From Another World Actors

Yesterday I had the honor of gracing the halls of 1268 E. 14th Street for the last time. I wish you all could have been there so that I wouldn’t have to find the words to describe the most extaordinary day of my life.

You would start your day getting off the D-train like you have so many mornings. Walking the vacant street of Ave M to 14th Street, however today it’s a different, kind of vacant. As you pass by one of the flower shops that had been in this area for more than 40 years, a place that you, along with the studio itself, has used on several occasions, you wonder how many other stores will close their doors forever in this area. How many jobs will be lost because of a 35-year source of revenue is gone.

You walk in the front door of the place that has been your home away from home for the past three years, but today it doesn’t feel like home. There is a great heaviness that looms over the building like a dark cloud waiting to crack open and spill waters of biblical proportions.

As you walk up the stairs, you feel possibly for the first time, all of the history that is trapped within these walls. The spirits of so many talented people that have stood where you are standing right now. You think to yourself, if I could one day acquire just an inkling of the talent and dignity that Morgan Freeman carries with him from working in a place where he has worked, I would be a happy man.

You open the door to the small cubby hole that you proudly call a dressing room. Put down your stuff, take off your jacket, sit on your bed, look at yourself in the mirror and say out loud after the deepest breath you have ever taken in your life, “This is going to be a rough one!”

It’s hard to believe that I wrote the above almost three weeks ago. I had to stop at that time because I was too upset to continue. Not that I’m not still a bit upset now, but I have a much better outlook on things. As I sit in the middle of an apartment full of packed boxes about to embark on my journey to L.A. next week, I find I don't want to end this letter on a note of depression.

Instead I would rather tell you how proud I am to have worked with a cast of people that no matter how bad things got or how poorly they were treated, always gave 110% infront of the camera. Even on that last day as they fought so hard to fight back the tears just to finish a scene. Finish a scene they did.

I want to tell you how thankful I have been to have you, your friendship and support over these last three years. To me, YOU have always been my employer, and although you may not pay me in money, your viewership in some ways is far more valuable to an actor than all the money in the world. I want to tell you what a joy it has been to entertain you. On and off camera. One of the things I think I’ll miss the most is getting a chance to get to know who you are. I have learned so much about you through all of the letters, postcards, gifts, chats, e-mails, and at charity events, that even though you may not come on my TV screen everyday, I still feel like I know you all. Of course I want to tell you that I’ll miss you. That goes without saying.

But most of all I want to tell you that YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE LAST OF ME! I’m sure that could be said about most of the actors you have come to love on this show. Yes, I am looking on the positive side for the future for all of us. I even believe that this may be God's way of giving us all a little push. Like a mother bird might do to teach her baby bird to fly.

You see one of the reasons why most of us become actors in the first place is to get the chance to become and play different people and different things that you're not. Because a Soap is one of the few jobs that an actor might have the opportunity to stay on for several years, it’s easy for an actor to loose track of why they got into this in the first place. After too many years you start to lose faith in your ability to do anything else, which makes you afraid to leave a show even when you're frustrated and miserable. You might not even know why you’ve become those things. It’s because you’ve lost the hunger. The need to constantly move on to the next thing. The next thing you know you’re doing things so someone will fire you and give you that push that you need.

IT IS TIME!! God, Fate, or whatever you believe in has stepped in and pushed us. It’s time for us to relearn why we were crazy enough to want to do this in the first place. Time for us to take the leap of faith, embrace this freedom, and use our talents all over the globe to show people who never watched Another World when it was on, what they were missing!

It may be too late to save AW but it’s never too late to make the world sorry they ever took us off in the first place. Oh yes, you’ll see us again real soon. There is too much talent on this show not to see some of us again. Maybe in a few years we’ll all get together for the AW reunion show and luncheon. How’s that?

I hope this letter finds you all well and you can continue to follow my wacky adventures through my web page ( Thanks Tray & Snow, Love you guys). And I love You guys. I leave you with this: As long as there are fans to love, support, REMEMBER, and watch, Actors never die.