I started acting a lot when I worked as a Pot Washer then Stable Boy at an all girls camp in Vermont starting in 1981.  The camp does 16 shows in an eight week season every summer, and I was lucky to be in a lot of plays as a teenager, so I had a good bit of "experience" by the time I got to college.  This picture is from a production of David Mamet's whacky play REVENGE OF THE SPACE PANDAS or BINKY RUDICH AND THE TWO SPEED CLOCK which I was in when I returned to the camp after college to be a theater councilor.  It was fun to play the nerdy Binky with these wonderful friends!  We were directed by James Glossman.

Oftentimes when doing a show I think "I will be close with these cast mates forever" but it doesn't always happen that way.  The cast of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY at Arkansas Rep is a wonderful exception.  This great 2015 production has brought us many lasting friends and collaborators!  Here we are after at a dinner at our director Bob Hupp and his wife Clea's house.  A great time!  

This is a fun picture of The Jean Cocteau Rep resident acting company members circa 1991.  As we affectionately called it the Jacques Cousteau Underwater Theater was a really unique company for it's time.  It consisted of a set company of 12 actors with others jobbing in as needed, a stage manager, and a consistent roster of directors (including  the founder Eve Adamson, and Jonathan Bank), and designers, a TD, plus the Artistic Director Bob Hupp and Managing Director Dave Fishelson running a true rotating repertory of classical plays from Cocteau to Brecht, to Schiller, Shaw, and Shakespeare.

It was a wonderful education for me and a bounty of experience.  My first year there I was  an apprentice and acted in 3 plays, then I was invited into the company and acted in another 12 plays, occasionally performing in as many as 4 different plays in a week.  The best part is that I still have strong relationships with many dear friends from this exciting time in my life.

Me backstage as Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at The Ridiculous Theatrical Co. circa 1994 under the direction of the wonderful Everett Quinton.  Notice the bulging plastic bag hanging from the ceiling.  It is filled with stale beer and god knows what from the bar that was up above.  There was also an underground spring that would overflow from time to time flooding backstage and sending patrons scurrying from their seats in the back of house left.  I loved playing that role with that company!  Audiences liked it too, and we ran for about 5 months 7 shows a week. 

This photo was taken in 2017 at the La MaMa Coffee House Chronicle for the 50th Anniversary of Ridiculous Theatrical Company.  I had the honor of being in 5 RTC productions in the 1990s and then the revival of Conquest of the Universe or When Queens Collide at La Mama directed by Everett Quinton.  It was a blast to be in the show!  Pictured here with my cast mates are some long time friends and original Ridiculae Black Eyed Susan, Lola Pashalinsky, Richard Currie, and Eureka among many others.  That day was a joy!

Hillary Spector is a wonderfully talented actress and theater maker.  We met in 1997 at The Los Angeles Opera when she was assistant director on a remount of COUNTESS MARITZA in which I had the plum part of Penizek, an ancient Shakespeare quoting body servant to a hilarious Hungarian Princess played to perfection by Judith Christin.  Hillary and I hit it off artistically and when we both returned to NYC I asked her to act in a production of MISS JULIE that I was making with my company Nomad Theatrical, then she asked me to be in a production that she was making with her company Red Poppy.  We then realized it was silly to have two tiny theater companies and we joined forces to Co-Artistic Direct Nomad Theatrical Co. together.  We made several productions that we are proud of together.  This is a pic from a promotional photoshoot that we did on my lunch hour in a carpentry shop where I was working.

Every year LeeAnne and I have the honor of joining Metawee River Theater Co. taking part in the Halloween Extravaganza at the Cathedral of St. John Divine.  We get to inhabit a couple of Ralph Lee's magnificent creations and process up the aisle of the massive cathedral doing our best to frighten the audience 1500 souls.  LeeAnne also helps Cassie Lee get folks into their costumes and I play truck driver for Ralph.  I am inhabiting the big fella War, and LeeAnne is a Demon.

"Innocents" is one of those rare shows when most of the company has remained close friends.  In fact it is the show that introduced me to my amazing wife LeeAnne Hutchison.  This was a production of Ripe Time directed by Rachel Dickstien that we performed in early 2005 at The (old) Ohio Theater at 66 Wooster.  It was an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel "The House Of Mirth."  It was a very movement oriented show in which most of us played multiple characters.  LeeAnne and I really got acquainted  playing a very dysfunctional couple The Dorsets.  Pictured here left to right are Margot Ebling, Andy Paris, LeeAnne Hutchison, Jill Samuels, Paula McGonagle, me, and Christopher Oden.  I first met Chris at the Cocteau Rep in 1989 and we've been pals ever since, we've worked on 9 shows together at 4 theaters.

My wife LeeAnne and I have had the great luck to get to play together on many projects.   This sexy shot taken by the talented scenic designer Susan Zeeman Rodgers is one of my favorites of us acting together.  We ran around Longwood Gardens in PA workshopping and filming ideas for an adaptation of the Bergman film "Wild Strawberries" with the lovely actress Paula McGonagle and our friend and director Rachel  Dichstien.