relationship between the 2 characters, Ron's Detective Locasale and mine, Jeff Diggens the pickpocket.

After we rapped my scene, the producers Sonny Grosso and his partner Bud Jacobson came over to me and complimented on my performance. This enabled me to relax and enjoy myself for the rest of the shoot.

All the theater I had done over the past 7 years paid off. The scenes I had in the pilot were easy compared what I had created on stage. The major difference is the lack of rehearsal. In theater there is usually 4 weeks of rehearsal but on TV the only rehearsal is right before you shoot while the crew is setting up the scene.

Monday, October 24, 2011

SCORE 25

So now I had someone in the industry representing me, Lynn Kressel at least for this project, Bakers Dozen.

A couple of days later I had another call back with the producers to read with the lead actor in the pilot, Ron Silver . Again the waiting room was full of actors auditioning and I recognized a few from the previous auditions. I nodded my head hello and received a cautious response in return. Every actor in there knew that a job like this could change their whole life and the tension in the room was thick. Strangely, I wasn't that nervous, maybe because going this far in the process was a morale victory.

I went in and again I gave a good audition and a day later Lynn's assistant called me in the state of amazement. I was going to Network, CBS to audition again. She said that the producers wanted me for the role but the network had to approve of me. She seemed astonished that I was getting a network audition being that I had no film or TV credits . This was a choice job, not only because it was a sold TV pilot for CBS, but also it was to be shot on the streets of New York.

The day came for the big network audition. When it was my turn to go in I was ushered into a small theater with about 75 seats and everyone of them was filled by different employees of CBS. This would have been a good house for most of the Off-Off Broadway shows I performed.

I read and I got some good laughs from the CBS audience.

When I left, I went over to Jimmy Ray's to unwind and check my answering service. There was a call from Nina, Lynn Kressel's assistant, to call right away. When I called Nina sounded like she had seen a ghost. " You got It" You got it" she said in amazement.I got off the phone  and mentioned to a couple of actors hanging out that I just was cast in a TV series for CBS. They looked at me with suspicion as if I was just another bullshitting actor. I didn't care and walked dreamily uptown with no destination in mind.  I was happy but not  surprised.

IMDB for Baker's dozen

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Trying out for the Big Leagues 24

Sorrows of Stephen finally closed at the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater after 195 performances. I wasn't that surprised as the replacements were not as good as the original cast members. John Shea, the original Stephen in the show , was replaced by Don Scardino a nice enough actor but without the easy charm of John Shea. The attendance went down and this exciting and happy time in my life was over.

I had thought I would get a job in one of the other equity theaters around town but it was as if I never worked at the Public and now back to where I was before, without an agent or prospects.

I did have that audition,that I got myself, coming up for a new CBS pilot called "Baker's Dozen" a comedic cop show . I worked on the scenes I was to read at every spare moment I had and when the day came, I was ready.

I went to Lou Digiaimo's office for the audition and the waiting room was full of every different type of actor as several parts were being cast. I waited for my turn as actors went in one at a time and came out a few minutes later. I watched as they went in ,head held high ready to impress, and when they came out of the audition, head down with a slight look of dismay on their face. It is obvious when they come out of the room, which actors thought they did well and those that didn't.

When it was my turn, I took a deep breath. This is important to do in order to bring maximum oxygen to the brain. I went into the room and was introduced to Sonny Grosso, the producer. Sonny was a former narco cop and the film, The French Connection, was about his police career . He also was the producer of the film, The 7-Ups.

I read the two scenes and when I finished , Sonny had a smile on his face. Lou said .thank you very much and I walked out. I think my shoulders were more slouched than normal but that is normal after a audition as you not sure how well you did. No one fell out of their chair laughing but I felt I did what I wanted to do with the character and was satisfied that I was able to show these people that I am alive in this world and put it behind me as a morale victory.

Two days later I received a call from Lou's assistant to come back the next day for a call back.The assistant asked who my agent was and I told him I didn't have one at the moment. He just gave me the time and place and didn't react to my lack of representation.

I went on the call back and this time the room had about 10 people there to watch my audition including Bill Persky, a established TV director from Hollywood. I wasn't too nervous as by now I had the material memorized and was confidant that I had the character.

I auditioned and felt again that I accomplished what I wanted with the character. The next day I received another call from Lou Digiaimo's himself saying that I would be getting another call back and that I needed someone to negotiate for me if I was to go further in the casting process.

Wow, this was real, they wouldn't be asking me back again if they were not really interested in me for the project. But who do I get to speak for me, I had no relationship with any agents.

I called some of the actors I was friendly with from "Sorrows of Stephen" and Bill Converse, a Yale Graduate and understudy for Stephen, said I should call Lynn Kressel, at the time a top commercial casting director. He said she had seen the show and commented to him how much she enjoyed me in the show.

I called and Nina, Lynn's assistant, said that Lynn was going to manage 5 actors. I asked what about me and I was brought in to interview with Lynn Kressel, who agreed to represent me for this project.

Now I had a well known person in the industry to represent me. It was now 1981 and have been pursuing acting for the last seven years and now all my hard work may be paying off.

Friday, October 14, 2011

One door closes and another opens 23

The show was deep into it's run and I had to keep working on the character to keep it fresh. There is a tendency, I think, for actors in a long run to go on automatic pilot. They may have done the scenes hundreds of times and may feel tired or depressed sometimes and not concentrate on playing moment to moment but, "phone it in".

I was determined not to fall into that trap because there was a different audience every night and I didn't want anyone to think," this guy stinks." I would change my "moment before" occasionally which slightly colored my performance. Of coarse there are certain parameters that you have to honor such as the pacing and blocking but within that area I was able to be spontaneous every night.

I did 195 performances of "Sorrows of Stephen" at The New York Shakespeare Festival and every one had my full concentration, even when I was sick. There were a few and I mean few performances when the show fell flat. But even with the new cast members coming and going, audiences mostly responded positively toward the show.

About 5 months into the run I decided to move back to the City, Manhattan. I had grown up in the City on 28 St. and Second Avenue but because of the slow moving gentrification of the City, my family moved to Astoria, Queens when I was 16 and now I would return at 35 as a working actor.

I found a small studio apartment on 48 St between 8th and 9th avenue that I could afford just 2 blocks from Jimmy Rays. I would  party to the wee hours of the morning, sleep most of the day and do the show at night. This was my routine and I was loving it, until a notice was put up on the call board that "Sorrows of Stephen" would be closing in 2 weeks.

After 6 months of acting heaven, was I destined to go back to cab driving? I had not secured an agent and no promising projects on the horizon. I would have to swallow my pride and go out and look for work like every other actor. I had hoped during the run that I would be offered another job. I was sure it would happen, everybody I talked to about my performance said I was great and one of the main reasons the show was successful. But it didn't happen and now I am to be just another unemployed actor.

I was offered a couple of OFF-Off Broadway shows for no money but I couldn't bring myself to commit . I heard that a well known film producer and CD were beginning casting for a comedy TV show to be shot in New York. I knew this producer and CD had seen Sorrows Of Stephen so they had to have seen me.

