Meet Vancouver theatre professional Owen Bishop.
This continues our special series featuring the 50th anniversary fall graduating class from Studio 58, the professional theatre training program at Langara College.
Meet Owen Bishop
Owen is a soon to be graduate of Studio 58 and, hailing originally from Edmonton, Alberta, he is more accustomed to snow drifts than ocean air, but he’s made do. Outside the theatre his interests include snowboarding, scotch, and his cat. During his time at Studio 58 he has had the pleasure of playing roles such as Curly in Oklahoma!, Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Tim in Elbow Room Café: The Musical (Phase 1), and Capulet in Romeo + Juliet. Come August he will be taking his one man show Half the Battle to the Edmonton Fringe Festival, so if you’re traversing the mountains come say hi. In the future, in addition to working in the theatre he hopes to perform with the opera and maybe figure out what Twitter is.
20 Questions with Owen Bishop
1. Your first job.
Labourer at a landscape supply depot. It involved a little lifting and much napping.
2. The job you always wanted as a child.
To be a professional skateboarder. I can thank the Tony Hawk N64 Game for that.
3. Your pet peeve.
Texting at a movie or the theatre.
4. Your hero.
My Grandmother. She was the toughest woman I’ve ever known and she had the best attitude through even the most difficult of situations.
5. Your biggest indulgence.
Going to Chapters, getting a Starbucks, and wandering around reading all manner of books and then never buying anything.
6. One thing no one knows about you.
I’m quite adept at driving a forklift.
7. Three things you would want with you on a deserted island.
A strong coffee, a good book, and a flare gun or something.
8. The one word your best friend would use to describe you.
Procrastinator.
9. If you were not pursuing a career in theatre, what would you be doing right now?
Travelling the world, or studying law.
10. Hero or villain?
Being a villain is more fun. And every villain is the hero of his own story.
11. Your life’s motto/mantra.
Life’s too short to live it for anyone else.
12. Your favourite playwright.
Eugene O’Neill, Tracy Letts, Shakespeare, Daniel MacIvor, too many to count.
13. The role you are destined to play.
Macbeth, or Jekyll/Hyde.
14. If you were a cartoon character what cartoon character would you be and why?
Principal Skudworth from Clone High. I love the voice, the antics, and his taste in robots.
15. What will it say on your grave marker?
His last words were “What does this button d-“
16. Who would you most like to have dinner with?
Sir Ian Mckellen. I feel like I could either learn a lot from him or we would have lobster fights. Either way, super fun.
17. Your idea of happiness.
Doing what I love for a living and sharing a drink and an adventure with my friends.
18. The one thing in your life that makes you most proud.
I’m consistently doing things that terrify me and I don’t let the fear stop me.
19. Your most memorable moment at Studio 58.
During Oklahoma! a co-actor was supposed to attempt to murder me during the town auction scene. But he left the stabby-murder thing in the kitchen. So instead of trying to kill me he just described it to me. The scene may have lost some stakes but it was perhaps the most fun I had in the show.
20. To be or not to be?
To be. Always be. It’s terrifying and confusing and wonderful.