Living the Dream

“Meetin’s on the Porch” at Beverly Hills’ Canon Theater follows the stories of three women whose lives span the 20th Century. It’s about ordinary lives and extraordinary events, and Carrie Snodgress, who’s Amy in the play, knows a great deal about both.

In 1964, Snodgress was working her way through college in the basement of a chemical company in Chicago, filling out shipping cards. She planned to be a teacher because, she says, “acting wasn’t a profession. Acting was a dream.”

Then, everything changed.

Director Alan Pakula saw Snodgress in a play and invited her to Los Angeles. Within a year, she starred in “Diary of a Mad Housewife.”

The film brought Snodgress two Golden Globes, an Oscar nomination and a phone message from rocker Neil Young. He’d seen Snodgress and wanted to meet her.

“I wasn’t a rock ‘n’ roll girl,” Snodgress remembers. “I said, ‘Neil Young, Neil Young. Where do I know that name from?’ ”

Snodgress and Young fell “madly and immediately” in love. Snodgress put Hollywood on hold and dedicated the next seven years to Young and their son, Zeke.

Getting Hollywood to rediscover Snodgress has been tough. When the relationship with Young ended, Snodgress and her son returned to town. “I couldn’t get into an office,” says Snodgress.

There were rumors about drugs and alcohol, she says, but, even more damning, Snodgress had left her career at its height.

“The industry wants you to be married to the industry. If you turn your back, if you go away once, then you’re subject to doing that again any time in your career.”

Snodgress has worked a lot in TV and in plays. She’s done a number of low-budget films, including the upcoming “Across The Tracks” with Rich Schroder.

“I want to show the world, and this industry, the talent that’s inside this girl. This girl?

“Isn’t it funny that I called myself a girl ? I’m still growing up, you know.”