We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful David Henderson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with David below.
David, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
When I was five years old, I was cast as the Mayor of the Munchkins in THE WIZARD OF OZ. I will never forget on opening night, I was supposed to present Dorothy with the key to Munchkinland. I reached into my pocket and realized I didn’t have the key. I looked at her and without hesitation announced, “I don’t have the key.” The audience laughed and in that moment I learned two things: 1) ALWAYS check your props and 2) I loved the sound of laughter. I loved the idea that something I was doing could create a reaction from hundreds of people. I haven’t been fit for “normal” society since.
David, 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 am a native North Carolinian. We seem to be a rare breed these days. I grew up in Kinston, NC. When I was 7 years old, my family moved to Isfahan, Iran. We were there for almost three years and left just prior to the American Hostage crisis. Needless to say, that was a very formative time. When we came back to the US, we moved back to Kinston and I continued doing community and school theatre. After high school, I attended UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar. While at UNC I was a founding member of PAUPER PLAYERS (which is still going strong over 30 years later). When I graduated, I thought I might go to law school, but that wasn’t my passion, so I left school with a degree in English and Performance Studies with a minor in African American history…and I started acting. I was working every possible job that would have me and I learned that I loved the craft of acting. I loved the process of making theatre. I threw myself into it…but, I needed a consistent income, so I took a lateral entry teaching job as a drama teacher at Underwood Elementary in Raleigh. I was there for about three years. During that time, I started performing in Theatre in the Park’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL. First as the Lamplighter and then three years later as Jacob Marley. (I just celebrated my 3oth year in the show!!!) The final year of teaching I worked on a film and made more money in 31 days than I was going to make in a year as a teacher, so I took my money and went to LA to do a play. I am probably the only person that went to LA to do THEATRE…but, I did. Fast forward to my coming back to NC. NC is home and I love being able to live here and make theatre. So, when I came back from LA, I kept working. I was doing shows with all the theatres here in the area. I got married. I had a son. I got divorced. I started a theatre company! Ten years ago, I started Honest Pint Theatre Company. Initially I started it to produce the play A STEADY RAIN. That production brought together some great talent and was successful so it looked like Honest Pint might stay…and we have. Honest Pint Theatre Company is a professional theatre company. Our inaugural offering was a critically acclaimed production of A STEADY RAIN by Keith Huff. Our 2015 production of Sharr White’s ANNAPURNA won awards for Set Design, Acting, and Best Drama at the Inaugural Triangle Theatre awards. After this production, Susannah Hough joined as co-srtistic director. In the few years since, Honest Pint produced the critically acclaimed production of William Shakespeare’s HAMLET (UNCUT) and the regional premiere of THE NIGHT ALIVE by Conor McPherson,which was hailed by critics as the season’s most satisfying production and one of the top five productions of 2017 in the Triangle. Audiences roared for our production of KING LEAR and critics lauded it. We also shared THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY, which had audience members coming back multiple times to experience the show. Critics called it “masterful.” We have also produced THE HERD by Rory Kinnear, (We were only the third company in the U.S. to produce this harrowing and heartfelt piece of theatre. ) We also were able to be the local premiere of THE LEGEND OF GEORIGA MCBRIDE, a story of “logical family” and finding your place in the world in places you’d least expect. The show had audiences and critics cheering, hollering, and throwing dollar bills, with their cheeks sore from laughing for 2 hours. The pandemic hit us hard and we couldn’t produce for two years…we made up for lost time. We came out ot the pandemic with a critically acclaimed production of SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS, followed by a remount of our first production ever A STEADY RAIN as well as the regional premiere of TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS and the creation of an original musical, AWAY HOME!
During this 10 year period, I have also worked outside of Honest Pint. I continue to play Jacob Marley in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, but I also have done I AM MY OWN WIFE, LOMBARDI, and BARBECUE with THEATRE Raleigh. I played Sweeny Todd at Raleigh Little Theatre (and understudied that role at Playmakers Rep). I did a live streamed production of A NUMBER during the pandemic as well!
I try to stay busy. Creating is something that makes me happy. It gives me a reason to wake up. I am a very lucky man. I have a great wife, wonderful kids, and I live in an area that allows me to make art and still have a life offstage!
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Honesty is key to me.
I believe theatre has the power to illuminate, transform and heal, and that experiencing theatre is essential for communities to thrive. Theatre brings us together, to sit near one another, to hear stories, to lift our voices in song or sorrow. Theatre creates worlds like no others. Its immediacy cannot be duplicated. Its intensity cannot be matched. A playwright’s miraculous words, directed with insight and acted with passion, elicit laughter, sadness, astonishment, enlightenment and inspiration. Suddenly, we are not alone.
Theatre is communal. An actor speaks a playwright’s words. Another answers. Dialogue begins; melody rises. The audience adds its own energy, rhythm, breath; harmony emerges — all of it entwining together in a shared experience of power and exhilaration.
I believe in excellence and strive for greatness. I believe in taking creative risks and working above and beyond my comfort zone in order to create experiences that stimulate, inspire, and challenge audiences. I want Honest Pint theatre to be an artistic home where professional actors can continue to work on their craft with their peers. Ideally we will inspire the next generation of theater artists through performance, education, and outreach.
I truly believe that “… the purpose of playing, whose end, both first and now, was and is, to hold, as ‘t were, a mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure,” (HAMLET) …and that this mirror should show who we are; what and how we love, what and how we hate, what we’re doing right in the world, what we’re doing wrong; that mirror should show the state of humanity as it is. It should be affirming as well as condemning. It should make us think; it should make us laugh; it should make us cry. It should be honest.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I think that people often take the arts for granted. They seem to just be there. We are lucky to live in an area that has so many opportunities for people to engage with theatre, dance, fine art, and film.
Every week there is something that someone can go see – go do – go experience.
The fact that the arts are so ubiquitous (sorry for the big word) also leads to a sense of complacency. People just assume that there will always be things to see and do. The reality is that each and every one of the arts organizations is working so hard behind the scenes to stay afloat. Space is a huge issue for small companies. We don’t have a home. We are always looking for performance venues and when we find one we could spend upwards of $10,000 in rent! Not only is space a constraint, but we are always trying to manage our budgets. There is so much that goes into creating one show (not to mention and entire season) that I don’t think people fully appreciate. So many of my colleagues face the same challenges at different levels.
Contact Info:
- Website: honestpinttheatre.org
- Instagram: @theatrescot
- Twitter: @theatrescot