"No, no more."

This bit is from a site dedicated to Robert:

"Mr. Hirschboeck was raised in Wisconsin and California and holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and Southern Oregon State College. Among his list of credits are seasons with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theater, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and the San Jose Repertory companies. Hirschboeck is also a founding partner and Artistic Director for the Stage Door Theatre in Boulder, Colorado and lives with costume designer, Deb Dryden, and Sophie the dog in Ashland, Oregon. "

Here is what he has to say about the role:
"Henry Stauf is deliciously evil. He can give you everything and he knows what's in your soul.
He's your best and worst nightmare. And he'll get you everytime."
Robert has this to say about acting in front of a blue screen:
"You have to find a balance between what is real and something that is abstract."

Here is something really special, an article written Robert himself about Stauf, and who can explain Stauf better than his alter-ego? Here it is:

COMPUTER GAMING AND THE FAUSTIAN BARGAIN
"...What Can My House Give You?"
By Rob Hirschboeck - AKA - HENRY STAUF

My dear Player, do come in; Henry Stauf here at your service. Delighted
you've "Come Back." I too have been waiting... There is something you
deeply desire; some gossamer dream that brings you to my lonely abode? You
needn't be shy. How can My House SERVE YOU, and what shall YOU GIVE IN
RETURN?

*
It is early January 1992. The local talent broker calls about "A screen
test for the GUESTS project"? Is this THE BIG TIME calling? Decidedly Not!
This is Medford Oregon; population 50,000 - about 800 miles and a quantum
reality from THE BIG TIME. We are talking a "cattle call" for extras, maybe
a random line in some made for T.V. movie needing river footage in Oregon's
outback. "GUESTS" ? Maybe it's a travelogue for tourists. Most likely,
drippy hours waiting in the morning wet for some inflated director's
assistant to shout, "Environment!" (The que for extras to supply background
for the THE REAL TALENT shipped up from THE BIG TIME with credits on some
afternoon soap.)

I nearly don't go. I read a play I've been hired to direct for a local High
School. I get off on the kids innate creativity, and the underfunded
district values my Shakespeare and repertory background. The minimal pay,
more than for extra work, might replace my archaic APPLE II PLUS. It's
about time I got "computer literate"!

At the last minute curiosity gets me. At least I'll find out about the
local film shoot. It's the last 1/2 hour of casting call. I'm handed
"sides" to study, and come up with characters off the top of my head. The
lines are strange. If "GUESTS " is for tourists, it's the travelogue from
hell. I click off the method training and try my lines before a bathroom
mirror. What can I come up with that 50 other actors haven't done already?

"Mr. Hirschboeck. Please state your name for the camera and ahh... why
don't you try this demented toymaker guy,... HENRY STAUF."

**
In spring of 1992 Trilobyte is matchbox size. The company lives in one
oblong brick room with six computer stations above a tavern in Jacksonville,
Oregon. (Gold was once discovered in Jacksonville and avaricious seekers
tore up a Virgin landscape trying to extract it.) At Trilobyte, they are
seekers to be sure, but only tangentially avaricious. I meet the whole
company in five handshakes. Rob Landeros the artistic designer, and Graeme
Devine the crown (and clown) prince of programmers are as unlikely a pair of
corporate tycoons as Wayne & Garth. But they have made good! Scan in a
mental shot of John Lennon; morph on horn rimmed glasses, braces and a
varsity jacket with Donald Duck on it and you have Graeme Devine. Rob looks
a bit more conventional, but spent much of the 70's selling visionary art
pieces out of his VW Bus at craft fairs. He's got short hair now. Both are
magicians, and their 1992 release of 7TH GUEST will turn the gaming world on
it's ear.

I am an actor; an unknown life-form component in this world of graphic
wizardry and megabytes. They suspect I may be of some mysterious value to
the project, at least until they can digitize something better. Rob &
Graeme are nice guys, but they just might do that. Computer images take
light years to compress, but actors have egos and agents, and sometimes want
credit, creative input, or profit shares. "Can't we just make one?", I
imagine them thinking...

Graphics genius Robert Stein, tours me through the mansion he has created.
I am the soul of his antiquated Victorian; the haunt of the house, Henry
Stauf, the "Star". But I feel like a being lifted from multi-dimensional
reality into a flat world where someone has drawn a circle around me.
Flatworld is inescapable. (Try it. This is the interactive part: draw a
stick figure on paper, then scribe a ring around him. Presto. Trapped in
two dimensions!) Robert escorts me to a portrait of myself (Stauf) in one
of his elaborately rendered rooms. My face is divided by colors like a
Rubic's cube into nine puzzle pieces. To win this game the player must
solve my face. "This is going to make you famous", he says. Parts of my
face turn from flesh tone to red, and then to Green. ($$$) All I've
dreamed flashes before my eyes.

