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.

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.