Acting

I need to add "Oliver!" and "Fiddler on the Roof" to my list of precious original cast albums. Still know all the lyrics. For a while we had a piano; I never had lessons, but I taught myself to play "Food, Glorious Food," and I could probably still play it.

I had a little bit of a performing thing going as a kid. I took some "drama" lessons, as they were called, at the community center in Winnetka, a couple towns south of Highland Park. It was a Saturday morning thing. We did monologues and scenes from plays like "The Glass Menagerie" and "The Importance of Being Earnest". I'm sure I was never any good, but I had a good time.

In fifth grade my teacher, Lloyd Schad, had the class put on a production of "Peter Pan". I don't recall if it was related to the 1954 musical. I played Wendy. I remember writing a big emotional song for myself and pitching it to Mr. Schad. (Still with those grandiosity needs!) I don't think it got into the show.

My friend Genie Kahn got a small group of us together in junior high to do "A Midsummer Night's Dream". We met and rehearsed in a library and eventually did a performance for children. I think I played Bottom.

In high school I tried out for some shows but didn't get cast. But when I was a senior I did get onto the "creative board" (that was what we called the writers) of the annual variety show at Highland Park High School, Student Stunts. It was a great experience, lots of fun. Our advisor was Barbara Greener, the dynamic drama teacher who's been credited by Gary Sinise (he was a couple years behind me at the school) with rescuing him from a life of thughood. My friend Genie Kahn was one of the directors, and Kathie Borowitz (now an actress and married to John Turturro) sang a song I wrote--it was about getting too hungry at school to wait for your lunch period.