PSU Magazine Fall 1987

-----·PERSONALITY·----- Playing the fool Comic actor Scott Parker is determined not to let his life imitate his art by Clarenc,e Hein W hen Portland actor and comedian Scott Parker ('76, BA, '77 MA) played a comedy seduction scene in his high sch~ol talent show, things got too risque for a nervous school administrator who refused to let the show go on for parents' night. "I played opposite the 'Most Dramatic Senior Girl,' who always was more aggressive than most," Scott says with a shrug, "and I guess we got carried away. So, we were banned in Kennewick." In the 20 years since the Kennewick (Wash.) High talent night, Scott has appeared on numerous regional theater stages and in dozens of tele– vision, radio and print advertisements. He has earned two degrees at PSU while establishing a reputation as one of the most popular and recognizable stage talents in the area, and he hasn't been banned from the stage since Kennewick. It has been an artistically satisfying period, but Scott readily acknowledges that the past 20 years have brought neither financial security nor recogni- . tion of his talents outside the North– west. It's not a unique situation for Portland actors who find that local popularity and success produce only a minimal income and even less security. Most successful Portland actors work at odd jobs, teach, direct plays occa– sionally, pray for roles in commercials or industrial films and videos, or find an extremely flexible second career. Besides commercials and industrial fi lms, Scott has taught classes at Port– land State, Mt. Hood Community College, the Firehouse Theater, and others. Prior to that, while still in college, he worked as a teacher's aide and, "I explored the career opportuni– ties in the dish-washing field." All the while, he worked at h is craft, acting in plays, working in improvisa– tional comedy, trying to establish a career as an actor. Scott Parker didn't grow up in a "show business" family. His parents, now retired and living on the Oregon coast, were not performers. Yet, his older brother, Terry, is an actor and director who teaches high school drama in Gig Harbor, Washington and a sister, LuAnne, also was active in community theater here. "We were a funny fami ly. Always try– ing to top each other at the table, that sort of thing,'' he says. And he deve– loped a feel and a love for comedy at an early age. "I was about three or four years o ld and my mother took me to my older brother's classroom for some reason. I was just sitting there and then I did something which got the class to turn around and laugh. I just had a great time. I guess it started there." When he was 14, Scott sold his 10- speed bike to buy a used tape recorder. "To me, it looked like the most fun thing in the whole world to tape some comedy bits with my brother. We did lots of voices, things like that. I wish I still had those tapes." Scott began college at Central Washington State College in Ellens– burg, planning to follow in his older brother's footsteps and get a teaching certificate. "My family moved to Beaverton during my second year," Scott says, "and when I found out where they had gone" ... [pause for laughter] ... "I came home to live and attended Portland State." His first year at PSU, Scott met Jack Featheringill, professor of theater arts, "and he sort of became my mentor." Scott acted in Featheringill's summer stock company at the Coaster Theater in Cannon Beach as well as at PSU. Of PSU MAGAZINE PAGE 14 Scott Parker in "The Torch-Bearers," Summer Festival Theater Company, 1986 the more than 100 shows in which Scott has appeared since 1970, 25 have been directed by Featheringill. "He has taught me a lot. He is very inspir– ing, and he really does nurture you, you know?" T he majority of plays in which Scott Parker appears are come– dies, from Moliere to Neil Simon. His light brown mustache and slowly receding hairline frame an incredibly plastic face which is made for reacting to life's outrages. His pleasant, even mellow, voice can shift from dignity to outrage to nearly fatal embarrassment at the drop of a hat. And, while he can appear physically imposing, even regal when pulled to his full height, eventually he will trip on the rug, raise a questioning eye– brow, shrug his shoulders in dismay or spill his drink, and you know that cir– cumstances eventually will overtake this man. "I do play a lot of people buffeted by events," he says. "I enjoy playing them and I know that I do it well." However he also has handled demanding dramatic roles, such as the grandfather, Dodge, in last summer's "Buried Child" at PSU. His comedic strengths are his face and upper body