WTFaces | Robert Keller, Apprentice

NAME: Robert Keller.

DEPARTMENT: Workshop.

POSITION: Apprentice.

YEARS WITH FESTIVAL: 1.

HOMETOWN: Montreal, Canada (but living in New York, NY since 2001).

JOB OUTSIDE THE FESTIVAL: Former attorney (practiced law full time from 2001 to 2008, including litigation, securities regulation, and corporate governance).

SCHOOL/TRAINING: About to enter second year of the two-year Conservatory program at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York.

FAVORITE PLAYWRIGHTS: Noel Coward, Stephen Adley Guirgis, Richard Greenberg, Douglas Carter Beane, Charles Busch.

FAVORITE PLAYS: Blithe Spirit, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, Orange Flower Water, Three Days of Rain, As Bees in Honey Drown, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.

FAVORITE NON-THEATRE ACTIVITIES: Cooking, working out, listening to music (R&B, Pop, Jazz, sometimes even Classical), listening to NPR, going to the movies, wine tasting, going to the beach, and travel (when I can afford it again!).

HOW DID YOU GET YOUR POSITION?

In the spring of 2007, an actor friend of mine, Jeannie Cole, whom I met while working on a TV show in Canada (The Second City’s Next Comedy Legend), recommended the Festival to me, saying that she had been an apprentice in 1999 and that it had been the time of her life. In addition, more recently, one of my acting teachers at the Atlantic (Cynthia Silver) encouraged me to apply.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE OR FIRST MEMORY OF WTF?

Walking out for the first time onto the Main Stage to portray Pokey, the character in A.R. Gurney’s play Children, who emerges from backstage at the very end of the show and stands behind a screen door silently for about six minutes while his mother (played by Judith Light) delivers a very moving monologue about the disappointments in her life.

WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES THIS SUMMER?

1. Performing as a private eye in Film Noir (a parody of the old noir films from the 1930’s and 40’s) with my fellow apprentice, Claire Siebers; we are being directed by a fabulous Director Intern, Krista D’Agostino.
2. Lighting for the Main Stage.
3. Running lines with Equity actors Brooks Ashmanskas and Susan Pourfar from the cast of Knickerbocker.
4. Performing in Children as Pokey (with Judith Light).
5. Helping to draft a proposal for a short play for Apprentice Night, in which I would perform with fellow apprentices Georgia X. Lifsher and LaToya Lewis, directed by Ariana Seigel.
6. Picking up cigarette butts near the Greylock building with Hillary A. Sexton. (No apprenticeship is complete without it! And Hilary is a riot.)

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

Apprentice Night, the Cabaret show, and performing Film Noir in the Directors’ Studio.

TO WHAT DO YOU ASPIRE?

My immediate goals (for the next year) are three-fold: (1) to continue pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and deepening my craft by taking full advantage of the classes I will have in the upcoming school year (including a Shakespeare class); (2) to expand The Manhattan Comedy Project, a live stand-up comedy show that I will be producing and hosting for the first time in Montreal in August, by bringing it to other cities, such as Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Washington D.C., and Chicago; and (3) to secure representation with a commercial agent either in the U.S. or Canada, or both, if possible. My medium-term goals (1 to 3 years) are to perform Off Broadway and in television commercials. My long term goals include working on Broadway and in film and television in L.A., especially in comedic work (such as situation comedies and romantic comedies). I would also like to explore the world of voice-over work, especially for radio and television commercials, animation, and dubbing (since I am fluent in French, Spanish, and Italian).