Get to Know a GODSPELLer: Andrew Lund

Full given name: Andrew Harper Lund

Role: Jesus
Instrument: Piano

Born: Newtown, Pennsylvania
Raised: Cincinnati, Ohio

Special skills: I can lick my elbow.

Something you're REALLY bad at: Cooking rice. Really bad is a compliment.

Did you have any particular mentors or inspirations as a young actor? My high school theatre director, Stephen Skiles, was big on doing really minimal sets and challenging pieces, while maintaining pretty high production quality for a high school. He really fueled my love for reinventions/adaptations of shows. He also exposed me to acting Shakespeare for the first time. I will always thank him for that.

Current local show you have been recommending to friends: Anything The Hypocrites are doing at the time. SERIOUSLY. PLEASE GO SEE THEM.

Favorite Chicago neighborhood: It’s not really a neighborhood, but the Museum Campus and Northerly Island is my favorite place in the city.

Favorite show tunes of all time: “The Old Red Hills of Home,” “I’m Alive,” … Really anything I can belt.

Favorite musical: It fluctuates between Parade, Company, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Favorite play: Our Town

Your personal acting idols: Amy Poehler, Louis C.K., Benedict Cumberbatch, Kristen Wiig, Neil Patrick Harris, and anyone that plays villains.

MAC or PC? PC!

Most played song on your iPod: “Valerie” a la Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson

Must-see TV show(s): Bob’s Burgers, Parks and Recreation, Battlestar Galactica

Last good movie you saw: A documentary on Netflix called Dear, Zachary, filmed by a guy trying to preserve the memory of his murdered friend. It’s definitely sad, and fairly unnerving at times, but very much worth a watch.

Performer you would drop everything to go see: Ingrid Michaelson

Pop culture guilty pleasure: Do adorable internet animal pictures count?

Three favorite cities: Chicago; Columbia, SC; Cleveland

First stage kiss: Cabaret. It was also my actual first kiss.

Moment you knew you wanted to perform for a living: After destroying my sanity trying to comprehend Developmental Biology my junior year of college.

Pre-show rituals or warm-ups: I have a preshow playlist that I warm-up to on shuffle and I add one new song for every show that I do. It ranges from Florence + the Machine to “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas.

Most challenging role you have played onstage: Jean in Miss Julie. I am not even remotely that character. At all. But I had an amazing director who not let me slack off and pushed me really hard.

Leading man role you've been dying to play: The Balladeer in Assassins and Elder Price from The Book of Mormon.

Leading lady role you wish you could play: My only real dream was Juliet, and I got to cross that off my list earlier this Spring!

Three things you can't live without: Music. Bread. My friends. In that order? I don’t know. Cheese is a close fourth.

"I'll never understand why…": I can either easily open a banana on the first try, or spend another minute and a half digging smooshed banana out of my finger nails, desperately clawing at the fruit from the side. ALL I ASK FOR IS CONSISTENCY, BANANA!

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See Andrew in The Brown Paper Box Co.'s production of GODSPELL September 20 - October 7, 2012 at Collaboraction Studio 300 in the Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 North Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago. For tickets and additional information, visit brownpaperbox.org.

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