James Render:  

Life i've been involved in insurance,real estate,transportation,restaurants,and import/export, film and theater after a stint in the service since high school. married twice. 4 grown children from my first marriage.seven grand kids. single now. lost my 2nd. wife&twin sons to a car wreck some years ago. i've recovered since my loss.thank goodness for friends old & new who've been there. still have something of value to offer others. friends dared me to audition in atlanta for a play, that led to others,a film audition and a supporting role for a film in louisiana, then another film, made in britain.my interest in theater and film work, has me pumped and creative, feeling more alive than i have in years. so far i have been in several paid theater productions,paid pilots for t.v. series finished working in my 4th.film with a leading role, filmed at britain's pinewood studio and germany's babelsberg studios, with location filming in vienna austria and potsdam germany. never would have thought those childhood interests and dreams in music, dance, theater and films, would one day come out and serve me so well. and it started out simply, with a dare a friend made,to audition for a part,and landing a lead role on the theater stage, as one of the lawyers in "inherit the wind". i no longer regret having passed up the chance to play a part in our school productions. i finished the 4th. film then joined with a broadway touring company. my work got me invited into the "mentorship" program with an award winning, well known sponsor. i'm now working as a director in a new musical production in london, getting ready to open here, and transfer to broadway in a few months. my sponsor is preparing and grooming me to work as a producer/director in the theater. i've been blessed and so lucky to work with some really terrific people at this stage of my life.. if it's meant to be, perhaps i'll find someone very special to share my life with again. i've found a live in love interest and collaborater. (an english actress). in addition, i've increased my investment and income from the theater, by writing two adaptations for the musical theater, with published scripts, that have been picked up for the stage in n.y. and london. i'm contracted for a screenplay for one of them, and two novels around the stories. i have one play book and libretto published so far, and it is being done by a regional theater in calif., currently in the rehearsal stage. i've been contracted to return to london, to direct the adaptation for the musical in september. as awkward and difficult as my school years were,(miserable homelife),I enjoyed my school friends and classmates greatly. I enjoyed ;history,science, english,art and shop classes. Had to study hard to make decent grades. Injuries from home and asthma made sports difficult. Tried to avoid the showers, Didn't feel like showing every one the bruises, welts, cuts and scars my father left me with. I enjoyed goig to Dee's Dance Studio in junior high,it really opened up some close friendships. I always enjoyed meeting up with friends at the Flower Library,Woolworth's and Newberry"s lunch counters. I looked forward to seeing others at Puff's, DeVito"s,Wescotts and Southwicks Beaches, and Thompson Park. Did i forget, the drive in's. or the Olympic,Town, and Avon Theaters. Parking in the back row at the drive-in was a wonderful right -of -passage.did I ever have some school crushes. one connected with me again just a short time ago, over the internet after so many years since we last saw each other . I can remember the feeling I had that day in study hall,hearing a wail spring up in class after class, coming down the hall,as the school secretary announced to each class in turn,that our President had been shot in Dallas! It's been nearly 45 years since school,and how I have missed being back there with all of you! i missed our 45th reunion i'm sorry to say. i've been working back and forth between broadway in nyc. and the west end, in london, between theaters and films. i'm now certified as a playwright, casting agent,director and producer. something i never dreamed would happen in my life. i have a business partner, an english actress, who was raised in the biz'. she isn't on the a-list like she was , while working under contract for disney in the 60's. i'll give all of you a hint! she played twins. now we're teamed up working together in the theater, directing for the most part , and producing.. we do casting on the side, and write as well. our list of employers have included:broadway across america, the shuberts, webber, mackintosh, panter, the nederlander org. and various theater companies. we're negotiating a screen play, and in talks with warner bros., fox, sir michael grade pinewood/shepparton studios, and the bbc.on future projects. we just finished part of our deal with webber, on love never dies, getting the london, melbourne, and toronto directors on the same page, for their individual productions. we can keep busy in this biz by not going out for our name in the lights, but rather keeping ourselves involved in productions, gaining credibility in the trade, without the problems public exposure can bring. our coming through for our employers under the radar is serving our interests very well. it has allowed us to work for several a-listers. discreetly, and enjoying the connection made in the us and britain.. when i was a child, i heard my grandmother and her sister had tried to make it on the "great white way" around the time of the first world war. they made their way into the ziegfield follies shows for a short time, when anna held was the principal headliner, and fanny brice provided the comedy spot.. they left for home as billie burke was coming in. how i wish they were alive today, to see how this grandson, with so many problems as a child, has continued what they started nearly a century ago.. it's hard to believe the changes from that era, when musical productions might go as high as 80 grand to produce,are now reaching nearly 60+ million for something like spiderman. i've spent most of my life doing other things to earn a living,but now i've found what i've longed for since i first heard my grandmothers recollection of her dreams and hers and her sisters adventure as youngsters, getting on a train in watertown headed to the city on little money, a lot of pluck and guts, they were completely green, just finishing school, their first time away from home in brwnville/glen park. arriving in new york, with determination, a dream, and more than a little luck.. it was like dorothy getting picked up in rural kansas, and being dropped in oz. ziegfield wound up being her wizard, until he crushed anna held, for billie burke, whom he cheated terribly, and fled to hawaii, leaving huge debts. grandma and her sister both came home from their oz in nyc. to settle down with husbands and build their families. saddened and much the wiser, her dream never left her. i guess i inherited someting pretty special from her, and it serves me well today .i wonder what she would say to me now, if she were still with us. or my partners parents, who were an actor and writer. here i am in my senior years, and believe i have found the home my heart has been searching for. i sometimes wonder if miss grant, our kindergarten teacher gave me a nudge in the right direction, when she picked me to be the lead goat in our class play of "billie goats gruff" that was my first bit of improv. next came mrs. fischer in 3rd.grade at knickerbocker, who encouraged me to learn dancing. she picked me and 7 others to do a few dance numbers on the stage at whs. i was happy as a clam dancing on that stage. my feet got to moving as soon as the music started, and i didn;t even think about the audience. the auditorium was filled up with parents and families from all over watn. mrs. purcell in 11th grade found i didn;t know how to work up a written speech assignment she gave us, and scribbled something badly on a sheet of paper to hand in at the last minute. she found i had a gift of improv, and let me use it. she stopped me near the end of that year, telling me i had something that belonged on the stage. she loved the theater, and had performed in numerous plays during her college years. she said i had an ability that belonged to those on stage. i was flattered but didn't take it seriously.. part of those feelings came back a few years ago, when i auditioned on a dare, to play a role in "inherit the wind" i aced it someone said, behind the table of people i auditioned for. i had the lead role. it qualified me for my equity card as a pro actor. my friends were stunned. so was i.. that was the beginning for me earning a living, on the stage. i felt at ease with the character as i did doing a carnival barker routine, describing the attractions and acts at the jeff.county fair, in front of purcell's class. i remember the surprised look on their faces when i finished. mrs purcell looked pleased. and told me after class i just lit up altogether. she asked me how i did it. since i didn't have any time to prepare. i told her i remembered the show barker and some of the things he said, the way he did his act, and just thought about what i saw at the fair. she said it was marvelous. and told me i had something special going on. i told her it just came out like a blur. she told me she learned in drama at college, that's what it takes to be a good actor. she told me to study drama and theater arts. she said she would personally give me a reference. i started to say something, and she put her hand over my mouth telling me i had a rare ability that comes to so few at an early age.she was most encouraging. she told me another time, when our class was reading from different segments of some historical dialogs, that i read like an actor as well. i didn't understand that comment until i got into theater, and did readings on callbacks for casting directors. i found doing script, role,...Expand for more