My Three Great White Acting Whales

Every actor has some roles that they would most like to do.

Some of them slip away.  Others stand just stand outside the realm of possibility, temptingly close but still just out of range.

I have been in over fifty plays, and played an incredible variety of parts.  But I still have my great white acting whales.

The first is playing either of the two leads in The Odd Couple, Felix or Oscar, it doesn't matter. In high school, I did a reading from The Odd Couple as part of Forensics (speech contests) in the category of Humorous Interpretation.  That reading took me to the state finals.  In my late thirties in the Carrollton/Villa Rica area, I was in a female version of The Odd Couple, and played the male equivalent of one of the Bird sisters.

After moving to this area, and being in several plays with WACT,  The Odd Couple was scheduled  here.  I was so excited!  I tried out, with very high hopes, and I think even auditioned from part of the reading I had done in high school.  But alas, the Director decided to not go in that direction.  She thought it would be clever to cast me, the accountant, as the cop who was part of Oscar's poker buddies, and a cop as the accountant.  I had already played cops  many times before, but I don't think she knew that.  She cast two novice actors as the leads. I was devastated, and for the one and only time in my acting career, I refused a part.  I'm not proud of that, but it was just going to be too hard to be there every day and know I had missed out.

Watching the play performed, I found out the Director was right to do what she did.  The novices were very good, and was a tremendous boost to their confidence and ability.  I enjoyed the show thoroughly, and was very happy to see Tommy Cribb and Kontz Bennett shine!

Now I am of such an age that I will probably never get another chance at that part.  Oh, well.

The second is the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.  There were a couple of groups that I started with just AFTER they had done The Wizard of Oz, and I was too late.  But The Flying Dragon did The Wizard of Oz three years in a row!  The first year I performed the part of the Wizard and had a blast.  I loved the part!  Children performed the Cowardly Lion part.  Well, one child in particular - my son, Benjamin.  He was only nine (I believe) but he was through the roof awesome.  The first curtain call we came up for, I teared up with joy.  It was one of my greatest moments in theater.  The next year I directed The Wizard of Oz, with an all children cast, and Benjamin played the Wizard.  And last year I was not directly involved, but Benjamin played the doorman, and guards.

This year, WACT is doing The Wizard of Oz.  I am happy, but the reality is that they plan on doing it at the busiest time of year for me, right in the heart of W-2, 1099 and tax season.  I had hoped to do this, as I gradually phase towards retirement, but financially, I don't think we're ready for that yet.  So I may have to reluctantly pass it up.  I am trying to rationalize in my head that the group has many fine actors (and potentially actresses) who could play the part as well or better than me.  It may be another part, anyways, that age-wise may be slipping me by.

But even though I would still love to do the part, I have the memories of watching my young son perform it, and really, that is better than whatever performance I could give.

The final is one of the two lead lawyers in Inherit the Wind, the play about the Scopes Monkey trial, the teacher prosecuted for teaching evolution in the 1920s.  In high school acting class, we did the trial part as our major in class assignment part, and I played Drummond, the Clarence Darrow part. I fell in love with the play, and it is still my favorite.

The very first community theater play I ever tried out for, at the age of 23, was for Inherit the Wind, put on by the Pumphouse Players in Cartersville.  At tryouts, I knew I was making a good impression.  I got into a kind of runoff with another fellow, a popular regular with the group, for the other lawyer, the prosecutor Brady.  It was a very dramatic competition, but I thought I had the edge.  I did not.  They cast the one they were familiar with as Brady, and gave me the part of the teacher on trial.  When I saw the cast list (I was by myself, reading a posting on the theater door), that I hit my car and dented it. I went on to do a good performance, and soon was getting leads in plays, and winning Actor of the Year awards.

I have had no other close calls with this play. times have turned bitterly more conservative, and it is hard to perform a play that even dares suggest that evolution might be true.  And groups are hesitant to do a play with so many men.

Nevertheless, I never lose hope with Inherit the Wind.  It is a fabulous play.  And there are many fine male actors in the area, that I think if we got the chance, we could burn the place down!

So as I stare out into the acting ocean, I see in the distance my three great white whales.  I may likely never get to do any of them, but that's okay.  It's just good to be on the quest.