Here, in purely a reminiscing way, and in random order, are some of the anecdotes that I relish.

In Malta we had a group known as Tijatru Karakalla. As teenagers in summer we hang around an “old” gentleman, Joe Pesci, who was a writer. He would write a three act play and present it to us on a Monday and assign the roles. On the Saturday we would present the play on a makeshift stage. That stage was built with rubble and finished with old sheets for curtains. It was on a little hill at Il-Vajrita, which was not built. My grandfather let us use it. The “stage” sat at the bottom of the hill and the audience sat on the rising ground, or brought their own lawn chairs. We even had a “balcony” - an old carob tree at the top of the hill on whose branches some people would sit!

In one of the plays I was to challenge another actor to a duel by throwing him a glove. Somehow I guess I was too excited and the glove landed on the lap of one of the spectators!

On another occasion I was acting the part of a doctor and instead of saying, ĠRIEĦI [wounds], I said ĠRIEWI [puppies] - I asked the patient to show me her puppies!!! Oh how the audience roared with laughter.

When the University Players [Malta] produced Hamlet, I was the Sound Effects, Assistant Director, and general factotum. I crowed where it said, "sound of cock crowing". One day during rehearsal, I asked another student to do the sound. In seconds, Professor Sprague marched backstage and asked what the matter was so I replied that I was trying to find a better crower than me. In no uncertain terms he told me to do it myself.

When in St. Thomas Little Theatre, I had to build a set that included a staircase. I was very busy with my regular job and I did not attend many rehearsals, and did not discuss things with the Producer. I finished the set and found out that the staircase had to be actually used by one of the players, my wife Joan. I had to rebuild them for her to be able to climb them.

In Chatham, I had to have a radio explode when it was turned on. I got hold of a plastic radio case. I carefully broke it in fairly large pieces. Then I patched it with scotch tape. Now for the piece de resistance, I placed a large mouse trap inside it. I attached the radio knob to the trap trigger and set the trap. In place of the cheese was a pellet that exploded when impacted. Now it was set, so when the actor “turned the radio on”, the trap would be triggered and the explosive pellet would go leaving a trail of smoke. As the trap would be going it would break the radio apart. It was very effective.

At one play I had to give the illusion of a high tower overlooking the sea. I achieved this by placing a washing tub filled with water behind the set. I had a light shining on it and reflecting on the back wall. I assigned the job of occasionally shaking the tub to one of my assistants. From the audience it had the desired effect.

In Wallaceburg, I needed a foghorn for one of the sound effects. I wasted a few visits to the river, hoping to record the sound - each time the background noises of traffic would spoil it. Then I hit on an idea which could have cost me a ticket. I hung down the microphone of my old reel to reel tape recorder from the balcony. I set the recorder at 7.5 i.p.s. and had Joan tap the horn of my Volkswagen Mini Bus. We did this late at night to lessen the chance of stray noises. I then played the clip back at 1 7/8 ips. I had it perfect and I used it for the play.

In one of the plays, a shot was to be fired across the stage, knocking down a vase sitting on a mantle piece. I’m afraid the way I achieved this was not the best but the audience did not realize it. I had a tiny hole in the flat behind the fireplace and had an assistant knock the vase off by poking it through the hole!!

At a school play a bomb had to explode at a dinner table just after the actors at the table got up to get their meal. I mixed a batch of exploding powder and set it up to go off electrically. I passed a wire to the back and connected it to a battery. To add to the effect, I placed several balloons - merged well with the decor. That was all very simple but there were some memorable incidents not easily forgotten. While designing this and trying it out by trial and error to find the right amount, I covered the “bomb” with a waste paper basket in Room 1 of John MacGregor Secondary School. I locked the doors and told the two students who were helping me to duck under the desks as I did. There is still a dent in the ceiling as far as I know!! For the dress rehearsal of that play we were invited to put it on at a private party on the second floor of Glitter’s [a restaurant in downtown Chatham]. Not realizing the small size of this room, I did not make allowance in the amount of powder to use. The “photographer” was covered with ashes. Seconds later the maitre d’ came upstairs as the smoke found itself in the restaurant!

One week my brother in law and I were camping and Mr Pesci was quite worried as we were the main ‘stars’ and we were missing all the rehearsals. We assured him that we would not let him down. On the Saturday we borrowed a couple of bikes and were going to cycle to Marasascala. That was a disaster because my brother in law could not ride. So we decided to hike all the way. We arrived at about 4 o’clock and Mr Pesci was quite relieved. He gave us the scripts and we told him that we did not have the time to read the parts ... Would he give us a synopsis of the story. We went on stage at 7 that evening and ad-libbed our parts.

I was doing the part of Bishop Lax in “See How They Run” in Wallaceburg. As is customary we used cold tea for drinks. On this occasion, the director figured it would be funny to use real cognac on stage. I had to pour myself a drink, gulp it down, turn around and say something to the maid who was climbing upstairs. I do not drink alcohol, so when I unknowingly gulped the shot, I nearly choked. I really let him have it at the intermission warning him never to do such a trick again. It was not funny.