We caught up with the brilliant and insightful David Edward Keen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi David Edward, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

To approach acting, I began as a violinist and composer, spending some 25 years working professionally. To me, acting is much like chamber music, or any kind of group music. One prepares completely, then comes to another and immediately starts a new exchange. The very presence of another voice, be it singing or an instrument, changes my reactions, even my thoughts of my own musical declarations. In acting, this happens too. Within an ensemble, I’m suddenly given a place. I recently played Beauregard Lafayette in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play “Appropriate, “ where Bo is rather self-involved and does not typically hear others, his “compassion all tapped out” but this demanded a mastery of script in order to deal with the mechanics of stepping on each others lines while staying true to the text, and subtexts. To me, this is the same in polyphonic music, but using the whole body and a total commitment of person. Much is ineffable, and appears strange in words. I found the examination of a person’s life, times, “causes and conditions “ as they label it in Buddhism, endlessly fascinating, and it only took an unexpected tone of voice or retort or movement from a castmate to unearth some new and fascinating feature.

David Edward, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I trained as a violinist and composer. I discovered cinematography later, and that all lead me to stage acting. I do not think in terms of brand, My performance is there and my music is there. I walk through life like everyone else does, and if my performance and works inspire people then that is wonderful. I give 100% to the craft at hand.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I might have died at the age of 7. I survived because the small tumor removed did not have cancer. I might have been paralyzed from the neck up, but the cranial nerve so caught up in the little growth didn’t get cut. The list of fortunate things goes on and on. But I did get introduced to some basic truths early on, so this helped eliminate what I see as an addiction to seeking glory or status and I simply apply myself to art with the full commitment it demands. I guess I’ve been taken in by that belief, but it feels very right and nice! I really appreciate every moment. These notions have led me to accept an artistic challenge, after surveying the landscape of what it takes to succeed, and in acting the demands are the greatest, I’ve found, to come to a place where I’m living the truth of a person. From there, I’ll just have to say it remains ineffable.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Society can come out to see artists! Come to see their work. Society should become artists if they feel so moved. Over the years, many people have been so positively affected by performances of which I was a part, it sometimes surprised me, because I had been involved in the doing, all the life of a musician, that “just another gig” was revealed as a magical moment of tears for a person, a moment they treasured and so needed. It’s very gratifying to be able to have a good effect on someone’s day, no matter the venue!

Tons of people are always looking for an inspiration, a meditation on their innermost thoughts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.orangebetsyfilms.nyc
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orangebetsy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@orangebetsy
• Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/replywhy

Image Credits

Photograph by Jessica Allers