Meet Ron West | Writer director actor teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ron West and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ron, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I didn’t. Someone else said, “We need someone to do write this musical, and we thought you’d be a good person to do it.” Having minimal experience in the field, I immediately said, “Yes, okay, I’ll have it for you in a few weeks.” It’s pretty much the same story with teaching and directing. You’d think that writing/directing would get easier over time. It didn’t. But I kept going anyway.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am currently very lucky to be juggling three artistic lives.

1. For the past couple of years, I am been the producer/director of THIS WEEK THIS WEEK which has been presented at the Atwater Village Theater and the Kentwood Players. THIS WEEK THIS WEEK is a live sketch show with topical material as its basis. A strong cadre of satirists write, rehearse, and perform the show within a 4 day schedule. Each episode (there are 92 different shows so far) is an exhilarating experience for crew, cast, and audience. It isn’t easy, but I have used everything I’ve learned about directing and writing and time management to make the show happen and I am pretty confident no one else in the world can do what I’m doing.

2. Phil Swann and I have written about half a dozen musical, including THE PEOPLE VS FRIAR LAURENCE, deLEARious, and NEIL SIMON’S MUSICAL FOOLS. We’re working on a new one right now with our friend Andy Marx. It’s usually my job to come in with some lyrics, making my best friend a rhyming dictionary, a gift many years ago from my friend Evan Gore. More importantly, I try to focus on the scene-song, so that something happens to forward the story by the end of the song. The other day Phil said, “This is the most Gilbert and Sullivan of any song in the show,” which I took as a compliment to us both.

3. Because writing and directing are quite consuming, it is nice to merely be an actor once in a while, and the end of the year seems to be the time when that happens. In the past, I’ve played Ebenezer Scrooge (imagine that) at Center Theater Group and Goodman Theater in Chicago. This year I’m singing (yes, I’m singing) “Taxman” and “Get Back” in BOTH, a nativity story set to Beatles’ music. In addition, I appeared in Interact Theater’s reading of Ronald Harwood’s TAKING SIDES. The challenge is getting the mind and the body up to speed for a multi-show week.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
For breakfast, I’d take my friend to Bardonna on Montana. For lunch, Back on the Beach, which would give us the opportunity to enjoy the ocean, too. For dinner, maybe Solidarity in Santa Monica. For entertainment, I’d either see a classic film at the Aero (SPARTACUS, THE GREAT ESCAPE, and WHAT’S UP, DOC? were great on the big screen) or see if I could convince my friend to watch one of my softball games at Memorial Park or Cheviot Hills. Tennis at Reed Park, Pacific Palisades, or Cheviot is also at the top of my list.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I credit my parents, my brother, and my sister for the foundation of my life. I thank my beautiful wife Catherine Butterfield for all she does. Some of my mentors were the late Bernard Sahlins and the late Joyce Sloane of The Second City in Chicago. I’ve had a lot of opportunities at The Open Fist Theater in LA and Chicago Shakespeare.

Website: https://www.theronwest.com

Instagram: ron_west98

Linkedin: Ron West

Twitter: @West98

Facebook: RonWestNow

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCts7cG3EiUMgqJsLPgSuTLw

Image Credits
Photo 1 Ron West, photo by Catherine Butterfield. Photo 2 Ron West, photo by Erin Clendenin. Photo 3 Ron West and Catherine Butterfield in Normandy, France. Photo 4 Cast of “One of Us” from NEIL SIMON’S MUSICAL FOOLS, photo by Derrett Sanders. Photo 5 Cast of “If You Remember’ from NEIL SIMON’S MUSICAL FOOLS, photo by Derrett Sanders. Photo 6 Ash Saunders, Elle Engelman, and Brendan Hunt in THIS WEEK THIS WEEK. Photo 7 Hank Jacobs, Lou Saliba, and Elle Engelman in THIS WEEK THIS WEEK. Photo 8 Cast of THE PEOPLE VS FRIAR LAURENCE at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Photo 9. Chris Farrah, Rachel Addington, Ron West, Scott Mosensen, and Robyn Roth in deLEARious at Open Fist Theater, photo by Maia Madison.