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.