Questions from
1. I have a dim recollection of your mentioning other theater work beyond the RF. Can we have a brief CV and an inkling of whether it’s something you’ll pursue more actively in your copious spare time?
I briefly did some professional stage work in my early college years (paid to perform! What a concept!). I did some Shakespeare here and there, and was a member of a touring children’s theater company when I lived in Atlanta in the late 80s. Since that time, my thespian work has been limited to occasional forays into community theatre and RenFest performances.
I do occasionally get the jones to do more stage work, although your sarcastic mention of “copious spare time” is spot-on: I haven’t really got the amount of time that such an outlet would require — especially since, in my experience, doing even a community production tends to turn into “The Activity That Ate My Life.”
But who knows — never say never.
2. Another member of our fraternity recently lamented that missing out on RPG sessions was good for work productivity but bad for mental health. How helpful do you find it to be in an active game group when you’re designing?
Actually, I find that I need an active group — but I don’t want to do anything remotely work-related with it. I want it to be recreation, and specifically to remind me why I love gaming (why I got into all of this in the first place). I don’t want to have “work brain” creep into it any more than it would naturally — so I’d prefer to play something unrelated to anything I’m doing work-wise. If I don’t have an active group, the myriad aggravations of working in this business start to pile up, with no “plus side” working against them. Not a good thing.
3. Apart from Monk and Ham, who is the best of the Fabulous Five?
Johnny (William Harper Littlejohn) — Because, like Indy, he’s an archaeologist. Plus, he gets to say things like “I’ll be superamalgamated!” — outside of Monk and Ham, he’s the one with the biggest “hook” as a character. Long Tom and Renny tend to blend into the background for me.
Although, were we to expand the Five to Six, I’d go with Pat Savage in a heartbeat.
4. What is your greatest domestic talent (i.e., cooking, repair, and so on)?
Cooking, without a doubt. I’m a foodie, and I’m pretty damned good, too. Very occasionally, I’ll post a recipe here on LJ (like my recipe for Carne Adovada which I posted in June) — I should probably do that more often.
5. And, since you asked me, what is your dream creative project, assuming a green light?
Well, by “green light” I meant “budget and approval taken care of by whatever Powers That Be” — I’m sort of my own PTB, so I get to go forward with pretty much whatever I really want to… That said, in the spirit of the question, I’ll say that the dream would be for a windfall budget to launch a full-time, commercial, webseries operation. (I’m launching FAR WEST very soon, but having buckets of money to throw at it would be even better.)