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 Over 20 years ago, a shy, young fourth
grader named Sam Shaw starred in the Oddfellows Playhouse
production of The Birds. This set in motion a lifelong
interest in theater and improv. Sam took improv classes with
Dic Wheeler, did some tech work for OP’s Jesus Christ
Superstar, and was a part of Rep Co’s Red Noses,
Macbeth, and Conference of the Birds. After
graduating from high school in ’91, Sam went to Emerson College
and worked with a comedy troupe before transferring to Wesleyan
to study English and theater.
While at Wesleyan, Sam took a
greater interest in improv, teaching quite a bit and building on
his Oddfellows experience. Still in school, he toured,
performing improv and in his senior year, wrote a play,
Methods of Dealing with Trauma. At this time Sam was
working at Oddfellows and produced an improv show featuring both
Wesleyan and Oddfellows kids. In.JPG) this show one of the cast
members was a girl who was severely paralyzed from a traumatic
injury and confined to a wheelchair. By pointing to different
letters as cues for improvisations, she was able to be an active
member of the show. The way the other kids at Oddfellows
incorporated her into the show really impressed Sam: “That says
a lot about the kids.”
After college Sam wanted to do
improv to pay the bills, and he is doing just that. He has
lived in San Francisco and was the Artistic Director and
co-founder of the San Francisco Improv Cooperative. He has
worked with the “Yellow Man Group” – a Japanese improv troupe-
as well as Sharna Halpern of the Improv Olympics, Mick Napier of
the Annoyance Theater, and Ian Roberts from the Upright Citizens
Brigade. He now has a 3-man performance troupe called “Crisis
Hopkins”, crisishopkins.com and is working with the Conservation League.
An exceptional Oddfellows
alumni, Sam says, “Anything is possible if you want to do it;
just do it. You don’t have to move to NY or LA…you can be an
actor on your own terms.”
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