Musing on the Bard: Episode 11 - Frank Collison (A Shakespeare & Acting Podcast)

Welcome to the bumper final episode of of Musing on the Bard: a podcast for the Shakespeare curious for 2025, hosted by Australian actor, Sally McLean, featuring today's guest, the fascinating American actor: Frank Collison.

Known to Shakespeare Republic audiences for playing the award-winning role of "Prospero" in Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles), Frank Collison is a Los Angeles based actor and now, writer. Frank earned a BA at SF State during the late 60’s. He performed street theatre in San Francisco then moved up to the Sierra Nevada mountains where he helped establish Pinecrest Theatre.

After earning an MFA at UC San Diego, Frank became a traveling player who once toured 39,000 miles performing as “Miss Havisham” in Great Expectations. He has also acted in Montana, Boston and Louisiana, at Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts and Denver Center.

Finally settling in Los Angeles in the mid 80’s, Frank was a founding member of Pacific Resident Theatre, now in it’s 40th year. He continued his theatre career at PRT, the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre Center, The Rogue Machine and The Road.

Frank has supported his theatre career with his work in film, television and voice-over. Most notable work is as “Horace Bing” a series regular on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Village, Wild at Heart, and Twin Peaks.

Join Frank and podcast host, Sally McLean, as they discuss Frank's time performing during the Vietnam War protests, his vast experience in American theatre from childhood to now, the power of theatre to inspire change, thoughts on the casting process as an actor, creating character, the demands of performing Shakespeare, the perils of audience interaction and much, much more in this wide-ranging and insightful conversation.

To find out more about Frank and his work, visit his IMDB profile at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0172806/ or his Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/frank.collison.7/ and read his bio in full at https://musingonthebard.com/about-our-guests/frank-collison/

Watch Frank playing "Prospero" for Shakespeare Republic (Season Three) here: https://youtu.be/sn3NLXUEc7A?si=c2HRviZlxAXJw5Iz

This is our final episode for 2025, and we wish all our listeners and supporters a wonderful holiday break, filled with love and light. We will be back in mid-2026.

Season One of Musing on the Bard features a plethora of fascinating guests from Australia, the UK and the USA discussing Shakespeare, acting, creativity and more. Head to our official site for all listening links and more information: https://www.musingonthebard.com and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss a thing!

As always, our fab Patreon patrons get early access to this episode before it goes live to the public, and those on the $10+ tiers can access the full video version of this episode, where you can see Leo and Sally chatting - as well as hear them! You can join our Patreon here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/incognitaenterprises⁠

Musing on the Bard: a podcast for the Shakespeare curious releases episodes on Wednesdays (AEST) and is supported by a Small Grant from the British Shakespeare Association.

Produced by Incognita Enterprises.
Created, edited and presented by Sally McLean.
Opening credits music: "Violin Energy" by Stanislav Barantsov
Quickfire round music: "Demolition Runner" by Soundbay
End Credits music: "Good Vibe" by VItalii Iegorov (Twisterium)
Music used under license from Pixabay & Storyblocks.
With thanks to our Patreon Patrons for continuing to support our work.