Chris Carson's acting career has barely begun but he is already having a spring awakening. He received word this past week that he is one of the nominees at the Community Theatre Coalition Awards, in the category of Best Male Actor In a Leading Role (Musical).
Carson played "the rebellious and magnetic Melchior" in this coming-of-age youth musical drama, adapted for the modern stage from the 1890 script by German playwright Frank Wedekind. The show was presented by Fighting Chance Productions at the Jericho Arts Centre.
Carson is familiar to local audiences for his title role portrayal in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, plus productions of Miss Saigon and Hair by Bonnie Mathers' Excalibur Theatre Arts Company. He departed Prince George two years ago to try his talents on the stages and screens of the Lower Mainland. So far, so good. He was on-camera for a couple of short films made as student projects, and then he landed the role in Spring Awakening.
"The nomination for the award really is an honour, and it helps keep you going, keeps you more clear about this being the right career path," he said. "When things start getting hard for coming up with more work, and you're worried about rent because Vancouver is expensive, you start to wonder about why you're not getting into the audition room enough, and you start to think about how you only have a high school education and the training you did for acting [for him it was SchoolCreative Institute of the Arts and Austin-Tuck Studios] and should you be training for a more traditionally stable career. But then I think about what I would do instead, and there's nothing that excites me. My adrenalin rush comes from being up on stage or in front of a camera, pouring my heart and soul into a character. The feedback I got from Spring Awakening was such an amazing feeling - to know you were able to move people and bring them on an emotional journey through your actions on the stage...wow."
He remembers exactly where he was when that feeling first set in. He was in Grade 8 and was set on taking a wood shop class but was furious to discover it was full and the only option for him was a drama course. It wasn't long with teacher Shannon Schinkel before he noticed a surprise sensation of eager anticipation for each new class. He got a five-line part in the group's play and even that gave him a stage rush. He had become hooked on acting.
Soon he was taking singing lessons with Dawn Boudreau and dance classes at Excalibur, then earning parts in their plays. Now he has an agent, he's pursuing his craft in one of the world's hotbeds for acting, and he has his first award nomination.
He will be back to Prince George before then for a family retreat at Saxton Lake, and he is looking forward to reconnecting with his roots, but at least part of his mind will be looking forward to the CTC Awards. In addition to his own nomination, their production is also up for Best Musical, Ryan Mooney is up for Best Director, Clare Wyatt is up for Best Musical Director, Sarah Smith is nominated for Best Female Actor In a Leading Role (Musical), the Best Female Supporting Actor (Musical) category got the play two nominations for Grace Newson and Brittany Clough, while the team of Peter Young and Ashley Norton are up for the Best Sound Design trophy. The hardware is handed out on Sept. 6.
