Chapter 7: Graduate School

My acceptance to the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro began with Parkway Playhouse’s summer stock theater of weekly productions

Unlike college and community theaters, which would take a month or more to stage a production, Parkway managed to stage a production every week. Each night we would perform, and each day we would rehearse & build sets for the next week. Performing a significant role in every weekly production was so exhausting and stressful that my love of acting diminished. When I entered formal classes in Greensboro, I concentrated on directing rather than acting.

The head of the department was so impressed with my performance at Parkway that he offered me an assistantship, paying me to work with him on various projects. My first assignment was to develop a handbook for first-year students, which remained available for years afterward. The income from the assistantship, combined with my GI Bill benefits, allowed me to focus on my studies without taking on a part-time job.

​

When I arrived in Greensboro, I checked the local newspapers for apartment ads and found one close to campus. It was a two-bedroom apartment that I would be sharing with another young man.  He had already graduated from college, had a good job, and dressed very well. He seemed to date a lot, and it was interesting that he always had two attractive girls meet him at his apartment whenever he went out on a date. One night, I arrived late at the apartment to find several men in the kitchen. I figured he was having a stag party until I went into the living room and saw the men dancing together. My roommate followed me into my bedroom and acknowledged he was gay. I ask why he didn’t offer the room to one of his gay friends?

He replied that his family was not aware he was gay, and so he wanted a straight roommate to keep up appearances.

 

Becky had transferred from Asheville-Biltmore College to UNCG to complete her degree. She shared an apartment with several other girls. We were both welcomed to all the gay parties at the apartment, which included both men and women. The lesbian women were not shy about asking me to dance, even while Becky was with me. There were performers dressed in drag who were as entertaining as anything one would see on TV. 

​

Rebecca took on a part-time job as a telephone operator to cover her tuition, apartment, and food expenses. The original plan was to get married after we graduated, but Rebecca became uneasy when she saw how the girls in the theater department flirted with me. So, we got married while we were still in college, in the same church as my parents. As a Catholic, Rebecca was supposed to get married in the Catholic Church, but since the requirement was that you had to agree to having your children raised as Catholics, we went with the watered-down version of Catholicism….Episcopalian!

​

​

So, we had a lovely wedding with rented tuxes and a borrowed wedding dress. Our honeymoon was special because supermarkets at the time were giving away free coupons for two nights at a motel to attend seminars on purchasing timeshare condominiums in Miami and Palm Beach. Only one per person, so I got one for Miami and Becky got one for Palm Beach. Remember, we were both still in college. Becky didn't want to wait until we graduated, so we went for the world’s cheapest honeymoon!

​​

​

​