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Blurring the Line Between Onstage and OffBy Tom DiriwachterJanuary 12, 2011Burned out on the service industry after a decadewaiting tables at the same Times Squarerestaurant, and—having had four full-length playsand countless one-acts produced in New York Cityand Los Angeles—feeling that, maybe, myplaywriting career had peaked, I was finallydetermined to get a "real" job. This is what I'mcontemplating on the deck of the Staten IslandFerry, on my way home from a particularly tryingTuesday lunch shift at the restaurant. Arriving atPhoto by Peter Welch my apartment, I check my voice mail. There's acall from Lissa Moira, from Off-Off-Broadway'sTheater for the New City. She's interested in including "Age Out," my play about struggling for yearsas an artist while waiting tables, in the theater's Chrysalis Workshop. When I call Lissa back, myintention is to decline the offer, but she persuades me to consider it. A couple days later, I tell heryes."Age Out" is developed throughout the 16-week workshop. The play is cast. Rehearsals begin. Factand fiction become very blurry with an autobiographical play when the lead actor—the one playingTim, the character based on me—is about my age, looks something like me, and happens to havegone to Rutgers, majoring in communications with a concentration in advertising, just like I did. Heeven wears the same blue suede Pumas. But things get downright uncanny when the actor, BobHomeyer, has a dire prediction for what becomes of his character: me. One night, amiscommunication about a canceled rehearsal leaves Bob and me alone in the theater lobby, wherewe get into a revealing conversation."I think I know what happens to Tim," he declares."What happens to Tim?" is the question that everyone asks. My reply is always that I don't know.Though it makes perfect sense that the actor playing Tim would be concerned with this, given theactorly practice of creating a character bio, it never occurred to me that someone else would attemptan answer."What?" I finally ask, unable to mask my desperation.Page 117 of 157