I decided to do what is considered forbidden, I would call the CD myself. I called and asked for LD the CD. The person on the phone asked ,"who is calling" and I said John Del Regno. The voice said to hold and the CD got on the phone. I was surprised as I expected to leave a message which probably would never be returned.

I told the CD that he saw me in Sorrows Of Stephen at the Public and could I audition for the CBS pilot he was casting. The CD said he didn't remember me but he gave me an appointment to come in a read for him.

I immediately went and picked up the sides and poured over them . The character was a pickpocket and the dialogue was simple and easy for me. Whether I got the part or not, I would use this opportunity to show these TV people who I was.



Saturday, October 1, 2011

Living the Dream 22

The play opened Off-Broadway to some pretty good reviews. Some of the cast received great reviews with the critic going into detail praising the dynamic comedic performances of some and saying about me that I  "evoked laughter". That's good enough for me, actors from Jimmy Ray's thought I had the best review as evoking laughter is as good as "scintillating" or" exquisitely charming".

This was a great time for me, making a living at something that I had been doing for nothing and getting some notoriety around New York. I would take a date to Studio 54 and the security ,at the door, let me in before the long line waiting out side because , hey, I was in a hit Off Broadway show.

Around this time I made some serious mistakes concerning my over all career. I still had no agent but I didn't care because as far as I was concerned , I had made it. Instead of seeking out agents or asking for recommendations from working actors that I was in contact with, I acted like a sailor who has been out to sea too long. But I was lighting up the audience every night that consisted of film directors and producers. I felt it was just a matter of time, let them come too me.

After a couple of months into the run it became apparent to me that this strategy was not working. The other cast members would be getting auditions for Tv and film and I would get nothing. It became a revolving door with actors coming and going as the original cast left to do other acting jobs in film and Tv and their parts were filled by graduates of the famous and expensive acting schools, especially Yale Drama.

The play ran for 6 months. All during that time I did 195 straight performances without missing one. I went on whether even if I was sick. In fact I had caught salmonella poisening from bad chicken during the run which lasted 2 weeks. I was afraid to miss a show, what if my Yale graduate understudy was good, they would replace me, some guy off the street.

Some thing happened thousands of miles away from the Public that affected my standing at the Public for future productions. The Iranian Hostage crisis developed during the run of the show. I'm not going to go into detail what was happening on the global stage but I felt that America was the victim.

The conflict I was having was that everyone and I mean everyone, actors, crew, directors and writers at the Public sided with Iran. I would argue with them because I felt the US was in peril and would suffer for Carter's weak response for years to came . I have been proven right .

These were the ones that had benefited the most from being American. I was all over the world when I was in the Navy and felt fortunate that my grandparents took the risk to come to America.I didn't care if they went to Harvard or Yale, they were uneducated in the ways of the world.
This gave me a some kind of a rebel reputation which I did my best to live up to.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Into the Run 21

After this initial performance and my encounter with the security guard, I noticed a different attitude from the other artist working at the Public. When I went to the theater the next day some of the other actors in the other shows at the public, there were 3 other shows going at the same time as ours,smiled when they saw me and one actually said that they should fire me because I make the other actors look unreal opposite my character. I took this as a joke at the time.

The audiences were picking up on the play's light humor and I was getting good feedback, mainly from the audience, which on the whole, gave good hearty laughs during my scenes.I had a great character. Like I said, he was a hapless street person with aspirations of being a writer. I had three really good scenes and at the end I come out all dressed up in a brand new loud suite and run into the character from the first scene, when my character was homeless. I tell him that someone bought my writings and that now I was rich. So, my character goes through a major change during the play which is always makes for a interesting character for the actor and the audience.

I did notice  resentment from some of the people who worked backstage or in the offices. I can't blame them too much. After all , these people have been kissing ass for years to get the opportunity I was getting without having to pay thousands of dollars to  CONSERVATORIES of the performing arts.

After a couple of weeks into the run, The Public Theater announced that"Sorrows of Stephen" would be moved to a larger space with a full Off-Broadway contract and a open ended run. That means a raise in pay and now a much wider exposure with all the big shot reviewers from the New York Times etc.

I felt great, this was what I wanted all along, to just act for a living. I thought I had made it, which turned out to be a big mistake on my part. This was not the pinnacle of the ladder to success but the first step on the ladder.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

A Turning Point 20

After I was approved by everyone at the Public Theater , I had to wait two months to go into rehearsal. Well, doing a play at this theater was a goal that I wondered if I would ever attain. I was told when I started out that no one would take me seriously and take a chance on me unless I added prestige to my career. This would do it. Major film stars were first noticed at the Public theater and now they would notice me. The O'Neil was great and it got me this job but now I was going to be put in front of the most sophisticated audience in New York , be reviewed by the New York Times and be on stage with not only good actors but connected ones.

For the first time since I went on this path ,I relaxed. I didn't pick up a copy of backstage, to check the up coming auditions, for the first time in years. In fact I was offered a part at the Pittsburgh Public theater that were doing a production of "Mr. Roberts" and I had to turn it down. At any other point over the last 6 years I would have jumped at the chance to work at any major regional theater, that would put me up and give me a good salary, like I was being offered at the Pittsburgh Public Theater and with all the fringe benefits that go along with it. But the time line conflicted with the NY Public and I had to turn it down. The Pitt. CD said I should take what is guaranteed now. He was right, there was no guarantee, somebody could change their mind. But I was going all in this time.

It was funny, but when I told other actors what was happening, they didn't seem that impressed. Actors always talk about what they have in the fire and are mostly optimistic and say they have this going on or that going on for them but until it happens, it is not real.

While waiting for this new venture to begin, I got myself in the best shape of my life.I rode my bike from Astoria ,Queens to Jones Beach in Long Island every other day. When I went into the city, instead of taking the subway, I rode my bike over the 59th Street bridge. After two months of this, my stomach flattened and my leg muscles bulged.

The first day of rehearsal came and I was ready. It was to be a workshop production, which meant it would not be reviewed until the theater felt the play was ready. Workshop or not, less money than I thought, I didn't care, this was going to be a turning point for me.

The character I was playing, Howard Fishbein, is a homeless writer that runs into the hero of the play and asks for a quarter. I am in the first scene in the play, I open the second act and I close the play in the last scene of the play when my character goes through a major change in his life. So, my character was very important to the plays success or failure.

Rehearsals went pretty smooth and I was given liberty to find the character on my own. The style was fast paced, so any pauses or slowdowns in delivery had to be completely justified.

The first performance came and the audience was full. These were not the normal theater goers but professionals in the industry, actors, directors and writers. I couldn't wait to get on stage and show them who I was and that I belong there.

Like I said, I had the first scene in the play.I entered through the audience, while the lead character was on stage  hailing a cab. I walked through the audience and just at the moment when I stepped onto the stage, an arm grabbed from behind. I swung around surprised and shocked. It was the security guard thinking I was a real homeless and try to throw me out in front of the whole audience. I whispered loud and angry that I was part of the play. The guard, not sure what to do, let me go but stood right there, ready to jump me if I was lying. I said my first line and he went away. The audience, tense now, did not laugh once during the scene.

