By Kristin Mayer
Special to the Daily Press

Marines stood at attention and saluted Christopher Allport when they saw him enter the officers’ club at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Curious about the unfamiliar face with the look of an officer, the soldiers asked Allport which company he was from.

Allport, a 30-year Santa Monica resident, was acting the part of Capt. Curtis on the set of “The Invaders from Mars.”

“I needed to go out and see if I could convince these guys I was the real deal,” Allport said. “I told them I was part of SAG, so they relaxed.”

Allport, 59, is often cast for his “good soldier” look, recently playing Secretary of State Francis in three episodes of the ABC drama “Commander in Chief” opposite Geena Davis.

All told, Allport has made more than 100 guest starring appearances on shows including “ER,” “The X-Files” and “Felicity.” His movie portfolio includes “Shark,” “To Live and Die in L.A.” and the “Jack Frost” movies.

FINDING HIS STORY

While Allport has assumed numerous military roles on the stage and television screen, his decision to evade the Vietnam War draft via hitchhiking left him without any actual combat experience.

Allport recounts his open road draft evasion in “Backroad Home,” a one-man show that opened at Santa Monica’s Ruskin Group Theatre on Sunday night.

The play and accompanying music, written and performed by Allport, will run every fourth Sunday of the month indefinitely, except for February 25, when he expects his audience will watch the Academy Awards.

“Each of us has a story,” said Susan Hayden, Allport’s wife and co-producer of “Backroad Home.” “It took a long time to figure out what that story was.”

Allport’s story surfaced in the 10 years since the death of his father, who earned a Purple Heart in World War II, where he was one of the last prisoners of war captured in Germany.

Allport’s father divorced his mother and disappeared from Allport’s life at a young age.

“He wasn’t really a presence,” Allport said. “He was a question. Where was Dad? Why did he leave?”

It has taken Allport several years to understand that what his father saw in the war deeply affected his detachment from the family.

“I began to think about how his youth had been affected by the war and then how my youth had been affected by our own war — Vietnam,” Allport said.

The result is a deeply emotional story that will evolve from one month’s performance to the next as Allport delves deeper into his experiences, his wife said.

“This is the most personal piece he’s ever created,” Hayden said. “There’s something exhilarating about that.”

Allport echoed that sentiment.

“It’s a huge step for me,” Allport said. “It’s real. It’s personal. It’s not bullshit at all.”

ACTING OUT OF EXPERIENCE

Born in Boston and raised with three younger sisters in a broken family, Allport had moved a dozen times around the East Coast before graduating from high school.

Allport latched on to acting in the midst of all the change and lack of attention.

At 9, Allport joined the children’s theatre in New Canaan, Conn., dreaming of becoming a musical star.

“The theater provides a community that was sort of your family,” Hayden said. “All of a sudden, you have these friends because it’s so personal. It bonds you.”

Allport dropped out of Northwestern University during the summer between his sophomore and junior years and moved to New York to study acting with Lee Strasbourg.

“That’s when the draft board came after me,” Allport said.

Allport avoided the draft by returning to Northwestern. But the advent of the lottery and Allport’s graduation led the FBI to jump on his trail once again.

Allport decided to live on the road for a while, hitchhiking across the country six times during his early 20s, effectively dodging the draft by refusing to keep still.

“I wanted to be on the road, and I wanted to be an actor,” Allport said. “I just didn’t know how or what shape it would take.”

During this time, Allport said he matured and gathered experiences that molded his identity as an actor.

“The irony is that he was evading the war, but he ended up going on the road and coming of age on the road and finding out who he was through his own set of terrifying experiences,” Hayden said.

THE ADVENTURE OF ACTING

Hayden, a playwright who met Allport 17 years ago, said she and her husband spent a number of years developing Allport’s experiences with his father, hitchhiking and the draft into a play.

“Our relationship works best when we’re working together creatively,” Hayden said. “What I love about this project is we’re taking three of his best skills — acting, writing and musicianship — and creating this show.”

In his free time, Allport rock climbs at Joshua Tree, surfs and kayaks. He brings this sense of adventure back to the stage.

The play draws upon Allport’s ability to create experiences for the audience that bring them into an exciting journey of acting.

“You can touch people, and you have these wonderful moments when the things you work on come alive,” Allport said. “As an actor, my responsibility is to keep that spark alive.”

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