Jim Rambo

We recently talked to Jim Rambo who was Stanley Banks in Father of the Bride.

Jim, what was your first show at PCP, and how did you become involved?

My first was Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, in 1991. Our son got the idea of trying out for the play, so I brought him out to the barn one Sunday afternoon. (He was not cast because he was too young, but he did end up working on the stage crew.) After everyone had read for parts Jim Poor, the director, asked if there was anyone else, and my son said, "Go on, Dad!" I had never been in a play before, even in high school, but on a whim I volunteered, read the parts Jim asked me to, and was surprised when he called and asked me to take the role of Deputy Governor Danforth. "Well...how big is the role?" I asked. "Don’t worry," Jim assured me, "Danforth doesn’t even come on until the second act." (It’s a two-act drama.) So I accepted, and when I got the script discovered to my horror that Danforth seems to have half the lines in the second act! I was panicked, but managed to learn the role and thus was introduced to the stage decades later than most people are. After that, no role has seemed as formidable to me.

You have done musicals and plays - do you have a preference?

Actually I’ve only been in three musicals, and only in one, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1999), did I sing a solo, and that was a very brief one. (In Camelot [1993] I only sang in choral work, and in South Pacific [2003] I had a non-singing role.) So I guess that by default I’ve preferred non-musicals, but only because the most obvious roles for me have been in straight plays--that is, fathers and grandfathers! (And what a coincidence! They all have gray beards and a tendency to be a little large around the middle.)


What is your favorite role you have played at PCP? Why?

This is a difficult question for me, as I suspect it is for a lot of people. I’ve been involved in eleven productions at PCP, but my favorite is always the one I’m doing currently, so Stanley Banks in Father of the Bride has to be it right now. The one most unlike my own personality was as the sleazy Marcus Lycus in Forum, so that was a lot of fun. On the other hand, Grandpa Vanderhof in You Can’t Take It with You (2000) was the most like me--a little cynical, but basically good-natured. The role of Gramps in On Borrowed Time (2002) required more of a range of emotions. Doing accents as Sir Francis Chesney in Charley’s Aunt (2003), as Doc Gibbs in Our Town (2001), and as Murray the Cop in The Odd Couple (2001) was also a lot of fun, since I’m a linguist myself and love to wrap my tongue around different sounds. Of course I still have a soft spot for Danforth (the role, not the person!) as the one that started it all. As you can see, it’s actually hard to choose, because it’s all been great fun. It’s particularly fun, of course, when you work with talented people whom you like a lot, both as directors and as fellow cast members. The camaraderie with a cast and crew when you’re working on a theater production is always something very special. I would particularly like to single out Ernie Ford and Jack Randall Earles as directors with whom I have worked repeatedly, because I like how they handle casts and they’ve had faith in my ability to do a role. And it’s always great to be in a cast with people like Keith Bodnarick or Karen Temple, because you never know what variation or interpretation they’re going to come up with next!



What do you do away from PCP?

I’m a professor at DePauw. I teach Spanish and occasionally Portuguese, and I’m the chair of the Modern Languages department--now the "old guy" in our department! A major activity of mine over the past 25 years has been taking students on volunteer service projects during DePauw’s January term ("Winter Term"). I’ve done about 15 of those, usually to rural areas in Central or South America. The past couple of years I’ve been in two DePauw theater productions, most recently as Robert the deranged math professor in Proof, this past spring. I’m sure that I would never have done theater at DePauw if I hadn’t started at PCP.


Would you encourage others to become involved with PCP?

Absolutely! It’s been a terrifically liberating experience for me, and I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunities I’ve had here at the Playhouse. I would particularly like to encourage DePauw faculty and staff, since it’s a way to get you outside the DePauw "bubble," as we call it, and more out into the community. There have been quite a few DePauw people active at PCP in the past, and in recent years Larry Sutton, Deb Grammel, Chris Wurster, Francoise Coulont-Henderson and Noah Lemos have all been in plays, directed them, or served on the Board of Directors, but I’d like to see more of my current or future colleagues get involved. PCP has proven itself to be one of the most successful community theater operations in the state, and I’m proud to say that I’ve been a part of it.

Thanks, Jim! We appreciate the time you took to answer our questions, and we look forward to seeing you again onstage at PCP!