non-nonsense dedicated group made up of mostly of working actors, well known celebrities, writers and directors. The only way you could get into this group was through recommendation. I was directing a trio of Pirandello one acts at the Front Row Theatre. Leo Rossi, who played the lead in one of the plays Che Che, was student of Milton Katselas. Leo was a wonderful actor who would have the audience in the palm of his hand whenever he was on the stage. His performance as Che Che in the play was a showstopper and we became friends. He suggested that he would recommend me for Miltonâs class. I accepted his offer to help me and joined the class. It was a great experience to work with such of varied group of talented actors, writerâs and directors. I with several of my classmates from Miltonâs Katselasâs group became part of an ensemble production of Lyle Kesslerâs play Orphans. This production, a workshop only, with a cast of three (Dennis Holahan, Jerry Rand and myself) directed by Joseph Mascoloof Jaws 2 (1978) and Days of our Life was never presented to a civilian audience. Only industry insiders, friends, fellow classmates and family saw this workshop production of Orphans. It was a great opportunity for me to work with top-notch people and work on a play from the ground level. A subsequent production of the play went on a year later directed by Gary Sinise and opened at Chicagoâs Steppenwolf Theatre before starting its successful Broadway run with Albert Finney. I never made it to the Broadway production but was grateful for the opportunity to be in this production. It was during this period of my life that I submitted my picture and resume to Harmony Gold and their production of the new animated series Robotech .
I donât remember actually what was said to me when I got the call for the Robotech audition, but the next thing I knew (well several days later) I was tooling down Sunset Boulevard looking for this odd named place called Intersound. Intersound was located in that wonderfully amorphous part of the Sunset strip between the âsnazzyâ Sunset Plaza clothing shops and cafes and the more artistic section where you could find a more creative clientele at Tower Records, the Old World Restaurant and Spagos. All of these places including Intersound are now gone. At that time, of my audition, finding a parking space in that part of town was often harder to do than the audition itself. But that day, I drove around several times and was able to snag a coveted space to park my car without having to walk several miles.
Intersound, seemed an unlikely place to discover the likes of the Zentradi, Robotech Masters or the Invid. If you didnât know exactly where you were going while walking down Sunset you could easily pass it. It was an unassuming small stucco building that looked as though it were dropped there by Dorothy Gale and a twister. It might have been a house in its past and looked quite uncomfortable surrounded on each side by larger buildings. When you stood directly in front of it, there was a downward sloping driveway on the left that took you to a very small parking lot in the rear. The front door as I remember was made of a dark brown heavy wood and had an almost medieval feel to it. On that audition day I slowly opened it to reveal inside a large group of actors filling every inch of the space. This wasnât as they say in the business a cattle call but it was crowded and filled with anticipation. There wasnât a lot of room for sitting, so after you signed in, you sort of crashed wherever you could find a place to land. There was a wooden front desk with lots of scattered papers and message pads that looked like more like a debris field than a place where someone sat. On that day, I donât remember anyone sitting at that desk. The walls were wood paneled with the same material that the door was made of and beyond the front desk there was a studio door on the
I donât remember actually what was said to me when I got the call for the Robotech audition, but the next thing I knew (well several days later) I was tooling down Sunset Boulevard looking for this odd named place called Intersound. Intersound was located in that wonderfully amorphous part of the Sunset strip between the âsnazzyâ Sunset Plaza clothing shops and cafes and the more artistic section where you could find a more creative clientele at Tower Records, the Old World Restaurant and Spagos. All of these places including Intersound are now gone. At that time, of my audition, finding a parking space in that part of town was often harder to do than the audition itself. But that day, I drove around several times and was able to snag a coveted space to park my car without having to walk several miles.
Intersound, seemed an unlikely place to discover the likes of the Zentradi, Robotech Masters or the Invid. If you didnât know exactly where you were going while walking down Sunset you could easily pass it. It was an unassuming small stucco building that looked as though it were dropped there by Dorothy Gale and a twister. It might have been a house in its past and looked quite uncomfortable surrounded on each side by larger buildings. When you stood directly in front of it, there was a downward sloping driveway on the left that took you to a very small parking lot in the rear. The front door as I remember was made of a dark brown heavy wood and had an almost medieval feel to it. On that audition day I slowly opened it to reveal inside a large group of actors filling every inch of the space. This wasnât as they say in the business a cattle call but it was crowded and filled with anticipation. There wasnât a lot of room for sitting, so after you signed in, you sort of crashed wherever you could find a place to land. There was a wooden front desk with lots of scattered papers and message pads that looked like more like a debris field than a place where someone sat. On that day, I donât remember anyone sitting at that desk. The walls were wood paneled with the same material that the door was made of and beyond the front desk there was a studio door on the
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