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.

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."

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?

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

"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.

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.

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.