Here is a look into the mind of our Educational Associate, Collin McConnell
1) How do you identify yourself as an artist (primarily an actor, playwright, etc)? Or do you explore different aspects of theater?
I am primarily an actor, but have great interest in all aspects of theatre. I love the educational side of it and how theatre in of itself is (or at least can be) educational in many different ways - I like finding ways to explore that through discussion, such as creating forums for artists and audience to discuss the work in a safe environment. I also love writing and want to try writing for the theatre, as well as perhaps directing. I guess I just love the medium.
2) How did you get started in theater?
I was interested in acting at a very young age, and fortunately had very supportive parents. My love grew in stages though, starting in high school when I discovered there existed a relationship between artist, audience, and the art, which drove me to have a stronger passion for live theatre than film (the idea that we were all in the same room together accepting this reality was an experience I was amazed we continued to celebrate in a world that further distances itself from personal interaction). College theatre only then strengthened this love and curiosity, and I was fortunately in a program that was also curious as to how I might explore that relationship, and opened many doors for me.
3) Who do you consider your theatrical/artistic influences?
My immediate reaction would be Antonin Artaud, though he came into my theatrical life much later in the game (about halfway through college). His incredible ideas and intense (and incessant) passion drives me to believe in the magic of theatre and how it can help transform us all as individuals.
4) When you were little, what did you want to be “when you grew up”?
Funny, when I was three I started thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up, and came up with all sorts of ideas - which confused me; I wanted to have a solid answer then and there. I also realized I wanted to be absolutely everything, all at once. So when I realized there were such things as actors - people who have the opportunity to experience all sorts of occupations and places in life - I immediately wanted to be that. Which, of course, never changed, and I still love that aspect of being an actor. I guess I'm greedy.
5) _____ inspires me
The ever-changing nature of the universe. Love. Despair. Hope. Fear. Everything, really. It is all valuable, and I am inconstant awe that we can even exist the way we do.
6) What drew you to Adaptive Arts?
Marielle and the thick-roped lasso that I've yet to be freed from. Kidding. Since embarking on my first journey with the company, I've been amazed and drawn by its ambition to do something different yet so absolutely, completely necessary in this world. Plenty of theatre companies try really hard to be different. Few work towards a more tangible means with which to touch, change, help our society.
7) What new things do you want to explore while working with Adaptive?
I am always curious as to what different styles of theatre can reach different audiences. And with such a uniquely specific audience that we reach out to, I wonder what forms of experimentation could be helpful to them emerging themselves in the story. We've done masks and signs and direct address and music (all in one production!), but what else might there be? As a lover of Artaud, I can't help but think, what with the strong reaction to masks and direct address, that there be more direct ways to warmly welcome our audience into the story - all depending on the story we are telling. Types of music, dance, actor/audience orientation or juxtaposition, the way characters speak and move in accordance with one another... the list goes on. So, to answer the question: I want to experiment in different ways of visually and tangibly telling our stories to our specific audience. Or: new things are the new things I want to explore with Adaptive Arts.
8) What kind of work do you do outside of the company? (this is similar to other questions, so if you have nothing new to add, feel free to ignore)
-Outside of Adaptive, I'm an actor, doing mostly classical theatre. I am a musician (singer/songwriter, and drummer), looking to maybe do more with this ability of mine. I am greatly interested in Education (which is what landed me as the Education Associate with Adaptive) - this is broad, and I'm in the mix of figuring out what that means to me. I love music. I love movies. I love food (and love discovering new delicious places to eat in this amazing city - specifically Italian and Seafood). I love E. E. Cummings, Kurt Vonnegut, and Haruki Murakami. I love language, and I love discovering new (or, really, archaic) words and phrases.
9) If you had to work on one play for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Yikes. That's tough - most of the contemporary works I love are rather dark and upsetting, and working on one of them for the rest of my life might leave me miserably depressed and horribly lonely. I need time away from those plays. Can I say the canon of Shakespeare's work? That'd keep me pretty busy, happy, and mostly sane.
10) What’s your most embarrassing theater moment?
Being awoken backstage by the actor I was supposed to currently be in the middle of a scene with. Then attempting to make any sense of the scene whatsoever in front of a paying audience.
11) What ‘s your most surprising theater moment?
Sophomore year of high school, doing Les Miserables. I was playing Enjolras and one night during the run found myself all the way downstage with a solitary spotlight on me as I began 'Do You Hear The People Sing?' For the first time in my life, as a character on stage, I looked honestly out into the audience and saw their faces - again, as my character, a leader of a revolution. It hit me really hard then at the footlights that I was sharing in the story with the people out there - that they were listening, willingly listening to everything I had to say. And what I had to say (or sing, rather) was incredibly important. It's why I still do theatre.
12) Tell us about a “first” you experienced while working on a show.
Those last two were definitely firsts for me. And most shows I do have at least one stand out first in them, I think (I try to keep myself on my toes). So, some other notable firsts would be: successfully opening a show with my own theatre company started by myself and two other very good friends (Full Circle - Nonsense Productions); wearing a dress (Baby with the Bathwater - Nonsense Productions), and to take that a step further, appearing in corset, frilly panties, garter-belt, fishnet stockings, 4-inch heels, and lipstick (The Rocky Horror Show - CSUSB); full nudity (Red Light Winter - Brooklyn College); kissing a boy (Shakespeare's R&J - Brooklyn College); and learning the leading role of a new full length play (with fight choreography and all) in four days (The Magic of Mrs. Crowling - Horse Trade Productions).
13) What's upcoming for you?
In February of 2011, I'll be working with the Adirondack Shakespeare Company for the first time, playing Lucius in Titus Andronicus and Ferdinand in The Tempest. I have also recently been invited upstate to the Adirondack mountains with them this coming July to play Demetrius in Midsummer Night's Dream and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice, as well as perform in a currently unknown/unwritten children's production.
