Cover Story: The Actor

Brandon J. Dirden

By Curt Holman Wednesday September 6, 2006 12:04 AM EDT

Name: Brandon J. Dirden

Age: 32

Genre: Stage actor who specializes in moody and/or funny leading men at playhouses across Atlanta

Work: Some of his recent career highlights include the Colin Powell character at 7 Stages‚ Come On in My Kitchen, an openly gay baseball MVP in Theatre in the Square's Take Me Out, and melancholy hunk Duke Orsino in Georgia Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Education: Morehouse College and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Chemistry, off-stage and on: In August, Dirden flew to Jamaica to wed Crystal Dickinson, his frequent co-star in Georgia Shakespeare's ensemble of players.

Prophecy: Dirden will take center stage as the murderously jealous title character of Othello at Georgia Shakespeare (Oct. 12-Nov. 5). As if taking on one of Shakespeare's most famous tragic heroes wasn't challenge enough, Dirden will be performing in his own adaptation of the play, designed for merely six actors: Park Krausen will play spurned Desdemona, John Preston takes scheming Iago, and Chris Kayser, Joe Knezevich and Kate Donadio will field the rest of the roles. (Georgia Shakespeare received an $18,000 National Endowment of the Arts grant for the production.)

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