MEET MARK JUNEK
Alternating nightly as Victor and the Creature in Frankenstein

At the Theatre Company: Debut. Elsewhere: The Performers on Broadway, The Forgotten Woman at Bay Street Theatre, after all the terrible things I do at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Vibrator Play at Syracuse Stage, Family Play at The New Ohio, Galileo and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at New York’s Classic Stage Company, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Imaginary Invalid at Bard Summerscape, among others. Television credits include the second season of “The Outs,” “Blindspot,” “Forever,” “Smash” and “Law and Order: SVU.”

• Hometown: Grove Heights, Minn.
• College: BA in English from Columbia University; Juilliard School, Drama Division
• What was the role that changed your life? Frankenstein! I played the Creature my sophomore year of high school, and it was the first time I was asked to really “transform” for a role. It was fun and weird – it totally hooked me.
• Why are you an actor? Because I love pretending to be other people in different places and situations. And because I think as storytellers, actors have the ability to affect people and even heal them. 
• What would you be doing for a career if you weren’t an actor? I would be a woodworker because I love working with my hands. In my off-time, I’m always working on some D.I.Y. project. But I specifically love furniture and the intersection of simple forms and utilitarian function.
• Ideal scene partner: Meryl Streep (of course), since apparently she’s an incredibly generous scene partner. But also Phillip Seymour Hoffman because I think he would have scared me. He was always so deep in the scene work, he gets lost. It would have been a terrifying prospect to play opposite him because he seems so out of control, but I think he could have pushed me to go further, to sink deeper into the scene and the character.
  

  
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• Why does this production of Frankenstein matter? I think this play highlights the complicated relationship between parents and their children – mostly the disappointing realization that you can’t control who your family is. Children can’t pick who they are born to and parents can’t control how their children will ultimately turn out. The bond of family is still so strong that even if you try to deny it, it’ll come back to haunt you.
• What do you hope the audience gets out of seeing this play? I hope they’re really scared in an entertaining way – like a great scary movie. But I also hope they’re moved by our performances and it makes them think about their own lives in one way or another. You know a play is good when people are talking about their own lives in relation to the play rather than the play itself!
  
• Finish this sentence: “All I want is …”
  “… for everyone to just chill out and eat ice-cream together. Or maybe doughnuts.”

Follow Mark Junek on Twitter @mark_junek or on his web site

Frankenstein: Ticket information
• Through Oct. 30
• Stage Theatre
• ASL interpreted, Audio-described and Open Captioned performance: Oct. 23
• Tickets: 303-893-4100 or BUY ONLINE
• Groups: Call 303-446-4829 

Previous NewsCenter coverage:
Meet Sullivan Jones of Franknstein
Video series: Inside look at the making of Frankenstein
Five things we learned about Frankenstein at Perspectives
Photos, video: Your first look at the making of Frankenstein
Frankenstein: On the making of a two-headed monster
Frankenstein and race: It IS a matter of black and white
Breathing life into the Frankenstein set: ‘It’s alive!‘
A Frankenstein ‘that will make The Bible look subtle‘
How Danny Boyle infused new life into Frankenstein
Casting set for Frankenstein and The Glass Menagerie
Introducing DCPA Theatre Company’s 2016-17 season artwork
Kent Thompson on The Bard, The Creature and the soul of his audience
2016-17 season announcement

More 2016-17 DCPA Theatre Company ‘Meet the Cast’ profiles:
Aubrey Deeker, The Glass Menagerie
Amelia Pedlow, The Glass Menagerie
Jessica Robblee, Frankenstein
John Skelley, The Glass Menagerie

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