This is part of an occasional series about people who are active in Toledo area theater. Today we talk with actor/​director Bill Quinlan.

Q: What got you interested in theater? What was your first show as a performer, and first show as a director?

A: Every year at my grammar school in San Francisco, St. Brendan’s, there was a “speech contest.” Everyone in the school had to memorize a monologue of some kind. There used to be books of stand-alone speeches, in essence a three-minute one-man show. Some did poems, others did parts of novels. You would do the monologue for the classes and then, if you were any good, you did it before the school in a big contest. I always enjoyed these contests, and they pretty much laid the groundwork for my going into performance. My first real show was portraying a son in the musical Fiddler on the Roof when I was a freshman at my high school, St. Ignatius College Prep, in San Francisco. My first directing job was Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor for a directing class at Santa Clara University.

Q: What does theater mean to you?

A: It means community and communication. Theater has become a second family over the years (but in this family, no one fights over the turkey leg at Thanksgiving!). At the same time, we are communicating something to our audiences. Sometimes it can be pretty heavy, but it can also be fun and enlightening. There are many ways of communicating in theater, from the realism of Ibsen to the poetry of Shakespeare to the songs of Sondheim, and beyond. But it’s always challenging and almost always rewarding in some way.

Q: What is your background in acting and directing? Have you ever taught?

A: I have been a director and actor for just more than 40 years now, some of those years professionally, from California to New York. I’ve been fortunate to be associated with musicals and plays. If I had to put a number on it, I’ve acted in more than 150 different productions and directed nearly 50. After college, I acted and directed in community theaters in San Francisco’s South Bay Area. I have taught, and continue to teach, privately in single-student sessions, but I’m considering more group classes. I did teach for one year at a high school in Oakland, but I was very young and discovered it was not for me at that time. I would enjoy teaching in that situation much more now, I think.

Q: Do you prefer acting or directing? Which is more fun?

A: It truly depends on the show. I took 11 years off from acting so I could just direct, but found that I missed acting and got back into it a few years ago at Toledo Rep in Arsenic and Old Lace (as Teddy Brewster). Now, I’m really grateful that I can alternate a bit and do a little directing and a little acting. I like the control of directing, but the communal work of acting. From that perspective, they are both fun for me.

Q: What made you decide to go to New York to pursue a career in theater? What was it like, being there surrounded by so much theater?

A: I wanted to get out of the Bay Area and try something new. I had some good friends in New York and not a lot tying me down in San Francisco, so off I went. I loved the experience of being in a different city with so much theater. It was an incredible learning and growing-up time for me. I would recommend to anyone that they have a “living somewhere else” experience. I was fortunate in that I was able to do a lot of theater, including one off-Broadway show. But I still hold dear many of the people I met and with whom I worked.

Q: How would you describe our area theater scene?

A: Amazing! Since I moved here 12 years ago, there has been an influx of a lot of truly wonderful theater groups. I’d say we’ve probably tripled in the past decade what we had at the turn of the 21st century. It’s very exciting to see. Of course, the question becomes, can we support so much theater in one mid-sized community? Time will tell. But I do know that many theaters struggle to get the actors and directors they need to mount quality productions. Something Toledo is lacking is a fully professional theater company, with Equity artists and paid staff. 

Q: Do you think theater here and elsewhere seems to be attracting larger audiences? Is it drawing younger audiences?

A: Yes, I think that audiences are growing for theater. As word gets out that Toledo really does have a thriving theater scene, more people are figuring out that there is some quality theater here that will not break the bank. Younger people are figuring out that it’s a great date night too. I think the Village Players is a great example. When I first moved here, all their plays were chosen for their audience, which was an older crowd. Now their seasons are not only well-balanced, but feature shows that skew younger. It’s really fun to see young people coming to the theater.

Q: Could we use more contemporary theater?

A: I don’t think we see nearly enough of the older shows being produced, especially musicals. Theaters seem, for the most part, to want to grab onto the most recent Broadway hits because they know that’s what will bring people to the theater. It was exciting for me to direct Tomfoolery [Based on The Tom Lehrer Songbook] last year at the Village Players because even though it was a fantastic show from the 1960s, it was not very well known and we could really have some fun with it. Also, I think that 3B Productions does a really good job of mixing older and newer musical productions. If anything, I’d like to see the great writers reintroduced to Toledo audiences: Tom Stoppard, Joe Orton, Lillian Hellman, etc. I’m just not sure there is an audience for something other than the “known.”

Q: What would you like us to know about you?

A: I am the inspiration for a well-known Saturday Night Live character. I was an administrator at San Jose Repertory Theatre in the early ’80s when we brought in a semi-well known Bay Area comedian, Rob Schneider, to do an original musical satire called UP the Yup  written by the great musical satirist Roy Zimmerman (I was Rob’s understudy as well in the show). Rob would come into my office every now and then and ask, “What’s up, Bill?” and I would answer “Oh, I’m just copying some scripts for the reading ...” or whatever. Rob would immediately start riffing, “The Q man, Qmeister, makin’ copies ...” and thus I became the subject of one of his most famous SNL characters. Immortalized! LOL!

At the Rep

Bill Quinlan is among the actors appearing in Terrence McNally’s comedy It’s Only a Play, presented at 8 p.m. Jan. 13-14 and 2:30 p.m. Jan. 15, and at 8 p.m. Jan. 19, 20, and 21 and 2:30 p.m. Jan. 23 at the Toledo Repertoire Theatre’s 10th Street Stage. Barbara Barkan is the director. Tickets are from 419-243-9277 and toledorep.org.

First Published January 5, 2017, 5:00 a.m.