Wherefore art thou, Kyle W. Porter?

Wherefore art thou,

Kyle W. Porter?

State your name.

Name is Kyle W. Porter.

What does the “W.” stand for?

That is my stage name. It is also the first letter of my middle name.

Which is?

Which is a secret.

Where’s your hometown?

Uxbridge Massachusetts

Where did you go to school?

I just graduated from Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts.

With a degree in?

A Bachelor’s in Theater…and a minor in English.

What attracted you to CSC’s Apprentice Program?

I had a lot of friends from Dean who had done the program before. They just told me about their experience and what they did and all the workshops and I was like “Wow, this is…this sounds really insightful and helpful.” And it was a lot of training that I never encountered at school or before, so I wanted something like that. To get exposed to new ideas.

And I’ve never been a New York person, I’ve always been a Boston person. So to work with a Boston company, in Boston, on one of my great loves, Shakespeare, is just, you know, the ultimate money shot, the pot of gold at the end…it’s everything.

Your great love. So what’s your favorite Shakespeare play?

Hamlet. For a lot of reasons. It was my first Shakespeare that I ever read. We read it when I was in the eighth grade and I got to be, read for Hamlet…for like the whole class. I got to be Hamlet for the whole thing. I did the death speech, “The rest is silence.”

And the characters in the play, they’re so interesting, because there’s so much going on. Not just with Hamlet and the great debate, is he really mad. But there’s a lot going on.

(Kyle spends the next 5 minutes giving an in depth analysis of every other character in Hamlet.)

Is your favorite character in Shakespeare from Hamlet? Is it Hamlet?

Of all the characters?

Of all the characters. Of all Shakespeare.

Of all Shakespeare? Ah, that’s a good one. Wow. Tricky question, Caroline.

If not him. It’s Hamlet, Dogberry. Dogberry really intriguing to me, I just love Dogberry. And the clown from Twelfth Night.

Curve ball. Now have you had any experiences this week that really inspired you?

You know. You were there in class when these things happened.

But from your voice.

Yeah, in voice, Paul, was it the first day of classes? When we just did the honest scanning of yourself and relaxing and investigating and telling how you feel in the moment and trying to describe it. It was just I never like had an experience like that and I can’t…the only way I can describe it is an out of body experience because as I was doing it I physically felt tingly. No really I feel like, you know when your foot falls asleep and the pins and needles kind of thing, it felt like that, but it was all the way up the length of my arms. And then Paul was trying to have me describe it, and I couldn’t describe it.

I feel really good and like everyone needs to try this, but I want to share this with people.

I said something like “I have something to say, and people are listening to what I have to say and it’s what I have to say and not what anyone else wants me to say. And that has weight and that has meaning and someone is out there actually listening to it and I get to share it with another person. And that is just, I don’t know how to describe that feeling, that tingly feeling.

I’ve never come close to anything like that. It’s what you dream about happening.

What character do you want to work on?

I have a Romeo monologue, if you can believe that.

Your favorite piece of advice. That someone gave you.

Two pieces. Never be afraid as an actor. As one. And be spontaneous. Explore the unknown.

I have this quote from a Chinese fortune cookie and it says explore the unknown.