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?

Rehearsal and performance 6

     The first rehearsal was at the directors apartment on the Upper Westside. The replacements were going to get just 4 rehearsals than go on this coming weekend. The whole cast was there, us replacements and the cast members that were still with the show. When I arrived the regular cast members seemed to be huddled in a corner checking us replacements out and talking under their breath. I was tempted to say" you got a problem" but Theresa, from the first audition was there and greeted me warmly and I felt better.

The rehearsal went well,I thought,the director was just running through our scenes and the only time he gave any direction was to tell us where to enter from and where to go, they call that blocking. We rehearsed that way for the next couple of days and the regular cast members warmed up to us replacements, they had no choice I guess, like us or not , we were going to be on stage together.

The final rehearsal was at the theater and I was ready. I had gone over my scenes at every spare moment and had the lines down cold. I waited backstage for my turn to enter. When that time came I walked out and the first thing I noticed were the seats, about 80, starring at me.My knees became weak and my mouth dry as the reality hit me that I was going to perform on stage to an audience that paid money to see the show. Who do I think I am? I don't belong here and the impulse hit me to leave, take the subway back to Queens and forget about all this. The director broke me out of my trance by telling me to pick up the pace on my entrance. I was able to focus and the rest of the rehearsal was uneventful.

The day came, a Friday, and I was going on that night. I spent the day going over my lines so much that I knew them as well as my social security number. I had friends coming that night and my biggest fear was to forget my lines and look like a complete fool in front of everybody.

Waiting backstage a few minutes before the curtain time, the irony hit me of doing a play before I had ever seen one. There was a great piano player performing the intro to the show and at the moment I felt proud.There were several friends of mine in the audience including Doris and an old friend I knew for most of my life, Bo. If anyone should have been an actor it was him. Tall, good looking and athletic, the ladies loved this guy. He would go into a bar and pull some girls pony tail from behind and she would turn around angry , ready to tear into who ever did that. As soon as she would see Bo, she would smile and melt.

When it was my time to enter for the first time, I felt the adrenalin surging through my veins and I went out there on fire. The audience seemed to enjoy the scene and would laugh at the right time. But they were polite laughs, not the spontaneous gut laughs that a great comedienne gets.

The important lesson I learned from this experience was not to push for laughs from the audience.I had some funny lines and I would punch them out, subconscious pleading for laughs . They did laugh but they were polite. I would rather have no response than laughs from an audience that had mercy on me.

In looking back, the best I did was the first audition when I wasn't trying to be funny but truthful to the character.The honesty and simplicity was what made it funny in the first place.But for the first time in front of an audience I did ok. When the whole cast sang together I just mouthed the words under my breath.