PCS Blog
We Found a New Crumpet! Jim Lichtscheidl Makes His PCS Debut
Posted by JessicaStuhr | 08 November 2011 | Comments (0)
We know a man who wears many hats. He makes a lot of faces. He is really, really funny. And this year Jim Lichtscheidl is making his Portland Center Stage debut as Crumpet the Elf in The Santaland Diaries to prove it to you. Written by David Sedaris and adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello, The Santaland Diaries is the story of a disgruntled Macy’s elf and his encounters with the Christmas crunch-time public. It’s a hilarious and raw comedy that will knock your candy cane stockings off.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1969, Jim Lichtscheidl (don’t hurt yourself attempting it) is no stranger to the stage, or comedy for that matter. He has been acting, in one way or another, since childhood. One of his first pieces – captured with his sister’s video camera – was about a child-attacking lawnmower titled “Toro, Toro, Toro.” His sister, Lisa Spreeman, was expected to become the actor in the family so naturally, Lichtscheidl never stops working. Hard. The Lino Lakes native won the state speech title in the humor category in 1987 and by the early 1990s had emerged onto Twin Cities stages, considered a promising thespian early on.
Partially in credit to his big sister Lisa for inspiring him to become an actor, Lichtscheidl wrote a multimedia show called Knock!, which was one of the top-selling shows in Minnesota’s Fringe Festival in 2004. After expanding the show to 90 minutes with the help of director Peter Rothstein, it opened with great success at Theater Latte Da in 2006. That year Knock! won an Ivey Award and "Best of the Fringe" and City Pages' Best of the Twin Cities awards for original creation. The show recounted his world as a 12-year-old boy and included three other characters: mom, dad and big sister. In one review it was described as a play that “evokes-guiltless laughs and an ultimately optimistic take on the funhouse ride of existence.” In an article for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Lichtscheidl said of the show, “This is what I used to dream about, making a play with my friends and sister.”
He joined the Guthrie Theater in 1998 and has since been in more than 25 of its productions. Since late 2009 Jim has played an overwhelming slew of different characters. He embodied 27 characters in the world premier of Tiny Kushner at the Tricycle Theater in London and at Berkely Repertory, 25 in Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, 12 in Stones in His Pockets, 15 in Sisters of Swing, and 20 in The 39 Steps. But Jim can’t get enough. This past summer he played Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew in his debut at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. Jim is also an acting core member for Ten Thousand Things Theater, a company that brings theater to prisons, homeless shelters and low-income audiences.
When Jim is not on stage you might think all he has time for is sleep. But in the hours when he is not doing either, he is often seen bestowing his gifts unto others. An actor, director, choreographer and instructor, Jim has led improvisation and movement workshops for Brave New Workshop at The Guthrie Theater and at the University of Minnesota. He also enjoys getting his "Hollywood" on and appeared in A Serious Man in 2009 and can be seen in the upcoming Factotum and Lumpy.
It is quite clear that Jim is a character. And sometimes many at once. His elasticity as an actor is something we are excited to witness in this year’s production of The Santaland Diaries. Portland Center Stage would like to extend a warm welcome to Jim Lichtscheidl, a.k.a. Crumpet the Elf.
“One of the main reasons I think I’m here on this earth is to make people laugh.” --Jim Lichtscheidl
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