Theatre can be fun from either side of the footlights

When I was young, my parents were real theater buffs. They were forever going to plays in New York and in Washington, and because they were intelligent, frugal people, they usually sat in the cheap seats. When they sat at all, it was in the second balcony. Other times they would buy standing room tickets, which at least benefitted from being at the back of the Orchestra seats.

When I started buying tickets to shows as an adult, it was usually for the purpose of a date. Since I didn't think the cheap seats would particularly impress the young women involved, I generally bought more expensive tickets.

Rhoda Penmark from the movie.

In most cases, I was more a movie person than a theatre person. My greatest thrills in the theatre were the few times I had the opportunity to act. As I said, I grew up in a real theatre family. My mother directed plays and my younger sister acted in them. In case you're thinking it was just a nepotism thing, forget it.

When my sister went to the University of Virginia to major in drama, she won the role of Juliet in her very first year. She played Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" in summer stock there, but the role in which she really shone was that of the truly evil Rhoda Penmark in "The Bad Seed."

She had the talent. When it came to my acting, the baseball comparison I would make is to say that with a lot of hard work, I might have been able to make it to Double A ball.

I did my share of community and college productions. In 1972 I had a wonderful time in the role of the Gentleman Caller in a community theatre production of "The Glass Menagerie," and in 1973 I had the lead role in the Northern Virginia Community College production of "Black Comedy."

What made that play so much fun was that the entire play, except for a minute or so at the beginning and the end, was performed as if the actors were in complete darkness.

I took several drama classes that spring. I directed an act of Woody Allen's "Play it Again Sam" in one class and began a friendship with Bill Madden that has lasted to this day. In another class, I performed a scene with lovely redhead Marti Lehder in which I got to kiss her.

When our classmates were critiquing the scene, one was praising me when the teacher interrupted, telling the class they should be careful what they said about my performance because I took praise a little too much to heart.

I think the last acting I ever did was a small role in a production of the period comedy "Once in a Lifetime" that my mother directed in 1976.

It's funny. I wasn't a good actor, but I was adequate and I enjoyed it. My sister was a real talent and spent a lot of years in New York trying to break through. Her experiences there showed me that it isn't only what you know that matters; sometimes it's who you know as well.

I still enjoy going to the theatre, although I don't do it much anymore. In the '90s when we lived in Los Angeles, I saw major productions of "Sunset Boulevard" (with Glenn Close) and "Miss Saigon."

I still enjoyed "Bad Seed" more, though.