Most 8-year-olds don't see many theater productions, let alone more-than-G-rated ones like Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, but it was this experience that solidified Dylan Godwin's desire to become a performer. He remembers sitting in the front row, being absolutely absorbed into the world created by actors on the stage of his community theater in Athens, Texas.
"It was this hot, humid New Orleans world, and I was completely sucked into it. I mean, you see people acting and going up on stage to do a show all the time, but it was the first time I'd ever seen someone onstage just living a life," says Godwin. "It was so interesting to watch them because it was like they weren't aware that we were watching them. It was just absolutely captivating to me."
Godwin's big, excited personality was pretty conducive to the culture of storytelling in the small town where he grew up. Every day after school, he and his friends would stay at the community theater until 10 p.m. and spend their weekends there. Athens, he says, "has a real sort of oral tradition. I always grew up with stories. And that's how my brain works."
For him, it's the universality of storytelling--the getting lost in a world that comes with reading a really great book or watching a poignant movie--that draws him to performance as an art. "Something about using your body, your voice, through dance and through singing and through whatever else feels like a real culmination of everything that storytelling is about. It just feels like a very natural thing."
And he's definitely a natural at it: he won our award for Best Breakthrough performance for his role in Good People at the Alley Theatre.
What He Does: "I'm an actor and a performer. I also teach. I'm a musical theater guy, that's what I went to college for, but for the last 5 or 6 years I've been doing straight plays. And I do that pretty much full-time. I also teach at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts, I direct some shows for them. And I also choreograph over at Houston Theater in the Heights [HITS], so just a little bit of everything."
Why He Likes It: "Ever since I was a little boy, I've just really liked the storytelling of it all. The whole idea of creating a world, and people being able to sort of come into that and get a view into it. And then being able to put that down and create another world. It's good for someone who's a little ADD like I am, who likes to bounce around and do a bunch of different things. "
What Inspires Him: "Depending on what I'm working on, I'm inspired by different things. But I think it sort of all comes down to storytelling, again. I'm getting ready to direct a play for HSPVA next month that takes place in the 20s and it's all about Cuban-Americans and Cuban refugees from that time period. So right now I'm really inspired by the Latino voice and Latino storytelling and things like that. That culture's so rich, and there's just so much there to work with.
Godwin's students also inspire him: "Acting is such an ephemeral thing. We create these moments and once it's done, you sort of forget about it. But watching for the first time when [kids] stop saying the lines and start acting, and seeing that click on their face--it's cool and very exciting."