this is the Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden
besides Franklin Street this is
the best place to view wildlife in Evansville founded in 1928 from a cash
gift of twenty five thousand dollars from George Mesker the zoo is home to
hundreds of animals from around the globe
birds *Are you a pretty bird?*
Cats
Goats
whatever the heck this thing is, this place has got it all
bring the family, go paddle boating, check out the gift shop, or when your acting
teacher Eric cancels class unexpectedly take a field trip
Where we at? Where we at? The Zoo
WE'RE AT THE ZOO!
I like the Zoo
It's silly, fun, and unexpected kind of like my guest today Mr. Paul Weimer
Paul is an assistant professor of theatre and the scenic designer for the USI main
stage shows as well as New Harmony Theatre
as if that weren't enough fun
all by itself he has had an amazing career in New York City and has been
mentioned in not one, but two Tony Award speeches but most of all my associate
Paul Weimer who goes to the top of the class and gets a gold star
I think it just might just be fair to call him the celebrity of the department
hi I'm Parker Dean and this is faculty at places talking about things
now due to the cult of personality that surrounds Paul I showed up early to make
sure I was on time to meet him I anxiously awaited his arrival
Hello? Is this Mr. Weimer? It is Parker
How are you Paul?
I'm fine. Did you see my email I'm driving to the zoo now
sounds good, I hope you're ready to go out and check the animals
we're going to see some monkeys we're going to see some birds and
possibly some otters Paul I hope you're excited
I can barely contain myself
Sounds good I'll see you soon we'll meet you out front
Paul! Hi Parker
So you're originally from Ohio, is that right?
I'm from Ohio, from Northwestern Ohio
From a little town called Ada
And I went to the college in that town called Ohio Northern University
That's where your parents worked? That's right
My father was a teacher and my mom was the librarian
and I applied to different graduate schools
And I ended up the University of Wisconsin
You floated around the Midwest for awhile right?
A bit yeah
and then in the summers I was working at different summer theatres all over
Illinois, Massachusetts
California and Maine
you're a traveling man Paul Weimer.
and that's why I got so much done working in the summers
and that's why I try to push students to really leave Evansville
I have to be honest
I don't know what animal you would consider yourself, but I think I would consider you a giraffe
Well I like giraffes
you're close enough to be relatable
you're regal. And yet a little nerdy. A little nerdy, yes look at them!
I'M A GIRAFFE
What animal would you consider yourself Paul?
I think it depends on the time of day
In the morning what animal are you when you get up?
A sloth, but that doesn't last very long I have a cup of tea and
then I become like a monkey. A monkey? Bouncing off the wall? By afternoon
it's juggling a lot of things, people, appointments
Hello... Hello?
you're a busy man Paul Weimer
I keep busy
so tell me about New York City what did you do there?
well, right out of graduate school I moved to
New York City one of my friends that I had been in school with
had moved there the year before and she was doing pretty well and working for
a well known designer and I thought well I'll try it for
a year or two because I had no dream of
moving to New York. You got bitten by the New York bug?
yeah you get there one thing happens and another thing happens
start working and you think well I'll stay a little longer and see what happens
and then I was there for thirty years
thing about working there is that in one way doing a show on
Broadway is really no different than doing a show in your high school or
college, one of my friends used to say "it's only the school play" and it's true
you can sort of do the same process you have the same people that do kind of
the same jobs and there's never enough time or money. I remember you saying
that in my freshman class that there is never enough money for the shows. Yeah it doesn't matter
Starbucks huh? How many times a day?
I'll go twice generally
Generally twice a day, that's a lot of Starbucks
New York, that's where you met your partner Greg right?
Yes that's right. This is such a
cute story please tell me how you met. Well years ago I signed up for a two
step dance class this would be the type of music a dancer would do for country
western music which I wasn't a real big fan of but I'd seen this flyer for this
dance instruction school that had a whole gay and lesbian section that was
their focus key it wasn't really to meet people it was to learn this
two-step dance and I could go to a bar and then go to a club and meet people, so I sign
up for this class it's like four weeks and there's another guy in the class and
because of the way the classes are you get partnered with different people but
there weren't that many people so I got partnered with him a lot and you know we
were talking and eventually we went out the class ended and we
went out and started dating and then we've sort of been together for now about thirteen
years and we've never gone two step dancing we never go to a bar
but I guess that accomplished what it was supposed too. You met
somebody. So I am very glad, but you never really know that's I guess an
example of kind of have to take chances and do things and just not worry about
what your results are because you can't always predict them
that's why I like a place like a zoo or a museum or anything that takes me out
of my normal office or theater. I wanted to give you a vacation. Oh well thank you
This might be it for the year
You worked on many famous Broadway shows what are a couple of those?
You've done the original run of Phantom of the Opera
Yeah I worked on the original phantom and three or four subsequent companies of it
That's fantastic
Spamalot and Shrek and then of course more recently the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
when they brought curious incident over to the United States you were on
the og original run of that show you were on a team. Yeah. That's awesome
and it was a really fantastic experience not just from the design point of view
but being I actually was sitting in rehearsal a lot and
normally designers in rehearsal are the director, but she couldn't be she was in
London doing another show so she said you have to go to rehearsal for me at first I
thought do I really have to and then I sort of started doing it, it's so fascinating
to see the director work and it just made me love the show more and I just
think it's a great story and that's when I get bogged down I have to just remember
it's great story I can tell that
So tell me about USI
A few years ago I was looking for a teaching job and I wanted to get out of New York
and have a real life or what I thought was a real life
I was looking at different schools and USI was looking for a scene designer
which is what I am and I like the the job because it's plays on a lot of
different skills I really found that I enjoy teaching probably because I
grew up around teachers my parents were teachers in university so I knew
it's your natural habitat. Yeah I guess it's my natural habitat it just took me 30 years to find it
I hope that we make a difference in every students life.
If there's anybody that can make a difference it's Paul Weimer.
tell me about lab which lab do you do because the new chillings coming in they're
gonna want to know where they can find Mr. Paul Weimer
Well a part of my job is to supervise the scene painting and stage prop labs
I enjoy supervising, the students do it and I sometimes I have to stop myself
from doing all it all myself and because of course it's put there to get
shows done but also teach yet because it is an extension of teaching so I like it
Fine line of getting a show done but also cheap
and that can be frustrating sometimes
because though I need to find ways to get things done efficiently and yet still
have people know why we're doing things and so they can do it again
now it's just you know you get involved in one show it's hard to focus on the next
thing but you always have to that's the theater. That's the theater.
You just have to keep going
What I try to get students to realize is that it's really taking the whole world
about because you're putting the whole world onstage potentially and to try to find
ways to do that and in order to do that you kind of have to experience the world
first hand as they say death is easy but comedy is hard. I like that death is easy
comedy is hard yeah
you
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