Uwishunu.com

John Zak, one of the actors from The European Lesson. He’s an emerging star in the Philadelphia performing arts scene (won best supporting actor in 2006) and has a very wry, funny personality.

Tell us about yourself.

I started acting when I was in the Master’s theatre program at Villanova University. Before that I was in Washington D.C. trying unsuccessfully to put my B.A. in political science to good use. I graduated in 1994 with an master’s in theatre and have been performing on various stages in the Philadelphia area ever since. I’ve preformed extensively with The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival over the years having performed in about seventeen shows. In 2006 I was awarded with a Barrymore Award for my portrayal of Caliban in their production of “The Tempest.”

I have also worked with such companies as Theatre Exile–during the very first Fringe Festival !, The Wilma Theatre, The Philadelphia Theatre Company, Lantern Theatre, and more recently The Walnut Street Theatre, where I’ll be performing as part of their studio series in a production of “Tuna Christmas” this holiday season. When not in a show I always return to Comedy Sportz, Philadelphia’s longest running show, where I’ve been performing improvisational comedy over the past eleven years.

Working on “The European Lesson” with Jo (pronounced “Yu”) has been such a new experience for me. Usually there’s a script and a sense of reality to be conveyed, but helping to create a movement piece from a concept contained in the director’s head is not how I’m used to working. It’s been very freeing, exciting! The cast has varied backgrounds in theatre and bring their various skills to the project and with this different way of working, well . . . I’m having a great time.

Talk about the acting community in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia theatre community is quite varied though somewhat small. Over the years I’ve worked with or simply know a majority of members of the theatre community. This close-knit quality means that most everyone is quite supportive of the community, which has fostered some very creative collaborations of new and different works as well as friendships and even marriages.

However, there are still many people I have not worked with or know and as the arts community has gotten more attention and funding more artists have come to Philadelphia further growing the theatre community as well as the arts community as a whole. It’s been very exciting to witness this growth and the oh so positive changes of the city. And the Live Arts/ Fringe Festival is a great way to see and get a taste of the wide variety of the arts culture that Philadelphia has to offer.

See John in The European Lesson at the Philly Fringe Festival. Visit the official Fringe website for more info!

The European Lesson @ Philly Fringe
http://www.livearts-fringe.org/2008/details.cfm?id=2885