Miguel Vila-Henninger, a 23-year-old theater major at Western Washington University, portrays Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen in Western's staging of "Terra Nova," Ted Tally's play about the doomed 1911-1912 South Pole expedition of Robert Falcon Scott.
Vila-Henninger's friend and fellow comedian James McGrath plays the role of Scott. The play runs Wednesday, Nov. 9, through Nov. 13 at Western's Performing Arts Center Mainstage Theatre. Tickets are on sale at the WWU box office, 360-650-6145 or tickets.wwu.edu.
Question: When did you start acting?
Answer: I first took an interest in acting after taking theater as an elective in high school; I then joined my high school theater group. When I came to college I was dead set on majoring in a more marketable major, but over a short period of time it became clear that my passion was for performance.
Q: What kinds of theatrical ventures have you done?
A: I recently directed my first show, "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," which was a very enjoyable opportunity to learn and gain the artistic perspective of the other side of the creative process. Other theatrical ventures at Western include playing Valentine in Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona," and Adrian in Steven Dietz's "Private Eyes." I was a member of last year's British Arts Tour, as was in a collection of short plays by Pacific Northwest playwrights that toured in New York and England. I also do improv with Western's The Dead Parrots Society.
Q: Why do you enjoy being onstage?
A: It is a chance for the performer and the audience to have a real, visceral and cathartic experience.
Q: How did you become involved with improv, and what has that experience been like?
A: I had no background in improv before coming to Western, but my friend James McGrath, who is playing the character Scott in "Terra Nova," started bringing me to The Dead Parrots Society's open rehearsals on Tuesday nights. My first Tuesday I was too nervous to do any scenes; I just watched, but eventually as I grew more comfortable with improv and learned from the open rehearsals. I was asked to join at the end of my freshman year.
Last year and this year, I was elected the artistic director. My experience has been amazing and unique; I owe almost any professional connections that I have in the theater world to The Dead Parrots Society. Last year we beat 95 other teams in Chicago as part of a national college competition, which landed us a spot in the Chicago Improv Festival, the largest and longest-running improv festival in the country.
Q: What's fun and different about improv?
A: Improv is fun because you get to be the writer and the actor at the same time. It's different than scripted acting because you and a group of people have to create the story in front of the audience, instead of writing it alone and have "X" amount of months or years to rework and workshop the script. Improv also demands more listening and reactivity than stage acting, because in stage acting you memorize your lines and you have rehearsed making the same choices many times before.
Q: What is the main theme of "Terra Nova?"
A: Though it takes place almost 100 years ago, "Terra Nova" deals with the timeless themes of glory, honor and purpose in one's life, and well as determination and desperation.
Q: How do you get into character?
A: Amundsen was a very cunning, calculating Norwegian explorer who took an uncharted route to the pole and killed and ate his sled dogs on his polar expedition. I get into character mostly through the voice. Amundsen and I have some similarities in the sense that we are both very goal-oriented and pragmatic. But the most obvious difference between my character and me is his Norwegian accent!
Q: What's your plan for life after Western?
A: I plan to audition for the Actors Theater of Louisville internship for after college. If I do not get in, I will move to New York, Chicago or Los Angeles and pursue a career in one of those major entertainment markets. Right now I have the most connections in Chicago, so that is the front-runner, but the Dead Parrots Society plans to do a major improv festival in all three cities, so how that turns out will determine for sure where I move.
