Paul Blake gave me my Equity card. I was finishing my final year as a theatre major at Cal-State, San Bernardino. In addition to school and working part time, I would commute to Silver Lake in LA and work with East West Players whenever I could. Paul, longtime producer at The Muny in St. Louis, called East West for Asian actors to cast in his mini-tour of The King and I.
I went to Paul’s beautiful home in LA where he had me sing a couple of songs. At the piano was none other than legendary music director, Harper MacKay (I didn’t know how lucky I was at the time). I sang “I Have Dreamed” and “We Kiss in a Shadow” from the show, which Mr. MacKay played from memory. Then Mr. MacKay says, “Hey, I want to hear you sing this!” He starts to play the opening vamp to “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story. I jump in and gladly sing it since it’s a song that I’d been working on in school. We finish and he says, “Wonderful,” and in the most loving way, he says, “it’s a shame you probably won’t have much chance to play that role.” We share a laugh at that truth. I smile and tell him thank you from the bottom of my heart. If my career never went any further, it was ok. Harper MacKay said I was “wonderful.” I was on a cloud.
I was cast in The King and I as Phra Alak. We played the Muny, the Fox in Atlanta, and the Fisher in Detroit. Oh, and Shirley Jones was our Anna.
The moment when it hit me that I was a member of Equity starting my professional career was when I arrived in St. Louis, checked into the hotel and seeing two beds, assumed that I was sharing with a cast mate. I went out and got something to eat, came back and still no roommate. I called the front desk to ask when my roommate would arrive and they said, “No, sir. You’re the only one booked for that room.” Wow! I was a UNION actor, I was legitimate, I was getting paid, and I had my very own room! It felt like a palace! I was an adult! I had arrived.
P.S. I have since had the pleasure of singing “Something’s Coming” for two seasons with the New York City Ballet and their gloriously huge orchestra at Lincoln Center and on their tour in Paris. I dedicate those performances to the memory of Harper MacKay.
