Get To Know Our Team: Christian Blackburn as Teddy

From now till the end of the run we will highlight the talented individuals involved in helping make the Midwest Premiere of Cuba and His Teddy Bear possible with a brief questionnaire. Enjoy!

1. Where are you from? If not from Chicago, how did you end up here? What is your ethnicity?

I was born and raised in Blue Island, IL; just outside the Chicago city limits on the south end.  I moved to the city’s north side to attend Loyola University, and that is where I currently reside.  I am half Mexican.  The other half is an Anglo stir fry (Scottish, Irish, English, Dutch, German) with a scoop of Native American, and a dash of Jewish to top it all off.

2. What is your position in Cuba?

Son, heroin addict, doormat: Teddy.

3. What drew you to want to work on Cuba and His Teddy Bear?

Honestly, it was the fact that it was paid and that it seemed like a legitimate challenge compared to the show I had done previously that drew me in.  I really didn’t know anything about CUBA before auditioning for it.  However, once I auditioned, read the script, met the gang (Marylin, Madrid, Ivan) I was fully invested in bringing this monster to life.  The script alone hooked me, but the prospect of playing Teddy is what reeled me in (sweet fishing analogy, right?). For a young actor like myself, still new to the whole Chicago theatre scene, a role like Teddy in a play like CUBA just doesn’t come along everyday.  And, too, I felt I needed to prove something to myself.  But enough of my personal qualms.  On to question number 4!

4. Why is this a great piece of theater for Chicago?

CUBA works for Chicago on a number of levels.  It’s rough and gritty and ballsy, and with the right cast (which I do believe we have) it is a beautiful work of art.  There is a very human connection between audience and actors and the characters in this show.  These characters could be your father, your son, your best friend.  Chicago is known for its intimate in-your-face theatre; and CUBA is definitely that.  Of course there is also the culture which is prominent both in the show and in the environment surrounding the show.  Two small Latino theatre companies are able to produce a play, in which the majority of the characters are Latino, in an underprivileged Latino community.  It goes to show that in Chicago, art is capable of living anywhere so long as we give it a chance to breathe.

5. What makes Chicago Theater great to you?

I think I will just have you refer back to #4, i.e. gritty, in-your-face theatre that you can find in the most unexpected of places, etc.

6. What do like about working with UTC/PTC? If you have worked with UTC/PTC before what show did you work on and how was your experience?

Who said I like working with Urban/People’s?  Because whoever that person is is telling you the truth.  This is my first experience with both Urban and People’s.  Prior to auditioning I had only briefly heard of them. What I’ve come to like most about these two companies is genuineness that their purveyors possess.  Everyone I have met during this process has been very kind and supportive with me and with each other.  No one is out just for themselves, and I respect that more than any awards that have been won in the past, or 4 star reviews for other shows, and so on.  Urban and People’s have given me a great opportunity and helped me to help them reach its full potential.

7. What do you do for work outside of your position in Cuba?

I do what any other aspiring actor just out of school does, I’m a waiter.

8. Also maybe, other than Cuba, what is your favorite play that you have worked on?

Because CUBA is really my first big show post college, I’m going to have to go back two years to my (first) senior year.  I did two shows back to back- BIG LOVE & THE BLUE HOUR.  It is difficult to say which I enjoyed more because I learned so many different things (mostly about myself) from both of them.  But on a more shallow level, I really like playing the bad guy, which I did in both shows.

9. Why are you pursuing theater in Chicago, rather than somewhere else?

Chicago is what/where I know.  I went to school in the city, and all of my teachers at Loyola work in the city.  So right off the bat I have a couple very good connections.  But beyond that, Chicago theatres are like Starbucks.  If you keep your eyes open you can find one on almost every corner.  Chicago is a great place to gain experience, meet people, make connections, and it’s just plain beautiful.

10. What’s your favorite line from a play?

I’m taking the cheap way out of this.  I love everything that comes out of Che’s mouth.  If/when this play is done again, hopefully somewhere a few years down the line, I would absolutely love a shot at playing Che.  “…lemme lick yer wounds.”

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-FROM the STREETS to the STAGE

Interview by Ivan Vega