After the incident with the security guard I went back to the dressing room as angry as I could get. Here I am, making my Off Broadway debut and the security guard almost throws me out of the theater. Anyway, I wanted to go back out and beat the shit out of the guard for ruining my debut. Luckily, one of the actors held me back. The rest of the performance went OK and after the show everyone complimented me on my authenticity , as this had never happened in the whole history of the Public Theater.




Monday, August 15, 2011

Another door opens 19

  I returned from the O'Neil with renewed confidence. I had more than held my own on stage with some of the best actors from New York and Los Angeles. Even though I still had no agent, I was called in for a interview for a major film.

I was given no script but I had an interview with the casting director that went very well and the proof of that was a callback to meet with the lead actor that I had a lot of respect. Again the interview went well as I was able to talk about acting with the star and again I was callbacked to meet with the director.

With three interviews and no script , I had no idea what they were looking for except the character was from a tough neighborhood in the Bronx. That can mean anything and when I went into the interview with the big director, in a condo on 57 st and Park Avenue. I reacted like anyone from that kind of neighborhood and commented how beautiful the condo was and the spectacular view out the window. The director was sort of condescending and remarked that he had a even better place in Malibu.

I didn't get the role and when I went to see the film a couple of years later I got angry. The characters were fighters and wise guys which I could play if I got up 4 in the morning with a hangover. I know that the persona, of a ordinary working man, I showed to the director was not what they wanted and if I knew what they wanted I could have done it with ease. Everybody says just be yourself on a interview but I am many different people, I am a chameleon and can change to whatever is needed.

I didn't get the big film,it would have been a great shot but that kind of luck is not my destiny. So, I had to slug it out off-off Broadway some more and I started to get calls from some of the better off-off Broadway theaters.

 I accepted a role at the IRT theater for a new play "Windfall Apples" a period 1940's original play. I bring this play up because it was the first time I worked with an actor that would intentionally try to upstage me. During our scenes together he would break the blocking, that we had worked on, and walk upstage as far as he could. When I caught on to what he was doing, I would turn my back to him and just talk to him over my shoulder. If I got a laugh on a certain line, the next night he would slam a door or fake cough on my line.

Why an actor would do this is beyond me. It certainly doesn't make the scene better . The thought would  intrude in my mind while I'm onstage with him,"look what this asshole is doing".Thankfully, these kind of actors don't last long and are weeded out because no project can be successful with such a selfish pos.99% of the time, I have had great experiences with actors and the trust we developed with each other on stage would last for years offstage. 

An acting teacher I had at HB Studios recommended me for a play at the Jewish Rep Theater. It was an old play "The Gentle People" by Irwin Shaw originally done on Broadway in the 1930's. The character I was to play was Goff, the main antagonist in the play.

Goff was a gangster that worked alone and also a romantic. This guy was extorting this poor fisherman and the same time seducing the fisherman's daughter. You gotta love this guy. He was totally evil but I didn't approach him that way. There was a piece of dialogue between him and the fisherman that was the key to the character. The fisherman asks Goff "What do you got inside you" Goff answers " I got what I learned on the brake rods,poolrooms, food lines and dive bars all across this country, I got rock inside me old man" .

That was the only way he knew to survive in 1930's depression America. Goff worked alone and in the play it is indicated that Goff uses a gun but I decided to use a flip open knife that with practice, I was able to flip it open instantly with a flick of my wrist.

I received one of my greatest compliments from the audience. At the end of the play, the fishermen, that Goff is terrorizing, decide to kill him as this is the only way they can get him out of their lives. They take Goff out on their boat and mange to throw him overboard and he drowns. Every night when I was thrown over the side of the boat, The audience cheered and applauded.

I received a call from a director that I met up at the O'Neil. He said he was doing a reading for a new play for Joe Papp, the producer of The New York Shakespeare Festival or Public Theater, the foremost equity theater in New York. Many successful Broadway plays have come out of there such as: Chorus Line and many others.

He didn't ask me to do the reading but would I mind reading one of the parts for rehearsal as the actor doing the part couldn't make it that day. Of coarse I said I would do it.

The day of the rehearsal came and there were 10 people in the cast, all on the fast track of acting signed with some of the best agents in town.

The play was a comedy "Sorrows of Stephen"and the part I was reading was very funny and when I read with the lead actor J, a yuppie to his bones, I got a lot of laughs from the other actors watching.

When rehearsal was over, the writer P asked me how I liked the play. I told him, and it was the truth, that I really liked it. The director S, asked me if I was available to do the reading for Papp. Well, I didn't have to look in my appointment book when I said yes. The other actor that was supposed to do the reading was never mentioned again and I was set to do it.

So, this was some kind of sneaky audition in that if they didn't want me, there would be no hard feelings.

The day of the reading came and we were brought into Joe Papp's huge office.My character was a homeless guy who asks some guy for  a quarter and sees that he went to school with this obvious successful person. The reading went very well and the cast and I waited outside the theater as the director was talking with Joe. S came out finally and said it looks very good.

Four days later I received a call from the director saying that Joe Papp wanted to try the play out as a workshop and it was alright for me to do the part and that I would soon receive a call from the casting director. Now, I have been trying to get an audition for years with this casting director to no avail. She called me, in a very cold voice, and asked who my agent was.  I said I didn't have one at the moment and she said I am being offered the part and do I accept. Of coarse I said yes and I do believe from her cold and unfriendly voice that she hoped I would say no. I am sure that wasn't the way she would talk to a big agent or one of the elite, pampered upper class actors that she was accustomed.

I would encounter many people like her and L from the O'Neil and no matter how good I was, to them I was just some street person that wondered off the street into their world.

I didn't care,I would show them, they are no better than me, they just had better parents.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Class Distinction in Theater 18

At the Eugene O'Neil Memorial Conference, 16 new plays are done over a 4 week period.Each play receives a very extensive rehearsal period for 3 days, this includes rewrites that you get each day, then 3 performances with book in hand. This was a great idea on their part as it took away the obligation of memorizing the lines and also created the illusion of a work, if given a full production, would be much better. The word around the O'Neil was, for a lot of these plays, the best rendition they received was at the O'Neil. You were required to carry the the book even if you have a photographic memory so the audience, full of producers and agents, could use their imagination.

To get there as an actor in just 3 days you have to make quick choices based on your first instinct. Pick a objective and run with it. I was working with some really good actors. Like J, a great character actor, who made it a pleasure to work with, as we played off each other really well. So instead of being intimidated by these famous and almost famous actors, I reveled in it and took it as a challenge that I can hold my own on stage with anyone. I had gone through the mill the last few years and what I have to offer will be appreciated here as it was off-off Broadway and New Jersey.

Besides the name actors, there what was considered the up and coming actors on the New York scene. They went to fancy acting schools like Yale Drama and Julliard, where their parents paid about $30,000 a semester and this was 1978 dollars. I didn't recognize any of the chosen bunch from my travels as an actor so far. Never saw any of them at auditions or even Jimmy Ray's but they all had good agents and worked at the major Off-Broadway theaters in NY and major regional theaters. The funny thing was , most of them considered themselves Hippies. 

