First-time Festival Actor Happy to Return to Warmer Twin Cities

Date: 6/26/07
Contact: Marc Lebovitz

Eddie Collins, the second annual John Stevens Equity Actor at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, had a tenuous but memorable connection to the festival before joining this summer’s festival acting company.

“My connection to Bloomington-Normal is through State Farm,” Collins said. “My mom works for State Farm in New Orleans, and at one point, in the late 1990s, I needed a break from acting and worked as a State Farm claims adjuster in New Orleans. We came to the home office in Bloomington several times for training. One time, in 1999, we flew into the airport in Bloomington and there had been a cold snap. The wind chill was minus 57 degrees.”

That’s not an experience you soon forget, but when the festival’s new artistic director, Alec Wild, asked Collins to audition for the Shakespeare festival in Bloomington-Normal, Collins didn’t hesitate.

“I worked with Alec in ‘Richard II’ at Milwaukee Shakespeare last year and we talked about wanting to work together again,” Collins said, “so I was happy when the opportunity came up this summer. To play Henry in ‘Henry V’ is a dream role, and for a long time I’ve wanted to play Berowne in ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’.”

The Stevens Equity Actor award which Collins received this summer is named for John Stevens, a Bloomington attorney who died in 2000. Stevens and his wife, Nancy, were among the festival’s early and enthusiastic supporters. The John Stevens Memorial Golf Outing, established in 2001, has raised funds in support of the festival, and last year the decision was made to use those proceeds to fund a festival Equity actor.

“Nancy Stevens and everyone else have been so nice to me,” he said. “Over the years I’ve come to appreciate how dependent theatre is on people like that. Without the passion and generosity of people like that, the theatre couldn’t exist. When you look at the caliber of actors and directors and crew at this festival, you see how see how supportive this community is of the festival.”

Collins was born in San Antonio and grew up outside of New Orleans. At his all-boys Catholic high school, the athlete Collins discovered the actor Collins when he joined in a school production of “M*A*S*H.” Since he also was a singer, Collins performed in musicals, including “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Although he entered the University of Virginia as a pre-med student, Collins gravitated back to theatre and graduated in acting.

He immediately began acting in numerous New Orleans area theatres, but after several years took a break from acting and worked as a claims adjuster for State Farm. He couldn’t stay away from the stage long, though, and in 2001 he appeared in “Noises Off” and won a Big Easy Entertainment Award as best supporting actor.

Collins enrolled as a graduate acting student at Wayne State University’s Hilberry Theatre in Detroit, receiving his master of fine arts degree in 2004. Since then, although he hopes to make Chicago his home and acting base, he has found continuous work in Wisconsin theatre, at Milwaukee Rep, American Players Theatre in Spring Green, at Next Act Theatre, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and Milwaukee Shakespeare.

This summer’s Illinois Shakespeare Festival roles also include Don John in “Much Ado About Nothing.”