D’Artagnan Tells All: Meet Kris Heaton

Hello. My name’s Kristopher N. Heaton, but most people just call me Kris. I’m eighteen years old and loving every minute of it, attending Yorktown High School as a senior, and outside of theater, I enjoy writing, be it poems or the books I’m working on, voice acting, hanging out with my friends outside of and in Encore, playing video games, playing with my dogs, martial arts, long walks, comfortable drives, and much more.

Encore: What productions and programs have you been involved with Encore?
Kris: So far, [other than The Three Musketeers] I’ve done four shows with Encore, my ruling thought besides the love of it all being that I wish I’d taken up acting and discovered it much earlier in my life. My friend Hugh, an Encore actor himself, introduced me to it as they were getting ready for Twelve Dancing Princesses, and my audition to that show was my inception to the Encore family that I’ve come to know and love. After having a blast playing an impoverished, conflicted, but well-meaning and valiant amnesiac named Peter, I came back for the summer show, Once Upon a Mattress, where I played goofy, happy-go lucky ensemble knight Sir Bedivere. I most recently acted in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, playing the unsuspecting Farmer Anderson and his spectral masquerade, the Headless Horseman.

Encore: What motivated your interest in auditioning for a show at Encore?
Kris: Well, long story short, my interest in acting and the fun I’ve always had with it motivated my interest in auditioning for Encore. My friend Hugh told me about it and how they were looking for tall guys to fill certain parts, so I stepped right on it and looked up their upcoming show, Twelve Dancing Princesses. The story got me very interested: twelve princesses mysteriously leave the castle every night, returning with torn shoes and a secret to keep, a secret that a certain soldier is tasked with bringing to light. I’ve always liked seeing mysteries adapted into plays, so put together with that and the certain brand of tall young guys I heard could give me a good chance, I looked up times for auditions and went to the first one I could fit myself into, ready for my first brush with Encore Stage and Studio.

Encore: How did you become interested in theatre in general?
Theatre in general has always been something I’ve enjoyed ever since I signed up for it in the seventh grade with some of my friends. I have experience with acting on film and behind a mic as either a character or a narrator, but there’s something in theatre that you just can’t find in film or voice acting. It’s hard to explain, but there’s this magic that overcomes you when you go out for an audition or step out onto the stage. When you’re doing theatre, you’re living in a way that you just don’t get to in the real world. You can draw from deeper parts of yourself that you don’t bring up in the day-to-day, be it heavier emotions or thick reservoirs of energy, and you can just throw them out there with all your power. With other kinds of acting, they’re definitely fun, but there’s always this lingering reminder that you’re doing it for a good take to be edited and played with later on; you’re always going to know that you’re acting. But in theatre, there’s a genuine feeling that you’re living as another character in a whole different setting and it’s a beautiful, fascinating feeling that you can only find on the stage, with or without the flash photography.

Encore: What is your most memorable experience at Encore?
Kris: It’s definitely hard to say, but if I really have to pick, my most memorable experience at Encore would definitely be my time acting in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I think a lot of that has to do with the time convenience. When I acted in Twelve Dancing Princesses and Once Upon a Mattress, I had a great time with a wonderful cast and crew that I would definitely keep coming back for. But back then, I was dealing with the toughest year of high school with plenty of stress and sleep deprivation out to get me. Now when I acted in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I was going through a much better time. Senior year’s a lot less of a burden than junior year; there’s a lot more freedom and maneuverability and, best of all, more of a beauty sleep to make you feel better the next day. I would always come to Sleepy Hollow rehearsals feeling great and ready to have a great time with one of the best and most fun casts I’ve ever had the privilege of working with, and that’s saying something! Every single one of the cast and crew of Sleepy Hollow was a boat load of fun who made for a wonderful show to be in and a very heartfelt cast party when it was all over; they’re the kind of people who remind me of why I love Encore so much in the first place.

Encore: What skills have you learned from your experience at Encore?
Kris: There’s definitely been a thing or two I’ve learned from Encore. One aspect of theatre, and acting in general, that I’m so glad I learned from Encore is how to be more physical with characters. I’ve always loved getting to put my physicality into roles, but I never knew how to do it as well as I did when Encore gave me the delightful challenge of playing roles filled to the brim with that requirement. I think the most memorable example has to be my time playing Peter in Twelve Dancing Princesses. A lot of his motions had to project masculinity and strength, so putting that in everything from his posture to his walk was a nice little learning experience. There was also the swordfight at the end with Adam (Phanteous) and Court (Terius) (who were wonderful partners, by the way), where we all had to coordinate our movements in rhythm with the soundtrack while still making it all look real and relatively intense. I think that was the first experience of that kind for all three of us, one which we all enjoyed immensely.

