I'd like to start the week off with a new project. We have a new education opportunity called our Intern Company where we bring theatre graduates here to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and they work with our great teachers and perform on our professional stage for a year before heading off into the big theatre world. We have some great actors here this year and I'm slowly interviewing all five of them. First up we have David Stewart Hudson:
Birthplace? Washington D.C. (inner city kid)
Childhood Experience? Very involved in theatre as a kid and always wanted to be an actor. Also went to an art high school and used to write plays as a kid.
Siblings? Only child.
College? University of Maryland. It had a great theatre department with multiple theaters and a great teaching facility.
Acting for Children? It's been a challenge but the three things that Nancy (Director of Charlotte's Web, our children's production, and Assistant Artistic Producing Director at ASF) teaches are so very true. To reach children you have to reach Simplicity, Connectivity, and Honesty. Kids are an honest audience and you either have their attention and belief or you don't.
Looking forward to the rest of the season? Yes, to competing against all the other actors for roles in upcoming productions. This first show, Charlotte's Web, was all ours and now we'll have to go up against some big competition for future roles.
What do you think of the teachers? Greta is amazing, lots of trust and cuddly almost with her teaching style. I'm very excited about Ray's class on Shakespearean text, I think it'll be fun. Denise's movement class is challenge. There's something very important there with movement and acting and I'll eventually get my head wrapped around it.
Do you work with the MFA's very much? Not yet, we'll start working together during the repertory season.
Have you had that moment yet where it all clicks when becoming a character? Not yet, I'm slowly getting into what acting is. There's no more backstage or green room chatter, though, so I can stay in that place longer.
What are you looking forward to the most in class? I'm looking forward to working with someone who challenges me to stay in the moment.
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