One time, hanging out with a bunch after rehearsal, the wealthy hippies were talking about the old days hanging out in San Francisco and one of the interns turned to me and asked if I was a hippie back in the day. I said I missed the whole movement as I was in the Navy. The all stopped what they were doing and one little wise ass asked if I killed anyone. Now I had been asked that question before by people that bought into the whole propaganda premise that the military and everyone associated with it is evil.
As I said this was 1978 and the cloud of the Viet Nam war still hung over head. Then ,nobody said" Thank you for your duty" but "did you kill anybody." I would try to debate them but they never seemed to want to listen to another point of view. So this time I thought I would make a joke and said "Yeah, we used to pile the babies bodies up and burn them" . They looked at me like I was serious and I had to say it was a joke. They didn't think it was a funny. Of coarse in some of these plays we were doing there was some ugly stuff going on but that's art.

The first play I did was with J playing the lead role but I had a good part. I was anxious before my first performance, anxious to get on stage and show these privileged upper class what  I can do. As usual, the audience laughed and reacted just right for me and the play. After the show people congratulated me and I know I did well. Although, in the dressing room after the show, the artistic director L came in and one by one he congratulated the other actors in the play, except for me. He passed me by like I wasn't there.

I don't think it was my work, maybe it went around that I burned babies bodies or he just considered me some kind of white trash and in looking back I may have given him reason.

I had really good parts over the 4 weeks I was at the O'Neil but socially I was like a kid in a candy store with no one around. What I mean is, in stead of networking and kissing ass like everyone else, I succumbed to every temptation that came my way. There were many female interns there that had not yet graduated from Yale or Julliard and would flirt and offer themselves.

Here my basic instincts overcame my better sense.It was stupid on my part. I worked in basement theaters, lofts and out of the back of a truck, now finally working with big league actors ,I act like a sailor who has been out to sea too long. While the other actors played politics and looked to advance their careers, I thought I had made it, that now would be a good time to relax and enjoy myself.

But acting is a very social business and producers, directors and the people in power would rather work with friends. It's not like pro sports which is pure to the back stabbing in show business. If you can play ball, nobody cares about your background, only if you can play ball. Even L snubbing me didn't make me see that I haven't made it yet. 

Outside of that, I did well up there and word got back to New York that Johnny Dee was an actor to watch.


Thursday, July 14, 2011

In with the elite 17

So the day came for my big audition for the Eugene O'Neil Memorial Playwrights Conference. I went early so I would have time to look at the material. It seemed to be a black comedy about a family that lived in a trailer park in New Jersey. I was a mean drunken father but the situation was very bizarre.The character reminded me of my own father when he was in a bad mood.

( Author's note: From now on when I mention different people that I interacted with, I am just going to use their first initial. Some are still around and even household names and they may not like being mentioned in my story.)

When it was my time, I went in to read for T, a well known New York director, who laughed so hard that I thought he was having a heart attack. It went great and he shook my hand when I left.

The next day I received another call to read a different play for another well known director. This time it was a military type play and again it went great. Two more times like this over a one week period and the casting director called and asked who my agent was. I told him I didn't have one at the moment and he said, "don't worry, all the performers at the O'Neil receive the same amount." He told me I was cast in all four plays that I auditioned for and would be up at the O'Neil for the entire four weeks with a full equity contract.

I was in shock.This was the real thing, everything I had done before was underground compared to the O'Neil.  Up til that point the most prestigious job I had was the George Street Playhouse which was a growing theater and off the map compared to the more respected regional theaters.

My first day I was to meet in Manhattan to take a chartered bus to Connecticut.  As usual, I went early and there were a few people standing around a large bus. The first thing that caught my eye was that the majority of the people standing around, about 15, were dressed very similar, almost like a uniform. With the khaki shorts and the pull over top with the alligator, I thought for a second that this was a scam to get me back into the Navy.

I walked over to the group and a woman with a clipboard looked at me with a questioning look on her face. I smiled, but tentatively, and showed her my pass.She looked at my pass and guided me over to load the luggage on the bus. I didn't expect anything like this but I thought it must be some kind of hippy thing with everyone pitching in. I did notice that most of the people hanging around were not helping but I thought what the heck, I had a 4 week contract that will pay me more money than working the cab full time everyday, all month. Finally a assistant realized, or someone told her ,that I was one of the actors and came over and apologized. Now I had to get on the bus all sweaty from loading luggage in the August sun and sit with all these scrubbed and proper actors,writers and directors.Luckily, the bus had a bathroom and I was able to clean up a bit and not stink out the whole bus. I tried to keep a low profile but felt like I stood out like an alien.

When we arrived at the O'Neil Center, the first thing I noticed was this large mansion that was Eugene O'Neil's home when he was alive. There were many interns that helped with the luggage and showed us to our rooms, I was put in the Connecticut U. dorm . Afterwards the artistic director L had everyone assemble and introduced the writers and the staff. We received our schedules and everyone mingled about as many seemed to know each other and talked about the movie sets they just came off or the Broadway show they just closed. I must say, I was not excluded as they seemed to be interested in me. The sexual energy was everywhere and being an old dog, I know the look when I get it.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

A door opens 16

We lost money on the production and no agents or casting directors showed up. It was a credible production and we did get one review by Leah D Frank from Theater Reviews,November 1977  "Elements of the script show genuine talent. The dialogue is believable and the characters, with their fears of involvement,are drawn with sensitivity and understanding" and about the actors "an extraordinary cast, John Del Regno gives a trenchant performance as the warm ,loving albeit maudlin guy who desperately wants to be someone special".  I never looked up what trenchant means but I guess it means good.

 I was offered another play by a director,Julie, who showed up. She was going to direct a new play to be done at the 13th Street Theater in the West Village.

I wasn't ready to do another play and I almost turned it down before I read it. I was in the process of calling and to give her some stupid excuse . While the phone was ringing I opened the front page, saw the first bit of wild hipster dialogue and hung up the phone just as Julie answered. Thank goodness there was no caller ID in those days.

The play was called "Gray Spades" and it took place in Newark, New Jersey in the early 50's.It was a jazzy and authentic rendition of a group of junkies who would go out in the city to rob or sell their body for money to buy heroin. The writer lived this life and had actually done time in prison for drug dealing.

I had known junkies from growing up in New York and this play, while authentic,was a sympathetic portrayal of these characters.

During rehearsal, the director and writer would bring in ex-junkies to school us in the difference between a pill high and heroin. An interesting aspect of these characters was that they came from the last Irish families, in a neighborhood that went almost all African-American. These posers walked and talked as if they were black.

Here was a character that moved and spoke totally different from me. It was not just a accent but a physicality that was ingrained in the character. I struggled with "Stash" my character until one day I put on a flop hat the wardrobe person brought . Once I put on the hat I began walking around with a swagger and attitude that the writer said was right on the money. All the characters in this play were taken from real people.Sometimes that's all it takes. Playing a cop helps when you put on the gun, somehow an object or apparel can be the key to the character. It got a good review from Rob Baker at Daily News Oct.19,1977,It sounded like an absolutely dreadful idea- a play set in Newark just after WW2, involving a bunch of white hipsters, talking, moving and acting like blacks. But "Gray Spades" works beautiful from start to finish. "about me an outstanding cast, John Del Regno, as a love for hire,sex object of another flavor"

Erica went back to Michigan out of frustration from her stalled career.She could not take the frustration and began to doubt herself. She would go on a stupid commercial audition and question her every acting choice for hours. A 10 minute commercial audition would turn into a all night examination of her talent and prospects for the future. In my opinion many, actors with degrees in theater come to New York and La thinking that's all they need. The professor/instructor most times is not a professional actor or director and basically do not know the work. During rehearsal for the play we produced,  I had to school Erica in some basic acting. I was lucky in that when I jumped in , I knew, I knew nothing.

