New City-born Actor Currently Starring In Play In New Jersey

It was at around age six or seven when Michael Satow knew he wanted to act, and that’s because at around age six or seven it was when he saw Chaplin and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

Besides the obvious similarities between Chaplin (the Charlie Chaplin biopic starring Robert Downey Jr.) and T:2 (Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, this time as a good guy and awesomeness ensues) like, say, they’re both movies, there was something about them that Satow clung to.

“I saw these people on screen doing these huge things,” he said. “These glamorous things were happening, these larger than life activities and I wanted to take part in them. I didn’t want to be an astronaut, I wanted to be in a movie and be an astronaut.”

Satow, who grew up in New City, asked his parents if he could be in movies and while they didn’t know how to help him get in movies, they were supportive.

“I asked my dad if I could be in Terminator 3, and he said ‘ok,’” Satow said.

He didn’t make it into the series’ third film, or fourth, but that hasn’t stopped Satow, now 26 and living in Manhattan, from acting. He participated in musicals in high school at Clarkstown North, studied acting in college at Northeastern in Boston and has continued since graduating, in plays, web series and a number of independent films. He also is a musician, playing guitar and singing.

He is currently in the play “Hannah” at the Zella Fry Theatre at Keane University in Union, NJ. The play, based on actual events, is about a young poet, Hannah Senesh, who parachuted behind enemy lines in World War II to help rescue Jewish people from Nazi-run Hungary. Satow plays Yoel, a soldier who also goes behind enemy lines.

The play came together rather quickly for Satow, who said they had just a few weeks of rehearsal before getting up in front of audiences.

“It was kind of surreal to put it up on its feet so quickly,” he said. “After we got people into the audience it started to really settle into what it was going to be.”

The cast and crew lost some time due to Hurricane Irene, as well, although the cast met an apartment in midtown to work on it and “make sure we kept the play in our heads,” Satow said.

But working on the fly isn’t completely unusual to Satow. Back when he was at North, he and some friends actually started their own theater group after one of his friends, Greg Derasmo, wrote a play they were looking to produce. They asked the principal what faculty member might help them and were told to speak with Timothy Reid, an English teacher with a background and interest in theater.

“I was looking for a way to start doing theater at North and these students found me to get it started,” said Reid, still teaching at North. “I teach five periods of theater each day now. The work they started continues today.”

The group they started was called - On The Fringe, and they produced another of Derasmo’s plays, and did some sketch comedy. The comedy show, “Good Humor,” is in its ninth or 10th year, Reid said, adding he still remembers working with Satow.

“He had no attitude and was great to work with,” Reid said. “He took direction really well and was a very thoughtful actor. He was serious about the acting work but approached it with a sense of fun. I'm looking forward to seeing him onstage again. I saw him in a show using Mark Twain stories in New York a few years ago and he had the same energy and charisma in that production that I remember from his performances here.”

Reid also recalled a monologue Satow gave in his Theater Arts class as a character named Pale from a play called “Burn This.”

“He absolutely nailed this stream of consciousness meandering speech with such energy and commitment,” Reid said.

“Hannah” runs until Sunday Sept. 18, with shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets can be purchased on the Keane website.