Still Me by Christopher Reeve

Author:Christopher Reeve [Christopher Reeve]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House
Published: 1999-04-01T05:00:00+00:00

As Pozzo—an outsized performance that worked.

On the other hand, the production of Life Is a Dream was arduous and stultifying because the director was a pure academic. Much of our rehearsal time was spent comparing the play with Hamlet and discussing its significance and place in theater history. The staging was conventional, and the translation we used was literal to the point of being boring. The story of a young prince who is banished from the kingdom because a fortune-teller predicts that he will one day murder his father could easily lend itself to a vibrant, modern interpretation. The entire cast tried as hard as we could, but we weren’t able to make it come alive. Just before we opened I spent a lot of time on the phone urging my friends—especially my new girlfriend, Helen—not to come. She came anyway out of loyalty and/or curiosity. We went out afterwards and luckily had much to talk about besides my poor performance in a deadly production of an obscure seventeenth-century Spanish play.

If I had learned nothing else at Cornell, discovering this difference between drama as literature and drama as a living presence would have been worth my three years there. My mother had been right. At Cornell I triumphed and failed, learning patience and self-discipline in a safe and nurturing environment.

My newfound patience was put to the test in the fall of my freshman year, when I received a letter from Stark Hesseltine, one of the most respected agents in New York. A classy, soft-spoken gentleman with a Harvard degree, he had discovered Robert Redford when the star was still a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He also represented Michael Douglas, Richard Chamberlain, Susan Sarandon, Stephen Collins, and many other fine actors whose work was familiar to me from reading the “Arts & Leisure” section of The New York Times every Sunday while stuck in the frozen hinterlands of Ithaca.

I left the unopened letter on my desk for about a day and a half, torturing myself with speculation as to why he would be writing me. I decided there could only be two possible reasons: (a) It was a routine letter inviting me to get in touch when I graduated from college; or (b) it was a pitch for me to drop out of college now and come to New York as his client, which would violate the agreement I’d made with my mother and Tris. Finally, I opened it. Choice B was correct: he had seen my performance in A Month in the Country and wanted to represent me. Would it be convenient for me to meet him in New York at some time in the near future? I was tremendously flattered and excited and had to force myself to keep my mouth shut around the Theater Department. I left the open letter on my desk and frequently sidled over to see if it still said the same thing. Then I called Stark, thanked him for the note, and casually mentioned that I would be free on Monday.

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