By P.L. Wylie
September 1985 - Entertainment Magazine. Page 19
This page is from the 3-volume set of "Entertaining Tucson Across the Decades," a compilation of Tucson's music and entertainment history.
Recipe: Take the Tucson City Amateur Golf Champion, mix with two-time winner of Pima County Golf Amateur Championship contest, stir in a big helping of acting/musical talent (exhibited in starring roles Including the recent Arizona Theatre Company’s
production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” add a
dash of 6’-3” tall dark good looks, bake in the love of Tucson by a
native.
The resulting dish is The Gaslight’s current leading man in their production of “The Sheik,” Armen Dirtadian.
“The Sheik” is a melodrama playing through September 14th
(1985) with Dirtadian performing a very romantic lead. The tendency in a
melodrama is to play for laughs. But, Dirtadian plays “The Sheik” very
straight and very believable. “I think every actor must act the part as
though he really is that person,” Dirtadian says, “or how that person
would act. That is how I see it. If I were “The Sheik” and saw this girl
and believed she was the most beautiful girl in my life, I would give
up my kingdom for her. That is how I play it.” Dirtadian thinks in “The
Sheik” he has one of the best first entrances he has ever had. This is
one of Peter Van Slyke’s best scripts (Van Slyke is the
writer/director). Dirtadian said he had a fever and was very sick the
first week of the run of the show but went on anyway. This reporter saw
the show the first week and can attest that Dirtadian gave a great
performance.
Dirtadian is a low-key
actor/singer. When he took acting lessons in high school he was very shy
and inhibited about going on stage. Also, he says, “I thought actors
and actresses were weird people.” He won poetry reading contests in
junior high, was on the speech team in high school and was a speech
major at the University of Arizona.
Not only a musician and actor, Dirtadian has been a teacher of Physical Education and Music/Drama at Holiday Intermediate School in
Tucson for the past nine years. During the 1977 school year there, the
school librarian told him about auditions being held at Salpointe High
School for their production of “Fiddler on the Roof” and suggested he
try out. He had not performed on stage since his high school acting
lessons. He went to the audition “just for something to do,” Dirtadian
says. To his surprise he got the lead part. The play sold out every
night, and from there he branched out.
Dirtadian progressed to many productions at SALOC (Southern Arizona Light Opera Company), appearances at The Playbox Theatre,
the lead in “Simon Peter” for the past several years, the
aforementioned Arizona Theatre Company’s production of “A Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum” and for the past three years various
performances at The Gaslight Theatre. Between plays he has performed as a nightclub singer at The Tender Trap concentrating
on jazz and standards. He recently completed a stint in SALOC’s
production of “Fiddler on the Roof” with a New York director. He is now
taking a six-month hiatus from school teaching to further his musical
and to appear at The Gaslight.
Dirtadian started at The Gaslight
three years ago in a play entitled “The Pirate King” playing the Pirate.
He followed this with the lead in Gaslight’s “Zorro.” In their
production of “Shootout at Black Canyon City” he played his first bad
guy role. “It’s much better playing the bad guy than the good guy,
because it is a lot easier”
After “Shootout,” The Gaslight
decided to produce “The Sheik” and hired Dirtadian to play the lead
role. “Every actor and actress here at The Gaslight has worked on the
legitimate stage, and it is a pleasure to work with professionals the
caliber of the performers here,” Dirtadian remarks.
Dirtadian has taken acting lessons at Arizona Theatre Company’s
Encompass program, but feels he has learned a lot through experience.
“I have seen people take acting lessons and then don’t perform,”
Dirtadian said. “You should take acting lessons in order to act, but I
have seen others getting tied up in the theory of acting. What they
should be doing is getting hard knocks on the stage along with their
lessons. There is no substitute for experience. You get on the
stage and you give the audience the best you can and you learn from
that.”
Dirtadian’s hobby is golf. He
plays mostly in the summer. Even after winning several prestigious
golfing awards, he has recently started taking golfing lessons from a
local professional golfer. He says he now doesn’t have to spend as much
time on the fundamentals and is playing very well.
When questioned about which he
prefers– acting, singing, golfing or teaching, Dirtadian said, “I’m not
the kind of a person to prefer one over the other. I’m kind of hexed – I
have to do them all or I can’t be happy.”
Dirtadian is a native Tucsonan,
the oldest of three children. His sister, brother and parents all live
in Tucson and none of them are interested in acting, but they all play
golf. “Who knows where I got this interest in performing– maybe being
the oldest child, the way I got attention was through acting,” states
Dirtadian. He is married, and says that his wife is not interested in
acting “at all” but does come to see him perform.
Dirtadian says that he is staying
in Tucson. “I love Tucson, and I am not wiling to give up maybe 10-15
years of my life to live in a big city to make it big in the
entertainment business. That is what it takes. But, I think have a lot
to offer Tucson with my teaching and performing. I intend to stay here. I
really want to thank the people here for supporting me. They seem to
like my work and I enjoy performing for them.”
When asked why he thinks Tucsonans
sometimes don’t appreciate local talent, Dirtadian says, “Tucsonans
cannot understand how anyone that is good can stay in Tucson. I think
the mystique is that if someone is from L.A. or New York or Chicago, the
audience automatically thinks that person is really very good. I have
worked with people from those places, and I think we have just as good
talents here. Just because you are from a big city doesn’t necessarily
mean you are good. However, I think people here feel this way about
everything, not just acting; because a lot of people still think of
Tucson as a cow town. If you really want to make it big financially in
the entertainment fields you have to be willing to give up a big portion
of your life and go to a city like L.A. or New York, because that is
where everything is. And, I am not willing to pay that price.”
This reporter believes that a lot
of people in Tucson are glad Armen Dirtadian has decided to stay with us
in this “cow town” and continue his enjoyable performing for us.
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