Imagine working at Desilu Productions, the company founded by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. A company that was credited with inventing the modern day sit-com and at one time produced a large portion of the most successful television programs on the air. A company that at its height had more TV sound stages than did MGM or Twentieth Century Fox. For John Bell who grew up at a farm in Iowa this was not something he had to imagine, this was his life. After getting involved with acting in collage and auditioning for Laugh-In he was hooked and came out to Hollywood as so many still do to this day.

And even though his goal to be a full time working actor did not pan out, he had the privilege to make his living in the business, running the post productions facilities at the old Desilu studios, and then moving over to MGM where he ran the projection facilities all the while maintaining his love for acting and not skipping a beat to this day as he now sits on the board of the Rosarito Theater Guild in Baja. This is where we caught up to him to speak with him about his latest roll, that of the director of the guilds last play, The Cemetery Club, Written by Ivan Menchell.

The Cemetery Club is a comedy/drama that revolves around three friends who meet monthly over tea before they trundle off to the cemetery to visit their dead husbands. And while at first thought this doesn't seem to jump out at you to be the subject matter for entertainment, entertainment it certainly was thanks to a great cast and a wonderful job of direction from Mr. Bell.

Ask him how he came to choose this particular play and a big smile comes immediately to his face. "I went to Samuel French in Hollywood and spent about two hours looking and going through everything", says John, "and finally I just went up to the girl and said do you have plays for old people. She mention this play and I just skimmed threw the first couple pages of it and said this is it".

Not only was John pleasantly surprised by the material, we were just as pleasantly surprised with its outcome. In an area that offers so much of its own rich culture sometimes it is hard to find a little something from back home and a night at the Rosarito Theater sure hits the spot. When we sat down to speak with John about it, one of the first questions that came to mind was how this presentation ended up with such high production value. Finding out a little about John's background explained a lot.

Getting involved in theater in collage, John then traveled the mid-west in a successful production. After leaving that he came out to Hollywood and began studying with some of the top teachers in the area and auditioning for roles in TV and movies as he began working at the studio's behind the scenes.

This true Hollywood background along with the plays talented cast made our night thoroughly enjoyable and makes us look forward to there next production.