“Star Trek” actor John de Lancie teaching at Quartz Mountain, appearing at Tulsa’s Trek Expo
John de Lancie of “Star Trek” fame teaches a class at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain. (Photo by Ashley McKee/The Oklahoman)
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Sessions fit Q to a T at state arts institute
Actor John de Lancie is accustomed to playing many roles, from acting in TV shows, films and stage productions to directing radio plays and operas.
So, it’s not surprising that de Lancie, best known for playing the impish, godlike alien Q in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” worked in some multitasking when he accepted a teaching position at this month’s Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute.
For the past two weeks, the 61-year-old performer has been training aspiring actors at the rigorous academy for Oklahoma high school students. The intensive program takes place “out on the frontier” at Quartz Mountain Resort Arts and Conference Center near Lone Wolf in southwest Oklahoma.
“I roll out of bed, go and teach, have a little something to eat for lunch, go and teach and have a little something for dinner, and listen to lectures. So, I’m arts-immersed … just like the kids,” he said with a laugh during a recent phone interview from Quartz Mountain.
Once his students give their final acting performance tonight, de Lancie is headed to Tulsa, where he will appear Saturday and Sunday at Trek Expo 2009.
Though he doesn’t do much teaching these days, he accepted the Quartz Mountain job because of the quality of the program. His usual instructor jobs involve professional actors rather than students – “you know, people who you can pressurize without any compunctions,” he said with a laugh.
“When you’re teaching young kids, a lot of them just haven’t done this … and they certainly haven’t done it at a level with somebody like myself who is coming from the point of view of saying, ‘Listen, this it’s how done and let me explain to you and show you,” he said. “There’s no coddling here because we’re putting up a show and it’s being done very quickly.”
A first-time instructor at Quartz Mountain, he said the program teaches students that just because they’re not in a scene doesn’t mean they’re not engaged in a performance. His students will perform tonight a spoofy adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Lost World,” a sort of performance art homage to radio shows, complete with musical ditties for commercials.
“We’re going to give a nod to the notion of a radio show, but there’s also a great deal of movement. … It is much more a play than it is a radio play,” he said. “It’s a three-ring circus.”
The multifaceted performer said his wide-ranging roles not only make him a better teacher, they make up just the kind of career he had in mind when he got into the entertainment business.
“I’m no good after about three months at anything. I am ready to move on, so the notion of seven years on a TV show is just not particularly something that I would be wanting to do,” he said. “My idea of a great year would be a play, a half dozen readings, a couple of movies, three or four TV shows to pay the bills.”
His Internet Movie Database page lists more than 130 acting credits, including the movies “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle,” “Reign Over Me” and “Crank: High Voltage” and the TV series “Hill Street Blues,” “The West Wing” and “Days of Our Lives.” But for many people, Q remains his most memorable role, though he only played it in a few episodes of the “Star Trek” spin-off series “Next Generation,” “Voyager” and “Deep Space Nine.”
In the 1980s, he made one of the first of his many” Star Trek” convention appearances at Tulsa’s Trek Expo, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. He compares interacting with Trekkies to encountering theater fans who come to the stage door – only “amplify that by 400 or 500 or 2,000 or 3,000 and you have the same thing over a show that in this case I shot 20 years ago.”
“The world of ‘Star Trek’ has been really kind to me. And the people that I’ve met there have been great,” he said. “They’re not as weird as sports fans, who when their team loses the game, they go and burn cars and torch the downtown and when their team wins the game, they also burn cars and torch the downtown.”
Becoming so closely identified with a role such as Q has its advantages and disadvantages, but he doesn’t regret playing the “wonderful character.”
He thinks actors sometimes just need another breakout part, and de Lancie may have found his: He lately has received rave reviews for his recent three-episode guest-starring role as the father of a doomed drug addict in the acclaimed AMC series “Breaking Bad.”
“He loves her desperately but he just doesn’t know which way to turn, he’s done everything, tried everything. It’s a role that I understand that a lot of parents out there … have (sent in) mail about,” he said.
Going on
Quartz Mountain Onstage Weekend
When: Public student performances begin at 7 tonight and 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Quartz Mountain Resort Arts and Conference Center near Lone Wolf.
Information: www.oaiquartz.org.
Trek Expo 2009
When: Today-Sunday.
Where: John Q Hammons Arena, 6836 S Mingo, Tulsa.
Information: www.trekexpo.net.
-BAM
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[...] WHERE ARE THEY NOW: DAYS’ John de Lancie (ex-Eugene)Actor John de Lancie is accustomed to playing many roles, from acting in TV shows, films and stage productions to directing radio plays and operas. So, it’s not surprising that de Lancie, formerly Eugene on DAYS OF OUR LIVES, worked in some multitasking when he accepted a teaching position at this month’s Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute. [...]