In 1963, 13-year-old John Rothman watched and listened intently as his father and several other prominent Baltimoreans sat around the family dining room table planning a crucial element in the city's cultural life.
"They were talking about how Ford's Theatre was being torn down and how there would be no professional theater here," Rothman says. "So they were going to found one."
The result was Center Stage.
Donald Rothman, a prominent lawyer who died in June at age 86, guided the creation of the company and its move in the early 1970s to its present location on North Calvert Street.
"I remember seeing the plans for the new theater, and seeing that housing for actors was included, which is something you don't often find," John Rothman says. "I'm staying there now."
The New York-based Rothman, who has enjoyed a steady career on stage and, particularly, on screen for more than 30 years, is in the cast for the season-opening Center Stage production of Oscar Wilde's "trivial comedy for serious people" - "The Importance of Being Earnest."
Rothman's performance as the Rev. Canon Chasuble marks his first appearance there since his professional debut in 1972 at the theater his father helped to launch.
The 2009-2010 season at Center Stage is being dedicated to the memory of Donald Rothman. (He had his own background in acting and was offered admission to the Yale School of Drama and Harvard Law School; he chose the latter.)
"There were always actors at our home because of my father," John Rothman says. "Talk about being bitten by the bug."
Rothman, 60, started acting in his high school years. He won a part in "The Boyfriend" at St. Timothy's School, a private all-girls academy in Stevenson, after the drama coach changed the policy to allow boys onstage.
"And when I was still a kid, I was in the Baltimore Actors Theatre," says Rothman. "But I asked myself, could I possibly do this as a life? My father never told me not to do it. He always believed that you should feel a passion for what you do and love getting up every day to do it."
Although Rothman focused on other things when he entered Wesleyan University, he found himself drawn back to theater. After graduating, he got a fellowship at Center Stage.
"I won't say my connections hurt, but I still had to audition," he says. "I earned $70 a week and lived on St. Mary's Street. It was great. You did everything when you had a fellowship. You hung lights, you carried spears."
