NW student returns to roots after studying in New York
by Ashley Clark, reporter

    After studying acting intensely for two years in New York, Kevin Haberer, a NW drama student, is performing in the Dallas Theatre Company (DTC) production of Our Town, directed by Richard Hamburger.

   Haberer plays several characters in the show including Joe Crowell Jr., a baseball player and a coffin bearer.

   Our Town is recognized for the playwright’s decision to set the scene on a blank stage with the actors pantomiming through the story. Director Hamburger has taken a slightly different approach.

   The actors enter the stage as themselves—actors rehearsing for a play on a blank stage. Gradually, the audience sees subtle changes added to the stage to create the entire set of Our Town. The costumes that the actors wear also evolve as the show takes place.

   “We start out in our rehearsal clothes. Then we’ll add character shoes or a skirt until our costumes are in full,” Haberer said.

   “It (the play) starts out minimal and builds to the surprise ending,” he added.

   Special effects are used on the gigantic stage to create an impressive conclusion to the show, Haberer said.

   Our Town is Haberer’s first professional job after graduating from a two-year acting conservatory in New York. He finds this new level of theater exciting and at times intimidating.

   Several of Haberer’s cast members have worked at a professional level for years.

   “All the leads in the show are from New York,” he said.

   Haberer is also working with well-known locals such as Jerry Russell, founder of Stage West in Fort Worth.

   “He’s really good, as most of them are, and it’s weird to be acting with people who have such capability,” he said.

   Another surprise for Haberer was finding out that one of the cast members was actually on staff at the school he attended in New York.

   Having auditioned for the lead in the show, Haberer said he believes he did not get the part because he looked too young.

   “This is strange because the lead character is 16 years old,” he said. “The part is being played by a 27-year-old actor.”

   Two of Haberer’s characters are 11 years old.

   “I think they cast this way because when you’re watching from a distance, it takes off five years.”

   Haberer’s branch into professional theater began with a general audition, an open call for actors to audition for several theaters at once.

   “Anyone who is interested should definitely go to these,” he said.

   Haberer was instructed to prepare two monologues and a song. He performed Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a selection from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. That audition made him familiar to DTC.

   Our Town does not mark his first professional audition. Haberer auditioned several times in New York. He believes “doing everything right on the how-to-audition check list” made the difference this time.

   Haberer learned several tips and techniques at the conservatory that he used frequently. Among them were tips on auditioning, small acting exercises to enhance his talent and keys on how to handle nervousness.

   “When I first started, I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going. I was nervous … not just kind of nervous, really really really nervous,” he said.

   Now Haberer says he is still somewhat nervous, but because of his New York training, he is better prepared and focuses on the importance of getting the job.

   Performing with Dallas Theatre Center allowed Kevin to enter the Equity Candidacy program.

   “That means within five years I have to get a total of 50 weeks of Equity performances in non leads, and then I’ll have an Equity card,” he said.

   For those less familiar with the theater world, Haberer explained that Equity is a union that was created to protect an actor’s job.

   “There’s only a small catch,” he said. “Once you earn enough points and are a card-carrying member of Equity, you cannot audition for anything that is non-Equity.”

   “However, if you audition for an Equity house and get a part, then you are guaranteed 20 percent of your pay up-front and a certain amount of pay depending on the size of your role. If you travel, your transportation and lodging are taken care of as well.”

   Haberer was recently signed with the Kim Dawson agency in Dallas. After trying for several months to make an appointment with the agency, he finally was able to touch base with them during an open audition. Haberer believes it was the New York name on his resume that got him noticed.

   “It’s silly because it’s just because it says ‘New York,’” he said.

   So far, with his schedule, he has not been able to utilize the agency’s services.

   “When you’re working with the Dallas Theatre Center, they own your soul,” he said.

   His soul is possessed between the hours of noon and 9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sunday.

   Millions of people sign up for acting courses, which may lead one to wonder if acting is a skill or a talent.

   “I think it can be taught,” Haberer said. “If you have an interest in how people work, then you can be an actor. There’s a certain element of natural talent, but mostly it’s being comfortable with being on stage and that comes from just doing it. Someone who has never set foot on a stage could become a great actor simply by just doing it.”

   Haberer offered several tips for those who would like to pursue acting further as he has. His advice begins with traveling outside the box of college theatre: audition for everything available.

   “Try out even if you don’t think you can make it,” he said. “It’s good experience and it introduces you to other people in the theater world.

   “If you put yourself out there and they have equal talent for a part, they may go with the one they are more familiar with.”

   Haberer suggests not dismissing the improvisational acting games played in acting classes universally.

   “It’s not necessarily about the exercise itself; it’s more about being comfortable with doing something that looks stupid and doing it in an honest way.

   “If you can do those exercises without feeling stupid, then you will be confident when you audition outside of your class,” he said.

   Unfortunately, Haberer has not found a cure for jitters before performances.

   “I got nervous running a spotlight,” he said.

   Instead, he advises using the nervousness as an aide.

   “Take that energy that you get from feeling nervous and put it into whatever you’re doing.”

   Several “audition checklists” exist. Haberer shared some of the most important items on his list.

   “Move something in the room,” he said. “It looks like you are in control of what you are doing,whether you are or not.”

   Haberer also suggests dressing as much like the character being auditioned for as possible.

  Reading and understanding the script before hand gives the actor a head start at the audition, especially if the director is reading the counterpart.

  “You have to be prepared to read the text with the correct emotion involved because they give you absolutely nothing vocally to feed off of,” he said.

  A big part of acting is reacting.

  “Even if it’s just a movement of the spine,” he said, “show that you are listening and that you understand the text.”

  On occasion and for the appropriate audition, Haberer uses excerpts from first-person narrative novels as monologues.

  “That way you can be sure that they’ve never heard it before,” he said.

  Finally, Haberer suggests taking direction that is given and increasing it dramatically.

  “Go as far with it as you can,” he said. “That way they will be able to say ‘that’s too much of what I wanted.’”

  Students who might be thinking of enrolling in a conservatory like the one Haberer attended should think it over carefully.

  “I think that the school I went to is good for certain people because there’s a lot of freedom involved,” he said.

  “It’s one of those things where you get out of it what you put in and nothing else,” he said.

  The school does not award credited grades.

  “So you either pass or fail,” he said.

  Haberer suggests that even though the New York location has granted him recognition, it’s what is learned that is the most important.

  “Where you go is not important,” he said.

  He has studied with Beth Bontley and worked with Brent Alford at NW Campus.

  “I learned a lot from the acting classes here, and I trust Brent’s professional advice,” he said.

  “It was a great opportunity, and I’m so glad that I did that although just attending a school does not determine whether or not you are a good actor,” he said.

  Haberer believes the three most important things that make a good actor are attending as many auditions as possible, wanting to know and understand the way people work and trying anything to improve one’s craft.

  His advice to students wanting to pursue acting outside of college is to “make choices and stick with them.”

  “Find out what is going to be the best way for you to get to where you want to be and then go for it,” he said.

  “That sounds kind of funny coming from me because I’m really fickle.”

  He also suggested that actors have to have a certain air of narcissism—even if it’s put on.

  “You’re in a world where you’re selling yourself, so you have to love yourself to a certain extent,” he said.

  Although he enjoys theater work, Haberer hopes someday to work in films. He has done several student films under the direction of his older brother.

  Our Town runs until May 5 at the Dallas Theatre Center. For more information and reservations, call 214-522-8499.