Enjoying a busy career in Los Angeles in both theater and commercials, actor David Brandt (’78 Theatre) recently played the lead in Ray Bradbury’s play, Falling Upward! After opening at Theatre West in September 2000 and extending its first engagement by a month, the play reopened at the Falcon Theatre and ran through December 30. Brandt’s wife, Mindy Honts Brandt (’79 Music), was co-producer.

Brandt has worked professionally with such luminaries as Steve Allen, Harold Gould, and the former Miss America, Lee Meriwether.

“Acting is . . . in your blood, and you can’t get it out. You need to do it,” says Brandt. “Otherwise, you’ll never survive in this brutally competitive field.”

Brandt’s extensive performing experience includes musical roles such as Curly in Oklahoma!, Tommy in Brigadoon, Tom in No, No Nannette, and Bob Cratchitt in Steve Allen’s musical version of “A Christmas Carol.” Seven-year old daughter, Nevada, had a small role with him in the latter. Brandt’s dramatic roles include Iago in The Trial of Othello, a Nazi doctor in Good, and Peter in The Cherry Orchard.

Brandt is currently working on a new musical/opera, Sherwood Forest, by Lloyd Schwartz, about the real Robin Hood. He is cast in the role of the evil Prince John.

Brandt has also found success in a totally different sphere of performance⁠—commercials. His credits include regional and national spots for Coors, Burger King, Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter, Pacific Bell, Buick, Kellogg’s pastry, Toyota, and General Electric.

Asked about the Bradbury play, Brandt says that Falling Upward! unfolds in an Irish pub⁠—“a Cheers type of place.”

Accustomed to seeing the world through their own narrow attitudes, the men in the pub are startled into a new acceptance of diversity by the arrival of a group of tourists with a very different lifestyle.

An a cappella song was added especially for Brandt. Included in a funeral scene, the song speaks poetically about “letting people go.” Rehearsing the song in the wake of the September 11 terrorist strikes in New York and Washington, D.C. was a powerful experience for all the cast and crew, Brandt says.

A native of Pullman, Brandt is the son of William and Janet Brandt. His father (’42 Chem.) was a member of the Washington State University music faculty from 1957 to 1985.