How to be a Jack of All Trades with Tony Rust

“I’m a theatrical jack of all trades.” – Tony Rust

And he truly is.  Wyoming born Tony Rust has been through the rolodex of neat jobs: jazz singer and disc jockey being early highlights.  Thrust into theater during college because of an administrative snafu, Tony got involved with the early days of ACE (Actors Cabaret of Eugene  www.actorscabaret.org), embarked upon life in NYC for a couple of decades and hasn’t stopped since.  See why Technical Director, Director, Producer, Teacher, Actor and Carpenter Tony says, “It takes all of us to do theater.”

Hear about Tony’s journey and these topics:

·         Southern Methodist University in Texas for a Bachelors in Drama (BA degree)

·         What led him to his 20 years in New York City

·         How Patrick Tucker influenced him

·         What he did when the parts he imagined himself playing weren’t matching the parts his voice and body led him to be cast as

·         How he started to produce work, including relationships with the Riverside Shakespeare Company (though not operating now, here’s the Wiki info: ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverside_Shakespeare_Company

·         What living in New York City can be like

·         How to know when a company has run its course

·         Why he says joining Equity was “one of the dumbest things I did in my career”

·         Holding back on choices and how he got out of his own way

·         The struggle with “type”

·         The needs of characters that expose vulnerability or reveal a world close to the actor versus characters that are clowns or require a different, heightened reality

·         How he became a set carpenter, painter and designer

·         What it’s like to have a scene shop in New York

·         The union for stage carpentry (IATSE: https://www.iatse.net/ )

·         What his experience was working at the MET

·         Why he wanted to teach

·         Going to get his Master’s in Directing 

·         Evolving into Technical Director

·         How having kids influenced some of his choices

·         How they created their own New York in the West

·         What it was like getting involved (and then becoming key players both onstage and off) at the Cottage Theatre http://www.cottagetheatre.org/

·         The many factors involved with coordinating a set build

·         See Tony’s performance as Fagan in Oliver! And then his direction of Mamma Mia and The Hunchback of Notre Dame as part of the 2020 Cottage Theatre season.

·         Studying versus doing

·         His style of directing

·         Advice to future (and current!) high school drama teachers and how they relate to students

·         How to find a mentor and be a “mentee”

Share your journey, questions, successes and failures: contact your host Steph Newman at [e-mail] and have your stories shared on a future episode!  She’ll celebrate with you,

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