We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Patrick Eckland a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Patrick thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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.

After studying acting at Keene State College for 4 years I moved to New York to continue auditioning and working. What I did not see coming was studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute under the guidance of Geoffrey Horne. While studying here I learned the most important skill I have as an actor, identifying how the character is wounded. That’s my way in to understanding another human, the emotional reality of the character.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I always wanted to be an actor, but we all have that little voice in our head that discourages us. So, my answer to that was to go behind the camera, my main focus in highschool and heading into college was film directing. My senior year of highschool I took an “Intro to Theatre” course where one of the first assignments was to pick an perform a monologue. I chose the monologue from Rocky Balboa where he’s talking to his son, the teacher of that class was directing the upcoming production of Sara Rhul’s “Eurydice”. I got cast in the role of Orpheus, and working on this show was an affirmation that this is what I should be doing. I changed my major from film to theatre in college and working on multiple productions such as “As You Like It”, “Hell and Back”, and “Life Sucks”. I moved to New York in May of 2023 after finishing college to begin working on “Free Radicals”, a short play in the New York Theatre Festival. Now, being in New York I’ve had to find a new level of discipline within myself. It can be easy to rely on your classwork and school shows when you have them, but finding work and furthering your craft is a whole other animal. Feeling the need to develop my craft more is the reason why I attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute for a year part-time. I feel like there is this hyper focus on “networking” and always trying to meet people for the sake of furthering your career. One thing the Institute provided me with was the ability to meet other passionate creatives like myself who want to work, I like to think of it as organic networking.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing as an artist is making an audience member feel seen through my work. One of the things that first drew me to acting was that feeling of connecting with an actor through a screen because they were experiencing similar feelings or situations to me. That’s my main goal as an actor, reach an audience for a purpose, and be truthful in the process and result.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think a lot of people tend to not understand the hardships that come with being a creative, a profession where at times there maybe isn’t much buzz around what you’re doing. I think a lot of people see the arts as a choice, so if it’s not working out just get another job. For a lot of the people I’ve come to know in New York as well as myself, being an artist isn’t a choice, we have to do it, our lives wouldn’t be full if we didn’t do it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: pat_eckland

Image Credits

Kyle McCrea, Max Kemp, Nizami Murtuzayev
Thomas Brunot
The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute