Always be Ready. Chapter 26

Back from the glory of the O'Neil to the front seat of a taxi cab. A movie that came out at that time was "Taxi Driver" starring Robert Deniro. The movie was haunting especially because I was back in the cab again. I saw the movie several times and would imitate DeNiro while driving. His performance in "Taxi Driver" was a insperation to me.

One day I received a call from a director that I had met up at the O'Neil. I did not work with him but he worked with one of the actors that I had worked with up there . He said that he was doing a reading for a major theater producer and he wanted me to fill in a part for a rehearsal. He said the actor doing the part could not make the rehearsal and would I mind just to read that part for the rehearsal.

Now as I still had no agent and wanted to do anything that got me close to the money , I said I would do it. The day of the rehearsal came and there were 10 people in the cast. All were on the fast track of acting. Signed with the best agents, graduates of Yale and Harvard and then there was me.

The part I was reading was very funny and when I read it with the lead actor, a yuppie to his genes, I got a lot of laughs. When the rehearsal was over, the writer of the play, who I just met, came over to me and asked how I liked the play. I told him, and it was the truth, that I really liked it. The director asked if I was available for the reading on the date for the big producer.

Well, I didn't have to look in my appointment book when I said yes. The other actor was not mentioned again and I was set to do the reading.

So this was some kind of sneaky audition in that if they didn't want me, there would be no hard feelings. What served me well was my growing experience working with new plays and my cold reading abilities. I do not mention names because I don't know the legalities but this was huge for me to be in the company of these high powered actors before the king of theater in New York.