Chris Bauer

Currently: making his Broadway debut as Harold "Mitch" Mitchell, the hapless, would-be suitor of Natasha Richardson's Blanche DuBois in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire at Studio 54.

Hometown: L.A. "It's a pretty rare hometown actually. A lot of people live there but not that many people are from there."

Risky Business: Bauer had acting aspirations early on, despite "not coming from the showbiz world or a showbiz family," as he puts it. His first theater experience was a school trip to the Mark Taper Forum, though he's hazy on the details. "There have been so many twists and turns since then and so many milestones of inspiration," he says. He was certain of his calling by the time he got to college, so he dropped out of the University of San Diego "which barely had a football team" and moved to L.A.

Quick Change: L.A. was hardly a ride into the sunset. "I lived in the most depressing, one room, prison-like apartment you could ever imagine," Bauer recalls. He started taking acting classes and reading anything he could get his hands on that had to do with plays and theater. "I force fed myself this new diet of ideas and information," he recalls. Bauer's autodidactic tactics and self-determination paid off. He was spotted by a scout for the Yale School of Drama during an audition. His response? "I said 'Well, I'd love to, but I'm a college dropout.' Having never been east of Colorado, I thought if you dropped out of college, they wouldn't even let you look at the New Haven green." He was wrong though he couldn't earn a M.F.A. until he completed his undergraduate degree. Suddenly, he was 22 and enrolled in one of the most prestigious acting programs in the country. "It's like a mythological story," Bauer muses. "That's how I relate to the whole thing to this day."

Getting It Right: After Yale, Bauer moved to New York, but he had some trouble. "I suddenly realized that I was relating to my work and relating to the idea of making art in an entirely unproductive, ineffective way. I was overly competitive, judgmental, hyper aware of myself and wasn't doing the kind of work that I wanted to be inspired to do," Bauer explains. "I dropped everything and moved to Chicago to start over." The move to Chicago proved fruitful. He began working with the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre Company and met his wife Laura, a costume designer who is currently being represented on Broadway by Glengarry Glen Ross. Bauer returned to New York for a gig at the Atlantic Theater Company, which he now considers his artistic home.

Mulling Over Mitch: Bauer, who has enjoyed much success with a five-season run on TV's Third Watch, has mulled the prospect of playing Mitch in Streetcar many times. "Directors, big directors in town would say, 'You've got to play Mitch,'" Bauer says. "And the more people said that, the more freaked out and afraid I got that I wouldn't get to do it."

Humble Pie: After many missed opportunities to play Mitch over the years, Bauer finally got a chance to make his Broadway debut in the Roundabout mounting of Streetcar. "Believe me, I take it as almost a sign," he exclaims. "There's a real aesthetic logic to me that this is my first play on Broadway. I'm so humbled by this play. I'm humbled by its inspiration and it's authorial craft, and yet I feel almost arrogantly proud that this is the material that I get to be in for my first Broadway show. It involves all the dynamics that I embrace in my own work. It's intense."

Awe: Bauer is amazed by co-stars Natasha Richardson, John C. Reilly and Amy Ryan. "You can't believe their work ethic," he says. "It's amazing." He is also finding himself in a new place by performing in Williams' masterpiece each night. "Doing this has really reset my dials," he says. "I just don't have a clear sense about anything right now. It's really exciting."

Sequined Specter: With the possible ghosts of Williams and original star Marlon Brando hanging over Streetcar, does Bauer feel any of former disco hotspot Studio 54's phantoms? " A little bit, you know. I have the safe in my dressing room. You know, the Studio 54 safe that they can't get out of the building because it's too big. It's like this totem of decadence just sitting there," he says. "Every now and then you come around the corner and you feel like you could see one of Mick Jagger's high heels disappearing into the room."