Staffer by Day, Actor at Night

• By Jeremy B. White
• Roll Call Staff
• March 18, 2010, Midnight

When the curtain came up for a recent rehearsal of the Washington National Opera’s upcoming rendition of “Porgy and Bess,” Richard Pecantte was ready. As the soaring cadences of the iconic song “Summertime” reverberated off the walls of the Kennedy Center auditorium, Pecantte leaned in close to a craps game, then stalked off after his character lost. As the rehearsal progressed, Pecantte continued to play various roles that required him, among other things, to help carry a body offstage and change costumes twice. Convincing as he was, Pecantte is not a professional actor. During the day, he walks the corridors of Capitol Hill, monitoring financial services as a legislative assistant for Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.). By night he is a supernumerary — a nonsinging extra — for the Washington National Opera, an accidentally discovered experiment that has become a regular pastime.