Mike began his career in theatre as an actor and worked steadily for nearly ten years in stock, dinner theatre, regional repertory, on tour, and Off and Off-Off Broadway before becoming a playwright.

He studied at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City with Carol Rosenfeld, Sandy Dennis, Lloyd Williamson, and Peter Maloney, among others.

He was in the original cast of Neil Cuthbert’s The Soft Touch, winner of the American College Theatre Festival New Play Award.  Later, he appeared in a production at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Mike was a member of the repertory acting company of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon for more than two years, where he performed in many classical and contemporary plays.