Roy Brocksmith began his career on the bar at Hap Kuhl's Tavern in his native Quincy, IL, at the age of three. A "boy soprano" he performed in churches, schools, and appeared regularly on local radio and television programs. At sixteen he taught at the local children's theater. Two years later he married his high school girlfirend. He left Quincy, touring the U.S. for two years in the Oberammergau ...
show all Roy Brocksmith began his career on the bar at Hap Kuhl's Tavern in his native Quincy, IL, at the age of three. A "boy soprano" he performed in churches, schools, and appeared regularly on local radio and television programs. At sixteen he taught at the local children's theater. Two years later he married his high school girlfirend. He left Quincy, touring the U.S. for two years in the Oberammergau Passion Play of Richmond, VA. He returned and attended Hannibal LaGrange Junior College, Culver-Stockton College, and graduated from Quincy University in 1970. During this time he directed for the community theater, Pragressive Playhouse, and founded the Great River Theater Workshop. As a director, he was taken to New York by a Ukrainian anesthesiolog ist in 1969, where he was joined by his wife and son, Blake (8/5/66). For one year he was a librarian at the Lilliam Morgan Hetrick Medical Library at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in Manhattan, and was on the board of the American Association of Midwives. This "regular" job ended when he received his union card (AEA) playing opposite John Carradine in THE STINGIEST MAN IN TOWN, a musical based on Dickens "A Christmas Carol" and narrated by then Mayor John Lindsay at New York's Town Hall. On the legit stage he made his Broadway debut and the cover of the New York Times Magazine (11/9/75) in THE LEAF PEOPLE for Joseph Papp. He also appeared in Herr Tartüff with Mildred Dunnock STAGES with Jack Warden and sang "Mack the Knife" in the award-winning THREEPENNY OPERA as the Ballad Singer in Papp's Lincoln Center revival (Original cast album and "Broadway Magic of the Seventies" CDs, both on Columbia Records), and as the King of France in THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Off-Broadway shows included POLLY, THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, DR. SALAVY'S MAGIC THEATER, and IN THE JUNGLE OF CITIES with Al Pacino. He starred in the Broadway-bound SWING at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. At the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis he appeared in ARMS AND THE MAN ( as Petkoff), As You Like It (as ouchstone), Our Town (as Professor Willard), and Moliere's DON JUAN (as Sganarelle). This last garnered him the Kudos Award from the Minneapolis critics and the production was brought to the Delacourt Theater in New York by Joseph Papp and received inter national praise. His work with Papp and directors Richard Foreman Liviu Cuilei, Stuart Ostrow, 'Tom O'Horgan' Andrei Serban, Alan Schneider and John Cassavetes to name just a few, has made Brocksmith a solid part of America's most innovative and provacative theater. He was first to direct Foreman and Silverman's AFRICANIS INSTRUCTUS for Lyn Austin's Lennox Arts Center, and his adaptation of Feydeau's Flea in Her Ear, A was presented under his direction at Baltimore's Center Stage. His unusual staging of Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT gave the Alaska Repertory Theater a major box-office and critical hit and was chosen out of one hundred entries to be presented at the Joyce Theater season in New York. He also appeared as Thurio in the national tour of John G uare's TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (the musical), and made his California debut starring opposite Gena Rowlands in John Cassavetes' last work, A WOMAN OF MYSTERY. In 1987 he formed, with partner Michael Liscio the California Cottage Theatre, joining a long and formidable list of American actor-managers. As Producing Director he presented only new works: A COLD DAY IN HELL by January Quackenbush, BOX PRELUDE OPUS #1 by Brocksmith, MATINEE by Hal Corley, THE ONE LESS TRAVELED by Cary Pepper, A NECESSARY END by Joe Rubinoff, RIPE CONDITIONS by Claudia Allen, and LETTERS FROM QUEENS by Brocksmith. The "Cottage" was unique in that it was the only professional theater heater in the country under AEA jurisdiction for presentations in a private home. By its closing on February 17, 1996, over 8,000 people had attended performances. It was hailed as "Suburbia's Rialto" (Wall Street Journal), "The epicenter of quirky folk" (L.A. Weekly), "Pick of the Week" (L.A.Times), and "Critic's Choice" (Drama Logue). Calling himself "A theater craftsman", it is Brocksmith's belief that "good theater is not a matter of money and place as it is a matter of imagination, craft and guts." The concept of the California Cottage Theatre, a professional theater for free, is to him theater in its most essential form.
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