"The play was The Relations of Paul Le June. I lived with my sister, Cindy, in Situate Harbor and worked in a boat yard there during the day. I'd sand the bottoms of lobster boats all day, then drive my VW bug into Boston and play a tortured Jesuit priest at night. The play paid nothing, of course, but that wasn't the point. I was starring in a new play in Boston. I was acting. That was the point."

When the play finished its run, Bill took his first tentative steps toward New York. "I knew I would end up there eventually, but the place scared me. It took me a long time to get up the nerve to actually move there. I would come to the city, see a show, and leave. Then on one of these visits I ran into my friend Gus Kaikkonen, who had played Horatio to my Hamlet back in Colorado. He was directing a production of Chekov's Ivanov at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and, as luck would have it, he was frantically looking for his lead. He asked me to do it and I had the good sense to say yes. Within a week I was doing my first off-off-Broadway show. Of course, I was sleeping on Gus' couch and sweeping the floor of Panchito's Mexican Restaurant on MacDougal Street to make subway fare, but again I playing a great role and this time in New York."

When Ivanov closed Bill was offered a job at the Trinity Square Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island. He spent a season working there with Adrian Hall and company before finally making the big move back to New York for good. He sold the VW bug and took an apartment in the East Village. What followed were eleven of the busiest years of his life. (more)