Rogue Spotlight: John Tufts in Rogue Theater Company season opener

By Jim Flint for the Rogue Valley Times

You’d think an actor who has 14 seasons with Oregon Shakespeare Festival under his belt and who has performed on stages from California to off-Broadway might have grown up in a family of creatives. Not the case.

John Tufts, who stars in Rogue Theater Company’s “An Iliad” at Grizzly Peak Winery (directed by his wife, Christine Albright-Tufts), says “artistic” is not a word he would use to describe anybody in his family. “My mother sold life insurance. My dad was a woodworker. My brother is a physicist. My grandparents were developers,” he said. “And no one was musical. Listening to my family sing in church is like listening to a choir of dying cats.”

“An Iliad,” adapted from Homer’s epic poem, will run Thursday through Sunday, through March 12, at 2 p.m. indoors at Grizzly Peak Winery. Live music is provided by cellist Michal Palzewicz. Tufts performed the one-man show at the start of the pandemic, online without an audience. “The biggest challenge is the memorization,” he said. “It’s a 100-minute monologue.” One of the upsides, he says, is working with his wife. “She’s the smartest person in the room when it comes to text analysis,” he said. “No one can break down a script like she can. No one can better track arc, theme, journey, beats.”

So how in the world did young John Tufts end up in the theater business? An early performance he saw when he was 8 years old may have been a catalyst. “It was a national tour of ‘Les Misérables,’” he recalled. “And there was this character, Gavroche. He has that song he sings while he marches around. Man, I wanted to be that kid.” A few years later, the family moved to another city. How to fit in was top of mind when he started middle school there. “It sure wasn’t going to be in football or other sports,” he laughed. The aha moment came when he saw a production of “Oliver.” “I was super jealous of the kids performing in it, so I decided to audition for the next play.” He was cast, and soon met the other theater kids.“I knew I had found my people,” he said. “We were loud, rude, smart, silly, passionate, and always hugging,” he said. “Heaven, heaven, heaven.”

He spent his high school years at Interlochen Center for the Arts, a boarding school in Michigan for students in grades 9-12. “There I got in deep,” he said. “It was total immersion drama with a capital D.”He says he learned that if you’re studying to be an artist, you need to approach it with seriousness, integrity, curiosity, “and even childlike joy.” He went on to earn a bachelor of performing arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Tufts was born in Dallas and grew up in Atlanta, Santa Fe, New Mexico and Michigan. He now lives in upstate New York where his wife, Christine Albright-Tufts, is a professor at Syracuse University. They have a 9-year-old son, Henry. Tufts’ first paid acting gig was as young Enoch Snow in “Carousel” when he was 17. “I got paid $1,000 for three months,” he said. “It was grueling, but it was a blast. I spent the summer singing and dancing and smooching the artistic director’s daughter.”

Officially, it was former OSF Associate Artistic Director Tim Bond who brought Tufts to Ashland. But acting in a repertory company was what he had always dreamed about in school. “I wanted to be in multiple shows, running at the same time,” he said. “I wanted to play every character and stretch my range. I wanted to hang out in the green room and tell stories. And most of all, I wanted to do lots and lots of Shakespeare.” He did just that at OSF, playing Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet,” Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Henry V in “Henry V,” and Prince Hal in “Henry IV, Parts One and Two,” among others.

He also has performed at The Guthrie Theater, The Goodman Theater, Arena Stage, The Old Globe, Syracuse Stage, Seattle Rep, MTC, Actors Theater of Louisville, McCarter Theater, PlayMakers Rep, and Chicago Shakespeare. One of the biggest satisfactions he finds in his theater career is the friendships he has made. “I get to be friends with actors who are 20 and with actors who are 90,” he said. “We all go out and drink and joke, shout and cry, and complain. I would do anything for my theater friends.”

He loves Shakespeare, but he also enjoys musical theater. “I guess that’s because I come from such a non-musical family. It’s always thrilling to sing a note that’s actually in the chord.” The lyric baritone also can bust a move on the dance floor, probably thanks in part to his nine years of ballet experience. Many of Tufts’ fans remember him for his comic turns, as Chico in OSF’s Marx Brothers romps and as a member of the cast of the festival’s holiday show, “It’s Christmas, Carol!”, a production he co-wrote with Mark Bedard and Brent Hinkley.He credits his comedy chops to being the youngest kid in his family and watching OSF veteran actor David Kelly.

Tufts knows his way around a kitchen as well. When friends learned that cooking was a secret passion, they urged him to write a cookbook. “Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare’s Table” was the result and it soon sold out, with plans for an additional printing in the works. The accomplished chef also hosts a weekly cooking show on YouTube, “EatsoFacto,” which often includes bizarre origin stories about favorite dishes. Next on Tufts’ theater calendar is playing the dastardly Captain Hook this May in Kansas City Rep’s production of “Peter Pan and Wendy,” a new adaptation of the popular tale by Lauren Gunderson.

For more information about RTC productions and to purchase tickets to “An Iliad,” go to roguetheatercompany.com.

Reach Ashland writer Jim Flint at jimflint.ashland@yahoo.com.