I used to be a thespian

I do have to admit that my acting career was short lived, only a few plays in high school. I initially took an intro to drama class my Sophomore year of high school so that I could get over my fear of public speaking. Needless to say, it worked. I loved the whole experience and even got involved in building sets and being a student director over those three years.

Today's list . . . 5 roles that I had in high school plays (sadly, I probably have all the t-shirts from these plays at my apt).

1) Samuel Bester in "Up the Down Staircase" -- I think it was the role of an old English teacher. It was a bit part, I believe it was only 3 lines. This started the trend of future type of roles that I played in high school.

2) Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -- I don't think I need to expand on this play or role, I believe everyone knows the story here. It was a big part, I was on stage just about the entire play, but I didn't have that many lines. Again, this was an old man's role that put me in that same type as the first play.

3) Mr. Curtis in "Onions in the Stew" -- For the third time, I was cast as an old man. This time it was as a plumber in a play about a family that bought a fixer-upper kind of house. The old man plumber was married to Mrs. Curtis who was the real plumber in their plumbing business. I think I had about three lines in this play, but I was type casted as the old man yet again. If there was anything good that came out of this, I got really good in two years of putting on stage makeup to look like an old man. I got compliments from my teacher and people in the audience about how great the make-up looked from the crowd. I don't know how to take that compliment, I've always paid attention to detail but I don't know if putting on old man make-up is how I wanted to be remembered.

4) Eddie in "Rough Night at the North Pole" -- This was the fall children's play that my school did and it was my senior year and I had gotten away from old man roles (or so I thought). Eddie was the world's tallest elf and also an apprentice elf. Looking back, I was Buddy the Elf; just thought of that. I got the non-old man role thanks to a new drama teacher. This was a comedy and I had a ton of fun being cheesy on stage. They taught me how to fall off a couch and also how to hit my head on a short doorway the dramatic way, but when showtime came I did the real thing; the realism should have won me an Oscar. I know what you're all thinking; yes, I had to wear tights since I played an elf.

5) Bartender in "Don't Rock the Boat" -- I played a non-speaking bartender on stage in this comedy for another class because I was the student director for my class's performance. I volunteered to be the director because I wasn't going to get the role I wanted and I didn't want to play the old man again. I had fun on stage in this one just because it was my last play in school. Plus, helping out the other class led me to hanging out with friends in that class and making new ones.

I enjoyed high school theater, but left my acting career there. There were a couple times in college I saw auditions but didn't do anything about them, I was busy doing other things.