I had just graduated from drama school at the Webber-Douglas Academy in London. Within a week of returning to New York, I got a job at Trinity Square Rep in Providence, Rhode Island, to be in A Christmas Carol. The reason I got the job was because my mother, who was absolutely terrified that I was going to be a professional actor, called a musician friend she knew who worked there. But I got the audition because my mom's musician friend told them that I played the cello and they thought of making me the "fiddler" in the Fezziwig Christmas party scene. So I got the job and became a rather immobile fiddler in the party – as well as the poor husband, another husband and, I believe, I played a gravestone, among other parts. This got me my Equity card and I was absolutely thrilled to get my first professional theater job and my card.
While I was there, I auditioned every Monday in New York for the national tour of Biloxi Blues and eventually got the job while at Trinity Square Rep. I went straight from playing a gravestone in A Christmas Carol to playing Epstein in the national tour of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues. I got to work with Neil Simon and Gene Saks and an incredible cast. Those jobs truly gave me my start.
