VACATION: A DIFFERENT KIND OF STAGE FRIGHT

For most of us, vacations offer an escape from the strain of our workaday lives. But the mere thought of a vacation can turn an actor into a nervous wreck. Actors--especially those in the middle of a long, taxing run--agree that a vacation would be welcome. They’re convinced, however, that by taking off a week or two they’d be putting their careers in jeopardy.

For instance, Tabi Cooper, playing a severely retarded woman in the Eagle Theater’s “Andrea’s Got Two Boyfriends,” each night must bend her normally straight spine into an S-curve. The trouble is--she’s starting to get used to it. She’s desperate for a vacation.

But she’s not taking one. She doesn’t want to hand over her role to an understudy. She doesn’t want to let her fellow actors down. She doesn’t want to break the connection. “It’s scary,” she said. “If you go, you might not want to come back.”

Other actors, too, aren’t budging from long-running productions. In some cases they’re buoyed by sheer enthusiasm for what they’re doing. Salome Jens, now in “. . . about Anne” at Stages, finds acting the best kind of R&R;: “Doing wonderful things and sharing with other artists-- that’s a vacation!”

But most performers who stick around do so out of fear of missing something. Cooper’s cast-mate Tom Fisher notes that “you struggle real hard in this business to get the work. There are 50 actors who want your part.” His conclusion: “I ain’t leavin’ ‘til somebody throws me out.”

Peter De Luca of the Burbage Theater’s “Bleacher Bums” agrees. Skipping a single performance has always been out of the question for him--what if some major talent scout drops by? But recently De Luca bought a tent and decided to turn his back on “a lot of the anxiety that actors go through.” When is he leaving? Well, not just yet. . . .

Other actors head off for the woods and don’t look back. Those lucky enough to be cast in blockbuster Equity shows are helped by the fact that they’re automatically granted a one-week paid vacation after six months’ work. They need it, they’ve earned it and they’re glad to take it.

For the dancing actors in “Cats” at the Shubert, this guaranteed vacation is a time to relax weary muscles and allow old injuries to heal. Dance captain Greg Minahan said that after a week spent on some exotic shore, the dancers “come back rested, positive. You almost wish they could have more vacation than they do.”

But no matter where they go, actors on vacation are actors still. When Richie Revelli of “Tamara” went home to New York last month, he dedicated two nights to jet lag, two nights to Mom and the remaining four to Broadway. In a Central Park rowboat, he found himself spouting his “Tamara” gondolier speech.

Chris Pass of “Andrea’s Got Two Boyfriends,” bowing to the need “to maintain some sort of personal life,” has made plans to take his lady down to Puerto Vallarta. He hopes he can enjoy it. The worry is that he won’t be able to detach himself, however briefly, from the retarded man he plays.

In any case, Pass won’t be having much fun in the sun because the role calls for him to have a pale, indoor look.

Given the problems of breaking away--physically and psychologically--from a hit show, it might seem easier to wait until you’re between roles to take a few days off. But not so.

An actor needs to stay available. Take the case of Dakin Matthews, who’s just finished the Taper Rep season at the Doolittle. The father of four young children, Matthews is “starting to feel a little guilty” about not spending more leisure time with them.

But if he went off vacationing even for a week or two, his agent would no doubt be horrified. The fact is, as a family man “I certainly don’t have the flexibility to be unemployed very long. Every vacation is a possible loss of income.”

The problem is the same in London. David Delve, now at the Ahmanson in “Nicholas Nickleby,” is reluctant to travel when out of work. “If I leave town for the next two weeks, will that big interview come up for that part I’ve been waiting for all my life?” With this built-in ambivalence about leaving home, it’s no wonder his dream trip to Italy has been put on hold three times.

Alma Martinez of the Taper’s “Green Card” is one performer who’s always ready to hop on a plane as soon as her current show folds. Sometimes this can backfire. Vacationing in Cancun, she phoned her agent and learned she was up for a major role. The next morning she was LAX-bound. Did she get the part? Don’t ask.

Joan Ryan of the Tiffany’s “Nite Club Confidential” even postponed her honeymoon, on two days’ notice, so that she could die on “General Hospital.” Since then, “every time we decide either to start a vacation or have a baby, I get a job.”

At least Ryan’s working. Next year at this time she may be on the unemployment line. That’s the kind of long vacation no actor wants.

DR, NANCY OHANIAN