Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

On the Job: David Shunk

Dave Shunk, a clerk in the Law Library, has been active in community theater for more than 20 years. Shunk is currently playing the role of King Pellinore in the production of “Camelot” at the Fine Arts Center in Tuscola. He has directed and written plays and is one of the partners in The Simple Little Play Company, which has produced four comedies, including “The Odd Couple” and “Three Murders and It’s Only Monday.”

How did you get involved in acting?
Our high school didn’t have a theater program per se because it got cut due to the budget. We had a woman in town who wanted to get it started back up and volunteered to do a small play during the school year. She was one of the board members of the Villa Grove Community Theater and recruited those of us who were in the play. We did summer musicals for probably 15 years then began branching out and doing two or three shows a year.

What roles have you played?
My first role was Herr Zeller in “The Sound of Music.” I’ve played villains. I’ve played sidekicks. I’ve played leads. I played Oscar in “The Odd Couple.” I played General Bullmoose in “Li’l Abner.” I played Harry Monday, a spoof on the Sam Spade detective character, in “Three Murders and It’s Only Monday.” The character parts tend to be more fun because they’re eccentric, but it depends on the role. I’ve also directed about five plays. I’ve also done a little set designing, but my skills are in the very developmental stages. Some of us in the group have tried writing plays too, so I’ve dabbled in that, too, in the last year.

Do have any preference as to the type of production?
I like doing the comedies. I don’t mind the musicals, but they require a lot more work. I can sing but I’m not comfortable singing in front of people. With the plays, I feel you get to do more with the characters because the plot is character-driven. Generally, with musicals you’ve got your four main characters and most of the other characters just come in for a few scenes. In plays the cast is small and the majority are on stage most of the time. With a musical, you may come on and sing and then be backstage for an hour. With “Camelot,” my character, King Pellinore, doesn’t come into the show until Scene Five. So you’re sitting backstage for an hour and 15 minutes trying to keep in character until you can go on.

What have you learned over the course of your acting career?
Comedy is hard. Some people can’t do it no matter how hard they try. It has a lot to do with timing, how you say the lines, your body language. It’s the delivery that’s important to really make it funny. I’ve been able to do that pretty well.

With all the productions you’ve been in, have you had anything funny happen onstage?
The last musical I did, about six years ago, was “Annie.” The director was just determined to have us use a real dog onstage, and every night the dog would do its business onstage while little Annie sang “Tomorrow.” I think we did eight shows and five out of the eight times that dog did its business while we were out there. We’ve had a couple of guys almost lose their pants onstage. One didn’t have anything on underneath, we found out, but they didn’t fall all the way down, thank goodness. We’ve had props not show up, and you turn to get it and it’s not there. We’ve had scenes where somebody skipped a page in their lines, and we had to figure out how to go back because there was something important that got skipped. We’ve had people get caught out onstage during a scene change, and they’ve had to hide behind a rock or a tree or a pillar until we got done with the scene.

Tell me a little bit about your work here at the university. How long have you been here?
Twelve years, all here at the Law Library. I actually graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a bachelor’s degree in science. I do serial materials check in. My main job is checking in and processing the foreign law materials. I’m on a serials implementation team over at the main library that’s one of several committees looking at how we can transfer our work over to the new Voyager library system that is being installed over the next year.

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