Charles St. Clair

Four-time Emmy Award-winning director Charles St. Clair must be exhausted. In between classes at ASU West (where he's a professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance), the co-founder of both the Fairmount Theater of the Deaf and Phoenix's Black Theatre Troupe is directing Theater Works' Underneath the Lintel; is shopping for a new show to direct for iTheatre Collaborative; and has recently wrapped a production of Waiting for Godot. Fortunately for us, St. Clair is never too busy to fill out a questionnaire about himself.

Charles St. Clair

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I knew I wanted to be in show business when as a kid, I would watch my parents watching wrestling on TV. I knew if people thought the fighting was real, then I could make them believe what I wanted them to.

The worst thing about being an actor is that people think acting is all fun and games. And that they think I'm alwaysacting.

My worst audition ever was as a director, when the actor auditioning for me was so confused, he thought he was auditioning for Theater of the Death. It was Theater of the Deaf. (As an actor, I've never had a bad audition because, well, "it's only an audition.")

When people ask me what the heck a lintel is, I lead them astray. I tell them it's small like the pea and very hard to get under, thus Underneath the Lintel.

The happiest day in my life was when my four children were born healthy, with all their fingers and toes. Phew!

If I could be anyone other than myself, it would be a very seductive woman.

It's not entirely true, but I sometimes tell people that I'm dying soon.

The fictional character I am most like is Troy in Fences by the late, great August Wilson.

I am utterly terrified of losing the people I love.

I laugh uncontrollably at people who are gullible enough to take me seriously.

The one thing I absolutely refuse to do on stage is "phone it in." And I've spent most of my life trying to convince others never to "phone in" their performance, either.

Something I have never admitted to anyone before is that I'm a lesbian.

Currently I am reading Tuesdays With Morrie. Again.

The first time I got really drunk I was in junior high school, and up on a water tower. And I cried because I was afraid to climb down.

Like my mother used to say, "If the dog hadn't stopped to shit, he would have caught the rabbit."