When did you start your Georgia Shakespeare experience?
Well…like, 20 years ago. Almost 21! Mom was already working here when she was pregnant with me. Georgia Shakespeare has become my second home, basically.
What was one of your favorite shows?
One of my favorite shows had to be like 6 years ago when the Family Classics Series started. The first show was
Treasure Island, and that was one of my favorite stories. Zech Pierce, one of the actors in the show, was the son of one of my high school teachers! But seriously, it was awesome because: Number One, Pirates. You can’t get much cooler than that. Number Two, Mom made the costumes. And Number Three, it was so new to the theatre, the Family Classics Series. I just remember thinking it was so cool.
One of my other favorites was pretty recent—
The Odyssey. It was so cool! The way Richard [Garner] did this scene in Hades’ underworld and the spirits, it was so cool. It really stuck with me. The whole Greek mythology thing fascinates me. It was one of the classes I actually paid attention to in school—math, not so much.
What is one of your best memories at Georgia Shakespeare?
There’s one story—when I got done with high school, the whole cast of one of the productions chipped in and bought me a smart pen. I was able to really start exploring my interest in script writing, and now I have the software, so I can really make it happen! But it was so cool, because they all, the company, they all really care about me.
What is Genuinely Georgia Shakespeare to you?
The actors! Georgia Shakespeare has always had such amazing talent. And it’s like a giant family. The productions are top-notch, and people come to this theatre because they love it.
My parents and my time at GS inspired me to start writing scripts. It’s a funny story actually—an actor left his script on the table one night while I was in the Green Room. So I started reading it, and I was like, wow. This is so interesting, how it’s laid out, and how it tells a story. The first script I ever wrote actually was a sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean, that was better than the actual sequel, but then they released the fourth one and it was better than mine. The script is the most important part of a production—it’s the glue that holds the whole thing together! I’d love to write a show that can be put on at Georgia Shakespeare. Maybe a Family Classics show. I’d like that.
