BWW Interviews: Christopher Daniels - Saying YES to Life

Christopher Daniels is a character with a lot of identities in Reno circles - celebrated solo performer, yoga teacher, manager of a theatre company and ensemble improv performer. I asked a couple of questions, and he was so generous in his responses that I'm letting him do the talking.

Jeanmarie Simpson: How'd this all get rolling? What's your background, and how did you get into theatre?

Christopher Daniels: I never thought I would ever live a life on the stage. Though growing I was a social extrovert, the proverbial life of the party, the stage was a strange and frightening space. I had a lot of theater friends and marveled at their courage. I suffered from a tremendous case of stage fright; in fact, I nearly failed my 10th grade speech class because I had such anxiety about public speaking. My freshmen year of college at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, I began to delve the transgressive world of drag.

I was always effeminate in my mannerisms and demeanor. One night, a group of my gay male friends and I decided to go to the local gay bar in drag. We didn't consider ourselves "drag queens" at that point. We were dressing in drag but lacked EVERYTHING. This was the Spring of 2005. There were no Youtube videos on makeup, we didn't own any women's clothing, nor any heels. The mannerisms we had DOWN. Most gay men iconize female artists - actresses, musicians, etc. I mean, by the time I was 14 I could recite Steel Magnolias, Fried Green Tomatoes, Hocus Pocus, and First wives Club PERFECTLY. What we were that night was a hodgepodge of different articles of woman's clothing that we were able to pilfer from supportive friends in the dorms, old ratty Halloween wigs, and a last minute makeup job. Our only saving grace is that between the haze of the smog machine and cigarettes, the flashing lights, and the cloak of night we were able to conceal our hideousness quite well.

However, we were approached by a woman at the bar who just happened to be organizing a charity drag fundraiser for a local LGBT organization and was looking for amateur talent to fill spots in the show. I thought, why not, it's for a good cause. I decided upon the name "Vanna Devine" and chose Madonna's iconic song Vogue for my entre in the world of drag. So in front of 300 people in the Student Union at my college I mimicked the pop diva and received a standing ovation for my performance. That was the beginning of everything. I felt it. The high of a great performance. The accolades post-show. Somehow, as a drag queen, I was able to disassociate from me, and pretend to be someone ... something else and thus in a small way conquer my stage fright. I, of course, was still nervous - and still am to some degree - when I took to the stage, but somehow I was able to manage it. Drag was the gateway to the world of performance art. I did drag all throughout college and even set up a monthly drag show with my drag sistah from a different mistah, Davina Deville - where we wrote skits, choreographed numbers, acted out routines. However, it was still a hobby. I didn't view drag as a viable means of living or the stage as a sustainable profession. I wanted to be an activist; a grassroots mobilizer that worked for and with the community to educate and advocate for the rights for disenfranchised folks. Shortly after college I was laid off from a job as an LGBT Issues Director for a statewide organization and looking for something different in my life. My best friend, Jessica Levity - who was living in Reno at the time - asked me to move out to Reno to help manage her comedy troupe, The Utility Players, work for her production company, Homeslice Productions, and also live my life as a performing drag queen. So being the unattached mobile, 22 year old that I was, I packed up my life and moved to Reno where my only frame of reference for the city was Sister Act.

I began managing The Utility Players while simultaneously rehearsing with them. Jes and I soon learned that I was a far better improviser than manager and a year's time I became a principal player of the Utility Players. That really was the starting point. Suddenly, I was performing with a band of comedians, hosting burlesque shows, writing murder mysteries and musicals, and performing with local theater companies around town. Again, during this time art was still a hobby, a passion for sure, but a hobby none the less. It wasn't making money so I continued working in the non-profit world primarily as a sexual health educator for Planned Parenthood. Most recently, everything came to a screeching halt when I was laid off from Planned Parenthood. I found myself in the midst of a quarter life crisis questioning the trajectory of my life. I love the non-profit world but it is often an unsustainable practice; limited resources and small funding pools make it exceedingly difficult to meet the increasing needs of our clients. Also, I often met with resistance and opposition in my work having to constantly explain and demonstrate our necessity. It is emotionally, physically, and psychologically draining to say the least. So when I was laid off I made a choice. I knew I wanted to be a teacher; that above all is my greatest passion. I love working with people. My other great love is yoga. Yoga saved my life and I don't mean that to sound trite. I was living an unhealthy, unsustainable lifestyle that would have cost me my life in a few years.