With Erica gone, alone again,I looked around at my now empty looking apartment and I missed her. She was a pain in the ass but it was nice having her around. I should have listened to her more as I had a bad habit of talking politics,religion and science at parties or gatherings. Erica said I was just getting people mad at me and I should just talk about nothing or agree with whatever bullshit people were talking about. I said this was against my nature and she said just keep your mouth shut. She turned out to be correct.

I had done a lot of acting over the last 5 years but career wise I was still at the bottom going nowhere. I decided to get in tip top physical shape. I was now 33 years old and better hold on to whatever youth I had left.

I struck out in every audition I had for a year after Erica left. I was going through the worst time I had since I ventured into acting. Looking into the future, all I could see is me aging while driving a cab.

One Thursday, when Backstage would come out for all the auditions next week, there was an open call for the Eugene O'Neil Memorial Playwrights Conference in Conn. I usually didn't bother with open equity calls . The only reason they had them was because Equity required they have them occasionally. Either the producers  knew who they wanted before the open call or they were already in rehearsal.Open calls for paying jobs never had the director there and were conducted by some assistant who merely took your pic and resume and would call if interested, they never did.

I thought I would go this time, at least there would be the usual crowd of actors that I knew . This was a very prestigious conference as they would do stage readings of 16 new hand picked plays and were covered by all the producers and agents from New York and La who were looking for new properties. Name actors,A- and Bplus, would jump at the chance to work there.

I went early to sign up and there were already 1500 actors before me and the chance to get in were slim but I had nothing to do so I just hung out. After a couple of hours, an actress Rosemary, who I had done some play readings,was rehearsing a PBS special in the building, saw me and asked what I was doing there. I told her I was hoping to get a interview for the O'Neil. She was very well known in the business and had won an Obie Award for a play she did Off-Broadway. Rosemary said she had worked there many times and would recommend me for an audition.

I went home without an interview and forgot all about it.After all, people in this business bullshit you all the time. A couple of days later I got a call from The O'Neil Cd, to come in for an audition. I asked if I could get the script beforehand to work on it. He said they don't let scripts out but to come a half hour early to look at the scenes I would read. I wasn't worried, I had become a pretty good cold reader. To give a good cold reading you have to decipher what the scene is about and what your character's intention is.

When I told some of my actor friends about the audition coming for the O'Neil, they were shocked, how did I manage that. Actors were trying for years to get a shot like this, just having the audition was a great milestone they explained to me and I should be happy to show them my work. Of coarse actually getting hired was beyond hope, or so they said.



Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Producing and writing 15

  I had Shakespeare under my belt and was now an official un-employed actor . With Unemployment insurance I didn't have to drive the cab anymore and it is a good thing, the job was starting to get to me.

Driving a cab, especially in New York City, gives you a perspective that I didn't have before. The very rich and the very poor view the working man with contempt. The rich in Manhattan don't look at a cab driver as a human being but as part of the cab. They talk to you like you are a servant.

Their true nature comes out when they ride a cab because they will never see you again and you cannot possibly do anything for them. The best riders were other working class people, who see you as a human being and not part of the steering wheel. If I saw 2 guys hailing a cab and one had a suite and briefcase and the other had a lunch pail, I would always pick up the guy with the lunch pail.

Anyway, I started going out with a struggling actress that I met in Jimmy Ray's. Her name was Erica and we got along great. She moved in with me in Queens as she couldn't afford Manhattan rents by herself, so with our 2 unemployment checks we stayed above water.

Erica graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in theater. She was very helpful to me in the business end of the business, basically it came down to kissing ass.I still had a athletes view of things. I figured if you hit the ball out of the park every time you get a shot, why do I need to market myself, they need me, or so I thought.

We decided, because our careers were slow to produce our own play.We picked 2 one act plays that just had 2 characters that were right for us, I got a director that I had worked with before, borrowed some money, put a deposit down on a theater, THE IRT Theater on west 27 street.

Just as we were ready to go into rehearsal, we received a letter from New Dramatist that they were pulling the rights to the play because the playwright had a film coming out and all his work was being pulled.

What were we to do? Take the loss, no ,we wouldn't do that.We had 5 weeks to open and no play.The three of us had a meeting and decided to write our own play. Our director had an idea for a story. So, we sat down for hours and constructed a simple love story about a cab driver and a up and coming advertising executive.

After we constructed the scenes, we got up on our feet and began improvising each scene with a tape recorder. We did that for 10 straight days until we came up with a full length play with just 2 characters.This method of writing can work if each actor has a firm objective and play off one another.

We taped each improve and edited the good parts. The great thing about working this way is that you can capture a wild jazzy bits of dialogue.

It turned out, writing a play from scratch was the easy part, now Erica and I had to produce it.Publicity, building the set, getting a small crew ,really put a strain on us but we opened and had a credible reaction from the small audience that came .

It was a good learning experience and I learned that producing is a full time job by itself and I don't want to do it ever again, but the method for writing we used to write the play, I would use years later in Hollywood.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Burning my first bridge, then up to Bottom. 14

    Mid-Summer's rehearsals would not not start for a couple of months ,so I had time to study the play.

In the meantime, Owen, from Jimmy Ray's, turned me onto extra work in movies being shot in New York. Why not, it was a easy way to make a little money and see what it is like on a big time film set.

In New York, serious, out of work actors would do extra work to build up unemployment credits. In those days, you needed 20 weeks of work to qualify for unemployment checks. Unlike LA, where actors can get unemployment even if they worked just 1 week. I sometimes feel a little guilty about collecting in California for many years but if they are giving the money away, why not.

I did extra work a few times and did not like it.On a film set, there are very distinct class differences and extras are on the very bottom. The director, film crew and the cast barely acknowledge you're existence, except when needed and on some film sets, you are not allowed to look the principles in the eye. I knew my personality would not stand for this for too long, but I needed the money.

I was called to do extra work on a film " The King of the Gypsies". I dressed in my loudest clothes and went to the call. The director lined up all the extra gypsies and picked me for a upgrade to day player. This means 10 times the money of a extra plus eligible for residuals. It was a chase scene where I had to yell "hey" and "stop" a few times during the chase. It went very well and the director shook my hand at the end of the day and said "good job".

