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 submerged 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
