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.

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.

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.