16 questions with Gary Briggle

Welcome to our newest feature, in which actor, writer and bon vivant Paul de Cordova speaks to local theater luminaries about why they do the things they do. First up: esteemed actor Gary Briggle. Enjoy! Gary Briggle is the definition of a working actor. His success derives, in part, from the endless repertoire of skills he brings to the stage. He is as comfortable singing opera as he is in a crime story. For one show he’s putting a new musical on its feet, and for the next he’s breathing life into Shakespeare’s time-tested words. Most actors are comfortable in one milieu, specialists lighting up one small corner of human experience. In contrast, Gary walks easily from one story, one genre, one form to the next with the assurance and grace that keeps audiences with him every step of the way. For this interview, I sat down with Gary before a Friday night performance of When did you decide to make it your profession? My parents were not supportive of the notion of being a performing artist, so I thought I would be a doctor or something. When I went to St. Olaf, my secret hope to be a performer was encouraged by my voice teacher, who told me I really had something and that I should audition for everything, perform in everything. He really wanted to commandeer my course of study! I told him that parents were paying for my education and that we would have to talk to them about that. I remember my parents came out to hear me sing in a recital, and afterward my professor sat my parents down and told them, "Your son has a very promising professional career ahead of him." And my parents said, "Really? Because if what you’re telling us is true we’re going to have to reconfigure." And to my parents' credit, when he assured them it was true and I told them it was what I wanted, they really flipped the switch and went from being healthily skeptical to being fully behind a performing career. Why do you act? As Wendy [Lehr] and I often say, the reasons you start to do this are frequently not the reasons you stay in it. I think I started in it because I wanted to belong to a creative group, I wanted to be part of a team, another family. I needed to be around like-minded, like-spirited people who were generous and supportive and loving and creative. To have their approval was transformational. By the time I got to college, even, it had changed to wanting to shine the light of artistry in a compassionate and non-judgmental way on other lives. And somehow, losing myself on the way in to someone else’s story has always been irresistible to me. I’m just very happy to leave Gary Briggle in the dressing room. What keeps you going? First, this is all I can do; I have no other skills. And there’s nothing else I could do and be happy. My job is my joy so it never feels like work, in the negative sense. I’ve been called to this, and so what keeps me going is the necessity. What is your idea of perfect happiness? When I know that I am fully present in the moment. What is your favorite word? Yes. What is your least favorite word? No. What turns you on? Freedom. What turns you off? Limitation. What sound or noise do you love? The sound of water in nature – a brook, the ocean. What sound or noise do you hate? The urban war. The hrududu as they say in Watership Down. What’s your favorite curse word? Asshole. I scream it in the car with the windows up, liberally, when I’m driving. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? I’ve thought about going back to school when I’m finished here, to be a chaplain. What profession would you not like to do? I should never be allowed to do anything where math was involved. If heaven exists what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Welcome. Thanks to Marcel Proust, Bernard Pivot and James Lipton for inspiring our questions.