A full evening of my one-acts was performed at St. Clement's Church. The evening was entitled Morning & Other One-Acts by Stephen Bittrich and was directed by Kevin Amalia, Steven Hart, Michele Costantini, and Michael C. Mahon. I met a long time buddy during this show, actor, Lizabeth Allen, who performed in the one-act, Inquisition.

Trivia - One of the actors who performed in Morning, Tom Verica, has achieved some success in television acting in such series as Central Park West and The Nine.

Performed the one-act, Tofu, by Stephen Bittrich and Jeff P. Weiss at the Pelican Theatre. We played a couple of construction workers. Afterwards, a casting director came up to me and told me that she thought I was great, and she was casting a commercial where she needed some construction workers. She asked me if I was a real construction worker. I didn't know what the heck to make of that. Probably should have lied, "Sure, I'm a real construction worker." But instead I said, "No, I'm an actor." Never heard from her again.

Photos from On the Verge by Eric Overmyer. I played a bunch of different characters who encounter the 3 women explorers on their travels. The production was directed by Marc Raphael and produced by Pulse Ensemble Theatre.

Right, actors, Jeannie Dobie and Stephen Bittrich.

Photos from Bachelor Flats by Jan Buttram. I played the mentally handicapped Joe Bob. It was directed by Alexa Kelly and produced by Pulse Ensemble Theatre. Alexa has been the long-time Artistic Director of Pulse.

My first leading role in a play in New York City was in The Hostage by Brendan Behan. I played the title role, a British soldier held hostage by Irish resistance forces. It was directed by Alexa Kelly and produced by Pulse Ensemble Theatre. I don't have any pictures, but here are a few mementos.

My first play (that I wrote) produced in New York was a comic one-act called Date Patrol (re-titled Inquisition later) about a guy who goes out on a date with a girl, but is put through the ringer first by her two roomates who seem to be from another planet.  It was produced by Second Generation Productions in an evening of one-acts called Visitors performed at The Producers Club.  My one-act was directed by Allison White, and I also acted in the piece as one of the overbearing roomates, Gene.  The part of Julie, the girl going out, was played by a young Elina Löwensohn, who has gone on to some reknown. I don't have any photos, but here is a memento, a card that my wife, ex-Paula, drew me.

The first play I ever had a part in here in NYC (which was not a glorified class exercise) was called The Whole Shebang by Rich Orloff. It was directed by my childhood friend from Texas, Will Pomerantz, performed at the now torn down Judith Anderson Theatre on Theatre Row. Trivia - It was later made into an hour long TV special with Martin Mull and Teri Garr. I wasn't in it though! That's show biz. The play was part of a double bill with the short, Spinning Away, featuring Jessica Hecht who later became Ross' ex-wife's lesbian wife on Friends.

Shot my second short film, A Brief Affair. I wrote it and starred. My buddy, one time photographer's assistant to Avedon, Christoph Klauke directed and ran camera. It was a great exercise. Not necessarily a great film (my writing was still pretty raw) but important in my development (and hopefully in the development of the other participants). I must say the film (video) looked great, especially considering the eqiupment available to us at the time. Christoph has an incredible eye and is great with light. The first short film I shot, Sir?, based on one of my one-acts, was kind of a complete disaster. We had major sound problems. I quickly realized bad sound kills films.

We were wearing bathings suits in case you were wondering. Left, Stephen Bittrich. Right, actor, Lizzie Brower.

A staged reading of my romantic comedy one-act, Morning, was performed at the Church of Holy Trinity and directed by Tanya Penkins, who would later garner much Broadway success. This was very exciting for me that someone I didn't know was interested enough in my play to get some actors together in a cool space to do a stage reading. Another first for me in NYC.

I did my first "Under Five" (which means I had under five lines) on the daytime drama, Another World. After it aired, a group of my friends watched the tape with me, turned the volume down, and mouthed new dialogue (over and over again) which, in most incarnations, had me (as the bartender) making a pass as the male patron...not that there's anything wrong with that.

I don't have notes on exactly when I shot my first speaking part in a movie, but it must have happened somewhere around this time. I played "Pamela's boyfriend" in the thriller, Deadly Obsession (released 1989), directed by Jenö Hodi and released by Republic Pictures. I had another whole scene that was of course cut in the movie, but my mug did make it into the final cut in a couple of short scenes. Trivia - the female lead in the movie, a young Darnell Martin, is now a rather successful director in Hollywood. That's her on the cover.

I had my first appearance on national TV (!) in the daytime drama, All My Children as an extra--a waiter setting tables in the background. It was kind of an exciting thing at the time. During this period, I was also auditioning from time to time for contract roles on all the New York based daytime dramas.

Trivia - I just realized this today (4/7/07) while digitizing some of my old VHS tapes that I was in this scene with Mark La Mura. Our daughters go to the same school now. I knew he was on the series, but I'd forgotten that we were on set at the same time way back when.

When I first got to New York in January of 1986, my childhood friend, Julie, was also here, and she turned me on to a theatre group, Actor's Theatre of Manhattan, that needed someone to run lights for one of their shows. They were way down on John Street in Lower Manhattan. I ran the lights in hopes of getting involved with the company as an actor, but they were a pretty tough group to break into. I did take classes with one of the young women who was an actor/teacher there, Alyssa Allyn, and our class did a show in the theatre for a couple of nights. I can't remember the name of the young woman who acted with me in the one-act, Lost and Found. She was very charming. This is the first public theatre I ever did in New York. Directed by Coco Arregui.

I got my first taste of a valueable lesson that would be re-enforced over and over again through the years. Once a person or group defines what you are, it is extremely difficult, sometimes even impossible, to convince them that you have other dimensions. To ATM I was a guy who ran lights. To another theatre group later, I was just an actor, and they weren't interested in my writings. To another theatre group later, I was just a writer and not an actor. It is possible to grow within a company, but it's going to be slow going, and sometimes you just have to say good-bye and move on.

One of the classes I took when I first arrived in New York City was Soap Opera Technique. We got a tape every week to see our progression as a performer on camera. I think I was required to kiss every girl in the entire class.