THEATER—Greek word for "The Seeing Place."

By Barbara Clippinger

 

dave-macintoshLakeside is home to many expat actors and directors. For some they’ve put their talents on hold to satisfy the demands of raising families and so have worked in conventional careers. Others have acted or directed most of their lives and now in retirement are doing more of the same.

Somehow, Dave MacIntosh managed to do both. He had a long career as a Public Health Inspector in Scotland, England, Bermuda and Canada, and managed to participate in community theatre at the same time.

Born in Scotland, he got involved in the theatre by a chance meeting. While attending licensing school he sat next to a man named Bill Bryden(*) who turned to him and said, “I’m starting a theatre and I’m looking for young people. Have you ever acted?” Dave told him no, but he could recite The Lord’s Prayer in Welsh—and so began a long career in theatre.

Dave says he loves community theatre mostly because it’s comprised of a whole bunch of people working together towards the same goal. He feels he would never have had the chance to play so many leading roles in professional theatre, nor could he have handled the rejection that goes along with it.

A director told Dave early on, “I don’t know what you’ve got, but don’t lose it!” He was talking about ‘stage presence’, something you either have or you don’t. Dave says he has always known how to get attention on stage. Although he never thought he was funny, he knew instinctively the way to pay attention to details: just how to touch a cheek, how to move convincingly if you’re old, how to speak if you’re happy or in pain. He knows how to find the sensitivity in a scene and how funny suffering can appear to be.

When you meet Dave he’s “up,” friendly, light-hearted and full of fun. But at his core he is also a man who takes acting and directing very seriously. Dave is a perfectionist, he’s nervous and a type “A” personality. He says his confidence comes with structure, lots of worrying, and doing his homework, and then he can flourish and create. Dave doesn’t fear growing old because “there are lots of great character parts that become available as you age.”

What makes him happy? Living here, his friends, his wife Win, golf, our weather and the LLT that has embraced Dave and his talents.

I think Dave would agree with Oscar Wilde who said, “I regard the theatre as the greatest of art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be human.”

Dave will be directing the musical The Drowsy Chaperone for LLT in late February 2013.

(* Bill Bryden went on to become the Artistic Director for the National Theatre in London.)

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