Crushing Malware by Day,
Donning Greasepaint by Night, Part One
Showcase interviews Ben Bockhahn
Occasionally ranked with other double-identify superheroes, Indian Wells Valley CLOTA Award-winning actor and professional IT whiz Ben Bockhahn manages his days equally at ease whether onstage or sorting out computer programming malfunctions. His theatrical roles have ranged from Col. Mustard in “Clue: The Musical” to witch scholar Redlitch in “Bell, Book, and Candle.” We asked him about his bifurcated life.
Showcase: What got you into acting, something so right-brain compared to left-brain computer science?
Bockhahn: I always liked to watch movies, especially the old musicals, and had a good memory for lines and such but was something of a late bloomer. I took drama in my freshman year of high school but wasn’t quite ready for the varied personalities and “out of your shell” type things that are often a part high school in general and drama in particular. It wasn’t until a Cerro Coso production of “Seussical” that I took it up again. After that it was mostly shows with CLOTA and RMES for the last 15 years.
Showcase: Other than memorizing lines, how does an actor prepare to perform someone?
Bockhan: Character study.
Showcase: Anything to do with Jung’s “owning your shadow”?
Bockhahn: Not to begin with, but a thorough character study will include things like faults and motivations, and those things will be applied in the portrayal of the character. You naturally come up against parts of a character’s personality that are in some way different from your own and you have to decide how to handle it. I’ve had several like that.
Showcase: Can you give an example of a difficult character study you have had to do?
Bockhahn: One of the first musicals I was a part of had me playing eight different characters, each in different situations and different stages of life. One of them was a young man, nervous on his first date with a girl. Another was an older, single man, who has been on many dates and can’t quite figure out why no woman seems to like it when he talks about himself (and golf). A third was a much older married man who questions himself on whether he should, after years of marriage and all the rough times that came with it, be less in love with his wife.
Showcase: What did this teach you about the creative process, and about yourself?
Bockhan: All these characters with personalities different in many ways from each other and more importantly, different from me. Needing to portray those characters in a believable way brought me up against a lot of thoughts, ideas, and actions I hadn’t considered much. For that same reason, acting can be a very cathartic experience.
Find out why in Part Two of this interview
which continues next month.