Actor Eric Sheffer Stevens (who played gay neurosurgeon Reid Oliver on the soap opera As the World Turns) talks about his college training as an actor. That training continued with private training, off-Broadway roles, postgraduate studies and even his recurring role on the soap opera – where he pulled different acting muscles.

Susan Dansby: Were you interested in acting as a child?

Eric Shefer Stevens: Yes. I’m not sure if it was more than most people’s interest, but I was very interested. And in high school, they did musicals; and that was not something I would ever be asked to do. Or anyone would ask me to. So, I never followed through with it until I was in college and auditioned for the drama program at Wheaton and got in.

But I maintained a literature career. That was where my career was. And then I moved to New York to pursue it. To see where he went. So, I did a bunch of little things here, just through the business documents. [i.e., Backstage and Show Business Weekly] which he would audition for, on the Lower East Side, and in the Village, and on church grounds.

Susan Dansby: The Off-Off-Broadway route?

Eric Shefer Stevens: Oh yeah. And there’s a lot of value in those things.

Susan Dansby: I definitely agree.

Eric Shefer Stevens: But it can also drive you crazy. and i studied here [in New York City], with Michael Howard, who also changed the way I approach everything and changed the way I work. He really kicked my ass at a lot of different things.

Then I went to graduate school in 1998 in Alabama. It is mainly classical; but they do new works and contemporary works. Not everything is Shakespearean, despite the name.

Susan Dansby: So the Alabama Shakespeare Festival isn’t just a theater? It’s a school?

Eric Shefer Stevens: Well, they’re affiliated with the University of Alabama, which is why I’m such a Crimson Tide fan. So you’re credentialed and doing your actual class work through the University of Alabama; but you are a resident of the company as a non-shareholder member of the company.

And so you are gaining professional experience, and rehearsing with people you really admire a lot. By far the most important part of the training was rehearsing and being around people who knew how to do it.

Susan Dansby: That sounds like heaven on earth for an actor.

Eric Shefer Stevens: You are taking voice, and you were taking movement, and also text, and a lot of history. Specifically, the history of the theater. But other than that, he was just immersed in rehearsals and doing shows.

Susan Dansby: And you mentioned Michael Howard. Is he an acting teacher?

Eric Shefer Stevens: Yes, and it has been for 50 years, here in the City. He has a studio here and continues to teach. He is fantastic and has been a mentor and just a great teacher to numerous people. So, I was lucky enough to be involved in that for a couple of years in the late ’90s.

Susan Dansby: Well, that’s one of the things that really impresses me, because the soaps are very fast. They move so fast. And the writers call it a “first draft” medium. Whatever the acting term for that is, it’s probably pretty much the same thing. Where else do you go with your instincts than having a lot of time to delve into the text.

So classical training, and certainly working with an acting teacher, really serves you well, something a lot of people don’t really think about.

Eric Shefer Stevens: Yes, it’s also funny; but it is my own unique experience, which I thought was a fantastic exercise. Train a completely different set of muscles. So, you can’t be too much in your head. You prepare as much as you can as far as memorization, then you make snap decisions.

And because we don’t actually rehearse on the soap operas, you don’t have a lot of time on the script, you’ve only had it a couple of days before you go shoot it, so they just put you down there on the floor in front of the camera. , And you do it. And so it was, I liked doing that.

Are you kidding? Instead of spending a lot of time wondering how to approach it, she just does it.

And that is also very useful: to balance your thinking side or your “in-depth study” side.