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of what I chose to do, but I did begin my adult life at
Colorado State University. I was there for one quarter, and
by the end of the first quarter I had become involved with
the theatre department. I was in the fall production. They
did Anouilh’s Becket, and I played Henry. I spent all of my
time at the theatre. I was 19 years old and playing the King
of England. It was absurd, but all college productions are
absurd, and by the end of the first quarter I was flunking
out of pretty much everything and didn’t care. I wanted
to be in the theatre. I wanted to act. So I dropped out and
went back to San Francisco. Then, next year, in the fall of
‘68, the road production of Hair opened up at the Aquarius
Theatre in Los Angeles. I actually played piano for my
brother David’s audition. Gerome Ragni and James Rado
noticed me playing and asked me if I sang. I said yes, and
they asked me to come back and sing. I did, and a couple of
months later I was at the Biltmore. That was March of 1969
when I started performing in Hair on Broadway.
What is the best acting advice you ever gotten?
The best advice I ever got was from Robert Altman, who
said, “Kid, I’m going to give you a piece of advice. Don’t
take advice from anybody.”
What is the worst acting advice you have received?
You don’t remember the bad advice. I don’t. You sort
of know it when you’re getting it, so it just goes off into
space.
Keith Carradine plays Baylor in the New Group’s Off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s
A Lie of the Mind
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