***
Weeks later I have entirely forgotten the audition. Deborah Mason calls.
She is video director/producer/and "Martine Burden" rolled into one. She
offers 2 1/2 days of shooting at a flat fee; about $750. No negotiating.
The location is the conference room above a Medford restaurant where I
auditioned. A space bigger than a breadbox, where a cast and crew about
sixteen snugly fit. Blue paper covers the back wall and floor. In one of
two video monitors a mutantly made up Rob Hirschboeck is enveloped in BLUE.
But in the instant scenario of the graphics monitor I can see HENRY STAUF
hovering in an arcane Library, or clubing a innocent in a forrested park;
stealing away like Snidley Whiplash. The actors are in 20's stock costumes
suitable for refugees from the board game CLUE. Ferreting out the story
line is a guessing game. "Is this about Mr. Plum in the Nursery with the
letter opener, or Mrs. Mustard in the library with the meat cleaver?" None
of us really know. Michael Picaro, the original "Dutton", tells me he has
died four times that day all in different rooms. I create a character half
Vincent Price, half Captain Hook and poor over my "script" searching for
playable continuity, until I am told to, "Just throw your tongue out like it
it's a lasso; we'll do the rest with graphics!" "Right!" I say, "Do you want
that with feeling?"

****
An actor's value is in life experience; where else can character come from
but out of this body. It is January 1995 at the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas, and I am having an experience! 7TH GUEST has sold over 1.7
million units internationally, and THE 11TH HOUR is finally near release. I
am "THE STAR" of the best selling CD-ROM in the industry's brief history,
and signing more photographs than Basketballer Larry Bird. There is one
ironic twist, however;
part of a BARGAIN Henry Stauf would love:

"And what can I do for you Mr. Hirschboeck?
What is your heart's most secret desire?
You may walkout of MY HOUSE
With your every wish granted..."

"There is just this one little PUZZLE to solve...

NOBODY KNOWS WHOOOO YOOOOU ARE!"

(Henry's insane laughter retreats up the musty stairwell....)

*****
Even after release, 7th Guest remains a mystery to me. Friends on the
street tell of playing my face for upwards of 60 hours. As a substitute
teacher I begin to have celebrity status; the taunt, "Come baaaaccck!"
echo's after me in student filled corridors. My teenage nephew redeems me
from amoeboid to cult status.
My uncredited picture in garish negative is seen world wide on the box.
Still, in Spring of '93 when I am called to ...audition... for the sequel,
I've not played the game.
70 years into the future, what was CLUE in Gothic horror becomes David Lynch
meets Melrose Place. In the story's full 60 minute drama Stauf must
believably evolve from ghoulish slapstick to insidious evil, from comedic
spook to Hannable Lector.

There is something delightful about portraying EVIL. Those unsightly
personas closeted in the universal subconscious; (that self could manifest
either saint or serial killer), are allowed to dress up and cavort in public
with no harm done.
Henry Stauf needn't ever enter real life, but guised even as cartoon
character, or game-show host of "Let's Make A Real Deal", he is my best and
worst nightmare come to the party. His pleasure, like "honest" Iago's in
Shakespeare's Othello, is in the player's or other character's participation
in their own demise. As an actor I create from a palette of personas;
Henry has the honesty of Iago, the sensuality of de Sade, the arrogance of
William F. Buckley, the "relish" of Hannible "The Cannibal".
But an actor's task is not so much in finding "who", as in knowing
intention; "what" the character wants. As Henry, I want you to indulge
your self in the weakness that will destroy you. If some malignant thing,
lust or greed has taken sprout at your core the House wants to feed on
it.... Henry simply likes to "toy" with the food.
It is a curiosity of acting that roles one plays, like drawing a card from
the Tarot, seem always to represent the personal issue needing reflection.
Multimedia persona STAUF not only asks what the player wants, he forces me
to consider what it is that I want!

Some of the old Guests are back in cameo appearances. (Larry Rhomer's
exploding head scene as "Edward Knox" should get some kind of "Best Byte"
award for nice work) The predominantly new cast includes Doug O'Keefe and
Suzy Joachim (Carl & Robin) from Canada, Michelle Gaudreau (Marie) from
Portland, but most are drawn from the local talent pool. Marco Baricelli
(the Sheriff) is playing Richard III at OSF, Francis King (Samantha), Mark
Padget (Chuck), Holy Weber (Eileen of the severed hand), Brad Whitmore (the
motel clerk), and others perform regularly throughout the region. (For
those engaged in the media wide "Star Power" debate, you'll look hard to
find a more solid performance than Francis King's "Samantha Ford" any where
on CD-ROM. For all its technical wizardry, the game environment is not
graphics alone, and the industry should begin to give some credit to it's
flagship performances. Star Power will undoubtedly come but it's still
gonna be awhile before Myrle and Jack sign on. Meanwhile, recognition of
excellent performances is both deserved, and also a smart investment.)

