Today I talk with actor, director and community theatre aficionado Doug Ironside, whose career has included theatre school, a corporate job, being a nurse and working as an actor. Doug is deeply passionate about acting, the theatre and the change they can bring in people’s lives.

Doug tells me about the many different phases of his career and why he initially decided not to pursue acting as a career. Today he’s involved in community theatre and he dives into the theory of community theatre, highlighting the dangers of letting the same people run community theatre groups year after year.

We then talk about our experience of improv groups and what my thoughts about improv were when I was just getting started. Listen out as Doug explains some of the rules of improvisation theatre and which of those rules you can and can’t break. Doug also shares “the most notorious story in all of theatre”, a very memorable incident from a high school production!

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Timestamps

[1:30] The different incarnations of Doug’s career in theatre and nursing

[3:07] Where Doug’s interest in theatre came from and his experience at theatre school

[6:02] A transformative experience of a marriage break-up and nursing school

[7:38] Getting back into community theatre and starting an improv group and theatre troupe

[10:00] Why Doug didn’t get into acting professionally

[12:55] The other interests that Doug has balanced around his passion for theatre

[13:43] Working as a nurse instead of in sales

[16:17] Community theatre is a bootcamp for working as an actor so if you want to be an actor, do community theatre!

[20:15] Doug espouses his love for theatre and reveals the more nuanced side of community theatre

[22:03] “It was kind of like going to war”: Community theatre can be a fight against inertia

[25:25] Brecht’s thoughts on how community theatre can grow stale and stop evolving

[26:58] Applying the hard lessons learnt about community theatre

[30:27] Doug lifts the lid on my time at the improv group, The Old Dance Hall Players

[33:13] What you can really learn from improv

[36:30] “Pure terror”: My experience of improv

[37:57] The minimal rules of improv as delineated by Del Close and which ones you can break

[41:37] How I found a sense of freedom in improv

[43:27] A really delicious game of Elimination

[44:44] The most notorious story in all of theatre!

[52:20] Doug’s advice to people who want to get into acting or improv

[54:20] Theatre deserves creativity, so don’t be afraid to play

[55:43] An exercise from theatre school

Links

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Janet McMordie on Twitter

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