In brief: Steve, 45, is a character actor in the best sense of the word. Versatile, indelible, distinctive. Anyone who saw him as the delightfully unhinged Charles Guiteau in Assassins at Fabrefaction Theatre last fall, is likely to remember him. So, too, those who’ve seen him as Man in Chair, an ebullient, if a little blue, musical theater fan in The Drowsy Chaperone at Aurora Theatre. You have one more week — six more shows — to catch it and him. Details, tickets HERE.
Where you’ve seen him: In Clyde ‘n Bonnie: A Folktale (2012), Singin’ in the Rain (2010) and Damn Yankees (2008) at Aurora. Also at Georgia Ensemble Theatre and Theatre in the Square.
Other credits: Shakespeare, Brecht, Neil Simon, Oscar Wilde, Larry Shue and Gilbert & Sullivan, among others, with companies in New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Indiana.
Hometown: Born in Pennington Gap, Va., but grew up mostly in Montgomery, Ala.
Lives now: Marietta.
Degreed: Has a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a theater arts minor from Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky., and a master of fine arts in acting from the University of Louisville.
Day job: Middle-school English teacher at Covenant Christian School in Smyrna.
First time onstage: In kindergarten, as Peter Rabbit in a production of Peter Rabbit. Didn’t begin acting seriously until college.
Why theater: “I love the immediacy of it. The response from the audience. The communal experience of everyone being in the same room together. And I like the emphasis on words.”
New York? No thanks: “I found out I didn’t have the temperament to do the starving-artist thing and the mind-numbing temp jobs,” he says of his 10 years there. Recalls thinking, “I didn’t go to grad school to do this and hope for an aspirin commercial.”
Fun fact: Like his Drowsy Chaperone character, he loves vinyl records and has a fairly impressive collection of Broadway original cast albums. Favorites include My Fair Lady, Sunday in the Park With George, Guys and Dolls and, especially, Carousel, which he saw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., while in high school.
Dream role(s): Says he’s not right for any of them, but as long as he’s dreaming … Cyrano de Bergerac. George in Sunday in the Park With George. Henry V and Hamlet.
Parting shot: “I’m just very grateful that I’ve been able to do as much work as I do, even while I’m teaching.”
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Kathy Janich, Encore Atlanta’s managing editor, has been seeing, covering and and working in the performing arts for most of her life. Please email her at kathy@encoreatlanta.com.
