Acting Photo Gallery - Steve Anderson

Charles, "Blithe Spirit" at York Little Theatre
What was it like to play my first lead? Overwhelming, nerve-wracking, and absolutely terrifying at first. Fortunately, I was working with some terrific people, both onstage and off, not to mention a brilliant script. In the end, the nerves went away and it became exciting, exhilerating and loads and loads of fun instead. In a strange turn of fate, it was Carol Brown, one of my co-stars in this ghostly tale, who later got me started telling ghost stories in Gettysburg.

ABOVE LEFT: Charles's first wife Elmira (Christy Brooks) is back from the dead, feisty as ever. ABOVE RIGHT: His second wife Ruth (Carol Brown) takes the news... rather badly.

Jim, "Dr. Cook's Garden" at Oyster Mill Playhouse
A fabulous show by Ira Levin, creator of "Deathtrap." The middle half of the play is just the two of us: me as young Dr. Tennyson, and Mike Stubbs as his mentor, who's murdered thirty people "for the good of the town." Love, trust, suspicion, betrayal, the seduction of evil. It was also a reunion with Dan, Jamie, and director Larry Wineland, terrific people I'd last worked with when I'd played one of the leads in "Canterbury Tales" at OMP the year before.

ABOVE LEFT: Young Dr. Tennyson is smart enough to force a confession...
ABOVE RIGHT: ... yet stupid enough to sit down to dinner afterwards. Mmm, cyanide.

"A Christmas Carol" at Open Stage of Harrisburg
I came in as a last-minute substitute in 2000; I scrambled to catch up and get off-book, and things were starting to look up... and then, one week before opening night, the costumer handed me a pair of stilts. Somehow things worked out, and I was back again the next year, and the year after that. A hearty, if belated, THANK YOU to the team of dressers who got me into the nine-foot Ghost costume night after night--and got me out of it in time for my four other roles. I honestly couldn't have done it without them. (This show was also the inspiration for the solo "Carol" I do now.)

LEFT AND CENTER: As if I'm not tall enough already....
TOP RIGHT: Lousy picture, but a fun role: a debtor relieved to hear of Scrooge's death.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Face the wall and spread 'em--why we need dressers!

Baron Van Swieten, "Amadeus" at Mt. Gretna Playhouse
Gretna's a regional theatre; I've been working with them for a while now. I've toured to schools and senior communities with "Amelia Earhart: Lost Hero," I've appeared in their staged-reading series, I've had an original children's play produced there, and I've written an educational play for their touring program. This was, however, my first appearance in their mainstage series. Two weeks to rehearse, just three days on the stage, including one for building the set and two for setting the lights. Result? Our first dress rehearsal of Act Two... was in front of 650 people.

LEFT: Van Swieten. After the show one night, a woman scowled at me. "You were so MEAN!" ABOVE: The cast.

Various Roles, The Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire
I've been working at the Ren Faire since 1998--in the cast, on board the "Terror Train," selling tickets, t-shirts, teddy bears... and pickles. I love the interaction--so much so that at Blast From the Past (a 1980s festival), the directors specifically instructed me to keep my participant pass visible just so they could stop telling people, "What, the Trekkie guy? Nah, he's okay, he's just an actor."

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Steve as Heins the Pickleman, as a rabid Trekkie at Blast From the Past (aka "the convention"), with Tim Moore, and as the well-armed Pickle Slayer.

Tartuffe, "Tartuffe," Pocket Change Productions
My first major role in a feature-length film, no-budget film, playing Moliere's classic conniving, seducing sleaze. It was all shot in green-screen, with the intention of splicing in scenic backgrounds later, an odd experience which led to...

Various, Ham On Rye Virtual Theatres
Almost five hundred live, blue-screen performances as part of HOR's half-live, half-animated, highly interactive VR games.

Model, Smith Communications
Angie Smith got me started as an extra, and later she was the one who gave me my best print ad so far.

Director, "Good Help is So Hard to Murder"
at Little Theatre of Mechanicsburg
I've directed children's shows, one-acts, comedies, original plays, even Shakespeare, but "Good Help" was my first time directing a full-length farce. The script is brilliant, funny, deeply warped--and inexplicably obscure. Plus, I got to play the best part myself: the voice of the parrot. ('Course, the publicity and the review still called it an "all-female cast," but that's another story.)

LEFT: I love Delilah's (Beth McIntosh) maniacal glee as she plans to kill her maid.
BOTTOM LEFT: Officer Judy (Tiffany Moyer) grills Delilah, who was firing the shotgun at... um, crows! That's it!
BOTTOM RIGHT: Delilah loses her cool as she, Miribelle (E. K. Weitzel, R) and Aunt Minnie (Daphin Bowman) spot the Grim Reaper. "Who was that?!" asks Aunt Minnie. Miribelle rolls her eyes. "Who do you think? Who dresses all in black?" "Oh," says Aunt Minnie. "Johnny Cash."

Student, Acting and Improv
No list of my favorite moments as an actor would be complete without a word or two about Tom Roy. He's an actor, a director, a creator of wacky holidays, but I know him best as my improv teacher. He more than anyone led me to open my mind, trust my gut instead of my fears, and follow my dreams just as far as they'll take me. Thanks, Tom! Yes-AND!

YOUR
PICTURE
COULD GO
HERE

Teacher, Acting and Improv
I'm proud to continue the tradition with students of my own. I've taught acting and improv at York Little Theatre, Theatre Harrisburg, Penn State Harrisburg's Kids College, Open Stage of Harrisburg, and Encore Entertainment; drama and theatre courses at Susquehanna University and Elizabethtown College; and I give lectures on theatre history as a Commonwealth Speaker for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. (See upcoming acting classes).