We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carl Weintraub. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carl below.

Carl, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I’ve had plenty of “regular jobs” in my life. Most of them I’ve enjoyed. ALL of them I’ve learned from. When i was a little kid i fantasized about being a trash collector. I STILL fantasize about being a heavy equipment operator or a long haul truck driver. When I was a brick and stone mason, I was really happy. For one thing, it’s truly artistic and creative work. But also it was great working for someone else–going where I was told to go and doing what I was told to do, and then going home to have dinner with my wife and play with my kid, without a worry in the world. It’s kind of what i love about acting as well. When i’m on stage i’m standing where i’m told to stand and saying what i’m told to say. Running a theatre company, on the other hand, is a bitch. So why do i do it? Maybe because the other just isn’t enough for me. Maybe because it’s something that had to be done. Maybe because it’s good work in the world. I like to say that I’m never happier than when I’m on stage. But that’s not entirely true. I’m just as happy when i’m spending time with my kids. I’m just as happy when I’m watching TV with my wife. Or having a good meal with friends. And, though the WORK of running a company is not always happiness inducing, the FACT that I have this work in my life, makes me even something more than happy. It’s rewarding, gives my life meaning outside of myself, it’s good work in the world, and my ticket to heaven right here on earth.

Carl, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Let me start with what i want. I want for nothing. Not that more money or more great rolls as an actor wouldn’t be welcome, but at 77 years old, my life is good. I’m not going to try to sell anybody anything. I never have. (As the director of a not-for-profit theatre company, I’ve written plenty of grants in my life, but i’ve always been lousy at marketing.) Even when i’m out on an audition, I never feel like i’m selling myself, it’s the character I’m hoping they’ll hire. And if I don’t get the part, some other very deserving actor will, and I’m sure he’ll do a great job.

As far as what I’m proud of, well, I could say my wife and kids, but who they are is more a product of them than of me, so I can’t take much credit there. And of how much I’ve loved and cared for them, well that’s just something you can’t help doing. So my career. Been the star of a couple TV series, a couple movies and more than a couple stage plays. But I’ve supported my family, at least as much through other lines of work than acting, so I don’t have much bragging rights over my acting career, but i do have lots of good stories from it and I’m happy with what i’ve done.

My ticket to heaven (and I use that word allegorically) is We Tell Stories. I started it in 1981 pretty much on a whim. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art needed a hands-on experience in theatre for kids, so I got some like-minded folks together and put on a show. Other museums started asking for the same, then schools, then, in 1982 we partnered with the LA County Music Center, and they got us out there. So I never had to market the company, and by the mid 90’s we were doing 1500 shows and 1500 workshops a year. We don’t do so many these days, which is fine with me, because I still do all the shows, and like I said, I’m 77 years old.

Here’s the Mission Statement I wrote for the company:

WE TELL STORIES is a multiethnic storytelling troupe with a fourfold purpose:

To entertain and stimulate the imaginative instincts of any audience young at heart through the literature, folklore and mythology of all times and cultures;

To illuminate the artistic processes involved in the creation of theatre by crafting an interactive environment in which actors and audience may share a reciprocal creativity;

To inspire communication as the highway along which peace may travel;

To advocate the “flower pot” rather than the “melting pot” image of society–elucidating an intercultural awareness of the humanity that unites us and the beauties that distinguish us.

We Tell Stories because we want to communicate. Storytelling is the Art Form of communication. And only communication is going to save this world.

Audience participation is an integral part of every performance and we Always Make the Children Right!
No child has ever failed on stage with us because there’s no such thing as failure. To get up on stage––even just to raise your hand and say you want to––requires taking a chance. And that’s what acting is about. The act of taking a chance is, in itself, a success.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I don’t know about “resilience.” Resilience implies bouncing back. I look at it as just continuing to move forward.

I discovered the art and craft of acting in Middle School, and knew, then, that’s what I was meant to do in this life. But “this life” is a winding and varied path. In High School there was no drama program so i played football and went to UCLA on a football scholarship, and pretty much forgot about acting until my senior year, when i took a few acting classes and met the people who would be my closest friends for the rest of my life.

I got married right out of college and had my first son, so I had to get a real job, as a juvenile probation officer, to support my family. My wife and I moved to upstate New York to study with a spiritual teacher there, where my experience in probation landed me a job as a social worker with delinquent youth. It was heartbreaking work, like beating your head against a stone wall, so i decided to build stone walls instead and apprenticed, then became, a brick and stone mason.

After three years in New York, my wife and I broke up and I decided to drive back to California, but one hour out of New York, I fell asleep at the wheel and drove off a cliff, breaking my back, among other injuries. Six months later, i loaded all my masonry tools on that barely healed back and hitchhiked to California. I guess that’s what you’d call “resilience,” but, you see, it’s more like it was just in the cards.

There I was, back in California. I was 27 years old. I had the tools, but not the back, to do masonry, so I called one of those friends from UCLA and asked if she knew when they were auditioning for the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. My Middle School drama teacher used to take us down there every summer to see the plays. My friend said, “Yeah, they’re auditioning today, right here in Los Angeles.” I went down, auditioned, got the job, and have been acting ever since. Lot’s of twists and turns since then as well, but even those that may seem more like divergences than mere twists and turns, truly it has always been one path, ever forward.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The quick answer is, “No.” I have never, in my life, set a goal or made a plan to attain some goal. I guess, to me, setting a goal would be akin to narrowing the possibilities. Like going to a fortune teller to find out what’s going to happen. I’ve just always been so enthralled by the mystery of what might happen next, and what part i may have to play in it. So I suppose improvisation has been the driving force of my creative journey. Or creativity has been the driving force of my improvisational journey. Either way, it’s always been about the journey, never the goal.

And as far as a mission is concerned, I try to stay true to myself, be guided by my conscience, do good work in the world, and make at least one child smile each day. I did write that Mission Statement for We Tell Stories, though, so…

Contact Info:

• Website: carl weintraub.com wetellstories.org
• Youtube: search my name on this channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Q1BSk81MRmU1WA4BshnqA