(Webmaster's note: As a senior, Charlie Kaufman performed in his high school's production of Play It Again, Sam on Nov. 13-15, 1975. Charlie won the lead role of Allan Felix, a mild-mannered film critic who seeks advice from the persona of Humphrey Bogart. He wrote this article about the experience, for his yearbook. Thanks to Twink Schiff for research and scans.)
"Play It Again, Sam" was a most exciting and rewarding experience. You see, looking the way I do, I've always been cast in macho roles, for more than obvious reasons. Directors constantly type-cast me in roles such as Stanley Kowalski, Othello, Bill Sykes, Emperor Jones, etc. It got so discouraging after a while. "Why can't I play Elwood P. Dowd or the voice of Mr. Magoo?" "Sorry kid, you're too manly, too much gusto, but, I've got a great opening in a Tarzan movie ..."
Then, one day while I was crushing beer bottles--full ones--with my feet, one of my friends mentioned auditions for "Play It Again, Sam." "Any big brawny males in the cast?" I asked doubtfully. "No," my friend answered, "But try out, it's not going to kill you."
So, I did. I don't know what Mike Jones saw in me but he cast me as a divorced, frustrated, puny, oversexed twirp. I was ecstatic, but, there was no time for gaiety. Immediately I set out to work destroying my body. Of course I couldn't shorten my hulking 6'5" frame but a special trench was dug on the stage that made me appear 5'4". Naturally I wore sunken cheek make-up and a fuzzy wig over my golden locks. My voice became a perfectly affected effeminate, nasal twang and I WAS Allan Felix.
At last, my dream had come true; I wasn't a victim of my machismo physique. I was able to free myself, to be short ... to be somebody!
Charles Stuart Kaufman