Atlantan Charles Parrott

Location: Kennesaw State University

Date taken: August 9, 2012

Charles Parrott was never very skilled at or interested in farm chores, such as feeding livestock, driving a tractor or tending to crops. He grew up on a farm located outside of Lincoln, Nebraska, but the world he really enjoyed living in was an imaginary one. From the day dreams of his childhood to high school speech contests to an eventual Ph.D. in performance studies, his career path was obvious.

“I didn’t have any other choice. This is the only thing I was ever good at,” Charles says. “I love living in that heady, ethereal world. I can’t do my taxes, but I love talking about the relationship between you and your coffee mug.”

Today, Charles teaches performance studies at Kennesaw State University and directs the school’s storytelling troupe. He’s training future culture makers in not only performance techniques but in social inquiry, understanding human behavior as performance and its impact on culture. And, Charles will tell you that he lives and breathes his work. “I have no hobbies. No golf. No fantasy football,” he says. “The only thing I’m really interested in is going to see weird things happen on stage and occasionally doing it myself.”

Looking for performance art around Atlanta? Charles recommends the following: Write Club, Naked City, Moth Radio Hour, Java Monkey, Apache Café, Carapace, Flux, GloATL and the Goat Farm.