Interview with Jim O’Neil

10-15-13 – Audio Interview

This is an atypical Lynne Show. A few times I have neglected to hit the right button on my recording device and failed to record an interview. I learned early that if I re-interviewed the person, the spontaneity of the original was inevitably lost so I stopped doing it and resigned myself to losing that person’s story. When I realized that I wasn’t recording the terrific interview I was getting with Jim O’Neil however he surprised me by saying “well, I guess you’ll just have to tell my story” and so, in this show, I am doing just that. Jim O’Neil never intended to be an actor. It was a series of unrelated and seemingly insignificant events which triggered in him a certainty that theater was his destiny. You can hear me describe those incidents and then hear Jim (I finally turned on the recorder) talk about the philosophy which motivated Jim and his wife Karyl Lynn Burns to create the Rubicon Theater, the first professional theater in Ventura CA. Listen to this thoughtful man talk about his passion for creating a space where we humans can tell our stories and cement our humanity.