Up to then I hadn't tried to pick up on my experience with the circus and in films. It was show business that came to me. It started with a role in Sartre's play The Respectful Prostitute. Heinrich Bitsch, playwright and later the city officer for cultural affairs in Giessen, was managing the theater studio in the Amerika-Haus and producing contemporary works by French and American authors. One day, in the army canteen in Giessen, he asked me whether I would take on the role of the “Negro” in that play. There was no money in it, though, since he had practically no funding. When I told him that my small roles in films and the circus had given me some performing experience he was astounded. I accepted the offer; it would at least be a change from the boring routine of translation. The rehearsals took place in the evening and so didn't clash with my daytime work.

The production was a great success and got good reviews. Years later I acted in Konrad Wagner's production of the television version of the same play, together with Mady Rahl, Harry Mayen and Ernst Schröder. The broadcast, by the Hessian broadcasting agency Hessischer Rundfunk, won a television prize in 1957.