Reitz's first professional acting job was in repertory with the Arts Centre Theater Company of Rochester, New York. From the fall of 1977 through the summer of 1979, he performed both adult (THE ARTS CENTRE THEATER CO.) and children's (THE TIC TOC PLAYERS) theater out of the Nazareth College Arts Centre in Pittsford, New York, including summer stock stints with the Mendon Playhouse in Mendon, New York. Over the following years, Reitz bounced between Rochester, New York City and Los Angeles, as he pursued his acting career, eventually landing in Atlanta, Georgia in 1981 with Noel Bagrowski, also from Rochester, who would become his wife that same year.