Two weeks later, I was called back by the extra CD for a big crowd scene, in the same film, King of the gypsies. They took me and all the other extras on a bus out to New Jersey. When we got there the CD starting handing out the extra paperwork. She stopped by me and gave me the slip. I told her, that I was not a extra but a day player and wanted the day player contract. She got very angry and said it was a mistake to ask me to come and why don't I just do the extra work for the day. I refused, she said she would remember that when she was casting again. I did not care, all I could think of was $600 for the day instead of $50 for extra. According to sag rules she had to pay for the day player. Then she said, she would not pay for "drop and pick-up" . I did not know what that meant so I agreed. "Drop and Pick-up" means she would not only have to pay me day player rate for the day, but the 2 weeks in between the 2 days. If I would have known that, I would have asked for that also. So, that was the end of my extra career. I was glad.

So , on to Bottom in "A Mid-Summer Nights Dream".  Bottom was a weaver, which was a working class guy back then. When I was speaking as Bottom, I made no attempt to cover my NY accent as the other actors used their own American accents, so why not me. I studied the play constantly, to know the meaning of what I was saying.

There is a great scene in the play when Bottom is acting before the duke. It shows you the great sense of humor that Shakespeare had because the play Bottom was doing was called "Pyramus and Thisby" which was a spoof of "Romeo and Juliet".

 I struggled with this part of the play until the director suggested that Bottom thinks he is the best actor in the world. Since Bottom is acting, I played the play within a play as if I was Richard Burton. Back then, Richard Burton was one of England's most popular actors. He spoke in a deep and pompous voice. I studied Burton in some of his roles and was able to imitate him quite well I thought. Playing a character that is acting, gives you license to do almost anything.

On Tuesday,January 25, 1977 Bruce Chadwick of "Daily News" wrote" Most of the performers are cast well and some are outstanding.The funniest scene in the play is the last one, when a group of laborers put on a play for the local royalty. The scene is stolen by John Del Regno as a Athenian named Bottom by way of the Brooklyn Bridge. His broad accent and bumbling creates a wave of hysteria in the theater."

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A Real Acting Job 13

Now, I felt like an actor for real. I had done a part that stretched my acting muscles to the extreme, with a director that demanded he see Jerry, not me and I had done more than well.

Doing Zoo Story had no immediate affect on my career as no agents or Casting directors showed up, as far as I knew. Some off-off actors and writers did come and I got calls to do readings and backer's auditions to raise money to produce their plays.This satisfied my hunger momentarily but I was anxious to get back on stage and get that full experience that I received from "The Zoo Story"

While I was doing Zoo Story, a woman came in to help with the lights. Well, to show you how stuff happens in this business, she became a casting assistant for a new equity regional theater in New Jersey, The George Street Playhouse. They were going to do a production of "Fortune in Men's Eyes and she recommended me for one of the major parts.

I went to the audition and kicked ass. There were other actors auditioning for the same part, who had done films, Broadway plays and regional theater. They had no chance, the part was right up my alley, like a medium fast ball that I hit out of the park.

To think, I didn't have to drive the cab for awhile made me extremely happy and gave me peace of mind. I also had the best director I ever had up till then,Dino. He was a professional actor and director and the cast and I would go to his loft in So-Ho, where he lived with his family, and rehearse from 8am until 1pm everyday except Monday.

My character, Rocky,was a tough guy and bi-sexual, the type of person that would have sex with a hole in the wall. He tries to dominate a new guy in the prison, Smitty. Thankfully, there were no sex scenes in the play and I used my character's need to dominate everyone around him as motivation.

After 3 weeks of rehearsal in New York, we traveled together on a bus to New Brunswick, NJ to finish the rest of the rehearsals in the theater. There are chemical plants in NJ that when you pass through, smelled like farts.It was a small price to pay to get paid as an actor.

The show opened and was the biggest hit the George Street Playhouse ever had up to that point, in fact the theater was in financial trouble but "Fortune in Men's Eyes" put them on the map and sold out every performance. We had a very diverse audience from middle class to Rutgers University and high school students . The high school kids were a lot of fun. There is a point near the end of the play when the character Smitty has a speech and while he is talking, I am sneaking up behind him to hit him with a chair. The kids would yell out from the audience" Look out for Rocky". It was great, they were really into the play.

We received great reviews: Mirko Tuma from "The News Tribune" said "The production is environmental theater at it'd best, you feel, indeed,like watching a prison show in the prison auditorium and even like being part of the action" and about me he says,"John Del Regno,playing Rocky the pimp stripped of even a resemblance of humanity, is an actor of bursting energy and a exciting sense of authenticity. A superb performance.

Bruce Chadwick of the Daily News wrote The result is a moving play, laced with cutting humor, that slowly builds a vise that squeezes the audience into fear. About me,"He gets excellent performances from John Del Regno as tough guy Rocky.

Going into Jimmy ray's, the actor's bar I had been hanging out, I felt a new confidence among these more experience actors. Who, by the way, did not show up for Zoo Story or Fortune but they heard about it as news travels fast in the theater world. Now, I was not considered a cab driver that wanted to be an actor, but was promoted to a full fledged aspiring actor.

I was quickly offered another role at the George Street Playhouse, Bottom in "A Mid-Summer Nights Dream". Would what I learned so far and the method I was developing for myself ,work with Shakespeare?

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Zoo Story, a breakthrough 12

When  it was time to open, I told everyone in the world that I knew. By this time, I was totally consumed by this play and ready to put it all on the line. I sent flyers to every agent in town and called the ones that said" let me know when you are in something".

Opening night came and we had a full house, about 50 seats, with a few standing. The lights went up on Peter, already on stage reading his book. I was dressed cleanly but not trendy, no jeans but khaki work pants. I entered through the back of the audience and stood there just staring at Peter. Out of the corner of my eye I saw people turn and look at me standing at the top of the stairs. They must have thought that I was part of the show or some nut that wondered in off the street. When I finally walked on stage I could feel the tension in the audience and the creative juices in me were flowing full force. I was momentarily enjoying having the audiences acute attention. I had to grab all my powers of concentration and put the audience out of my mind. I had to grab onto Jerry who was going through the worst period of his life while I was going through one of my best.

I concentrated on my overall objective which was to commit suicide, this triggered the minor objective to have a stranger kill me. And if I was going to get him to kill me, first I had to gain his confidence.

" I been to the zoo" got a big release of tension laugh. Then it happened, the audience hung on every word that was said and laughed heartily  3/4ths of play until it takes a dark turn.

When we went out to take our bows at the end, the audience was silent at first then erupted in loud cheering and applause. I looked out at the audience and there was many a wet eye. There were a few friends that thought acting was a phase I was going through, a good way to meet women, but now they knew. I saw it in the way they reacted when we went out afterwards. It was like I had become someone else.

We had just 8 performances and everyone went great except one. On the second weekend of the run as I entered through the audience I could not help but notice that this was not the normal scruffy audience that went to this theater. This was an uptown audience scrubbed and well dressed, the kind of people that never go below 34th Street unless they were going to the New York Shakespeare Public Theater. Who are they, I thought and it threw me. When the laughs did not come as usual, I pushed, which made it worse for me. I was able to gather myself finally and the rest of the show went ok but not the power it normally had. Maybe they were agents or casting directors that came to see this unknown awesome talent and I didn't deliver. Maybe if I was warned before I went out  that important people were there ,it wouldn't have been such a surprise. But that is live theater.