David Wheeler directs us through a horrendous 10 day shoot on location all
over the Rogue Valley. We do some drippy hours in the morning wet. But the
food is good. Prop barbecued ribs meant to indicate Stauf's House has just
devoured someone are served at dinner break. This evident sense of humor
sustains 18 hour days. The crew is kept from napping on set by Michelle's
perpetual costuming; mostly heels and garter belts. It's a happy if tired
group, and we feel like family (somewhat deranged) by shoots end. At home I
am glad to shower off Henry Stauf. Henry makes your skin crawl after
awhile. It's in the contract. I address Rob & Graeme directly about an
actors' share of profits given the revenue we know Guest generated. They
are receptive, and come up with a residual plan on 11th Hour based on a
fraction of proceeds. It's modest but,
"A Real Deal" they were not required to do. It's good to work for artists!

******
Fall 1995. We are a long way from the day Trilobyte could be housed above
a tavern, or when for SAG minimums, a spirited collection of "no names"
playfully created the original GUESTS before a single fixed camera and a
"blue screen" of frequently torn construction paper. Trilobyte has outgrown
two buildings expanding its creative staff from six to sixtyplus. The
"green screen" work allowing actors to realistically inhabit a graphic
environment, is now done on cavernous sound stages with full staff, multiple
cameras, and professional crew.

(SIDEBAR:)
An aside about the "difficulties" of acting in the mysterious green or blue
screen setting. - It's no different than working in an empty rehearsal hall
with walls and furniture taped out so you don"t walk through them. The
actors must still create an illusion of reality out of imagination, and
relationship. It's what we do! The hardest aspect for multimedia actors
is frequently not knowing the context of their performances. You don't know
how or where it fits into the game, or sometimes even what the game is.
Most multimedia actors I know do not own CD platforms. You "GUEST" it...!
While trying to hold fast to the latest in rocket machines propelling me
towards multimedia heaven, I typed this article on my old APPLE II PLUS.

(Continued) NOW THIS IS THE BIG TIME. Much to Rob & Graeme's credit (and
style) Trilobyte has retained much of the feel of a Mom & Pop store, a sort
of Cyber-Rom Ben & Jerry's. Colorful characters; artists, long haired
programming wizards, production people in Levied splendor, writers, even
actors, (still an enigma), mix casually with sharkskin marketing types in
the user friendly if frequently hectic three story office matrix. There is
an aura of family loyalty and the buzz of creativity, artistic ideas
bantered about in hallways, project possibilities, and technologic
breakthroughs on the verge. Creative and cozy, yes! Still, make no
mistake, THIS IS THE BIG TIME NOW, a corporate endeavor with millions at
stake and all the implications and pressures of budgets and bottom lines.
There are unions organizing it, royalties to standardize, actor's agents,
lawyers, contracts, and competitors to keep at bay with a product that will
SELL. Investors and Consumers are the Rulers of Supply and Demand and even
a million seller does not a company secure.

The true toymaker, Graeme Devine, keeps his office door closed now, or
wanders the carpeted corridors in his duck jacket puzzling , "...where did
all these people came from..." They are the GUESTS, Graeme. And they are
all just part of the BARGAIN...

*******

And now dear Player, what was it again that you wanted in exchange for your
life's experience? Amusement? Entertainment? - Ahhh... "Too WIN"? Oh,
you'll beat me again...EVENTUALLY, and than after a time I'll be back.
Simple consumer demographics! Right now, however, The HOUSE is having all
the fun! - The creativity, the challenge, the risk, the Money! And you've
invested months here with me in Flatworld! Your mind's been engaged, and
you've been impressed with the graphics...

"Come on, Player, the clock is ticking!" This is the "REAL DEAL!"
Corporate pressures are being brought upon THE HOUSE to make the player the
Consumed. To THE MONEY it's just another medium; a spectator sport, about
as inter-active as voting. Puzzle over it. These techno wizards are
heartful people who crave an artful challenge beyond the bottom line.
Perhaps they could grant you some greater part in the creativity; perhaps
permit you to aquire tools in your game choices, with which to synthesize
A PLAYER GENERATED PRODUCT before you could leave MY HOUSE - A WINNER!

Inter-Active should have an INNER ACTOR! But you must ask for it! If Supply
& Demand now rule, Y0U must strike the "REAL DEAL" a better BARGAIN with
the toymaker before signing your blood to the bottom line...It's your
INVESTMENT. After all, I only want to trade trinkets of the intellect
against the living sensuality of your Soul. ...And THE HOUSE?

"IT JUST WANTS TO BE FED!"

Think it over. "Maybe solitaire IS a better game for you!"
In any case, I'll await your return in delicious anticipation.

Henry Stauf

*F*A*U*S*T*

Copy/Right.August 19,1995.Rob Hirschboeck.All Rights Reserved.
If you want to take a peek outside, go here . It's also the place where you can discuss the meaning of life with other lost souls like me. In other words, The Staufmansion-line messageboard is right next door.