Despite a successful weekend performing as Curly in the Playhouse Merced production of “Oklahoma!” H.D. Southerland wasn’t exactly singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” on a cool October Monday. He’d worked his overnight hotel job and also had his full-time course load in
psychologyand
philosophyto worry about.
But the
UC Mercedsenior took a calm view of his busy life.
“I wouldn’t want to look back and feel like I’d missed out,” he said.
Southerland has accumulated an impressive résumé of experiences so far - from a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps to last summer’s Merced Shakespeare Festival productions of “The Tempest” and “Twelfth Night.” Acting makes life busy for the Baltimore native, but he enjoys the challenge.
“It’s a crunch, like taking tests,” he said. “Sometimes you don’t know how well you know something until you’re forced to put the book down and test yourself. Then you realize you know more than you thought you did, and things start clicking.”
And, he admits, he finds it therapeutic to perform - even in class.
“Even oral presentations are great for me,” he said. “If I’m in a group where others are shy about speaking in front of a class, I have no problem jumping up there and doing it. It’s a way to be on stage a little bit.”
Fortunately for Southerland, his professors know him well and understand his erratic schedule during production. “They know what I’m capable of, and they know I’ll pull it out in class once the run is over,” he said. “But I’m still trying to drag them all out to see the show.”
He does plan a break from acting once “Oklahoma!” closes. After all, he’s planning to graduate in the spring and move on to an MFA program in theater at a big arts school like UCLA, NYU or Juilliard, so he has senior meetings, the GRE and grad school applications to think about.
He is, however, eyeing Playhouse Merced’s spring production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“There’s a certain window of time when an actor can play Stanley,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to play Stanley.”