I am leaving a link here of a monologue from "The Zoo Story" that I did with the web cam. It will give you an idea of Edward Albee's writing. I did it originally 35 years ago.

http://youtu.be/BjSNndzPZko

Monday, June 6, 2011

"I been to the zoo" 11

I read the play several times before the first rehearsal. The part was tremendous, Jerry a sort of down and out character with long but great monologues.I learned a lot from doing those monologues from "Glass Menagerie" and was eager for this new challenge. It was to be directed by Mark, whose family was connected to theater one way or another. He was basically the electric and lighting person for the theater and this was Tanden's way of repaying him for his work. The other actor to play Peter, the other character in the play, was Dan, a very good actor who I worked with before. Peter was a difficult character in that he listens to Jerry rant and rave about his life. The actor playing him must have great concentration and a inner life. I was happy to be doing this play with Dan.

We started reading through the play and right off the bat, Mark said I was superficial, that I wasn't reaching down deep inside myself to achieve the character. He said I must examine myself to feel the pain, the alienation from society.I studied the play trying to understand Jerry, a lonely man, homeless by today's standards, brilliant and suicidal. At the end of the play, Jerry thrusts himself on a knife held by Peter. If he wanted to kill himself, why does he approach a total stranger and agitate him to a point that Peter holds a knife to him?

The beginning of the play was very delicate. It had to be believable that a man like Peter, a college professor, would stay and listen to Jerry about his dismal and lonely life. It could be said that Jerry was insane but you can't play him like that because Peter would just get up and walk away.The insanity would come out later after Jerry has totally absorbed Peter with the stories about his life.

The first line of the play was Jerry to Peter" I been to the zoo". It felt forced and artificial. Mark said he didn't believe me. He didn't believe I was in an open park.He didn't believe I was Jerry. Mark said he was feeling Jerry's pain, his pain was the character's pain. I think he wanted to do the role. One night we argued so hard that we went outside to settle it. We yelled at each other right there on 14th Street until we both realized,at the same time, if we didn't cool it the production would be dead. Dan said he would quit if we didn't stop arguing. So, we shook hands and went back in to finish rehearsal.

I explored my own life, the times I felt nothing was going right. The times I felt completely alone.To help myself with this opening, I decided to try it for real. I went to Astoria park near my neighborhood and looked for someone sitting alone so I could walk up  and tell them "I been to the zoo".I went up to this guy sitting and smoking a cigarette and when I was a couple of feet from him he looked up and if to say"what the hell do you want"? I was embarrassed so I just walked away.

I saw another man reading a newspaper and when I was near him I mumbled "I been to the zoo". The man looked at me and continued to read his newspaper.I walked out of the park thinking my experiment had failed when I got a revelation.What if it was just as hard for Jerry to do this?What if he was trying all day to engage someone and was unsuccessful, until he came upon Peter?

That night at rehearsal, I tried what I had learned in the park. I casually walked into the scene and didn't say anything until we made eye contact a few times. We played this back and forth until these 2 characters had a rapport before even the first line was said.

I gained more and more insights about Jerry as I went through every line in the play. Jerry has some very descriptive dialogue and I worked until I had a very good visual image of everything I was describing. For instance,Jerry talks about this woman who lives in his flop house that he has never seen but hears her crying all the time. I pictured someone I loved, down and out living in a flop house. This image brought me to a emotional place that fit the character perfectly.

One of the main subjects that Jerry talks about is the landlady's dog. Here I had to make up an image out of fantasy as I couldn't think of a dog in my own life that was anything like the the dog in" The story of Jerry and the Dog". Here I was using the Strasberg technique of affected memory, using real objects in your life to get to the reality and the Meisner technique of using fantasy. Combined , they worked very well together.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Making Rounds 10

  I thought it would be a good time to find an agent and maybe get some paying work.I mean why not, if I could keep 50 people in a small theater entertained, why not 50 million. I knew other actors, that I didn't think were as good as me that had agents, mostly for commercials. You don't have to be a great actor , or even mediocre, to do commercials. You have to get the auditions and be right on the money, type wise.

So, me and Teresa started making the rounds of agents and casting offices. You rarely get to speak to anyone except the receptionist who guided you to a basket to put unsolicited pics and resumes and they would call if interested.

Wow, wouldn't it be great to get any kind of acting job doing anything, anywhere. I soon discovered that the few off-off Broadway shows I did made absolutely no impression on the agents. One saw potential in me and would submit my pic and resume to the casting people for various projects. I received NOT ONE audition from their submissions. I found most casting people were snotty and had no respect for actors just starting out. I can understand their attitude in looking back.

Agents naturally look to see if they can make money off you.They are essentially sales persons and if you have no industry credits and not a beautiful 20 year old, they are not interested. You can tell them about all the plays you did and the classes you took, nobody cares. One agent, who took the time to talk to me, said in order for me to be taken seriously I had to add some prestige to my career.

I would have quit, after a year of this rejection from the business end of the business, but I was still having fun and committed myself to the long run. I never made rounds again and never lowered myself to beg for work or representation, I'll wait for them to come to me.

I received a call from Tanden on 14th Street. They were going to do Edward Albee's "The Zoo Story" and there was a great part for me. I wasn't crazy about working there again,small audience and no reviews, but needed to get back on stage as I couldn't afford acting classes anymore.

I went to the Drama Bookshop and picked up the play and started reading it in the back of the store.Now, the Drama Book shop is where a lot of failed actors worked to pay their rent and stay close to the business.They were more snotty than the agents and treated you like you didn't belong in their store.

I was hooked on the play right away.It took me totally by surprise and I laughed almost uncontrollably while reading Jerry's story. The play was such a great mixture of humor and tragedy. I couldn't put it down and read the whole play, it's just one act, right there.Several of the employees gave me dirty looks but I didn't care, they had to work in this stuffy store while I was going to do this fantastic play.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Jimmy Ray's 9

    I was really into the acting scene now, auditioning around town for non-union plays that paid no money but provided me with the experience that I needed. To pay the rent I drove a cab which was good for acting as I could work whenever I wanted .I could go months without driving until I needed money, go down to the cab company in Long Island City, hand in my hack license, wait a couple of hours in the shape up and get a cab for the night. With no radio I was on my own and if I was doing a play, I would take the cab to the theater at 7:30, park outside, go in, do the show and then drive till 5am.

I started hanging out in the greatest actor's bar of all time "Jimmy Ray's" in the heart of the theater district on 46th and 8th ave.It was in a bad neighborhood with hookers patrolling up and down the street and pimp bars a few doors down.The owner was a retired cop which kept the gangsters and muggers out, for the most part. A fellow actor that I was doing a show with brought me there one night and I hung in there for the next 7 years. Up at the bar, I could hear different conversations about acting and careers, either talking about their own acting or criticizing or praising another actor. Here was a gathering place place of all kinds of show business people, from recognizable names to never was and has been actors,dancers from the chorus of Broadway shows, comediennes,writers, directors and the usual bar flies that inhabit any bar. I started to go in there a little at a time and leave. I wouldn't speak to anyone unless they spoke to me first. To be elbow to elbow with experienced working actors, listening to their stories of playing on Broadway or how much they hated Los Angeles.

