Spotlight On...Doug Carpenter

Name: Doug Carpenter


Hometown: Military Brat


Education: BM Voice UNLV, MM. Voice UCLA


Select Credits: Camelot (Lancelot, Pasadena Playhouse); Life Could Be A Dream (NYMF); Pride and Prejudice the Musical (NYMF); Miss Saigon (Chris, Moonlight Amphitheater)

Why theater?: I did musical theatre back at my performing arts high school in Las Vegas, but then I switched gears as I went to College.  I studied and planned on being an opera singer all through my undergrad and most of my Masters, but then I booked an equity Musical halfway through my Masters. In opera, I felt like I was being asked to always do it "right", and everything had to be perfectly as others thought.  The freedom I had in Musical Theater was incredible, I finally felt like an artist again.  Needless to say I was hooked again.

Tell us about Life Could Be a Dream: Straight from the Website LCBAD (as we call it) is billed as “Meet the “Crooning Crabcakes,” a boy group hoping for fame and fortune in the Big Whopper Radio “Dream-Of-A-Lifetime Talent Search.” Trouble comes when Lois, a former Springfield High School Song Leader, arrives to put some polish on the boys. Denny and Wally fall in love, Eugene falls apart, and heartthrob Skip sends the whole situation spinning. Winner of the L.A. Drama Critics Circle and L.A. Weekly “Best Musical of the Year” Awards, from the creator of “The Marvelous Wonderettes.”


What is it like being a part of Life Could Be a Dream?: This was my first show after college, and my first chance to originate a role.  We performed originally in a 99 seat theatre in LA, and we got really close as a team(literally and figuratively).  This show is pure fun and fluff, and its mostly us goofing around on stage while singing some awesome doo-wop tunes.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I love anything that makes me think about it the next day.  I like theater I can enjoy in the moment, and then "chew" on the next couple days.  I love legit musicals for the music, but I wish there was more of that type of stuff being written now for contemporary audiences. I really love Audra Mcdonald.    One of the best and most technically perfect singers ever, who can do opera as well as musical theater, but also one of the most engaging and fierce actors ever.  I want to be her.

Any roles you’re dying to play?: I am dying to get me hands on Billy Bigelow in Carousel, Javert in Les Mis, and Joe in Sunset Blvd.  All of them are huge awesome singing and their character's are so interesting because they're all hugely flawed villian/heros.

What’s your favorite showtune?: I love sad love songs like "I Don't Remember You", "I Won't Send Roses", and "Being Alive"

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Bernadette Peters...  I love her.  I saw her once at a reading I was doing, but I got so nervous I made a point of not getting anyway near her.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Nathan Fillion would play me in "Middle Child".

What show have you recommended to your friends?: There's this really great show called Life Could Be a Dream at NYMF this weekend...  But I also tell them to go see Book of Mormon.  It just does everything a musical should do and does it really well.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Electronic music, and really bad community theater.  Like really, really bad where you can't stop watching because ANYTHING could happen.

What’s up next?: I wish I could tell you, but the cast list hasn't been released.  It may be at a really Good theater in CT doing a role I'm most happy about.