As the young rebellious General in the original play The General and The Jew done in Rep.

He's on a quest to save his poor family, against corrupt officials in Russia at the turn of the century. I worked with rigid physical forms, and an inner world of love, compassion, and great courage - but in this case - youthful courage driven by love, yet discovering itself every step of the way. I remember a lot of weird lines.

NEWSDAY - "John Monteleone is an engaging Mayer Schindel."

(backstage gossip):

The theatre I did this play in was one of the worse experiences I could possibly imagine. The director was from Brooklyn but had this fake English Accent and he wore his beard like Shakespeare. His directing technique was "running through" act 1 one night, the act 2 the next. If you asked him a question he'd say "he's angry". Then after that for 2 weeks, he'd run through the play 10 x a night - give no notes, stuck me in a tight ass costume that stunted the growth of my private parts and said ACTION. They used to call it summer stock - I called it hell. I got a good review - who knows why. I remember that my first dog died 1/2 hour before a performances. Spots died in my arms - he was 17 years old and grew up with me for most of my childhood. I'll never forget it. It was my first real experimentation with "substitution" all I did was cry. I substituted every line, comic or not, with death. Truth is, I think faking it is better. :)  Just kidding. Sort of.