There's at least one actor in the Tampa Bay area who's making a living from being on stage.
"I'm barely making a livable wage," says Jonathan Harrison, as we talk in the lobby of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Jaeb Theater. Harrison's here to rehearse Forever Plaid, the '50s-based musical that's playing at TBPAC till Aug. 12. "I was a hobby actor for four years, since Macbeth (at American Stage, 1997), that was my first pro show. And then I decided, if the opportunity ever came, I would quit my day job, which was with the city of St. Pete Recreation Department. I was a special events coordinator, and I made pretty decent money. But this is a passion of mine, this is a dream, and I said if I can ever find something that would allow me to do this and pay my bills, then I would go for it. … Being a company member at the Performing Arts Center totally allowed me to quit my job of 12 years and come over here and do some theater."
As anyone who regularly attends local performances knows, Harrison, 34, is a fine performer with a strong singing voice and a comfortable, natural stage presence. But what struck me most during our talk at the Jaeb is how little the handsome, soft-spoken Harrison resembles the stereotype of the stage-struck, crowd-infatuated young performer. In his gray jeans and gray sweater vest over a white T-shirt, he could just as easily be a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology or a prep school instructor. And there's little — besides the earrings in both ears — to suggest that Harrison was once a rock 'n' roll singer who made several albums and established himself as one of the most charismatic frontmen in the Tampa Bay scene. Maybe the explanation is in his upbringing: Harrison's father was until recently a Methodist minister of music who "had one of the largest Methodist Church music programs in the country in St. Pete," the actor says. "I grew up in this huge music program, sang in all his choirs growing up … so I was always on stage for him, and in high school I was always on stage."
Harrison focused on acting at Boca Ciega High in St. Pete. And it was as an acting student that he was offered a part-time scholarship by the University of Miami. He went instead to St. Petersburg Junior College, where he continued to sing and perform in plays. But it was the rock band that he fronted — first called I.C.U. then The Catherine Wheel and then Edison Shine — that mattered most to him. Eventually he left Florida Southern College, where he was a theater and music student, to tour with his band. He thought he had found his metier. But things change. In 1997, musician Joe Popp, who wrote the music for Shakespeare in the Park's rock production of Macbeth, asked Harrison to take a role in the play — because, Harrison says, "he wanted his rock 'n' roll friends in the show."
Harrison loved acting in Macbeth. "It was a blast," he effuses. "It really made me fall in love with American Stage, it made me fall in love with the Shakespeare in the Park show, which I'd never seen, and it was like going to summer camp. That's the way I felt when it was over, it was like really sad, everybody was going home."
The year after, he was cast in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that role led to parts in We Got Gershwin, The Food Chain at TBPAC, more Shakespeare in the Park, Webb's City and eventually his current full-year contract at TBPAC. And somewhere in there he decided that it was acting, not rocking, that mattered most to him. A career was reborn.
So why, if his passion is acting, does he stay in the Tampa Bay area with its relatively few opportunities? "Because my family's here," he says. "… and I adore my family. A lot." Furthermore, he sees this area as a good place to get re-educated: "I'm going to see if I can do this here in Tampa for a little while, and learn as much as I can, because realistically, I had 11 years off from acting, and I have a lot to learn and catch up on. And this is a really great place to … be educated. As long as you get the jobs."
Harrison thinks he might eventually try working in New York, but wonders whether he might have fared better there in his early 20s. He also wonders if local producers are aware that he's available not only for musical roles but for straight dramatic parts. Not that he has anything against cabarets like Forever Plaid: "I happen to like cabaret shows," he says, "and I happen to like to entertain people, and I don't believe that entertainment is something you should give up just because you want to be artsy. …"
Even so, he admits that, having already demonstrated his singing talent, it's straight dramatic acting that intrigues him most. So he's excited at the possibility of acting in The Crucible or Dracula in TBPAC's next season. And he's impressed by companies that specialize in such dramas, especially newer groups like Jobsite Theater and the Alley Cat Players: "I think they're just so passionate, and I respect them, I really do," Harrison says. ""Cause they have a vision, and they're totally committed to doing what they're passionate about."
He's been performing in front of an audience since he was five years old as a member of a choir in a 3,000-seat church. He got hooked into acting when he played a role in West Side Story in ninth grade. And now, after four albums as a rock frontman, he's being cast again and again on local stages. "When I jumped back into the theater, people were astounded that this rock 'n' roll guy could come on stage and be so comfortable up there, and how does he do that? Well, it wasn't because I'd never done it before, because I had. I just took a break from it for something totally different."
The break is over; in recent years, Harrison has become one of the most familiar faces on local stages.
And, like Harrison himself, this area is just finding out what Jonathan Harrison can do.
Unityfest. A consortium of local theaters and the LiveArts Peninsula Foundation are holding a theater unity party at 8 p.m. Monday, July 16, at the Backstage Lounge of the Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St., St. Petersburg. Anyone involved or interested in theater is invited to network and shmooze with local theater professionals and representatives of individual stages. For more information. call 727-565-0196.
This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2001.