Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Hagen
Hi Eric, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I went to school to be an actor. I fell in love with the process of acting in high school and decided to pursue it in college. I was fortunate to receive some incredible schooling and studied Shakespeare in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Shakespeare’s Globe theatre.
I started working as a professional actor immediately after leaving school and bounced around the country for a few years working with several theatres (primarily doing Shakespeare’s plays). With this professional experience under my belt, I decided to return to school. I moved to San Diego to enroll in the Old Globe/ University of San Diego’s MFA acting program. Here, I started to broaden my perspective on what I wanted to put out into the world and what I wanted my work to be.
After graduating with my MFA, I started working closely with The Old Globe, based in Balboa Park, on a number of outreach programs that they conduct across Southern California. I primarily work with the Reflecting Shakespeare program; a team of artists who work with current and recently incarcerated populations, as well as with students around San Diego County. As a Reflecting Shakespeare team member, I help make Shakespeare plays with communities that often do not have ready access to theatrical spaces and opportunities. We study a Shakespeare play, reflect on how it relates to our personal experience, and perform before family and friends after several months of rehearsal.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Working in live creative arts is rarely smooth. But you learn to embrace the bumps and struggles on that road. The COVID pandemic was devastating for our industry. Several San Diego theaters had to close their doors or significantly reduce their budget (affecting who they could hire).
Things are starting to normalize a bit, but theaters are still grappling with the aftershock of not being able to do what we do for over a year.
Personally, I have also struggled with knowing what my exact path is. I love making plays. I love the process of getting a piece of writing and figuring out how we are going to make it breathe. But theater, like film and music, is contingent on many small decisions that are not always in the artist’s control.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in Shakespeare, although in the last few years, I have been involved with making a number of new works. But, primarily, my work is based on Shakespeare. I work with a team of artists via The Old Globe to bring high-quality Shakespeare study to state prisons, juvenile detention facilities, and schools. We often work with populations who do not regularly see theater, much less Shakespeare.
Shakespeare isn’t for everyone. It’s hard. It’s old. His writing has some problems that are hard to address today. But, there is a beat of humanity underneath many of his greatest plays that can connect us. I am most proud of watching men in incarceration facilities expand their sense of the human experience through reading and performing these plays. I’m also extremely proud of watching people who have every reason to avoid vulnerability get up before their family and peers and perform these very demanding plays.
It is not my, or the Reflecting Shakespeare team’s, intention to turn individuals in our program into professional actors. But we do seek to give people we work with a creative outlet to express themselves and dig deeper into who they are as people.
What makes you happy?
Seeing people experience the joy of empathetic response makes me happy. By this, I mean, there is a very specific “high” you get when you perform in a play and someone responds to a thing you do in your performance. Maybe they laugh. Maybe they cry. Maybe they give you a big round of applause at the end. But this response is (even if they won’t admit it) the adrenaline kick that gets actors into the business to begin with.
I am fortunate to watch people who had NO IDEA that they would ever be in a play in their life get to experience this rush. I’ve seen vulnerable teenagers, former gang members, and unhoused veterans (to name a few) burst out with uncontrollable smiles when they finish up a performance and hear their work receive acclaim. Watching others have the opportunity to have that rush gives me a deep sense of happiness and satisfaction.
Image Credits
Courtesy of The Old Globe, Photography by Richard Soublet II
