Inside Out
For most of my life I was a struggling actor. I appeared on such shows as Mash,WKRP in Cincinnati, and General Hospital. For a short time, I even taught an acting workshop. Today I am a struggling acting coach in Northern California, but back in the mid-seventies I was a recent graduate of the very prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts where I was part of the first graduating class in Los Angeles. After that I joined the ranks of the other sixty thousand would be stars that acted in showcase plays, occasionally went on a professional audition, and attended a weekly workshop. The women that ran my workshop got involved in an interesting experiment directing a group of prisoners at the Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc, California, in a production of Short Eyes. Except for the lead character, all the roles were played by inmates. Because of its success she was granted a weekend to conduct an improvisational workshop with the men who had been in the cast, as long as she...