It's late August 2021, and I've been on a unique "treasure hunt" for nearly three years now. You may wonder: "...what's the nature of the large-scale writing project Backstage Left, and why has it consumed Randall for months and years?" Well, that's part of the mystery that's unfolding, and it's also time to begin telling you, dear reader, what is shaping-up in regards to the project itself.

Inspired in part by a group of colleagues all sitting around a table at the reception portion of my dear friend Peter Donat's memorial service at the Geary Theatre in San Francisco, an idea has taken seed and I have had the great fortune of now interviewing nearly 60 of the true 'national treasures' that made up the company of A.C.T. during a particular "Golden Era". I am focusing particularly on the ninth and tenth theatrical seasons in the years 1974-76 at the American Conservatory Theatre. I was a witness to this time, having been a young actor in training at the tremendous institution from 1974-79...and it was at that table on New Years Eve of 2018 toasting our grand friend Peter - there in that sacred space where so many of us developed our deepest love for the theater - that the concept took hold. The challenge? = to find the tribe again, and to ask them to confirm (or deny) if we all had been part of a miraculum, playing our parts in an ‘object of wonder’.