"Why I Do What I Do": Steve Broyles, Theater

Steve Broyles wears many hats: actor, teacher, screenwriter, and more. He is currently Director of Middle School Drama for Wesleyan School in Norcross, GA. In addition to directing two shows each year, he teaches music and drama to grades 5-8. Steve graduated from Regent University in 2001 with an MFA in Script and Screenwriting where he received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award of Excellence. Prior to entering graduate school, he managed the Foothills Playhouse in Easley, South Carolina, and directed large scale musicals for Covenant Presbyterian Church in Easley.

Steve was a commissioned writer for Art Within in 2003 and is a graduate of the MTI Broadway Classroom in New York and a member of the Thespians Society and SETC. Steve is also the regional director for the CITA (Christians in Theatre Arts, http://www.cita.org/) south region.

LeAnne: What is your background in acting? Why do you love theatre?

Steve: My theatre background is scattered. My first play was in the 10th grade—I was a sophomore in a senior play. I played Earnest in The Importance of Being Earnest. Theatre, though, for me, didn’t really kick in until after college. I began to make a name for myself in the local community theatre. When we moved to South Carolina in 1989 I began to look for new connections. Eventually I found two. Besides directing large scale musicals for my church, I hooked up with the Foothills Playhouse and soon began managing, directing, designing and acting. It didn’t take long for me to realize a door was opening and that walking through the door was going to be a huge step for me and my family. So, in the spring of 1998, we sold our house and many of our possessions and moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia, where I attended graduate school at Regent University.

In many ways it would be arrogant for me to say I was making conscious decisions all along the way. As a child who grew up with undiagnosed learning disabilities, all I knew was that I, somehow, understood the world from a perspective I couldn’t seem to express scientifically or mathematically. For me, story telling is the oldest art form—when it is done well, it activates all the senses and intellectual faculties to get its meaning across. That is Theatre. Naturally, my Creator didn’t give me an option. One way or the other, I was going to come back to theatre at some point in my life.