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Before I was making headlines, I was making sets in summer stock theater

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Summertime. When all good wives go to the country and all bad husbands go to their girlfriends.

For young people a warm weather activity is summer stock — such an education that sometimes you even learn acting. One season I had five major roles and two minor affairs. I didn’t end up the best actress — but I was the happiest.

The first season I just apprenticed. Clearly, I was no four-star super-talented Piper Laurie. I made scenery, polished flats, scrubbed dressing rooms, built furniture. Come Labor Day I was ready for my future — as a professional home wrecker. That year our company was so talented that three apprentices landed jobs: two as cabinet makers and one as an interior decorator.

I was told that to achieve success, one must struggle. However, the connection between cleaning latrines and stardom still escapes me.

Summer stock then was barns, haylofts, an occasional building, often a mudhole. Bats, bugs, worms and fields had more space than the players.

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