Artist and writer Steve Hrehovcik recently published “Rebel Without a Clue – A Way-Off Broadway Memoir” about his love of the theater. An artist, he designed this image. He’ll be giving a presentation about his book at The Center in Lower Village at 3 p.m. on Aug. 5. Courtesy image

KENNEBUNK – Steve Hrehovcik said he has always been pretty good at adlibbing, but his ability did not impress a fellow actor some years ago.

The actor, he explained, missed his cue because he was waiting for Hrehovcik to say a particular line – except he didn’t.

Hrehovcik said he wasn’t good at remembering lines exactly as written.

“He said ‘if you do that again, I’ll deck you,'” Hrehovcik recalled with a laugh.

It was theater that brought Hrehovcik and his wife Carol to Maine and to Kennebunk.

And while his theater career did not turn out exactly the way he had hoped, there have been other plusses – including his recently-published book, called “Rebel Without a Clue – A Way-Off Broadway Memoir.”

Consider this paragraph by Dori Lam, who was putting out the word about the book in a news release from The Center in Lower Village.

“With persistence, patience and pluck, Kennebunk writer and artist Steve Hrehovcik reveals how he became an expert on survival in his book “Rebel Without a Clue – A Way-Off Broadway Memoir,”” Lam wrote. “Blending a candid confessional with a sense of humor, Hrehovcik describes his turbulent, often farcical, journey in a desperate search for a career in the theater.”

Hrehovcik will give a presentation and book signing at The Center, 175 Port Road, (Route 35) in Lower Village Kennebunk at 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 5.

“Theater has always been an allure for me,” he said in a recent interview. It was an interest high school, and Hrehovcik then majored in theater at the University of Miami and worked toward a master’s degree at Catholic University. Then came a stint in the Army and then back to the theater – on and off.

There were theater stints between other careers, and he trod the boards in Chicago, Miami, and off Broadway at one time.

Looking back, the 81-year-old also recalled other jobs –  as an advertising manager at a bank, and as a packaging designer at a firm in Westbrook. He told television advertising at one juncture.

He puts it this way: “I finally got a clue and realized I had to do something else,” rather than the theater.

It was his love for the stage however, that brought Hrehovcik and Carol to Maine from Massachusetts, where he had been working at a bank. He said he had heard about a playhouse in Kennebunkport, and got a job there doing sales and publicity.

“When the season ended, we felt “why not live here,”” said Hrehovcik, and he became employed as an ad manager at the York County Coast Star.

The couple made their home in Kennebunk, and raised three children, Josh, Noah, and Gillian.

Hrehovcik is also an artist, recently illustrating a children’s book, a business book, and he also draws cartoons and caricatures, portraits, buildings, animals, and more. He teaches drawing and writing at adult education venues, among others. His website is: www.kennebunkartstudio.com

“Rebel Without a Clue – A Way-Off Broadway Memoir,” is his first book, but will not be his last. Hrehovcik says he is currently working on a volume of short stories.

“I wrote the memoir to describe my journey and the adventure and the pitfalls – and I have a little fun with it,” he said.

His book will be available at the presentation at The Center and is sold on Amazon in paperback and as an ebook, among other online venues.