Brian Dykstra, right, at the opening rehearsal for the DCPA Theatre Company’s ‘The Nest.’ Photo by John Moore for the DCPA NewsCenter.

MEET BRIAN DYKSTRA
Patrick in The Nest

At the DCPA Theatre Company: Debut. Most recently played LBJ in All The Way at St. Louis Rep. Broadway: Lucky Guy. Regionally: Jerusalem (Rooster Byron), Red (Mark Rothko), Copenhagen (Heisenberg), A View from the Bridge (Eddie Carbone), Seminar (Leonard). As playwright: Clean Alternatives, Hiding Behind Comets, A Play On Words, STRANGERHORSE, Spill the Wine, Forsaking All Others. Film/TV: Poor Behavior (written and directorial debut, Theresa Rebeck), Freedomland, Knight and Day, The Affair, Third Watch. Core Artist, The Lark Theatre.

• Hometown:  Redondo Beach Calif. – even though I was raised in Torrance, right on the Redondo border. Redondo is way cooler.
• Training: BFA, California State University, Long Beach. MFA, Rutgers.  
• Website: briandykstra.net
• What was the role that changed your life: It might have been playing Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing in college. It was that wonderful part, and I had to be good enough that the play wouldn’t suck if I were bad. I mean, you can’t really rescue a Much Ado About Nothing if the Benedick sucks. So, I guess the idea that I could do a role like that and not stink up the theatre too much, was kind of eye-opening.
• Why are you an actor? Because my fallback plan of being a playwright is even more difficult. Plus, people keep hiring me, so I get to keep on keeping on. At least for now. Well, to be fair, I have a couple other jobs lined up so I won’t have that common feeling when the show closes that, “I’ll never work again.” At least for the next few months. 
• What would you be doing for a career if you weren’t an actor? My friend Peet said I’d be an excellent aglet salesman. An aglet is that plastic tube fixed tightly to the end of a shoelace. So maybe that. If I got to choose, I’d write for a career. There’s not much better than seeing your play or screenplay come to life. I love rehearsal as an actor, and I love it as a playwright. Watching an actor make something way better than I imagined is almost like a miracle. Of course watching them mess something up is a heartbreak.    
• Ideal scene partner: It’s hard to pick people you haven’t worked with because, you know, be careful what you wish for… I mean, it would be terrible of I chose Edmund Keen and he turned out to be an impossible, demanding jerk. I have worked with some very talented and generous actors I’d love to work with again. Matthew Boston, Mark Boyett, Jake Paque (real name, it rhymes) spring to mind. Lori Prince is a joy to act with, as are Tasha Lawrence and Garrett Neergaard. These are not famous folks, but colleagues who make going to work rewarding on a whole lot of levels. You know, solid professional, talented actors with not too much baggage, so it’s about working on the work.  
• Why does The Nest matter? Because it’s about desire. And we Americans know all about desire. Maybe, just maybe, we need to figure out how to know that more isn’t better – it’s just more. And that enough will always be enough.  
• What do you hope the audience gets out of it? I have no hopes or expectations for a viewer. Audiences are only illuminated by something they already suspect but don’t yet know they know it. That’s what playwrights get to do. They get to word something in a way that has the potential to illuminate something that a listener might be on the cusp of realizing. If they hadn’t heard the line, or seen the performance, sometimes that cusp isn’t breached. Or, at least, I think that might be true. So, without knowing what it is the audience knows or where they are, it’s hard for me to hope for anything. Except maybe the opportunity to make whatever leap they’re ready for. Or something like that.
• Finish this sentence: “All I want is …”
  “… for love to win.”

The Nest

Previous NewsCenter coverage of The Nest:
The Nest flies in face of national gender trends
Five things we now know about that bar
Cast list announced
Theresa Rebeck is not getting angry: She’s getting even
​American Theatre magazine: The Colorado New Play Summit Is a Developing Story

Previous 2015-16 ‘Meet the Cast’ profiles:
Meet Adeoye of Lookingglass Alice and All the Way
Meet Kevin Berntson of The Nest
Meet J. Paul Boehmer of As You Like It
Meet Molly Brennan of Lookingglass Alice
Meet Courtney Capek of A Christmas Carol
Meet Tad Cooley of Tribes
Meet Allen Dorsey of A Christmas Carol
Meet Kevin Douglas of Lookingglass Alice
Meet Napoleon M. Douglas of A Christmas Carol
Meet Isabel Ellison of Tribes
Meet Kate Finch of Tribes
Meet Ella Galaty of A Christmas Carol
Meet Ben Heil of A Christmas Carol
Meet Carolyn Holding of As You Like It
Meet Drew Horwitz of As You Like It
Meet Maurice Jones of As You Like It
Meet Geoffrey Kent of As You Like It and All the Way
Meet Emily Kron of As You Like It
Meet Nick LaMedica of As You Like It
Meet Andrew Pastides of Tribes
Meet Shannan Steele of A Christmas Carol
Meet Carly Street of The Nest
Meet Samuel Taylor of Lookingglass Alice
Meet Lindsey Noel Whiting of Lookingglass Alice
Meet Jake Williamson  of A Christmas Carol
Meet Matt Zambrano of As You Like It