Within days of the closing of the current Seattle Shakespeare Festival Macbeth, Marsters heads for Los Angeles, where he hopes to "make a living at this thing (acting)." Marsters and his wife, Liane Davidson, recently added a son to their family. Suddenly making a living looms large.

Liane is a director. James acts, directs and designs lighting. The two of them established and ran the New Mercury, a small theater near the Kingdome, for a few years. As an actor, James proved to be especially good with addled, off-balance characters, as audiences at the Empty Space ("Scotland Road"), A Contemporary Theatre ("Voices in the Dark") and Tacoma Actors Guild ("A Doll House") can attest.

"James will be in L.A. a month before we arrive," says Liane. "I'm busy directing a Living Voices touring production, 'The Right to Dream,'" a civil rights piece.

"We're both from San Francisco. We've tried New York and Chicago and Seattle. We have a friend in L.A. who is a casting director. He's getting us agents. We're hoping to get work in television." Macbeth laments that life is like "a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more." But stay tuned. James and Liane's hour is not over yet.