Christopher Myers ’16: Graduated to Professional Performance

After earning a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts from Adelphi University’s Honor’s College, Christopher Myers ’16 wasted no time getting to the professional stage across the country in Chillicothe, Ohio.

He initially tried out for his new acting job in January 2016 while attending The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival with Adelphi. There he auditioned for Tecumseh! at The Sugarloaf Mountain Amphitheatre. The play is about the legendary Shawnee leader as he struggled during the 1700s to defend his sacred homelands in the territory that would become Ohio.

Myers was cast to play Captain Dawes and is the understudy for General Harrison in the production, which opened on June 10, 2016. He has since been cast as Antonio in an upcoming production of The Tempest.

Christopher Myers ’16 at the Sugarloaf Mountain Amphitheatre.

“The Tecumseh! team have become like family to me,” Myers said. “We support and look out for one another. We all live in cabins on the mountain near the theater and live in close proximity to each other.”

The experience of performing professionally for the first time in front of audiences ranging from 300 to 1,800 has been daunting, exciting and psychically strenuous.

“I lost about two inches off my waist and gained roughly five pounds of muscle in my first week on the mountain,” Myers said. “With three major battle scenes and just the energy needed to run around the amphitheater, the rehearsal process was exhausting.”

He credits Adelphi’s stage combat and movement classes for helping him to learn complex fight scenes involving sabers, tomahawks, knives, guns and hand-to-hand combat.

He thanked Margaret Lally ’82, associate professor, for giving him the courage to take the job and Nicholas Petron, M.A. ’73, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre, for teaching him to be a better and more intelligent actor.