auditioning for the Dallas Theater Center.

It's funny how different people remember the same events differently. My friend, Brad Hennigan, was in town not too long ago, and he was recalling the first time he ever laid eyes on me.

"Oh Lord!", he said. "I'll never forget it. Standing there outside, shootin' the shit with Jack Willis, and we look up and see this little blonde girl in a light blue dress, coming up the way with this TOWE - headed little boy. Looked like he was your little brother or something. And we just said,'Who the hell is THAT?'"

And my memory of meeting all of the fine and excellent actors of The Dallas Theater Center for the first time was a little different, of course. As I walked up to the beautiful outside gathering at the Frank Lloyd Wright Theater, I was shaking in my boots. I was getting pretty used to people assuming that I was Max's sister or babysitter, and sometimes their reactions when they found out I was his mom were a little hurtful. Especially in Dallas. I didn't want these talented actors - who quite frankly I had up on a pedestal - to judge me because I had a kid. Or anything. I wanted them to like me.

So, mostly what I remember about that day was being really intimidated by Jack and Sean and Dee Hennigan, Linda Gehringer, and Bill Bolender - all phenomenal actors that I had seen in amazing productions. And I also remember chasing Max into the poison ivy on the side of the hill and both of us getting it real bad.

After I left Peter and New York, I didn't know what to do with myself. So I took Max and went to the deep interior of Mexico for the summer. We had only been back a week when I got a call from the casting director of The Dallas Theater Center. I didn't and don't know how she found me. But I was soooo glad she did! She asked me to come in an read for 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' - for the part of Cecile, the virgin. It was the American premier of this play from London, which later became more popularly known as the movie, 'Dangerous Liasons' - or if you prefer -'Valmont'. I took the script home the day before the audition and read it right through. I LOVED it! I wanted this part more than any part I had ever wanted before.

I went in to audition for Adrian Hall. The artistic director of the Theater Center at that time, and one of the best regional theater directors in the country. He was a tall, long man who was clearly in a terrible mood when I walked in. He waved his hands about in a fitful, agitated manner.
"Well!?" he asked me at once. "Are you some shrinking VIOLET sorority girl?" His words dripped with venom.
"No, sir." I answered calmly. "I'm afraid I haven't even gone to college."
"But YOU want to ACT....?" he practically spit at me.
"I do."
"Well acting is a LOT more than just TALKING. Do you you have ANY concept of that?" (you'd think he was talking to a roach with a learning disability, the way he was speaking to me.)
"I do, of course." I said again calmly. I had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't at all about ME. He'd only just laid eyes on me for the first time. At that point, the beautiful casting director spoke up.
"Jennifer went to LAMDA." she said.
"Oh she DID, did she?" Mr. Hall snarled as he whipped my resume from her hands and peered at it through his glasses. "Well, Miss JENNIFER, from LAMDA...I wonder if you could do the first part of our little scene while touching your breasts. Fondling your breasts - like a little tart! Think you can do that?"
I smiled. "I'll give it a try."
"You DO that." he hadn't let up one bit on me.

But we did the scene for him, and I guess I did alright. Because when he stopped us halfway through, his attitude was completely changed.
"Well, I have to say...that's pretty good, LAMDA."
"Thanks." I said.I still felt like I was walking on eggshells with this man, better keep it simple.
"Well, look. I AM sorry. It's just that this horrid little bible -thumping, CHRISTIAN, little do-gooder, sorority girl came in here before you - and she wasn't the first one. OH! They were just HORRIFIED at the idea of some old fag talking to them about SEX! The whole PLAY is ABOUT SEX! So, I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong foot...what's the name?"
"Jennifer."
"OK. Jennifer. That's more like it." (he looked relieved) "Let's read a little more..."

I got the call that night that I had gotten the part. I screamed with joy, jumped up and down, hugged Max and twirled him in the air, then hugged my grandmother, lifting her off the ground.
"I got it, I got it, I got it!!!!" I yelled all over her house.
"Well, goodness gracious, Jennifer." my grandmother said, trying to scold, but looking far too pleased to pull it off. "You're howling like a banshee! Just settle down."
She grabbed Max and asked him (very theatrically) "Do you know what a BANSHEE is?" Max just laughed. He loved her.
"Well, Jennifer. I guess that settles it."
"What settles what?" I asked.
"Well, you two will just have to stay here with me. You can't drag this little boy to the theater at all hours."
"How about congratulations?" I demanded, even though I could see in her face and hear in her voice that she was bursting with pride.
"Oh, well. Don't get too full of yourself, now." she teased me. "But I guess we better have some Bluebell to celebrate."
(Bluebell is this wonderful ice cream that you can only get in Texas)
Then the three of us marched around sing-songing "ice cream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!"

OH, I was so happy to be working at the Dallas Theater Center - in the Frank Lloyd Wright Theater, no less. And from seeing the plays there for the last two years (when I could) I had a pretty strong idea that I was working there in it's hey-day. With some of the finest actors in the country.

On one of the first rehearsal days, I was told by Adrian Hall that I was to be sharing a dressing room with the star of the show, Linda Gehringer. I was thrilled, but a couple of the other, older, veteran actresses were NOT THRILLED. They shot me looks like daggers, and were NOT very nice. But Linda was. And the crazy thing for me, was that she looked like the old photos of my blood mother. Beautiful, tall - long, honey brown hair. She looked like my mother at her best and most beautiful. Luckily for me, she wasn't anything like her.

I remember she was getting undressed for the first time in front of me (she wasn't shy about it, and had a nude scene in the play), and she caught the expression on my face for a moment.
"Oh. The 'granny panties'?"she asked. She was wearing HUGE white cotton underwear. They went up to her bellybutton. I was so surprised that such a glamorous beauty would wear underwear like that.
"I know. I just like 'em. They're comfy." and with that she pulled them up over her belly button in one of the goofiest moves I have ever witnessed, and pulled her face into an old "granny" face.
"Oh, sweety." she said in her excellent granny-voice."Bring your old granny a cup of tea!"
She kept going and going, she had me ON THE FLOOR, I was laughing so hard.

The other actress who was sweet to me was Dee Hennigan. I was a little in awe of her after seeing her in a production of 'Three Sisters' when she had stolen the SHOW, as far as I was concerned. She was so committed, and so versatile. She could play ingenue, or shrew, or (as in Les Liaisons) whore equally well. And for this particular whore, she grew out her leg and arm hair - as would have been the case in that period - and played a curvy, vixen of a whore - with her giant blue eyes and skin like cream. She was married to one of the other ensemble actors in the company, Sean Hennigan. I believe we ALL wished that he had been cast as Valmont, but alas. And his little brother, Brad Hennigan, was working backstage. A family affair.

It was lucky for me that the Hennigans decided I wasn't so bad. Without them, it would have been a VERY chilly production.