[NEohioPAL] Actor Eric Oswald in Profile

[Bob Abelman]

Uprooted actor finds a home at the CVLT

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

This review appeared in the Chagrin Valley Times 3/05/09

Eric Oswald vowed that he would no longer be dressing up as a gorilla by the time he turned 40. Just two weeks shy of his birthday, he quit cold turkey.  Since then, he has been donning woman's apparel, a clerical collar, a camouflage outfit and nothing but his birthday suit.  And he couldn't be happier. This is his story. 

For 16 years, Mr. Oswald was a professional primate for Eastern Onion Singing Telegrams.  While living in Los Angeles, he logged 40,000 miles a year driving all over Southern California, knocking on apartment doors and entering business offices while carrying a song in his heart and wearing the uniform of choice for conveying sung sentiments.

Sure, the work was glamorous.  But he knew that there was more to life than performing for Eastern Onion.  So he became a manager for Eastern Onion.  After running the L.A. and San Diego franchises, Mr. Oswald was asked to relocate to Northeast Ohio to take over the Cleveland office, which had been operating in a mild state of turmoil.  Apparently, the owner held herself hostage for three days while corporate officers came in with a federal court order to remove her from the premises.  It is unclear whether they wore gorilla suits at the time.

After serving just nine months as manager and continuing to deliver telegrams out of habit and for the extra cash, Mr. Oswald was informed that a new owner was taking over.  His management position was then terminated, although he was encouraged to continue on as a musical messenger during nights and weekends.  More secure employment was found at Sherwin-Williams' corporate headquarters, where Mr. Oswald worked while attending college to complete his degree and still spreading joy through costumed telecommunications.

Five years ago, and nine years after coming to Cleveland, Mr. Oswald finally severed ties with Eastern Onion.   After only a few months of singing sobriety, however, he discovered that the gorilla outfit was a monkey on his back.  He missed performing and all that went with it.  Having been a regular on the community theatre circuit throughout the South Bay area of L.A., Mr. Oswald ventured out to see what the local landscape had to offer.   

He quickly landed the role of Orin, the homicidal dentist in Solon Center for the Arts' production of Little Shop of Horrors.  Having fallen in love with Chagrin Falls during one of his many costumed drive-bys while with Eastern Onion, Mr. Oswald auditioned for the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre. He has since performed in eight CVLT productions, including the role of Harold Nichols in the musical The Full Monty and Father Brendan Flynn in the drama Doubt. 

Mr. Oswald moved to Chagrin Falls from the west side in March 2008, to be close to his many CVLT theatre friends who live in the area but, mostly, to be close to the theatre he loves.   "Believe me," he admits, "it's very convenient to be home in just 3 minutes after late-night rehearsals are over, especially in the winter." 

Incorruptable, a Monty Pythonesque comedy that opens March 20, is his next CVLT production.  It takes place in 1250 A.D. France, where a local monastery is down on its luck until a larcenous, one-eyed minstrel appears and teaches the local monks a few tricks to get back in the black.

Immediately after that, he has been cast in CVLT's Duck Hunter Shoots Angel.  The play is about two bungling Alabama brothers who think they've shot an angel, not a duck, while hunting in the swampy southern woods.  Mr. Oswald plays the younger brother, Duwell.  

>From mid-February until mid-May, Mr. Oswald will be spending nearly every night within the close confines of the downtown Chagrin Falls theatre he now calls his home with his fellow cast mates he now calls family.  

Although he no longer misses the gorilla suit, Mr. Oswald admits that he would not pass up appearing in the musical Simian's Rainbow if the opportunity arises.
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