About Me

Joel Mason was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1960. After a tour of duty in the US Navy, spent in South East Asia, he returned home and studied acting at the University of South Carolina but didn’t finish his BFA until eight years later at the University of Rhode Island. Joel moved around the US for several years as an actor, dancer and theatrical fight choreographer before starting his graduate studies in Interdisciplinary Theater at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland.He came to Edinburgh in 2003 as a performer with Squonk Opera, met his wife while dancing Argentine tango and moved to Scotland permanently in 2004 where he has had success as a playwright and director. Joel lives in Dalgety Bay, Fife with his wife and son.

Acting

Experience

Accents

Employment History & Experience

Tours
Hamlet Laertes Theatre West Virginia
Cyrano de Bergerac Rageneau Boston Flamenco Ballet
Three Musketeers d’Artagnan Boston Flamenco Ballet
Bigsmorgasbord Ensemble Squonk Opera
East of the Sun The Minister Liminal Theatre
Tour 86 Ensemble Theatre Mask Ensemble

Regional
Macbeth Macduff RI Shakespeare Theatre
Macbeth Macduff Baltimore Shakespeare
Lapis Blue Blood Red Lorenzo Splitting Image
The Medium Toby URI Opera Ensemble
Inferno Don Squonk Opera
Grease Vince Fontaine Theatre WV
Baltimore Project Linney Theatre Project
Working Dan Theatre WV
Tumble Gulch Just Fred Kings Dominion
Tecumsea Barking Fox Scioto Society
Sound of a Voice Man Axis Theatre
Hatfields and McCoys Tolbert Theatre WV
Swashbucklers Bob Cumberland Company

Dance
’96-98 Season Ensemble The Moving Company
National Tour 91 Ensemble Boston Flamenco Ballet
’84-86 Season Principle Cumberland Dance Co.
’81-83 Season Corps de Ballet USC Ballet Company

Industrials
Trouble with Alcohol Narrator WJAR-TV
Safety in the Biohazard Laboratory
Chemist Interactive Media Comm.

Modelling

Experience

Music

Experience

Vocal Skills

Entertainment

Experience

Extras Work, Partipant, Contestant

Experience

Languages Spoken

Experience & Qualifications

Qualifications & Training

BFA acting University of Rhode Island
MFA (ABT) Interdisciplinary Theatre Towson University

Other Information

Relevant Skills

American accents (southern, NY/New Jersey, standard mid western) stage combat (rapier and dagger, broadsword, sword and shield, court sword, quarter staff, hand to hand, gun fighting, fencing), dance (Argentine tango, ballroom), fire eating, fire blowing, stilt walking, horseback riding, carriage driving (singles and teams), archery, unicycle, bullwhip, lunge whip, character voices, print modelling, stage and production management with emphasis on organising and administrating US touring

Fight choreographer resume and academic CV available upon request

Interests & Hobbies

writing, horses, carriage driving, tall ships, pirates, history, swords, music, composing, 48 hour film festival, architecture

Miscellaneous Information

Artist Statement

Many years ago I heard an interview on National Public Radio. The person being interviewed (in retrospect I think it was Joseph Campbell) read from an article about the “trouble with kids today”, it included all the things that you might assume, “the younger generation has no respect”, and “in my day kids had manners and took responsibility”, the article had been written by Ben Franklin. The person being interviewed went on to talk about how the human body was designed to be an adult at around the age of 14 and that in earlier societies, as well as in primitive contemporary cultures, children are needed to help the family survive. By contrast, in contemporary western society we do not allow our children to be adults until much later. “You’re not an adult until 16 when you get your drivers license” then “You’re not an adult until you’re 18 and can be drafted into the military.” “You can’t drink until you’re 21” once a friend of mine tried to rent a car for her father, only to find out that the company only rented to people over 25. The person being interviewed on NPR went on to explain that this pushing away of “coming of age” creates a traumatic conflict in the spirit of young people and is essentially responsible for the “rebellious nature of kids today”. Though I was quite young at the time, the interview had a profound resonance for me. It is now 2004 and I still haven’t heard anything that makes as much sense.
In the early 80’s, American politicians advocated a “return to family values”, with the nuclear family of the 50’s as their model. This would allow the family to be self absorbed and concerned only with their own welfare. Later we have heard the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child”. This concept takes as its model a much earlier form of society. Prior to the industrial revolution families worked on an interpersonally integrated level allowing for constant example to be demonstrated between parent and child. Without television, video games, computers, and all of the other isolating forms of self-entertainment, children turned to their extended family (the village) for entertainment and information. This diverse interpersonal interaction helped to create cohesion in the society, and the society understood and honoured its role in raising children.
Today most children rely on the narrow influence of only two parents (if they are lucky) and a constant overturning of teachers in overcrowded classrooms where the collective thought of a room full of students overrides the influence of a single teacher. Ask any teacher what takes up the majority of their work and you may expect to hear that it is discipline. Not only is this system wrong but it has been wrong for so long that we have forgotten what it was when it was right. It was a community of people influencing children. If you can imagine a model for education where each child has the benefit of four or five adults of greatly varying age giving that one child their full attention, sometimes one at a time sometimes several at once, that was a community. If we look purely at organizational structure contemporary school systems have more in common with the prison system. Where conformity is rewarded by the system but rebellion is rewarded by the attention of the collective group. Sociological studies show that making a bad choice as a result of peer pressure is normal behavior.
If you find the idea of trusting other adults with your children frightening, you are not alone. If those adults were steeped in the current social system I would have apprehensions as well. We are all missing a few social tools unless we are among the lucky few who have been raised in remarkable circumstances. We have been away from the tradition of community for so many generations that most of us have never learned what true community is.
It is this idea that is now at the base of my work. These shortcomings cannot be changed overnight nor can they be addressed in a decade. A more radical artist might call for a rebellion against technology, industry, and the computer age, but I desire a more peaceful transition. If I can create an atmosphere where one parent, consciously or subconsciously, sees the value of exposing their child to ideas other than their own, encourages that child to a curiosity of other cultures, and celebrates that child’s passage into a more timely adulthood, then I have had my revolution.
To that purpose I have founded Liminal Theatre. A theatre company whose “radical” idea it is to give value to community and the community experience. Some of the most efficacious and innovative theatre is being produced with the “community” as its target beneficiary. I wish to add my company’s name to those forward thinkers.
Liminality
A transitional ritual is comprised of three phases: first the separation from the previous society, thirdly the re-aggregation into the target society. The second or middle phase is called the liminal phase. Limen, defined by Webster’s 97 edition, is “THRESHOLD”. Folklorist Arnold van Gnnep coined the term “liminality” to refer to this middle phase because of the common occurrence of thresholds in the transitional rituals of tribes that he had studied.
In the Liminal phase, initiates were commonly considered neither this nor that, but on an ethereal and spiritual plane outside of the realm of the common world. During this Liminal state initiates might be instructed in the history and customs of the tribe or given other information intended to help them in their future life as a member of the society. The rituals were carried on with such ceremony that they became a major moment in the life of that person. As that person thought back on the life long memory of their coming of age ritual they would be reminded of the values taught to them at that time. This is the very purpose of ritual.
Liminal Theatre uses an understanding of the power of ritual to create a liminal experience for its audience in general, and its actants in particular (actant - actor/participant).
To me the term “artist” once referred to a level of self-expression. Now I recognize it as an office of public service that requires an extreme level of responsibility to those around me.