Woodford prepared to ‘make magic’

Peter Woodford, who is studying organic chemistry at Mt. Hood, portrays an actor, Robert Martin, in MHCC’s upcoming rendition of the play,“The Drowsy Chaperone.”

Woodford said that he tries not to think of what he does as simply “playing a character.”

“A lot of the fun in playing him is that I get to deal with the whole ‘actor playing the part.’ I’m Percy Hieman, the actor playing Robert, and he’s supposed to be a terrible actor.”

The story gets more complicated when it comes to Woodford’s part and the rest of the story.

“Each character embodies a different vice, and his, is thinking he’s awesome,” he explained.

Woodford added that Robert is an ostentatious person. “Robert is fun. He’s a little empty between the ears – he’s just silly. He is ridiculous, as most of the characters in the show are.”

If Robert is silly, then “The Drowsy Chaperone” would be an exercise in absurdism. “It’s big. It’s flashy,” said Woodford.

For all of the technical acting and preparation required for a play in this style, Woodford says he’s not worried. “I’m really confident in the direction we’re going. We’re busting our butts. I don’t want to get people too excited, but everyone has a really positive attitude” about a solid performance.

For playing a character who plays a character, Woodford stays grounded in his personal life. “I’m a chemistry student. I’m in organic chemistry right now. It’s a blast; I like theater, I like the arts, and stuff, but I want to not be hungry for the rest of my life. So, that’s why I decided to go into chemistry.”

“It’s weird because acting and art is sort of a more metaphysical, poetic approach towards understanding, whereas science is more of a thoughtful and logical approach at understanding. So, I like to dip my toes in both.”

Not that one would demean the other, according to Woodford. “My first year I had calculus, physics, chemistry, and acting, so I was very much in the academic realm, and just had the acting class for the humanities credit, and because I liked to do it in high school.“

“And when I was in the academic realm, acting just sounded awesome. It was like, ‘Do I really want to go down that road? Maybe I should devote my life to acting.’ And now that I’m in the show and I’m in acting class it makes me more focused on chemistry; it’s sort of like the grass is always greener on the other side.”

Woodford expressed concern about coming off as pretentious, but in his defense he is rather familiar with the play. “I’ve actually done the show before. I did it my junior year in high school. To quote the director, ‘we made magic.’ ”