Poitier remembered an early part he had in a production of "Lysistrata" in which he had 12 lines. The time came for him to go out onstage during the first act and perform his only scene, and Poitier says he suddenly forgot every single line. "The other actor throws me his line and instead of answering him with my first line, I give him my ninth line," he said. "I can see his eyes rolling in his head.... he shoots me the prompt for my second line and I give him line number eight. Now I'm really flustered.... the reviews came out... and every one of them said, 'Who was that kid who came out there in the first act? He was funny, he was so terrific, he was just delightful!' So somebody was smiling on me up there."
