Actor Greg Bryan Engages His Passion on Stage, Screen

Actor Greg Bryan follows a circuitous road for his dream, accustomed to both the euphoria and the disappointment of the career, yet through it all still imagining the best of all possible worlds in his dream scenario where is the producer.   ’I’d call all my friends and I’d say ‘I have a role for you, and I can pay you more than you need.”   Bryan’s fantasy reveals the complex orbit of passion, imagination, bonhomie and limitless confidence that defines a complete actor. He is also an actor who over the course of years has developed an expansive group of friends’actors, directors and writers who survive on the inexplicable magic of the stage.   A native Palisadian, Bryan recently returned to the Mark Taper Forum for the second time in an understudy role for two actors in the production of Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s ‘The Lieutenant of Inishmore.’ While he didn’t make it on stage, he said he loved the experience and thinks McDonagh’s play is the ‘greatest play of the 21st century.’   Securing the understudy role with a Taper production added another valuable credit to Bryan’s resume, which also includes roles with L.A. Theatre, Deaf West Theatre, Theatre @ Boston Court, plus three seasons with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival and four seasons with the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival.   Every actor has a creation story. Bryan’s must have been gestating throughout a childhood of exposure to the arts. His parents took his sister Wendy and him to theater, musicals and opera. ‘I remember seeing the play version of ‘The Wrong Box,’ and being entertained, but not inspired to be an actor,’ he recalls.   It was in high school at Crossroads that the spark was ignited. ‘My friend, Max, was in ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle,’ and he dragged me to an audition, getting the word from the director that they needed more people.   ’It was fun. I remember thinking, This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’   The hurdles were yet to be surmounted, beginning with the ‘discussion’ with his parents, Nancy and Ed Bryan.   ’The family has been supportive, but not in a blind way,’ he says. ‘Having arguments with them really solidified it. To be an actor, you have to have a diehard belief in yourself. Belief is critical’self-love and a strong ego.’   Bryan, 38, is not unusual in his dogged pursuit of his craft. After graduating from Pitzer College in 1994, the choice for him was graphic design or acting. He moved to San Francisco and his decision was made. He landed jobs with Bay Area companies, including the San Jose Repertory, San Francisco Shakespeare Company and the Marin State Company.   ’My plan was to see how much I could learn before going to grad school. When my career hit a plateau, I enrolled in the post-graduate acting program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2001.’   Acquiring technical skills was key, but more important, Bryan says, was to acknowledge the brilliance of Shakespeare while remembering that the language is not highfaluting. Diction training was critical, and he learned through Shakespeare what would work and wouldn’t work.   ’I learned to keep Shakespeare down to earth. To be true when reciting that language, recognize he was great, but not a god. He’s just a guy telling a cool story.’   One of Bryan’s favorite roles is Leontes, the king in ‘The Winter’s Tale,’ who became obsessed with the belief that his wife had been unfaithful, only to learn, after tragic consequences, that he was mistaken.   ’I loved playing this role because you watch a man falling apart in front of you. His emotional life is so raw.’   Understanding which roles are right for you is another valuable asset when navigating an acting career, Bryan says.   He believes that he’s not quite ready for ‘Lear,’ because of age and life experience but he is ready for ‘Macbeth.’   ’I love the idea of bringing a little bit of comedy through to dramatic roles. I think that anybody who focuses entirely on the grim aspect of the role is boring. Macbeth was a complex man.’   Bryan auditions for stage, commercial and film roles in Los Angeles, and admits that he is getting better at being more realistic about the whole audition process.   ’Rejection makes you stronger,’ he says, somewhat wanly. ‘A regular ‘no’ is whatever, but a close ‘no’ is unbearable because it’s a part you almost got.   ’You know, in your heart and in your body when you nailed it,’ Bryan continues. ‘And, if I don’t get the part, I am comforted by the knowledge that it was the best me I could be.’   Bryan admits that he is often typecast for TV commercials as the ‘Home Depot Guy,’ or the ‘Funny Cop.’ He recently scored with a commercial for the ESPN awards that was aired during the World Cup. But for theatrical auditions, Bryan knows his strengths and pursues his roles with clear eyes.   ’A director friend of mine was auditioning roles in ‘Henry IV, and I thought, ‘I’m the right age, I’ll go for Prince Hal.’ My friend said, ‘Greg, you’re not the fantasy.’ That was the most honest thing anyone could have said. Be honest with yourself.’   Interested in all aspects of acting, why not? Bryan has recently begun writing his own material for TV.   He and his college friend, Carl Strecker, have written a modern take on ‘Barney Miller’ (the 1970’s comedy series set in a New York City police station) set in West Hollywood. The team has developed a compatible working style, Bryan says, referring to himself as a ‘pacer’ and Strecker as a ‘sitter-downer.’ Bryan is great at dialogue, but too much Aaron Sorkin, he admits and the two edit one another’s copy. With his ego intact, endless enthusiasm and delight in life at all levels, Bryan supplements his income analyzing desktop ads for Google. But, he remains good-natured about the capriciousness of the industry. ‘San Francisco and New York are not great towns to be unemployed in,’ he says. ‘Here, it’s a great town to be unemployed in because I have my family and friends.’