Mark Kincaid
Mark on his front porch before going to work
-Theatre-
Mark opened the door and immediately made me feel like I had been eagerly awaited first thing on a Saturday morning. He fit me into his schedule before jetting off to work and I am so thankful he did.
Folks with less gumption than me would be intimidated by such a giant of Atlanta theatre — and I was because I don’t know if I had ever had a conversation with Mark before. I’d photographed him a few times, he had been in my home, I had come to interact with his wife regularly for work but I can’t say I knew much about him before we sat on his front porch on a drizzly day.
But I bet if I went back and knocked on his door he would make me feel just as welcome as a dear friend. What a treasured thing in times like these.
Interviewed 2.13.21
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: So the first question I have for you is, how are you feeling?
Mark: Well, it's interesting that you chose right now to talk to me about this stuff, because I did only recently hit that moment where I thought, "God, I missed acting." And it took this long for me to get there, but I'm there. I miss the world of the theater, you know? I miss my friends. I miss getting to the theater. I miss the act of performing because I haven't done it in a very long time. Now (my wife) Tess and I lay down, on average, probably half a dozen film and TV auditions a week, but that's not the same thing. That's all about photography and bullshit.
It feels a little bit like homesickness.
Casey: What was the last show you did before Covid hit?
Mark: "A Christmas Carol." Not this Christmas, the Christmas before.
Casey: Yeah, that's a long time.
Mark: That is a long time.
Casey: Speaking of people you love and care about, how is your family? Is everybody healthy? Everybody's good?
Mark: Yeah, we're good. Bea has been - my girl - she's been here until just last week. She just went back to campus, but she's still been in class. She's at Oglethorpe University.
Casey: How's she feeling about being back on campus?
Mark: I think it's a period of readjustment for us. We both feel the same way about it, Bea and Mom and Dad. We want her to have that experience of being — because that's part of college — meeting new people and being away and learning how to do your laundry and being independent. So we want her to have that experience, but at the same time we miss her. Especially under these circumstances where, you know, you worry about her health.
But we're good. She's all right. She's fine. She's a theater major, so she's got this weird thing where she can't do productions. All her productions are virtual productions. She's done three plays, but they've all been online. She does scene work with an actor on a screen, which is pretty weird.
Casey: Man, it's like good preparation in a way, because that feels like it's not going to go away, you know?
Mark: No, I guess.
Casey: But also not quite the experience we had in school.
Mark: No. It's pretty weird.
Casey: Yeah, I hate that. So what have you been doing since I saw you last?
Mark: I have a day job, and it's a time-consuming day job. I could easily get wrapped up doing that and just do that. In fact, there's some kind of release of that, in that I'm not thinking about the theater world. It's just gone, so I don't have to worry about it. I just have to do this kind of rote thing where I go and do work, I come home, I have dinner with my wife and child, except she's gone now, and watch movies together and that's it. And we actually had a really good time with that for a long time.
Recently, it's starting to get a little old. We can't go out to restaurants and we miss all that stuff, too. But I've been working. The house is an old house. It needs a lot of work done. So I've been painting and doing odd jobs and fixing it up. We just redid the kitchen and repainted and put some new furniture in. And the yard is...
Casey: It looks great! It's also huge.
Mark: It's an acre, so it takes me a lot of time to do. And before the winter came, Bea became a gardener too. We were planting flowers and cutting grass and whacking weeds so, yeah, we have stuff to do.
Casey: It sounds like you’ve found a lot of good in not only time together with your adult daughter, who would normally be out on her own, but also this time with your family. Has that been nice?
Mark: That's been great. I'm a family guy, anyway. My days of staying out late nights and all that stuff are long gone. Even when I'm in the theater, I do my job in the theater, then I come home.
Casey: No more 3 a.m. afterparties?
Mark: Nooooo. I come home, I watch TV, and I go to bed. So this has been good. I found some kind of peace with it.
Casey: I'm so encouraged by the fact that the first thing you bring up is the positives. That's such a great thing. I wonder, what's been the hardest part?
Mark: Recently, I hit the wall, and the wall that I hit was that I really identify as an artist. Now, I also identify as a family man. But I identify myself as an artist and I'm not making art. I'm not doing anything at all, and I miss that world. I miss not only the work itself, but the lifestyle of, you know, hanging out with Bill Murphy, or going to a rehearsal. The first day of rehearsal is always very exciting. I do miss that. So that's the hard part.
Casey: When do you think that will come back, when you will be willing to go back and be a part of it. People are doing in-person shows, but...
