A New Beginning

I'm an actor.  I've been doing it for 48 years...that's right, longer than some of you have been alive.  I believe acting saved my life.  Sounds extreme, I know, but I feel it's true.

I had a gypsy childhood.  It sounds like a soap opera when I tell it, but my childhood included a parental abduction, foster homes, and continual moving.  Needless to say, I was a fairly reclusive child. At fourteen, I finally managed to get my dad to keep me with him and I found myself in a school where the drama department held open auditions for the school play.  I don't know where I found the courage to audition.  I was bookish and shy and chubby.  I had no self-confidence.  But I did audition and I got a part...Daisy Stanley in The Man Who Came to Dinner, Moss Hart and George Kaufmann.

This was the beginning of two careers--actor and costumer.  The director, Mr. B, looked at me and said, "Oh you're large. (Duh, didn't notice that when you cast me.)  Can you do your own costume?"  When he found out I could sew, it was, "Can you do them all?"  Of course I could.  I would have done anything for Mr. B.  I began costuming shows, which led to my theatre scholarship and my seventeen years at Glendale Community College.

I also fell in love with the rehearsal process.  For me, it was instant family, something I longed for.  Actors have to be emotionally available to each other if a show is to be any good.  I came from an emotionally inaccessible family.  Rehearsals were a little slice of heaven.   Little did I know that it was also instant divorce when the show was over.  Oh well, everything has a downside.

I also loved the adrenaline high of performance.  It was like flying.  The slight fear of forgetting lines and blocking.  The "magic" of making it perfect.  And the applause, oh my God, the applause.  It was like the audience reaching out and hugging me.  For my love starved heart, it was pure delight.

48 years later, these truths still hold true.  I love the work, whether it pays or not.  I am a true theatre junky.  Show me a stage and I want to be on it.  I long to leave Royce Herron behind and become whoever the play calls for.

So here is the beginning of my new adventure into blogdom.  Friday is the day and the subject is acting--what I'm doing, what the business it like.  Sometime personal, sometimes rant, sometimes blubber.  Ask me questions.  If I have answers, I'll give them.  If I don't know, I'll make something up.  If no one reads this, then I'm talking to myself.  But what else is new?  I'm an actor, which means I'm not running on all cylinders.  If I wasn't crazy, I'd be doing something I made money at.

So I'm sending this out to the world wide web.  Let me know if I make any sense at all.