ABSTRACT
AFS: Do you have a distinct recollection of the first time you saw professional actors doing a play?
TILLINGER: I was born in Iran and there was little theater except street theater. I used to watch that, but I used to find it difficult to follow; it’s mostly improvisational, making up the plot as they went along. My first memory of anything theatrical was (actually nobody’s ever asked me this question before) the Allied troops putting on a show. By then I had already put on my own plays in my garden for my parents and friends. I got my friends together, and put on a sketch based on cartoon characters. When I got to England, the first play I saw was 1066 and All That, a historical spoof. As I was six or seven at the time, I’m not sure that I understood all of it, but I laughed along with everyone else. But by then I’d long been in love with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. I was high on the entertainment thing.
