Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Rover Singer.
Hi Rover, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in a very rural part of Santa Rosa in northern California, where my dad wanted a ranch with horses, cows, and chickens. I had zero appreciation for the agrarian lifestyle. My childhood was spent with coloring books, puppets, and Disney shows on TV. I insisted on seeing “Mary Poppins” three times when it came out; afterward, I must have listened to the album a thousand times. I took every opportunity to ride my bike to the library, where I’d devour books on the cultural history of the world and anything by Lewis Carroll. I had a taste for magic and fantasy and history and art–anything that provided escape from the dull, grim, violent modern world. I painted my name on a suitcase in which I stored magic tricks and a ventriloquist dummy as if I were about to embark on a Vaudeville tour… even though Vaudeville had been dead for at least two decades. My creativity was largely isolated until my smart, supportive mother encouraged me to join the cast of a summer school production of the musical “Oliver!” Here I discovered the delightful embrace of the theatrical community–My People! I spent my adolescence developing as a performer, writer, director, designer, stage manager, and fan of theatrical arts. I evolved from being an extremely shy, pimply nerd to delivering an impressive performance as Riff in “West Side Story.” After high school, my talented school-chums independently produced a dazzling production of “Godspell,” which made me a producer at the age of 17. General Amazement Theater lasted only 3 shows, but it was a year of remarkable growth for me as an arts administrator with no mentorship or supervision whatsoever.
I decided to attend drama school in England, so in 1979, I traveled alone to London and ended up getting an excellent training at the Guildford School of Acting, culminating in a performance of an original one-man show as Lewis Carroll. After two years in Britain, I returned to California and found employment as a director at the Living History Centre, creator of the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire and Dickens Christmas Fair. These seasonal festivals were an ideal breeding ground of inspiration and opportunity. My half-hour version of “Hamlet” debuted in 1981, drawing rave reviews and standing ovations. Thus, was born the Reduced Shakespeare Company, which, over time, evolved into a three-man comedy team with Jess Winfield and Adam Long. We took the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by storm in 1987 with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),” which to our great surprise went on to become one of the world’s most popular comedy shows. Its unique style of direct audience address, spontaneous improvisation, cultural satire, and the witty/dopey charm of its performers’ personalities popularized a new theatrical genre that inspired generations of similar shows that followed its example of reducing cultural juggernauts and shattering the fourth wall. All those years of performing for drunken Faire audiences, sweating in the hot sun, and carefully honing our schtick eventually paid off with “Complete Works”‘ record-breaking 9-year run in London’s West End (1995-2004).
But I’d left the RSC in 1989, having launched the company (and a hit show) into the world and needing to fulfill other desires. Becoming a model-maker at Walt Disney Imagineering was the culmination of a lifelong goal, harking back to my watching Walt on his Sunday evening TV show as he giddily wandered around the Disney workshop to see what fabulous new adventures they were planning next at Disneyland. I helped create new attractions for Disney theme parks worldwide, including two Splash Mountains and two Toontowns, for which I carved staggering amounts of polyurethane-foam trees, rocks, and hills. My intricate 1”=1’ scale model of “Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin” is so exactly like the finished product that photos of the model and photos of the ride are indistinguishable from each other. During my career there, I helped found the Flower Street Players, an in-house theater company for employees that donated all funds raised to charity.
Regular paychecks and corporate benefits were enjoyable, but I’m a bohemian at heart, so after 12 years of being chained to a job, even an ideal one, I could feel my creative spirit yearning to break free. At the age of 40, I left my dream career to become a freelancer. I helped organize themed events and publications for The Fooles Guild, a group of free-spirited Angelenos I’d been partying with since 1982. I founded the pirate band QuarterMaster in 2012 because I loved singing harmony. For a few years, I produced gay rave parties. I’ve been a storyteller at StrongWords–Voices of the City.
And I began writing plays because I’ve experienced magical, profoundly moving moments in live theater, both onstage and as an audience member, and I wanted to create more of those. My 2013 play “A Perfect Likeness,” which dramatized a fictitious meeting between Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens, was a modest success. I’ve also developed plays about a prehistoric caveman, the perils of sharing a hotel room with another couple, the historic 1941 labor strike at the Disney Studio, and the extraordinary childhood of Louisa May Alcott. My newest show will immerse the audience as ‘extras’ on the set of a talkie being filmed in 1929 Hollywood.
My goals have always revolved around making life seem less mundane and more magical through immersive art, performance, and imaginative social experiences. I live with my husband, Cal, in a hand-built home in the foothills north of downtown Los Angeles, which serves as an extended-family clubhouse and venue for very bohemian parties. My friends all call me Rover; it’s a long story.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Never a smooth road! As a child, I felt like a stranger in a strange land. My father was embarrassed because he saw me as a “sissy,” and his disapproval of me inhibited my confidence. I was terrified of being gay; it was so much more difficult to come out in those days. Instead of growing up in an artistic community, I felt isolated. I wanted to be in charge of my own life but had to wait an eternity till I was 18. As an adult, I quickly learned what one has control over and what one doesn’t. I saw that if I wanted to be a successful artist, I’d have to rely on myself to create opportunities rather than relying on others. Making theater is always hard. Being poor makes everything harder. My successes have all been hard-won.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
For many years, I was proud to be a Disney Imagineer, which involved designing, building, sculpting, and painting scale models. It utilized all my creative skills, including my theatrical ability to stage a scene. After I left Disney, I worked for the independent theme-park design firm Thinkwell, where I built all the models for their Warner Brothers World theme park in Abu Dhabi.
After all my experience in theater, I’m very happy to now focus on writing and directing. It’s like building a house from the foundation up. I’ve learned that it’s pretty easy to write a lousy play and a very tough challenge to write an excellent one.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
The pandemic showed me how fragile our society is. It made a permanent dent in all our lives. Our recovery from that damage is requiring a huge amount of resilience.
Contact Info:
- Website: louisaatfruitlands.
com
