Christopher Dowdell

My theatre career is one from another era when the craft of acting was not taught in BFA programs, but through apprenticeships in actual theatres. It started with an “accidental” audition to landing a job in the summer stock system working alongside and learning from seasoned professionals – one that is sadly absent from the American Theatre today. It involved rehearsing one show during the day and performing another in the evening. This was a full immersion into the theatre. Without formal training, I learned what others would refer to as formal technique in acting and a theoretical understanding of staging philosophy, literature and impact of the theatre. The roles and types of plays in which I performed are varied in both style and genre. From the classic musicals such as Camelot, Sound of Music, and South Pacific to operettas such as The Mikado and The Merry Widow. As an acting apprentice in the truest sense, I moved from small roles in the ensemble to larger roles and eventually leading roles – all the while observing and interacting with my fellow actors to learn the craft. In a modern BFA training program he would have taken classes in acting, styles of acting and scene study to gain this knowledge. Instead, I adopted and used keen observation, critical thinking, and active learning by working on stage with other actors. I maintained a career moving from show to show, developing into a capable and sought after actor. As a young actor from Brooklyn I worked to eliminate my regional accent I not only played roles that require different accents, my speaking voice (sans regional dialect) has enabled me to be a public speaker around the world.