Encore: Julian Lopez-Morillas
by Karen McKevitt

Julian Lopez-Morillas is a veteran Bay Area actor, director and teacher who also has many regional credits. He's currently finishing a role as Long John Silver in Treasure Island at Willows Theatre. He spoke over the phone with Theatre Bay Area about life as an artist and a pirate.

Interviewed By Karen McKevitt, Editor-in-Chief

How did you get started in Bay Area theatre?

Well, I've been here for 30 years. I moved here because I passed through town in the early 1970s and auditioned for Jane Montgomery, who was the company manager of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is the show that ran for five and a half years in North Beach that Lee Sankowich directed. She gave me a job working as an understudy and doing box office and wardrobe and house managing. I was with the show for two years, on and off, and played six roles, and that's what got me my start. I got my start as a director through Bob Woodruff at the first year of the Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

What do you like about the local theatre scene?

To be candid, the best thing is that I've put in my time and now I have a reputation here. I feel my work is respected here. Also, there's a sense of community and commitment to theatre. It's a network that means a lot to me. I'm impressed by its steadfastness.

You work regionally as well?

I just got back from four months at the Long Wharf and McCarter Theatres doing Fraulein Else, which is a project that started at Berkeley Rep.

As an actor, which playwrights do you gravitate toward?

Well, I made my reputation on Shakespeare. I was mostly identified with Shakespeare for about 20 years. But I found myself moving away from Shakespeare in recent years--I don't much like the way that Shakespeare productions are heading. I find it generally over-conceptualized. I find a lot of people are directing Shakespeare who don't understand it very well. There are a few directors I trust to do Shakespeare anymore. I am going to do Twelfth Night this summer for San Francisco Shakespeare, which is being directed by Ken Kelleher. I've worked with Ken a lot and trust him. Other playwrights I like: Pinter, I did Homecoming at Aurora Theatre, and Betrayal for San Jose Stage. Those were a couple of my most rewarding experiences. I like Stoppard a lot, but I never seem to do him much, except I've directed a Stoppard play or two. I tend to gravitate toward European playwrights; I tend to gravitate toward European roles: a Bulgarian priest, a Norwegian doctor, a Swedish military officer, a Danish physicist. A lot of roles that I play tend to be of that sort of class and type.

Do you gravitate toward these plays as a director?

I would say more than half my directing credits are Shakespeare. Those that aren't tend to be literate plays, language plays. I've always felt, both as an actor and director, that language is my greatest strength.

You've recorded a lot of audio books, especially by Einstein, Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking. How did you get into that?

It's interesting you call me at this moment, because I'm just in the process of setting up a home recording studio. I've been away from it for three or four years, and I contacted the company, Audio Scholar, for whom I did most of those tapes and said essentially, Why haven't I heard from you recently? [laughs] They used to send me to a recording studio, and the recording engineer did all the technical work, but now they no longer operate that way. Now they contract with people directly in their homes.

Did you specifically go for the science books?

It sort of worked out that way. I think the edge I have in the sciences and social sciences is that I'm well educated, I come from a intelligent and cultured family. A lot of people can read it well, but maybe I bring a little more understanding of the concepts. That's not to say I haven't recorded things that I can't begin to understand, like Foucault and Umberto Eco.

Did any of that help you out on your Jeopardy appearance?

The thing that helps you most with Jeopardy is if you read a lot, and I've always read a lot. And doing crossword puzzles. I find there's a high degree of correlation between doing crossword puzzles and being good in Jeopardy.

So, what's it like playing a pirate?

Oh, every actor dreams of playing a pirate. It's a kind of a star turn role. It's a bit of a cliche, thanks to Robert Newton, who was in the 1950s film of Treasure Island, and who I think sort of established the convention for all time. The one leg, the parrot, the Bristol accent. That movie came out when I was 3 years old, and because it was part of my growing up, I always admired Robert Newton so much I'm sort of trying to channel his performance. It's the kind of role that demands a larger-than-life approach. I wouldn't say it's almost impossible to over-act, but it'll take almost anything you can throw at it.