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Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
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Trivial Pursuits

Trivial Pursuits
 
Designer plays role in local theater productions

Acting Shakespeare
Photo courtesy of Mark Rand 
Mark Rand (left) and his wife, Jin Hi, met through their involvement with Savannah theater groups and have performed together at the city’s Shakespeare Festival.

By Monique Bos
Published: Friday, March 3, 2006

Mark Rand, who works as creative director for recruitment at the Savannah College of Art and Design, will be treading the boards later this month as Captain Georg von Trapp in the Savannah Leisure Services’ production of “The Sound of Music.”

The role is merely the most recent of Rand’s many stage appearances around Savannah. His love of acting began in high school, and he participated in the first drama class ever offered at SCAD — where he also earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration and a Master of Arts in graphic design. Through his involvement in a number of community theater productions, Rand has become something of a regular on the area’s scene.

“You audition for whatever shows come up,” he explained. “It’s not hard to break in with the city troupes, even if you’re new or haven’t acted in a long time. There used to be a perception that they were cliquish or hard to get into because they use a lot of the same people, but they’re always willing to audition and find new actors.”

Rand said the number of theater groups and productions in Savannah is increasing, creating new options for both actors and theatergoers.

“With community theater, there’s this fresh excitement on opening nights. On good nights, there’s a palpable energy between the audience and the performers,” he said. “I think we’re on the verge of a theater renaissance in Savannah.”

Like many local thespians, Rand has participated in roles as an extra on some of the feature films shot in Savannah, such as “The Legend of Bagger Vance” and “Forces of Nature,” but he isn’t easily recognizable on the big screen.

“I was a victim of editing,” he said. “If I point it out, you can catch my back.”

Rand almost had a larger role in “Bagger Vance,” when he was tapped to possibly play Charlize Theron’s abusive ex-husband in a flashback scene.

“I got kind of a back-handed compliment from Robert Redford because he said I looked too nice to play the part,” he said. The scene was never filmed.

Still, while Rand conceded, “If a movie career happened, it would be great,” he prefers the dynamics of live performances.

“Filming is so different than stage acting because it’s not continuous; it’s not building on the rest of the story,” he explained. “It’s divided up into what’s practical for each shoot. It’s all about how it looks in the frame of the camera and not at all about what looks natural to the character.”

His wife, Jin Hi — a fellow thespian he met during a performance of “Guys and Dolls” by City Lights Theatre Co. — also has participated in locally shot movies, and she had a speaking part in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

 “She still gets royalties in the mail — a few cents here and there,” he said. “She got to work pretty closely with Clint Eastwood, then Robert Altman when he filmed ‘The Gingerbread Man.’”

The couple have acted together in some shows, such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Much Ado About Nothing,” presented as part of the annual Savannah Shakespeare Festival. More typical, however, is their simultaneous involvement in separate performances.

“She’s currently in a show out at Tybee, ‘The Gnädiges Fraulein,’ which is part of the Tennessee Williams Play Festival,” he said. “I think it’s a show SCAD students should see because it’s not easy fluff. There’s a lot to think about after you see it.”

Rand himself hopes to stir up some of that palpable audience-performer energy March 24, when “The Sound of Music” opens at the Black Box Theatre at S.P.A.C.E., 9 W. Henry St., where it will run for three weekends.

“It’ll be more up close and intimate than many performances,” Rand said.