While Zachary Oberzan '96 describes himself as a "very quiet, reserved, self-conscious person in public," he is by no means shy in his theatrical and musical pursuits.
"When I'm on stage, I can forget myself," Oberzan said.
With artistic influences ranging from Bob Dylan to Samuel Beckett, this actor, director and musician stresses the fact that he does not belong to any particular group.
"I like to do everything as independently as I can," Oberzan said.
Oberzan, who hails from a small town in Maine, did not become involved in drama until late in his high school career.
"Up until my junior year in high school, I was going to be an electrical engineer," he said.
Citing his listening to musician Paul Simon as the period which has had the biggest influence on his artistic endeavors, Oberzan said that his interest in music as a teenager eventually led to his present broad-ranging interests in performance.
His childhood hobby of staging violent films with his friends also influenced him to audition for his first role in a play.
Oberzan said he continues to enjoy a "very physical form of theater" and considers himself to be an athlete as well as an actor.
"I train as an athlete for the theater," Oberzan said, adding that he comes from a "very physically-oriented family," including that of his mother, who is a professional body-builder.
Since his introduction to the world of acting, Oberzan has made a passion out of drama, both at Dartmouth and in his free time. He said this term is the first in which he has not been involved in a show.
Oberzan said Pavol Liska '95, a Slovakian student whom he met during his freshman year, was an influence on his acting career. Liska first introduced Oberzan to some of the Eastern European theatrical ideas that have formed half of his dramatic philosophy ever since.
Oberzan mentioned two radically different forms of drama that interest him and tend to pull him in opposite directions.
The first is the more classical style of theater, which "requires a style of acting" and is "emotion-based," he said.
Oberzan is also involved in plays characteristic of the second, more recent post-modern drama by playwrights such as Tadeusz Kantor, Bertolt Brecht and Beckett, all of whom Oberzan cites as his major influences.
During his sophomore year, Oberzan embarked on his first independent theatrical project at the College, the production of Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."
Oberzan said he "didn't realize how tough it would be to do it independently," noting that he had problems obtaining space and sponsorship.
In addition to his interest in drama, Oberzan plays acoustic guitar and sings at locations around campus.
During Winter term 1995 when he participated in the Drama Foreign Study Program in London, he said he had the opportunity to play a gig every Saturday night at a pub called the Boot. He mentioned that this was a very memorable experience for him.
Some of Oberzan's most recent projects on campus include directing Edna St. Vincent Millay's play "Aria da Capo" and acting in John Ford's " 'Tis Pity She's a Whore" Winter term.
These two plays represent Oberzan's two distinct interests in drama -- the classical and post-modern. He said he enjoyed having the opportunity to do both in the same term.
As a result of his fondness for Beckett's work, Oberzan has devoted this term to directing and acting in Beckett's "Film" jointly with Diego Prange '96, a film major.
"I enjoy acting in the things I direct," Oberzan said, adding that acting and directing in the same work is difficult, but that it gives him "a much closer link with the cast."
There are many forces that drive Oberzan to act and to direct, including his enjoyment of the theater and his desire to escape from himself every now and then.
"I think it's something that I'm good at," Oberzan said. If his involvement here at Dartmouth is any indication of his potential as an actor, he has a lot to look forward to after graduating from Dartmouth.
Oberzan plans to pursue theater and music after graduation in 1997, and he admits that it will most likely involve his relocating to either New York or somewhere in Europe.
He said his only reservation concerning his entrance into the acting profession is that he sometimes feels guilty that he is not doing something that is "more directly influential in society than drama."
Oberzan surely seems to have found his place in the Dartmouth community as a dramatist, though, and he seems to be headed toward finding a similar place in the world.