How so?

I began practicing yoga consistently when was about 24 years old. At 24, I was about 230 pounds, severely out of shape, emotionally & spiritually depressed about my body, my life, and my future. I consistently filled the emptiness I felt in my life with drugs, alcohol, and food. I wanted a change but didn't have the drive or motivation to make that change. It was a perpetual cycle of depression. I was so detached and disassociated from my body that I was completely unaware and out of touch with what I was doing to it. As I began to practice yoga more and more I developed slowly, but surely, a relationship with my body in a way I never had before. Suddenly I made different choices. My poor health and life practice interfered with my yoga - something I had truly become passionate about. Also, through my yoga teacher, I did my first cleanse. No dairy, no caffeine, no alcohol, no gluten for an entire month. Changed my life. I didn't realize I could feel this good. I didn't realize the toll my choices had taken on my mental, spiritual, and physical well-being. Yoga showed me a different way to live. A different way to examine myself and my life in the broader context of the universe.

Politics are divisive, negative, stressful, and oppositional in nature even when you are working for "the common good". Yoga showed me how to navigate, and at times, embrace the darkness and work to shine and foster my inner authentic self. So I made the decision to become a yoga teacher and it was and continues to be one of the greatest decisions of my life. Meanwhile, during this time I was a part of GLM's 2014 season schedule and was writing a one-woman show for my drag queen Ginger Devine. My one-woman show, UNDRESSED, was Ginger's retirement party, a culmination of Ginger and my entire life. During this time I found my voice as a writer and show that I could enact change and impact others through my words in a way I never thought I could. It was during this time that my friend, Chad Sweet, left GLM to go work for RLT and strangely enough the theater sort of fell into my lap. Like most of the experiences of my life I never could have anticipated this is where I would have ended up and yet I cannot imagine doing anything else.

Okay - what's coming up next for you? Tell me about the Utility Players. How does improve factor into the rest of your life?

I feel very blessed by all that I have on my plate for this upcoming year. If I had to theme 2015 it would be "integration". I have had so many seemingly disparate jobs, interests, and passions throughout my life but now, like pieces of a puzzle, the various arenas of my life are coming together beautifully and effortlessly. I will continue as the managing director for GLM. It is going to be a big year for our theater as we work to revitalize and revamp the space aiming to build upon the work of predecessor Chad Sweet and continue establishing GLM as a quality black box theater featuring innovative and original works of art. I am the 2015 Playwright in Residence for GLM and my new original work, Last Call at the Old Southwest, is slated as our Artown Production. I am beyond ecstatic for this work. It is historical and political in nature, examining bits and pieces of the LGBT movement from the late 70's to present time, reflecting upon such themes as the decline of bar culture, the fracturing within our community, and the current state of LGBT affairs. I get to integrate my academic background with my passions for writing and activism. Working with the Utility Players has opened so many doors in my personal and professional life. It has shaped and inspired my writing craft, enhanced my outgoing and sociable nature, and has honed my comedic presence and mind. I honestly don't know where I would be without it. I love being a principal member of the Utility Players. There is nothing I enjoy more than playing on stage my with band amazing improvisers as we get too delve and swim in the world of the infinite. In any given show I get to play a myriad of characters in a myriad of situations and environments. In improv I get the opportunity to co-create a show with the audience. We recently completed our 8th season at the Sands Regency and are onboard to do Season 9 starting in late April. Before that though, the Utility Players will reprise The Game Show Show at GLM as we stage "Reno Squares" and "$10,000 Pyramid". Improv is perhaps the greatest gift I could have ever acquired in my entire life. Improv has greatly enhanced my public speaking and group facilitation allowing to me to think quickly and effectively on my feet. I use to work as a sexual health educator for Planned Parenthood and never balked at an opportunity to impromptu answer questions from the audience knowing that my training on sexual health coupled with my fine-tuned improve skills would aid me immensely. Sometimes, in an improve show, we only have a few seconds between when an audience gives a suggestion and when a scene begins. Once an improve scene begins one must be decisive and committed within a scene. More importantly, on a deeper level, the core rule of improv is to "say yes". Your personal world becomes infinite when you say yes to life, when you say yes to the opportunities life throws your way.

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