Passion of theater drives Mulholland

by Tim Tevault
Managing Editor

After traveling to Europe one summer and thinking he might stay there for a lifetime, University of La Verne alumnus Eric Mulholland was mysteriously drawn back to ULV because of its allure and magnetic pull. Well, not quite

A Leopard from the class of 1995 with a bachelor of arts in theater, Mulholland returned to ULV to act in two plays, "Cloud 9" last fall and "Pericles," which had its final performance last Saturday.

And although he did travel to Europe, it was only for a summer theatre festival in Split, Croatia. While ULV can be alluring at times, it was the direction of theater professors Steven Kent and Georgij Paro that really brought Mulholland back to campus.

"I've known Georgij for 12 years and I've just valued his friendship from day one," Mulholland said. "So of course I leapt at the chance (to act) because working with Georgij and Steve and anybody in this department is a really good opportunity for artistic expression.

"I really value each of their insight and their ability to tell stories and their passion for the theater. It's hard to find that in the professional world," he added.

Most people he ran into were concerned with mainstream audiences and money, he said.

In his earlier years, however, Mulholland was not as interested in things like artistic expression and acting.

"I was always really terribly shy all through Kindergarten up to ninth grade," Mulholland said.

The son of a Portuguese mother and a half-Italian, half-Irish father, Mulholland was born in Bellflower. Within a few years, his family moved to Chino, where he later attended Don Lugo High School. A friend named Andrea was the one who got Mulholland interested in theater. She told him about auditions for "Grease" one day and suggested he try out. Mulholland agreed, but was unsure why. He had a cousin who was in plays and always wished for the confidence to get on stage and act.

"I don't know what possessed me to say okay, but I did. I guess I was trying to save face in front of a friend," he said. "Because I didn't want to look like a wimp, I kind of forced myself to have enough confidence to audition."

Later that day, Mulholland showed up to auditions, but noticed his friend was not there. Letting his shy attitude get the best of him, he started to leave but ran into Andrea on his way out.

This event no doubt proved to be a turning point in his life. Mulholland was cast as a dancer and understudied several parts for the musical.

"I loved that so much I thought, 'That's it, I have to sign up for the class,' " he said. "So I immediately got into the drama class and fell in love with theater from the moment I started doing it and never looked back."

Throughout his years at Don Lugo, Mulholland's most memorable plays were "Tom Jones," "The Petrified Forest" and "Godspell."

During his senior year, Mulholland came to ULV for a one-act festival, in which he performed "The Bold Soprano." This play earned him an offer for a scholarship along with two other actors. They decided not to ULV and Mulholland received a full-ride scholarship from the theater department. Once there, Mulholland continued to do what he loved.

"I started doing plays immediately at ULV. I threw myself into it and just did everything I could get my hands on," he said. "In that year I think I did six or seven productions. I continued with that for the next several years."

Mulholland's college career was more-or-less consumed by acting in plays directed by both Paro and Kent. Even when he took a year off school, he was drawn back to the theater.

"I took the year off and realized I didn't want to take the year off, so I came back and did theater in the evening," he said.

However, Mulholland said that spending the bulk of time in the theater during his college career did not give him much time to explore himself and the world.

"I was mostly just in the theater because like in high school I just had blinders on about it, which I guess is a good thing because I gained a lot of experience and I had a lot of opportunity to work in the theater," he said. "But during those times (early 20s) when everybody needs to sort of go out and explore and find out who they are, I kept myself sort of encapsulated to a certain degree and didn't make much opportunity to go out and experience the world.

"That didn't happen for me until like my mid-20s right after graduating college," Mulholland said.

After graduating from ULV, Mulholland was invited by Paro to go to Split, Croatia along with three other students for a sort of exchange program with Croatian drama students. There, the ULV students put together a performance that "won a pretty big award and was really well received," Mulholland said.

While in Split, the students were able to compare American and Croatian styles of acting to further hone their skills.

"It wasn't until after I graduated college that I found the opportunity to go out and kind of figure out who I was," Mulholland said.

After Europe it was off to the Los Angeles acting scene for Mulholland. However, LA and he were not a great pairing.

"The LA scene wasn't really what I was looking for at the time because most of the young actors that I knew were really interested in making movies or films or TV and here I had been, several years in theater and knew no other life," he said. "I wasn't really finding much satisfaction in the LA area for theater."

Because of this, Mulholland subsequently moved to Pasadena. Here he discovered a children's theater company called the Imagination Machine. Here, Mulholland works with kids interested in theater who travel to different schools, performing various works that students at each school have written themselves.

Generally, he said the kids in the company show up to the schools about an hour before showtime to give themselves time to prepare, and the performance is usually a mixture of acting and improvisation.

"I love it," he said. "A big part of me really loves children and really loves teaching. This is the way I sort of get to satisfy not only that craving to teach, but also that yearning to be creative," he said.

Mulholland has some background on this type of work from his experiences at ULV.

"I owe most of my interest in creative drama and children's theater to Jane Dibbell," he said. "I worked really closely with her for many years at the university doing creative drama and children's theater."

In addition to the Imagination Machine, Mulholland also worked with sixth graders as a teacher at Immaculate Conception, a small private school.

It was after he subsequently stopped teaching when Mulholland received the call to come back to ULV.

"(Kent) phoned me up one day and said, 'Eric, I'm having a hard time casting this one part, would you be interested in coming to play it?'"

Mulholland recalls, "I thought, 'Sure, Steven Kent is one of my favorite directors and I think he is artistically so incredible and I wasn't going to pass up that opportunity."

Shortly after wrapping student acclaimed "Cloud 9" this past November, Mulholland received another call, this time from David Flaten, who told him Paro inquired if he was available for another play, "Pericles," which wrapped after 7 cabaret performances this past Saturday.

And as for the future:

"I'm trying to find out what I want to do, what I want to accomplish," he said.

"Now that I've gotten a little bit older and now that I've been able to have those few years after graduating college to sort of journey on my own and figure out who I am, I'm finding that I am having more confidence in knowing of what I want. I'm starting to see the possibilities, which is good."