Erik

What’s your role in the Coil Project?

I’m the (co) founder and Creative Director, though that probably doesn’t tell you much.

Coil didn’t take much in the way of founding – I sent a single email to a handful of people who were hankering to find a way to work together. The next morning, we were off to the races.

I don’t like the title of Artistic Director because it implies a role I don’t actually perform. I don’t pick a season from a list of projects. I’m constantly developing things with our writers and trying to move them off into production when they feel “done”. My job is just about as non-artistic as possible – I’m just pushing around the creativity of others, and then getting out of the way.

It’s fun.

Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?

I just have that kind of face.

But if I MUST self promote, I’ve acted in various Coil production, as well as at CHAW and the Anacostia Playhouse, and even in a converted art gallery with Nu Sass. You can see a full resume at https://erikharrisonactor.wordpress.com/

What’s your day job?

I am a creature of the night, professionally. My day job usually involves sleeping. I pick up an IT contract now and then because I like to turn cliches about artsy types on their ear.

Where would you like to see The Coil Project go?

I would like to see the Coil replacing the governments of the world, uniting the globe under me as Benevolent Emperor For Life.

I would be most proud if the Coil was thought of like the Algonquin Round Table or Black Mountain College – a force for good that elevates everyone who had contact with it, and by extension elevates the community into which it extends, well past the lifetime of the thing itself.

Are you working on anything else at the moment?

Unbelievably, yes. Coil eats up the majority of my energies, but outside of acting, writing, directing, producing and generally making a nuisance of myself within the project, I’m acting and writing outside of it. At the time of this writing I’m playing Gregor Bazman in Nu Sass’s production of A Bright Room Called Day. At the time of this reading I might be working on something else – I have a podcast, a short film, a television episode, and three short plays in the hopper for the next two weeks alone.

Also, I’m working on a system to shove 30 hours into the day. Wish me luck.