Meet The Actor: Neil Shepherd

Neil Shepherd is a local actor and a worker at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro who is going to play to role of Jean Valjean in the Theater Alliance's upcoming production of Les Miserables.

WFDD radio camper Christopher Stirewalt recently spoke with him.

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Neil Shepherd has been acting and singing since high school and he has recently played roles in Stand By Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story and The Rocky Horror Show. When we sat down i asked him what the most memorable moment in his acting career.

Once when I was first starting out in high school I was performing in a musical and I slid off the edge of the stage during a dance number and fell right on top of the drummer. The director thought it looked so good he moved the drummer over and put a mattress down there in the orchestra pit and made me do it over and over and over again from there on out.

Next I asked him what his advice is to people who want to become actors.

My advice is to give it a try and keep going for it. A lot of people get really nervous and give it up. It was very good experience for me when I was growing up because it allowed me to explore areas of myself that I hadn't know about and it made me realize that I had abilities that I never knew and that I could do things  that I never thought I could do.  So I would say just go for it, you may be nervous at first, but the more you do it  the easier it gets and the more fun it gets.

He said, during our conversation, that acting has changed his life. It has brought out talents that he did not know he had and it brought him friendships he would not have had without acting.You can see him playing Jean Valjean at the Theater Alliance on September 27th through October 6th at SECCA.

For WFDD radio camp, I'm Christopher Stirewalt.