Roger Bechtel on Multimedia in Theatre

Possessed with a brilliant mind and driven by lifelong curiosity, Roger Bechtel traversed a distinguished and adventurous career path in arts, letters and the law. As an actor he appeared in productions at the Red Barn Theatre, Detroit Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Minneapolis Fringe Festival and many other regional and Off-Broadway venues. He was a published author and playwright, as well as an award-winning director, staging productions in Minneapolis, Chicago, Portland, Anchorage and New York, and founding the experimental theater groups Zeitgeist Café Theater in New York City, and the Big Picture Group in Chicago. With a lifelong passion for Shakespeare, his proudest achievement in the theater was playing Hamlet, a feat he accomplished three times. He was a voracious reader whose favorite writers included Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and Roberto Bolaño, as well as a lifelong competitive runner, having completed multiple marathons including New York City, Twin Cities, California International, Marine Corps and Rocket City.