Filed by Bil at 7:46 pm under General

I’ve been “memed” — a term I had never heard before — but apparently a meme is a chain letter with no threat of disaster should you break the chain. Since I don’t trust this, I am putting up my own reply. And there are five people that will get this request later…

Here goes.

Name your area of expertise/interest:
Theatre - Acting, writing, and directing. In no particular order. I am also an internationally-published poet, but that title was too easily acquired for me to actually brag about it.


How did you become interested in it?
I have always had an interest in performing. For twelve years, I was in school bands of all sorts. Marching band and jazz band were my life all through high school. At parties, when we had enough people to play our own makeshift version of “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” we would, and those were always — ALWAYS — my favorite parties. My senior year I took creative writing, which for me was nothing but fun, and became my favorite class (after jazz band, of course).
I initially went to college for computer science (because, like any good wind musician, I am a total geek). I was ahead enough in units to have one free class during the spring of my freshman year, so I took an Intro to Acting class. The class was taught by LA actor and resident weirdo Brian Brophy, who is fantastic at certain styles of teaching, and introductory acting which focused mainly on improv seems to be his forté. Anyway, it was like heroine for me — two classes in and I knew I needed more of this.
So, when registering for fall classes I actually skipped a physics class (I was ahead anyway) and took beginning playwriting. During this course I was required to see the school’s current production: a highly-stylized approach to Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame.” To this day, that play is still my favorite play. Needless to say, it’s the show that nailed the lid on the coffin of my computer science career.
I never felt as strong or confident as I did when directing, but after leaving college I have learned that directing jobs are as hard to come by as $100,000 bills. And so, just like $100,000 bills, if you want one, most of the time you have to make it yourself.


How did you learn to do it?
As I said, we played improv games growing up, and then I went to college. Since graduating, I have done at times some very intense observing of the written word, and I have been writing. I have found that the more I write, the better I get. The same goes for acting. I make a point of learning something new every time I act in a play. I was recently lucky enough to have an audition during which, though I wasn’t cast, I still was able to learn a thing or two about a popular new technique. I’m still learning how to do it. Obviously, if I were better at it, I wouldn’t need a day job.


Who has been your biggest influence?
I’m with this guy — I actually like to avoid this question. I’m not really sure. There are some really long lists of people both famous and not, ranging from Jack Kerouac to John Travolta. So rather than try to list them and and risk leaving some out, I will give just one really strong example. My brother. Monty Python, Douglas Adams, and “Weird Al” Yankovic are some of the most recurring names in the written biography of my childhood. Our dad must have introduced these people to my brother, who introduced them to me. And, if you look at the art we made growing up, you can see I stole all my best ideas from him.


What would you teach people about it?
The only advice I will offer is to just keep doing it. And if you can’t do it, go see it done by someone else. It sounds trite, I know, but it’s a fundamental rule that is easily forgotten. Oh, also — figure out ahead of time where emphasis goes…you don’t want to embarrass yourself.

Well, that’s it. Now I get to choose five people whose answers I want to see. Since Devon and Trevor have already been asked by this guy along with me, I guess I can’t choose them. So…if you’re reading this, Katie, Paul, Jared, Ben, and Joe…I meme you.