Oh What A Summer!

​It was the summer of 1977, a time of Jimmy Carter, CETA, and 55-mile-per-hour speed limits. I auditioned and was hired as part of a repertory company for the Shasta Festival of the Arts. The gig paid a little over five hundred dollars, and for that vast sum, I was to appear in three plays and work in the prop department from 9 am to 1 pm.  I believe there were a dozen of us “paid” actors, and I was to appear in “Hair,” “Hot L Baltimore,” and “Man of LaMancha.” The role was a last-minute addition for a fired dancer. For the record, I played Berger in the first, Paul Granger in the second play, and a Muleteer/dancer in the third.
 
On my first night in the dorms, I left my weed out in the community room, where it was discovered by a dude named Greg, who produced the program. We were all herded into the auditorium the next day for a lecture on the evils of drug use and warned that whoever left his weed out threatened the whole future of the program. After all, marijuana was a gateway drug, and during that fateful summer, I did my best to prove it. My only regret over the whole affair was that the baggie held an entire ounce and had been given to me by my friend Gary.
 
But I digress. We were a raucous band of actors, singers, and dancers. We worked hard and played even harder. We came from Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and even Chicago, and we were united whenever we could agree to stick it to the man/Craig whenever we could.
 
Among our notable shenanigans was climbing atop the auditorium's roof at night and pointing all of the bell speakers that rang out on the hour straight up to the heavens. There were several instances of us breaking into the outdoor pool for an unauthorized midnight swim, and some of us even attended the Redding premiere of “The Spy Who Loved Me” high on LSD 25. Watching Roger Moore, high as a kite,  was  just too good to pass up. Good times.
 
Of the twenty who were paid for our efforts, a couple of us remained in showbiz. I, well, I don’t have to tell you about me, managed to hang on for several decades both as a actor, comedian, and writer. Another one of our troupe moved to New York and appeared on Law and Order (of course), The Mr. Bean Movie, and The Astronaut with Johnny Depp. Her real claim to fame, however, was being the speech and elocution coach for Sarah Palin during John McCain’s run for the White House.  One of our cast became a drug counselor, another a builder, and another an engineer. 
 
I reminisce all this because I have always felt that there was a book in all this. I have tried to gather documentation but, so far,  have only had limited results. I will keep trying though. There's a story there and I know it.
 
omeday, you may all be reading about a very remarkable summer in 1977.