one of my favorite photos - me about six years old - photo by John Galacki
I am a writer in multiple mediums; I have directed plays and films, and I’ve made visual art – paintings, collages and, especially, photographs – but how did it all begin?
I was baptized into the theatre when I was fourteen years old. Despite being nerdish and shy, I was swept away into the dramatic river because of a severe crush on a fast developing, not so little redheaded girl. Her name was Leslie but she went by Sam.
I knew she was the junior high school drama club treasurer because of a school announcement. So, I went to school auditorium and walked right up to the junior high school drama teacher and said: “I’d like to be in the play.” Though Vinnie Borelli was shorter than I, he looked up, then down at me over his thick rimmed glasses, and with imperious disdain, he proclaimed: “Auditions were last week, but you can do props.”Not knowing what “props” were, I choked out an “okay.” “Sit down and watch,” he ordered, and thus, he was done with me.
Vinnie Borelli approx. 7 years after I met him in my 9th grade.
The “play” was a mush of skits and corny pantomime: “The Sun! Goes over…the hill…” Nonetheless, I was enthralled. Yes, I was focusing particularly on the curly redhead, but my eyes still darted all over the stage.
“How are they doing that?” I asked myself. Why were they making me believe in paper suns?
In the end, I did not get that redheaded girl, but I did get a fickle, teasing “mistress” ever since.
Long Branch High School production of “Count Dracula” directed by Roy Yack – Dr. Seward = Julius Galacki; Renfield = Patrick Fox
