从俄亥俄州的表演工作室到托尼奖，校友查克·库珀反思了长期的职业生涯

6月12日, 2022, 戏剧界最盛大的夜晚, 托尼奖, 在因新冠肺炎大流行而中断两年后重返. Amid the hundreds of artists there and nominated for an award that night included a member of the Bobcat family and longtime stage actor, 查克•库珀, 凭借《newbb电子》(Trouble in Mind)中的角色，他获得了戏剧类最佳男主角提名.”

库珀, 克利夫兰本地人, 俄亥俄州, 1976年毕业于美术学院戏剧学院. When coming into school he knew he loved performing but was unsure what profession would allow him to have fun and spend his life truly enjoying what he does.

“这实际上是偶然的, 我高中的时候在唱诗班唱歌，虽然我们在高中, 我们有一个半专业的合唱团,库珀解释道. “我们每年都要巡演、出专辑、开几场演唱会. 这是一项严格的工作，但对我来说是一次形成性的经历.”

尽管库珀自己也不知道自己的职业轨迹到底会是怎样的, acting ran in his blood as his father was an amateur actor at the Karamu House in Cleveland.

“I knew newbb电子平台 had great communications and media programs and my initial thought was that I wanted to be a disc jockey and play music all day,库珀说. “这似乎是一个有趣的职业，与我的音乐经历很好地结合在一起.”

一到俄亥俄州参加新生培训，一切都变了. 库珀 went into orientation undecided and just so happened to be put in an orientation group where the faculty advisor was a lighting design professor in the 戏剧学院. 在和教授交谈并填写了一份调查问卷之后, 教授建议他试一试戏剧轨道, 注意到这似乎符合他的兴趣和职业前景. 当然，多亏了他的父亲，库珀一直在剧院里转悠, as well as having friends who did theater and even working maintenance for some local theaters in the summer but had surprisingly never tried acting.

“当我周围的人都在做这件事时，看起来很有趣, 所以我追求它, not thinking I would get such positive feedback from my instructors having never done it before,库珀说. “我取得了很好的成绩，甚至在大二的时候参加了一个大型舞台演出, 这对年轻学生来说很罕见. I auditioned for the studio for my junior and senior year and was trained by several professors in the different forms of acting and how to audition and felt confident that upon graduation I would make my way to New York City to pursue my career there.”

毕业后, 库珀 immediately made his way to the Big Apple with only about $260 in his pocket and connections that would serve as an incredible support system to help him start his career.

“我很快就了解到newbb电子平台无处不在, 但他们在纽约的关系网尤其庞大, including friends and colleagues from my studio program that really helped my get my footing and a place to stay,库珀补充道.

我知道在纽约进入这个行业有多难, 库珀 gave himself two years to get his Actors Equity card (a card indicating a person is a member of the Actors' Equity Association or union) before reevaluating his options. 他很幸运, 他的天赋和与newbb电子平台的关系让这个目标在短短几周内成为现实. 他在俄亥俄州的一个朋友, 梅勒妮海牙, 推荐他参加美国剧团的试镜, which was a performing arts repertory theater that was the largest children’s theater in America. 他很快就在他们的作品中扮演了一个角色, got his equity card which would allow him more access to auditions and to become part of the union, 然后就开始比赛了.

在他漫长的舞台生涯中, 1983年，他在百老汇的音乐剧《newbb电子平台》中首次亮相, 1997年，他凭借音乐剧《newbb电子平台》获得托尼奖, and having played iconic roles such as Billy Flynn in “Chicago” and The Bus and The Dryer in “Caroline or Change,“库珀最喜欢的角色仍然是他三个孩子的父亲, 其中一位也是托尼奖提名女演员(莉莉·库珀), 谢尔顿出演了最近的《烦恼,在那里，他获得了托尼奖提名.

“I realized from the moment I read the script for ‘Trouble in Mind’ that this was quite an awesome assignment. 不仅仅是因为我要演的角色, 谢尔登, 以及他在剧中的经历, but because I was gifted to bring this Alice Childress play to the Broadway stage during this incredible social justice movement,库珀说. “The zeitgeist of the piece was palpable throughout the cast and company and we were keenly aware of how rare it was to be undertaking this endeavor where everyone involved was intimately involved with all their heart. We had an extraordinary company where everyone gave 200% and this complex character of mine felt like a petal of a beautiful flower.”

库珀 explained that what made bringing this work to life so incredible and rewarding was the fact that this play was meant to debut on Broadway and before mass audiences in 1957, 然而，在剧作家拒绝修改其内容后，演出被取消了, 尤其是这部戏面对种族主义的方式. 然而, 2021年的百老汇版保留了剧作家的原话和意图, 这凸显了剧中同样的主题和问题在今天仍然存在的相关性.

“这部剧充满了这样的挣扎，”库珀说. “它花了60年的时间才被搬上百老汇，而当它发生的时候，正值大流行, 因此，观众们正在振作起来，慢慢地回到剧院, 但那些与我们一起冒险的人真的让这一切都值得. 当我们获得三项托尼奖提名时, we were just so grateful to have this work acknowledged and appreciated and to be able to attend the first ceremony since Broadway shut down. 在很多方面都是值得庆祝的.”

库珀 also noted that although being in the room with all these artists so dedicated to their art and the theater and just excited to be sharing live moments with audiences, 在婚礼上，让他印象深刻的是他的女儿大声喊了出来, 她也是一名百老汇女演员，并在颁奖典礼上致辞.

回顾他的职业生涯, 库珀’s biggest accomplishments weren’t necessarily the awards given or the applauses from the audiences, rather that he took this gigantic risk right out of college and ended up achieving his dream – although he still credits helping raise three children as his top accomplishment.

“我有成功也有失败, 他们都很伟大，把我变成了今天的我. The people I’ve met both at OHIO and throughout life and the challenges put before me both honed my skills and fueled me to be better, 这是我在演播室表演课上学到的. This is where I first made an attempt to find myself and OHIO provided such a fabulous incubator to do so between the relationships I made with faculty and my fellow students who helped guide me and encouraged me every step along the way.”

现在是67岁, 库珀 is semi-retired and loving the opportunity to spend time with his family and getting to choose what type of productions and roles he wants to be a part of. 他说，经过40年的不懈努力，他得到了下一个角色, he’s at a place where he doesn’t need to audition anymore and if the right role his offered to him, 他可以选择他是否想把它放在他的盘子里.

“这条职业道路是一种召唤，”库珀说. “There will be a lot of sacrifice but also abundant reward when you see all you’ve accomplished and the impact it can make on others. 我把这种影响称为业力货币. 尽管演员赚的钱可能会波动，可能并不总是很高, the feeling of having another person walk up to you after a show and tell you how your performance affected them or brought about an important memory, or the silence from an audience when you’re onstage because what you’re saying is just that important that they’re intently listening – no money can compensate for that and that experience only happens in live theater.”