My Turn: My retirement life in theater

It didn’t take me long before I realized what I wanted to do in retirement.

I had always written and published personal essays and slice-of-life stories, but wanted to evolve into another genre. I began to imagine some characters from my stories that didn’t make print as flesh-and-blood figures coming alive for all to see. So, it was a no brainer that I had to try my hand as a playwright.

I joined the Northport Reader's Theatre. My first short play was "Letting Go," about a family situation I had lived through. The writing was easy. The best topics are pulled from life but reimagined and doctored. I dusted off an old short-story manuscript and adapted it to a one-act play. The hard part was submitting it to be read aloud by chosen readers, who are usually actors, in front of an audience.

My butterflies ended when I saw how the audience in the reading group was touched by the story. It was produced in a Manhattan black-box festival down the road from the big theatres on 42nd Street. "Letting Go: went on to appear for a total of 14 productions in four different theaters, including on Long Island and Brooklyn. Another play, "A High School 10th Year Reunion," is about young people in their late 20s, 10 years after graduation, with a surprise ending. No one sees it coming. Sometimes, you just have to walk back into the past. In addition to the Manhattan black box, it also played in a Westchester community theater festival.

The most rewarding part of the play for me was having several Hofstra University drama freshmen in the roles in the Manhattan version. They ran with the ball. It was their first ever acting credit in the Big Apple. Some of their parents flew in from other states to see their grown children perform.

One young man came late to the game, after I had filled all the roles with students who responded before him. I didn't turn him away at the tender age of 18 because I knew how  rejection felt at an early age.

I was restricted to five actors. I gave him the role of understudy. He attended every rehearsal and received equal billing on the glossy program flyer. He expressed doubt that he could make it in the real world because, he told me, he was autistic and didn’t fit the mold of the celebrity heartthrob actors of Hollywood. On the walk back to the train after the last show, I encouraged him, telling him Hollywood was changing, creating more roles for individuals with disabilities and those who don’t fit the “mold.”

Years later, I saw him on mainstream TV and Amazon Prime. He managed to break that mold and I am so proud of him!

The creative field is crowded and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. Playwrights, like actors, are left hanging most times or rejected. I feel like I must keep rowing myself in my small boat to shore or I will sink.

One has to have something in the retirement years. That’s what keeps me going. I am glad I tried my hand at something new and got this far in a short time, even if it feels like a leaky boat I have to keep patching up to stay afloat. That’s why I tell myself, “Play it again, Schramm!”

Gloria Schramm

North Bellmore