The Misanthrope

THEATER 32
-summer 1991
Mark Cofta came calling again, this time for a new translation of Moliere, to be performed in Warminster in Bucks County, and at St. Stephen's Alley, a Philadelphia theater. I wasn't a fan of Moliere, because he didn't have much appeal to the common person, but the translation by Neill Bartlett was nasty and good. Mark wanted me to play Clitandre, a hanger-on. Not the meatiest part, but i believed in Mark, so i said okay. The play takes place in Hollywood, where vice and corruption hold sway. A good setting for a show about humanity-hating. A nice guy named Lee played the other hanger-on. Miles Chapman, my buddy from ANDROCLES, played the misanthrope's friend. Hilton Gieske played Oronte, the smug rival. He was good, and had irrepressible eyebrows. The other guys joked about them, but i deflected their wit a bit (in part because i sensed my own brows might be bushy someday). Mark's ex-wife Tammy played the female lead. They got on alright. And a woman named Kit played the put-upon nice girl. She was dating the lead offstage, was a bit of a flower child, and was sunshine and sexy rolled into one. She doted on me, but seemed content romantically. She called me leonine. I called her a year later, when she was single again, and starting to date an old West Chester friend of mine. I had a chance to tell her truthfully that he wasn't the most sincere guy, and that she deserved someone who would treat her as well as i would. I think she wanted me to. But i didn't do it. Partly because i was too nice to torpedo a friend, but partly because i was afraid to let her know how much i was attracted to her. In Warminster, we worked in an auditorium that had basketball rims set at eight feet. We had dunking contests. I wore a silk shirt in the play, and painted my nails with clear polish. We played to small crowds...in fact, it was the first time i ever played to a crowd smaller than the cast. After a week or two, we moved to Philadelphia. St. Stephen's had been a church. It was an incredible place to perform. So beautiful, with funky acoustics. The Philadelphia run was fantastic.