In the fall of 1987, I auditioned for a part in a play called "Feiffer's People" at Monroe Community College in Rochester NY. The play is a series of sketch comedies based on the work of satirist Jules Feiffer so actors played multiple roles, reminiscent of the television show "Saturday Night Live." The director was a woman named Dixie who directed plays at MCC for over twenty years.

I had performed in sketch comedies while in high school and in an improvisational troupe, so this project was perfect for me. Actually, at that time, I was still seriously considering pursuing a career in acting and to prepare for my life as an actor I lived in the back of a Chevrolet Chevette for a short period. Chevette's were not just great on gas; the rent was fantastic-especially when parked behind your friend's apartment. (The parking lot is located only a few hundred yards from where I am currently employed)

I was fortunate enough to land a decent amount of parts in the play, but the bulk of the male roles went to a kid named Patrick. It was Dixie's last play she was directing at Monroe Community College before she retired and she wanted to bring the show to area high schools and community organizations so she planned for about fifteen performances

We had eight weeks until our first performance, which was at a local high school and about three weeks into rehearsals a male cast member quit. Since we were already a relatively small cast of ten, this created some staging problems but I saw it as a great opportunity to seize more roles. With four weeks left until our first performance, we lost two more cast members and tensions began to run high. I took on the bulk of the male roles.

Not only had I secured the majority of the male roles, I was dating the leading lady who was also Patrick's former girlfriend. It inflated my head to the point where it almost did not fit into the dressing room and so I started showing up late to rehearsals and improvising lines because I did not want to memorize them. One day I showed up late, Patrick and I had a few heated words, and our Irish tempers got the best of us because we destroyed the dressing room, smashing nearly all the light bulbs that surrounded the mirror at the makeup table. We both had to get multiple stitches.

In order to make up for lost time Dixie called for long weekend rehearsals starting at 8:00 am on Saturday and Sunday mornings. On the Saturday before the performance, I waltzed in fifteen minutes late still feeling the effects of a wild Friday night. Dixie looked at me angrily and said, "we waited for you" and then she grabbed me and sat me in a seat in the auditorium. As I sat and watched, she restaged the entire show without me. When the rehearsal was over, she stuck her face right up to mine and said, "The biggest mistake you will ever make in your life is thinking you are irreplaceable."

I did wind up staying in the cast and was not even a minute late to another rehearsal or performance. Dixie taught me a powerful lesson that went beyond acting, one that I think about often. I have never looked at it negatively or in the sense that all people are worthless and thus can be replaced at whatever they can do, I took it as a way to approach things with a sense of humility when you are chosen to play a role, whether it is a role that your employer, your community or even your family gives you.