The Cure at Troy marks your 70th production with Riverside Theatre. What has kept you coming back to the stage for so many productions?
TIM BUDD: Well, my love of theatre, certainly, and always wanting to do projects, and I think that’s kept me back. Secondly, Riverside is a very special place, and I knew the people; knew how they worked. I knew the production quality was going to be very high, and that the people from cast members to crew to people behind the scenes were always going to support the production wholly, and it just made it a very wonderful, memorable experience. All you needed to do as an actor was really focus on what you were doing and what you were bringing to the production; it just was a very welcoming, inviting place to do theatre. As I did more shows with them, Ron Clark and Jody Hovland (Riverside Theatre’s Founders) were offering me roles that brought different challenges, more exciting challenges, and I just, you know, there was that actor in me who just wanted to see if I could meet that, and I always kept coming back to see what the latest offering might be.
Can you tell us about your first production with Riverside? Do you remember what it was? What stood out to you about that role?
TIM BUDD: The first production was called The Stick Wife, written by a UI playwright graduate named Darrah Cloud. It was set in the South in the 60s and centered around the bombing of the church in Birmingham where the little girls were killed. I played a member of the KKK, and I was one of the people responsible for planting that bomb. It was not a role I probably should have had. I was about 20 years too young for the role; the costume designer had to pad me to give me a little bit of a beer belly…that wouldn’t be necessary today. I just remember getting my first paid acting job. It was very exciting. I had been doing community theater for years, but to get paid and to be in a show of that intensity, of that drama. It was directed by Meredith Alexander, who was a professor at the University of Iowa in the theater department at the time. Ron and Jody were in the cast, and I had a scene at the beginning of the show, and then at the very end of the show. For two hours, I would sit downstairs in the dressing room and listen on the monitors and just think: how lucky I was to be there, how I hoped I would do a good job, and how I hoped there would be other shows… and there have been.




Over the past 70 productions you have been in, what are some of the shows and roles that have been especially meaningful to you, and why?
TIM BUDD: Oh, there have been several. It would be hard, like picking your favorite children, I suppose, but the one that stands out, a couple stand out the most for me. My first Shakespeare in the Park was Much Ado About Nothing. I can remember a dress rehearsal; we were about to start and it had rained right before we started the run. The sun came out and the colors just popped. I was standing back by the ticket office watching the show, just thinking how gorgeous and beautiful it was. I must have had this smile on my face, you know, like a child at Disneyland, because Ron Clark came up to me, and he said, “you’re having the time of your life, aren’t you?” And I said, “yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”
Another time, Ron directed me in a production of a one-man Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Tara McGovern played the violin and it was just a wonderful audience reaction. It was an interaction, I should say, with the audience. It’s a wonderful story, and the response from the audience was more than I had imagined. It was just a pleasure.
Later, when Sean Christopher Lewis took over artistic direction, he offered me a role in another one-man show called Every Brilliant Thing. I actually had to choose audience members to play different roles to tell the story with me. There was one evening where an audience member became very emotional. The show dealt with suicide, and we had imagined that that might happen. So, I went over to the audience member, and I was trying to comfort her. She was crying, and then when I looked up, every woman in the audience was crying as well, and it was just…I still get verklempt when I think about it. It was just amazing to be a part of that.
Others? Gosh, there have been so many. So many friends you meet, so many people you worked with, so many people that did things on stage that I will remember always. Every production has its own memories and its own experience; it’s hard to parse them out.
Over the years, Riverside has evolved, and I’m curious how your experiences as an actor have evolved with it. What has that been like for you to have been involved in so many different stages of a theater’s lifetime?
TIM BUDD: Well, in the beginning, I sort of was just, you know, trying to find my way and be a part of this company and do the best I could. I remember when I started doing Shakespeare in the Park, for the first time I was working with actors who were outside of the Iowa City area. I learned from them, and I watched from them. Many times, I was an understudy for them, so I’d be at every rehearsal, and I began to learn. Then, in the middle of my career with Riverside, I went to graduate school, so then when I came back out of graduate school after three years not doing any theater with Riverside, I suddenly felt more confident. I felt like I had more tools. I felt I was able to deliver more of what the show or the role was asking for. My personal evolution as an actor, I think, changed quite a bit after that time; I was offered roles that seemed to present more and more challenges, a little bit higher degree of difficulty. You learn how to meet those, and that’s helped.
At the same time, I have to say structurally, I mean, the space has changed so much from the tiny little theater on Gilbert Street, where you had to worry about ambulance sirens and marching bands on football games, and things like that… to be in a space that seems heightened, that the ceiling is higher, the performances have a little bit more room to blossom in. I will, however, always miss the ability to whisper, which was something you could do in Gilbert Street, which is a little more difficult here.