Another valuable thing I learned from Encore was developing characters. Not that I never did it with other characters I played as well, but the productions at Encore really push you to develop a character of your own to stay with in the first place. No other productions I’ve been in have stressed the importance of that aspect as well as Encore has, so it’s definitely something that made it a true learning experience, as well as a fun part of playing all three of my characters in the Encore ensemble. But it was more than just a job assignment. Encore knows how to get you motivated in regards to the characters you play and you can channel that motivation into thinking them up, making them real characters that you give life to rather than just simple roles. We were even assigned with writing character bios for our Sleepy Hollow characters, which, as a writer, you know I got to have my fun with. Other productions can teach it too, but I don’t think any of them have hit the point as well as Encore has so far.

Encore: What is your favorite Encore role yet?
Kris:That’s easily the hardest question here. I’ve loved all of the roles I’ve played in Encore for their own respective reasons, but if I really had to pick one, I think that I’d have to choose Farmer Anderson as my favorite Encore role yet. As stated above, the great and lovable people that comprised the show’s cast and crew were part of made for arguably the most fun I had in an Encore production, but another great part of it all was playing Farmer Anderson, a seemingly good samaritan with plenty to hide and many a scheme up his sleeve. I think that a good deal of the fun I had with him comes from the development I got to take with him. I was given the role with the information that he was a simple farmer to the eyes of Sleepy Hollow, but wore the disguise of the Headless Horseman by the time he was motivated to go after Ichabod Crane. With that, I was left with such a juicy character who I could gnash my teeth into, creating a motivation for him, a plan and mindset to go with that motivation, but then we were assigned the character bios, and that’s when I was pretty sure Anderson was the most fun I’d ever had with an Encore character.

I was even allowed to add a lot of props and physical quirks to him too, such as a cane for the leg injury that he faked to further cement his good samaritan charade and a piece of hay in his mouth. But what was truly interesting about him is that you get to combine two personas into one character and play them both at their respective moments. Anderson’s quiet, but polite, gentle and loyal as far as the town knows. That kind of calculation and feigned courtesy is fun to play. But then you’ve got the Horseman, who I would always shake in excitement for. Getting to project like that, play with voices, it’s all a lot of fun. The fact that Susan let me improvise so many of my lines just made it all the more enjoyable. And both of those roles track back to the third, true character, the manipulative and ambitious Farmer Anderson. What actor doesn’t enjoy playing a good, old-fashioned villain?

Encore: Any other favorite moments at Encore?
Kris: I definitely think that every show that I’ve had with Encore has had that golden moment, that great time that highlights the experience and leaves you knowing that you were in a show that’s been worth the whole of your time with it. For Twelve Dancing Princesses, the great moment that I always think back to is definitely the sword fight that Adam, Court, and I had. It’s basically Court and I going two-on-one against Adam, who’s taking us with a staff and black magic, in a final battle for the fate of the princesses. And the whole experience was something we all enjoyed. We were at it for weeks in rehearsal, with Matt making for a great and patient choreographer. The energy and the adrenaline felt great and we would always agree that it was probably the thing we would remember most about the show.

During Once Upon a Mattress, we were having one of our last rehearsals. I forget what led up to it, but I think it was Will (one of the knights) who brought a radio and we were singing along to a remorseless number of songs. Eventually, it led to us getting into a conga line and just going throughout the entire set dancing, laughing, and just having a good time. I think that was a moment where we all felt the cast bond that we’d all enjoyed throughout the entire show and just enjoyed being together. It was definitely one of the most memorable moments with one of the best and friendliest casts I’ve ever had the privilege of working with.

For Sleepy Hollow, the experience that I’m always going to look back on with utter fondness is definitely our cast party. There have been great cast parties before, but most of them have been kind of casual compared to this one. You know, usually we would just enjoy our time together, laugh about the good times we had and look toward more during the next show. We pretty much did the same thing, but there was something different about it this time. There was really this great sense of harmony and togetherness building up toward the end of it, and what was originally just casual conversations, jokes, playing on Instagram and all of the other stuff you’d expect from us, became something more heartfelt than I think any of us expected. As everything started to wind down, we all just started reminiscing, talking about the good times we had on the show, giving each other pats on the back, saying we looked forward to seeing each other in other shows or on Broadway, and telling each other how much fun it was to work together. Of course, some of us were a little more laid back about it (I can’t say I was one of them.), but I think I can safely say that we all felt something powerful that I still can’t quite explain. I haven’t been without the heartwarming cast party, but we’d all just bonded so much during our time working on the show and I think that during the party, we were all realizing what we had, what we’d made besides just another show. It was really just one of the most heartfelt moments I’d ever had in a show and it was just such a beautiful note to end such a great show with a wonderful cast on.

Thanks Kris for your awesome Encore stories! Happy Strike cast and crew!

Photos by Larry McClemons