Kirk Ward returns for performance at El Teatro Campesino
Though Kirk Ward has lived in Los Angeles for the last 16 years,
he is quick to list his favorite places in San Benito County.
Marcus Ranch off Lone Tree Road tops the list.
Kirk Ward returns for performance at El Teatro Campesino
Though Kirk Ward has lived in Los Angeles for the last 16 years, he is quick to list his favorite places in San Benito County.
Marcus Ranch off Lone Tree Road tops the list.
“Main street [San Benito Street] where my grandfather’s babershop used to be; Park Hill in the morning, looking down at the town,” he continued. “Quien Sabe Road; the old Granada Theater; Thyme, my sister-in-law’s [Italian deli]; and of course, going to my mom’s house.”
And when it comes to Abercrombie and Fitch’s copyright of the Hollister name to sell preppy surf shop clothing, don’t get him started.
“That company was formed in 2000 and Hollister was founded Nov. 19, 1868 by William Welles Hollister,” he wrote in an e-mail.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the 1989 San Benito High School graduate is looking forward to sharing one of his shows on the first local stage he knew as a young actor. His monologue, “Three Stories Tall,” will open at El Teatro Campesino Playhouse in San Juan on June 11. The story starts in 1989 when Ward was captain of the varsity football team and student body president. After graduation he can’t quite find his way on the junior college campus he attends, and so the show follows him through his experience of trying to figure out what to do with his life.
“It’s three different monologues that in the mid-90s I performed in San Francisco,” he said. “In 1996, I did a story about my father after I was reunited with my dad after a 10-year hiatus. I read it at a performance art space in San Francisco, and so many people responded to it.”
He eventually transformed the piece into the autobiographical one-man show he will present in San Juan.
“El Teatro Campesino is the very first professional stage I performed on,” he said. “It seemed like Broadway to me and it also had this phenomenal history with Luis Valdez and ‘Zoot Suit’ and ‘La Bamba.’
In Los Angeles, Ward joined Tim Robbins’ The Actors’ Gang, an ensemble theater group.
“Luiz Valdez’ El Teatro Campesino and Tim Robbins’ The Actors’ Gang shared similar aesthetics,” he said. “We created our own work; we wrote the play; we built the set. We let the current setting, cultural values and politics influence our work.”
In addition to his work on stage, Ward has played roles in nearly two dozen films and various TV shows. His first feature film role was in 1994’s “Forrest Gump,” as Earl, a demonstration observer. More recently he has filmed a pilot for an ABC show called “The Law” opposite Cedric the Entertainer and a feature film, “Barry Munday,” opposite Colin Hanks and Patrick Wilson.
Career highlights for him include auditioning for Saturday Night Live, even though he didn’t get the job, and working with William Shatner.
“To be flown out by Lorne Michaels and audition for him at the historic 30 Rockefeller Center was an honor,” he said.
He worked with Shatner on the 2005 TV series “Invasion Iowa,” where Shatner punks a Midwestern town into thinking he is shooting a big-budget film.
“I was captain of the varsity football team and my name was Kirk so everyone called me Capt. Kirk and here’s the really Capt. Kirk,” he said of his month of rehearsal with Shatner. “It was not just the work we did – it’s a really funny show – but spending that time with William Shatner. And it was the first time I was offered a role created for me.”
Still, Ward said “Three Stories Tall” offers something special for him – it is like a conversation between Ward and old friends, he said.
“It’s a time machine to be able to come back and share what I’ve gone off to do,” Ward said. “In Los Angeles, when I talk about a certain person, they relate to it differently. When you come back to your own town and mention a location, a person or a time, you feel the instant warmth and reaction from the audience. You feel like you are sharing a common story.”
The show, which is an hour and 45 minutes long – and comes with a PG-13 rating due to some language – allows Ward to do something he can’t in his other acting jobs.
“It would be impossible to make a movie that jumped around from character to character, from story to story, from moment to moment,” he said. “I created it for that reason.”
In the show, he plays himself, but also takes on the personification of other characters such as his father, his grandmother, and even a car.
“It’s as if I took my experience as a stand-up comic, a playwright, a storyteller” and put it all together, he said.
As an actor, the audition process can be grueling.
“It’s everything like the cliches that you already hear,” he said. “It’s an incredibly tough business, and I am fortunate that I am making my living as a writer and an actor. My life hasn’t changed in the last 20 years. I’m constantly creating something that I am trying to sell or using myself to get a job.”
When he is not involved in auditioning for roles, Ward spends much of his time writing and working on screenplays. He has sold two projects to Disney including “Park It Here,” a story about his time as a valet in Beverly Hills, and “First, Last and Security,” a story about life as a house sitter in and around Los Angeles.
Though his work revolves around Hollywood, Ward said he is a homebody, who spends most of his time at his Pasadena home with his wife, or in his Sunset Boulevard office, where he writes.
“I’ve had my share of fancy events, premieres, and I always feel like the outsider,” he said.
It’s a feeling that fades when he crosses the San Benito County line.
“My favorite place in the world is Hollister,” he said. “It’s my hometown, where I identify, as far as who I am and where I came from.”
‘3 Stories Tall’
Kirk Ward, a Hollister native who is living and working in Los Angeles, will return to San Benito to perform his one-man show “3 Stories Tall” at the El Teatro Campesino Playhouse in San Juan Bautista June 11-28. Performances will be Thursday – Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets for Thursday performances are $10 each. Tickets for other shows are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and students and $12 for children under 12. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 623-2444 or visit www.elteatrocampesino.com.