After 70 productions, you must have played like a wide range of characters. Even now, is there a role or a show that you are hoping might be a possibility in the future?
TIM BUDD: Well, if I might plug the current production a little bit, I’ve never done a Greek play. Greek plays tend to be sort of primal and deal with strong emotions, and in a way that Shakespeare does, but the language is a little simpler, a little more pared down, a little bit from the gut. I’ve been looking for a long time to play somebody who is a little more primal, a little more physical, so I’m really excited to work through this part.
There are many roles I wish I could have played that I’ve aged out of. I will never be Romeo; I will never be Tom from A Glass Menagerie. But, on the other hand, I still hope to play Lear one day. There is Death of a Salesman, and I’m just about getting too old for that and I’m almost getting too old I think now for George from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but that’s another play I’ve always liked. I still would like to try Waiting for Godot in whatever part that comes.
What, from your vantage point, is the role that Riverside plays in the artistic and cultural landscape of Iowa City?
TIM BUDD: Well, it’s a very high caliber theater. To be able to go to shows in a town that’s not that large…to be able to go and see something Riverside would offer you, I think is just a gift to this community, and I hope people take advantage of it. I am always surprised when people come up to me and say, I saw you in that show, I saw you in that show, and sometimes these are shows that are, you know, years old, and I’m always impressed on how much that has meant to people, to the point where they would walk up to a stranger and want to discuss it with you.
I’ve had conversations at work where people have come into Prairie Lights and said, “I saw this play and I have a question,” and we’ve stood there and discussed it. Many people have said, “I’m so glad you stayed in Iowa City,” and so am I. I think I’ve had more opportunities here than I would have had if I had gone to Chicago or New York or some other larger city.
I have to say that the community, Riverside and Iowa City, through their support, has given artists like me a chance to stay in a town like this and still work on our craft, refine our work, and have the ultimate enjoyment of doing theater for people who appreciate it. That’s a reciprocity that, you know, I don’t know that people are aware of.
Once, after work, I was in a bar having a beer and a man came up to me and said, “I put $20 towards a tab for you…my daughter loves Shakespeare because of you.” This from a man I’d never seen before. It’s amazing what kind of an impact you can have in a very small pond if you’re just willing to work at it and strive, as the people behind Riverside Theater have done for so many years. Riverside has always said, “come be a part of this as we keep building in this community.” It’s lovely.

Other than this being a milestone performance for you, why should people come and see The Cure at Troy?
Well, Greek plays aren’t done very often anymore, and I think whenever you get the opportunity to see one, you should, because it is theater at its very beginnings. You know, this is the early origins of theater, and you can come and see The Cure at Troy, and you will see echoes of Shakespeare. And this performance in this space… Riverside Theater has a space where you can totally experience the story rather than seeing a show in a big venue where you’re miles away from the action on stage. It also has a chorus, which is always exciting to watch in a show. How will the director use that chorus? What will they tell you?
All theater is an experience for the actors, for the crew, for the audience members, and I think a Greek play is an experience to the Nth degree. You will experience something that is not commonplace…even if you’re going to most theater. This is going to take you on a journey. Our job is to provide you with a journey with a safe landing and a space where you can enjoy this experience and say, wow, that’s something I’m going to remember.