I've been fortunate to receive coverage in newspapers on my acting and directing.  Here are some exerpts from those:

Directing The Dining Room - Roswell Neighbor
Theater Review on The Dining Room
M*A*S*H - AJC

Councilman making directing debut with community theatre
Roswell Neighbor     May 10, 2006
by Joan Durbin

Six actors playing more than 50 characters in 18 different scenes.  In a production like that, the services of a ringmaster might be as valuable as those of a directors.  But the challenge doesn't daunt Kent Igleheart, the Roswell City Councilman and environmental consultant who has found a second career as an actor.

In his first outing as stage director, Igleheart is helming the action in The Old Alabama Road Company's production of A.R. Gurney's The Dining Room, which runs May 11 through 20 in the sanctuary of The Church of the Savior, 1950 Old Alabama Road, in Roswell.

"Most people would think they'd be better off to do something smaller the first time, with fewer characters, and they might be right," Igleheart said with a laugh, "but so far things have worked out pretty well."

Jim "Duke" Deuschle, president of the theater company's board of directors and one of the actors in the show, said Igleheart had expressed an interest in directing to one of the board members who was acting with him in the OnStage Atlanta production of M*A*S*H.

Igleheart's lack of directing experience wasn't a deterrent for the group, which has brought in a different director for each of the shows it has mounted since its first season in 2004.  "We interviewed him and felt he had the right perspective for directing, and we knew from an actor's point of view, he had what it takes to develop a character.  That was the type of experience we needed," Deuschle said, "he's an excellent fit for this production.  I'd say he's right up there with some of the best directors I've worked with in my 21 years in the theatre."

The play is a series of vignettes about family dynamics and household relationships.  "It's equal parts comedy and drama," Deuschle said, "hopefully people will come out of it with the feeling they've ventured into emotional things, and had a few good laughs too."

Igleheart said the hardest part of directing this play is "keeping a grasp on everything that's going on up on the stage and transmitting suggestions to the actors on how I think we can handle a scene better."  As much as Igleheart is enjoying the new challenge, his time management skills are being tested.  he's balancing his directing chores with his consulting business and responsibilities as a council member.  Additionally, Igleheart is writing a play and is one of the leads in "Elephant", a movie currently in production.

TheaterReview.com on The Dining Room
Thursday, May 18, 2006

I have been a huge A.R. Gurney fan - ever since seeing his touching and poignant "The Old Boy" and getting to play the role of a michevious dog in "Sylvia," Gurney's witty account of American life never disappoints.

And "The Dining Room" is no exception.

The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where famlies gather daily for breakfast, dinner and special occasions. The action is comprised of a tapestry of interrelated scenes - funny at times, touching at others, and often rueful - which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class WASP. The actors change roles, personalities and ages with exceptional skill as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids. Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events and intermingles swiftly and smoothly. The varied scenes combine, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of impressive range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.

Kent Inglehart does a terrific job of casting - including two African American actors who at times play the ultimate WASP (I'm sorry, my biggest laugh came when John Jones commented on his Waspishness). This was my first time seeing many of these actors, and I look forward to seeing more from them. I was very impressed with how the actors could exit the scene in one character, only to return moments later as part of an entirely new story line. The women in this show were amazing - they moved from Lucielle Ball-esque comedy to heart ripping drama in a blink of an eye and did it effortlessly and beautifully.

While the comic moments in the show are great - some of the most powerful scenes were those of tension and sadness. When a senile grandmother doesn't recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner the audience was still with empathy for the actors. A daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads with her unmoving father to let her return home, moved the audience to tears.

This is a new and growing company that I'd love to see perform in another space - the church is nice, but I hope that the theater will soon be able to grow to a more appropriate space. The Old Alabama Road Company is a theater on the rise with a dramatic yet witty play and truly talented actors.

Ending up as an actor
Atlanta Journal-Constitution     August 25, 2006
by Paul Kaplan

City councilman takes stage in rowdy rear-view role

Kent Igleheart, a city councilman in Roswell, will pull down his pants and moon the audience next week. 

Not at City Hall, thankfully, or they'd come and take the poor fellow away, even though his boxer shorts will remain on.  It will be at Onstage Atlanta, a playhouse in Decatur, where he'll be co-starring in "M*A*S*H," the Korean War comedy.

When Igleheart auditioned and won the part of Duke, a hard-partying physician at a field hospital near the front line, director Scott Rousseau had no idea he was a public official.  Rousseau didn't find out until he was arranging a rehearsal schedule and Igleheart said Monday nights were bad for him because he had City Council meetings.

"Kent Igleheart showing his butt - won't that be fun," said Rousseau, a theater veteran who resembles a slightly sinister Santa Claus.  Rousseau said he gave no thought to the possible reaction in Roswell, a well-to-do Northside city that's just a little old-fashioned.  The way he sees it, it's merely acting.  If the script says to pull down your pants, that's what you do.

"I can't worry about his reputation, or whatever his mojo is as a politician," Rousseau said.  Igleheart, 42, doesn't seem worried, either, "I probably have a screw loose," he said. 

He's different, that's for sure.  So maybe it's fitting that Igleheart is taking the great American tradition of actors going into politics and turning it on its head.  "I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger in reverse," he said.  Actually, at 5 feet 8, 150 pounds and a little pale, he's actually more like the reverse of Arnold Achwarzenegger.

Igleheart, who is finishing his first four-year term on the council, caught the acting bug last year, when Roswell residents were invited to participate in "The Whisper of the River," a play created for Roswell's 150th anniversary celebration.  He was given a small part, but an experienced actor with a major role dropped out at the last minute, and Igleheart got it.  He loved the experience - and dived headfirst into acting.  He's now taking lessons at three acting studios and has appeared in industrial films, TV commercials, several plays and almost a dozen movies, either as an extra with no lines or in small independent films that offer speaking roles, usually in lieu of pay.

"I'm not making a living at it, that's for sure, but I'm making more than I do on City Council." he said.

In M*A*S*H Duke and his doctor side-kick, Hawkeye (Justin Hand), spend their days saving lives, chasing nurses and tormenting the military establishment.  When the base commander leaves for the day, a party breaks out.  Duke and Hawkeye do a little song and dance, and it ends with this:

"We've got nurses to help us get better, and we'll thank them under the moon."  Then they turn their backs to the audience, bend over and drop their pants.  In rehearsal last week, their boxer shorts stayed up.  Rousseau was planning for a full moon by opening night on Sept. 1, but Igleheart helped talk him out of it (Igleheart may be eccentric, but he's also running for re-election this year).

He already has a love scene in of the indy films he's making.  He and the female lead kiss and roll around in bed - but it turns out to be her ghost, so that scotches that.  Wouldn't you know: newly divorced, and his first love scene is with a dead woman.

Rousseau, who has been in the theater for 30 years, thinks Igleheart has talent.  He and others in the business have been telling Igleheart that his looks and personality fit better for portraying a fatherly type instead of a heartthrob - and that there's actually more work for actors with his profile.  "He has good looks, but not surfer good looks," Rousseau said.  "He's the one who doesn't get the girl until the very last minute."

Igleheart doesn't seem to be concerned either way - it's just acting, remember - but it would be nice to get a handle on where this strange life of his is headed.  "I'm on a journey here," he said, "and I don't know where it's going to end."