In the 60s, theater people knew that the best acting in New York could be found at the Actors Studio, or at Stella Adler’s, or at the Living Theatre. In truth, the most intense performances were at the Armed Forces Examination and Entrance Station on Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan, where thousands of draft-age men were summoned to appear for physical and psychological exams prior to being inducted into the U.S. Army.
You had to go. You had to show up. Not going into the army depended on your performance, and, unlike a role on Broadway or a table at Joe Allen, a bad performance could mean combat in Vietnam, a matter of life or death.
