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Brian McGrath
Brian’s life as an actor began with Quicksilver Productions
when he joined us for I Laughed, I Cried, I Shot The Person
Next To Me, in which he danced the role of Ron in The Vampire
Sorority Babes vs. The Internation Frat Zombies: A Ballet, doing
some very memorable hops of pain after Taren Carter Hines’
Sondra kicked him in the balls. He also originated the role
of Martin in Men and Women, and that summer returned to Quicksilver
to play the Proctophantasmist, amongst other roles in Faust
Part One. He originated the role of Mark/Walter in The Exiled
when it was produced by Quicksilver Productions, and returned
to play Hugo in the Horror Unspeakable revival in 2001, after
playing Jack/Enkidu/Ziusudra in Horror Unspeakable remount of
Vincent of Gilgamesh earlier that summer. Those second two productions
make up, for me, the peak of Brian’s work as an actor;
his Jack, in particular, was very tender and amiable, and his
Ziusudra was adorable and quirky, probably aided by the fact
that we costumed him in a turban, choir robe, and army boots.
Best of all was his Hugo, who was all nervous jitters and good
intentions, black turtlenecks and endless sighs of helplessness
in the face of his personal melodrama. Brian’s other roles
with us included Warwick/The Prince of Wales in Edward II, Tony
in You Can’t Take it with You and Starcat in Psycho Beach
Party, both with Quicksilver Productions, and Ross in Macbeth,
which turned out to be his last show with Horror Unspeakable.
Determined to broaden himself as an actor, he ducked out of
playing Elpenor in The Odyssey and spent the winter in The Three
Penny Opera with Arizona Rep, and then playing a monkey in Words,
Words, Words at the University of Arizona, where after four
years or so of college he finally declared himself a theater
major. When I moved from Tucson he was out of town that summer,
appearing in a stock production of Tecumseh, but we run into
each other pretty much every time I go back to Arizona, and
at Jim Driscoll-MacEachron’s bachelor party he and I were
the last to fall asleep, which is its own type of bonding, and
the second time that’s happened, the first being when
we passed out together on my couch after a cast party, somewhere
in the middle of a conversation with Tammi Sutton, who wasn’t
there in the morning when we both woke up. It was really nowhere
near as scandalous as it sounds.
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