Aubrey Deeker in DCPA Theatre Company’s ‘The Glass Menagerie,’ opening Sept. 16. Photo by Adams Visual Communications.

MEET AUBREY DEEKER
Tom in The Glass Menagerie

At the Theatre Company: Title role in Hamlet (2014, pictured right). International: Love’s Labor’s Lost at The Royal Shakespeare Company, U.K. Regional: Thirteen productions as affiliated artist at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., as well as productions at Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Wilma Theater, Studio Theatre, Folger Theatre, Round House and Lincoln Center, among others. TV/Film: “The Man in the High Castle,” “True Blood,” “The Wire,” “The Mentalist,” “Backstrom,” “Crisis,” “NCIS,” “NCIS New Orleans,” “Castle,” “Peter’s Plan,” “Distance,” “Leave No Marine Behind,” “The Seer.” Awards: Multiple Helen Hayes and Barrymore Award nominations.

• Hometown: Marthasville, Mo. (population 1,136)
• Training:  The School of Drama at The North Carolina School of the Arts
• What was the role that changed your life? I remember seeing school plays at a very young age and being pulled toward that, and wanting to do that – so I jumped in as soon as I could. I think I played Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in my Sassafras and Scissors preschool Christmas pageant, which might have been my first one.
• Why are you an actor? Performing is just an urge that has always been there. I’ve been interested in it since I was a kid, and I had great teachers and a supportive family. 
• What would you be doing for a career if you weren’t an actor? I’d probably be doing something with my hands. Sometimes I fantasize about apprenticing with a butcher or a woodsmith. I like tactile things. Or maybe I’d be in the mountains managing a cool bed and breakfast or an inn somewhere beautiful, writing in my free time. That would be lovely. I also teach.
• Ideal scene partner: Chris Farley or Harpo Marx.
  
• Why does this production of The Glass Menagerie matter? Because it deals with the most fundamental relationships a person has: Family. It’s about three ordinary people who love each other deeply but don’t always succeed at communicating their feelings to one another. It’s about the great need to leave home to discover yourself, the painful process of leaving home, and, as our playwright puts it, “the fragile, delicate ties that must be broken, that you inevitably break, when you try to fulfill yourself.”
  
• Finish this sentence: “All I want is …”
  “… a cabin in the mountains someday with a fireplace, a garden, a wood-shed, a well-stocked kitchen, a front porch, a comfortable reading chair and a good dog.  Selfish, I know.  But I really do think that would be heaven.”  

Follow Aubrey Deeker on Twitter @AubreyDeeker

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter

The Glass Menagerie: Ticket information
• Sept. 9-Oct. 16
• Ricketson Theatre
• ASL interpreted, Audio-described and Open Captioned performance: Oct. 15
• Tickets: 303-893-4100 or BUY ONLINE
• Groups: Call 303-446-4829


Selected previous NewsCenter coverage of The Glass Menagerie:
2016-17 season: Nine shows, two world premieres, return to classics
Kent Thompson on The Bard, The Creature and the soul of his audience
Casting set for The Glass Menagerie
First rehearsal: This will be no wimpy Glass Menagerie



The Glass Menagerie: A modern visual twist on an American classic

More ‘Meet the Cast’ profiles:
Laura Wingfield: Amelia Pedlow
The Gentleman Caller: John Skelley

Throwback Thursday: Aubrey Deeker’s 2014 Hamlet profile video:

Follow the DCPA on social media @DenverCenter and through the DCPA News Center.