Audio Interview

4-30-12 – Raised in an environment in which jobs, not careers, were considered appropriate and neither acting nor writing was taken seriously as a way of life Tyla Abercrombie nonetheless discovered early that she was a poet and that she was attracted to, and intrigued by performances of all kinds. Exposure to the classic movies she watched on TV to keep from being scared till her mother came home from work; a performance by the Alvin Ailey dance company at her grammar school; and a production of Sweeney Todd, captivated her. These experience plus the impact she realized she had on others when she read her poetry, stayed with Tyla and although she’d planned to study accounting thinking that it would enable her to “make some money,” she was finally able to honor herself and do “what she wanted;” which was to study writing and acting. And anyone who has seen Tyla on stage as we in Sarasota have been lucky enough to do (she is appearing in You Can’t Take it With You and Clybourne Park at the Asolo Repertory Theatre) is glad that she made that choice. Listen to the forthright, delightful woman tell how she did it her way.

1-29-13 – Audio Interview

David Howard is the real deal; an actor who uses everything about himself to make his performance as genuine as possible. After having done what he was supposed to do – gone to law school to become the hot shot labor lawyer his family expected him to be – David finally, if painfully allowed himself the luxury of being himself. Saying that he should always have known, enumerating all of the clues that his unconscious had given him, but which, in his zeal to be a good son he ignored, David at long last embraced what he had always know he was – an actor. And he has been studying, working at, honing his skill ever since. At 85 his performances are flawless but David has not stopped trying to make them better, realer, more universal. Listen to David’s funny, interesting, human story, and come see him in action in You Can’t Take it With You currently running at the Asolo Repertory Theatre.