Hamlet
This is a special credit for me so I sometimes like to mention it in my program bio.

When I was in sixth grade (age 11), my English teacher, Jay Cohen, decided that we should do a play for the rest of the school (grades 5-8). From the options he gave us, we chose to do Hamlet (not your typical class play, I grant you). I knew that I wanted the lead and, after studying the famous soliloquy, auditioned and got the part.

Though our class rewrote most of the play (so that we and our audience could readily understand it), the 35-line "to be, or not to be" soliloquy remained intact. I certainly had a hard time understanding what it meant but, I found great pleasure in memorizing it and trying to make it sound as natural as possible.

When the time came, we performed the play for the school; complete with me in a tunic, boots and tights (now that I think about it, this actually explains a few things). As part of the end scenes, I got to sword-fight (faked) and pole-fight (real) with Laerties as well as perform one of the all-time great death scenes.

The play was very well-received by students and teachers and I recall getting quite a nice ovation. For years afterwards, fellow students would stop and ask me to recite the famous speech.

Though I'd love to return to the role and play it as an adult, it's nice to know that, wherever my career goes, I've treaded the boards at least once as the legendary Dane.