Day 4 - The Runner Stumbles by Milan Stitt. This was my first High School show I actually performed in. My Freshman year I auditioned for The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie and I didn’t get cast. I did get cast in the Studio Production, Feiffer’s People by Jules Feiffer, which was a one night performance of selections from the play, but due to my various emotional, esteem, and commitment issues, I was rightly fired from the show. Two years later, Mr. Hoebel, the theatre director, gave me a second chance on The Runner Stumbles, and it is not an exaggeration to say it changed my life forever. I often have to remind myself of that. That I was privileged enough to receive a second chance and I cannot conceive of a life without it. I can often be “less forgiving” than I should, and I have to remind myself that my entire adult life was based on one person excusing some bad behavior when they didn’t have to. So The Runner Stumbles. Pretty heady stuff for a High School show. A play about a Catholic Priest who has been put on trial for the murder of a young Nun in Solon, Michigan. It’s also mostly told in flashback. True story, I did not finish reading the play before the audition, because there were only a handful of copies you had to sign out (it was 1986) but I did get cast as the Prosecutor. And once I got cast, well why bother reading it now? So my first time through the script was at the first read through on the first day of rehearsal, when and where I finally found out who was the killer. SPOILERS (it was the housekeeper, and she buried her in the garden, and then killed herself in prison by banging her head against a wall until she died, and god bless Dale Heintz for having to deliver that line) It was quite clear by my reaction, that I had not finished reading the play. This particular production was selected to go to the Illinois High School Theatre Festival, which really cemented some life choices early for me. I suddenly had direction. I wanted to be in plays. What that meant, I had no idea. But it was certainly a start. #therunnerstumbles #1986 #glenbardeasthighschool #milanstitt #retrospective #highschool #droppingnunslikehamiltons #notesfortheactor #ihstf (at Glenbard East High School) https://www.instagram.com/p/B34atHWJbwU/?igshid=gsfri6kba60v