Mark: Well, I'm not doing anything. Tess works at Theatrical Outfit and they're planning to produce. They have their eye on, without any definite plans, for fall. I think everybody else has got their eyes on the fall, too.
Casey: That's what I'm hearing, too.
Mark: That's when I'm thinking I'll get back on, and I will try to get back on as fast as I possibly can. The odd thing that happened — just before all this hit, I had aged into a different category. I am no longer a middle-aged character man, I'm now an older character man. So I was adjusting to that and it was harder for me. The jobs became a little more specific.
Casey: Yeah. Maybe fewer and far between?
Mark: Yeah.
Casey: I know you've got self-tapes and stuff, but like you said, that's not really the same thing. Have you found any sort of other creative outlet?
Mark: Well, I do watch a lot of stuff. I read a lot. I'm a big reader, so I read a lot of stuff about technique. I love reading actors’ biographies. In fact, I'm reading an Orson Welles one right now. I fumble with my guitar. And as you know, I work at Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is all about performance. So there is, on some level, an outlet there.
Casey: Yes, helps you put that mask on for a while?
Mark: But, to your point, not much. And that's why I suddenly hit that wall. You just think, “There's something missing in my life."
Casey: Do you think it'll be hard to go back when you do? I mean, we obviously can't know if the muscle memory will still be there. You've been doing this forever. But like, I don't know, it feels like it might be kind of hard.
Mark: Yeah, it's funny you should mention it because, first of all, I'm very insecure. Most actors I know are very insecure people. And there is, I think, that niggling thing in the back of your mind, "Maybe I've forgotten how to do this." It's true! But, if I'm honest with myself, every time I walk in the rehearsal hall, I think that.
Casey: So it's not going to be really any different.
Mark: It's just maybe a little higher than normal.
Casey: The stakes are raised.
Mark: But I know it's a bit like riding a bicycle. Once you get on...
Casey: What do you think you'll take out of this time? What do you think you'll remember? What do you think will be the overwhelming image or feeling?
Mark: I've discovered, in sometimes a very surprising way, what is important. It goes back to what we were talking before: my family. Suddenly, little things are important. Like, I have to wear a mask eight hours a day and just not wearing a mask is suddenly — how important that is. How important it is to breathe and little things like going to restaurants and seeing friends and all that stuff. You realize how important all that stuff is. It is something not to be taken for granted.
Casey: Who have you seen and who haven't you seen?
Mark: Well, I haven't seen Bill Murphy in a long time. He's a very good buddy of mine. I haven't seen Rosemary Newcott. I haven't seen Robin Bloodworth. These are people I know really well and I haven't seen them in a very long time. I haven't seen anybody, honestly. I do see people all the time because of my job, but they're not theater people and it's not that environment.
Casey: No one's come over and sat in the yard and just waved?
Mark: No. And that's a very specific part of what I always loved about the theater: it was a lifestyle. It was a tradition: first day of rehearsal and drinks after the show and sitting around the table talking and — it's a lifestyle. The whole thing. That's what I miss the most.
Casey: It's very easy to just run into people and see people all the time, you know?
Mark: Yeah, and that's good, and I love that. But again, it's not the same thing. It's not in that environment. I know I keep talking about this person, maybe it's because I was just talking to him on the phone. It's great meeting Bill, seeing him and catching up, but it's not the same thing as him and I being in a rehearsal hall trying to create something.
Casey: Oh, I see. OK.
Mark: That's a different relationship. It's a joyful thing.
Casey: Of course, I almost don't remember what it's like to be able to be close to somebody and not be worried.
Mark: Yeah!
Casey: You know???
Mark: Theater people are hugging people, and I haven't hugged anybody besides my wife and child in a very long time.
Casey: We're coming up on a year (of the pandemic). What do you find yourself thinking about? I feel like six months in, we were all thinking like, “Oh, the end date is upon us.” But now I'm a year in and I feel a little desensitized and a little demystified.
Mark: Honestly, what I'm thinking about is, “What's the next step?” And I think the next step for me right now is bigger than "What's the next show I'm going to do?" Because this thing has helped me examine a lot of stuff. I'm also entering a particular age. I'm in my 60s now. So I'm wondering "What's the next part of my creative life going to be like?" Is it going to be just acting or am I going to be involved in maybe producing more or teaching more? Or what does it mean? I think I want something bigger than just looking for the next show, and I still don't know what that's going to be.
Casey: Yeah. I love that. Thank you.
