Nero/Pseudo: Meet Brian McDermott

(As part of my blogging about Nero/Pseudo here at Balkans via Bohemia, I will be introducing readers to members of the cast and creative team of the show.) 

Brian McDermott is a member of our terrific ensemble for the show. They play a lot of parts and have dazzled all of us -- and cracked us up -- from the first rehearsal.

Brian is a Marine Corps veteran and a student at George Mason University where he studies acting, writing, and directing with big dreams of one day making a payment on his student loans. He's been featured in Molotov Theatre Group's Normal, Quotidian Theatre Company's The Iceman Cometh, and Prince George's Little Theatre's Over the River and Through the Woods. He will sticking around at Fringe this summer, appearing in an opera called A Fire In Water presented by Silver Finch Arts.

Brian says he enjoys studying whisky, music, language, and food in his spare time. He also answered the three questions I'm posing to all members of the creative team:

Who is your favorite person/god from antiquity?

When I first started reaching back and exploring my Celtic roots, I really got into the mythology surrounding the Celtic Sun-God, Lugh. He is often referred to as the King of Celtic gods and is also seen as a master of all arts. I also really dig the mythos around the Greek god Dionysus -- the god of wine, merriment, ecstasy, and theatre. What's there not to love about that résumé?

What's the strangest fact about the ancient world or glam rock that you've learned from this experience?

One of the most interesting things I came across during this experience was that Nero convinced the Greeks to delay the Olympic games for a whole year so that he could compete in them, and to include artistic competitions such as singing and acting. It's rumoured that Nero was so pleased with the experience that he declared Greece to be exempt from paying taxes to Rome, which had been ruling Greece for around 200 years at that time.

If you were Emperor for a day, what would be your first decree? 

Four day weekends. Definitely.

Nero/Pseudo previews open at The Shop at Fort Fringe on Friday May 2. Find out more about the play at WSC Avant Bard. Tickets are now on sale.