Best of all were the out of work actors that went into Jimmy's daily , it was a great education. There was Owen who knew every piece of show business trivia, he could tell you who was the second ad on any major film and the names of the whole cast.Despite this talent, Owen lived in the state of financial disaster his whole life. Constantly being evicted, you could smell him when he entered the bar.Because Owen was known and respected within the theater community, aspiring actresses would have to endure hugs from him as Owen loved the ladies. It was hard not to gag when their bodies touched but it was part of the dues they had to pay.

Plenty of other assorted characters such as Tony, who did a movie with top billing over Sylvester Stallone, then beat a guy to death in a fight and did 10 years in prison. He used to sell nickle bags of pot on 9th Avenue and was the only non Peurtor Rican dealing in their hood.

Occasionally a big star, who hung in Jimmy's before the big time, would come in and sit at a booth with a couple of tag alongs. One by one the bar fly actors would go over to the star's booth and pay their respects, like he was the pope. I never did that and I can say now , I never kissed an ass in all my years as an actor. Maybe if I did I would have got more work but it is not a talent that comes easy for me. And it is a talent, I have seen actors work a room or party like it was second nature and make many contacts but I always felt awkward in those situations.

Some of these guys were in their 40's or 50's and living pretty bleak personnel lives. I was determined not to end up like them, throwing my whole life away, the chance to have a family,destined to work crappy part time jobs,to eventually die alone in a tiny studio apartment. That wasn't going to happen to me. I had to believe that,I had to believe I wouldn't end up like that because the audience likes me. I had to believe that. What other option's did I have? That fear made me work harder, if a writer called me at the last minute because he was doing a reading of his play and someone couldn't make it and he needed someone to play a role, I would drop everything I was doing and take the train to the city to do the reading. I left no stone unturned. If only I kept that fear when the door opened for me, I might have gone all the way but when I started to get some success I felt it was destiny and let my guard down, not in the work but in my relationships with other people in the business.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Moving On 8

I had done a lot in my first year in the acting world, 3 plays and the end of my job with Prudential. The plays plus acting classes took most of my time and my sales production  dropped way off. The district manager called me into his office to find out why and give me a pep talk. Why was I not making appointments at night when people were home, he asked. I reassured him I would do better and went to my desk and pulled out all my leads that I had not called yet. I sat at my desk starring at the leads with the phone to my ear, ready to make my first call. I couldn't do it.This was the worst part of a sales job, prospecting for new clients. If I could get an appointment, my closing ratio was very high. But the cold calling was like begging and I hated it. I don't want to do this anymore, I thought and quit that day. A week later, walking out on the street after collecting my last paycheck, I felt free of the pressure to produce, to make a lot of money.I also felt scared, I had burned my last bridge to a normal life. With no college education and no skills, I had just put my life on the line for acting.

Got a call from that theater on 14th Street. They had been rehearsing Tennessee Williams "A Glass Menagerie". Some guy dropped out and the director and producer Tanden Didn't like to have auditions, so he knew I would show up and work hard so he asked me to do Tom Wingfield, a major character in the play. I will have to admit that my acting technique was not evolved fully enough to bring this character to life. First of all Tom has these beautiful poetic monologues to the audience. The director asked to me to have it memorized as best I can before my first rehearsal which was just in a few days. This was a mistake. For a play like" A Glass Menagerie" , you have to study the play and know what your talking about before memorization otherwise you will miss subtleties and transitions. While I had a sense of the poetry and doing it with a southern accent,   being around those "good ole boys" in the navy, the director said it sounded like I was reciting lines

And it was, pure instinct which had carried me this far, was not enough. I think I did pretty good in the scenes with the other characters. Not many people showed up and that was a good thing. I would have been severely criticised for my in and out accent and lack of understanding for the character. By the end of the run I was getting a handle on the monologues. Stuff that I heard at HB now made more sense. I took the monologues one line at a time with a thought process and I do believe by the last performance, I almost made them work.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Hooked 7

     I finished the run of Feiffer's People and had overcome my first and last experience with stage fright. By my last performance I was having fun on stage and started to take some chances which led to spontaneity.

Now that I had a taste of acting before a neutral audience and a legitimate credit on my resume, I wanted more.Every Thursday I would pick up a copy of Backstage and go on every open audition that I was anywhere in the ballpark, type wise.After a couple of weeks at this I got into a original play "Up up and away" which was a spoof on Superman and I played Jimmy Olson. The theater was in a basement on 14 street between 8th and 9th avenue. Believe it or not, it was a serious play and it went well enough for me that the producer Tanden invited me back to do another original play "The Two sided Triangle" which was as bad as the title but it was a learning experience in that it is a good idea to read a play before agreeing to do it.

I switched my acting classes, at Theresa's suggestion, from The New York Academy of Theatrical Arts to HB Studios. It was a more reputable acting school with professional actors teaching. This was a real commitment on my part because, for some reason, the VA wouldn't reimburse my tuition at HB, so it came out of my own pocket.

At HB, I was introduced to the "Method". Here they talked about playing an action, inner objects, who am I,what do I want and where am I. A lot of it didn't make sense at the time but I did as many scenes as I could handle. One particular scene from Edward Albee's "Everything in the Garden" comes to mind. In the scene my character finds money hidden all over his home and discovers his wife is prostituting on the side for extra money to go shopping. I saw this play as a great tragedy.When my scene partner and I were doing the scene in front of the class for the first time, they were laughing hysterically and it was really throwing me. What are they laughing at? I just found out my wife is a hooker. It made me go in a rage during the scene which is wrong for the character and the laughter stopped as when I let loose with rage it can be scary. Albee writes dramatic scenes with strong underlying black humor which I didn't realize at the time. It further reinforced in me that humor comes out of honesty. I didn't see it as funny because, from my background, if you find out your wife is a hooker is no laughing matter.

After jumping around with different instructors at HB, I did find one, Alice, that seemed to understand me.She was a Brooklyn girl, born and bred and her insight recognized a emerging talent in me.

Acting classes can be valuable when starting out but cannot replace performing in front of a paying audience. You can learn the basics in class but there were students that only took classes which can be deceiving in that you may think you are better than you really are.Even though it is stressed in most acting class as a  nurturing environment, I found most to be very competitive and political.If you were popular, the students would respond positively, no matter how bad the scene. I learned early on, not to trust acting students responses to you, good or bad. The ones I trust were the paying theater goer. If they laugh or cry, or worst of all, are bored, I can learn from that response. Off off Broadway theater, back in the day, only charged 3$, so the audience were mainly locals in the area and if they didn't like the performance, they would just get up and walk out in the middle of a scene and make noise as they are leaving.

The main negative comment I received was that I had too thick New York accent. Some had called it lazy speech. As I couldn't afford a speech teacher, I started reading the NY Times out loud and making sure I pronounced every syllable clearly.While a trace of a NY accent stayed with me my whole career, my diction was greatly improved. It is my belief when you grow up on the streets of New York, the accent is ingrained in your genes. Later in my career I got many jobs doing other accents, Italian, Spanish, southern and English, believe it or not. It was the plain general American that I found to be the hardest. Why I don't know.