My Life in the Theater (Part I)

I applied to two schools. One accepted me. And so I matriculated into the Ohio University School of Theatre. I had no idea the school was in flux at that time. A sudden transition of leadership. I wasn’t even asked to audition.

Why did I want to study theater? Why wasn’t I an English major? Because acting was play and writing was work. There was an instant gratification in doing a play, and none for writing – I did not see how writing could get me attention, at least not positive attention (that is a story for another day) and attention had always been what I craved.

I am a 57 year-old man who keeps a blog. Of course I crave attention.

Erin Cameron, Steven Pack
"Living Together" by Alan Ayckbourn
Bay High School, 1986

I tried my hand at directing a two-act play (Living Together by Alan Ayckbourn) my senior year in high school. I had no idea what I was doing. Tell a bunch of my friends to move about on stage and there would be a play. No thought about costumes, or a set – I knew there were odd furniture pieces stored backstage, we’d use those – and light? To me, light was the invisible art. Surely, you just turn them on at the beginning and fade them out at the end.

I wasn’t just inexperienced with design, I was ignorant of design. I had never noticed it. It did not exist.

And that was who I was and how I started my undergraduate theater experience. I knew nothing. I would soon be trying everything.

To be continued.